The Cowsills vs The Partridge Family

I've been having a good time listening to all the Cowsills albums from their heyday, discovering interesting cuts on all of them. You can hear a little creative arc as they start out doing Beatles/Mamas & Papas-style pop, then blossom with a couple of albums of more elaborately produced sunshine pop, and ultimately go for a more organic sound on their last two albums before their initial split. There's even a couple of prog-like cuts on their II x II album. The group had started playing their own instrumental tracks in '69 with the "Hair" single, which effected or at least correlated with this shift.

The Partridge Family are a bit of a blindspot for me; "I Think I Love You" and of course the theme song are the only things that really stick. I've heard all the hit singles, which sound pleasant enough, mostly, but they don't resonate. Is there such a thing as a Partridge deep cut? I guess it's worth pointing out that David Cassidy and Shirley Jones are the only ones of the actors that really sing on the records (and of course their instrumentation is a studio group). Still they've got things going for them - obviously the good looks of Keith and Laurie, and Cassidy's warm voice and charisma as a front man. Gotta say, Susan Cowsill is a WAY better tambourine player than the little girl in the Partridge Family.

Cowsills' shelved album from 1978 is top shelf stuff.

I don't think I ever heard of the Cowsills as a kid, but we had all the Partridge LPs. So...

You don't remember the "Hair" single or "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things" from AM radio?

nope

might've heard em but they left no impression

I love the song 'Some Good Years' from their comeback album 'Global', recorded 1990 but released later (I think). The dated production doesn't hold it back at all for me. This is the sort of nostalgic song that The Beach Boys should have been producing on their later albums. Arguably even has a touch of Big Star about it, albeit with somewhat different recording technology available...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ5w7H0mpTc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-creN0Muxw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foepOwQlXpI

You don't remember the "Hair" single or "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things" from AM radio?

This blew my mind first time I saw it. Not a lip sync.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcfW_ufyReM

Dang! Barry was still around for that show.

xxp

Yeah that was really sad about him.

I met Susan once, when the Continental Drifters were playing, but have nothing really to report.

Wait I had that YouTube problem of it c+ping the prior video. I meant to post this first
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt_yKPNORLM

With regard to the thread question
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGmQr4hA2Oc

But wait, on "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things" it's interesting how closely they duplicate the vocals of the original record in that live version... even though it's a different lead singer (Bob instead of Bill) and Susan is I assume doing the backing vocals that her mom did on the original.

People overlook the Cowsills "Hair" as one of the high points of 1960s US culture

their creepy christian apocalypse single is pretty compelling. also if you overlook susan completely blowing the lyrics this performance of "when i'm 64" is pretty great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsMTqyiGl88

oh, also, their one-off single backing waddy wachtel in '74 is good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh2KTuHuAxo

People overlook the Cowsills "Hair" as one of the high points of 1960s US culture

But yeah, it does feel like a slept on top of the Zeitgeist ziggurat moment.

Thanks for that Bridey Murphy single, rushomancy. Just found some background on it here:
http://bapresley.com/silverthreads/music/bands/brideymurphy.html

But wait, on "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things" it's interesting how closely they duplicate the vocals of the original record in that live version... even though it's a different lead singer (Bob instead of Bill) and Susan is I assume doing the backing vocals that her mom did on the original.

I kind of like them in competent-plus cover band mode (unless they recorded these tunes on the first go round and I am unaware of it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHzRUViOpNA

Speaking of The Continental Drifters, did not know that John Cowsill was married to Vicki Peterson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZuXkGKed7I

I did know that he played drums with Mike Love’s Beach Boys though, having heard an interview with him on WFMU once. He seems to have an affinity for songs that end with “-in’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8URMr-5mfU

Will refrain from posting any more videos for the time being. Feel like the Cowsills own this thread, the Partridge Family was an okay comedy show with a musical setting in which the music was usually not that good.

Fully agree.

re "Hair," it was also their last single before the dad fired lead singer Bill Cowsill from the band - or Bill quit after some kind of confrontation depending on the story, which precipitated their commercial decline and ultimate demise. This is all recounted in the 2011 documentary Family Band which is strongly recommended.

