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Post by cameron on Oct 3, 2022 21:28:30 GMT
Prompted by a discussion on another thread about 'King Midas', where Knut mused that 'Write On' was arguably the end of the "trilogy" of great albums that the Hollies seemed to move in, and I thought it deserved it's own thread because it's not an album that gets talked about much.
For me, 'Write On', though not a bad album overall, it's the first Hollies album that I don't feel betters the one prior to it. It seems like a bit of a slump after the absolutely flawless 'Another Night'. I feel that this is really the start of the group not really caring about their direction any more, with weaker material than ever before, even if only one of the tracks wasn't penned from within the group. Once again, Ron Richards was absent from producing the album, so it fell to engineer Peter Bown to produce it in his absence. There's some great moments, I particularly love 'Love Is The Thing' and 'Star', but it's not an album that I play often.
Bobby said that the whole album was recorded in minimal takes with the whole band playing together and Allan Clarke gave a live guide vocal, then the only overdubs were the vocals (again, done together with Allan's new lead vocal) and instrumental solos. It's notable for musical contributions from Rod Argent (credited with keyboards on 'Star'), Hans-Peter Arnesen (credited with the flute on 'Star') and Pete Wingfield (actually credited with the piano on 'Boulder To Birmingham', not any of the album tracks), who would go on tour with the Hollies in the same year. The only outtakes from the sessions were 'Samuel' recorded in the middle of the sessions, the abandoned version of 'Born To Run', which was recorded nearly four months before the main sessions for the album started, and 'Boulder To Birmingham', which was recorded another four months after the album was finished. It would be their last album recorded at Abbey Road until the sessions for '5317704' some three years later!
I think with the relative failure of 'Another Night', which the group tried really hard to re-capture the success of 'Hollies (1974)' and perhaps tailor their sound to an emerging American audience, they perhaps understandably fell a bit flat with 'Write On'. 'Another Night' truly deserved to do better, and I think it signalled the start of the slow transition from a current albums band to taking on a role more suited to the "oldies" circuit, which was certainly the case by the end of the decade. It was around the time of 'Write On' that the six month cycle of the band appears; working and touring for six months and then having the rest of the year off to pursue other things. It all says to me that their hearts probably weren't in it any more sadly.
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Post by anthony on Oct 3, 2022 23:10:52 GMT
Funny I thought Write On was a great Album, it had a bit of everything country. rock and the Hollies famous ballads. In all honesty not up with how well all the albums sold, a real pity as the Hollies had some great albums in the first half of the 70's. Not sure why the albums didn't sell better. I have a new car and have the 70's albums on a memory stick to play, even I'm surprised by how great most of the songs are.
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Post by becca67 on Oct 4, 2022 0:04:03 GMT
Probably not the best place to admit this but... my Epic vinyl collection run stops with the 1974 self-titled album followed only by 5317704. Write On was not released over here. Although I have a CD edition of Another Night now, I don't own those 1976-1978 albums in any format. I really ought to give them a new chance, or at least the American 'Clarke, Hicks, Sylvester, Calvert, Elliott' album!
