The Hollies :: View topic

Rythym Guitar Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 293

As I can see noone has dealt with the brilliant "Evolution" album yet.
I think it is a very artistic album with a lot of different instruments, experiments and nice melodies. It is a nice flower power contribution.
My favourite tracks are:
"Stop Right There" with a great violin solo. A great idea.
"Rain On The Window" which is nicely sung and orchestrated and reminds me of "Bus Stop" which is my favourite Hollies track anyway.
"Ye Olde Toffee Shop". Ridiculous or not! I like it. Again a very nice and creative idea.
"The Games We Play" and "Have You Ever Loved Somebody". Nice flower power beat songs which make you want to dance and sing with the guys. I like the lyrics of "The Games We Play". Fits into the time of the late 1960s and the sexual revolution.
The only thing I don't know from this album is "Leave Me" because I have the American version of "Evolution" where it was left off. Sometimes it annoys me very much because I really don't need "Carrie Anne" on this album again. Still I did not buy the British version of this album just because of that particular song. Maybe someone else could write about it and tell me whether the song is worth buying the album again.
But I think that both albums "Evolution" and "Butterfly" are as good as The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper". In contrast to other Beat groups like The Searchers, Herman's Hermits or even The Rolling Stones The Hollies were very creative and could write in the high artistical standard set by The Beatles in 1967. The Stones' "Their Satanic Majestic Request" is not half that good. So, why did The Hollies not get more attention with those two albums ? They are worth to be mentioned along other flower power art albums like "Sgt. Pepper", The Byrds' "Fifth Dimension", Cream's "Disraeli Gears" or The Zombies' "Odessey And Oracle".

If you want the track "Leave Me," then I suggest picking up the CD release of the U.S. album "Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse" on the Sundazed label (catalog #SC 6123).

That's essentially the Butterfly album with King Midas included.

Leave Me is a bonus track on the CD release.

Leave Me is a rocker, with a nifty organ solo in the middle (don't recall if Bernie or a session man played that).

For some reason, I've always thought of this song as a kind of tribute to Paul Revere and the Raiders' sound, or at least the kind of Hollies song the Raiders could have covered convincingly.

(Darn it, now I have "its's so hard to please - 1,2,3 - you, yeah" going through my head!)

Hi benny!

Evolution is one of my favourite albums, probably my number one. Possibly because it was the first Hollies LP I bought. I'm glad that you wrote about it, and I agree with most of what you wrote.

There's really no song on this album that I don't like, and it's hard to pick favourites, but the first on that comes to mind is Rain On The Window. I also love The Games We Play, You Need Love, Stop Right There and Ye Olde Toffee Shoppe.

I agree with what has been written about Lullaby To Tim in another post on this Forum, that I would like to hear it without the distorted voice, but when I was a teenager. it didn't bother me.

Agneta

Rythym Guitar Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK

I just accquired the album this week .I hadn't heard much psycedelic Hollies and this is quite a revelation.It's a very mature album with complex stories going on,affairs infidelity and plain sex as opposed to the sweeter innocent times of the early 60s.Probably a reflection of things going on in their own lives. Water on the Brain is a jaunty little number with a cool trombone . Lullaby To Tim is really a very very beautifu song but I just have the feeling that I would like to clear my throat when I hear it. Have you Ever Loved Sombody , I love the chorus and middle eight on this song but I don't think the main tune is anything special. You Need Love has typically good Allan vocals and nice "mexican" type horns . Rain On The Window is an amazing, dark song with a fabulously incessant "pitter,patter ,This song has been so over looked. It's my fav on the album. Heading For A Fall has a class beat but what is the instrument here,a zither?Anyway this too is a really strong song. Toffee Shop is quirky and quaint,love the flute.Was it written cos the lads grew up when rationing was still in force? Light Turned On is very Beatley and very catchy . Leave Me is I think is very Animals inspired and I love the hammond? organ,so cool.The way it ends is unusual too with the" left in mid air" vocals.

Banjo Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 49 Location: Dunstable

[ [quote]Lullaby To Tim is really a very very beautifu song but I just have the feeling that I would like to clear my throat when I hear it.

I think this song has been talked about before, but I would love to hear it sang without the special effects: The Hollies are a vocal group, and I think this version just ruins the vocals, however, you can still hear what a lovely song it is

Joined: 21 Jan 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Australia

The Sundazed release failed in many ways but I guess they just wanted to get the Butterfly album out on CD and so put that out with the bonus tracks being King Midas, Leave Me and Do The Best You Can. They called it Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse cause that's what the original vinyl LP release in the US was called.

Their major stuff up was that they didn't use the US vinyl mix but the UK Butterfly mix.
Several of the songs on the vinyl version were missing the soundeffects used on the UK Butterfly.

The only way to get the US original mix is to track down the LP version.

The CD version was a bit of a letdown as Butterfly was already reissued on CD in the UK.

Just as a matter of interest the German version of Butterfly had a couple of tracks that had different mixes to the UK version as well. Elevated Observations had 2 mixes of the track put together to make one longer track and Pegesas was missing sounds effects of the horse.

Chris