About the Song

Bromo and Ozly conceived of “Rubber Boy” at a Grand Avenue South jam session in the early seventies, either shortly before or shortly after Bromo absented himself to Upward Bound in Wisconsin to study cabinet making, heavy equipment operation, and stone masonry. The lyrics of the refrain just seemed to come to them, as though a gift of the Muse; all the song needed, they agreed, was some verses or something. For a long time Ozly tried to get Bromo interested in finishing the song, but Bromo, ever leery of untried things, like new lyrics or instrumental parts, which he would have to learn, held fast to the position that the pristine unfinished original was as good enough as it needed to be— except, of course, for the troublesome caesura, which, after much experimentation, was ultimately refined to the salient quintessence manifest in the final mix.