Hole In My Shoe by Traffic

Album: Mr. Fantasy (1967)

Charted: 2

License This Song

lyrics

Songfacts®:

This psychedelic song was written by Traffic's guitarist Dave Mason, who played sitar on the track. Depending on your state of mind, you might find some weighty meaning in the song, but Mason says he was just writing down random thoughts in the style of a nursery rhyme. He also insists that he hadn't tried LSD when he wrote it.

In a Songfacts interview with Mason, he explained: "That's the first song I ever wrote. It was my first attempt at songwriting. I mean, that stuff I did back then, when I listen to it, I cringe and realize I need to work on writing. But writing comes out of living. You have to have something."
Dave Mason tells us that this song was "the beginning of the end as far as the other three guys were concerned for me." The band's second single (after "Paper Sun"), it was a the biggest UK hit for Traffic, but it wasn't what Mason's bandmates had in mind, since they didn't think it represented their sound.

Steve Winwood explained to The Sun June 26, 2008: "We never wanted to be a pop band but we had a hit with 'Shoe,' which was Dave's song. Dave had his own idea about the band, the rest of us had another one - a not-quite-as-sensible one, really, because it wasn't half as commercial."

Mason quit the band soon afterwards and Traffic began to develop a less commercial sound, which put an end to their run of hit singles in the UK. However their new material proved popular on American Rock stations and it gave the band a second wind across the Atlantic.
The monologue in the middle of the song was by Francine Heimann. Little is known about her.
In 1984 Neil (AKA actor Nigel Planer) recorded a humorous cover, which again fell one place short from topping the UK charts. Neil was a hippie character played by Nigel Planer in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones and there was a great deal of comic potential in Planer's hippie student singing about the "hole in my shoe letting in water." It won the 1985 Brit Award for Best Comedy Record, the only time the category was included. To promote the single, Planer performed this song live on the BBC music show Top of the Pops. In a memorable performance he stumbled and knocked down the scenery.
Traffic never performed this song, in large part because of Steve Winwood's disdain for it. He once called it a "trite little song."

Comments: 6

Ber from HollandI once heard that this song was a kind of soft parody on the experimental songs by the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Hole in my shoe versus I'm fixing a hole, reverse played music, spoken word, strange instruments played...It made this song the collage of sounds that it is.
Lionheart From La from Los AngelesBorn and raised in the UK I loved this song. It typified the era of 60’s and although Steve Winwood hated it, for me it was brilliant. I’m sorry Francine drifted into the wilderness, but it was Francine that made this record a hit for me. Great times! Great memories!
Robert from England...Although this playful psychedelic song came out during flower power the Summer of Love... We never really lose reality as the hole in the shoe keep letting in water bring us back to the now of today...
Ged from Australia"The monologue in the middle of the song was by Francine Heimann. Little is known about her."

Indeed, this is true. Perhaps why I became obsessed with wondering who she was and where she is now.

I will not tell you how I did it, or what her name now is or where she lives, but I did find her.

We spoke briefly via a chat-function. I got the impression that she has gone all these years without ever telling anyone about her brush with Rock & Roll Fame. I voluntarily agreed not to reveal anything that might identify her. Don't ask.

But here's one tiny snippet that cannot hurt: Her *best* memory of that day was meeting Steve Winwood - who was a thoroughly decent human being by her own account. So there ya go!
Mike from London, United KingdomSongfacts does not list Traffic's superbly intelligent pop hit, 'Paper Sun' from the summer of love. It offers a good pub quiz question: who shouts at the end - 'That's the one!' - as the song fades....And BTW, the whole crew of the tv series The Young Ones linked up in the 80s with Cliff Richard in a re-recording of Richard's 1959 hit, 'Livin' Doll' a charity fundraiser...
Niles from Belpre, OhI saw Dave Mason perform with the late Warren Zevon. best concert I've been to . I'm 62 and I've seen a few

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Oh WellFleetwood Mac

"Oh Well," from their 1960s Peter Green era, is the only Fleetwood Mac song played in concert in every decade they've been extant.

Bitter Sweet SymphonyThe Verve

"Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve samples an obscure orchestral arrangement of the 1965 Rolling Stones song "The Last Time." The Verve had to sign away most of the royalties before they could release the song.

That's The Way Love GoesJanet Jackson

The longest-running #1 US hit for a member of the Jackson family is Janet's "That's The Way Love Goes," with eight weeks on top.

Work ItMissy Elliott

On Missy Elliott's "Work It," the backward vocal is the previous line, "Put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it," in reverse. She stumbled on it when the engineer played it backward by mistake.

TeardropMassive Attack

"Teardrop" by Massive Attack has vocals by Elizabeth Fraser of The Cocteau Twins, who wrote the lyric after learning that Jeff Buckley had died.

Voices Carry'Til Tuesday

The MTV classic "Voices Carry" is by 'Til Tuesday, a group fronted by Aimee Mann. She wrote the lyric about a friend who's partner wanted to keep their fling a secret.