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Post by Stranger on Apr 13, 2019 18:18:43 GMT
I came across this the other day and was very surprised not have seen it before. It's almost sad to see the Hollies rocking like this when all the other clips from the period seem to be ballads, ballads, ballads. They only seemed to do the ballads from Another Night when promoting that album!
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Post by gee on Apr 13, 2019 19:04:41 GMT
Once upon a time The Hollies, tho' they liked the occasional slower number, detested doing a slower OLD FASHIONED melodramatic ballad like 'That's My Desire', the 1932 song Ron Richards made them cover back in 1965 (they even vetoed it going on that 2CD set 'Greatest Hits' in 2001)
The obsession with doing slow ballads as singles really began when 'He Ain't Heavy' then 'I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top' were big UK hits over 1969-70
even the UK album track never envisaged as a UK or USA single 'Too Young To Be Married' a slow melodramatic ballad (despite a great performance and strong song) made no.1 down under in both Auz and NZ which must have further convinced them that was the best route to follow in the new decade
sadly rockier material like 'Hey Willy' in 1971 fared poorly compared to the slow melodramatic ballad hits
LCW was a hit in spite of the band not due to them as they only saw it as an album track
'The Air That I Breathe' being a massive hit in 1974 after 'Curly Billy' was only a modest top thirty UK hit cemented the idea in their heads that SLOW MELODRAMA = SUCCESS
but 'Heavy' and 'Air' were truly exceptional songs...and they don't come along very often do they ?
thereafter on UK singles it's an increasingly 'blinkered' diet of repeated mainly slow melodramatic ballads, ballads, ballads ('Gambler, 'I'm Down', 'Boulder') which really blew their chances as a UK chart act in the seventies and probably killed their USA hopes too
- the occasional exception of mock reggae and mock disco failing to make any impact at home for them while their lovely cover of Springsteen's 'Sandy' was probably seen at that time as just 'more of the same old type of thing' by DJ's etc and was duly relegated to UK 'Radio Two' occasional plays but had it been issued between a few more uptempo guitar led singles it's contrast just might have worked better - yes ?
then it's more slow ballads ('Hello To Romance', 'Amnesty')...
...followed later on by more slow melodramatic ballads ('Heartbeat', 'Soldier's Song' - tho' at least Clarke's powerful vocal performance on a stronger Mike Batt song just managed to squeeze it into the lower end of the UK singles chart in 1980)
fiery songs like 'Crossfire' and tight harmony items such as 'Hello Lady Goodbye' get wasted as 'B' sides
while a terrific powering version of Mike Batt's song 'If The Lights Go Out' was cut later in 1980 as a potential single...but was shelved in favor of that slow melodramatic ballad 'Soldier's Song' - why not have put it out anyway ?
earlier in 1978 with '20 Golden Greats' at no.2 in the UK their new album 'A Crazy Steal' is top heavy with...slow melodramatic ballads - it flops
they follow it in 1979 with 'Five Three One...' mostly full of slow melodramatic ballads...it flops !
in 1980 the sole single taken from 'Buddy Holly' LP is a slow ballad version of 'Heartbeat'...it flops !
in 1983 the driving rock guitar featured 'Stop in The Name of Love' puts them back in the American chart...
...so in 1985 they drop Billy Bremner / Will Birch's powering gem 'Laughter Turns To Tears'...in favor of you guessed it a slow melodramatic ballad 'Too Many Hearts Get Broken'...it flops !
next up a by then getting rarer EMI new single is 'Reunion of The Heart' yes another slow melodramatic ballad - and yes it flops !
however after 'He Ain't Heavy' makes no.1 in the UK (thanks to a UK beer commercial not the band) then 'Air That I Breathe' charts again in the UK their ballad obsession is re-ignited for a number of later recordings such as 'Nothing Else But Love' but really it was not the wisest way for them to go
'Stand By Me' a powering pop/rocker charts in Germany
Allan Clarke's swansong the driving guitar featured pop number 'The Woman I Love' charts in the UK making no.42 minus any great promotion by EMI but thanks to some initial UK radio airplay
sadly I suspect the in group 'committee' that I think the three senior Hollies were then didn't seem able to grasp that slow dramatic ballads depended on particularly outstanding songs to work, and these work ONLY from time to time to become truly memorable big hit singles, they don't work for bands as EVERY single release.....
and then they should only be the EXCEPTION to their style on singles which should normally consist of utilising the band's key strengths
- Clarke's lead voice, Hicks' GUITAR, those tight soaring harmonies, and Elliott's drumming utilised on MEMORABLE songs which normally would be the livelier more powering uptempo material that works best in short bursts on singles (the slower ballad material being more album orientated style tracks in the main and then they work best as contrasts when set among more faster contrasting guitar led items etc)
On the instrumentation front an over reliance on keyboards might have seemed 'contemporary' in the later seventies and over the eighties into the nineties BUT in truth it was something of a blind alley for the group making them sound just 'following a trend' if not 'lazy' when the guitar led album tracks, B sides etc always made them sound a far STRONGER outfit
it's not rocket science is it...?
