BruceH Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 The Hollies were a decent pop band who wrote some catchy songs. They didn't have the voices to be reasonably compared with the Everly Brothers - not even close. I think they were comparing more the style of harmony used rather than the vocal timbre or technical aplomb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavenport Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 I was a big fan in my late teens. I had a "20 Golden Greats" album (bought from Woolworths) and played it pretty much constantly for much of 1987. "On A Carousel", "Bus Stop", "I'm Alive" and "Sorry Suzanne" stick out for me. Not listened to them for years now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted October 2, 2009 Report Share Posted October 2, 2009 I don't give the Greatest Hits disc a spin often, but it makes a regular appearance in my player every four or five months, so it's probably gotten a lot more play than some of my so-called favorites. Great sixties pop, for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave James Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 The other evening, I came across a couple of cuts from The Hollies' mid-70's release, Russian Roulette. They sounded pretty good to me so I did a little research and found that this is considered to be one of their better recordings. Anyone familiar with it? Up over and out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I added a dozen or so of these Hollies singles to a 60s/70s compilation I have on my iPod a while back. Hearing them at a distance they were evocative of the time. But I've found them mainly a bit winsome and tend to skip past most of them. I've always hated 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' with a passion! Sounded too preachy to a 15 year old at the time and it all just comes across as too melodramatic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Truthfully, I'm not even remotely enthralled with anything I've heard by them made after 1968. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I'm late to this thread, but I'm definitely a fan (though I need to explore further). If I had to pick a favorite song it would be King Midas In Reverse. I actually never heard that song until it was featured in the soundtrack of The Limey, but it really made an immediate impression. At the time I had no idea it was the same band that recorded Long Cool Woman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stereojack Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Truthfully, I'm not even remotely enthralled with anything I've heard by them made after 1968. There's a lot to recommend among their early 70's recordings, although as times changed, so did their music. "Moving Finger" (aka "Confessions of the Mind" in the UK) is very good. I also like "Another Night" a lot, and many ot the other 70's albums have some fine tunes. "30th Anniversary Collection" is a superb 3-CD set that covers the early years in depth, and contains the best of the 1970's, including a few rare masterpieces such as "Wings" & "Can't Tell the Bottom From the Top", two of my favorite Hollies songs. From the mid-70's on, their records came to be dominated somewhat by synth keyboard, a distraction to be sure, although the vocals were still strong. Their first album after the departure of Graham Nash was a collection of Dylan songs. It's not very good, and it turned me off to them for a long time. Eventually I began to investigate some of the subsequent albums, and I found that I liked them a lot. Still don't dig the Dylan record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr jazz Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 The Raven compilation looks good. anyone have this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Truthfully, I'm not even remotely enthralled with anything I've heard by them made after 1968. There's a lot to recommend among their early 70's recordings, although as times changed, so did their music. Yeah, I know...what turned me of real quick about post-Beatles pop/rock/etc was that the tempos too often slowed down & the lyrics too often were, for lack of a better term, "stupid" (pop lyrics have hardly ever been SMART, but they have been direct, and I appreciate that...). I call it the Elton John Syndrome & I couldn't get with it then or now. My issue, I'm sure, but whatever the first record was that featured that plodding 4/4, hit a chord on everry beat piano style that rapidly became the Kudzu of Pop, I'd like to get a time machine and go back to the session and STOP IT BEFORE IT EVEN GOT STARTED. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I'm late to this thread, but I'm definitely a fan (though I need to explore further). If I had to pick a favorite song it would be King Midas In Reverse. I actually never heard that song until it was featured in the soundtrack of The Limey, but it really made an immediate impression. Same here. A friend tried to get me into them around 1980-81 but it didn't take. After The Limey I briefly looked for a decent singles comp of theirs, but somehow dropped the notion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I can't understand a single word of "Long Cool Woman" beyond like the first line. Is it the reverb or bad enunciation? Is that still Allan Clarke or was that during the period when he split? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stereojack Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I can't understand a single word of "Long Cool Woman" beyond like the first line. Is it the reverb or bad enunciation? Is that still Allan Clarke or was that during the period when he split? It is Clarke. Not his best work, imo, but it resurrected their status in the US. The success of Long Cool Woman and the accompanying LP, Distant Light, prompted Clarke to leave the band, although he was back on board a year later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Regarding "Long Cool Woman" it did not sound like a Hollies song to me, when I hear it, it reminds of a CCR song (one of my favorite groups, so this is not a knock on the song; particularly reminded me of "Green River"). I don't know which tune came first. Of course, everything is derivative of something, but I wonder if anyone else heard this similarity. I thought everyone heard "Long tall Woman" as v. Creedence-like... I can't understand a single word of "Long Cool Woman" beyond like the first line. Is it the reverb or bad enunciation? Is that still Allan Clarke or was that during the period when he split? This made me google the title to find the lyrics - Clarke is listed first as composer with a couple of other guys. But here is the funny thing - This lyrics website references CCR, yet AMG doesn't list CCR as having ever recorded it, and of course whatever the similarities it doesn't look like Fogerty ever made a copyright violation claim. So WTF is up with that site. Anyway, TK, you can get the lyrics at that link - at least I think they are close to accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I used to dig them. Bus Stop stands out for me. Any idea why the Beatles hated them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I've