passion = truth: The Partridge Family

Thursday, March 5, 2009

"Let's give a big round of applause for...The Cowsills!"

The Cowsills - then...(top) John, Barry (bottom) Bill, Susan, Bob, Paul.

...and now. Well, maybe 4 or 5 years ago. (top) Paul, Bill, John, Bob (bottom) Susan, Barry, Richard (he didn't perform but was their road manager), and guitarist Robbie Scharf.

I've always loved The Cowsills. From 1966 - 1970, they toured the world and recorded a number of Top 10 hits. Let's see...1970? I was 6. Not quite old enough to tour myself. :) The Cowsills' rendition of the song, "Hair", is my favorite (even over the musical version and I'm a huge HAIR fan...performed in the show in 1995 - sans clothes). And not surprisingly, their version of "Hair" was a#2 Billboard hit for 13 weeks in 1969.

But one of the things I find most astonishing about The Cowsills is the whole "family" aspect of the band. 5 brothers, one sister and their mother. Dad managed the group and brother Rick was the road manager. Sound familiar? The Cowsills were supposed to be The Partridge Family, but you see, The Cowsills already had a mom that could sing, which begged the question, "What to do with Shirley Jones?" Jones was going nowhere. The Cowsills balked...and walked.

I had the good fortune of seeing Bob and John Cowsill (along with two additional guitarists - Robbie Scharf being one of them, and a keyboardist) perform at Fox and Hounds Pub in Studio City this past Saturday evening to a packed house. The video above is their performance of "Hair" - that's Bob on guitar in the foreground and John on drums. (Make sure you pause the jukebox above before you watch any of these videos). Good, eh? Go on YouTube and watch the original video they did for the song - interesting. If you're a fan of the group, click on READ MORE! If you've never heard of them, click on READ MORE! anyway and check'em out. I promise it'll be an interesting walk down Memory Lane.

Billy. My father was (is) a guitarist. Played in a group called, the Glen LaMar Trio in the late 50's, early 60's. Had a egg shell blue Fender Stratocaster that's worth a shitload of money but sold it for $200 back in the mid-70's (please don't bring it up to my dad if you see him). Music was important in our house, even though my brother and I never played an instrument. We both sang...I later got involved in theater - musical theater, firstly. Tenor/falsetto (my falsetto is very good and is the part John Cowsill sings). Anyway music was a big deal in our house. My father used to make my brother and I put on headphones, lay on the floor with a pillow and listen to the entire album "Days of Future Passed" by The Moody Blues as it spun on the stereo (remember those huge stereos that took up half a block?). We protested at first - I mean...the entire album? Dad told us to "shut up" - ee had to listen from start to finish 'cause it was a "concept album". We had no clue what he was talking about. But I'm glad we listened to him - and the record.

Paul. So it's no surprise that my brother and I were heavily influenced by the genres of music my parent's listened to. Dad graduated high school in 1956 and Mom in 1960. Beatles, Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, doo wop, 70's soul, The Four Seasons, Dion, Ricky Nelson, Gary Puckett, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Tom Jones, Spinners, Four Tops, Elvis, Supremes, Simon and Garfunkel, Bandstand, Soul Train. And my reverence for those groups remains.

Bob talks about the early days, "The family angle just evolved ... first Bill and me, then Bill me and Barry, then Bill, me, Barry and John, then Bill, me, Barry, John and Mom, then Bill, me, Barry, John, Mom and Paul, then later, me, Paul, John, Barry, Mom and Susan, then back to Bill, me, Barry and John (very briefly in the end) and then to me, Paul, John and Susan."

Bob. Harmony, in my opinion, is the cherry on top of a song, and can be mastered by many bands. But it's the family bands - The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees, The Cowsills - that do it with such ease that it's almost impossible to tell one voice from another. Take the show Saturday night - Bob wasn't the lead in "Hair" - it was Bill, who was the group's lead singer. Bob sounded exactly like Bill. Paul sounds like Bill and Bob. As a matter of fact, one of the sons stated, "There are times when I can't even distinguish Bill from Bob. I guess that's how siblings are. My mom used to go through all of our names before she could identify the right kid on the phone." Which made watching Bob and John perform all the more richer - they sounded like their songs did on the radio.

Barry. Aside from their harmonies, the thing The Cowsills had a going for them right outta the gate was their "wholesome" image. But they had an edge to them - an irreverence that was sorta there but not, to me at least. Happy-go-lucky, but playful (even as adults). Go on YouTube and watch some of their videos. Watch Susan dance around like she's a 16-year-old...definitely a tad more mature than her age. And what "wholesome" family group performs on Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark television show? (Watch it here - it's worth it. Course they did perform the Gospel-ish "Two By Two" so...but it's funny to watch Hef and his girlfriend at the time, Barbie Benton, watching The Cowsills). There's another video on YouTube of Susan, Paul, John and Bob on The Joan Rivers' Show a number of years ago and the repartee that's exhibited between Rivers and the siblings was very dynamic. The Cowsills ran that interview.

