The Story Behind The Song: Miss Freelove 69 (Hoodoo Gurus).

Today on The Story Behind the Song, we look behind the Hoodoo Guru's track and the wild party that inspired 'Miss Freelove 69' (1991).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let Me tell You Your Story Now on a time
Clearsy releases the Story behind.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
The Song Today's Story behind the song song is Miss
Free Love of nineteen hundred and sixty nine by the
Hoodi Gurus, released in February nineteen ninety one. I cannot
believe that it was February nineteen ninety one. I can
still remember the first time I saw it on whatever.
I saw it on a rage or time flies.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
When you're rocking with the Gurus?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
How's that lead single from their fifth studio album, Kinky.
The song peaked at number nineteen on the ARIA chart,
so number three on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in
June of two thousand. Dave Faulkner said it was written
on the morning after the events described in the song.
Although I gave.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Them some embellishment, absolutely, and we've spoken to Davis. We
mentioned earlier this morning many many times over the years,
and they never shied away, the Gurros from the fact
that they love sixties pop culture and all things groovy.
But the song will Dave tell the story?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Miss Free lab was written in my flat, which I
about two hundred meters from where I'm living now, and
I was there for a long time, nineteen years actually,
and it was just one we played a tour of Japan.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
I came back with a bottle of saki in my suitcase.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
It wasn't the first time I drunk ssaki, but it was,
you know, brought some from Japan because I was there and.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
My friends dropped in, you know, a couple of friends.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
And Wedge opened the saki, and then a couple more
came around, and then more ssaki, then more wine and
beer whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
It was like before you know, it was like two
in the morning. The cops had banging on the door,
and as you know, there's a bit of a swinging
party going on. So that was a story that I
worked up next day with a smile on my face
and just wrote the song.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
You know, in about twenty minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I mean, I've been wanting to write a song with
that groove for about a year and hadn't managed it.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Attempted a few times and didn't quite gell.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
But that party, that experience seemed perfect for that groove,
and it just came together quickly. But the lyrics are
literally what happened in the story of the song, other
than the fact in the song I changed the ending
to give it a happier ending where the police actually
joined the party in the song, but in the reality
it was.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Actually just a tapping inning.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
They they they threatened me with saying we come back,
it will be a huge fine. I'm like, oh whatever,
and so off they went and never came back anyway.
So we kept partying. So it was a happy ending
both stories, the real one and the thing. But I
made the song, as I say, you changed the story
a little bit to make it a bit more universal.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
It's cool that the song says that the cops came
and joined the party. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
The citar in the song was a bit of a
curiosity though, that was that wasn't suckies. When one of
the many times we've spoken to Dave was in twenty
twenty two and he talked to us about it.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Then, yeah, speaking of parties.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
There's a bit of a sitar plan. Yes, was actually
it actually stolen that that shit?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh never mind.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yes, the citarlf.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
The party from the movie The Party Peter Sellers at
the beginning, he's playing a sitzar.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
And we just sample that.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
We didn't tell anyone, that's no word we were.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Talking about the party just the day before yesterday, we
were talking about your favorite of a comedy movie and
I said The Party is mine, and.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
I favorite it's You Can't.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
It's hard to beat a little bit of thieving there.
Love it. Love the sample.