Terry Kirkman of The Association has passed away.
Terry wrote the group’s hits “Cherish,” “Everything That
Touches You,” “Six Man Band” and the beautiful B-Side to their #1 Hit “Never My
Love,” “Requiem For The Masses,” a pure showcase for the group’s vocal
abilities.
From start to finish, I probably saw The Association close
to a dozen times, dating back to 1967 when they played at my high school (yes,
big name, Top 40 bands used to actually do that … in fact, in 1967, both The
Association AND The Turtles played at our high school!!!) … on thru many a Music
In The Park evenings … to numerous oldies shows and, of course, their many trips
on The Happy Together Tour. Terry was
always entertaining to watch … the consummate performer.
TERRY KIRKMAN (b: 1939 - Died September 23rd 2023, at
83)
American musician and songwriter best known as a vocalist for the
pop group the Association and the writer of several of the band’s hit
songs such as “Cherish,” “Everything That Touches You” and “Six Man
Band.”
As a member of the Association, he was inducted into the Vocal
Group Hall of Fame in 2003.
Timmy
Harvey Kubernik shares this interview he did with Russ
Giguere and Jim Yester of The Association
…
I saw them 12 times from 1966-1980.
Delightful. Some of the best crafted pop tunes and wonderful arrangements. Did
someone just email me and mention the Association is not in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame? I had to remind her neither are the Turtles, Johnny Rivers, the
Monkees, the 5th Dimension, Three Dog Night and Love ...
HK
From my interview with Russ Giguere (who has an excellent book
out recapping the ups and downs of the band’s success, btw – kk)
Q: When
the Association first formed, evolving from a group called The Men, did you
know you had something special? I’m referring to the 1965-1966 period.
RUSS GIGUERE: Arranger
Clark Burroughs arrived at our house. I answered, “Aren’t you the Hi, of the
Hi-Lo’s?” He replied, “I have a song for you guys, ‘One Too Many
Mornings.’ Clark had this interesting arrangement idea. We just started working
on the tune immediately.
On “Along Comes Mary,” Jules Alexander of our
band played bass on the original demo. We
had a group house where four of us lived. Jules came back that night with a
demo and exclaimed, “Listen to this record!” He put it on. Holy moly. What a
song, it was like nothing we had ever heard. Tandyn Almer wrote it.
Later we would vote on songs but this was the
only one we never voted on. We decided Jim [Yester] would sing the lead. We
worked with Curt Boettcher, who was a sensitive vocal arranger. Our first album
we recorded with two 4-track machines in sync, to make it 8-track.
Q: I’ve
always felt The Association has been vastly overlooked by the media and music
historians, partly attributed to omnipresent east coast media bias which
dilutes the appreciation of the band’s rewarding legacy on recordings and live
performances. You sold 70 million records, 6 gold records, and had 7 top 40 hit
singles. 3 of your songs are the most played BMI licensed songs of the
twentieth century.
RG: There
are many people in the business who never really had the proper respect for
what we did. I know the impact we had. Why are we still on radio today? We had
strong material with good arrangements and those were performed well. It’s the
power of real music. And the performances are so sincere and real. It’s really
that simple.
Q: Let’s talk about “Windy.”
RG: In the nineties we were doing a concert in
Detroit with an orchestra. And the conductor (during a
break) wanted to talk to me. “I studied conducting with Leonard Bernstein
in New York, and he would greet us at the lecture
room door. He had a portable record
player and played ‘Windy’” … and told the room, ‘Now
that is a perfect record.’ Bernstein understood what we were doing.
Ruthann Friedman, who wrote it, was a friend
of ours, she gave it to us. Our manager Pat Collecchio particularly liked it,
and we liked it enough to vote yes on it. We did the basic track at Western Studio
on Sunset Blvd. with producer Bones Howe. We’d do the music first. The vocals
took a much longer time. Our tenor’s voice started wearing out. My wife Birdie,
Clark Burroughs’ wife Marilyn and Ruthann all stepped in and helped. They’re on
the track singing. By then we had 8-track recording.
