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The
Hollies "The Hollies" (1974)
Falling
Calling/It's A Shame It's A Game/Don't Let Me Down/Out On The Road/The Air That
I Breathe//Rubber Lucy/Trans-Atlantic Westbound Jet/Pick Up The Pieces
Again/Down On The Run/Love Makes The World Go Round/The Day That Curly Billy
Shot Down Crazy Sam McGee
Dear all, first up in this review an apology. For the
first time ever I can prove that someone used my website to actually look up an
actual album review - unfortunately it was one that wasn't there! You see, dear
readers, unlike most sites that cover just one group in chronological order,
from the first I wanted Alan's Album Archives to cover lots of ground at once
and I had such a boring experience writing our 'core' 101 albums in order that
I vowed to zig-zag my way through 50 years of popular culture (well, 20 years
of popular and 30 years of unpopular culture, generally speaking). As a result,
I've missed out this album from my run of 1970s Hollies reviews so I've moved
it up the order - and if you're the reader who wanted this review in particular
then the good news is it's here at last and we're very sorry for the delay. The
bad news is that I'm not actually that keen on this record for a whole variety
of reasons: certainly it's the first Hollies record that doesn't at least try
to build on where the band left off on the last LP and finds the band lowering
their sights, accepting for the first time that they're simply a good-time pop
band. Fair enough you could say - 99% of general music collectors consider the
Hollies a good time pop band after all and there's no 'just' about being a pop
band if you're a good one. But coming hot on the heels of two inventive and
under-rated records that went in a whole new direction (my beloved 'Romany' and
close cousin 'Out On The Road'), not to mention the three ground-breaking acts
precede it, this album seems like something of a let down and the moment, for
me, when The Hollies finally settled for the second-tier of pop and rock
groups, instead of pushing for the first (where goodness knows they had the
talent to reach).
There's a whole host of reasons why the band chose
1974 to 'just' be a pop band, of course, and they all make sense. Lead singer
Allan Clarke had got the stars in his eyes in 1971 as he watched his old
colleague Graham Nash find success first as part of CSN and then as a solo
singer and decided that as the band's lead singer he probably had a better
claim to success in his own right. sadly it didn't work out that way - Epic
weren't as keen to push Clarkey as a solo act as Atlantic had been to encourage
Nash, he hadn't made the 'American breakthrough' that Nash had done in 1969 and
in 1971 The Hollies were at their un-trendiest (Nash's remarks in the press
about his final days 'trapped' in the Hollies weren't helping). You can hear
the moment that it all goes wrong for Clarkey, somewhere around the end of
sessions for his first solo record 'My Real Name Is 'Arold', when a bright and
sunny album suddenly falls into the pit of despair (just compare 'Bring On Your
Smiles' with the gorgeous 'Nature's Way Of Saying Goodbye') and the
mini-masterpiece follow-up, 'Headroom', is all about reluctantly swallowing
your pride and letting golden chances slip through your fingers. At the same
time The Hollies are sinking without trace
despite making two of their best albums, with their new singer Mickael
Rickfors giving the band a new mellow, acoustic sound that audiences never took
to as much as the band's tougher original sound. The fact that Rickfors
struggled with the English language and it was taking an age to make records
with him where it had once been so effortless was leading to a general
consensus on all sides that the split had been a mistake. Nobody can quite
remember how Allan got back in the band he'd founded (some reckon that he
'asked' through EMI if he could re-join and others that the remaining Hollies
pushed for him to come back), but the return was what everyone seemed to want.
However, band and singer had a problem. The last
album with Clarke as singer ('A Distant Light') was part of a slow worrying
trend down the charts and EMI now had such a low expectation of the band's
sales that the album only came out in the band's second home of Germany (not
even their homeland of Britain!) To rescue the band's stuttering reputation the
Hollies needed hits and fast and as a result they re-mould themselves before
our eyes. Even for a 1960s band The Hollies had always evolved quickly, racing
through Merseybeat, folk, psychedelia, prog rock and acoustic protest periods
but had paid the price in 1969 when they faced a real divide between becoming a
full-time 'pop' band or a full-blown prog rock one (you can hear this dilemma
most on their first post-Nash album 'Hollies Sing Hollies') Thankfully for me,
they chose the latter path at the time - but by 1974, with falling sales and a
slight move away from prog rock concept albums, they clearly consider it a
mistake and with this album hastily head back down the 'pop' path as if nothing
has happened. The Hollies could have done it in 1969 when they were still
turning out some great pop gems (like the under-rated album track 'Please Let
Me Please You' and B-sides 'Not That Way At All' and 'Mad Professor Blyth',
which suggest that in a parallel universe somewhere The Hollies are still Top
Of The Pops and maybe still going with this second line-up). But in 1974
they're too late: glam rock, the frothy 1970s equivalent of Merseybeat, has
already been and gone and the teenage record-goers have stopped buying records
by younger bands like Slade and T Rex so they're hardly likely to be enchanted
by their elder siblings' pop records.
What The Hollies perhaps should have done was
re-cast themselves as a heavy rocking band. Their last successful single had
been 'Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress' in 1971, which stunned America by
coming out of nowhere to reach #2 in the charts (released without the Hollies'
knowledge only after lead writer singer and guitarist Allan Clarke had left the
band, scuppering any real chance of the Hollies scoring a successful follow-up
- although they had a couple of goes anyway). The second song taped at the
sessions for 'The Hollies' (1974) was carbon copy single 'Curly Billy', which
may not be quite as original or pioneering but succeeds in blowing away the
interim years, getting The Hollies back to what it feels like they ought to be
doing. Frustratingly, you wonder what might have happened had the band released
this in 1972. The band went in quite a different direction for their next
single and the album's best known song- the majestic 'The Air That I Breathe' -
which once again sounds like what the band should have been doing: polished
production, classic harmonies, great lead vocal, perfect unfussy production.
