{"id":24107,"date":"2023-01-12T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24107"},"modified":"2023-01-13T09:41:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T14:41:32","slug":"the-cowsills-all-in-the-family-part-3-of-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/12\/the-cowsills-all-in-the-family-part-3-of-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cowsills: All in the Family (Part 3 of 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a>\u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n

Bob notes that when the Cowsills were on the way up, \u201cDad knew what to do, and how to \u2018My way or the highway.\u2019\u201d Susan elaborates: \u201cYou can \u2018My way or the high way\u2019 your kids, but you can\u2019t do that with Madison Avenue.\u201d Bud Cowsill\u2019s bull-in-a-china-shop approach may have opened doors for the family band, but his abrasive, pugnacious attitude caused those same doors to shut nearly as quickly. \u201cMy dad did not have any finesse in society,\u201d Susan says. \u201cAnd he was drunk half the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob says that while Bud\u2019s hard work helped the Cowsills take off, his reputation worked against their successes. \u201cHe made it so that we became a hot potato in New York. People dealt with us once, and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Again luckily for the group, the Cowsills\u2019 combination of songwriting prowess and smart selection of songs from other writers meant that success would continue. For the second 1968 Cowsills album, Captain Sad and His Ship of Fools<\/i>, the hit single came in the form of \u201cIndian Lake\u201d (Billboard #10, U.S.). Bill and Bob produced nine of the record\u2019s tracks.<\/p>\n

The Cowsills didn\u2019t have input into the packaging of their albums, and having their hands full making the music, they didn\u2019t care that much about album covers. But they do have vivid memories of the photo session for the Captain Sad<\/i> LP. \u201cWe were on this huge old boat,\u201d Susan recalls, \u201cthis real pirate boat.\u201d Featuring what Bob describes as \u201ca central casting guy\u201d dressed as a creepy clown (\u201cHe was creepy all day,\u201d adds Paul) the photo features all of the members of the Cowsills wearing paper masks. In what might have been a dark-humored inside joke, those masks represented the seven deadly sins.<\/p>\n

By 1969, MGM had compiled a dozen sides onto a best-of LP. Meanwhile, Bill and Bob decided to cut a Cowsills version of the theme from the wildly popular stage musical Hair<\/i>. MGM executives were against the idea, but the Cowsills pushed the issue. Recorded in the family band\u2019s garage, when released as a single, \u201cHair\u201d soared to the #2 spot on the U.S. singles charts.<\/p>\n

That same year, the group set out to prove that they were more than a family of freshly-scrubbed pop stars. The Cowsills Live<\/i> served up an eclectic set of songs drawing from the covers side of the band\u2019s repertoire. Pop gems by The Left Banke and the Sopwith Camel got the Cowsills\u2019 treatment (with their trademark sterling vocals). But less likely numbers including The Beatles\u2019 \u201cPaperback Writer\u201d and Paul\u2019s vocal turn on Cream\u2019s \u201cSunshine of Your Love\u201d showed that at their core, The Cowsills really were a rock band.<\/p>\n

Today it\u2019s fair to wonder if Cowsills fans in 1969 would have been receptive to the rock tunes; presumably they came to hear \u201cIndian Lake\u201d and other sunshine pop hits. But Bob emphasizes that the audiences loved the band\u2019s eclectic set list. \u201cWe could\u2019ve gotten away with anything in those days,\u201d he says with a laugh. Susan adds, \u201cAs long as Barry was standing, I don\u2019t think the fans cared what<\/i> we were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBill Hanley was the [live] sound guy\u201d for The Cowsills Live<\/i>, Bob recalls. Using a two trucks equipped with mobile recording units, Hanley captured a pair of shows in Cleveland, Ohio. Once again, Bill and Bob Cowsill produced the resulting album. \u201cThe technology we were working with at the time was very limited,\u201d Bob says. We were linking two machines in the booth, trying to make sense of it. It was a train wreck!\u201d Even with some studio sweetening \u2013 then and now a near-universal practice when producing live albums \u2013 the record captures the fun and excitement of a Cowsills concert.<\/p>\n

\"\"At their height, the Cowsills toured outside the U.S. as well, visiting Europe twice (performing in Italy, Germany and Spain) and Mexico. \u201cBut not as much as we would have liked,\u201d Bob says.<\/p>\n

Doubling down on the Cowsills\u2019 wholesome image, the group appeared in 1969 print and television ads for the American Dairy Association, extolling the virtues of milk. A tie-in EP, The Cowsills Collectors Album<\/i> was released that same year.<\/p>\n

In a closer-to-home repeat of Kornfeld\u2019s ouster from the Cowsills\u2019 orbit, the group suffered an even greater setback. Bill Cowsill had long clashed with father Bud over any number of things, including his friendship with Waddy Wachtel. And when Bud discovered that Bill was now smoking<\/i> the pot he had heard about from Artie, he fired his eldest son from the group\u2026 and, as far as Bud was concerned, from the family.<\/p>\n

By the time of 1970\u2019s II X II<\/i>, the family band had undergone a seismic shift. With Bill gone, it was left to guitarist Bob Cowsill to lead the group, produce the album and write. Bob recalls the group’s collective thought at the time: \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to rebuild ourselves, but we’re going to have to do it in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barbara would be less present on the record; Wachtel would produce the album\u2019s second single, \u201cSilver Threads and Golden Needles.\u201d Neither it nor the first single, \u201cThe Prophecy of Daniel and John the Divine\u201d would crack the Top 40. When released as a single, the album\u2019s title track failed to chart at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public said, \u2018Eh, not so good,\u2019\u201d Bob admits. \u201cBut we had a blast, and we stand by it.\u201d Paul notes that the album marked a turning point for the group, who had long appeared onstage in matching costumes. \u201cWe finally got to wear different clothes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bob says that when Mike Curb came on board at MGM records, he made it his business to \u201cget rid of the low-hanging fruit that wasn\u2019t producing any more.\u201d That meant the end for the Cowsills at MGM.<\/p>\n

Yet The Cowsills persevered. Bob had gotten engaged to Nanci Roberts, a former Playboy bunny and cast member on the cable program Playboy After Dark<\/i>. Thanks to Nanci\u2019s connections, the show hosted by Hugh Hefner booked its most unlikely musical guests ever. Performing live \u2013 not miming \u2013 in the \u201crumpus room\u201d in front of a crowd of dancing celebrities, the Cowsills played a varied set of songs. In a staged interview, Hefner asks 11-year old Susan what she wants to be when she grows up. She replies, \u201cWould you believe…Miss February?\u201d Asked today if she knew then just how cringeworthy that exchange appeared, she nods. \u201cYou have no idea<\/i>,\u201d Susan says.<\/p>\n

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

Continued from Part Two\u2026 Bob notes that when the Cowsills were on the way up, \u201cDad knew what to do, and how to \u2018My way or the highway.\u2019\u201d Susan elaborates: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51,62],"tags":[4986],"class_list":["post-24107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","tag-the-cowsills","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24107","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=24107"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24714,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24107\/revisions\/24714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}