The vocal on
“Windy” was completely mine. While I was recording, it occurred to me “that
this track was really gonna kick ass, like the windy city of Chicago.” Larry
[Ramos] had just joined the band and I said “Why don’t we have Larry sing this
with me?” So he came in and co-sang a lead. I also had several leads on that Insight
Out album.
Initially, on “Never My Love,” it was going to
be me and Terry [Kirkman] doing the leads, like on “Cherish.” So I said, “Let’s
have Larry sing it with Terry and it will help establish him as a new member.”
On “Everything That Touches You,” that is
Terry and Jim. Great bass line. Randy Sterling came up with that. He played
bass on a demo session and Joe Osborn was on the recording. Ben Benay and
studio musicians on dates were all union players. I understood that these guys
were used doing it on the fly, on tape. We were used to doing it live, at any
size concert.
Q: Talk
to me about the song “Cherish.” I saw the group early on and you could
replicate those harmonies on stage.
RG: After we cut “Cherish,” the two things people
would say would be, “When are you going to do a live album?” and “When are
going to release ‘Cherish’ as a single?” That was said for a year before it was
ever recorded. In fact, the first time we heard “Cherish,” the group
didn’t quite understand it, and we didn’t vote yes on it. Terry went and
woodshedded, and a couple of days later showed it to us again. And we all said,
“Now we see what you mean!”
Q: Terry
Kirkman as a tunesmith is never touted as a major songwriter in the musical
press. But “Cherish,” “Six Man Band,”
and “Everything That Touches You” are all his.
RG: His
specialty was what I call “thematic mothas,” short for mothers. “Cherish,”
“Requiem for the Masses,” he did all these great themes, along with “Enter The
Young.” He was influenced by Stan Kenton and jazz. He plays horn, sax. When I
first met Terry, he almost always had a recorder in his belt and pockets full
of harmonicas in different keys! He’d always be ready to play. Great songwriter
who truly loves music.
Q: The
Association was way more than a pop band.
RG: It was
everything. Rock ‘n’ roll, blues, folk, harmonies. It distinguished us from the
psychedelic groups of the late sixties. We also had a rule in the band: No
whining. We didn’t do any music that whined. Everything in our repertoire was
voted on. We covered songs and also did originals. For instance, on “Never My
Love,” that was basically already written … all we did was add some harmonies
to it. As far as our vocals and harmonies, they were very precise.
Jim Yester: I
felt the Monterey Festival was a big step in healing the riff between the L.A.
and San Francisco bands and it was very cool. I thought it was a great
unification thing for all the California groups.
I
certainly felt no angst from any of the San Francisco bands. I think it had
been going on when we went up there in 1965, ’66, with the Beach Boys at the
Long Shore Man’s Hall, and kinda got a cold shoulder. As of the Monterey
International Pop Festival, that was history. Listen, we were ‘heads’ just like
everybody else and just as crazy as everybody else, but we took care of
business. We stayed at the same motel as some of the bands, and right
next door was Janis Joplin. Pearly. We met her. I was blown away. She was very
down to earth, played with all the kids.
Earlier
we had performed with Quicksilver at the Fillmore West. In fact, Moby Grape’s
bass player at the time, Bob Mosely, was my brother-in-law. He and I both
married two sisters. In fact, Moby Grape is still one of my favorite groups. I
just love their first album. Moby Grape at Monterey … I loved their presence,
their movement, how they all moved back and forward together, lot of high
energy. I thought they were great. Peter
Lewis and Bob Mosely were from Southern California. The Association did just as
much partying and LSD as the San Francisco bands. We wore matching suits on
stage and that stopped some of the SF acts and the reporters from fully
appreciating our musical abilities.
From Gary Pig Gold …
A bit more background on the group and their incredible career …
https://bestclassicbands.com/terry-kirkman-association-obituary-9-24-23/
DIDJAKNOW?: The Association were Jimmy Webb’s first choice
to record his classic “MacArthur Park?”