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Post by Stranger on Apr 13, 2019 19:45:26 GMT
Ironically for such a square band some of their early album tracks were real garage band proto punk stuff like I've Been Wrong. Doing a mini set of those in their later 70s shows should have shown what the band was really about and given them some cred!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2019 21:47:44 GMT
Great! Could this be the first time the band did their giant US hit on US TV with the person who sang on the record? Broadcast 4th July 1975, this may well be the case (they did appear on 'The Merv Griffin Show' on 29th May 1975, but I'm not sure what song(s) they performed).
For comparison sake, here they are on the same show 2 years earlier without Allan:
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Post by JamesT on Apr 13, 2019 22:06:52 GMT
Brilliant find; would be great to see more of this performance. Where's Wingfield? Cigarette break?!
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poco
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Post by poco on Apr 13, 2019 22:07:53 GMT
They did on the Merv Griffin show "Another Night" & "He Ain't "Heavy"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2019 22:18:32 GMT
They did on the Merv Griffin show "Another Night" & "He Ain't "Heavy" And on 'Dinah!' (also earlier) they did 'The Air That I Breathe' and 'Another Night', so this IS the US TV debut of the song with Allan... unless anyone knows otherwise?
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Post by jeannie on Apr 14, 2019 1:47:57 GMT
Love that video.Long Cool Woman my absolute favourite.
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poco
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Post by poco on Apr 14, 2019 4:04:12 GMT
I don't remember The Hollies on Dinah Shore in 1975. Strangely Merv Griffin presented the Hollies with a gold 45 disc for TATIB on the show that nigh.
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Post by Gralto on Apr 14, 2019 13:30:40 GMT
I came across this the other day and was very surprised not have seen it before. It's almost sad to see the Hollies rocking like this when all the other clips from the period seem to be ballads, ballads, ballads. They only seemed to do the ballads from Another Night when promoting that album! Never seen this before (though I had seen stills from this setting and wondered from what show this derived)- thanks for posting Stranger. I think they also performed Sandy and Another Night on the same Midnight Special ep. There is extremely ropey quality footage of Sandy which has the various members separated by a triangular split screen effect, if I have the right show. I can't find it online but maybe someone will have better luck. I have Sandy on a VHS tape somewhere but never this great clip of LCW. It's probably not him but at certain points from the camera positioned behind Clarke, you can see some of the audience out of the darkness, and there is a bloke front and centre standing up who looks like Graham Nash!
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poco
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Post by poco on Apr 14, 2019 14:00:28 GMT
Simon,
Yes they did perform Sandy & Another Night on Midnight Special on July 4 or 5 1975 as i remember. I was in California at the the time visiting a college buddy and saw the show that night. I think I ran into Moorlock also for the first time.
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Post by Stranger on Apr 14, 2019 17:19:02 GMT
After seeing that clip I immediately went looking for Sandy from the same show as I used to have it on VHS and remember it as having the best live vocal of any version of Sandy. I'm sure the clip was on YouTube at one point...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2019 23:32:59 GMT
After seeing that clip I immediately went looking for Sandy from the same show as I used to have it on VHS and remember it as having the best live vocal of any version of Sandy. I'm sure the clip was on YouTube at one point... It was, I put it there! Still have it in my collection, will dig it out if no-one else does.
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Post by moorlock2003 on Apr 15, 2019 7:30:28 GMT
I don't remember The Hollies on Dinah Shore in 1975. Strangely Merv Griffin presented the Hollies with a gold 45 disc for TATIB on the show that nigh. Allan Clarke solo artist was on Dinah Shore's afternoon chat show, lypsincing to his US charting single Shadow in the Street AND The Hollies' recording of He Ain't Heavy. The latter was tacky to say the least; another example of Clarke trying to one-up his former band. Proof that, as Bobby said, Clarke really did think he WAS The Hollies.
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Post by moorlock2003 on Apr 15, 2019 7:36:49 GMT
Great! Could this be the first time the band did their giant US hit on US TV with the person who sang on the record? Broadcast 4th July 1975, this may well be the case (they did appear on 'The Merv Griffin Show' on 29th May 1975, but I'm not sure what song(s) they performed).
