The Association: album by album thread

Like it... I think ! Sounds like a Partridge Family demo...

 

An album-by-album thread for one of my all-time favorites that's been around for years and I just found it! I need to spend more time here.

I was at the Iowa State Fair show Joe mentioned and he was actually being kind in his description of the crowd's reaction. As he said, it was a R&R Oldies show and The Association were the last act. They did the Kenny Rogers song and the applause was tepid at best. But when they did a new comedy song called "Nuke the Whales," at the end instead of applause they were resoundingly booed.

Jules said, "If you don't like it, go home."

And they did, or at least half of them. Hundreds of people stood up and left. Of course, I'm sitting there stunned and miserable because I only went to see them. (Those IA State Fair oldies shows were usually stacked with people who should've stopped singing altogether.) Bad night.

(And the next night, the DJ who hosted the show took calls all night from people chewing him out. He told me I was the only caller who was on the band's side.)

I saw them in 1968 at Vet's Auditorium in Des Moines in June or July and the AC wasn't working. It was horribly hot and I remember Terry's first words were something like, "We've come to sweat for you tonight." And man, did they ever. I also remember his introducing Ted by saying, "His chiselled good looks have inspired the rest of us to nickname him 'The Pig.' And then they started with "Come On In." GREAT show that night.

And I saw them at Vet's the year before the Fair show, after "Dreamer" came out. Pretty much the first thing out of Terry's mouth was, "The last time we played here was 1968 and the air conditioning was out."

That's enough for now, but a final bit of trivia regarding the stereo "Birthday." While the hard-left/hard-right mix is all the way through the album, there is one song that has sound in the center. What's the song and what's in the center channel?

 

And btw, thanks to everybody here for sending me on an Association jag tonight.

"She got f@#ked!"

 

^ I don't have the answer to your trivia question but fantastic stories shutuplittleman. Thanks for contributing those. Always great to hear from those who saw the boys in their prime.

 

"Incense, Rose Petals and a Kitten" has a center-channel lead guitar by Tommy Tedesco, the only center-channel sound on the whole album.

Thanks to this thread, I finally learned why the album was mixed hard-left/hard-right. When the mono CD came out, I fell in love with the album all over again, it sounded so great.

This was a very underappriciated band that I've loved from the beginning, and reading these posts was a very nice experience. Thanks to all.

 

A very trivial 45-single note: KASI-FM in Ames, Iowa played "Carry On" by Bijou as a daily top-of-the-hour single when it came out. I know because I was music director at the time and put it on the list.

BTW, that's a favor I didn't do for the three singles by The Association that came out in the mid-70s. I didn't like them then and still don't. And in my concert recollections, I forgot that I saw them in '74 when the originals were down to Jim, Ted, and Larry and it wasn't good.

 

More details on your '74 concert recollection(s) please. Give us the dirt (or at least the dust).

 

First, they were the opening act and I don't even remember who headlined because I didn't stay. It may have been Kenny Rogers. It was a small ISU venue/hall where we sat on folding chairs.

Second and worst, they'd devolved into kind of a joker band, with crude, stupid banter between songs. (Ted: "I wanted to be a gynocologist but I just couldn't get into it.") Richard Thompson added nothing other than a bad and ear-blistering solo on "Never, My Love" (my radio partner actually turned to me and winced). They did "Life is a Carnival" and "Names, etc." As for the big hits, only one had the complete original lead vocal (Jim on "Along..") and "Cherish" didn't have any. The new band members and the new songs blew.

So I wrote them off and went back to all the great music that came out in '74 that we got to play on our station. It wasn't until the amazing reunion HBO concert that I was reconverted.

Next time, how about I recount when I saw then in the late '70s when it wasn't them at all?

 

P.S. on the '74 show, Ted was a frontman and only sang. And, unfortunately, made jokes between songs.

I remember seeing a (horrible) network nostalgia show a couple years later with Ted's final version of the band when he was the only original left. They lip-synched "Windy" and Ted faked playing the flute solo in the middle.

 

This one? Ouch.

 

shutuplittleman- Thanks for your posts. As much as it made me cringe, I liked reading your 74 show review. In the above video I recognize Ted, of course, and I believe that's David Vaught on bass. Anyone know who the others are?

 

Yep, PretzelLogic's clip is the one I saw.

In the late '70s-1980-- can't remember exactly-- I went to yet another terrible IA State Fair R&R Oldies show. (I never learned.) To show you how the name of The Association had slipped by this time in box office draw, they were toward the middle to end but the headliner was ... Lou Christie! (I think Lou made some great records but come on!)