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Post by cameron on Oct 4, 2022 20:45:30 GMT
Probably not the best place to admit this but... my Epic vinyl collection run stops with the 1974 self-titled album followed only by 5317704. Write On was not released over here. Although I have a CD edition of Another Night now, I don't own those 1976-1978 albums in any format. I really ought to give them a new chance, or at least the American 'Clarke, Hicks, Sylvester, Calvert, Elliott' album! I recommend getting the British/European versions of 'Another Night', 'Write On' and 'Russian Roulette' at least. 'A Crazy Steal' is pretty forgettable though. I feel like 'Another Night' was issued in the US? I could be wrong. Seems crazy to not issue it there, when the previous album comparatively sold well. For all my ramblings above, 'Write On' is an okay album and worthy of having. When I first got into the Hollies, I really liked it. But 'Russian Roulette' is probably a better return to form. Slightly stronger material overall and a little bit more exciting sounding, even if the album artwork is appalling! I'm also one of the folks that actually quite likes the first track 'Wiggle That Wotsit'! It may be cheesy, but it's at least quite catchy and upbeat. |
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Post by anthony on Oct 4, 2022 22:38:51 GMT
Probably not the best place to admit this but... my Epic vinyl collection run stops with the 1974 self-titled album followed only by 5317704. Write On was not released over here. Although I have a CD edition of Another Night now, I don't own those 1976-1978 albums in any format. I really ought to give them a new chance, or at least the American 'Clarke, Hicks, Sylvester, Calvert, Elliott' album! I recommend getting the British/European versions of 'Another Night', 'Write On' and 'Russian Roulette' at least. 'A Crazy Steal' is pretty forgettable though. I feel like 'Another Night' was issued in the US? I could be wrong. Seems crazy to not issue it there, when the previous album comparatively sold well. For all my ramblings above, 'Write On' is an okay album and worthy of having. When I first got into the Hollies, I really liked it. But 'Russian Roulette' is probably a better return to form. Slightly stronger material overall and a little bit more exciting sounding, even if the album artwork is appalling! I'm also one of the folks that actually quite likes the first track 'Wiggle That Wotsit'! It may be cheesy, but it's at least quite catchy and upbeat. I love Russian Roulette so you are the other Hollies fan that likes Wiggle that Wotsit, hey it's a bit of fun, maybe a try into disco. I thought it was the last good album of the 70's wasn't impressed with the other offerings, way to many very slow ballads. |
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Post by Mevrouw Bee on Oct 5, 2022 12:51:09 GMT
Probably not the best place to admit this but... my Epic vinyl collection run stops with the 1974 self-titled album followed only by 5317704. Write On was not released over here. Although I have a CD edition of Another Night now, I don't own those 1976-1978 albums in any format. I really ought to give them a new chance, or at least the American 'Clarke, Hicks, Sylvester, Calvert, Elliott' album! I recommend getting the British/European versions of 'Another Night', 'Write On' and 'Russian Roulette' at least. 'A Crazy Steal' is pretty forgettable though. I feel like 'Another Night' was issued in the US? I could be wrong. Seems crazy to not issue it there, when the previous album comparatively sold well. For all my ramblings above, 'Write On' is an okay album and worthy of having. When I first got into the Hollies, I really liked it. But 'Russian Roulette' is probably a better return to form. Slightly stronger material overall and a little bit more exciting sounding, even if the album artwork is appalling! I'm also one of the folks that actually quite likes the first track 'Wiggle That Wotsit'! It may be cheesy, but it's at least quite catchy and upbeat. Yeah, Another Night was released over here. Write On and Russian Roulette, nope. Clarke, Hicks, Sylvester, Calvert and Elliott was mish-mosh of some of both and Another Night, weirdly.   |
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Post by Stranger on Oct 5, 2022 15:21:08 GMT
Prompted by a discussion on another thread about 'King Midas', where Knut mused that 'Write On' was arguably the end of the "trilogy" of great albums that the Hollies seemed to move in, and I thought it deserved it's own thread because it's not an album that gets talked about much. For me, 'Write On', though not a bad album overall, it's the first Hollies album that I don't feel betters the one prior to it. It seems like a bit of a slump after the absolutely flawless 'Another Night'. I re-listened to this album for the from start to finish for the first time in years thanks to this thread*. To me, this is a perfectly logical follow-up to Another Night. If you take Hollies (1974), Another Night and Write On as a trilogy I think 1974 is the much more distinct one. 1974 is the last "old Hollies" record to me, it's fun, colourful, diverse and still feels acoustic, it belongs to the era where synths don't seem to have taken over yet! The whole spirit of the album is still On A Carousel/Butterfly etc. Then Another Night comes and it is somehow worthy but