Will check it out, thanks

Susan performs a song she wrote with Barry when he visited her from The Great Beyond:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX-ypoT1QTs

This may look cheesy but Bob tells some really good stories and turns in some good performances, abetted by audience backing vlocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzRiGeZ3zZc

Ha, this is wonderful.

Didn't know the same guy wrote "Indian Lake" and "I Think I Love You."

Yeah, me neither.

Okay, finally watched Family Band. Wow.

Also, found some raw footage for it here: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-cowsills.560328/page-7
, along with some stuff that didn’t make the final cut.

Yes, Family Band doc is so good!
It’s a bit meandering & clearly a passion project BUT it’s such a sad & fascinating story. I had very little knowledge of their story at all aside from the songs I knew. Total eyeopener, and gave me a better appreciation for their talent.

I ~super~ love ‘The Rain, The Park & Other Things’ <3

I don't know that there's a song that better sums up the 1960s zeitgeist than that (though I personally only remember the early '70s onward). But that song is heartbreaking even when Bob Cowsill performs it alone.

He's right when he says no one can tell the Cowsills' voices apart - they're just so similar.

I think I can tell when John is singing on some later stuff, but yeah, otherwise it is difficult. Speaking of whom, here is an interesting interview with him from a Beach Boys site: http://bapresley.com/silverthreads/links/johnbbb.html

One of the things that slowly led me back to them, along with trying to comprehend how John ended up in The Beach Boys and Susan ended up in The Continental Drifters and married to Peter Holsapple at the time, was this Tropicalia version of “The Rain, The Park, and Other Things” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9uzHcN4DSs
which I still find slightly charming, although not a patch on the pants of the original of course.

the rain the park and other things youtube upthread made my day, i need to make a SUNSHINE AS FUCK tshirt.

Yeah the, um, Peel Session feel on that one is great.

BTW, just listened to an a cappella version of that they put out this year and can safely recommend it to you guys as well.

not a patch on the pants of the original

Come on! "I love the flower" forever.

So in that video of "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" from the Billy Benefit concert it seems to me that Bob's twin brother Richard is playing conga, which the comments seem to confirm, along with the fact that the audio was sweetened after the fact.

Might try to go see them in December.

Yeah what was that part from the documentary, Richard was a promising drummer but the dad nixed the idea of him joining the group for some reason?

They say he was the one who was most like the dad so the dad singled him out that much extra.

FYI, the woman who directed Family Band has posted a lot of outtakes/raw footage on YouTube.

And here's an interesting two-part interview with John that's not from to the documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9xaNslwvSM

Last record has some beauts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr4UKpKYpx0

That album is good and very obscure, but then the whole run of We Can Fly, Captain Sad & His Ship of Fools, II x II, and On My Side is great. Can't vouch for the "in concert" LP from 1969, and the first album from '67 with "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things" has kind of a beginners' feel to it, so it's a bit lesser than the others.

In Concert is lots of covers plus the studio version of “Hair,” no?

man i'm just a sucker for the mellotron every time, already a great song but when the chamberlin showed up on "can you love" really pushed it over the top!

Slightly weird when II x II shows up written Ii x Ii.

In Concert is lots of covers plus the studio version of “Hair,” no?

Right. Never actually heard it.

So is there good stuff in the Family Band outtakes? Anything illuminating?

i heard their version of "good vibrations" from it before i knew much of anything about them. i understand the song sets a high standard but they don't meet it.

not to derail but i quite like this version of "good vibrations" - they clearly put a lot of work into replicating the sound of the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KqspzKO8AM

Nice. Balearic rock!

More detail on Bud’s bad behavior, especially in the one called “Bud & Barbara,” if you needed any more. In some others you find out those rocks they are often seen crawling on were near a big house they lived in in Newport that Artie Kornfeld helped them get.

