IPO: The Everly Brothers--"Cathy's Clown"

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Is this song 100,000 years ahead of its time or what? How the fuck did they come up with those harmonies?

I have a great Everlys greatest hits double LP, but for some reason this song wasn't on it.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Monday, 29 September 2003 07:18 (twenty-two years ago)

label tangles - fifties hits on cadence, 'cathy's clown' first sixties hit for warners

― cinniblount (James Blount), Monday, 29 September 2003 07:38 (twenty-two years ago)

those harmonies are just wild.
I dig them Everlies in a big way. When I was 13, my posse used to hang in an ice cream shop that had "Bye Bye Love" on the jukebox. Even though none of us had any idea about heartbreak or even romantic love, we played the crap outta that song, and probably for no other reason than the completely entrancing harmonies.

if you like them, you might like White Hassle, they're big on the Everlies and while they don't match them for their harmonies, they do quite nicely. Esp. their take on "Let It Be Me" from their 2000 EP Life is Still Sweet.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 29 September 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Really? I'll have to check them out.

Word, my brother, as most ILMers be too trendy to dig on Don and Phil. Have you heard "Empty Boxes?" It's a really good non-single that a friend of mine put on a mix for me once. I'd like to hear more good non-singles, but I don't know where to start and don't want to delve into the non-classic later stuff.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Monday, 29 September 2003 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"muskrat" roxx.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Monday, 29 September 2003 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

No, no, no... you've got to delve anyway to get to the good stuff. My two main sources of Everly goodness are a two CD set covering the best bits of the Warners years, released by WB about ten years ago, and a four CD Rhino boxed set which covers every era, even the not particularly good re-formation period. But all the best stuff was on Warners, mostly in the mid-60s when people weren't taking much notice of them. At some point, Warners are going to have to re-issue "In our image" and "Two Yanks in England", their two best mid 60s LPs which are end to end brilliant. Then there's all the late 60s singles (from which "Empty boxes" is lifted) like "My little yellow bird" and "I'm on my way home again". And not forgetting that basically "Roots" was "Bradley's Barn" with harmonies and a bit more history.

If you've got those two sets, across 6 CDs, that's pretty much most of hte Everlys you'll ever need, except for the albums I've mentioned above. But it's odd that nobody here seems to care about the Everlys at all.

― Rob M (Rob M), Monday, 29 September 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

side note: what does IPO stand for?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 29 September 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

shoulda thought for more than half a second before posting: "In Praise Of" right?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 29 September 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I really adore their late-60s material; Two Yanks In England & the Roots LP, Bowling Green and their can-this-song-possibly-not-be-about-drugs non-hit Mary Jane (both "T Slater" compositions....let's find out more about *him*...) However, destroy: their version of Whiter Shade Of Pale.
Saw them live in Vegas a couple of years back; their harmonies still sound spot-on.

― harveyw (harveyw), Monday, 29 September 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

somebody should start an Everly Bros covers S/D thread.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 29 September 2003 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I did a story on the E. Bros. once, relating to the formative teenage years they spent in my original neck of the woods, and as a result I ended up interviewing Don as well as the actual Cathy of "Cathy's Clown" fame. Turns out, if anything, she was Don's clown a little bit. And she still sounds a little cheesed at him for using her name.

I cannot recommend that Rhino box strongly enough. As for obscurites, their take on a song called "Kentucky" from the box is one of my favorite ever song/performance combos, just gorgeous; it makes me deadly homesick everytime I hear it, and I'm not even from KY. Also, I was listening to the box during a long car trip while I was working on the aforementioned story, and their version of "Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail" was just so ever-lovin' sad it made me cry on the spot, driving down I-40.

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 29 September 2003 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

so much great stuff... love "when are you gonna leave my girl alone"

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 29 September 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks, I wasn't at all sure where to begin listening outside of the stuff I already knew.

Speaking of ace sixties material by fifties stars...and I know I mentioned this on some other thread already...has anyone else heard Del Shannon's The Further Adventures of Charles Westover? Amazing record.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Monday, 29 September 2003 18:48 (twenty-two years ago)

didn't Anita Bryant (who wrote some their songs) just die this year?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 29 September 2003 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

"Charles Westover"...yes, a fantastic record. There's a whole sub-genre of this style of music (late 50s-early 60s acts who attempted re-invention towards the end of the decade) and it threw up a lot of fantastic music. Tommy Roe's "It's Now Winter's Day", Lou Christie's "Paint America Love", odd Adam Faith & Billy Fury 45s, Bobby Darin's "If I were A Carpenter" and "Waldon Robert Cassatto" LPs, Brian Hyland, Bobby Vee... anyone have any more recommendations?

― harveyw (harveyw), Monday, 29 September 2003 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, almost forgot the king of the bunch: Four Seasons "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette".

― harveyw (harveyw), Monday, 29 September 2003 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Dion's self-titled record from 1968!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 29 September 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh damn, I have this Hank Williams tribute LP from the seventies where Anita Bryant covers "Hey Good Lookin'"--with voice synths.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Monday, 29 September 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

""Charles Westover"...yes, a fantastic record. There's a whole sub-genre of this style of music (late 50s-early 60s acts who attempted re-invention towards the end of the decade) and it threw up a lot of fantastic music. Tommy Roe's "It's Now Winter's Day", Lou Christie's "Paint America Love", odd Adam Faith & Billy Fury 45s, Bobby Darin's "If I were A Carpenter" and "Waldon Robert Cassatto" LPs, Brian Hyland, Bobby Vee... anyone have any more recommendations?"

"Oh yeah, almost forgot the king of the bunch: Four Seasons "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette".

"Dion's self-titled record from 1968!"

Also out there:
- Rick Nelson (we all seem to know his country-rock period, but you should hear PERSPECTIVE, his baroque-psych experiment from 1968)

- Gene Vincent had a decent self-titled LP on Kama Sutra in 1970 where he's backed by members of the Sir Douglas Quintet...not an out-and-out masterpiece, but worth buying if you see it on the cheap

Avoid:
- that BORING self-titled Ronnie Hawkins album from 1970 on Cotillion...great B&W headshot of Ronnie on the cover casually smoking a cigar, but the music is fairly sleepy roots-rock, similar to Link Wray's Polydor albums

BURN:
- UPS & DOWNS, that horrendous album from 1971 by Len Barry (of Dovells/"1-2-3" fame)...dreadful singer-songwriter concept album about marriage

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Sunday, 21 January 2007 18:22 (nineteen years ago)

The Bryants y'all are thinking of are Boudleaux and Felice, both now gone. . . .

― A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Sunday, 21 January 2007 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

Good God, this song just came up on shuffle.

What a fucking song! Those harmonies! The breakdown in the middle, oh my god

― dig yrself (lukevalentine), Friday, 30 April 2010 08:29 (sixteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

RIP, Don.

― Hitsville Ukase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 August 2021 17:20 (four years ago)

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