The Cowsills In Magazines

Remembering Bill and Barry Cowsill and their compositions on the Americana release "Long After the Fire" from their sister-in-law Vicki Peterson and brother John Cowsill.

On October 25, 2003, Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill married, Peterson of the '80s band The Bangles, and Cowsill of the '60s family band The Cowsills. In recent years, while Cowsill was on tour as The Beach Boys' drummer, Peterson was in the Americana pop group Continental Drifters with her sister-in-law Susan Cowsill, when Susan was not on tour with brothers Bob and Paul, performing Cowsills hits. Peterson and Cowsill are also a part of a trio known as the Action Skulls, with singer-songwriter and ‘60s television child actor Bill Mumy.

Tragically, in December 2005, Barry Cowsill's body was found, a drowning victim of Hurricane Katrina, and two months later, the eldest Cowsill sibling, Bill, passed away from health reasons, both leaving behind songwriting gems, a dozen of which appear on Peterson and Cowsill's new album from Label 51 Recordings, Long After the Fire. Goldmine spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Cowsill about half of the new album's songs along with flip sides from The Bangles and The Cowsills.

Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill, photo by Pamela Springsteen (youngest sister of Bruce Springsteen)

GOLDMINE: Welcome to Goldmine and congratulations on the new album. Vicki, I have interviewed your sister Debbi about The Bangles, and John, I have interviewed your siblings, Bob, Paul, and Susan, about The Cowsills. I am so pleased to meet you both and celebrate Bill and Barry's songwriting. Before we get to the new album, let's discuss a pair of classic flip sides from The Bangles and The Cowsills. In the late '80s, I bought my first CDs. The very first was a compilation CD called 45's on CD Volume III ('66-'69) and it was like a wonderful oldies jukebox including The Cowsills' first hit "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things," a song in my all-time favorite Top 10. The second CD was the new album by The Bangles, Everything, which also included a song in my all-time favorite Top 10, "Eternal Flame."

VICKI PETERSON: You must be a romantic!

JOHN COWSILL: I know I am, in my older age.

GM: In addition to "Eternal Flame," the album Everything also had two more Top 40 singles, "Be with You," and the first one from the album, "In Your Room," with the catchy and steady "Bell Jar," on its flip side, which you, Vicki, co-wrote with Debbi.

VP: The song was inspired by Sylvia Plath's 1963 novel The Bell Jar, thematically being enclosed in an environment where you are being observed and judged, yet you have put yourself there. I wrote the song about a character I was thinking of who was a celebrity feeling trapped in a world of constantly being looked at, pointed at, and talked about. The track has frenetic energy. There is nothing jangly or floaty going on in the recording.

The Bangles
Fabulous Flip Side: Bell Jar
A side: In Your Room
Billboard Hot 100 debut: October 15, 1988
Peak position: No. 5
Columbia 38-08090

GM: Jangly and floaty sounds take us to The Cowsills' "Crystal Claps" co-written by Waddy Wachtel and Judi Pulver.

JC: I've known Waddy since I was eight years old. We used to play in the same night clubs in Newport, Rhode Island. Somebody told him, "Hey, you've got to see these kids." Waddy walked in, and I guess we blew his mind when we were singing Beatles songs. Waddy and my brother Bill became very close friends. We brought Waddy and his band Twice Nicely out to L.A. There have been multiple different recordings of "Crystal Claps" and this flip side version is outside the box.

The Cowsills
Fabulous Flip Side: Crystal Claps
A side: You in My Mind
Debut: July 1971
London 45-153

GM: The A side of the single was "You in My Mind," a song which is also included on your new album.

JC: When the '70s began, the people at the record company asked for a new Cowsills single and we didn't have one, so my dad contacted my oldest brother Bill, who was no longer with the band. Both sides of the single were recorded by Bill with studio musicians; there are no other Cowsills on this record. My dad must have paid Bill something to use both songs for the single.

Available from Label 51 Recordings on vinyl, CD, and digital formats, photo by Henry Diltz

GM: On your new version of the song, I hear a bit of The Bangles' "Walking Down Your Street" and The Cowsills' version of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles."

VP: I heard The Cowsills perform it at a benefit concert for Bill. I fought John to sing the lead on this version, had a blast singing it, and it is arranged by Waddy Wachtel.

JC: It's a great song. Jimmy Calire, who played with the band America, joined us on keyboards.

GM: Speaking of America, I am reminded a bit of "I Need You," with your piano, John, on "When Hearts Collide."

JC: That is how I play. There are only a few songs where I'm unable to sing them all the way through without crying and "When Hearts Collide" is one of them. It was so special to have Barry sing his composition at our wedding as we walked down the aisle.

VP: I felt very fortunate to have The Cowsills at our wedding. This song will always make me remember Barry with a lot of affection and loss, and I’ll never forget him singing it to us.

GM: I was reminded a bit of "Blue Bayou" with the catchy "Come to Me."