Wait I don’t think that house is in Newport maybe it’s in California, couldn’t quite tell where that was. Guess I need to watch more footage.

iirc the partridge family was originally written for the cowsills family but they wanted to replace the mom with shirley jones in the show and the cowsills kids refused

also my wife is a HUGE cowsills fan, she ran a late 90s cowsills page/forum while in high school. i think she met all of them at one point or another.

Yeah, Bob Cowsill interviews Shirley Jones about that at one point. Although of course he says Bud was the one who mixed the deal because of that.

So after watching all these footage I have

So after watching all these videos and all this footage I have decided that, although I like all the Cowsills a lot, the one I think is the coolest is John and the one I am the most like in personality is Paul.

ah, see i wasnt sure the whole story, just half-remembering what my wife had said years ago

Paul is sort of the tetchy, combative one, right?

Yes, exactly. The difficult middle child.

Although I’m not in the middle

And not always difficult

Bass on TRTP&OT sure sounds like Carol Kaye, but what I can see says it was recorded in NYC with Joe Mack/Joe Macho on bass.

Supposedly he played with a pick on "Like A Rolling Stone" so I guess i can compare with that.

Also, there are some serious Cowsills fan sites out there.

Check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xdzx6zD5uI

Well, that’s fine but meant to post this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjlML0HvpPU

And check this out, from 2000. How young they look, especially Barry (and Richard) compared to a few years later. Barry looks just like his dad, and a little like his mom, I guess, and you can really hear his vocals loud and clear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRzM2L4kCfk

On no, that’s Billy I am looking at and hearing, in the skinny jeans and messing with the guitar. Barry is in the back looking like Floyd Pepper. Still.

And just realized who he looks like in that video and who Bud looks a great deal like - Robert Mitchum.

I like them in this New Wave mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROksVUge-bA

On the Barbara McNair show, doing some instrument switching with John playing guitar and singing, Paul on drums and Susan on bass for one number - was Barry ill?- another lead turn for Barbara (in case you didn’t click on Playboy After Dark clip) and participating in a group sing-a-long of “United We Stand” with Barbara McNair, an opera singer named Jan Rubeš and Freda Payne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PegF-6Vc1E

Another one from 2000, a little later in the year, at night, Barry playing bass and Billy singing the main lead on “Hair” with a little Hank Williams feel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3eSNLUZPdk

No, it seems to be from the same show as the one before, sorry

What I referred to as the New Wave stuff eventually was released eight years later on the Global album. Apparently some A&R guy got fired when attempted to release it prior to that. Also during this period Barry wasn’t playing with them so you will see videos with another guy on bass named Cecil Duke.

Really maybe should call it Power Pop instead of New Wave.

This record company executive, Marc Nathan: http://www.playlistresearch.com/interviews/nathan.htm

And here, in the comments: http://www.theautomatik.com/2006/01/06/barry-cowsill-1954-2005/

Are the songwriting credits to two Cowsills on the first two albums Bill and Bob (like they are on Captain Sad)?

First two MGM albums, that is

Presumably, though it's not specified in either case. The song "Mister Flynn" on We Can Fly is credited to three Cowsills.

Amazing thread! Never seen it before. Lots of stuff about Susan and the Continental Drifters here, incl. re a 2-CD comp on Omnivore and backstory etc etc: too much to paste, but worth the search:
TS: Lone Justice or Cruzados or Drivin' & Cryin' or Green On Red or Del Fuegos or Jason & The Scorchers or Long Ryders or Bodeans?

Well and here's a few tidbits from that:

saw susan cowsill at a local library recently. she was complaining of a cold but what a voice. she mentioned that continental drifters set from a couple posts up. i learned that vicki peterson is married to one of her brothers. also that she recorded a couple of singles for warner bros in the 70s, one of which had the first-issued version of "mohammad's radio" as the b-side. jackson browne gave her the zevon demo and suggested she cover it. susan cowsill fun facts.

― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Also, what the hell:

Wow, thanks guys! Never heard of that. She has a lot of interesting comments in the compilation notes. Think she was already performing with Vicki Peterson as the Psycho Sisters when they met the Continental Drifters, and they finally put out an album under that name last year or so. She also did a solo album a few years ago, which was okay, but so far I like her better as a team player, like here (caffeinated review from 2013 follows)
The Hobart Brothers & Lil Sis Hobart--At Least We Have Each Other Jon Dee Graham, Freedy Johnston, and Susan Cowsill pool their songs about buildings, food, dirt, jobs, women, men, spare tires of several kinds, jobs, pavement, waking up, jobs, dreams (maybe), jobs, spare sounds, fuller ones too (I prefer the former here, for the coffee break vibe, but both work), and jobs. Not really so many (or so remarkable) jobs, but more than we usually hear songs about; songs that beat plain ol' complaints, anyway. Susan Cowsill was the youngest member of her brothers'/mother's/manager dad's group The Cowsills, real-life basis of the Partridge Family. She does not sound waify here: fairly tough and flexible voice, something of a potentially upsetting, born-for/to-trouble spark. Freedy Johnston's reedy, and observant enough to bend with the ornery wind; Graham's one gravelly, articulate Austin cracker. Johnston, whose stoically idiosyncratic practicality has so far led to at least one great solo album, Can You Fly (not even a rhetorical question), sometimes breaks out a bit of power pop here. It's in the soda pop pulled from a rusty icebed by a gas station, probably in Texas and/or the Great Plains, while the sun keeps the beat---they keep enough shade, enough cool to try and work out "the difference between beaten and beat," also Beat. This album is rec'd to these individual artists' fans, ditto those who enjoy the community-minded best of James McMurtry, Warren Zevon, John Doe, Dave Alvin, Eliza Gilkyson, like that y'all.

― dow, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 8:25 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, most of the Continental Drifters core moved from LA to NOLA, and eventually some (most? all?) of them encountered or were affected by Katrina in various ways; one of Susan's brothers didn't survive it.Also this from my 2013 Nashville Scene ballot notes:
The dB's--"She Won't Drive In The Rain Anymore": Very good contemporary country jangle-ballad, one of the highlights on a very good reunion album (aren't many of those). The true story, as told by Holsapple to http://dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com
"It's about my wife evacuating New Orleans during Katrina. I was on the road with Hootie [and the Blowfish]; my wife had taken my daughter and my baby son and my daughter's best friend on a train to Birmingham to buy a vehicle up there. She knew the hurricane was coming, and she did all the things you're supposed to do. We didn't think too much about it — we certainly didn't realize it was going to be a 100-year storm. But when she got to Birmingham to get the car, it was very evident there was no turning back, so she drove literally across the storm path to get to her grandmother's in Little Rock."
Peter goes on to explain the reunion theme in the lyrics. He says his wife "took a day to re-group and then started driving back and she dropped my daughter's best friend off with her mom in Memphis. And then [my wife took] Miranda, my daughter with Susan Cowsill, to where Susan and her husband were living at the time. Then she made a beeline to where Hootie was playing next, which was Baltimore. She got there 15 minutes before we went on. It had been this incredible, tortuous time, unable to get in touch with anybody. Meanwhile, I'm in this sort of suspended state of touring because I need the money, and I can't really stop. Where am I gonna go, what am I gonna do? When I saw her, it was the first time in weeks, she and my son pulled up and I was overjoyed just to get to see her. We didn't really talk very much because we didn't really know what to say; it was all just so overwhelming."

― dow, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 8:38 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Vicki is married to John Cowsill, who plays drums with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston in a "Beach Boys" group. I saw him play with Bob Cowsill, who performs regularly at a club in Los Angeles as The Cowsills. They do 60s/70s covers, with their own hits thrown in.

― nickn, Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Susan and Vicki certainly sing the hell out of every track they're given access to on that long and winding Continental Drifters comp.

Still need to check out their own (Psycho Sisters) album, And need to dig up Susan's solo album--was good, but don't remember particulars, just an impression of her standing by a river, singing her ass off (but not in a showboat way).

Thanks for adding all that stuff, dow. Isn’t Bill Mumy also a member of The Psycho Sisters?

