Was “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” written about JFK?
Andy Partridge has said repeatedly that the inspiration for Peter Pumpkinhead came from a Jack-O-Lantern impaled upon his garden fence. Here’s an excerpt from a 1992 interview with Dave Kendall, MTV veejay: DK: . . . and Andy, did you originally decide “OK, I’m gonna write a song about a mythical Jesus-JFK-type figure”, or were you staring at this Jack-O-Lantern. . . ? AP: Jesus Jones figure. You can tell what HE does for a living! DK: Freudian slip! AP: Your Freudian slip’s showing! No, I didn’t. I felt sorry for this Jack-O-Lantern I carved for the kids, and I couldn’t bear to put him in the bin, so I stuck him on a post in the garden so I could see him every day. He looked really, really great, you know. Nicer than most people I know. Then, the poor thing started decomposing, you know, getting all this grey ooze out of his mouth, and his eyes were getting all green and furry, and I thought, “I’ll immortalise him.” So I started to write a song about a perfect thing with a pumpkin hea