Take the two songs together and you have the cornerstone for a terrific album,
one where the Hollies seem to have regained their confidence and done what they
sounded as if they were always on the cusp of achieving in 1969-73: clever,
catchy pop songs that had clearly had time spent on them; the closest thing in
the charts to the Hollies sound in 1974 was 10cc and they were still very much
pegged as a 'comedy' band at the time. So many fans have come to 'The Hollies'
(1974) expecting a great record because of those two singles - pretty much the
last hits the band had excluding re-issues - and are somewhat puzzled by this
record by the time it ends.
You see, the one thing you can never blame the
Hollies for (at least until the 1980s) is their commitment: the band love
taking their time and making a complex piece of arrangement sound effortless
and simple, which is the mark of most good pop songs. On this album, however,
they seem to have gone too far with the idea, taking easily the simplest
collection of songs they ever wrote and slapping even more of their usual
production gloss over the top than normal (there's very little production gloss
at all on the bare-bones 'A Distant Light' for instance, although there's a
fair bit on 'Sing Hollies' and 'Confessions'; chief engineer on this album was
Alan Parsons, fresh from his work on 'Dark Side Of The Moon' which may well be
the best produced album of all time, but talented as he and the band are
they're clearly coming at this album form opposite paths). In the past there
would generally be a good half of the album that 'deserved' the gravitas such a
production statement gave it (think 'Marigold-Gloria Swansong' 'Too Young To Be
Married' and ''You Know The Score' from the 1969-71 albums for example). Even
when a song wasn't particularly deep ('Please Let Me Please' 'Perfect Lady
Housewife' and 'Little Thing Like Love' to quote from the same albums), that
made for quite a useful contrast, the band proving that they hadn't forgotten
the joys of simplicity at the same time. 'The Hollies' sounds by contrast a
little bit empty, with the only 'depth' to the album coming from the production
- which admittedly sounds great on 'Air That I Breathe' and the album's best
non-single 'Don't Let Me Down', not co-incidentally the 'deepest' two songs
here. It's not as if the entire album is a complete waste (although both 'Love
Makes The World Go Round' and 'It's A Shame, It's A Game' are easily the
Hollies' weakest original work up till this point), but the production gloss
has the effect of getting dressed up to
go out to somewhere posh to eat and
fining all they serve is pub food: lovely in its own place, maybe even better
than the food you were waiting to be served, but it can't help but feel like an
anti-climax when you bite in. Thankfully The Hollies always learnt quickly from
their mistakes and next album 'Another Night' merges the best of both this new
'extra-glossy' sound with their older, deeper material -to great success,
largely, even if a couple of tracks are a little on the cloying side. This
album, however, tries too hard to be banally pop-songy basic and even a little
earthy on the one hand and too sugary sweet on the other, creating an un-edible
concoction in the middle of the two that pleases nobody.
This would
perhaps matter less had long-term fans not already had the chance to compare
how three of these songs ('Out On The Road' and 'Transatlantic Westbound Jet' plus
the actual recording of 'Pick Up The Pieces Again', all released on the 'Out On
The Road' LP) sounded without the production gloss. While Rickfors clearly
doesn't have the strength of voice that Clarkey has (although his harmony
singing is every bit as good), the band have done everything they can to
disguise the fact, either giving him a punchier backing track than usual to
respond to instead of leaving the earthiness to come from his voice (as per the
first example) or letting the song build gradually layer by layer (as per the
second). By keeping things simple, playing all together without overdubs and
bouncing off each other The Hollies come up with some of the best sounding
tracks they ever made - especially the 'Out On The Road' version of
'Transatlantic Westbound Jet', which veers towards funk-jazz by the end, even
if the songs themselves are a little on the silly side. The 'Hollies' (1974) version,
on the other hand, treats them all as silly pop songs and takes all the bite of
the arrangements away, leaving Clarke to do all the work on a series of vocals
that for a whole variety of reasons isn't quite comfortable as part of the
'Hollies' sound just yet. If ever you wanted an example of how much an
arrangement affects a song just compare the two versions of 'Jet' - one a
strutting, stuttering six minute epic enticingly on the verge of collapse
throughout that really builds verse by verse - the other an empty-headed three
minute pop song that repeats the same chords too many times. Even 'Pick Up The
Pieces', the lovely Terry Sylvester ballad that has the distinction of
appearing on three separate albums between 1973 and 1974 (the third is his
first solo album 'Terry Sylvester' released shortly after this album), doesn't
sound as good in its new 'home', despite being identical to the version that
appeared on 'Out On The Road' (perhaps because it's gone from standing out as
the most-produced track to the least produced track). While I'm on the subject,
I'm surprised too that its these songs The Hollies sought to re-record: I can
understand why the band didn't bother with Mickeal's songs (although it would
have been a nice gesture for his two years of faithful service) - but why pass
on Tony Hicks' 'Better Place' or Terry Sylvester's 'Mr Heartbreaker', classic
songs both! That also goes for two songs recorded early on in the album
sessions that finally saw the light of day in the 1980s and 1990s respectively:
the charming border-narrative 'Mexico Gold' later releases on 'Rarities' (which
was the first song the band recorded on Clarkey's return in case you're
wondering) and 'Tip Of The Iceberg' (Released on the compilation 'At Abbey Road
Volume Three' in 1998), a storming rocker that proves the band could still had
a telepathy with one another. Interestingly, both songs have less production
than anything that made the album (barring 'Curly Billy').
