#The Association

[oldshowbiz]

1969.

The Association published a book of short stories titled Crank Your Spreaders. It is very obscure.

[boxwright]

The Association - Jules Alexander

[jt1674]

[fancycolours]

THE ASSOCIATION. (Circa 1968.)

[singlesablog]

Sunshine Pop

“Happy Together” (1967) The Turtles White Whale Records (Written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon) Highest U.S. Billboard Chart Position – No. 1

Imagine me and you, I do I think about you day and night, it's only right To think about the girl you love, and hold her tight So happy together…

One of the great, enduring singles of the 20th century, “Happy Together”, by the Turtles, was released when I was only 2 years old, and still the song has had a lasting impact on my musical tastes.  It is today grouped under the moniker “Sunshine Pop”, which would include many contemporary purveyors of light psychedelia, including The Association (perhaps the most successful example) and the family band the Cowsills (with their seminal hit “I Love The Flower Girl” and its ringing lyric “happy…haPPY…HAPPY”), and many, many others.  The category, like the term Yacht Rock for the 70s, was only applied later to pull together the swirls of styles and culture springing up from a combination of folk, pop, and the Beatles, and not un-notably was possibly a reaction to the civil unrest bubbling up in the late 60s.  I can only guess the genre was the mainstreaming of a kind of specific tension rising up in America, a hip solution to changing times.  The genesis of these songs is elusive to understand, being a combination of hippie culture, long hair, and corporate rock—pulling apart the strands of influence is nearly impossible. But I will try.

I have read the Wiki on the Turtles many times and no cohesive idea of the band will gel.  Like the Association, some of the 5 or 6 male members were shuffled around during their hit-making period.  The band was clearly an easy listening vocal band for youth culture; they rarely wrote their own songs, instead they sifted around the industry for potential hits to record (which is in line with a lot of 60s hit-making).  During the period of “Happy Together” a new bassist, Chip Douglas, was added; this would be important because he would arrange the astounding vocal wall that crescendos at the end of the record.  Another important element, perhaps lending this single such authenticity, was that the band’s label, White Whale, was small and scrappy.  Because they could not afford the premium session players that all good California bands used for making hits, the band members, outside of orchestral sounds, played all of their own instruments.  The last bonafide is the lead singer, Howard Kaylan, whose dreamy vocal is undeniable.  But how did a journeyman band like The Turtles do it?  

One of the antecedents that explains their sound is California.  As surf music (the Beach Boys) was replaced by folk music (Dylan, and the West Village of New York), so emerged The Turtles with their first hit, the Californication of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe”, going groovy with it.  Before recording “Happy” they scratched around with hits comprised of older styles, the Brill Building of “You Baby” (P.F. Sloan and Steve Barry) and “Let Me Be” (P.F. Sloan).  These were solid songs, but the band clearly had ambition and wanted more, so they went on the prowl for a hit hit.  “Happy Together” was a demo that had made the rounds among many bands and rejected by all: the Happenings, the Vogues, and the Tokens. The two songwriters, Bonner and Gordon, had a connection to the Lovin’ Spoonful, and were shopping it around.  Howard Kaylan, the Turtles’ lead singer, has told the story of hearing the acetate for “Happy” and not only was it barely audible from use (acetate records, cut live rather than pressed, were inexpensive and were purposely used for demos and had short life spans) but terrible as well, with rickety guitar and a falsetto vocal.  But it appealed to the band, it had “something”.  Instead of recording it, they decided to workshop it live, and took it on the road for eight months before going into their studio, Sunset Sound.  According to Kaylan, they were more than ready, and recorded the whole track in 6 hours on an 8 track recorder.  They obviously did have the money for woodwinds and brass, but Kaylan has reported that listening to the separate tracks and arrangements he detected nothing special.  It was only when they heard them all at once, and mixed, that it was clear something magical was there.  He described it as elusive, with the mystical feeling that something had happened, and for the only time in his life he knew instantly they had created a No. 1. record.

