Released 1968 Genre Psychedelic pop Label Regal Zonophone | Recorded 1967 Length 2:35 Writer(s) Roy Wood | |
"Cherry Blossom Clinic" is a song by British rock band The Move. The song tells the story of a man slipping into madness and what he imagines as he hallucinates in his clinic room. The song features a string and brass arrangement by Tony Visconti. Keeping with the theme of madness, a line in the song about a "teatray in the sky" is a reference from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
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Although scheduled as the next single after the top 10 hit "Flowers in the Rain", the release was cancelled in the wake of a scandal surrounding a promotional stunt postcard sent out for "Flowers in the Rain". "Cherry Blossom Clinic" was included on The Move's first album, but its b-side "Vote for Me" was not released until 1998.
The song was later revisited and re-recorded by The Move and, under the title "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited", was included on their second album Shazam. This version is less psychedelic, more progressive and does not include the wah-wah guitar or the string and brass arrangements. It quotes from J. S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Tchaikovsky's "Thé" (the Chinese dance) from his ballet The Nutcracker.