The Hollies :: View topic

I know a lot of people don't like them but I love covers albums, where an artist performs the songs they like or that inspired their musical careers (or as Joe Elliot says during a live intro on Def Leppard's 'Yeah', "this is one we loved when we were on that side of the barrier looking up here"). I came across two last night. One is "Countrypolitan Favorites' by Southern Culture on the Skids, a North Carolina trio that could be described as "hillbilly garage band meets surf twang". They mostly cover country songs of the 60s and 70s, but also manage to put their stamp on the Kinks' "Muswell Hillbilly", "Life's a Gas" by T. Rex, and the Who's "Happy Jack".

But the real highlight was the other CD, 'Influence' by Tommy Shaw (Styx) and Jack Blades (Night Ranger), who teamed up with Motor City Madman Ted Nugent in Damn Yankees about a decade ago. Shaw and Blades have stayed together and I was already sold on the CD by the songs they cover before I got to track 7, "On a Carousel". Very nice cover of the Hollies hit, but I'm still trying to interpret Shaw's liner notes about the track:

"This one almost suffered by us getting it more in tune than the original. All these songs were written long before the days of digital auto tuning, and the particular out-of-tuneness of the Hollies vocals really defined their sound. In order to keep the vibe of the original, we were careful not to make it too perfect."

In context, I think Shaw was complimenting the Hollies' vocal sound, and I think he may have been referring to the way Nash often competed with Clarke's lead vocal rather than actually harmonizing with it. And digital tuning has been a great help to many a musician. But I guess I never thought of the Hollies vocals as being out of tune! Maybe a professional musician on this message board knows better than I what he have been referring to...

In addition to "Carousel" 'Influence' contains a song covered by the Hollies ("I Am a Rock") and one that Tony passed on in favor of "I Can't Let Go" ("California Dreaming"). The rest of the covers are "Summer Breeze", "Time of the Season", "Your Move", "Lucky Man", "The Sound of Silence", "Dirty Work", "For What It's Worth" and "Dance With Me".

James, as an ELP fan, you'd especially appreciate how Shaw pulled out an old guitar effects pedal that enabled him do, as he put it, "dive bombs up and down" in doing his own version of Emerson's wild Moog finish on "Lucky Man"!

Well worth checking out...despite that "out-of-tune" comment.

Sounds interesting, Brandy! Rush did a pretty good covers album a while back called 'Feedback' which included great versions of 'For What It's Worth' and also The Who's 'The Seeker'.

Ahhh, that Moog solo...strangely quiet from The ELP camp these days, although P is engrossed in the reformed Asia (with new album and a tour DVD coming in the next year).

Regarding the out of tune comment I think that he's talking about the Hollies singing "up, down, up down, up down to-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o." Yeah, they went a bit off key.

James, I've got that Rush CD, I like it a lot too.

Interesting...Shaw-Blades covers "For What It's Worth" (noting its timeliness in the liner notes) Rush included it on Feedback a few years ago, and Terri Nunn also performed it (solo) on Berlin's 2005 CD, 4Play. I wonder if Steven Stills ever had any idea that 40 years after he wrote a song about anti-Vietnam War demonstrations on Sunset Strip, that it would appear to resonate with a later generation largely opposed to the war in Iraq.

Or maybe they just all recorded it because it's just a great song! Wink

Bruce