If you recall the album cover you will realize that this song is ominous. It shows a little girl's doll by the side of the road. I get the impression that the "friendly stranger" uses "pictures and candy" to entice and kidnap underage girls for very sick purposes. Perhaps he is Ted Bundy, a serial murderer. Despite being a hell of I song, #1 I believe at the turn of the 60s/70s this song gets no airplay now. Yes, it sounds like Blood Sweat and Tears but this was a bizarre time, Vietnam, white dope, the happy days of the 50-60s gone. Other weird songs include Timothy by the Bouys, that dealt with 2 men trapped in a mine shaft eating the 3rd guy. You never hear this one now either. Even Barbara Streisand came out with a cover of Laura Nyro's earlier statement on suicide, Stoney End, in 1970.
If you recall the album cover you will realize that this song is ominous. It shows a little girl's doll by the side of the road. I get the impression that the "friendly stranger" uses "pictures and candy" to entice and kidnap underage girls for very sick purposes. Perhaps he is Ted Bundy, a serial murderer. Despite being a hell of I song, #1 I believe at the turn of the 60s/70s this song gets no airplay now. Yes, it sounds like Blood Sweat and Tears but this was a bizarre time, Vietnam, white dope, the happy days of the 50-60s gone. Other weird songs include Timothy by the Bouys, that dealt with 2 men trapped in a mine shaft eating the 3rd guy. You never hear this one now either. Even Barbara Streisand came out with a cover of Laura Nyro's earlier statement on suicide, Stoney End, in 1970.