If you cant beat them, eat them.
As it turns out, there was an appetite for the song.
People think I should be embarrassed by this song, but Im so proud, Holmes says today.
Rupert Holmes onstage in the Seventies. Years before he had a Number One with “The Piña Colada Song,” Holmes wrote a hit single about cannibalism for the band the Buoys.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
We had this one last gasp with the Buoys and Michael said, What are we going to do?
And I said, You should record a song that gets banned.
He said, Will you write one?
And I said yes.
Radio stations would play it because it sounded good, Holmes says.
What is this song about?
The Buoys never set out to sing about eating their fellow man.
We were a harmony band, says Fran Brozena, the groups keyboardist.
Maybe that was a beacon of things to come.
We put Bills voice as the lead singer and I sang backup.
Holmes proposed his banned-at-radio scheme to Wright, who signed on, and he got to work writing Timothy.
Cannibalism during a mining disaster but I wont say it.
Ill just do everything to imply it.
He chose the name Timothy because it reminded him of Tiny Tim in DickensA Christmas Carol.
It sounded like a victim, Holmes says, and the chorus had to be a name.
He has other plans for Timothy.
Do you know what you guys are singing about here?
If the kids asked, Why arent you playing [Timothy]?
they would say, You shouldnt listen to that.
Interest in Timothy began to surge.
It happened, Brozena says, just like Rupert said it was going to happen.
A 1971 review of Timothy by an unimpressedRolling Stoneall but confirmed that Holmes ruse had worked.
But Holmes ploy was a double-edged sword.
The song stalled inside the Top 20 onBillboard, a victim of its own manufactured controversy.
Brozena recalls seeing a full-page ad inBillboardwith the song title above a picture of the animal.
It said, We fooled you.
Timothy was a mule, he says.
In reality, it was never about a mule.
Another edited version retained the stomach lyric but edited out one single word from the song.
This was hilarious, Holmes says.
In trying to get the record played, they issued a censored version of Timothy.
What did they censor?
The word hell in hungry as hell.
That was my attempt to write another Timothy, Holmes admits.
But none of the new songs, or the album itself, matched the success of Timothy.
The Buoys split up by the mid-Seventies.
As this story was being reported, Kelly died in December at age 74.
Says Holmes, Bill will always be a formidable talent and astounding vocalist.
(Hludzik died in 2020, Furmanski in 2014.)
Fifty-five years since Timothy was first released, the song continues to rear its head.
YouTubers have also filmedreaction videosof them listening to it.
The following year, they were inducted into the Luzerne County Arts & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Holmes sent a speech to be read during the ceremony.
And though the Buoys didnt write it, they did write most of their own material.
We are very proud of them here.
Holmes says its all a matter of geography and proof that the get-banned plan had worked.
When I meet someone and they say, You wrote Timothy, didnt you?
Ill ask, Where did you grow up?
It will usually be in the South or in the Midwest.
It will never be L.A. or New York.
Theres certainly no escape from Timothy.