My other 'problem' with 'The Hollies' (1974) (we
have to keep referring to it that way because the band had already used the
title 'The Hollies' in 1965, which used to make ordering albums difficult in
the days before the internet when things were bought sight unseen!) is that The
Hollies have already become Clarke's showcase. Without the 'missing' years that
wouldn't be a problem at all of course - Allan was on a real writing roll in
this period, coming up with the best material for both 'A Distant Light' and
this album ('Curly Billy' and 'Don't Let Me Down' are easily the best group
originals) as well his neglected classic 'Headroom' (which is much more like
'Light' in style, being depressed and downbeat for the most part). However, the
problems the Hollies had between 1972-73 with falling sales and Rickfors'
struggles with singing a whole song naturally in a second language had brought
the others closer together. Terry's showcases are the highlights of both
'Romany' and 'Out On The Road' and especially the B-sides ('I Had A Dream' and
'Indian Girl'), while Tony's rare lead vocals in this period (his first since 1967
and his last till a 1989 B-side) show what an under-rated singer he was, less
natural than either Clarke or Sylvester but with a real character to his voice.
Bernie, too, had much more to do between 1972-73 than just play the bass
(that's him playing piano on most of the session tapes and clearly enjoying
himself) while Bobby, though critical of the period in hindsight, is inspired
enough to come up with only his second ever song ('Westbound Jet'). Sadly the
minute that Clarke is back in the group this camaraderie seems to evaporate:
Terry gets his last lead vocal for five years (and then only takes over when
Clarkey leaves for a shorter solo spell during sessions for '5317704') and then
only on a recording from an earlier album, Tony gets his last lead vocal for 15
years, Bernie gets 'replaced' by 'sixth Hollie' Pete Wingfield on this and
every other 1970s Hollies record and Bobby's back to bashing out the drums. You
could argue that the other Hollies did this to keep their lead singer happy,
perhaps half-afraid that he'd leave them again. You could argue too that the
formula worked - spectacularly so on 'The Air That I Breathe' - and clearly the
band as they had been wasn't selling as many units so something had to change.
But couldn't they have had something more to do on the next stretch of Hollies
LPs?
There are a few themes crossing over each on this
record. Naturally the theme of travel from 'Out On The Road' is back again,
thanks to so many of that album's songs being recycled here (especially the theme
of touring to escape problems back home). Another is responsibility: Curly
Billy is a cowboy with a job to do and lots of people relying on him for future
freedom; both 'The Air That I Breathe' and 'Don't Let Me Down' try to sound
casual about it but they're both really asking a lot of their respective
partners, 'Down On The Run' might be about meeting up with friends for a bit of
fun but includes the line 'if I blackout people back out' and a hint that the
narrator is actually nervous about proving himself in their company. It's easy
to see where the theme with 'responsibility' might have come from - both halves
of the Hollies split want the best for each other and to make it like the 'old
days' and they're in danger of losing the people they respect if they don't
succeed (it's worth mentioning that longterm Hollies producer Ron Richards,
frustrated during sessions for 'Romany' had walked out before 'Out On The Road'
but rejoined the band to make this album; they wanted a hit to repay his faith
in them too). However the only lyric
that 'seems' to refer to the split implicitly is the very aptly titled 'Pick Up
The Pieces Again' - which was actually written long before the reunion!
A bigger surprise is how 'teenagery' many of these
songs sound, with the Hollies dealing with subjects such as getting ready to go
out ('It's A Shame, It's A Game'), girls who keep changing their minds ('Rubber
Lucy') and waiting to meet up with a 'gang' at the weekend ('Down On The Run').
It's worth remembering that when The Hollies were approximately this age (late
teens/early twenties) they were already spending their time singing about such
subjects as over-population ('Too Many People'), hiding behind a public persona
('Clown') and being trapped in an unhappy marriage ('Set Me Free') - the only
time The Hollies come close to being this frivolous is on Clarke & Nash's
first ever song 'Little Lover' back in 1963. The whole is another reason this
record sounds so uneven - one minute The Hollies are pleading 'Don't Let Me
Down' with the wisdom of a man whose been hurt many times and is pledging his
heart to another; the next they're rhyming 'Lucy' with 'choosy' and telling us
how they thought they looked cool because 'my drainpipes [presumably trousers,
unless this song is about plumbing and I never realised it] were outtasite!' At
least the Hollies could have put all their 'teenagery' songs together on one
side of the record and followed it with their mature' side (the band tend to be
amongst the best AAA stars at compiling their albums) - but mixing the two up
seems to be asking for trouble.
