{"id":19275,"date":"2020-09-03T05:30:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T09:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19275"},"modified":"2020-09-04T13:30:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T17:30:16","slug":"second-verse-better-than-the-first-the-choir-reunites-part-2-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/03\/second-verse-better-than-the-first-the-choir-reunites-part-2-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Verse, Better Than the First: The Choir Reunites (Part 2 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"The Choir certainly knew how to rock hard; the group\u2019s cover of The Kinks\u2019 \u201cDavid Watts\u201d made that plain. But the musicians were at their collective best digging into more complex material. Few bands then or now would think to cover The Nice\u2019s arrangement of Leonard Bernstein\u2019s \u201cAmerica.\u201d But The Choir could faithfully channel the pyrotechnics and intensity of Keith Emerson\u2019s thrilling keyboard runs. And that was just the beginning. \u201cI\u2019m still scratching my head trying to figure out how we did \u2018MacArthur Park,\u2019\u201d Bonfanti says with a chuckle. \u201cWe had piano and organ, but we didn\u2019t have strings!\u201d<\/p>\n

But somehow they managed. \u201cIt went over so well,\u201d he recalls, \u201cthat it became almost our theme song.\u201d And the fans remembered: When The Choir first got back together in November 2018 to play Cleveland\u2019s Beachland Ballroom, quite a few people approached the band to request \u201cMacArthur Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, Bonfanti says, the answer was no. \u201cWe had so much to do, that we decided, \u2018No, we\u2019re not going there.\u2019And we stayed away from it.\u201d But by the time of the Music Box performance ten months later, The Choir had decided to up the ante. The band worked out the complex arrangements for the multi-part song. The results can be heard toward the end of the second disc on the new Last Call<\/i> album.<\/p>\n

But interesting as they are, the covers in The Choir\u2019s live set shouldn\u2019t overshadow the band\u2019s original material. The group is equally impressive when it brings to life songs from its 1969 demo, tracks first heard on the posthumous Artifact<\/i> collection released in 2018. With its strong melody and soaring harmonies, Phil Giallombardo\u2019s \u201cAnyway I Can\u201d sounds like a hit, and wouldn\u2019t have sounded out of place on a Raspberries album.<\/p>\n

And though The Choir didn\u2019t manage to land a record deal in 1969, the group boasted not one but three songwriters. Each had his own strengths. Bonfanti says that Giallombardo\u2019s writing shows a jazz influence. \u201cKenny\u2019s got that soulful voice, and he writes that way,\u201d he says. And Bonfanti praises the pop sensibility of bassist Denny Carleton, as showcased on songs like \u201cIf These Are Men\u201d and \u201cMummer Band.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the uniformly high quality of The Choir\u2019s songwriting and impressive musicianship, it\u2019s fair to wonder why the band didn\u2019t have any luck getting a recording contract. \u201cWe just weren\u2019t lucky,\u201d Bonfanti says today. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was because the material didn\u2019t hold up; I think we just didn\u2019t get the break.\u201d He makes the point that in the music business, \u201cwho you know\u201d is often the deciding factor. \u201cThat\u2019s what it comes down to,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s that one person who knows the other person who knows the other person who gets you there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonfanti says that The Choir didn\u2019t have connections outside of Cleveland. \u201cWe had people who tried,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t have enough to get us where we needed to go, to get that [demo] in front of the right person.\u201d He does think that had the group scored such a break, \u201cAnyway I Can\u201d could have been successful. \u201cA couple of those songs could have been really big hits. I think it was just timing, the luck of the draw. And more bad luck than good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klawon agrees, but shares a slightly different perspective. He looks upon the late \u201860s as a time when record companies were reasserting control over the musical landscape. \u201cEarlier, in the \u201860s, you had more artist creativity,\u201d he says. \u201cThen as the music business evolved, the record companies started exerting their influence, to make hit records, to make it [more of a] business.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at the same time, Klawon believes, those record companies didn\u2019t really know what they wanted. \u201cIt was a hit and miss thing,\u201d he says. \u201cEverybody wanted to go in and make demos and sell them to a record company, but who knows what they were looking for at that time? He recalls that when The Choir recorded its album-length demo, Jeff Beck Group\u2019s Beck-Ola<\/i> had just been released. \u201cAnd Sly and the Family Stone just came out,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was an evolution going on, I think, taking away the power being with the bands. The record companies were going with established artists.\u201d Whatever the reason, The Choir didn\u2019t break out of Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Bonfanti understands that most modern-day listeners know of The Choir thanks to its connections with The Raspberries. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that they like what they hear. \u201cSome of our Raspberries fans are very diverse in what they like to listen to musically,\u201d he says, \u201cbut some of them are pigeonholed: If it isn\u2019t \u2018Ecstasy,\u2019 then it\u2019s crap, you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

But he emphasizes that for those interested in the hit-making Raspberries, The Choir is the beginning of that story. \u201cEric [Carmen] was at the last show we did in 1969,\u201d he recalls. \u201cHe was always a fan of The Choir, particularly the early, British Invasion version.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the band finished its set that night in December \u201869, Carmen approached Bonfanti. \u201cHe asked me about putting a band together, because he knew we were breaking up,\u201d says the drummer. \u201cAnd I told him no. I said, \u2018No, I\u2019m done. I\u2019m not playing. I\u2019m hanging up my rock and roll shoes.\u2019\u201d With a laugh, Bonfanti delivers the punch line: \u201cAnd for four months, I did<\/i>. I quit playing.\u201d After that brief pause, he got back in touch with Carmen and started The Raspberries.<\/p>\n

When The Choir ended, the various members went on to other pursuits. In the \u201870s, Klawon moved to California for awhile. And Bonfanti was busy with The Raspberries. But fans in Cleveland didn\u2019t forget about The Choir.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One \u2026 The Choir certainly knew how to rock hard; the group\u2019s cover of The Kinks\u2019 \u201cDavid Watts\u201d made that plain. But the musicians were at their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51,56,62],"tags":[3373],"class_list":["post-19275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-prog","category-rawk","tag-the-choir","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-56-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19275"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19612,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19275\/revisions\/19612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}