The result was ebullience. Describing a perfect, hooky pop record is nearly impossible; suffice it to say that I hear it nearly daily as a tagline for an obnoxious tv ad and yet I always get that explosive tingle (ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba). Perhaps the Turtles are harder to understand today because we, of a certain age, have all been so profoundly changed by the singer songwriters of the 70s; before that movement it was commonplace for record labels to shift and shuffle band members and songwriters endlessly to generate a hit (one only has to read about the formation of the Drifters or the Temptations to become fully dizzy).  Making a hit record was always the preeminent idea, and it is our modern minds that has lead us to believe that artistry has to be the end result of a personal genius: no, no, not at all.  Sometimes it is in the air, and sometimes it is luck.  Perhaps it is always luck.  One thing is for sure, like the late, great, recently passed Quincy Jones has stated: it was always all about the song, man.

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The Turtles, of course, wanted to repeat the success of “Happy Together”, and they nearly matched it with a song intentionally parodying themselves, “Elenore”, purposefully writing nonsensical lyrics like “Elenore, gee, I think you're swell” and “You're my pride and joy, et cetera” to send themselves up.  The joke wasn’t on them: it was a huge hit (Billboard No. 6), and uncharacteristically it was one the band wrote themselves.

One of the obvious precursors of the sound for a band like the Turtles is the Mamas and the Papas, who took Motown and the British Invasion and added a vocalese that was strictly California.  If you compare their sounds, so dependent on the vocals, they are remarkably similar.   I also hear this sound everywhere during that period, from the Cyrkle’s “Turn Down Day” (talk about an earworm) to the the arguably more successful and prodigious tunes from The Association, who’s monster No.1 hit “Windy” charted that very same year. Albeit whiter and squarer than the hippyish Turtles, their work would lead directly to the greatest white bread duo ever created, the Carpenters.

Now, I must insist: go listen to the song, and get happy!

[beatleswings]

THE ASSOCIATION. Los Angeles, CA. 1968. Photo taken by LINDA McCARTNEY.

[gone2soon-rip]

TERRY KIRKMAN (1939-Died September 23rd 2023,at 83). American musician and songwriter best known as a vocalist for the pop group the Association and the writer of several of the band's hit songs such as "Cherish", "Everything That Touches You", and "Six Man Band". As a member of the Association, he was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.Terry Kirkman - Wikipedia

[lionesswerehere]

Hello babies! I made a playlist for "old but gold" lovers!

From The Go-Go's to Madonna, Michael Jackson to David Bowie, The New Pornographers to XTC, you can find all kinds of music here! I really enjoyed preparing this list, and I hope you like it, too. If you have any suggestions, please let me know, and I will add them to the list. Enjoy, babies!

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #18: 1967

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Lulu, The Box Tops, Bobbie Gentry, The Association, The Monkees, The Doors, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, The Turtles, The Young Rascals, Frankie Valli. End description]

More information about this blog here

Moving on to 1967. As mentioned in one of the previous 60's polls, we're seeing how rock and roll is continuing to shift throughout this decade. With the debut of The Doors, psychedelic rock is starting to take hold within the genre. Even beyond rock music, with acts like The Association and The Turtles, that psychedelic descriptor will start applying to pop music as well as the psychedelia subculture truly takes hold in the decade. In the classic rock canon, 1967 is considered one of the greatest years the genre has to offer. And just looking at the projects and artists that debuted this year, that reputation doesn't feel like an exaggeration. Since these polls are strictly focused on the very top of the Billboard year-end Hot 100, I won't go too much into that. But just to give you an idea, this was the debut year of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fleetwood Mac, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Sgt. Pepper, and many more. Trust me, I'm making a bunch of painful cuts from this list alone.

We're also seeing the mainstream rise of Blue-eyed soul, a term used to describe white R&B singers at the time. While originally used by radio DJ, Georgie Woods, to introduce the Righteous Brothers, the term soon expanded until now some would classify it as a genre of its own. However, to paraphrase musician, writer, and political activist, Darrell McNeill, BES is primarily a marketing term. Since he explains the phenomenon and context far better than I can, here's a link to an article where he's quoted.