Overall, then, 'The Hollies' (1974) is far from
classic Hollies. The band seem to have squandered the inventive arrangements
and exciting new directions both lead singer and singer-less band had been
pursuing separately (I still say the best of 'Headroom' compared with 'Out On
The Road' would have made for the best Hollies album ever!) and sacrificed it
at the altar of pop. I quite understand why - the band had to regain their lost
ground and a pop album was far easier to sell than a prog rock epic like 'A
Distant Light' had been. I still feel sad, though, that there isn't some sort
of flicker of the earlier band on this album, though - the sort of mix the band
get right in their next run of records, in fact. Yes the two singles are great,
yes 'Don't Let Me Down' is a great forgotten album track even for a band who
made a career of them and yes 'Pick Up The Pieces Again' is a fine song, even
if you already own it on the superb 'Out On The Road' re-issue on the French
label Magic from a few years back (I plugged it as much as I could when it came
out so I hope it isn't out of print!) Yes, also, you can understand why this
album of all Hollies albums is a little bit self-conscious and lacking in
confidence (however untypically arrogant a lot of the lyrics on this record
are) and in many ways it's a sign of how close the band were that they've not
only melded their voices together in perfect harmony once again but gone in a
completely separate direction to what either party was making just a few months
ago. But too much of this album sounds like the five members of the band
playing at being The Hollies and remembering rather than living what life used
to be like before. Only a few albums ago we were talking about how even if the
Hollies weren't the pinnacle of bands from the 1960s then they may well be the
era's most consistent. On this album they've lost their ability to make even
their lesser songs sound great and the fact that some of their great songs
sound marvellous is only half a substitute. Ah well, it's a shame, but it's a
game as they say - we still have the towering achievement that is 'The Air That
I Breathe' to enjoy and 'Another Night' is the album up next; thankfully that
is an album The Hollies are 'living' and it manages to build on all the forks
in the Hollies' long dark road up to here far more successfully than this
album.
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'Falling Calling' is one of the more interesting
songs on the album, with Allan Clarke back to one of his favourite themes again
for the last time on a Hollies album: Christianity. We started off with
righteous indignation ('Why Didn't You Believe?'), calls for the second coming
('You Know The Score' and 'Promised Land') and then disbelief and outrage
('People Of That Kind' from Clarke's album 'Headroom') and now we've turned
fall circle. With his life thrown in turmoil the narrator of this song 'doesn't
know what to do' before calling out to his maker. You're still not quite sure
whether the tactic works by the end of the song, which leaves the narrator as
helpless and embittered as he began it, but it's notable that he already feels
regret for the years when 'I didn't believe in the Bible, didn't believe the
good book' (the album actually starts with this line, which is about as unhip a
couplet as you can get in 1974!) Like many a Hollies narrator to come, this is
a real wrong 'un' speaking to us here, one sentenced by a judge 'for 5000
days', presumably in prison as 1974's a bit early for 'community service' (this
equates to 14 years, more or less, which is a significant chunk of time). The
song is more involved with the narrator's redemption than his mistakes,
however, and we never find out what he did. Not the fact that the 'prisoner'
reckons he'll be '70' when he gets out of jail: by our maths that makes him 56,
significantly older than the band's real age at the time (Clarke was 32 when
this came out, for instance), although the sense of regret over the fact rings
very true (the prisoner imagining himself leaving in the future 'with a new
face to turn another page'). The end result is a song Johnny Cash could have
done respectably on one of his 'prison' albums, complete with the sudden
conviction for religion so many of his 'outlaw' songs transformed into. Despite
being one of the last songs recorded for the album I'm tempted to see this as
being written during the 'lost' years - the band have done their best to add a
groovy handbeat jive to the backing track of this song but it's closer in style
to the downbeat mood of 'Headroom' (perhaps Terry's co-credit came from
re-shaping the song into an upbeat pop song?) Either way, it's what the Hollies
do best: a catchy quality pop single with a depth to it that most of the other
songs on the album don't have. The vocal arrangement on this one is
particularly good, with Clarke's lead vocal is as passionate as on all his
other 'religious' songs and Terry and Tony's separate backing vocals
alternately nagging and sympathetic, giving the effect of the two 'halves' of
the Hollies sound working in parallel with each other again, which is a clever
way to start a 'reunion' album.
Alas 'It's A Shame, It's A Game' is a waste of the
Hollies' talents and a waste of our time. I was hoping for more when I first
heard this song, which pitted guitarist Tony Hicks with Colin Horton-Jennings -
the writer behind several of 'Romany's best songs (Including 'Magic Woman
Touch' 'Delaware Taggett And The Outlaw Boys' and the title track itself).
Separately the two turned in some of the maturer, heartfelt, acoustic songs of
the decade: together they descend into pop song parody, with an uncomfortable
spoof of glam rock and teenage pop songs. Personally if I was Allan Clarke, I'd
have turned right round and left again after being handed lyrics about being
'out last night in my Sunday stripes, Tuesday at the hop if I wear drainpipes'
and some rather threatening promises that the singer will 'teach you how to
hip-jive!' Hicks does well to get a retro 50s sound on his guitar and an
un-credited sax player has a great cameo, suggesting that this song is a memory
of the two writers' teenage-hoods. If so then they sound a couple of pretty
unlikeable teenagers, with Hicks returning to one of his favourite themes of
infidelity when he promises to 'chase my
girl's best friend' and afterwards worry about making up to his original
girlfriend or go home alone (there's also a line about her friend going out
with his brother which is suddenly inserted for no apparent reason -
co-incidentally or not, Bobby Elliott was married to Tony Hicks' sister at the
time of this recording). The central idea of the rites and rituals of teenager
life being 'a shame' and 'a game' is a strong one, but sadly the brusque,
angular backing track and the equally harsh lyrics have too many blunt edges
for the Hollies sound and they struggle to come up with the right sense of
menace and earthiness that, say, The Who would have brought to this song. It
may be that Tony was self-consciously trying to write another 'Long Cool Woman'
with the same smoky atmosphere and sultry lyrics, but the characters here are
pitched too young and the drama a bit too predictable for the song to come anywhere
close.