I couldn't get the video loaded correctly of Bob and John singing, "The Park, The Rain and Other Things" so here's the family singing it on YouTube. And here's John (drums), Bob, Susan and Paul (keyboards) singing "Cross That Line" from their album Global, which came out in 1998.

John. The other thing that strikes me as significant about The Cowsills, and it's something that, to me, cements their place in Rock and Roll history, is THEY were the precursor band to the "bubblegum pop" phenomenon. Their first recorded song was in 1966. Wikipedia boasts that the best-known acts of bubblegum's golden era are 1910 Fruitgum Company (1967, "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy"), The Archies (1968, "Sugar, Sugar"), The Lemon Pipers (1968, "My Green Tambourine", and credited as being the first bubblegum No.1 hit and ushering in the bubblegum pop era, according to the book, Bubble Gum Music is the Naked Truth) and The Partridge Family (1970)." Now The Cowsills are mentioned in the Wiki article as being part of the "bubble gum" wave, but not given nearly the credit, I think, they deserve as one of the forerunners - if not the first. The Cowsills' "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" came out in 1967. Check the YouTube link for the original version (above) - it's got bubble gum written all over it.

Susan. The Cowsills' major hit singles include:

1. "The Rain, The Park, And Other Things"/"River Blue" (MGM-1967) US #2

2. "We Can Fly"/"A Time for Remembrance" (MGM-1968) US #21

3. "Indian Lake"/"Newspaper Blanket" (MGM-1968) US #10

4. "Poor Baby"/"Meet Me At The Wishing Well" (MGM-1968) US #44

5. "Hair"/"What Is Happy?" (MGM-1969) US #2.

Mom and Dad. They also recorded the theme for "Love, America-Style" during its first season. Now - 6 Facts about The Cowsills even Cowsill fans might not know:

1. The Cowsills hold more gold records than many of the current Hall of Famers inducted as performers.

2. Susan is the youngest rock performer to have a Top Ten hit.

3. John was part of the first American rock group to play in the Republic of China.

4. The Cowsills had the First Live Album to feature a Studio Track when In Concert featured “Hair”.

5. The Guestbooks on robinrecords.com and cowsill.com have posts from all 50 states, 19 foreign countries in six of the seven continents.

6. The Cowsills were the first of only 5 album covers done for rock bands by famous cartoonist Jack Davis.

7. The band’s true worth is illustrated by the fact that they were initially ‘discovered’ by Johnny Nash’s all black R&B label, JODA and they were ask to headline with future Hall of Famers’ Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and The Beach Boys before they had their first hit record at Soundblast ’66 in Yankee Stadium.

And you thought those "Got Milk?" ads began in 1993? Wrong. The Cowsills were the

poster family for sucking back that stuff.

Fast-forward to 2009 and the Fox and Hounds Pub in Studio City. EXCELLENT concert. The group played three sets in four hours and the time flew by. John, who has been touring with The Beach Boys for a number of years, blew my mind away with his drumming. Good drummers may be a dime a dozen, but I could tell by watching John that he's exceptional. There was just something about the nuances he displayed while playing that told me 'this guy's good'. Guess that's what you get when you've been performing since you were 9 or so.

I had a chance to talk to John during a break. Real nice guy. And what I didn't know (until a few days later) was that John's wife, Vicki, who I was standing next to the entire show and kept bumping her bum on accident, was Vicki Peterson of The Bangles. Blew my mind. I thought she looked familiar. Bob was nice too - when I asked him if I could videotape some of their songs, he said, "sure you can - go ahead...guess this means we'll have to sing in tune, huh?".

The Cowsill performed in various set-ups since breaking up in the early 70's. They still perform in various formations - that night it was Bob and John. Sometimes Susan joins them - who has her own solo career. Or Paul jumps in. Or Susan and Paul join them. Unfortunately Dad, Mom, Bill and Barry have since passed away (Barry in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Bill in 2006). I think of my own family and losing a parent or sibling - particularly when you were close and worked together such as The Cowsills, has to be tough. But they carry on the tradition, as any Cowsill would.

If you like more information on the group, you can check out their Wikipedia entry, The Cowsills Web Page, or the Silver Threads site. And there's a bunch of old and current videos of The Cowsills on Youtube you can check out.