For comparison sake, here they are on the same show 2 years earlier without Allan:
I still prefer this to the 1975 Clarke-sung performance. The song was well over 2 years old by then and wasn't as fresh. The "In Concert" version is best of all, with a large audience rocking along. The Hollies at their peak, and no Allan in sight. Imagine that!
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Post by moorlock2003 on Apr 15, 2019 7:56:03 GMT
Brilliant find; would be great to see more of this performance. Where's Wingfield? Cigarette break?! In case you didn't know, there is no piano or synthesizer on "Long Cool Woman". The introduction of synth in their music was a mistake. The best track on Another Night, "Time Machine Jive", had a great piano break, and was all the better because of it. That squawky synth sound didn't do them any favors, with "Draggin' My Heels" being the sole exception.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2019 8:23:14 GMT
I know there was no synth on LCW (and I'm sure James does too), but around this time Pete Wingfield added some great rock 'n' roll piano playing to the song - see below! It is indeed odd that he's not playing on the song on 'The Midnight Special' when he's on 'Sandy' and (presumably) 'Another Night'.
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Post by moorlock2003 on Apr 15, 2019 8:27:59 GMT
There is no need for piano on LCW.
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Post by moorlock2003 on Apr 15, 2019 8:32:46 GMT
Ironically for such a square band some of their early album tracks were real garage band proto punk stuff like I've Been Wrong. Doing a mini set of those in their later 70s shows should have shown what the band was really about and given them some cred! "For such a square band"? The band's biggest (US) hit was "Long COOL Woman".
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2019 9:48:25 GMT
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Post by moorlock2003 on Apr 15, 2019 10:29:55 GMT
Nice! Seeing and hearing this makes me appreciate the song more. This live version proves once again The Hollies' reputation for being an ace live band, often sounding even better than their records (current lineup notwithstanding).
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Post by stuball on Apr 15, 2019 14:09:19 GMT
I can still remember The Hollies performing 'Another Night' on the Merv Griffin Show back in '75. They performed the tune in front of a old brick set, with a window allowing the neon light of the lonely city to shine through. Quite fitting and very impressive at the time. I believe 'Another Night' was the last Hollies group-written song to make the US Top 100. It peaked at #71, if memory serves.
Merv also interviewed The Hollies for a minute or two after their numbers. Largely talked to Clarke, about the group never having a flop record. Also quizzed Sylvester about his accent. All done with the humour and smoothness that was typical of Merv's professionalism.
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Post by gee on Apr 15, 2019 15:24:36 GMT
NO WAY did Terry Sylvester sing a better version of LCW than Allan Clarke - that is absolute nonsense to try and pass off that idea !
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Post by moorlock2003 on Apr 15, 2019 15:33:19 GMT
NO WAY did Terry Sylvester sing a better version of LCW than Allan Clarke - that is absolute nonsense to try and pass off that idea ! Gee, simma down now. It is MY opinion, and my opinion only. I never said Terry sings it better. I'm simply saying that I get more excited by The Hollies 1972 lineup than I do the others. When I watch the "In Concert" 5 song set, I sing along at the top of my lungs, perform air harmonica, but most of all, air drums to Bobby Elliot's incredible drumming. If I stand up, I perform air guitar. I am attached to this lineup because I was there in that auditorium, the Santa Monica civic, for the full length concert on Nov. 22, 1972. Unfortunately, it was the stone age back in 1972, and I had no knowledge of the taping of "In Concert". If I had, I would have been in the front row. The audience was super-enthusiastic, too. Clarke was not missed whatsoever. After viewing it, I am left pumped up and with the feeling that, with this sterling performance, The Hollies were better than ever. They were magnificent. The Hollies Rocked the house, with a capital R.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2019 16:53:06 GMT
I can still remember The Hollies performing 'Another Night' on the Merv Griffin Show back in '75. They performed the tune in front of a old brick set, with a window allowing the neon light of the lonely city to shine through. Quite fitting and very impressive at the time. I believe 'Another Night' was the last Hollies group-written song to make the US Top 100. It peaked at #71, if memory serves. Merv also interviewed The Hollies for a minute or two after their numbers. Largely talked to Clarke, about the group never having a flop record. Also quizzed Sylvester about his accent. All done with the humour and smoothness that was typical of Merv's professionalism. Sounds like great viewing! 'The Merv Griffin Show' is a largely untapped archive that I suspect largely still exists.
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