dull, a lot of effort has gone into it but to me it feels a lot more dry and processed and really leans into the ballads. For a Hollies record, it is unusually coherently produced. Write On is maybe a slightly lesser follow-up, it is in the same vein. Personally I prefer it slightly. It is a little more diverse. Overall, Write On is a perfectly acceptable collection of Hollies songs, well played and well produced. Probably their last "good" record. But who was looking for this in 1976? I don't think the general pubic was, and I don't think the Hollies had cultivated their UK fans in a way that ensured there was always a decent core group to buy such a record. Afterall, their first UK tour with Terry was 5 years after he joined. I recently listened to the Searchers well liked comeback album from 1979 and thought "why couldn't the Hollies do something like this, update but stay true to their old sound?". Now listening to Write On, I think at least in 1976 they were doing a decent job of updating their sound but staying more or less true to themselves. Good songs, good performances, good production. But at the same time, it's only good! *My main take aways on the record were: Tony's playing is great on the songs Write On and Sweet County Calling, they should have used him more! Narida or I Won't Move Over might better have given way to Samuel. Why bother recording There's Always Goodbye! It's a long long way from He Ain't Heavy or Air. |
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Post by knut on Oct 5, 2022 16:06:21 GMT
I must admit I may have done a little shortcut when I wrote off Write On. This was, by the way, the first Hollies album that I did not buy when it was released. In fact I bought it used later. It came out in January 1976, when I was at the end of my medical studies and I had met my wife on Midsommer's Eve 1975. Too many things were happening. I might even have lost some of my interest in The Hollies. Please forgive me. I believe I have made up for it later. Frankly, the song Write On is in fact maybe my favourite song. I just love that rocking sound! I have suggested to Tony, when he asked me what songs they should add to their set list, that Write On was a hit in Germany, and would go down well. I am also a big fan of Rod Argent, and I really like Star! Maybe Hollies (eyes) - Another Night - Write On is the 3rd Hollies Trilogy after all?
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Post by baz on Oct 5, 2022 17:02:06 GMT
1974 is the last "old Hollies" record to me, it's fun, colourful, diverse and still feels acoustic, it belongs to the era where synths don't seem to have taken over yet! The whole spirit of the album is still On A Carousel/Butterfly etc. Then Another Night comes and it is somehow worthy but dull, a lot of effort has gone into it but to me it feels a lot more dry and processed and really leans into the ballads. For a Hollies record, it is unusually coherently produced. Write On is maybe a slightly lesser follow-up, it is in the same vein. Hollies 74 is my cut off point and you describe the reasons why better than I could, a great solid album that could possibly be The Hollies' finest - they sounded fresh and reinvigorated with real purpose. After that... there's some fine material and always professionally played and produced but I think a sense of coasting came in as they'd triumphed with Hollies 74, Allan was back so not as much drive or focus to pull off anything as special. I can agree with "Write On" being the conclusion of a third trilogy of albums but I also view it as the bridge to what would come after during the late 70's as The Hollies sounded like they had all the life and energy sucked out of them. The cover didn't help either being bland and unimaginative and one suspects maybe they thought likewise but when they did get "creative" for the "A Crazy Steal" cover, the result was a bit embarrassing! Interesting The Searchers' 1979 album being mentioned here as that was an astonishing comeback which sounded natural for them and it's a shame The Hollies didn't go in a similar direction to them, pump some life back into their music instead of churning out the maudlin calculator album then "Buddy Holly" which was out of step for 1980. The Hollies would have benefitted from stripping down to basics, injecting some rock and energy instead of sounding like a band where the Duracell batteries began running out but, as we know with Allan quitting then rejoining for the second time, and Terry growing unhappy... it wasn't a happy period for the band. The sense of unity they regained in late 1973 was clearly gone. |
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Post by moorlock2003 on Oct 5, 2022 19:12:33 GMT
In 4 words: lack of a producer. “Star” was a radio-friendly US hit-that-should-have-been but it needed a more polished production. Ditto “There’s Always goodbye”. US Epic put out the title track on a single and it was ignored. The band I think was just too cheap to hire a producer after Ron Richards bailed. “Hollies (74)” was unfortunately their last first-rate album and arguably the band’s best LP ever. “Another Night” had great production but had too many blah songs and the mood was too somber following the often humorous and lighthearted previous LP. It’s no wonder that they had trouble amassing a loyal audience. Nobody knew what to expect on their albums.
