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In 1978, The Cowsills provided background vocals and guitar on Harry Chapin's Elektra album Living Room Suite, through producer Chuck Plotkin, who hoped to get the siblings signed to Elektra for the album they were working on with him. Unfortunately, Plotkin got pulled away to assist on Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town album and The Cowsills' album never received its professional release until now, courtesy of Omnivore Recordings. Goldmine spoke with return interviewees Bob, Paul, and Susan Cowsill about this "lost 1978 album, the upcoming Happy Together Tour, and the 50th anniversary of Susan Cowsill's Warner Bros. singles solo debut, including a Warren Zevon flip side.
GOLDMINE: Welcome back to Goldmine. Let's begin with the 50th anniversary of Susan's solo debut with a version of Carole King's "It Might as Well Rain Until September" on the A side and Warren Zevon's "Mohammed's Radio" on the flip side. Susan, where did you learn this Warren Zevon song?
SUSAN COWSILL: Jackson Browne brought it to me. The people at Warner Bros. were bringing me some trite stuff. I couldn't guide them because I didn't know what I was doing besides staying out of 10th grade at age 16. I knew they wanted me to record four songs and I said to Jackson, "Please see if you can come up with something." He gave me the demo of Warren Zevon playing piano and singing "Mohammed's Radio." The song is about the plight of people dealing with life and listening to the radio as an escape.
GM: Two years later, in 1978, a version of "Mohammed's Radio" showed up on Linda Ronstadt's Living in the U.S.A. album while you were working on what is now known as The "Cocaine Drain" Album, named after the opening track, written by John Hall of Orleans. The song "That Particular Way" is powerfully sung by you Susan, the most Linda Ronstadt-like song on the album.
BOB COWSILL: This was a time of strong female singers. There was Linda Ronstadt, Karla Bonoff, Wendy Waldman, and for us, it was Susan. We were listening to everybody.
SC: To Bob's credit, he was listening to my voice, and I was certainly listening to Linda's voice and others. We thought this would be a natural song for me to sing.
GM: The song that has The Cowsills' sound most like "Indian Lake" is "Gettin' Ready." Bob, in your liner notes, you tell the amusing story of someone in the audience shouting out for "Indian Lake" in the late '70s when you wanted to focus on the new songs, and that audience member ended up being Brian Wilson.
BC: "Gettin' Ready" is a little salacious number, a bit blunt at times, but what we love are the vocals. Our friend Dennis Castanares played great guitar on it. We were still learning how to best sound in a recording studio. Paul was just pumping that bass. Every ten years in our lives, we get into a frenzy of songwriting, and this was one of those creative times.
GM: Susan, the first albums you and I bought growing up in the '60s were by The Monkees, More of the Monkees, in your case. When I listened to "Bitter Jest," it sounds like one of those deep cuts on a Monkees album and I can picture Micky Dolenz singing it.
SC: Wow. What a trip to visualize in my head, Micky singing that song. That's beautiful.
BC: I like to learn what people hear when they listen to our music. "Bitter Jest" is a pretty song. Again, Dennis' waterfall of a guitar following the bridge is so pleasing.
GM: The Eagles were huge in that era. I am reminded of "One These Nights" when I listen to the atmospheric "Part of Me" including the guitar solo, a song that Buzz Feiten of the Larsen-Feiten Band wrote. It had the right sound for the time and still sounds good today.
BC: Buzzy Feiten's guitar solo in this song is one of the most passionate solos that I have ever heard.
PAUL COWSILL: We were so excited to learn from Chuck that Buzzy was going to come in and play on the song in the studio with us. All this music was happening around us and we were trying to become a part of that sound and adapt, so that when our producer tried to insert us into the music world, there would be room for us.
GM: "Dance in a Dream" is my favorite of the original ten songs. Your brother John's pounding drums are outstanding, as is the synthesizer.
BC: On this song that I wrote with Paul, that was Billy Payne of Little Feat on synthesizer. Billy did all the fancy keyboard work on our album. Phil Seymour also recorded our song early in the following decade.
SC: I saw Billy recently, and he said,"Oh my god! Playing with you guys is one of my claims to fame." I said, "The Cowsills? Really, dude?"
GM: Well, we just went through side two of the original ten songs, and I would like to take the same approach with the bonus tracks, highlighting the final three of the five extra songs, beginning with "The Next in Line." It is so much fun, and Bob, you wrote this one with Chuck.
BC: We were in the office upstairs at Clover Recorders and I had that melody. Chuck and I spent the night working on the lyrics together. Chuck became family with us.
PC: We knew that Chuck liked "Dance in a Dream" because he elongated it and put two bridges in there.
SC: Exene Cervenka from the band X has covered that one.
GM: When I listen to "Say You Love Me," I am reminded of the guitar sound that The Searchers' used on "When You Walk in the Room," which actually I learned from Lisa Burns' cover on her 1978 debut album.
BC: Holy cow, you are right about that intro. I also think it is a bit Fleetwood Mac-ish.
GM: You were ahead of your time with "Fallen for You," sounding like Blondie songs that would follow.
SC: As a teenage female singer, I was absorbing every girl's voice. When Bob wrote this song, I was immediately thinking Blondie, not to be somebody else, but it sounded like a Blondie song to me, and I thought that I would sing it like Debby Harry would. You really nailed it. You've got such an amazing ear.
GM: When I look back to my Top 10 albums of 1978, it included albums by Blondie and Lisa Burns. This one could have been there, too. Thank goodness to the people at Omnivore Recordings for finally releasing this lost 1978 classic.
BC: You are right. We love them and are honored. Once they got wind of our old catalog that no one knew about, they felt it needed to be available for everyone to enjoy. Thank God for them. It even includes Paul and my attempt at a pseudo-disco beat with "Is Your Love Alive?"
GM: The Happy Together Tour starts again late next month and is bigger than ever, growing from six to eight acts, and with Ron Dante singing songs from The Archies, The Cuff Links, and The Turtles, there will be ten Top 40 acts represented for the first time, but some cities don't list The Fortunes.
BC: The Fortunes will be with us beginning on June 2 through the September 5 conclusion, it is just the late May shows they'll miss because they have prior commitments. In addition to The Fortunes, there are two more acts on the tour for the first time, The Troggs and Jason Scheff singing Chicago hits.
SC: It must be said, too, that this will be our first time out without our boss Mark Volman. We are all determined to make him proud of our show. He was the funniest guy on the planet.
BC: It is also a testament to the tour that Mark Volman ("Flo") and Howard Kaylan ("Eddie") created a brand that can go on, with Howard staying in Palm Springs, as he can no longer tour. It will be the biggest summer ever with 66 cities.
PC: When The Troggs play "Wild Thing" the audience is going to erupt! The roof will come off.
SC: If only we could get Neil Diamond out there for "Sweet Caroline," then it would be the ultimate amazing experience. We are so lucky. This is our 11th year on this awesome tour. You are awesome, too, keeping your side of the music fence going. Thank you so much.
BC and PC: Thank you!
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