VP: "Blue Bayou" is another one of John’s standard songs to play.

JC: Barry and I put together a small band and played at The Troubadour in L.A. on a Monday night. Nobody came, but we recorded our performance on cassette, and it included "Come to Me."

VP: The first time I heard it was from that cassette.

GM: The new version has a wonderfully big ending with your drums, John.

JC: Our producer, Paul Allen, came up with the arrangement and it is one of my favorite arrangements on the album, like a T-Bone Burnett-like production in the verses. I love the way it makes me feel.

VP: I also love how the song reprises. It was an old recording trick.

GM: Paul's guitar on "Ol' Timeless" is so wonderful as are the keyboard sounds. In 2010, Susan released Lighthouse, and my favorite song on that album is Barry's composition "River of Love." It is so emotional and Vicki, you bring that same type of emotion to Barry's "Ol' Timeless."

VP: Thank you. That means a lot. In the instrumental section I wanted a cello sound. While John was experimenting with keyboard sounds, we accidentally came across a Spanish guitar sound, which worked perfectly.

JC: Vicki tortured me. I asked her, "What do you want me to play?" I remember standing at the Nord keyboard trying to get the sound she wanted. I found myself trying different melodies and sounds, and it all finally came together nicely.

GM: When I was listening to Chicago's third album for the first time in 1971, I was expecting to hear only songs filled with brass. I was pleasantly surprised by the acoustic "Flight 602," sounding like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the middle of a Chicago double album. I had that same experience listening to your version of "Don't Look Back" with CSNY harmonies and a bit of harmonica recalling Neil Young, and even harmonies like what Nicolette Larson brought to Neil's Comes a Time album.

JC: We first recorded the song on The Cowsills' II X II (two by two) album which was during the height of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's fame. We were so influenced by them. Barry wrote, arranged, and produced it, and we pay homage to that. Barry and I shared a bedroom as kids, which is where he wrote the song. I remember Barry sitting across the bedroom, singing this song while I was making faces in the mirror, goofing off. I didn't become the songwriter that my brothers became. Barry came up with a wild bass part.

VP: I was able to fulfill a life-long dream of playing the bass part on the new version of the song. I first heard it when I was a kid and always loved it. I remember wondering how a young songwriter at fourteen, just a few years older than me, could write a song so filled with wisdom.

GM: I mentioned "Blue Bayou" earlier. Roy Orbison's influence is certainly heard on "Is Anybody Here."

JC: I was playing with The Beach Boys in Memphis. Paul called me up when he saw I was playing there and asked if I wanted to record at Sun Studios, reminding me that I had been talking about recording an album of my late brothers' songs. We recorded "Is Anybody Here" that night. It was so fitting to be in Sun Studios, recording this memorial tribute, with all the photos of the late great Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.

VP: That song kicked off the whole project. The album is an Americana style, which for me, at this stage in my life, is an easy road to travel. This is the first time for both of us to have our names on a project after being serial band members.

JC: The first record I bought as a kid, when I was five years old, was "El Paso" by Marty Robbins. When The Cowsills would do live shows, I insisted on doing a couple Johnny Cash songs. Bob and Paul wrote a traditional country song for me called "Cheatin' on Me" for The Cowsills' On My Side album with Buddy Emmons playing pedal steel guitar, so Americana music comes naturally to me.

GM: I was so happy to find and buy a vinyl copy of your album on its Record Store Day debut in April. Carla Olson of The Textones told me that she saw you play songs from the new album at the record release show at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. She and her husband Saul Davis picked up your album on CD that day at Amoeba Music and listened to it in the car on the way to the show. When they went upstairs, they were surprised to find their neighbors and friends Bill Mumy and his wife, and learn of the announced opening act, the Action Skulls, with the two of you and Bill, playing a half-dozen songs. In addition to my wife Donna and I growing up on the music of The Cowsills in the '60s, we also watched Bill on Lost in Space. Then after we married, we heard his song "Fish Heads" on the Dr. Demento radio program often. In recent years, watching Twilight Zone reruns, we compiled a Top 5-episode list which includes It's a Good Life, where he can wish people into the cornfield.

JC: It was a nice surprise for the audience to have the Action Skulls, too, because people who know me and Vicki have always asked for Action Skulls concerts, considering we have three albums out. It was just acoustic guitars for our set. Bill is so prolific with his songwriting. He'll often send us new songs and say, "Guys, here's another one. If you don't like it, you can wish it to the cornfield!"

GM: Donna and I will be seeing Bob, Paul, and Susan again this year on the Happy Together Tour, playing The Cowsills' hits, along with The Turtles, Jay and the Americans, Gary Puckett, Little Anthony, and The Vogues.

JC: Say hi to my family, who I talk to all the time, and let them know that Vicki and I are joining them in your series of Goldmine articles. Thank you.

VP: We love our time with you and thank you so much. Like The Cowsills, we will also be on the road this summer with several shows including some with The Smithereens and some with The Minus 5.