Been listening to Susan’s solo album called Lighthouse which is pretty good and has a song called “River of Love” which is a tribute to Barry and was written by him, I think, performed by the four remaining Cowsills. There is a nice video of it made by the director of Family Band which starts with three of them on the mic waiting for John who is in another room either warming up or practicing for a gig by playing a Beach Boys song.

Ah, actually it is not John singing and playing The Beach Boys, maybe someone else on piano, perhaps it is Jackson Browne, as someone claims in the comments section, and then Paul Cowsill is singing it in imitation of John imitating Blondie Chaplin imitating Carl Wilson, in an attempt to summon John
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xva13taqpJY

Sorry about being a bit gaga at gogo about posting videos but it’s just that there are so many videos of them on YouTube if I find one I am particularly interested it I am putting it here so I can find it again.

Or maybe it is him playing piano. In any case it is an amusing illustration of the Cowsill dynamic.

Some post-Katrina talk from some of us here: Bands in the "powerpop" chapter of the 1980 new wave guide I just bought for https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?showall=true&bookmarkedmessageid=171&boardid=41&threadid=46289 off a seemingly homeless guy set up on the sidewalk of St Marks

Thanks! Had forgotten about that thread.

Sure.

Some good stuff on the RIP Billy Cowsill thread too.

So that video of TRTP&OT in front of the houses and barns is from one of their 2/10 Ed Sullivan appearances.

And that mic problem at the beginning is the reason Bud got mad and then in response Ed & Co cancelled all the remaining performances except one. So yes, that is a live performance, not lip-synced.

And if you watch it a couple of times you can start to see each Cowsill sing their various parts. Way cool.

There seem to have two nights of that Taste of Rhode Island 2000 show in which all seven siblings are on stage. For instance in one of them Barry is playing a violin Beatle bass on "Hair,"in the other it's something else, looks sort of like a Rickenbacker but probably not. Most of the bass is actually played by a guy named Robby Scharf, who plays in Bob's band.

From what I understand, that Ed Sullivan clip is of the rehearsal. The volume problem was really bad when they went live.

Makes sense. I hear the problem went on for twenty seconds so sounds right.

Would love to see the performance the second time they were on - they did "We Can Fly."

The audio for that seems to be available through the major streaming services, although I can't quite seem to click all the way through yet.

So the thing I posted upthread which shows up on Youtube as Taste of Rhode Island is from the first night, and the earlier set, before the inexperienced singer RIchard Cowsill loses his voice, which shows up simply as TORI, is this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFg-leBxM54

Ah, not available in US

Wow, Bill sounds fantastic. Is that Dick singing backup behind them by Barry?

Oh sorry, I see you mentioned that that is indeed him...

I think the other set is a bit better but watch them both if you have time.

Can't stream Sullivan version of "We Can Fly" but I think it may be worth the 99 cents to buy it.

I'm listening to the clip on iTunes and it sounds like the Sullivan house band or something!

Yeah, me too.

This Billy Cowsill Everly Brother's pastiche is pretty sweet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL5Xe_550EDVBX4qjBJfQROlNCz5LKvnOI&time_continue=117&v=_RWKPl0vZgo

Everly Brothers (extra apostrophe ugh)
Here is simpler link, "Love's A Hurtin' Thing"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RWKPl0vZgo

Although that full playlist is interesting

This is like a bottomless well. Just found yet another video of Billy singing incredibly well, starting with “Blue Bayou” then “Devil Woman” and I don’t know what comes next.
RIP Billy Cowsill

Ahem. Sorry. Meant to post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXxZYUOiJTs

It’s presumably just some brunch gig but still

That striped strung-out Sunday sound

Billy sings Bob (not his brother):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QUNo_eRppk

Billy sings Merle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNQo4sComus

Billy sings Hank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGhFOMxqWCs

Listening to what he does with his voice in some of this stuff, quite convincing imitations of various country styles, has made me go back to the earliest MGM stuff and listen with new ears. Even if he is singing in a more pop-rock style, one can hear or imagine hearing a certain melancholy in his voice that translated well when he went country.

