What I like about the Association... part 1

This is going to sound like a backhanded compliment, but what I love most about the Association, is that by rights it seems almost like it shouldn't have happened at all. I mean, look at these guys. These guys were never hip. From the mid-sixties onto the early '70s they were hanging in there, caught in the slipstream of musical tides changing at the hands of artists far freakier than them, trying to make sense of it all. And yes, the four massive singles that bankrolled their career are amazing, but, besides that, to be honest, they just weren't talented enough (that's not even a backhanded compliment, I know!) . Listen to their albums and sometimes you get this impression, well, you know, maybe those hits belong to another band, and there's been a case of mistaken identity.

But that's what I love about them. They, somehow, got the opportunity to follow through, album after album, single after single. Searching for song material, searching for producers, searching for a sound, any sound that could connect with the times. Just when they needed them the most those hits appeared (two at the start of their career, two more a good year later), and so they worked on, in their bubble, and they ended up with a fascinating body of work. It utterly fails as much as it near-hits, and in the end, it's often plain weird, the artistic decisions they made. You don't get that from just any talented artist.

Album-by-album it is.

Another thing about this band, is that I love the sleevenotes. This goes way back to the original albums. Their debut album proclaims: 'they can play bluer blues than the Rolling Stones, harder hard-rock than the Raiders, and put more folk into folk music than the Kingston Trio'. Uhm, there is no evidence of any of this on any of their albums. This is harmony soft pop.

But the notes on the series of Cherry Red reissues of their 6 albums are better. Not since the Dave Clark Five Greatest Hits notes have I read such exagerated claims to the greatness of the artist. Reading these, you get the impression that the entire world of music revolved around the Association.

The first Association single was a very limp Dylan cover.

The backing track has some momentum, but these guys have like 11 vocalists, and they all want to get heard. Too much harmonies!

Anyway, the single led to them meeting Dylan once - once! So of course, you know, they inspired Dylan to go electric and near-as backed him at Newport, according to the band interviews (I really can't blame the writer, it's all in the interviews). It's kinda pathetic, but endearing. They really were music fans, who accidentaly stumbled into the wrong door.

Then of course came the first two hits: 'Cherish' and 'Along comes Mary'.

Dig that pre-song sketch!

And of course the Curt 'Millenium' Boetcher produced debut album. Actually, besides the two hits, there's not much on there that catches my ear. Sounds like any mediocre '60s pop album.

But it was very succesful, so it was a gamble to ditch him for the sequel, the same year's 'Renaissance' - which has something of a Monkees-after-the-coup vibe. Taking things into their own hands. This is a weird little gem of a record. It's bathed in deeply Eastern mystically inspired waffle - great atmosphere. (Did you know one of them went to India, like, a year before the Beatles?! I did not know that.)

Of course there was a single. A long section of the sleeve notes of the reissue are devoted to -even 45 years later- the disbelief and shock that this flopped.

Uhm, guys, it's called 'Pandora's golden heebie jeebies'! No record with a name like that has ever been succesful.
Apart from that, one of my favorites.

And another failed single:

For the next album they entrusted themselves to outside help again, producer Bones Howe, several professional songwriters. This time it turned out great. Two more massive hits (both superior to the earlier duo of hits) and a great album.

Just great, right? Beautifully covered by Stephen Malkmus during his early 2000s tours too.
And 'Windy' too, of course.

There's more on the album:

Sitar jam coming up!

Part two coming up!