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Post by Stranger on Oct 7, 2022 17:50:13 GMT
In 4 words: lack of a producer. “Star” was a radio-friendly US hit-that-should-have-been but it needed a more polished production. Ditto “There’s Always goodbye”. US Epic put out the title track on a single and it was ignored. The band I think was just too cheap to hire a producer after Ron Richards bailed. “Hollies (74)” was unfortunately their last first-rate album and arguably the band’s best LP ever. “Another Night” had great production but had too many blah songs and the mood was too somber following the often humorous and lighthearted previous LP. It’s no wonder that they had trouble amassing a loyal audience. Nobody knew what to expect on their albums. I agree with you on Hollies (74) but do you really think a good producer would have elevated Write On all that much? Was the material there, or would it just have been a slightly better album? What might a better producer have done with it? |
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Post by moorlock2003 on Oct 7, 2022 18:02:58 GMT
In 4 words: lack of a producer. “Star” was a radio-friendly US hit-that-should-have-been but it needed a more polished production. Ditto “There’s Always goodbye”. US Epic put out the title track on a single and it was ignored. The band I think was just too cheap to hire a producer after Ron Richards bailed. “Hollies (74)” was unfortunately their last first-rate album and arguably the band’s best LP ever. “Another Night” had great production but had too many blah songs and the mood was too somber following the often humorous and lighthearted previous LP. It’s no wonder that they had trouble amassing a loyal audience. Nobody knew what to expect on their albums. I agree with you on Hollies (74) but do you really think a good producer would have elevated Write On all that much? Was the material there, or would it just have been a slightly better album? What might a better producer have done with it? Write On was done basicallly live in the studio says Elliott. This may have been an easy way for them to record an album but a producer oversees things and helps to get a commercial sound. All successful bands owe a great deal of their fame to a producer guiding the proceedings, through production, song selection, or both. If The Hollies had gotten a good producer they could have had as much presence on the radio as Fleetwood Mac did in the 70s. They certainly had the talent. Unfortunately too often the band took the easy or lazy way out. This cost them their career as a hit band. |
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Post by cameron on Oct 7, 2022 20:28:27 GMT
I think the fact that the 'Write On' sessions basically have only one outtake (that we know of - I'm learning that the official Hollies sessionography isn't completely accurate), shows that the Hollies didn't have too much material to choose from. They basically wrote an album's worth of material and declared that enough. Whereas every album prior to that had almost a handful of outtakes at least that were rejected by the band and/or Ron Richards for not being good enough. Whether they were right or wrong doesn't matter, the point is that they were proactive in having more than enough material to choose from. It seems that 'Write On', and the next few albums especially, were the end of them trying hard. There's virtually nothing left unissued in the vaults from the mid-1970s onwards, yet Ron Furmanek was hinting that there's an album's worth of Nash era stuff from the vaults at least!
The Hollies I felt didn't have the strongest producer in Ron Richards. The fact that he could pick PJ Proby as the highlight of his production career says a lot. I think he nurtured this attitude of "that's enough" and get 'round to the pub before last orders, whereas someone like George Martin would push until he'd got the most he could out of a song, nurturing every track as if it was going to be a hit. It's as if Ron Richards just viewed it as a day job, whereas others let it take over their lives.
There were other producers in Britain such as Shel Talmy, who loved to nurture raw talent and just shape them up as much as he could in the studio to give them the best commercial sound possible, even if it wasn't technically perfect. He famously tidied up the raw talent of the Who and the Kinks in their early days. Even in the later 1960s, there was a host of younger producers like Tony Visconti, Eddie Kramer and Glyn Johns who took so much care to get the best sound that they could onto tape and had an ear for picking exciting performances and knowing where there were gaps to fill in a track and worked with the artists intimately to try and get the most out of their performances. The Hollies have always said that Ron just pretty much let them get on with it, and famously lost interest in several of their albums in the 1970s. I think his approach was very much to let the band present their material to him and he'd just pick what he perceived to be the best of it, rather than getting stuck in to help improve the material on offer. Later on, when the Hollies got more experimental, he'd be the key figure to facilitate their more lavish productions. I think his best production credit is 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'. To put the full orchestra and the choir on to bring that track to life was a stroke of genius, especially when the Hollies weren't really known for that at that point, and the full orchestra on 'King Midas' contributed to its comparative lack of success.
