Tyrant and monster are too mild for Bud Cowsill. He was utterly satanic. The bit in the documentary where Susan talks about him trying to molest her is blood curdling.
Cool! They’re at 104% today! I’d pledged back in June, and I could not be more excited to hear the new album(s) and get all of the rest of my pledge items when they’re done! To keep the good vibes going for this project, I listened to my 197-song, 10.5-hour long Cowsills playlist to keep me happy and focused while driving overnight from MN to VT last month. This has been a great year for archival releases and new music from established artists that I love.
Today, the Pledge Music page ( The Cowsills: The Cowsills: Brand New Album! ) shows 228 days remaining until release. That makes the release date April 1, 2019. This post is NOT an April Fools joke. The Cowsills are already selling the a cappella CD, "The Dockside Silhouettes", at their concert appearances.
Sounds right. Took about nine months to get the Bananarama stuff. I hope I'm still alive when it arrives.
Just picked up Global because of this thread. I knew very little about this group and had no idea they were kids on Rain and Hair. Global is definitely one of best things I've heard in recent years. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. Fave tracks are Cross That Line and Far Away. Also picked up Susan's Lighthouse. Beautiful vocals. Can't believe I missed these guys all these years.
I will say that in context to the times, I knew families/father's like that..maybe not to the point of molestations, but tyrants nonetheless. Thankfully, not my dad, but neighbors, great-uncles, family acquantences, etc. Doesn't excuse anything, but it was there.. all around. Years before, say, a Dr. Spock or the emergence of "psychological well-being" of children making it into mainstream consciousness. A bud cowsill was not unheard of. A lot of older kids I knew under tyrannical shackles in 1959-1966 were sons of wwII veterans. Those kids we're also some of the first I knew to simultaneously rebel against their dads (and enabling mothers) and to fully engage a personal rebellion against larger issues that appeared. I could always appreciate the massive degree of hypocracy observation and frustration those kids I knew experienced.
A lot of WWII veterans ... and this probably is grist for another thread in a non-music setting ... repressed/internalized stuff because men from that generation were dissuaded from showing their emotions and their feelings. This guy, father of a friend of mine, wasn't anywhere near what you're describing, he was as fine a man as has ever drawn breath on this planet, but he was involved in a significant incident in WWII (Google the Leopoldville Troop Ship disaster) and literally had to do things that are seen in CGI generated action movies to come out of it alive. He never shared a word about it with his family, who never knew about it ... until they were sitting there watching the History Channel one night and a documentary about the event came on, and right there before them he literally had a (thankfully non-fatal) heart attack. He later spoke about it to me for a two-part story (I'm a journalist) and he said letting it out was the best thing he'd ever done and something he should've done years sooner. My point with this is how many of those kids you knew had fathers who never had a chance to "let it out." Not justifying their actions, just trying to isolate a potential reason.
I had 5 great-uncles on my Mom's side of the family and all 5 were in WWII, scattered around. One didn't make it back. All of the 4 seemed quiet, softspoken at regular big family get-togethers around 1959-1960. In my world at that time, I simply considered them old and boring. In actuality, all five had gone through horrendous frontline stuff. I never quite understood how the Sullivan thing didn't factor in to some of them being shipped home. In 1964 or so, two of my late-teen second cousins (each with a diff step-uncle as dad) started talking when at our house with my liberal Vegas ratpack type parents about what was basically their "bud cowsill" type home life. Physical fights, kids thrown out and told to never come back. Emotional abandonment. It was hard to believe, and yet it wasn't once I thought about it. Plus, other family members gradually confirmed it. One of the cousins remained bitter about it all his life. He enlisted for VietNam in 1967 (why, I'll never understand), visited the family in 1968 while on leave, and basically abandoned his family (except for his sister) by later moving out here and staying out of contact with most everyone except my mom and dad. No one can make clearcut connections between how returning wwII guys were going to be and how their kids would turn out. But yeah, the returning veterans I crossed paths with did seem to be locked up emotion-wise in the 50s/60s. I certainly took heat from a lot of those people for looking the way I did and being a musician by the time of the early/mid 60s..... often simply in the vibe I got from the step-uncles/aunts etc. Regardless, there are probably a lot of affected kids of those veterans who have bud cowsill type painful memories/stories hidden inside. Which may be nothing compared to whatever horrors the veterans locked inside before starting their families. No one wins there.
The last lines of "Avenue of the Indians" from Susan's second solo album, Lighthouse: "Mason-Dixon line - anyone? I can hear him coming. Everybody run." After watching the documentary and related clips, the meaning of that is totally demystified. Frightening.
Additionally, Christmastime is a very pretty song. I don't care much for Christmas music outside of the Nat and Bing and the like, but that really is such a pretty song.
I hope the mods will grant us a little leeway on this because of the Cowsill connection ... but in my experience the people who really went through the absolute torments of hell and probably repressed a lot of crap and probably would be right there in the time element you cited are the Korean veterans. I've encountered a lot of WWII and Vietnam veterans who have vented the stuff they held in about those horrific experiences. I've never known a Korean veteran who has talked about the details of what went on there.
I picked up the 20th Century Masters best of earlier today, really only for Love, American Style. Always liked that one. Will give the rest a listen over the weekend.
I've still got my VHS of Bob Cowsill's "Sing Along With The Beatles" with Bob singing and playing Beatle tunes that are set to videos of Max Fleischer cartoons.the songs and Fleischer cartoons actually go together very well, especially the one with dancing robots from "All's Fair at the World's Fair". (1938) Here's a photo off the internet, but the cover of mine is much more colorful.
Just got tickets to see them in Boca Raton next Feb. My 7-year old is thrilled to be going. He can't get enough of them!
The Cowsills sell that acapella CD at their personal appearances for about $20! I think that's what I paid for it in June 0f 2018.
Hey, guys. For anyone who has Susan's Lighthouse CD, can you confirm that it comes with a booklet? I have it CD and just realized that the inside of the cover is made to slip a booklet into it. Thanks.
I understand that Tony Bennett got the job of recovering body parts, after the Battle Of The Bulge during his time in Army. Who would have guessed.
Although I realize it wasn’t possible, I think a pairing of Susan & Michael Jackson could have been productive. Most likely commercially successful. I’m thinking a single in ‘71 or so.
Just saw these guys last night as part of a package tour. The entire lineup was great with everyone in fine voice, but my son (7 yrs old) and I really went only to see them. Funny, we sat next to two sisters who also only went to see the Cowsills. They opened the show - tight harmonies, excellent arrangements, an impeccable performance. If you closed your eyes, you'd swear there were more than just the three of them on the stage. Before the show, my son got to take his picture with Susan Cowsill and also Artie Kornfeld who was in the audience. After the show at their concession table, Susan called my son over by name. We purchased their a capella disc and a couple pictures (one for my son and one for me) and Susan inscribed my son's to him ("& Dad"). All the way home, he kept going on and on about how he couldn't believe that they inscribed the photo to him. It really made his night. He's still on that concert high. Chuck Negon's set was at least twice as long as the other artists and now my son wants me to get him some Three Dog Night. No prob!
coleman who are 'the three' humans on stage as the cowsills on this tour? and it it just three singers with a backline band, or literally just three performers?