I was a friend of Billy Cowsill over the last ten years of his life, and even was honoured to sing one of his Blue Shadows songs at his memorial wake here in Calgary, which was attended by 850 people. Billy was beloved here. In 1997 a group of his Calgary pals rescued Billy from Vancouver, where he had sunk into drug and alcohol dependency after the breakup of the Blue Shadows. They paid for him to get into rehab for an extended period (that brunch gig JR and the Bs linked to above was early on in the process when Billy started leaving the facility for the occasional afternoon gig, just to keep his chops up) and set him up in an apartment afterward. Billy took on a trio of younger local musicians to do mostly early 60s covers and called it the Co-Dependents. He stayed sober, mentored a lot of younger musicians, played extensively in hospital wards, seniors homes and long term care facilities and attended community college. Unfortunately the long term damage he'd done to his body led to his early death in 2006. I miss him a ton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_QgvUS-wfY&frags=pl%2Cwn

Thanks so much for that. Think I read that when he passed he was working on a psychology degree.

Also, were you trying to post a video? There is an embed but it is not showing up properly.

Okay. Couldn’t see it in zing but do see it in Chrome.

"love's a hurtin' thing" is good and all but unfortunately gloria ann taylor recorded the definitive song with that title

Near the end of this clip he is singing and playing on another Arthur Alexander song.
https://youtu.be/ErjqWzROMaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErjqWzROMaM

Really dig Billy’s song “Vagabond”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHKTSt4RZp8

Billy used to love telling the story about how he first recorded Vagabond as a demo in an NYC studio one night in 1972. His own guitar wasn't staying in tune so the engineer pulled a Gibson Everly Bros Flattop out from a closet, that had been left in the studio by the daytime occupant (recording "Sometime in New York City"), John Lennon. He couldn't believe he was playing Lennon's axe. Later in the Blue Shadows he wrote a song about the experience called "Johnny's Guitar".

Thanks. Love these Billy stories you are providing.

Just found the first Blue Shadows album on Spotify. Still kind of amazed at what a convincing country and rockabilly singer he became. Maybe I am a bit of fool on that point but the fool is the last one to know.

Two notes on songwriting credits:

• Interesting that “You’re Not the Same Girl” was written by another guy in Blue Northern, Ray O’Toole, not Billy, but it ended up in the Cowsills repertoire.
• Guy who wrote “Covered Wagon,” Danny O’Keefe, also wrote “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues.” (cf recent Elvis poll) Still don’t know anything else about him.

Just found this great live performance of “Deliver Me” with the Blue Shadows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E47DEbOiYTo

Oh, just noticed the latest Super Hits poll

Miranda Lambert, er, covered "Covered Wagon" on her last album.

The Blue Shadows album really holds up

Like how the harmonies lean a little more towards the Louvins than most

Was referring to the first album. Here is the title track of the second album, which I just came across and enjoyed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqtXWrB4xm4

cowsills free at port washington library 11/9 (long island). for nyc folks you can walk there from the port washington lirr stop.

https://pwpl.org/events/

Cool. But No tickets required, but please note that Port Washington residents will receive priority entry

If I can’t make that, might try to go to this one on December 8th: https://tickets.thecuttingroomnyc.com/event/1755325-cowsills-new-york/

last time i saw them there it was well-attended but not a full house. they'll usually squeeze folks in.

cowsills ruled at the library. rain kept some folks away, but the faithful came out. they were giddy because this was the last day of a long tour, and happy to be playing as a three-piece without the backing band. new news: they are recording a new cd!

here's the youtube of the event. they mixed the guitars too high, but that improves somewhat. there's a q&a at around 40 minutes where the run through some obscurities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxpRDXfF4fA&fbclid=IwAR309xrDs0mE9orMFIL1ctgjWcsbV2xzAdSuxzJyfkS4LqQft8dX5yoTevM

Ended up not going last night. Maybe will watch Family Band again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic6uELZD5zg

Guiltily thinking of this storm as Hurricane Barry Cowsill.