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Post by baz on Oct 7, 2022 21:43:38 GMT
I don't think Ron Richards moved at all well with the times and ended up stuck in a rut, preferring to get the job done as quickly and swiftly as possible. Even in the 60's one can see that they were racing through sessions whereas The Beatles, Pink Floyd and others would spend several sessions working on a track. I guess they felt a sense of loyalty to him hence why they stuck with him for so long. It could have been worse - imagine had The Hollies been saddled with Wally J Ridley who would try and get entire albums made in one or two three hour sessions. He wasn't very good at finding songs for pop groups as The Swinging Blue Jeans discovered much to their chagrin. They knew they had a hit in "Don't Make Me Over" but Ridley could't hear it, eventually added on an orchestra 4 or 5 months later and by the time the song was released, about 6 months had passed and didn't chart as highly as it should have done partly thanks to the delay. Ridley was also against "Hippy Hippy Shake" and apparently apologised to the band when it became a big hit.
Besides the issue of Ron, I think the mid 70's issues are two-fold - the main reason why there's virtually no unissued material left is because the band would have been paying the recording costs and trying to keep them down as much as possible and secondly, as mentioned in my post above, I think they simply grew complacent, maybe even bored once Allan was firmly back in the band. They didn't seem that interested in what they were doing in the studio and it shows in a lot of the music. There was nobody there to challenge or provoke them as they were playing it safe and very much by numbers. Any sane producer working on the calculator album project would have been ripping into the band to come up with some uptempo tracks to balance out the balladic sludge but being Ron's last project, he clearly wasn't bothered or interested anymore.
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Post by dirtyfaz on Oct 8, 2022 0:53:01 GMT
For me Another Night was the last really listenable album. From there it was downhill but on all the following albums there was an occasional goodie. Star being a standout. Around the release of Laughter Turns To Tears that I really liked I felt maybe that was a good direction for them to go.
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Post by JamesT on Oct 8, 2022 6:39:05 GMT
Overall, I really like Write On, and thanks to this discussion, listened to it again for the first time in a year or two this week. Some lovely performances, however Crocodile Woman is clearly an attempt to capture the essence of Tiger Feet (yuck) and Love Is The Thing is clearly an attempt to aim for what 10cc did with I'm Not In Love and is a lovely track.
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Post by gee on Oct 8, 2022 23:19:06 GMT
Bobby Elliott told both me and 'Carousel' colleague Tony Marsden that Ron Richards DID produce 'Write On' but Polydor 'forgot' to credit him - like how 'Confessions of The Mind' had no producer credit back in 1970 from EMI...!
I really do like the album and it has some great tracks with excellent harmonies, and sees Clarke-Hicks-Sylvester in full flow as a songwriting team (several 'Another Night' songs were only 'Clarke-Sylvester' and Hicks even said he disliked 'I'm Down' !)
I think a big UK problem was that while a fine album opener and successful overseas - reaching no.7 in New Zealand and charting in Australia - 'Star' with it's reggae style just wasn't going to work in the UK being a rather 'chugging' along type of number and although it picked up some UK radio airplay it clearly wasn't to UK single buyers taste and like the following album opener - the dreaded 'Wiggle That Wotsit' (which also charted overseas) being 'slow paced disco' ! - it probably looked to the wider public as if the group were just blatantly jumping on current styles...when as Terry has said they were doing some 'tailoring' of songs in specific styles, so how you choose to view it is arguable - but it's only some tracks
'Write On' is quite an adventurous song with twists and turns - charting in Germany at no.31 and South Africa at no.20 as a single - but never released here
'Love is The Thing' was probably inspired by 10cc's 'I'm Not in Love' re the layered harmonies was notable for that
'I Won't Move Over' is a romantic item with again good harmonies
'Narida' is a strong number with brisk beat, fine vocals from Allan, tight harmonies and a cool Hicks guitar, while 'Stranger' is an atmospheric piece
some don't like 'Crocodile Woman (She Bites)'but it's a punchier track with Hicks guitar and Elliott's drumming well to the fore plus rockin' piano - so for those fed up with slow serious ballads at least it has a bit more energy to it and again typically tight harmonies
'My Island' is a lovely track in my opinion, the 'sailing sea' thing always seemed to bring out the carefree Hollies sound, and like 'Come Down To The Shore', 'Corrine' etc this tracks flows delightfully with strong harmonies and another cool Hicks guitar
The two songs I felt had the best chance as potential UK chart singles were the more 'typical' carefree Hollies style singalong of 'Sweet Country Calling', a brisk flowing number with cool Clarke vocal, decent harmonies, a Hicks guitar solo brief but fine and a rather more accessable storyline in the lyrics than all dramatic like ;
'someone went through pain to have me, someone I should know...'