No such qualms about 'Don't Let Me Down', though,
which is easily the best Allan Clarke composition on the album. Like most of
Allan's lyrics for 'Headroom' the world is suddenly a scary, uncertain place
with love (for wife Jennifer) the only consistency in his life. 'Down' builds
on the sensitivity of his marvellous ballad 'Who?' and both versions of his
'breakthrough' song 'Would You Believe?' by asking why such a wonderful being
chose to be with him when she could have chosen anybody ('can't compete with
your beauty, couldn't if I tried'). The central theme, which recalls John
Lennon's anguished 1969 paean to Yoko, sounds as if it should be the most edgy
of all of these songs especially at the end when the song makes it clear that
the girl has left (with the refrain 'come on back', the second of two times the
Hollies' used this phrase), but mostly this piece is in laidback dreamy Hollies
mode, with Clarke at his romantic best. There is, however, a particularly
successful middle eight asking for truth and honesty which may or may not have
been inspired by Terry's similar song 'Mr Heartbreaker' ('Let's build something
to climb on, make this show a live one, no need for make-up let's be real').
The trouble with many a 1970s Hollies song (as opposed to solo spin-off album)
is that you can tell that the Clarke-Sylvester-Hicks writing team are such pros
that they've imagined a scenario and written a suitable song for it, but this
one sounds almost overpoweringly 'real' and Clarke's strident vocal is a
delight (as is Terry's falsetto, which seems to get higher every chorus, and
Tony's work slap bang in the middle of the harmonies). I'm fascinated to know
whether the song existed during Clarke's solo days - and how he'd have arranged
it if it had (would it have had the same downbeat, bluesy feel of much of
'Headroom' or a more commercial sound as here?) The song was a deserved big hit
when released as a single in Brazil - perhaps the band should have released it
as the third single from this album in Europe and the States as well?
Containing the Hollies' usual polished charm with something that cuts a little
bit deeper, 'Don't Let Me Down' is easily as good as 'Air That I Breathe' and
deserves to be much better known.
'Out On The Road' is the first of three songs we've
already discussed on our review of the album 'Out On The Road'. The final song
in the long-running Tony Hicks-Kenny Lynch partnership (the pair were
neighbours for a time in the early 1970s), it's a rock song about a preening
rock star who was so busy on the road that he missed out on several important
moments back home (including, most worryingly, 'when my shack was burning').
Not the best song the pair ever wrote, at least the 'Rickfors' version has a
lot of charm, not least because Mickael made such an unlikely rock star (he
sings with a nice lot of grit on the recording, though, even so). You can
almost hear the 1973-era Hollies crying out for Clarkey back in the band to
sing it with his usual tougher voice - and yet this re-recording is a
disappointment. Like much of the album the song sounds too rehearsed and
polished, losing the spontaneity that made the 'Out On The Road' record so
thrilling and with Clarke singing the song straight, without the
tongue-in-cheek comedy of Rickfors. The band also plunge a little too far into
their default 'retro 1950s' sound instead of the heavy-metal-meets-folk hybrid
of the original - and frankly we've heard the Hollies use that style too many
times by 1974. The switch to the middle eight is especially disappointing, the
original sadly sighing over the fact that 'I sold my soul to the devil and the
king of rock and roll!', missing out on seeing his children grow up and his
wife grow old - by contrast Clarke sounds proud of his renegade lifestyle!
Thankfully the highlight of the original recording is kept intact though - a
particularly bonkers Tony Hicks guitar solo so unlike his usual carefully
planned style, finally giving the song release with a series of chords that
mange to invoke Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Big Bill Broonzy
all at once.
Side one then ends with 'The Air That I Breathe',
which is about as perfect a pop single as they can be. Producer Ron Richards
suggested the song to the band after hearing a rather throwaway version on Phil
Everly (formerly of perhaps the Hollies' biggest influence The Everly
Brothers') on his 1973 album 'The Star Spangled Banner'. It's odd, actually,
that the Hollies didn't spot the song earlier - writers Hammond and Hazelwood
had done a lot of work with the band and indeed Terry Sylvester was already
planning his Hammond/Hazelwood filled first solo album and the track had
originally appeared on Hammond's gloriously titled 1972 album 'It Never Rains
In Southern California' (if I had my way I'd have had the band recording the
writers' classic 'The Tress, The Flowers and The Shame' as the follow-up -
Terry does a great solo version of it but it's crying out for the Hollies
sound). Like 'Don't Let Me Down', the song is both simple and powerful, the
narrator figuring that if they were given perfection they'd turn it down
because they already have the girl of their dreams and air to breathe.
Personally I'd have added a big old music collection in my three wishes too,
but it's clearly a great idea for a song and is one of those songs that says a
great deal with very few words: you instantly know how deep the attraction of
the lovers in the song goes. The Hollies' third version is easily the best:
Clarke is born to soar on emotionally resonant songs like these, Tony Hicks
adds a stunning guitar part missing from both other versions that's his single
best part for the band in nearly a decade (since 'Hard Hard Year' in 1966; Eric
Clapton allegedly rang him up to compliment him on it) and Bobby Elliott gets
the open space he longs for to give one of those characteristic 'Bobby fills',
with a sudden rhythmical run across the kit at key moments across the song.