Rewatched the Sullivan show video and some of that Rhode Island reunion and man, John is a great drummer.

Down to here
Down to there

https://youtu.be/PLBvPQAPl7w

Watch what happens when they start in the wrong key:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqwsBq9yeW0

And the other one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-fQTetggZ4

I love them all but it always amazes how good baby brother John is.

I love them all but it always amazes how good baby brother John is.

This came up today and made me really happy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foepOwQlXpI

i heard Hair the other day & it put me in such a good mood

:)

I was transfixed as a kid when one of the teenagers who worked in my dad's milk store (either Vince or Roman, I believe) had the radio on and knew all the words to "Indian Lake."

But did he know all the words to “I Think I Love You”?

I probably knew those myself at the time--we all did.

This one just popped into my head, “You’re Not the Same Girl.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL1vbKD6Ry0

NOW AND THEN: The Smithereens with The Cowsills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyl8GyB0jU8

From Omnivore:

http://omnivorerecordings.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cowsills-Rhythm-Of-The-World-OV-503.jpg

The Cowsills
Rhythm Of The World
Release date: September 30, 2022

Description
First new music from the band in nearly 30 years, includes 11 brand new songs written by the band.
...Now, nearly 30 years after their last recordings as a group, The Cowsills are returning with new music for the new world! Omnivore Recordings is proud to announce the release of Rhythm Of The World. Eleven brand new songs written by the band. The ambassadors of goodwill and love will be on the road through 2023 thrilling fans with their classic hits and soon to be new favorites!

CD / DIGITAL TRACK LIST:
YA GOTTA GET UP!
LEND A HAND
HAWKS ON THE LINE
EVERY LITTLE SECRET
NUCLEAR WINTER
RHYTHM OF THE WORLD
LARGO NIGHTS
GOODBYE’S NOT FOREVER
THE LONG RUN
TRY TO BELIEVE IT TOO
KATRINA

Cat: OV-503

http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/rhythm-of-the-world/

nice!

Yes. Assume “Katrina” is another song about Barry.

And indeed it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N-QjC5-OOQ

John Cowsill is out of the Beach Boys.

Oh wow, what happened? He was still listed in recent shows, like in May, at least.

I like Rhythm of The World, though the guys sing all the leads. Glad to have Susan in strong duet w xpost Freedy Johnston (see upthread for their album w Jon Dee Graham)---from his 2022 janglefest, Back On The Road To You, this is "The Power of Love," brothers and sisters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN0O8AhAY5c

Don’t know the details yet, just saw in some feed.

hope he rejoins the 'sills.

i wonder if mike love tried to involve him in trump rallies/benefits. though you'd think that ship had sailed.

John and another guy, ScotT Totten, who apparently was the musical director, were both let go.

Susan's husband Russ is currently the drummer for The Cowsills and I think on package tours maybe there is some house band anyway.

Let go from the Cowsills? That’s not right!

Btw I just saw him ponying around on stage with Vicki Bangle at the ‘Nuggets’ 50th Anniversary show

Awesome! I read that John was no longer with the Beach Boys, hopefully not also the Cowsills.

He hasn’t been associated with The Cowsills in years

But he has been associated with his wife Vicki Peterson for quite a long time.

So let go by the Beach Boys only then, just as I surmised. Yes! What relief.

He does sometimes seem to appear with his siblings, but it’s not very often at all and not expected.

John anc Vicki apparently are living in NYC right now, but so far I have yet to cross paths with them.

i love susan cowsill, I can't even imagine how weird it would be to sing in a band at 8 years old but she never stopped so, still sounds great too

she popped up singing backups while I was trying to find the definitive live "Welcome Back" (Kotter) which seems to be this, on youtube anyways

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFeHkC_w6kc

and then youtube was already open so had to listen to "Cocaine Drain" and then it was a cowsills evening

Susan became a really good singer but some of the early years kid sister stuff can be painful to watch, although I kind of feel bad even mentioning that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOZVwY1Ivo

Reposting in case the earlier link got broken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlfgp1UnXns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCLoFoo2uP0