Part of the reason for their fall in bill status may have had to do with something I didn't know until they started to play: There wasn't a single original guy on stage! It was all a bunch of young no-talents who couldn't even really sing. (Their lead vocalist who took all the hits sounded like he had some kind of weird oscillator in his throat that made his voice go everywhere except on pitch.) But as bad as they were, THEY didn't get booed off the stage and (as I've already written) two years later, the original band would!

I hated those stupid IA Oldies shows ...

I couldn't believe there's a clip of the terrible thing PL just found for us. Are there any clips from their great appearance on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show when the band put out "Dreamer," or the Mike Douglas Show from the same time? Two songs on Snyder's show and five on Douglas's, and they did "Back Seat of Heaven" on both.

 

BTW, that bogus Association were the bums who licensed the name from Ted. And when the original band got back together, they had to settle with these worthless hacks to get their name back!

Terry mentioned the mess in a Billboard article at the start of the reunion, mentioning Ted's complicity and saying, "We'll get him." He was probably kidding ...

Also, and I'll only bring it up once since, as Bill pointed out, politics isn't welcome here, but Ted's a minister and Jim has headed an anti-drug group called "Say No Way" (hey, he's 75) and has said more than once it's to atone for the "pro-pot" ACM that he sang for years (and, heh heh, still does). Terry's been on the left forever, Jules was into enlightenment so much that he quit for awhile to go to India, and Russ recorded "In New Germany" on his solo. So the guy with Jim and Ted was probably Larry.

What makes this interesting and I think (hope) makes it transcend typical left/right stuff is that this was the same three-to-three breakdown of the Beach Boys. In the later band, however, it could be argued that it helped destroy the group, whereas The Association seemed to put it aside when working on the music together. They also have always seemed to genuinely like each other more than The Beach Boys did over the years.

 

I believe this was the line-up on that one...
Ted Bluechel Jr., David Vaught - bass, vocals, Cliff Woolley - lead guitar, vocals, Ric Ulsky - keyboards, vocals, John William Tuttle - rhythm guitar, vocals, Russ Levine - drums, vocals

 

Thanks for the personnel in the video Malc. There may be a few names here that I've not seen associated (no pun intended) with the band before.

 

I'll be if I didn't see the band one other time. It was during the very first Happy Together tour. The other acts were Spanky MacFarland (by herself), Gary Puckett, and of course, Flo and Eddie, aka The Turtles.

When The Association first reunited, Jules gave an interview where he said the band nixed the idea of being a nostalgia act "real fast." By this night, they'd apparently reconsidered. The only "new" song was their version of "Walk Away, Renee" (very good, btw, and better than the lame recording of it they made later). They did "The Time It is Today" and all the singles but as good as they sounded ... you could just tell their hearts weren't it in like when they started the band reunion.

And sorry guys, I've passed on all the chances to see them in the 21st century. The youtube clips I've seen, especially the more recent ones, have been pretty weak. I don't like seeing old men trying to sound like they did when they were young (and I don't limit this complaint to these boys).

P.S. Another nice TV clip would be "Under Branches" done live (I believe) on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. Does it exist?

 

Interesting recollections. I'm glad you're sharing them, and calling them as you see them.

The way I see it, the more you invested of yourself in any given act when you were young and the act in question were in their prime likewise, the harder it can sometimes be to appreciate them once they move into that inevitable nostalgic phase. There may be exceptions to this, but I'm not sure how commonplace they would be. On the other hand, if you weren't particularly invested in any given act, it tends to be easier to remain more open-minded when viewing that act perform in their more advanced years. YMMV of course. I doubt any of us are exactly the same in this regard.

The source film exists, that's proven below. Whether it's readily available to view online is another matter. I don't see that particular clip on YouTube or similar sites. For the sake of reference:

The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
Season 1 | May 7, 1969

Historic Films Stock Footage Archive: SF-1021
SF-102101:00:00 - 01:59:29 (~119 min)
1969, Color, Tv Variety Show

This clip cannot be viewed online.

Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour Variety Show with Guests Pat Paulsen, Roy Clark, Goldie Hawn and The Association. Commercials for Chevrolet, Dairy Queen, Sunshine Krispy Crackers, Cool And Creamy Pudding and Pall Mall Cigarettes.

Notes: The Association perform Goodbye Columbus and Under Branches.

 

I don't know if The Association ever toured the UK, but when Jim and Jules rejoined Larry & Russ, I was sorely tempted to take a trip out to the US see them, especially as (I think) they were on a package tour with The Cowsills (again, love them and would be happy to see them even in a depleted lineup) among others. Alas, that ship has sailed, and it probably wouldn't have met expectations, especially if The Association are still including 60s hit covers in their set at the expense of deeper cuts.