Best of all, the Hollies add extra tension by transposing the last verse up an
octave, doubling the tension in the song and Tony letting fly with another
soaring guitar part, adding an extra kick at the end to sear the song into the
memory. Always masters of perfecting other people's songs, this talent had lain
dormant within the band since they started doing only their own material circa
1966, but they clearly still had it. Even old rival Graham Nash was gracious
enough to call this 'a great Hollies record - a really well-constructed pop
song' and he's not wrong. The Hollies' third big breakthrough hit in America (on
the heels of 'Bus Stop' and 'Long Cool Woman'), it's just a shame that the band
could never find the right vehicle to follow and most of the Hollies' reviews
to come after this will trace their failed attempts to replicate the magic they
got here. No matter - few bands ever get to create a recording this perfect
once and 'The Air That I Breathe' stands as one of their greatest achievements
and the clear highlight of the album. One final footnote for you: Radiohead's
breakthrough hit 'Creep' shares a passing similarity with the chords of this
song (though not exactly the mood!) and Thom Yorke now has to share writer's
credits with Hammond and Hazlewood on perhaps the band's best known song!
'Rubber Lucy' kicks off the second side with the
best rocker on the album - although that's a comparative measure. Clarkey's
song shares much with the rather gormless happy-go-lucky songs that take up
much of his first solo album 'My Real Name Is 'Arold', a record that
frustratingly is still awaiting its first CD release. Another surprisingly
juvenile song, it's scarily similar to the Grateful Dead's 'Loose Lucy'
released three months later: both girls are promiscuous and keep changing their
suitors daily, but both narrator's are clearly smitten and unable to think
about anything else despite their concerns. The song bounces with the
enthusiasm of the chase and the stunning three-part harmonies, a typical
rat-a-tat Bobby Elliott drum lick and
some more gonzo guitar work from Tony (this time channelling Frank Zappa
via Led Zeppelin!) add up to the best band performance on the album outside the
two hit singles. However, it's a waste to hear such talent wasted on a song
whose opening lines run: 'Lucy you're a floozy, you ain't choosy, you've been
flashing those big blue eyes at the other guys...' Weirder still is the middle
eight which implores 'As the queen Bee I'll make your honey, I'll even populate
your hive!' - we've covered many metaphors for love across this site, dear
readers, but I don't think we've ever had bee-keeping before! There's something
slightly disturbing about the 'Carry On' style of the word 'honey' but - no -
stop that, this is the Hollies they can't mean that can they? A sort of sequel
to 'The Games We Play', this is another song that's actually pretty rubbish but
is rescued by a stunning performance and the commitment of all concerned.
Coming straight after the poise, wit, depth and polish of 'The Air That I
Breathe', though, this is second-run filler at best.
'Transatlantic Westbound Jet' is the second and last
Bobby Elliott song (feel free to look really smug right now if you knew that
the other was 'Just One Look' B-side 'Keep Off That Friend Of Mine'), touched
up with a bit of chord work from Terry Sylvester. Written by Bobby 'because no
one else seemed to be', this song was one of the highlights of the 'Out On The
Road' album, with the Hollies 'doing' jazz across six whole minutes, letting
the song build and build across a series of cat-and-mouse tension releases
punctuated by fiery instrumentals (on which Bernie Calvert, back on his first
love of piano, truly shines). The song really fitted into the album concept of
travel, too, with a strutting band 'playing guitar' during a bored flight to
JFK airport before musing on how music-making 'is the only thing I can do'
while the band 'travel through the nation in need of stimulation'. Alas, this
more straightforward, rockier version pales by comparison: shorn to three
minutes, with the instrumentals taken out and lots of posh sound effects phased
in, the song just sounds...empty. Clarke has fun barking out his vocal (and
sounding more and more demented with the amount of 'airline tannoy' effects
heaped on his vocal) but the whole air is one of boredom: the band simply don't
connect with each other on this song and the most memorable passage is another
un-credited saxophone part, which seems to fly through one cargo bay door and
out the other. It's hard to tell what the difference is, except that the
'Rickfors' plane is a rickety one about to crash any minute, making the ride
all the more exciting and the 'Clarke' jet is on auto-pilot, trying to get
through the song with as few mistakes as possible. Bobby's promising and
likeable song deserved better - sometimes it really is better to travel low
budget!
The band have added a little bit of echo by the
sound of it, but otherwise 'Pick Up The Pieces Again' is identical to the
recording on 'Out On The Road' and a as a result, it's the only song here on
which Clarke doesn't appear (presumably the band chose it because Rickfors
doesn't appear on it either). Like many of Terry's solo songs for the band,
it's a beautiful, well rounded song about the mysteries of love and in this
case is incredibly apt: reflecting on how only seconds ago the narrator and his
love were fighting and yet now seem to be reconciliated he simply reflects, puzzled,
that 'love is strange' sometimes. Even without Clarke the harmonies are
tremendously lovely (Terry and Tony have an even greater blend together than
with Allan or Tony did with Graham), Hicks' wah-wah guitar work is pristine as
ever and the lovely, sighing melancholy melody is tailor-made for the band.
Here, though, on 'The Hollies' (1974) (Why couldn't they have called it
something else - I hate having to write that title out every time!) it sounds
rather out of place, a reminder of a time when the Hollies were mellow,
acoustic and laidback which gets lost in amongst two of the noisier album songs
either side of it.
