Sucker Stick

"Sucker Stick" is the fourth track on the A side of Humming Bird's debut record, ''[http://lunaticapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hey,_There%27s_Tommy!_Hey_Tommy,_Where%27s_Mom_%26_Dad%3F Hey, There's Tommy! Hey Tommy, Where's Mom & Dad?]''

Writing
"Sucker Stick" was the first song written for Humming Bird's debut album (though the song's title was devised a few days prior at the same time as the other tracks excluding "Raincloud Love"). Mergist emerged from the bathroom around noon with the chords and melody declaring "I have it!" as the needle fell from his arm. He and Michalek sat together on Mergist's bed as they fleshed out the story and lyrics plugging them into the melody. The goal was to write really, really happy lyrics. The themes soon turned to nostalgia, loss of innocense, drug addiction, and growing up. These themes would later unintentionally manifest themselves in other Humming Bird songs. The song was written in under 10 minutes.

Recording
As Yardley and Michalek began work on the songs "Pretty", "Dizzy Wednesday", and "True Poet, Ed and Jack began production on "Sucker Stick". The drums were tracked in Ed's basement and emailed to the Luna Records studio. The song's unique guitar tone was achieved by running a Devi Ever Soda Meiser fuzz pedal through a VOX wah-wah pedal. The band were unware of the wah pedal being turned on, but were taking loads of LSD at the time, so it all seemed to work for them. The effect was later coined the "peanut butter" of rock.