"I drove my tractor through your haystack last night, ooh-arr, ooh-arr"
The Wurzels are an English "Scrumpy & Western" band note , hailing from Somerset in The West Country. Founded in 1966 and originally known as Adge Cutler & The Wurzels, they are are best known for "The Combine Harvester", which got to #1 in the British charts in 1976. Their songs, often pastiches of songs from the folk, pop and rock genres, are characterised by many references to farming and cider, sung with a strong West Country accent while playing up to various regional stereotypes. To this day they retain a strong following in the south-west of England and do regular live performances in the region, with people from other parts of the country tending to regard them as a rustic-themed novelty act that was briefly big in The '70s.
Not to be confused with Worzel Gummidge — although both get their name from mangelwurzel, a type of root vegetable (of the Beta vulgaris species and so closely related to beetroot and sugar beet) which is mostly used as livestock feed.
Principal Members (current ones in bold)
- Tommy Banner - accordion, sometimes piano (1967-present)
- Tony Baylis - bass, vocals (1969-1984)
- Pete Budd - lead vocals, banjo, guitar (1972-present)
- Adge Cutler - lead vocals, songwriting (1966-1974)
- Mike Gwilliam - bass (1984-1995)
- Sedge Moore - bass, ukulele (2007-present)
- John "Amos" Morgan - drums (1981-2021)
- Louie "Gribble" Nicastro - keyboard, sound engineering (2001-present)
- Reg Quantrill - banjo, guitar (1966-1974)
- Dave Wintour - bass (1995-2002)
I am a cider troper, I tropes it all of the day...
- Adam Westing: They appeared as themselves in the Coogan's Run episode "Thursday Night Fever", in which they have a new single — "Brand New Brand New Combine Harvester", which is exactly like the original song, except they sing the words "brand new" twice.
- Affectionate Parody: Many of their songs are pastiches of songs from various genres. The most obvious example is (of course) "The Combine Harvester", in which the titular brand new combine harvester is used in an attempt to impress the narrator's love interest, just like the brand new pair of roller skates in Melanie Safka's "Brand New Key" (the original song).
- Audience Participation Song: Quite a few, especially with the choruses.
- Auto Erotica: At play in "The Back of My Old Car".Everybody's been satisfied in the back of my old car.
- The Band Minus the Face: Something of an aversion, as the band achieved mainstream success in 1976, two years after the untimely death of founder, frontman and singer-songwriter Adge Cutler.
- Bird-Poop Gag: This is one of the reasons why the narrator of "The Blackbird" has it in for said bird.Underneath the open sky, in spring, we loves to dine,
We likes to 'ear the flapping of the misses' washing line.
We listens to a tuneful song, a blackbird or a tit,
But on me vest and underpants, he scored a direct hit! - Character Catchphrase: The West Country interjection "ooh-arr" (which can be used to indicate agreement, refutation or innuendo) is often used.
- Christmas Songs: The Wurzels Christmas Album (2011) is full of covers of Christmas classics like "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree", "Merry Christmas Everybody" and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday".
- Cover Version: While most of their songs are affectionate parodies of other songs, some of their later material does consist of straight cover versions, most of which can be found on their albums Never Mind the Bullocks (2002) and A Load More Bullocks (2010). Most notable is their version of the Kaiser Chiefs' "Ruby" — in which the "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" refrain is replaced with "ooh-arr, ooh-arr, ooh-arr" note !
- What few people realise is that "The Combine Harvester" is actually a cover of a song (written as a pastiche of Melanie Safka's "Brand New Key") by Irish comedian Brendan Grace, who had a #1 hit with it in Ireland in 1975, the year before it became the Wurzels' only #1 hit in Britain.
- Double Entendre: Frequently. "Theshing Machine" and "The Market Gardener" are perhaps the most blatant examples.
- Down on the Farm: What with The West Country being a particularly rural part of Britain, agriculture features in their songs a lot. Most obviously, "The Combine Harvester" is sung from the perspective of a farmer who has just bought a brand new one of these machines (and is using it to woo his neighbour). Meanwhile, "Farmer Bill's Cowman" starts by mentioning this trope by name:Down on the farm, don't need no alarm,
I rise from the bed at five thirty.
Around six o'clock, I puts on me smock,
I feel just like Burlington Bertie. - Drink-Based Characterization: Being from the West Country, they really play up to that region's love of cider. Which is often pronounced 'zyder', in keeping with the accent. Many of their songs reference it (most obviously, "Drink Up Thy Zyder" and "I Am a Cider Drinker"). Mention will often be made of scrumpy, which is a cloudy, strong variant. They sometimes drink it during live performances, traditionally from a stone 'zyder jar' or a tankard but more recently from a plastic pint glass or a can.
- Explicit Content: A downplayed example; although it contains no overt sexual references or bad language, "Twice Daily" (the B-side of the band's 1967 single "Drink Up Thy Zyder") was deemed too raunchy to be played on The BBC (which may well have actually helped the song in terms of publicity). It tells the story of a farm labourer who begins a sexual relationship with a female co-worker, which leads to her getting pregnant, and her father arranging a Shotgun Wedding.We had such fun in the summer sun, Lucy were so thrillin',
Sweet and pure, but I wern't sure, that young maid were willin'.