'Down On The Run' is a 'new' Tony Hicks/Colin
Horton-Jennings song that sounds tailor-made for the new look Hollies: there's
a poppy shuffle beat and a brasher lyric track that fits Clarke's brasher
voice. Alas the song is only a slight improvement from 'It's A Shame, It's A
Game', being another silly juvenile song about being part of a gang and wanting
to impress. There's a hint that the gang are less than the savoury characters
the narrator points them out to be (the references to 'Angels' suggest they're
bikers and the many references to alcohol to steady the narrator's nerves
suggests they aren't doing anything legal). The third verse, in fact, is
particularly un-Hollies like and almost savours the cruelty of the song: 'Two
shadows are passing, cutting like knives, short cut on our lives'. This song,
should, then, be a fascinating experiment into the Hollies doing something
different, but sadly they've stuck the same old shuffle-beat we've heard
several times on top of the song and there's no drama in the proceedings:
Clarke could be singing his shopping list for all the resonance the lyrics seem
to possess. There's no resolution either: you're expecting the protagonist to
get caught, see the error of his ways, see his friend knifed, be overcome with
remorse, something - but nothing happens, he simply ends the song waiting for
the next weekend when he can do it all over again, which is about the worst
ending the song could have. At least there's a welcome return of Clarke's
ever-wonderful harmonica playing though (sadly the only time it's used on this
album) and the band are at least trying something different on this track,
although they should really have gone that little bit further to make Hollies
history.
Sadly 'Love Makes The World Go Round' doesn't have
either saving caveat: it's the kind of
sickly sentimental song the band always seem to lapse into when they're not
quite sure what to do next. At their best The Hollies are a pop band with a
real gravitas and emotional weight behind them - at their worst, as here,
they're simply a pop band and not a particularly good one. Sung just that
little bit too slow and with just that little bit over-cliched lyrics, this is
one of the worst Hollies recordings of them all. You can almost tick off all
the lines you'd expect from the awful title: 'Mr Right turned into Mr Wrong'
'Love can make you feel three feet off the ground' etc etc. A more interesting
song would have been to turn the last angst-filled verse into the main theme:
with his heart crushed the narrator wonders if the world will stop too because
without the love that's always made 'the world go round for him' it seems as if
it will stop altogether. Interestingly this horror is not by Hicks and
collaborators (who have a tendency to lapse into this sort of thing and the
hint at infidelity at the song's end, which is quickly becoming a Hicks
trademark) but by
Allan and Terry, the pair reviving their partnership from before Clarke left.
Even Tony's burbling frog-like guitar riff and a sweeping orchestral
arrangement can't save this from being one of the slowest four minutes in the
Hollies' canon. They won't make a mistake this big again until the 1990s...
The album thankfully ends on another high point with
the longest song title in Hollies history: 'The Day That Curly Billy Shot Down
Crazy Sam McGee'. A tense cowboy epic written in the style of 'Long Cool
Woman', it manages to sound both musically tougher than the original (the delay
till the bass and drums kick in) and lighter lyrically (despite the death of
McGee in the chorus). Some fans wondered at the time whether there was space
for two such similar songs in the Hollies canon but I say there is: Clarke's
strident macho cowboy is a world away from the shadowy FBI informant of 'Cool
Woman' and - safe in the knowledge that this might be the album single rather
than just an album track - every trick in the band's arsenal is brought out to
play, including a catchy singalong chorus and a real peak of tension heading
out of the instrumental. Considering that this is only the second song the
Hollies worked on together post-split (after the unreleased 'Mexico Gold') and
the fact that it sounds nothing like either Clarke's solo work or the two
Rickfors Hollies albums, the performance is remarkably tight, dripping with
energy and sweat. Clarke's vocal is at least as his good as his work on 'Long
Cool Woman' and he just about manages to steer his Wild West tale with the
chorus line 'Curly Billy silly with his colt he calls philly' away from the
comedy that lesser bands would have given it. After all, some of these lyrics are
actually quite dark: the narrator hints that he recognises the baddy after
shooting his son who had the same look of fear in his eyes, the cowboy is
betrayed not out of loyalty or bravery but a bribe from the man who runs the
local hotel and the narrator makes no bones about his death in the last verse,
feeling the 'rippling lead' pass through him. Forget the silly chorus if you
can: this is as intense and upsetting as any Western film and it ends with the
rogue still on the loose and the town without a sheriff, even if he was
'crazy'. The central guitar riff isn't quite as menacing or powerful as 'Long
Cool Woman' and yet it does its job, with all three guitarists in the band
(Clarke included) turning in a great performance, along with Bobby's sparse, spare
drums and Bernie's walking bass part. Incidentally, if you can look out for the
Hollies' Top Of The Pops appearance plugging this song: caught in the middle of
one of the show's many 'miming' debates the band chooses to go for a half-live
half-recorded hybrid, Clarke singing a new lead vocal along with his old one
and Bobby adding some 'new' drums. The result is even better than the studio
take that made the album, without even the slight production polish of the
finished version. Sadly the song didn't stay in the band's setlist for very
long, but I bet it was a killer track when the band played it back then. The
rest of the album may have squandered many of its chances, but the
Clarke-reunion period clearly starts with a bang, with everything The Hollies
could have been in the wake of 'Long Cool Woman' and the 'missing' years
dispelled in one swoop.
