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Post by anthony on Apr 20, 2020 3:22:31 GMT
What would your one stand out song be from the Rickfors era, mine happens to be Won’t you feel good that morning. for me I find it hard to think of a better opening song to any Hollies album.,
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Post by JamesT on Apr 20, 2020 12:48:22 GMT
Taking a slightly different angle, I'd say the only one which is a real low-point in the Rickfors era is 'Nearer To You'.
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Post by thejanitor on Apr 20, 2020 12:53:50 GMT
That's a great question, but a tough one! ☺ I love a lot of the tracks (and bonus tracks) on Romany, "Won't You Feel Good That Morning" included. My other favourites are "Touch", "Magic Woman Touch", "Romany","The Baby","Courage of Your Convictions " and "Blue In The Morning". But I'm also very blown away (pun intended 😁) by the vocals and guitar fingerpicking style on "The Last Wind" from Out On The Road. That combination of their harmonies with the bubbly pedal effect that is on Tony's solo is magic to my ears! So my standout Rickfors era track would probably be either the latter or Romany's title track. I love the atmospheric feel of both those songs.
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Post by baz on Apr 20, 2020 12:59:15 GMT
I plump for "If It Wasn't For The Reason That I Love You" - a highlight of the "Rarities" album, stupidly left in the can at the time. Good song, solid performance - great guitar work from Tony and Mikael sings it well.
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Post by cameron on Apr 20, 2020 15:02:37 GMT
What would your one stand out song be from the Rickfors era, mine happens to be Won’t you feel good that morning. for me I find it hard to think of a better opening song to any Hollies album., I completely agree, I think it was probably their best album opener, though 'Then The Heartaches Begin', 'Survival of the Fittest' and 'Dear Eloise' are somewhere up there as well. For me, the best Rickfors-era song is 'The Last Wind'. It just completely blew me away (pun intended) when I first heard it. It was just like CSNY but sweeter and tighter. The arrangement is gorgeous and the subtle guitar solo is superb. I'm also drawn to 'I Had A Dream' for the same reason, and the subtle key change in the chorus sends chills down my spine every time I hear it. I also really like 'Don't Leave The Child Alone', it's a bit of a departure from the norm with it's various contrasting sections and changes in rhythm throughout. I think 'The Baby' was a terrible choice for a single. The music side of it is great, but the lyrics make no sense to me whatsoever, and the title put me off it for a while when I was first discovering the Hollies. I'm not sure what a better first Rickfors era single would have been though, maybe 'Slow Down' or 'Magic Woman Touch'. In terms of the worst, I don't think there are any bad Rickfors era songs, other than maybe 'Slow Down, Go Down' for the obvious reason of *those* lyrics, but the song itself is pretty catchy. I've always maintained that the Rickfors versions of 'Out On The Road' and 'Transatlantic Westbound Jet' are better than the re-cuts with Allan Clarke.
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Post by endric on Apr 20, 2020 18:47:56 GMT
I agree that 'Won't you Feel...' was indeed a great rockin'opener that completely surprised me at the time. I could finally face my Led Zep and Purple friends with this song to no avail. However, 'Touch' remains my absolute favourite; great ballad, great voice and beautifully played and produced. Other songs I like a lot are "Magic Woman Touch' and 'Jesus was a Crossmaker'. 'Romany' and 'Words Don't Come Easy' could have been great songs but were, in my opinion, badly produced: the background singing not fitting in in 'Words...'. The last two songs on Romany couldn't excite me, as with The album 'Out on the Road' (I had to wait thirty years before I finally heard it, not knowing it was only released in Germany). But all in all a refreshing change with Rickfors at the helm.
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Post by dirtyfaz on Apr 20, 2020 22:50:45 GMT
I go with Touch and The Last Wind but both the LPs and the bonus tracks are pretty good. Only a couple of so so songs over that group of tracks.