which, regardless of the song and group performance quality UK singles buyers clearly DIDN'T want to know and flopped accordingly...!
and herein was The Hollies repeated problem - in many cases it's best to keep a direct style on most singles not being too serious or too preachy or too 'involved' in a song structure for a single to register with the masses (remember 'King Midas' apparently being 'too complex' to work ?)- now whilst we know of some classic exceptions and Hollies case it was 'He Ain't Heavy' and 'Air That I Breathe' but they were very exceptionally powerful songs - the more normal type of single mostly needs to be more direct to register with many record buyers beyond a fanbase,
in the seventies The Hollies on their Polydor singles after 'Air That I Breathe' too often seemed to try to be 'too serious', 'too profound' on stand alone slower songs that just were not that memorable overall....you might get to like them and appreciate the craftwork in them over time but as 'one off' listens they simply would not have registered as being memorable enough to go and buy for many people then
Randy Richards' romantic 'There's Always Goodbye' (also covered by Frankie Valli tho' not as a single) just might have worked as a single - probably best had it followed a few more uptempo positive sounding singles as say; 'Time Machine Jive' (a slightly pacier single mix version) and 'Sweet Country Calling'
'There's Always Goodbye' has a nice 'layered' Hicks guitar intro - that could have been mixed louder and more to the fore on any single mix version - plus great Clarke vocals and terrific harmonies - it was the lone cover like 'Sandy' and again brought out The Hollies oldest skill of making a song their own very well making a strong closing track on the 'Write On' album which again hints it might have been a better choice as a single for larger public taste being a romantic quite accessable song and strong group performance
Noted UK BBC Radio Disc Jockey Noel Edmonds made 'Write On' his 'Album of The Week' on his Sunday Radio One show in 1976 playing most tracks and saying;
'this new Hollies album is very good indeed, as you would expect from The Hollies...'
He particularly liked and on BBC Radio played 'Narida' - which was of course about a 'queen of the avenue girls' (!)
'Write On' album reached no.7 in the New Zealand album chart - hence Allan's remark to the Christchurch audience on 'Hollies Live Hits' album of:
'it was quite a big success...and we wrote it..!'
The album also made no.40 in Holland and no.63 in Australia
so overall both the album and it's two singles charted overseas if not in the UK where Polydor's promotion wasn't exactly in overdrive...
after a few 'flop' singles had seen their comeback stall at home their past was rapidly overtaking them re UK radio airplay and they didn't really seem to be that bothered about it either (possibly Terry Sylvester aside)
of course both 'Write On' and 'Russian Roulette' missed out on any USA release...so have never registered as albums on many USA fans radar at all, with a rather lame 'put together' effort limping out instead
- even a proper CD release outside a couple of box CD album sets was denied when the EMI series of the Polydor re-issue series sadly stalled before it reached them, tho' pairings up of re-releases of both earlier and later seventies Polydor albums were managed before the series stalled either side of the 1976 pair of albums due to the EMI take over, so again those two original Clarke-Hicks-Sylvester sets missed out...
One notable problem I felt - and it began with 'Another Night' in 1975 - was that these seventies albums are only 'group orientated' efforts - no room for either Allan Clarke or Terry Sylvester solo songs or solo lead vocals, which was in my view not a clever move as each became increasingly frustrated over the course of the seventies despite each making solo albums
for me the bubble burst a bit with 'A Crazy Steal' - and even then each song has it's merits, notably the vocal work, but all together they form a slow, ponderous 'heavy going' album - 'of tired songs' Bobby later said - well I felt had the then unreleased 'Tip of The Iceberg' been added to side one as track three...plus 'Crossfire' then opened side two, with 'Amnesty' being moved up to track three and the two years old single 'Boulder' dropped...that at least would have given the 1978 album some FOUR pacier songs featuring guitar...and with a better cover photo (!) and possibly renamed: 'Amnesty' the album would at least have been an all new set to most people regarding the material besides the two recent singles from it and a stronger, more balanced set in my view
So I do think the two 1976 albums have been too hastily dismissed, and a decent remastered CD maybe even vinyl too re-issue hopefully with some 'bonus' tracks from that period would make a worthwhile Hollies purchase
Clearly the direction they should have gone in alot more was the guitar led sound of numbers such as; '48 Hour Parole', 'If The Lights Go Out' and 'Laughter Turns To Tears'.....rather than 'Wiggle', 'Heartbeat', and 'Too Many Hearts Get Broken'
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Post by moorlock2003 on Oct 9, 2022 14:49:29 GMT
The band needed a younger, more hip producer to keep up with the times. With all the glam bands and upbeat songs hitting the charts The Hollies had to contend with, they needed a new, objective producer to step in. The modest success they had with Write On in a few territories wasn’t enough to stop the downward slide. The fact that the album didn’t get released in the US was a bad omen. Crazy Steal was the only album of the next 5 that got released here in its entirety.