What we have, then, is one of the lesser Hollies
albums but even the lesser Hollies albums have much to enjoy: you can pretty
neatly saw this album in half from the tracks that work ('Falling Calling'
'Don't Let Me Down' 'The Air That I Breathe' 'Pick Up The Pieces' and 'Curly
Billy') and those that don't. The Hollies clearly aren't quite sure yet how to
play their 'reunion' - whether they pick up where they left off, go back to
being a 'pop' band, continue with the more downbeat bluesy and acoustic things
they've been up to while they've been apart or try something new and darker.
The result is an album that tries everything but only really succeeds when the
band try to do what they used to do - but better; the ballads are more polished
and more heartfelt than ever, 'Curly Billy' is a rock song that takes no
prisoners and 'Falling Calling' is a superior pop song that touched on big
debates and danger. Everything else falls slightly short somehow - the band
'playing' at being pop stars, wearing drainpipe trousers, writing about knife
crimes and discussing promiscuous girlfriends, none of which really make sense
as a 'new' direction. Certainly fans coming to this album from the two hit
singles were bemused: there's nothing here as powerful as 'Breathe' or as rocky
as 'Curly Billy' and the two songs clearly had more time spent on them than
anything else on the LP. Thankfully the Hollies were always quick to learn and
they seem to instinctively realise that their future depends on building on the
bits of this album that work: from here-on in the outside collaborators will be
gone in favour of group compositions, the production will be top notch and
glossy but only when the songs demand it rather than being piled on everything
and the band will go back to writing classy pop with a touch of depth and
emotion. The Hollies needed the learning curve 'The Hollies (1974)'
represented, which given the circumstances of slight resentments on both halves
that the group was bigger than they were ought to have been worse. Thankfully,
though, they've done learning by the time of the next LP and both their mojo and consistency come back the
very next 'Night', a record regarded by many Hollies aficionados as their best
work of the 1970s...
'In The Hollies Style' (1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-hollies-in-hollies-style-1964-album.html
'The Hollies' (1965) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-83-hollies.html
A NOW
COMPLETE LIST OF HOLLIES ARTICLES TO READ AT ALAN’S ALBUM ARCHIVES:
'Stay With The Hollies' (1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-hollies-stay-with-hollies-1964.html
'Stay With The Hollies' (1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-hollies-stay-with-hollies-1964.html
'In The Hollies Style' (1964) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-hollies-in-hollies-style-1964-album.html
'The Hollies' (1965) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-83-hollies.html
'Would
You Believe?' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-hollies-would-you-believe-1966.html
'For Certain, Because' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-hollies-for-certain-because-1966.html
'Evolution' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-11-hollies-evolution-1967.html
'Butterfly' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-14-hollies-butterfly-1967.html
‘Hollies Sing Hollies’ (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-hollies-sing-hollies-1969.html
'Confessions Of The Mind' (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-39-hollies-confessions-of-mind.html
'For Certain, Because' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-hollies-for-certain-because-1966.html
'Evolution' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-11-hollies-evolution-1967.html
'Butterfly' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-14-hollies-butterfly-1967.html
‘Hollies Sing Hollies’ (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-hollies-sing-hollies-1969.html
'Confessions Of The Mind' (1970) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-39-hollies-confessions-of-mind.html
'A
Distant Light' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-hollies-distant-light-1971-album.html
'Romany' (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-52-hollies-romany-1972.html
'Out On The Road' (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-62-hollies.html
'Headroom' (Allan Clarke solo) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-57-allan-clarke-headroom-1973.html
'Romany' (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-52-hollies-romany-1972.html
'Out On The Road' (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-62-hollies.html
'Headroom' (Allan Clarke solo) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-57-allan-clarke-headroom-1973.html
'The
Hollies' (1974) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-hollies-hollies-1974-album-review.html
'Another
Night' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-hollies-another-night-1975.html
‘Write On’ (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/the-hollies-write-on-1976.html
‘Write On’ (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/the-hollies-write-on-1976.html
‘Russian
Roulette’ (1976) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-hollies-russian-roulette-1976.html
'A
Crazy Steal' (1978) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-hollies-crazy-steal-1978.html
'5317704' (1979) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-110-hollies.html
'5317704' (1979) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-110-hollies.html
'What
Goes Around..." (1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-hollies-what-goes-around-1983.html
'Staying
Power' (2006) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-hollies-staying-power-2006.html
‘Then,
Now, Always’ (2009)
https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/the-hollies-then-now-always-2009.html
'Radio Fun' (BBC Sessions) (2012) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-145-hollies.html
The Best Unreleased Hollies Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-hollies-rarities-ii-best-unreleased.html
'Radio Fun' (BBC Sessions) (2012) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-145-hollies.html
The Best Unreleased Hollies Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-hollies-rarities-ii-best-unreleased.html
Surviving
TV Footage 1964-2010 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-hollies-surviving-tv-footage-1964.html
Non-Album
Songs Part One: 1963-1970 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-hollies-non-album-songs-part-one.html
Non-Album
Songs Part Two: 1971-2014 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-hollies-non-album-songs-part-two.html
Live/Solo/Compilation/US Editions/Covers Albums Part One 1964-1975 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-hollies-livesolocompilationouttakes.html
Live/Solo/Compilation/US Editions/Covers Albums Part One 1964-1975 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-hollies-livesolocompilationouttakes.html
Live/Solo/Compilation/US
Editions/Covers Albums Part Two 1976-2014 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-hollies-livesolocompilationouttakes_21.html
Essay:
What Exactly Was The Hollies’ Style? https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-hollies-essay-what-excatly-was.html
Five
Landmark Concerts and Three Key Cover Versions https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-hollies-five-landmark-concerts-and.html