Much like how yesterday's poll was marked by an important cultural moment, we have another one today. This is the first poll that has a nipple on the banner. Yay! Congratulations Jim Morrison. Spoilers: he won't be the last. But this isn't a nipple poll, so they're all winners.

[misquotedmosquito]

[bayareabadboy]

Never My Love (Remastered Version)

[oldshowbiz]

1967.

The Association reportedly received $140,000 worth of bookings thanks to one appearance on The Joey Bishop Show.

[boxwright]

The Association - Terry Kirkman

[fantastickkay]

Album Review of the Week: The Association - Insight Out (1967)

The Association's third album saw a turn towards more commercial viability than their previous releases. They had a new member (Larry Ramos), a new producer (Bones Howe) and even relinquished much of the instrumental work to session musicians in favor of attaining a radio friendly sound. This certainly worked on me, as it is the only Association record I own (besides their greatest hits) - and it does contain some massive standouts in their discography.

Wasn't It A Bit Like Now indulges in the vaudeville throwback sound that was popular at the time. To me, this often creates a clunky sound that can be somewhat fun but not something I would want to put on very often. (ex: The Monkees' Cuddly Toy executes and modernizes the sound very well). Almost 2 minutes in, there is a brief silence and then we get into a pop/garage bridge that morphs back into vaudeville and then ends with a very garage outro - makes for an interesting track, that's for sure!

On A Quiet Night is a ballad that sounds very of the time, a little baroque pop. The lyrics are imaginative and poetic but the sound doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

Bring out the harpsichord! We Love Us leans even more into baroque pop with some dreamy harmonies and cheesy lovey dovey sunshine pop lyrics. As one-note as this song is in general, I do love me some harpsichord so that is a win for me.

When Love Comes To Me is quite similar to the last track, sans harpsichord (though it contains the mid 60s obligatory flute solo) so it falls more into the sunshine pop category. Sounds nice, but nothing too exciting.

Windy was one of my favorite songs when I was really, really into 60s music. My biggest complaint now is that the vocals are mixed too low so it is difficult to fully enjoy it while straining to hear everything. Maybe I have a weird remaster, but I found it was true both with my vinyl and the version I bought on iTunes in an effort to be rid of the issue. However, the lyrics, melody and harmony are stunning and I love how bouncy and happy it is!

Reputation brings the edge with a rockier sound and grittier vocals.

Never My Love is one of their most famous songs. It is so completely romantic, I love how soft and smooth the vocals are and the instrumentation is gorgeous. The perfect song for a romantic moment! I also love the chorus that talks about how it is silly to fear that the relationship will end because of how obviously devoted they are.

Happiness Is brings it back to the sunshine pop sound, I think I even hear a little ukulele in there. I am not as much of a fan of the vocals on this one, the key seems a little high for those involved.

Sometime is a huge pivot as far as vocal style, definitely leaning in the vaudeville vibe there. Other than that, nothing too remarkable.

Wantin' Ain't Gettin' starts out with a crazy sitar intro that really reminds us what time we are living in here! This album has been such a crazy mixture of popular music styles of the time. The harmonies don't seem synced very well which makes the melody sound muddy and hard to follow.

Requiem For the Masses is a genius album closer, although it is a giant departure from anything we have heard so far. The lyrics use the imagery of a bull fighter that dies in a fight far from home as a metaphor for fallen soldiers in Vietnam. It is a layered, storied, textured, all around gorgeous song.

Aside from the singles (Windy, Never My Love, Requiem For the Masses) this album seems to have sold its soul in an attempt to gain commercial notoriety. The deep tracks are a crazy mash-up of several distinct sounds of the time (baroque and sunshine pop, Eastern influence) without any real uniqueness to its vocals or melody to make them a standout among the crowd. The singles are absolutely fantastic, however, so I am not going to toss this album in the donation bin any time soon!

[guitarlessonsbobbycrispy]

Never My Love - The Association - Guitar Lesson. Big hit from 1967! How to play Never My Love by The Association on guitar, lesson. Easy to follow step by step method with tabs and chord charts in the video for easy learning.