The Rascals

I think today we try to get a real grasp on The Rascals. I found two more of their albums yesterday, that should be enough to really dig into their shift from popular singles band to album oriented space cadets. Groovin', Once Upon a Dream, Freedom Suite, and Search and Nearness. I don't have a copy of See, but we could probably youtube it if it becomes necessary. That's not their full discography, but it is the official name change through the last album for Atlantic.

The Young Rascals got their start competing with The Beatles and Rolling Stones for American attention. The 4 Seasons and The Supremes are in there as well, so it's a real big business agent/promoter/label free-for-all. What made The Young Rascals stand out was that they were very much an R&B band. They were the first white act ever signed to Atlantic, they refused to perform at segregated concerts, they were in fact the copilots to the Righteous Brothers under the moniker Blue-Eyed Soul. They had a ton of high-charting singles, and their first 3 albums are simply collections of those singles. The official genre label is Garage Rock/Blue-Eyed Soul. Enticing as that sounds, I only have the last of those, Groovin'. I don't think we necessarily need to hear the first 2, we're listening to the end of that band before a new band rises from its ashes to conceive of the album for which they will write songs, as opposed to designing a box to carry all the ala carte takeout food we ordered.

What do we get on Groovin'? A big orchestra opener followed by just about the nastiest garage rock guitar tone and truly terrible reverb and abysmal stereo experimentation. I adore Find Somebody, so you know it's objectively annoying and you'll hate it. Then the horns and sunshine harmonies are back because they're so happy now. Really, think of all the things that were popular in the early/mid 60s, The Rascals are good at all of it, but they do something interestingly weird on every track. They are psychedelic from the get-go, but it's subtle; only one component of their wildly eclectic style. They really really are fantastic. If you enjoy listening to Oldies radio, this album is a pretty stellar block of boundary pushing Pop-Rock.

Now, i've ragged on Sgt. Pepper a lot, but that's only because of its context in the Beatles discography. It undeniably blew everybody's mind. Everyone made their own version, and The (newly name-shortened) Rascals are no exception. Once Upon A Dream is definitely a better album than the Stones's Their Satanic Majesties Request, but it is quite possibly even more bizarre.

What did Sgt. Pepper really do? It showed everyone how to really give a concept the reins of the album. It's literally about the experience of a random Lonely Hearts Club Band concert. They have a backstory, there's all sorts of incidental stuff happening around you, you're high as balls, it's a real happening and that concept unifies all the experiments and styles and sound effects.

A lot of people say Once Upon a Dream is an overlooked gem that really should sit next to Pepper and Pet Sounds on your toppest of shelves. I don't have either, let's just listen to the first proper Rascals concept album...

... well, that definitely qualifies as bizarre. But, this isn't in any way a u-turn or a crazy out of nowhere shock-fest. They do torture a Sitar and everyone in earshot at the end, i don't want that to surprise you the way it did me (it's bad, i laughed out loud), but all the weirdness was totally there on Groovin'. Now it's what connects all the songs in this intentionally pre-conceived dream. I need another listen to really understand the larger statement.

Oh, ok, it really is a dream of peace and love. Disparate scenes of life being an interesting and enjoyable adventure, joined together by strange psych-noise transitions. Like the objects on the cover, these are all symbolic statements that speak to a collective rather than individually coherent experience. Side One ends up using the metaphor of a rainy day as an experience that makes the eventual vacation that much more enjoyable. Or, and this is the fun part, choosing to see the stormy rainy day as an opportunity is the dream vacation itself.

Side Two says "c'mon, join me, my delusional world is pretty awesome."

Maybe it's a reverse metaphor, and love itself is a metaphor for society itself. Stop wondering how to solve all these insomnia inducing problems and go out and love as big as possible. Walk the walk, it gets better every time you try.

That makes sense, we know Freedom Suite is next. This is the subtle, artistic, free your mind version, the next album tackles it head on to much less critical appreciation. Oh god, i just made it to the Sitar mangling of "do-wa diddy ditty dum ditty do" on this second listen. Truly atrocious, love it.

Then the proper finale; the dream is that everyone chooses to love and we make the world a happy place to live. Then they do it, and we're up to Freedom Suite.

Sure, it's a decadent double-album, but it's also not. Freedom Suite is really just the first record, complimented by a second fully instrumental jam album. We just want the first disk.

There's so much hatred and confusion, and heads are filled with disillusion.

Yeah, you nailed that one, guys.

Here's the thing, this is an overtly political album. Everybody hates that because it forces you to worry that people might find out your opinions are secretly terrible. Also, there's a sample of a sheep bleating in the background of Of Course.

Bigotry, hate and fear
Got ten million votes this year.

Yeah, that's a direct reference to George Wallace. In hindsight, calling Nixon's subsequent election "law and order won" is some serious irony, but Wallace's campaign was the Southern Right arguing that segregation was the pillar of the American economy. King and Kennedy had just been assassinated, and Johnson quickly realized he wasn't going to win the nomination and dropped out.

Being mad that this album is political is extremely head in the sand, all things considered. Looking around at all the hate and violence and thinking "oh no, I'm in danger of losing all my profits," is pretty terrible. Really that's what this album is about; hate and fear and pulling people apart is bad, m'kay?

So, we'll skip over See and go straight to the end, Search and Nearness. We can always come back to it if we need to. What's this thing about?

Ok, i can see where some of the "meh" comes from. I disagree, this is a fantastic album. The whisps of psychedelia are still there, but mostly this is just a solid early 70s Jazz Rock album. It is incredibly consistent and potentially not that exciting. However, it's freakin' good. Still though, this is not The Young Rascals, and not even really The Rascals. Set against the backdrop of mainstream Rock/Soul, it feels very much like a one and done album from a great band that doesn't have an obvious future.

Is it a fair description of their trajectory? Highly enjoyable and often wackadoodle singles band turns to album shaped rock and fizzles out. I mean, sure you can hear it that way, but why? Plus, their entire career was spent in comparison to the Beatles, so i'm doing a fair bit of unfair projecting. I do need to hear See. Gimme a moment...

... no, see, See is great. The Sitar on Stop and Think is much better than the first time they tried that. I think the real problem is that The Rascals are so widely eclectic that it's really tough to pigeon hole them into a singular specific mood or vibe. If you're a really picky listener, it could be really hard to get into more than one or two tracks on any particular album. If you just accept that The Rascals are 3 different bands all the time, though, it's really rewarding.

Freedom Suite is definitely the least adventurous of their albums, but as albums go i think each one gets better. Search and Nearness is a fitting culmination in my mind.

I wasn't overly fond of Freedom Suite the first time around, but now that i have the whole thing in my head, these guys are fantastic. You have to keep their whole history in your head, and that can be quite a bit more work than most people are willing to do, but definitely worth it. An acquired taste for sure, but The Rascals have definitely grown on me.

Interesting use of a Sunday morning. I still have two more albums to tide us over until the next batch arrives. Time for a break, though. Cheers.

Nektar