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Post by eric on Apr 22, 2020 5:19:16 GMT
What would your one stand out song be from the Rickfors era, mine happens to be Won’t you feel good that morning. for me I find it hard to think of a better opening song to any Hollies album. The Hollies always had great album openers, particularly in the Sixties. To me, “Very Last Day”, “What’s Wrong With The Way I Live”, “Then The Heartaches Begin” and “Dear Eloise” are the best of a strong field. Three of these four songs were deemed to be appealing enough to justify their release as single A sides in countries other than the UK. “Very Last Day” and “What Wrong With The Way I Live” reached numbers 3 and 14 respectively on Sweden’s charts and a cover of the latter song by Australian band The Twilights was a top 10 hit in Australia. “Dear Eloise” was a top 10 hit in 5 countries and in my hometown it made it to no. 6 and stayed on the charts for 13 weeks. After the band’s disappointment with the chart placings of “King Midas In Reverse” (but not on my local chart where it reached no. 3) and the subsequent international success of “Dear Eloise”, then surely “Dear Eloise” warranted release as a single in the UK in late 1967? It was the perfect single to bridge the gap between “Midas” and “Jennifer Eccles”. For us Aussies, early 1967 to early 1968 was a glorious Hollies period with “On A Carousel”, “Carrie Anne”, “King Midas In Reverse” and “Dear Eloise” hitting the airwaves in a big way. The Twilight’s hit was an added bonus. Five fantastic Clarke-Hicks-Nash songs at the top of our charts in a 12 month period!
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Post by thejanitor on Apr 22, 2020 12:37:04 GMT
After the band’s disappointment with the chart placings of “King Midas In Reverse” (but not on my local chart where it reached no. 3) and the subsequent international success of “Dear Eloise”, then surely “Dear Eloise” warranted release as a single in the UK in late 1967? It was the perfect single to bridge the gap between “Midas” and “Jennifer Eccles”. I'd honestly never thought of that, but now you mention it, yes, "Dear Eloise" would've made the perfect middle ground between those two singles - an excellent smooth transition back to pop from intricate psychedelia. 😊
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Post by baz on Apr 22, 2020 13:31:53 GMT
After the band’s disappointment with the chart placings of “King Midas In Reverse” (but not on my local chart where it reached no. 3) and the subsequent international success of “Dear Eloise”, then surely “Dear Eloise” warranted release as a single in the UK in late 1967? It was the perfect single to bridge the gap between “Midas” and “Jennifer Eccles”. I'd honestly never thought of that, but now you mention it, yes, "Dear Eloise" would've made the perfect middle ground between those two singles - an excellent smooth transition back to pop from intricate psychedelia. 😊 Or if we go deeper into an alternative universe, "Dear Eloise" released first then followed by "King Midas In Reverse"... that might had primed people better for "Midas" and 1968 would have been rather different.
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Post by Mevrouw Bee on Apr 22, 2020 14:43:47 GMT
I plump for "If It Wasn't For The Reason That I Love You" - a highlight of the "Rarities" album, stupidly left in the can at the time. Good song, solid performance - great guitar work from Tony and Mikael sings it well. That's a thumb's up from me as well!
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Post by eric on Apr 25, 2020 12:42:22 GMT
I'd honestly never thought of that, but now you mention it, yes, "Dear Eloise" would've made the perfect middle ground between those two singles - an excellent smooth transition back to pop from intricate psychedelia. 😊 Or if we go deeper into an alternative universe, "Dear Eloise" released first then followed by "King Midas In Reverse"... that might had primed people better for "Midas" and 1968 would have been rather different. I just remembered that our German friends were onto this matter years ago. The excellent Hansa LP "Hollies' Greatest Hits" from 1968 has a brilliant side 1 running order of "Carrie Anne" - "On A Carousel" - "Everything Is Sunshine" - "Dear Eloise" - "King Midas In Reverse" - "Do The Best You Can". It provides a great listening experience which gives weight to the proposition that in a perfect world "Midas" would have followed "Dear Eloise".
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albatros
Full Member
albatros
Posts: 108
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Post by albatros on May 1, 2020 11:33:49 GMT
The Hollies with Rickfors: I loved the LP "OUT ON THE ROAD" and played it so often. She is one of my 4 Hollies favorites. Won`t You Feel Good - the song is fantastic and can be used as an opener for every LP. However, my Rckfors favorite is "If It Wasn't For The Reason" A fantastic song that the Hollies unfortunately didn't release as 7 "- a mistake like so often with the Hollies. A certain Mark Anthony had with his nondescript version a top 50 hit ?? The song was by Cook Greenaway, that was the absolute hit writer back then. But as previously written the Hollies often had an unfortunate hand with the release of 7 ". Some examples: Son OF A ROTTON GAMBLER, I GOT WHAT I WANT, WRITING ON THE WALL, AMNESTY (1978 a good one, but not good enough for this time
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