I would like to learn more about the non-Poco albums... on the Crosby, Stills, and Nash thread it seemed to work. I also think we need to include Richie's devotional albums. There shouldn't be a problem, I started a thread about Dylan's Slow Train Coming recently and it worked fine without breaking forum rules. I do want to point out that I can't contribute to any of the non-Poco albums since I do not have any yet. Maybe post a Poco album, then mention the solo album(s) that came out around the same time if there is not enough people to discuss a solo album for three or four days.
Well, here we go. Richie Furays first solo album, I've Got A Reason is my favorite. A long way from Poco, but a good album. You can hear bits and pieces of religion popping up. Dance A Little Light and I've Got A Reason, both have their moments. But overall, nothing I'd tell anybody they have to hear. His devotional albums, I only have one, In My Fathers House. Heavy on religion. A good country rocker on their called Wake Up. I don't have any of his other albums. Timothy B. Schmit..........IMHO, you couldn't take the best songs from each of his albums and come up with an album full of good songs. Paul Cotton has three. Changing Horses, about as far away from Poco as you can get. Firebird, a lot of Poco fans like it and think it has a Poco groove. I don't agree with that. Got a couple of good tunes. His latest is pretty much "beach/sailing" songs. I have not heard it. After the first two solo albums I couldn't bring myself to cough up another $20.00 for one of his solo albums. I think Cotton is the best songwriter of the bunch, but his solo albums, at least the two I have are completely different than his work with Poco. Bass player jack Sundrud has a solo album availble through his website that is not too bad. Heavy on the Nashville sound, but he is a talented songwriter. Reminds you a lot of Don Henley when you hear him sing. Not his music, his vocals.
Poco Crazy Eyes Epic Records 1973 Side One Blue Water (Cotton) Fools Gold (Young) Here We Go Again (Schmit) Brass Buttons (Parsons) A Right Along (Cotton) Side Two Crazy Eyes (Furay) Magnolia (Cale) Let's Dance Tonight (Furay) Crazy Eyes is Richie Furay’s last album with Poco. Richie had already signed on to David Geffen’s plan to put together the super group The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. While Richie had already made the decision, the band didn’t know until after the album was complete. David Geffen broke the news to the others during a band meeting. To make matters worse, Richie convinced all of the members of Poco to move to Colorado prior to recording A Good Feelin’ To Know. Oops… Side one starts with Paul Cotton’s “Blue Water”. It’s a more country-ish song than Cotton usually offers, but it’s strong as usual. “Fool’s Gold” is a Rusty Young show piece. It’s an instrumental featuring Rusty on a variety of instruments. As an example of how great a musician Rusty was, “Fool’s Gold” did the trick. Otherwise, it’s a bluegrass romp. You can almost smell the hay. Schmit’s sole offering this time is “Here We Go Again” and while it’s another very good song, it sounds a little out of place. I think Richie’s cover of “Brass Buttons” is even better than Gram Parson’s version. It was one of the first songs Gram wrote, and it always stuck with Richie who first got to know Gram in the sixties New York folk scene. I think it’s a wonderful performance. Finishing side one is Cotton’s “A Right Along” which almost makes one think he can simply churn out these fantastic rockers at will. Side two contains Poco’s true magnum opus. “Crazy Eyes” may actually qualify as country-prog. At over nine minutes, it’s the most ambitious song Poco had ever attempted. “Crazy Eyes” is Richie’s lamentation about the life and death of Gram Parsons. I don’t know if I’d call it Richie’s best song, but it’s certainly one of his best songs. It’s certainly his most ambitious song. Chris Hilman plays some mandolin. A cover of J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia” is next and it’s a fantastic track that is almost overwhelmed by it’s predecessor. It’s an excellent mood piece. Finishing the album is Richie’s “Let’s Dance Tonight” which was another of Richie’s upbeat, country-rock songs. It’s an amazing vocal performance. I think this one could have been a hit. Crazy Eyes was a fantastic ending to Richie’s tenure in Poco. Poco actually recorded a lot of songs for Crazy Eyes. Three of the unreleased songs featured Richie on lead vocals. “Believe Me” appeared on SHF’s first album. “Your Friends” appeared on Richie’s second solo album, Dance A Little Light. A gentle reading of Stephen Stills (then) unreleased song “So You’ve Got A Lover” is still unreleased. Both “Faith In The Families” by Cotton and Schmit’s “Passing Through” were held over for the next Poco album. Given the songs in the works, and Richie's songs with SHF, and the others that ended up on Seven, it's not too hard to imagine what Poco's next album would have been like had Richie stayed. I think it might have been their best album. Richie ultimately regretted leaving Poco. His goal at the time was to be a superstar and he thought Poco had run it's course and SHF might be the ticket to fame. Years later, he thought differently.