always hated 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' with a passion! Sounded too preachy to a 15 year old at the time and it all just comes across as too melodramatic. I always liked it for the melody, harmony, and arrangement. I've never been a lyrics person, in fact I'd have to admit I've always been somewhat of an voluntarily apathetic dunce in that regard. Never cared much for poetry, either. At any rate, I would have thought that the dislike that a lot of people have for this song would also have a lot to do with the "bombardment" I referred to earlier. I mean, was there anybody who didn't record that tune back in the day? If you had the radio or the tv on for longer than 10 minutes, I'm pretty sure you would have heard it. And yet I still like it. When I hear it now, it has kind of an (appealing) haunting quality to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 (edited) Any idea why the Beatles hated them? IIRC, they felt like they copied their sound in a superficial manner. Harrison was apparently unhappy that they did "If I Needed Someone." The Hollies' producer, Ron Richards, formed a production company with George Martin beginning in 1965. EMI could have told GM to take a hike, but they allowed him to continue to produce the Beatles. The Beatles may have felt that, through this partnership, RR was glomming onto what GM was doing and applying it to Hollies' recordings. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these details. Edited October 4, 2009 by Teasing the Korean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 I've always hated 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' with a passion! Sounded too preachy to a 15 year old at the time and it all just comes across as too melodramatic. I always liked it for the melody, harmony, and arrangement. I've never been a lyrics person, in fact I'd have to admit I've always been somewhat of an voluntarily apathetic dunce in that regard. Never cared much for poetry, either. At any rate, I would have thought that the dislike that a lot of people have for this song would also have a lot to do with the "bombardment" I referred to earlier. I mean, was there anybody who didn't record that tune back in the day? If you had the radio or the tv on for longer than 10 minutes, I'm pretty sure you would have heard it. And yet I still like it. When I hear it now, it has kind of an (appealing) haunting quality to it. In my place and time it probably sounded different. The vocal is quite Americanised...even at that early age I was irritated by this in British singers. Probably doesn't get noticed t'other side t'Atlantic (that's Yorkshire!). It always seems a very 'dense' arrangement - at that time I was veering towards the more luminous, space filled arrangements of people like Free, the Fairports and so forth. 'He Ain't Heavy' just seems like a harbinger of the overwrought arrangements of the mid-70s onwards (Bohemian Rhapsody etc) that (together with punk) shut down my pop/rock interest. I can see why it might appeal to others - in some ways it has an almost gospel feel to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danasgoodstuff Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Regarding "Long Cool Woman" it did not sound like a Hollies song to me, when I hear it, it reminds of a CCR song (one of my favorite groups, so this is not a knock on the song; particularly reminded me of "Green River"). I don't know which tune came first. Of course, everything is derivative of something, but I wonder if anyone else heard this similarity. I thought everyone heard "Long tall Woman" as v. Creedence-like... I can't understand a single word of "Long Cool Woman" beyond like the first line. Is it the reverb or bad enunciation? Is that still Allan Clarke or was that during the period when he split? This made me google the title to find the lyrics - Clarke is listed first as composer with a couple of other guys. But here is the funny thing - This lyrics website references CCR, yet AMG doesn't list CCR as having ever recorded it, and of course whatever the similarities it doesn't look like Fogerty ever made a copyright violation claim. So WTF is up with that site. Anyway, TK, you can get the lyrics at that link - at least I think they are close to accurate. I don't think there's anything even close to a copyright violation there, it's just a style thing, someone with better transcription and analysis skills would be needed for more detail. Nonetheless, the inspiration/similarity seems obvious to me, YMMV, etc. I was unaware that the Beatles hated them, perhaps they were too close to the unhip, hicks from the sticks side of the Beatles...personally I love that side of both bands, the unfettered enthusiasm tht left them both when they got 'hip', but we've been down this road before re my aversion to all things 'hip'... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Truthfully, I'm not even remotely enthralled with anything I've heard by them made after 1968. There's a lot to recommend among their early 70's recordings, although as times changed, so did their music. My issue, I'm sure, but whatever the first record was that featured that plodding 4/4, hit a chord on everry beat piano style that rapidly became the Kudzu of Pop, I'd like to get a time machine and go back to the session and STOP IT BEFORE IT EVEN GOT STARTED. No, I'm with you there. I'll fund the time machine as long as you also agree to take out everyone from the electronics industry who might have been partially responsible for the eventual appearance of the drum machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 How 'bout we just eradicate all recording with drum machines up to the point where they (the so-vcalled "dance underground" finally figured out how to make them groove? I'd gladly make that deal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 (edited) How 'bout we just eradicate all recording with drum machines up to the point where they (the so-vcalled "dance underground" finally figured out how to make them groove? I'd gladly make that deal! Suits me. The 'dance underground' is way outside my experience. Just get them out of Joni Mitchell's hands! Edited October 4, 2009 by Bev Stapleton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 Joni Mitchell still has hands? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 How 'bout we just eradicate all recording with drum machines up to the point where they (the so-vcalled "dance underground" finally figured out how to make them groove? I'd gladly make that deal! I like the drum machines in Guinean music a lot. But one's mileage very definitely varies on that - Mike Weil HATES them in Guinean music. And I can see why. I just don't agree. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted October 4, 2009 Report Share Posted October 4, 2009 (edited) I'm all in favour of a national campaign to send all the drum machines to Guinea. Perhaps we could operate a reciprocal arrangement, getting all the Guinean drummers to move here in exchange. Edited October 4, 2009 by Bev Stapleton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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