THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,264) The Association — “Barefoot Gentleman”
From the Association’s ‘68 LP Birthday comes the utterly gorgeous “Barefoot”, which is “[a]rguably, Jim Yester’s finest moment [with] beautiful, ravishing harmonies!” (maxmerry8470, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldRCeLlfh74), “co-written with Skip Carmel . . . . a hazy, primordial tale of boy meets girl”. (Robert Gilbert, https://www.listeningsessions.ca/p/enter-the-association) “The background counter-point and harmony is mind-boggling.” (MrLatch0208, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMy_BZqTbo4) “Barefoot” “is truly a haunting song, with a somber mood and philosophical lyrics”. (adamus67, https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-association-birthday-1968-us.html) Carlalindquist2766 asked “[c]ould this song be any more beautiful!?” and mrb4886 responded with an emphatic “No! :)” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMy_BZqTbo4)
Jasonbear writes:
[P]erhaps Birthday ‘s peak moment . . . which starts with some gentle Latin mass-styled chanting and ultimately morphs into a Neo-Spectorian ‘Wall of Sound’ by its end. The net effect is an overwhelming three minutes and twenty-seven seconds of pure acoustic bliss, the likes of which are nearly enough to make one swear that the Association have attained a new high water mark for pop music.”
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-association/birthday/
David Pearson:
“Another standout [from Birthday], Jim Yester’s fragile tenor voice being just perfect for the song. And the overall sound achieved by the song’s arrangement and production still packs emotional power. . . . Terry Kirkman recalls the effect it had on people who dropped into the studio when the group were working on it: “They would just sob… And the musicians were so blown away by the sound. They said, ‘I would have played on this record for nothing.’”
Richie Unterberger writes:
A few of Birthday’s tracks . . . were collaborations between members of the band and outside writers, Yester penning a couple of songs with childhood friend Skip Carmel. “Those songs that I collaborated on with Skip, most of those are right out of Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung. It’s all about personal transformation and archetypes and all of that kind of stuff. When I played it for the group, [Larry] Ramos used to hate that kind of stuff. He’d say, ‘What the hell does that mean?’ But Bones really liked ’em, so we wound up doing ’em.” . . .
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-association-birthday-1968-us.html
Adamus67 calls Birthday “[T]he Association’s finest album statement, sound that to me is most alluring. The band’s harmonies are clearly the star of the show as Howe’s production smartly keeps them front and center.” (https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-association-birthday-1968-us.html) As to the album, Richie Unterberger writes:
Nobody knew it when Birthday was issued as the Association’s fourth album in March 1968, but the group had just passed their commercial peak. . . . Birthday was nonetheless hardly a slouch saleswise, reaching #23 and spawning the group’s final Top Ten single, “Everything That Touches You,” as well as the Top Forty hit “Time for Livin’.” . . . Jim Yester . . . . recall[s] it as being a time of uneasy transition for the band, though their trademark harmonious vocal blends were never more intact than on this album. “The relationship was getting very strange at that time between [producer] Bones [Howe] and ourselves,” he acknowledges. “Bones contended that had we stuck to that kind of semi-folk genre [which had yielded songs like “Windy”], we would have lasted forever. He was trying to get us to do that, and the group was trying to pull in a more avant-garde direction. I think that was one of the things that pulled the relationship apart. And a lot of other relationships in the group were getting strange at the time.” . . .
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-association-birthday-1968-us.html
Bruce Eder tells us of the Association:
Their smooth harmonies and pop-oriented sound . . . made them regular occupants of the highest reaches of the pop charts for two years . . . . The group’s roots go back to a meeting in 1964 between Terry Kirkman . . . and Jules Alexander . . . . Alexander was in the U.S. Navy at the time, serving out his hitch, and they agreed to get together professionally once he was out. That happened at the beginning of 1965, and they at once pursued a shared goal: to put together a large-scale ensemble that would be more ambitious than such existing big-band folk outfits as the New Christy Minstrels and the Serendipity Singers. The result was the Men, a 13-member band that played folk, rock, and jazz, and earned a spot as the house band at the L.A. Troubadour. . . . [T]heir lineup split in two after just a few weeks with seven members exiting. The remaining six formed the Association . . . . Each member was also a singer — indeed, their vocal abilities were far more important than their skills on any specific instruments . . . . The group rehearsed for six months before they began performing, developing an extremely polished, sophisticated, and complex sound. . . . [They] scored a single release on the Jubilee label — [but] “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You[]” wasn’t a success, nor was their subsequent 1965 recording of Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings” . . . . The group came completely into its own, however, with the recording of the singles “Along Comes Mary” and “Cherish.” . . . Those two songs, and the entire album that followed, revealed a level of craftsmanship that was unknown in rock recordings up to that time. Producer Curt Boettcher showed incredible skill in putting together the stereo sound on that album, which was among the finest sounding rock records of the period. . . . [T]he exhaustion that came with success and the avarice of their record label, along with a couple of artistic and commercial misjudgments, combined to interrupt the group’s progress. . . . “Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies,” was not an ideal choice as a follow-up to one of the prettiest and most accessible rock records of the decade, reaching only number 35, and . . . the next single, also fared poorly. Equally important, the group was forced to rush out a second album, Renaissance . . . . A major personnel problem also arose as Jules Alexander . . . decided to leave. He headed off to India . . . . In the meantime, the Association recruited multi-instrumentalist Larry Ramos of the New Christy Minstrels . . . . The group’s lineup change coincided with their getting access to a song by Ruthann Friedman [see #542] called “Windy[]” . . . another number one single . . . . They turned to Bones Howe . . . who finished [their third album, Insight Out] with them. Its two hits, “Windy” and “Never My Love,” were among their most popular and enduring songs . . . . Birthday was a departure from its three predecessors, their attempt at creating a heavier sound . . . [but] fell largely on deaf ears when it was issued in 1968 . . . . By 1969, the sensibilities of the rock audience had hardened, even as that audience splintered. Suddenly, groups that specialized in more popular, lighter fare, . . . were considered . . . uncool by the new rock intelligentsia.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-association-mn0000753963#biography
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