by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 6
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Rose Garden is an event center in NY. Ricky Nelson went there to perform (Garden Party) and the fans didn't appreciate him singing all his old songs. He thought it was supposed to be a "Remember the 60's" music festival, but the fans booed him. This song is kind of an appology and excuse for that performance.
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Here is a site to check out the meanings of many songs: http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=136460, including 'Garden Party.'
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He was playing a concert in New York at Madison Square Garden, with his current band, "The Stone Ponies." When the audience heard him playing his new songs they booed him off the stage. They were only interested in his oldies. In his lyrics to "Garden Party" he references the oldies by name, with "Goodbye Marylou" being one of them, and says that if playing oldies was all he did, he'd rather drive a truck.
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Ricky Nelson was a product of the 60's. he had an engagement to play, some years later, in the 70s. the music he played was apparently not the music the crowd expected. In other words, it was a downer all the way around. I could feel his pain. i have been in that exact situation. A good comparison to understand this song, is the Blues Brothers. remember when they played a gig at the country and western night club? they posed as the good ol' boys from Tennessee. the audience expected country music, but the Blues Brothers only played......the blues. the crowd was upset and threw beer bottles at them on the stage. they sang Rawhide 10 times and Stand By Your Man, the same. P.S........Garden Party was located in the Madison Square Garden in New York City. Hope this helps....john
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Obviously, as the song indicates, the fans WANTED to hear the old stuff by "Ricky Nelson"...the name they all knew but the man they did not recognize (longer hair and a bit scruffier than his clean-cut look from his teen idol days). Nelson did not want to play only the oldies, but that was all the audience wanted to hear. (Remember Bob Dylan getting booed when he started playing electric guitar onstage?) It's a song about getting pigeon-holed, getting older, and getting wiser.
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Among other things, Nelson's song points out some of the hypocrisy and pretentiousness of his pop/rock successors, who expected him to show up in his shiny little teen-idol outfit singing the sugary tunes that were all the rage 'back in the day.' Yoko and Lennon, Dylan, and friends wanted a circus of has-beens they could "appreciate" and feel smug about. Johnny B.Goode (C.Berry) even hops out of a "closet" for their entertainment, like some Bojangles caricature. Nelson had matured and gotten on with his life after the teeny-bopper days, and had expected fellow artists to be a bit more open-minded about his new music. It's a good song, so we should just enjoy it, not psychoanalyze it....even Nelson doesn't claim it is grand poetry or rocket science. And, lest we all forget,....remember Elvis Costello's insight "Writing about Music is like Dancing to Architecture." I agree, and I am guilty is charged....let me find a cathedral to tango to.
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