{"id":22612,"date":"2022-03-21T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22612"},"modified":"2022-03-30T13:35:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T17:35:49","slug":"march-through-time-the-young-rascals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/21\/march-through-time-the-young-rascals\/","title":{"rendered":"March Through Time: The (Young) Rascals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-22613\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_rascals.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_rascals.jpg 500w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_rascals-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_rascals-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>\u201cBlue eyed soul\u201d is the term we used to employ to describe The Young Rascals (later simply The Rascals). But that problematic term fails to describe what really made the group special: an ability to put its exuberance and sophistication across without sacrificing one or the other. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2013\/03\/18\/the-felix-cavaliere-interview-part-1\/\">I\u2019ve interviewed Felix Cavaliere<\/a> a couple of times, and was fortunate to see the reunion tour back in 2013 or so. And I treasure those LPs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i><b>The Young Rascals<\/b><\/i><b> (1966)<\/b> \u2013 Silly costumes aside, this is a great r&amp;b-flavored party record. Nearly all covers, but hey: <i>what<\/i> covers.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Collections<\/b><\/i><b> (1967)<\/b> \u2013 The band starts to write its own songs. The glorious originals \u201cWhat is the Reason,\u201d \u201c(I\u2019ve Been\u201d) Lonely Too Long\u201d and \u201cLove is a Beautiful Thing\u201d make this a nonstop wonder. Be sure to listen to the stereo mix.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Groovin&#8217;<\/b><\/i><b> (1967)<\/b> \u2013 Suddenly, they\u2019re writing <i>all<\/i> their own material. And it\u2019s great. The title track and \u201cYou Better Run\u201d are the most well-known, but it\u2019s all solid.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Once Upon a Dream<\/b><\/i><b> (1968)<\/b> \u2013 All originals, and more mature, ambitious approach. A very sophisticated record designed to be experienced as a whole, it didn\u2019t focus on hit singles.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Freedom Suite<\/b><\/i><b> (1969)<\/b> \u2013 A double album from the era in which many made them. Overblown and too long but scattered with superb tracks. And of course \u201cPeople Got to Be Free.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><i><b>See<\/b><\/i><b> (1969)<\/b> \u2013 The balance that characterized the group had shifted; Felix Cavaliere was leading the way by this point. The high had come and was on its way out.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Search and Nearness<\/b><\/i><b> (1971)<\/b> \u2013 The band was in the process of splitting, and the record is uneven as a result.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>Peaceful World<\/b><\/i><b> (1971)<\/b> \u2013 This will have confused longtime fans. New band, new label, new sound. Moving away from their signature sound, The Rascals made an excellent record. Trouble was, there wasn\u2019t an audience for it at the time.<\/li>\n<li><i><b>The Island of Real<\/b><\/i><b> (1972)<\/b> \u2013 If you can view it on its own merits \u2013 and not as part of the Rascals canon \u2013 it\u2019s quite impressive. Far more in a jazz vein, and with a very different lineup, it\u2019s an emotionally immersive record.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBlue eyed soul\u201d is the term we used to employ to describe The Young Rascals (later simply The Rascals). But that problematic term fails to describe what really made the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,65],"tags":[1788,2419],"class_list":["post-22612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-review","tag-rascals","tag-young-rascals","cat-27-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22612","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=22612"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22680,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22612\/revisions\/22680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}