Crazy Eyes is my second favorite Poco album. Blue Water is a great opener, and I like their version of Brass Buttons. The song Crazy Eyes is incredible. It's hard to explain, but it works perfectly. 5/5
wonderful record. the song "crazy eyes" is "70's classic for me. BTW, is there a short version of "crazy eyes" anywhere? renny
A killer Lp but Richie's heart was just not in it. The writing was on the wall according to his self penned bio. I wish their was a bit more of Rusty's song writing on it but other than that, this is a very STRONG lp. Not really a bad note on it. After it was annouced that Richie was leaving, I played Crazy Eyes over and over again on night.
I never heard one, but I could imagine a "single" version being kind of nice. I might have to make my own. Given that Richie's heart probably wasn't in it, he sure did offer up some good material. I think something like "Crazy Eyes" would only have worked on this Poco album, at this point in time - not too long since Gram Parsons died, and with good musical setting. Of course, the cover of "Brass Buttons" really only made sense on Crazy Eyes. Giving "Let's Dance Tonight" to Poco was something Richie didn't have to do. That was a really good song and it would have been (theoretically) perfect for SHF. I say "theoretically" because it turned out that J.D. didn't care much for Richie's upbeat rockers. And unbelievably, Richie also offered "Believe Me".
I agree that the title track is a classic. I've never heard of a short version of it but if there were one, I'd guess they'd have to edit out the good parts to make one. Aside from the title track, the album is definitely a step or two down from Good Feelin'. I don't like either of the cover versions. Not that I'm familiar with the originals - I just don't like the songs (especially Magnolia). I like the little figures that make up the letters of the album title, though I didn't notice it until someone more observant than I pointed it out to me.
I know that we are on a different album, but Chief asked me to post the following excerpt from my pm to him: I was at Amoeba and picked up 3 Poco lps based on this thread. I have only listened to A Good Feelin' to Know so far. My main impression was that the Eagles owed their entire early career to this album! This out-eagles any of the first 3 Eagles lps. The other great thing about the thread is that I am realizing how intertwined all of these groups were - from Buffalo Springfield all the way up to the Eagles. Take away 10 individuals and a huge chunk of popular music disappears! Think of how many bands, albums and songs would not exist but for the members of the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield plus a few others along the way! It gives one a new sense of respect for how formative the early 60s really were.
Excellent album. Crazy Eyes was a song that was so "un-Poco" but it is a great song. What a job of producing Bob E did. The thing I like about this album was that I felt Rusty Young did not make the pedal steel sound like another instrument, but proved what a great player he really was. The solo on Crazy Eyes and his work on Magnolia are quite impressive. Not a bad song on the album. Again, not pushed by the label. Kind of hard to promote when you know the up until that point leader was bailing out. But like someone mentioned in an earlier post, they did some pretty good stuff after he left too. Probably my second favorite Poco album. I feel it took Poco to the next level musically.
