The Association

[The Exploding Vole]

Mrs The Exploding is playing a lot of this at the moment.

Is this a good thing?

[Come along, Min]

The Association

I think so.

Coincidentally, I was after a track of theirs last week and downloaded a best of, and I'm enjoying it a fair amount.

This thread prompted me to have a gander at their wikipedia entry, and it seems they have some decent form.
A family tree that involves a good few from the Californian music scene of the 60's too.

Some decent tunes, lots of harmonising, like it.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Association

Good group, but they were a bit out of step with their time I think. Kinda preppy when hippie was the thing to be, but not pure Top 40 pop either — though they did have a string of hits of course. Their Monterey performance in 67 is kind of cringeworthy — not for the music, that's great, they're just trying too hard to be cool, and it must have been even more obvious at the time.

[Come along, Min]

The Association

I just asked someone who's a bit of a snobby ponce when it comes to music of this type if he wanted me to burn it off for him.

In his most sneary tone he indicated that he knew who The Association were, and No, he doesnt want a copy of the Best Of. He looked at me like I was a peasant.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Association

Ha ha! They didn't write their own stuff, had no strong front man and no discernible personality. They were a bit like the Fifth Dimension, or even The Carpenters in their early days. I don't think anyone would have admitted to liking them at the time, but plenty of people enjoyed listening to them.

[erwin]

The Association

This needs a couple of links, I reckon.

The very lovely Never My Love.

Along Comes Mary. The intro is to die cringing, but the song really cracks along.

[G-Man]

The Association

I don't know much of their music, but "Cherish" is a great anthem of unrequited love.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Association

erwin wrote:

Along Comes Mary. The intro is to die cringing, but the song really cracks along.

Too true. I think it speaks volumes about a song if you remember the first time you heard it* after more than forty-five years.

*Spontaneous Friday night post-pub-closing party in the kitchen of a mate's house.

[Alderman Barnes]

The Association

I've got a weird faible for this kind of music. I don't really know where it comes from, but I suspect it's from those Top Of The Pops albums from Woolworths that were my formative experience in music.

It was all good stuff, but never got anywhere because the musicians were all really ugly buggers. The Turtles were another one like that - Christopher Biggins in an Afro wig playing a tuba and Charlie Brooker's dad on lead vocals.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Association

Hey man you're talkin' bout Flo and Eddie:



aka Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. After the demise of The Turtles they joined The Mothers of Invention and became a kind of musical Cheech and Chongesque comedy duo. They also sang back-up on a gazillion records, including T-Rex's Get it On. Still touring today