Till one day, among the hay, we was working gaily,
She ups and slips, and zomut rips, and I went there twice daily. - Farmer's Daughter: These do tend to crop up, notably Lucy Bailey in "Twice Daily" — in which a Roll in the Hay leads to pregnancy and a Shotgun Wedding.
- Genre Shift: Done out of necessity after Adge Cutler died in a car crash in 1974. Prior to that, Adge had been the band's frontman (reflected in the original name, Adge Cutler & The Wurzels) and had written most of their songs. Subsequently, the band — now simply called The Wurzels — concentrated more on parodies of pre-existing hit songs, resulting in two top ten hits.
- Have a Gay Old Time: The word 'gaily' is used in its non-homosexual sense (meaning, 'cheerfully' or 'nonchalantly') in "Twice Daily", purely because it rhymes with 'daily'.
- A Hero to His Hometown: Several decades on from their chart-topping days, The Wurzels are still popular in The West Country and their live performances at events there are well-attended. People from the rest of Britain, meanwhile, tend to act with surprise upon learning that they still exist.
- Leave Me Alone!: "Don't Tell I, Tell 'Ee" is all about a man who does not want to be burdened with the troubles of others.
- Long-Runner Cast Turnover: They've been going since 1966, during which time there have been a lot of band members! The longest-serving ones, Tommy Banner and Pete Budd, have been members since (respectively) 1967 and 1972 and are still happily doing live performances in their eighties. The 'classic' chart-topping line-up of Banner, Budd and Tony Baylis lasted from 1974 (when founder Adge Cutler died) to 1981 (when they recruited John Morgan, the group's first permanent drummer).
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Discussed at gunpoint in "Don't Tell I, Tell 'Ee".Young Sarah Jones one day, got in the family way
Her father come with a girt big gun, said, "Ee, you'll have to pay!"
He chased I up a tree, I hollered, "Leave I be!
I happen to know, 'twere old Fred Snow!
So don't blame I, blame 'ee!" - My Local: Quite a few songs mention going to the pub. Their version of "A Pub With No Beer" comes with an interesting twist, as the pub in question still has plenty of cider. Also worth noting that a few real-life pubs in Somerset are name-checked in some of the songs that were written by Adge Cutler, and the Royal Oak in Nailsea is mentioned in the title of the band's first album, as that's where it was recorded.
- Punny Name: For their live acts, the keyboard is always known and referred to as the 'Wurzelitzer', a play on 'Wurlitzer'.
- Relationship Upgrade: The narrator of "The Combine Harvester" is hoping that his brand new combine harvester will sufficiently impress his love interest into agreeing to this, even though he does seem to be rather blatant about the fact that he is mostly interested in her because she owns significantly more land ("I've got 20 acres, and you've got 43") than he does.
- Re-release the Song: They've done this a few times.
- "The Combine Harvester" was re-released as double A-side single with "I Am a Cider Drinker" (their other top ten hit note ) in 1980.
- In 2001, a remixed version of "The Combine Harvester" was released as a single and got to #39 in the charts. It was subsequently re-recorded again for the band's 2006 album Top of the Crops.
- A new version of "I Am a Cider Drinker" was released in 2007, with guest vocals by Tony Blackburn of all people note . A year previously, The Wurzels had released a double A-side single with British Sea Power in which The Wurzels covered BSP's "Remember Me", while BSP covered "I Am a Cider Drinker".
- "One for the Bristol City", a re-write of "Morning Glory" which celebrates the band's favourite football team, was released as a single in 1977 and again in 2007.
- Ripped from the Headlines: During The '80s, they recorded songs about J.R. and even dabbled with rap music.
- In 2014, "The Mendip Windfarm Song" was inspired by complaints from the inhabitants of Laverton about proposals to construct a 66-metre wind turbine near said Somerset village.
- Roll in the Hay: Sometimes invoked, especially when a Farmer's Daughter is involved.
- Sanity Slippage Song: Played for Comedy. "The Combine Harvester" is used by Atop the Fourth Wall whenever Linkara loses his sanity from reading bad comics, despite the song's upbeat nature...
- Shotgun Wedding: The narrator of "Twice Daily" is forced into one of these after he gets his girlfriend pregnant. In a rather sweet twist on this trope, the final chorus reveals that they went on to have several more children and remain happily married (and sexually active) in their old age.
- Stage Name: Bassist Sedge Moore's real name is Russ Crook; the stage name is a punning reference to Sedgemoor in Somerset.
- Step Up to the Microphone: Pete Budd did this after Adge Cutler's death, and has been the lead singer ever since.
- A temporary example occurred in 2005 when Tommy Banner was unable to perform live due to his having to undergo prostate cancer surgery; rather than disappoint the fans by cancelling gigs, Louie Nicastro covered for him by playing the accordion parts on the keyboard.