Bob Ezrin? I think Jack Richardson produced it. It is a great album no doubt. I have to agree. Rusty is as good as ever on this one...Fool's Gold...yee hah! I'm one of those who enjoys it when he makes his steel sound twangy as well as running it through a leslie to sound like an organ.
I didn't think Rusty used his Leslie sound on "Fool's Gold". I forget to mention that Chris Hillman plays the incredible mandolin solo. Soon to be SHF band member, Paul Harris plays piano on the album in a couple places. I would imagine he came through recommendation from Hillman. Jack Richardson was the producer.
I was just responding to pocofan's comment on Rusty and his leslie. I know he didn't use that on Fool's Gold. I really think Blue Water and Fool's Gold are a great one two punch to open the album. They played them well on the "Live" album too.
Bob Ezrin produced Crazy Eyes. Jack Richardson produced A Good Feelin' To Know. I felt that Poco was coming into its own with this album. I thought it would do better commercially. Without a doubt my favorite Poco "headphones required" album
Non-sequitur post alert! I missed this thread until now so I'm gonna say something I need to say, a little late (Sound of rewinding tape, cueing back to the discussion about the 2nd LP POCO - riblsilphhbbbitprruisptitspitpst!!!) Ah, there...it's bloody brilliant! A buddy of mine just played the LP for me a few months back for the first time and I flipped. The whole thing including the 18 minute jam. Learning now that it was actually pretty much planned out I'm even MORE blown away. I usually hate rock cuts like this one. I'm a jazz nut and to be frank, most rock artists/groups can't hold interest in an instrumental tune like this one for more than 3 minutes or so once you've heard truly great improvisation. The long solo section of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" by the Stones may be the only example I can think of where it works, and Mick Taylor is one exceptional guitarist, and it's nowhere near as long as the Poco cut. But Poco pulled it off and then some, and now I know why - they put a lot of planning into it. But it still sounds improvised! Wow, amazing. Oh and the rest of the album is even better. I'm really surprised and floored to hear it's not as well-regarded as some of their other records. We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion of other Poco recordings.
I was hoping this thread would cause one or more forum members to start listening to Poco. When I became a fan last year, I started a thread on the forum... I didn't want anyone else to miss out on some great music.
These A-by-A threads have really cost me some serious money! I am now in the process of collecting the Sam Phillips discography and am working on Poco. The cool thing is that you can identify the 'must-haves' simply by reading reviews by people that you know and trust. We go through so many fads on the forum, but the A-by-A threads can just keep on coming. It is like attending a 'History of Rock' class! Fortunately for my wallet, I got into vinyl just as these threads started to pop up in earnest. The damage would have been much worse if I was hunting cds.
I think every Poco album between 1969 and 1978 is essential. Of course, I'm a little biased. In terms of quality, they are all really good. They vary somewhat, but they're all good. After that, things get a little patchy. Vinyl is essential. I bought all of my Poco albums on vinyl. Although I don't think any Poco cds were out in 1988. Possibly, Legend, but I'm not sure.
I like this album but there's something about it...can't quite put my finger on it. It almost is too polished for me...especially the upbeat tunes. Blue Water, A Right Along and Let's Dance seem to need a rawer guitar sound that was present on the previous albums. ...and is this the version of Brass Buttons that has that echo?....not fond of that. ...but I think the songs are great and 'Crazy Eyes' has turned into my favorite on the album.
Yes, there is echo on this version of Brass Buttons. Crazy Eyes is haunting when you know that Richie is singing about Gram Parsons. My favorite track of this album. Second favorite is probably Blue Water.
Yep, I was wrong about the producer of this album. Went by memory. Bad thing to do when your in your 50's LOL. I have grown to like that echo on Brass Buttons. It used to annoy me. To me, this band really showed their talents, especially Rusty Young. Would have liked to seen another album by this lineup, but I believe Furay had leaving on his mind when they were making this album.
I've never heard "Crazy Eyes" but I have a sealed copy of the DTS disc, bought at Tower liquidation for $5. Any opinions?
