Trauma's Old School Artist of the Week - Week 5 (1-2-06)

[Trauma-san]

Week 1: Merle Haggard
Week 2: Jerry Butler
Week 3: Jose Feliciano
Week 4: Del Shannon

and this week's old school artist is..........

















The Hollies.

The Hollies were one of the cool - ass british invasion rock groups that took over the U.S.A. in the early 60's.  The most famous of those was of course the Beatles, and the Hollies are pretty much unknown by most people.  They've got a ton of cool songs.  They also gave Graham Nash his start, who later went on to form Crosby, Stills, and Nash a huge 'supergroup' in the late 60's. 

Anyways, some of the Hollies hits you can download and check out:

"Bus Stop" classic brit-pop song with great harmonies and great guitar work by Graham Nash.  The band's earlier music was kind of with the times, sort of like the Beatles' "Help!" era. 

"Carrie Anne"  Really creative interesting harmonies in this song, very much like a Beach Boys type track, but kind of psychedelic and tripped out a little bit.  Reminds me of something that would be on "Revolver" or something but with more complex harmonies.

My FAVORITE Hollies song is "On A Carousel".  I like it because it sounds like a Carousel, really trippy but understated, not way over the top.  I like the passion in it too with the guy yelling at the top of his lungs in the chorus.  Great song, really happy.  The guitar work is intensely creative I think, and the harmonies are nearly perfect.  Listen to how the Bass guitar waits until halfway through the fucking song to come in.  The guys double each other so well sometimes too that you can barely tell it isn't the same guy. 

A song of there's you've probably heard is "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother".  It was done in the late  60's during the civil rights movement.  While i'm way down with that shit, i don't really like the song that much.  There's a lot about it that is admirable but ultimately it's pretty fuckin' cheezy.  You may like it, though.  It's kind of grandeose.

Another hugely famous song they did was "Long cool Woman In A Black Dress".  Almost MANIC lead vocal, great fucking song, straight up rock and roll. 

One of the last big hits they had was "Air That I Breathe" which is a classic love song, but done kind of big like a Queen or Kiss track.  Strings and shit. 

Great band, their music evolved over time just like the major acts that were around a couple decades as they were.  They still tour but there's only 2 original members in the band. 

Download "On A Carousel".  AWESOME song. 

[Mindless Minority]

Finally someone I'm familiar with. My dad is a huge fan of The Hollies. Good band by all accounts, never been huge on them myself but I still listen to about half a dozen tracks they've done, mainly the ones you listed.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother is a CLASSIC mind.

Nice call though.

[Trauma-san]

Yeah, a truly great band.  I like how they were able to do so many different styles, "He Ain't Heavy" is totally different than "Bus Stop" for instance.  It doesn't even sound like the same band.  "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" sounds like Creedence Clearwater Revival.