Actually, on that note, it seems entirely a missed opportunity (and a great injustice in my eyes) that there wasn't an attempt at a final reunion album before Larry passed. My understanding is that there's no bad blood or severed ties between the band members, so it could have happened. I imagine it as something low-key, self-composed (two songs each? Or more from Terry and fewer from Ted and Larry?), and stripped back in the vein of the Stonehenge album. Had it worked it would rival Good Times or That's Why God Made The Radio, and I hold both those albums in high esteem...

 

Re-reading this thread, and got stuck at the differences between versions of No Fair At All and Looking Glass from Renaissance, and wanted to check my copy - I can't remember where I got it (memory says eBay, but the telltale price sticker residue on the side B label says Amoeba), but looking at it now, it's a mono promo copy (complete with 'Audition Record' stamp on the sleeve), with a white Valiant label. I thought I'd played it, but on my first attempt to actually put it on the turntable shows that no-one's ever played it, let alone me; it's so pristine and the spindle hole so tight, this must be the first time it's ever been spun!

Anyway, it has the two non-single versions of both above songs on it. I'd not heard these before, but the single versions with the extra vocals definitely improve both songs (though Russ's sole lead on Looking Glass is pretty neat).

 

Sadly, other than a promotional jaunt across to these shores, and an appearance at the NME Poll Winners concert at Wembley in '68, the band never toured over here. They did a brief European continent visit at the same, appearing at a festival in Rome, but other than that the management deemed it more appropriate, and lucrative, to tour solely on home soil. However, a reliable source recently told me that there may be the slightest possibility of a UK visit in the foreseeable, with the current line-up. Hoping...

 

BTW, too many pages and too lazy to look, but was it ever mentioned in this thread that, on vinyl at least, there are two versions of "Get Together" on the Live album?

The original has Russ's intro (it's a James Thurber story, if that hasn't been mentioned-- Russ was a reader) but I bought a later copy in cutouts where that's cut and they just segue to the song.

And did anyone ever mention the horror-story kids' records co-written by Russ?

 

And another BTW, the reason the band reunited for that HBO show in the first place was because a writer of those HBO shows was Terry Kirkman!

 

I've been trying to figure out the "Renaissance" variations as well.

The stereo is pretty easy. All of the mixes seem to be the same on both the early and later pressings of the album except for "Looking Glass" and "No Fair At All," which substitute the group versions for the solo vocal versions on the later pressings (well, most of the time at least), and "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies," where the original has a different mix on the backing track and much less reverb on the vocal.

The original and later (my copy is RE-2) versions of the mono LP are more difficult. I'll just copy my notes, for what it's worth.
If the original and RE-2 mixes are the same, I haven't listed the song.

1. I'm The One - Original fades 4 seconds longer than RE-2 and they're different mixes (backing vocals are louder on RE-2).
2. Memories Of You - Different speed. The fade on the original is 25 seconds longer (!) even after the speed is corrected.
3. All Is Mine - Lead vocal is louder on the original, while the backing vocals are lower.
7. You May Think - Volume of the backing vocals is louder on RE-2, particularly evident on the fade.
8. Looking Glass - Of course, the original has a solo vocal from Russ while the second has the group vocal. The Now Sounds CD uses a different mix from either. This matches what the YouTube video calls "RE-1," which is a version of the album I don't have. It would be interesting to hear if any other mixes differ there - good grief, could there be a THIRD mix of this album?!
9. Come To Me - Additional compression and reverb added to RE-2. Backing vocals have either been added or are mixed louder. You can hear the difference in the backing vocals on the final note.
10. No Fair At All - The original has a solo vocal from Jim Yester, while RE-2 has the group vocal.
12. Another Time, Another Place - Lead vocal mixed down on RE-2, and backing vocals mixed up.

Most of the time, the mono Now Sounds CD uses the later, RE-2 mixes, though they use "RE-1" for "Looking Glass" and their version of "No Fair At All" matches the original.

Sadly, the bottom line is that a significant number of mixes seem not to have made it onto CD, even after several releases of the album over the years.

 

Picked up a nice-ish sounding copy of Names, Tags, Labels & Numbers b/w Rainbows Bent 7" in a picture sleeve. Have to say the a-side is a guilty pleasure, and love Larry's vocal.

On a similar note, has any copy of Sleepy Eyes/ Take Me To The Pilot surfaced anywhere other than the copy mentioned earlier in the thread? I'm so curious to hear this single!

 

Can you enlighten me ??