But for whatever reason, they just couldn’t seem to nail it … and Webb
eventually traveled to England to have actor Richard Harris record it
instead. It worked … the record peaked
at #2 on all three national pop charts and went on to become an absolute
classic. (kk)
THE ASSOCIATION’s HIT LIST:
1966 – Along Comes Mary (#7)
1966 – Cherish (#1)
1966 – Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies (#19)
1967 – No Fair At All (#51)
1967 – Windy (#1)
1967 – Never My Love (#1)
1967 – Requiem For The Masses (#100)
1968 – Everything That Touches You (#9)
1968 – Time For Livin’ (#23)
1968 – Six Man Band (#26)
1969 – Goodbye Columbus (#78)
1969 – Dubuque Blues (#81)
1970 – Just About The Same (#91)
1972 – Darling Be Home Soon (#90)
1973 – Names, Tags, Numbers And Labels (#85)
1981 – Dreamer (#66)
One of the original Marvelettes has also died …
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/katherine-anderson-schaffner-co-founder-marvelettes-dies/
One of Motown’s first popular girl groups, The Marvelettes
scored eleven National Top 40 Pop Hits between 1961 and 1968, including their
very first, out of the box #1 Classic “Please Mr. Postman” (1961). Other favorites included “Playboy” (#7,
1962), “Beechwood 4-5789” (#17, 1962), “Don’t Mess With Bill” (#7, 1966), “The
Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” (#13, 1967) and “My Baby Must Be A Magician”
(#10, 1968).
Kent,
Wouldn't you think that Paul McCartney, who is
worth hundreds of millions of dollars, would just step up and take care of
Denny Laine's medical bills? After all, you "can't take it with you."
Bob Verbos
That seems to be the general consensus … and certainly is
the angle being played up in the press … but in all fairness, McCartney is NOT
Denny Laine’s keeper. (He is also
notoriously known as a cheapskate … which is a big part of the reason why he
has as much money as he has!)
Honestly, Macca would have been better off doing something
on the Q.T. without any public fanfare.
(Hell, he could have just given Denny his rightful share of the
royalties for cowriting … and coming up with the whole concept … of Wings’
biggest U.K. Hit “Mull Of Kintyre!” That
probably would have come to well over the $100,000 Denny’s wife is trying to
raise. BTW, when I check the tote board
on Sunday, they had only raised a little over $10,000 … so there’s still a long
way to go to reach their goal.) kk
Well, it’s official …
Usher will be providing the Half-Time Entertainment at this
year’s Super Bowl.
(A bit of a surprise … has Usher had a relevant hit in the
past ten years??? I wonder if The Biebs
will be making a guest appearance with him??)
Still not enough to make me watch. (I might have felt differently had this gone
*NSync’s way!)
Based on Joel Whitburn’s 2018 stats, Usher was the #3
recording act of the 2000’s … but his chart success really tapered off after
about 2014. (kk)
After appearing at the 50th Anniversary of the opening of The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles last week, Neil Young next showed up to perform a four song set at this year's Farm Aid Concert Fundraiser over the weekend. (It was Young's first appearance since 2019) Neil Young helped to start Farm Aid back in 1985 along with the help of Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp.
Also on hand was Bob Dylan, who played three songs backed by three of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. (To say that Dylan was a "surprise guest" is quite the understatement!) It was Dylan's first appearance there since 2009.
Ironically, it was a comment that Bob Dylan made during his
appearance at Live Aid that inspired the launch of Farm Aid in the first place.
After performing his set and acknowledging the good that
organizer Bob Geldoff was doing to help out the cause in Ethiopia, Dylan remarked
"I hope that some of the money ... maybe they can just take a little bit of
it, maybe ... one or two million, maybe ... and use it, say, to pay the
mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks."
It was that brief comment that spurred Willie
Nelson and John Mellencamp into action.
They quickly recruited Neil Young and a few months later, Farm Aid was
born.
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