The Hollies - Maker (1967)

The Butterfly album by The Hollies was the last album to feature Graham Nash as a member of the group. For some time, there was a growing divide between Nash and the other members of the band regarding the musical direction of the group. Nash, as he recounts in his autobiography Wild Tales, wanted to take the band in a more political and “enlightened” direction by writing lyrics that alluded to drug use, sex, and the issues he saw in the world around him. Conversely, his fellow bandmates (lead by Nash’s best friend growing up, Allan Clarke) wanted to keep the formula they had been successfully using: happy-go-lucky pop music. The straw that broke the camel’s back came when Nash learned that the group wanted their next album to be entirely made up of covers of Bob Dylan songs. (This would later be released, without Nash, as Hollies Sing Dylan and was disliked by fans and critics alike.)

The song heard below was written and composed entirely by Graham Nash. It was featured as the third track on the Butterfly album, released in November 1967, which coincidentally featured more tracks written and sang by Nash than any Hollies album had yet. In the United States, Butterfly was released under the title Dear Eloise / King Midas in Reverse. On that version of the album, the track below was found on the flip side as the tenth overall song.



The Hollies - Maker (1967)

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Lyrics:

Days of yellow saffron.
Nights with purple skies
Melting in the sunbeams
From my maker's eyes

Mountain-colored lilac
In the distant haze
I would like to lie here
Timing all my days

Move past my window
Sunshine is shimmering
Jack-o-lanterns glimmering
Giant moths are flickering around

See, the moon is hiding
Underneath the sea
Pretty soon he'll venture
To take a look at me

So I humbly stand here
Beneath his golden glow
Doesn't he remind me
Of somebody I know?

I must be leaving
Back to reality
Don't you just pity me?
I could so easily stay here