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Post by gee on Oct 9, 2022 22:53:15 GMT
They had Alan Parsons produce 'Boulder To Birmingham' early in 1976 - he said later he never got paid !
Later on Mike Batt worked with them on his three songs - 'Soldier's Song' scraped into the UK top fifty (!) but incredibly 'If The Lights Go Out' was left unissued - Batt advised them to part with longtime manager Robin Britten
Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch was working with them - and I suspect possibly he was getting them to record a song he had some interest in - which Terry loathed and this of course led to two longtime band members quitting the group
as for more contemporary younger producers...
I wonder had a figure like maybe Gus Dudgeon (Elton John's producer)- who helped put Lindisfarne back into the UK top five in the mid seventies with 'Run For Home' and their last successful main label album 'Back And Forth'
or Roy Thomas Baker - Queen's producer - Bobby spoke of members of Queen watching The Hollies at work recording at Basing Street Studios
Graham Gouldman then of 10cc produced an album for Gilbert O'Sullivan and might have worked with them knowing the band of old
apparently they approached Paul McCartney who was too busy before liasing with Bruce Welch
Welch did candidly advise them to; 'ditch your bass player !'
whatever or whoever clearly producing themselves in the later seventies saw them 'play the slow ballad card' repeatedly , significantly never go near any Allan Clarke rockin' material penned with Gary Benson besides 'Satellite Three' (one of the best and the only original track on '5317704' album)and pretty much stick to a formula on singles - probably 'A Crazy Steal' largely consisted of slower melodramatic songs penned with a view to the next single....
I suspect something of a rift quietly existed between Allan and Tony/Bobby over musical direction, with compromises made on both sides but never all pulling in the same direction - hence the solo Clarke albums were pretty much a 'no go' area for The Hollies
just compare 'A Crazy Steal' and 'I Wasn't Born Yesterday' both from 1978 - they are miles apart direction wise !
so minus any younger more 'finger on the pulse' outside producer, and with a creative 'distance' existing within the senior Hollie members - plus I still suspect the ideas of Terry Sylvester just not taken seriously enough by the main three it is pretty clear why they lost direction over the last few years of the seventies
Allan's idea re doing 'Buddy Holly' was duly swamped with the keyboard / string machine slow ballad, synth' and reggae style seemingly over dominated by Pete Wingfield's ideas far more than any of the group - with only a few tracks actually highlighting Hicks guitar which despite some imaginative and unusual arrangements neither appealed to many Hollies fans, Buddy Holly fans, Rock & Roll fans, or the general public at the time...hence off to the deletion bargain bins selling for a mere 50 UK pence...!
and Allan claimed to have NO idea why it didn't sell....
in retrospect their trying to be self sufficient, possibly to save money, was their undoing...
Later in the 80's 'post Sylvester' they would do sporadic singles for EMI with a few producers like Mawdryn Pope and Graham Sacher, but it was always trying to sound 'keyboardy' and contemporary it seemed, never playing fully to their core strengths musically of Hicks guitar and Elliott's drumming while again slow ballads mostly came first...
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Post by Stranger on Oct 10, 2022 10:59:06 GMT
I took a very nerdy look at the dates in the Hollies sessionography and according to that, the band spent 16 days recording Another Night and 23 + 1 orchestra day recording Write On.
