What Did the Hippie Have in His Bag?

Album: Urban Turban (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The title for this song was taken from the name of a cartoon series Cornershop frontman Tjinder Singh wanted to create. The series never came to fruition, but the name came back to him during an international festival in which the BBC asked artists to do various projects with themes of education and children. Singh volunteered for the project and visited Castle Hill Primary School in Bolton, where he spent three days working with the children, exploring various topics with them through music and teaching them to meditate. He then got the children to sing on the album.
  • So what did the hippie have in his bag? Lots of stuff: German jazz, a dragon that was half Welsh, an ice cream van...

    It's all about imagination. "the hippie is a very loose-thinking, open sort of character," Tjinder Singh told Songfacts. "They're like kids who'll sort of come at you from a different angle. So the hippie idea came from that, and that's why there's children on there as well."
  • Singh talked about creating the song with the children in his Songfacts interview: "We got them to close their eyes and start meditation, and therefore be closer to their own world. So then the creative process was theirs and theirs alone, and then they were asked to explain the little story they made up to other kids.

    So, the process was a lovely little process that hopefully gave the kids an element of being in their own space, thinking for themselves, coming to their own conclusions, which I think is a great skill not just for what we require but for later on in life.

    That's what I do like about the hippie proposition: That one can be open. That openness it can lead to ridicule. The movement itself probably has gone back, but in terms of the ideals, the hippie's a pretty good thing. Hence, liking that sort of thing."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Yacht Rock!

Yacht Rock!Song Writing

A scholarly analysis of yacht rock favorites ("Steal Away," "Baker Street"...) with a member of the leading YR cover band.

80s Video Director Jay Dubin

80s Video Director Jay DubinSong Writing

Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.

Charlie Daniels

Charlie DanielsSongwriter Interviews

Charlie discusses the songs that made him a Southern Rock icon, and settles the Devil vs. Johnny argument once and for all.

Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell NdegeocelloSongwriter Interviews

Meshell Ndegeocello talks about recording "Wild Night" with John Mellencamp, and explains why she shied away from the spotlight.

Don Brewer of Grand Funk

Don Brewer of Grand FunkSongwriter Interviews

The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.

Glen Ballard

Glen BallardSongwriter Interviews

Glen Ballard talks about co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album, and his work with Dave Matthews, Aerosmith and Annie Lennox.