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Los Angeles—The Cowsills live a very large house. Which is a good thing because there are quite a few Cowsills, even with Dick off in Vietnam and Bill married and producing records on his own.
Still left are parents Bud and Barbara, and .Bob and Barry and John and Paul and Susan and Suba. Suba is a small black poodle who sleeps in a doll bed in Susan's room — or inside John's bass drum.
THE COWSILL home is located about a mile from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica.
Its rambling Spanish style and numerous rooms give the feeling: of spaciousness. The pool, is surrounded by various bicycles and water-sports paraphernalia, and off to one ;
side is the garage they have made into a rehearsal room.
The backyard looks out onto a golf course. The dining room table is often covered with boxes of freshly-laundered shirts.
There is no maid, no handsoff furniture, and every room has defintely been lived in. In the living room, where the high ceilings make for excellent acoustics, the Cowsills, rehearse their vocal arrangements. The size and form of the room make their six voices
sound like 50.
I sat on a bright yellow chair, Suba asleep in my lap, and listened to two of the tracks from their next MGM album, "I Really Want to Know You" and "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," which also is their next single, on the flip of "Love — American
Style." the theme from a new TV show.
WITH BILL gone, Bob Cowsill leads the group. Father Bud, the nonsinger of the family, serves in the valuable advisory capacity as emeritus producer and supervisor.
I had never really thought of the Cowsills as more than a vocal group, but when they, moved out to the garage to run through the songs with music, I was taken very much
by surprise.
With Bob on lead guitar, Barry on bass, John doing drum work and Paul playing organ, the Cowsills shape up very well musically. Even without vocals their charts stand up alone with a full sound that few would expect.
So did.the arrangement for "I Really Want to Know You," and "Silver Threads" was done
by the leaders of Twice Nicely, a group the Cowsills own and manage. Twice Nicely made, its debut at the Matrix in San Francisco, the starting point for several -super sucminds to find this group.
"The Rain, the Park and Other Things," their million-seller topped the pop charts for weeks and opened up a whole new audience for the group, whose appeal previously had been, to a fairly young audience. "SilveThreads and Golden Needles" will undoubtedly sell as many records and open still more minds to this fine group.
AS A FAMILY the Cowsills, despite their huge success and hectic schedules, are rather.
typical, in the nicest sense of the word.
Barbara complains light heartedly about housework, the young kids complain about school, and seem to genuinely enjoy each other. They live far from the flashy plastic homes of Hollywood and welcome neighbors who come and listen to their music.
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