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Post by Mevrouw Bee on Oct 10, 2022 12:32:53 GMT
The band needed a younger, more hip producer to keep up with the times. With all the glam bands and upbeat songs hitting the charts The Hollies had to contend with, they needed a new, objective producer to step in. The modest success they had with Write On in a few territories wasn’t enough to stop the downward slide. The fact that the album didn’t get released in the US was a bad omen. Crazy Steal was the only album of the next 5 that got released here in its entirety. By the time of Write On, Glam rock was over. It was the dawn of the disco age. Those bands that didn't morph into hard rock like the Stones or the Who or the Kinks or disco like the Bee Gees pretty much disappeared until the 80s when 60s nostalgia became a thing. I don't know whether the Hollies could have done anything differently. |
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Post by gee on Oct 10, 2022 22:01:45 GMT
Don't forget The Rolling Stones also put a foot in the disco scene with 'Miss You' and 'Emotional Rescue' with falsetto vocals
- which horrified a few Stones fans I knew...!
The Kinks emerged as a live band in the USA but their profile in the UK slipped again somewhat despite some great singles...until 'Come Dancing' (not a hit at first until a DJ began playing it on UK radio) put them back in the UK public eye
The Who began slipping in the critics eyes too...and 'You Better You Bet' was their final UK hit single, the 'It's Hard' album produced no hit at all
Stones, Kinks, and Who had all struggled for UK hits at various times over the late sixties / early seventies too...
My guess is The Hollies might have been wiser to retain more of the guitar led style they featured on 'Hollies' (1974) - with a few more tracks like 'Down On The Run', 'Rubber Lucy', plus the two re-cuts of those Rickfors era tracks etc....and while there would always be room for say two ballads per album like 'Don't Let Me Down' and 'Air That I Breathe' they perhaps would have been better to have generally kept a more uptempo guitar led powering style with say just two slower ballads per album rather than more and more as time went on the other way around, as well as jumping on reggae and disco style
Increasingly they were forever featuring keyboards which might have been a sign of those times, but it really didn't suit their best group strengths
Clarke's voice, the three way harmonies, Hicks guitar and Elliott's drumming were the four key aspects that made them stand out...yet keyboards, synth' strings, and a softer sound were by far the most dominant features then - and I can't help but think group supremo Tony Hicks dogmatic persistence in looking for another big slow melodramatic ballad hit came to over dominate their approach, often simply not playing to their core group strengths
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Post by moorlock2003 on Oct 11, 2022 1:56:09 GMT
“Time Machine Jive”, from the previous LP, had the line “You’re gonna reach out and try to grab my glitter suit”, a reference to Glam Rock, so it wasn’t over yet. Musical matters aside, Allan’s frizzy perm made him look old and unhip, especially compared to the youthful looking Hicks and Sylvester. Kids buying records pay attention to such things and that could have played into the band’s declining popularity. That problem wouldn’t have existed had Rickfors still been in the band, who was younger than all of them.
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Post by anthony on Oct 11, 2022 8:13:39 GMT
To be honest I think the public may have thought the Hollies had had there day and we’re not cool anymore. The younger generation was looking for their own artists to follow, happens to all groups. How many 60’s groups were still hitting the charts mid 70’s, not many. I think we can over analysis things really. As I have heard the Hollies albums were never massive sellers anyway. A real shame but that’s how it was.
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Post by Mevrouw Bee on Oct 11, 2022 12:53:40 GMT
Being 16 at the time, with my peers it was all Fleetwood Mac, Steve Miller, Boston, Styx and Canadian bands like April Wine and Trooper. Even BTO and the Guess Who had jumped the shark by then. And, yeah, the Kinks, the Who and the Stones weren't even in our radar (athough I did buy the "Shattered" 45, I confess).
Marc Bolin had died that year and Bowie was wearing a suit so I don't think the Hollies had their finger on the pulse of the teenaged nation with that lyric, moorlock!
And yeah, anthony has a big point--the Hollies were never an albums band, regardless of what was on the album. And the 70s was an albums decade.
Although I bought my first Hollies compilation that year, I was the weird kid who listened to what everyone else did outside the house, and all my 60s music in my bedroom with no one around. Nobody knew about my record collection!
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