Think - "Once You Understand" (1971, stereo)

Think - "Once You Understand" (b/w "Gather")
(Lou Stallman; Bobby Susser)
Laurie single 3583
Entered the Billboard Hot 100 twice, first peaking at number 23 on the chart in 1971, and re-entering the Hot 100 in 1974, this time reaching number 53.
Think was a studio group put together by producers and songwriters Lou Stallman and Bobby Susser in 1971.
The group released a single, "Once You Understand", on Laurie Records which included, over the chorus, that repeats the words: "Things get a little easier/ Once you Understand", a spoken dialogue between teenagers and their parents over the growing culture change; the teenagers are open-minded and are friends with hippies (as they were called back then) and are willing to upset others with their liberal viewpoints, while their parents are conservative and discourage this. The song ends with one of the teenagers dead from overdosing on drugs as their father is made aware of it by a policeman.
"Once You Understand" hit #23 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1971. It was also a hit in Germany, but was banned by some radio stations in the U.S. for its controversial "heroin" content. The flip side of the single titled "Gather" was a short poem sung about life being short. "Once You Understand" has also been frequently sampled by hip hop artists in later decades.
This group is not to be confused with a West Coast-based band of the same name that recorded two singles for Columbia Records in 1968 and 1969.
LYRICS:
Things get a little easier
Once you understand
Things get a little easier
Once you understand...
I'll be expecting you to
get a haircut by Friday!
(Forget it, Dad!)
(That won't change anything... )
Forget nothing, you'll do as I say
as long as you're living in my house!!!
He knows I'm not feeling well,
and yet he doesn't take one
second out to help his mother;
his only concern is for himself!!!
(Come on, Ma)
(What do you want from me?)
Don't argue with your mother,
Just shut up and listen!!!
But, Mom, all my
friends will be there...
(I said, no, you can't go)
But why?
(I don't want you
in that neighborhood)
Why, what's wrong
with that neighborhood???
(I don't like the kind of
people living there)
Why, what's wrong with them?!
(Never mind...)
(Some day, you'll thank me.)
Are you sure no one kept you
company tonight while
you were babysitting?
(What's that supposed to mean?)
Just curious....
(Admit it, Mom, you don't trust me!)
Where are you going now?
(To my friend's house.)
Don't you have things
to do in the house?
Don't you have any homework??
Why don't you sit down
and read a book? (Oh, ma!)
Don't 'oh, Ma,' me;
You're wasting your life
away with the foolish things!
(What are you talking about?
How about your bridge club
and your ladies groups
and your parties and
your daytime programs,
What about all that?)
That's different!
Ma, I'll be home at eleven.
(You better be home at ten or
don't bother to come home at all!)
When I was your age,
I was working twelve hours a day,
six days a week helping to pay
for the food and the rent!!!
(I don't understand, what's
that got to do with me?!)
If you can't figure that out
for yourself, you're stupid!!!
Hey, Dad,
Did you see my new guitar?
I joined a group!
(Son, there's a little bit more
to life than joining a group
and playing the guitar.)
Yeah, Dad, what is there to life... life... life...
Mister Cook? (Yes?)
Do you have a son named Robert,
Robert Cook, age seventeen? (Yes.)
I'm sorry, Mister Cook,
You better come down
to the station house.....
You son is dead. (Dead, how?!)
He died of an overdose..... (Oh, God..... (starts sobbing while the chorus plays in the background))