I mean -- like wow.
I haven't heard the album in a million years, so I have no idea if the rest of the stuff on the record is similarly great, but I should add that not only is the song, objectively speaking, about as hauntingly gorgeous as pop rock gets, but unless I am very much mistaken, it's the only song Argent ever did that really betrays the provenance of its leaders previous band, i.e. The Zombies.
I mean, c'mon --can't you hear Colin Blunstone singing that?
In any case, may I just say again -- like wow. 😎
9 comments:
It's a good album, but nothing else sounds like "Schoolgirl," which might as well be The Zombies.
Lovely tune with some fine keyboard work.Haven't listened to the album in a long time. Thanks for the reminder to give it a spin.
- Paul in DK
That was my recollection as well.
Lovely track but, yes, unrepresentative of the overall body of their work. Argent were one of the few Prog bands that I can enjoy (are they Prog?).
Hey- here's a fun fact I came across recently: When Hunter & Ronson left Mott the Hoople, CBS suggested the band adding Russ Ballard as singer.
Thus changing history in unfathomable ways. 😎
Ian was a local, Mick produced my best friends first single - knew the guy who bought/inherited everything Mick had for stage and instruments including his famous Les Paul
rob 😉
"Liar" is a great song that became a hit for Three Dog Night.
Gorgeous song. Was the flip side of Liar, which Danny Hutton would later sing into a filthy, stinking toilet at American Studios (anything to get that right vocal sound). Those two songs were the best on the album. I think the rest was hit and miss. I was disappointed at the time because I expected so much more. The Liar/Schoolgirl single came out about a month before the album. I picked up the single at Gillette's during November before Thanksgiving. Doug had ordered fifty copies and the only one he sold was to me. I felt bad because I was the one who tipped him off to buy the record in the first place. It was a sure thing. It had the Zombies connection and Time of Season was, very recently, their biggest hit in years. But I was wrong. It bombed big time. Nevertheless, the single blew my mind and I was anticipating a killer album. But it was meh. Some good moments but some cheezy banalities as well.
Fast forward a few months. Sandy and I went to Hollywood with two older girls, who had their drivers licenses already. We had arranged to stay there for a week. We were gonna do a concert run. Our parents were cool with it. Even if they weren't, we would have done it anyway. We stayed at the Farmer's Daughter gratis, because one of the older girls knew someone in charge. We ended up seeing three sets by Argent on two different nights. The first night we just wandered into the Whisky after seeing Hendrix do the Forum. We caught the late set. They were pretty good live. The harmonies were spot on. We went the following night and caught both sets. They did Schoolgirl during two of the three sets we saw over the two nights. And they did it justice. Ballard could evoke Blunstone when he wanted to. The song even sounded as if written by Rod Argent & Chris White. Overall they were great musicians but there were ups and downs because of the material. Little Honey & Stepping Stone came off better live than on the record. The Ballard-Argent-Rodford vocal blend was astonishing. But, did we really need a drum solo? Or a long cheezeball-o-rama cover of Aquarius from Hair. WTF.
VR
Hey kiddo -- welcome back. I was beginning to get worried about you. 😎
Post a Comment