The Cowsills Recall How The Ramones Were Their Biggest Fans While Discussing Their New Album

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Not many bands can say they’re making some of their best music after nearly 60 years together, but not many are. The Cowsills. Founded in 1965 by brothers Bob, Bill, and Barry Cowsilthe group will become pop culture icons both with their music (“The Rain, The Park & ​​Other Things”, “Hair”) and by inspiring Partridge family, after brothers and sisters Paul and Susan Cowsil join the group, along with their mother, Barbara. Bob Cowsill said: “When we were kids, when we were kids, we loved it. HollywoodLife in an EXCLUSIVE interview before the group’s first album in 30 years, dynamic Rhythm of the World (debuts tomorrow (September 30) via Omnivore Recordings)

Bob shared: “Susan, my sister, is eight years old. “I’m 18 years old. Paul, he, he’s 16 years old. And we are children. We don’t know if anyone is looking at us. Do you understand what I mean? But, we are holding our own. And, all these years later, we met all these fellows and all the wonderful people who really liked us back then. “

Turned out much people like Cowsills, including all four boys in leather jackets from Queens. “We continued Howard Stern . Program” said Paul Cowsill HollywoodLife. “We are outside Howard Stern Show, enjoy some fresh city air, and all of a sudden, this big limo sped up, parked on the side of the road, and this caution appeared. Ramones. And you can hear ‘Grey, Sunny Day’ – they played us in their limo when they arrived Howard Stern to do a little bit of them. And they come out and it’s like bowing to the Cowsills. “

Paul continued: “They are fans of The Cowsills. “Drummer, Marky Ramone, wanted to play a trick with us because he and his girlfriend had their first kiss in ‘Rain, The Park, and Other Things.’ And he asked if he could hit the drums, so our drummer, Russ, went, ‘well, yeah man. You want to beat the drums? You can hit the drums. ‘”

“We all play locally when we’re not together,” says Bob. “I was with my cover band, playing a Valentine dance at a country club. Joe Pesci Are. Joe approached me and started singing ‘Heaven Held’, a song by We can fly, our second album. And this is Joe Pesci telling I he is a fan of ours. And I want to talk to him. “

“I remember,” added Susan Cowsill, “it was in the nineties. And my favorite is Smithereens because I always thought they were just a really cool band, and when I found out they were Cowsills fans, I never thought so. And then they invited us to sing on their record [Blow Up]. And that’s great – and Melissa Ethridge, Carpenter Mary Chapin -“

“We found out Neil Young like us,” Bob said. “Graham Nash was a Cowsills fan,” added Susan. “Richie Furay,‘ Bob recalls. “Who knows? I would never have thought there was someone from Buffalo Springfield think we’re great. And there you go. Richie Furay thought we were cool.”

One doesn’t have to be a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame freelance artist to appreciate the music of The Cowsills. One needs to put on Rhythm of the World when it arrives on September 30th. Produced by Dr. Rock Positano, an 11-track album featuring crisp vocal harmonies set on some of the year’s sexiest rock hits. From the energetic opening (“Ya Gotta Get Up!”) to the mesmerizing title track to the haunting closer (“Katrina”), Rhythm of the World is a testament to the band’s talent as singers and songwriters.

It is also a tribute to the music that made Cowsills such a fundamental part of rock and roll. Instead of following the latest music trends, Rhythm of the World realized that the core sound of The Cowsills’ success never went out of style. With elements of heartfelt pop, original psychedelic rock, western kiss twang and new wave, Rhythm of the World in the end a collection of good, pure music.

“We don’t have a record company, we haven’t hit records in decades, but we to be works,” said Bob, “and we are where we should be, artistically. We are catching up with everyone on the journey. So our roots are all over this album, and we leave them because we ourselves are now part of them. It’s just a big dodge of what happened. “

Susan said: “We are the people who started in the sixties, and we are the people who lived through the seventies and eighties and the nineties. All music, we love it and absorb it. And then it will be the reason that when we step on the plate again, that’s what comes out. For me, The Cowsills has always been authentic, whatever it is – even when we are presented with something that we may not have written, chosen, not necessarily wanted to do, but which we are doing. that. “

This commitment to authenticity has ended Rhythm of the Worldallowing The Cowsills to create sounds that reflect the decades they’ve been around while still sounding fresh.

“Musicians don’t think about the label of someone’s music,” says Paul. “Musicians can just listen to it for music, and they can say, ‘Oh, I get it. You know? Oh, that’s great. OH. Check out those vocals. ‘ That’s other people going to get into that and go, “Oh, look, he’s trying to do that.”

Perhaps the most poignant moment on Rhythm of the World at the end with “Katrina”, a song about the passing of Barry Cowsil in the storm of the same name in 2005. With a guitar work that evokes memories of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone from the Sun” (which itself is said to contain a lament for Dick Dalewhom Hendrix thought was dead at the time), the song shows The Cowsills processing the loss through their musical filter.

“Of course, as an artist, your first thought is, ‘who’s going to write’ Katrina? ‘ said Bob. “Between us, we will have conversations, but it will only take years to come to the point. It is a very difficult task. And as it happens, the lyrics go crazy in first person. So its timing seems fine, uh, as the story unfolds where we’re all figuring out what happened to this guy. You know, he tried to get out – of course he couldn’t. And, the things that those words were from him – ‘looting and shooting’ – they were taken from his phone messages. “

“So it’s a musical memorial,” he continued. “It tells the story that he died in the wave, and musically he was finally taken to heaven, and had an ascension.” Bob admitted that the song would be “hard to sing” for the audience, but he said he would “Just think about other things, like baseball or something.”

Susan adds: “It’s hard to talk about that. “One thing I want to say about that particular record. Not only Bob, Paul, and I grieve for our brother. Two of our band members are from Louisiana. So when Russ and Mary playing that song, they’re emitting from them. They also lost people.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSYSECCUSEY

“The song is, ever since we started talking to people, it’s been a lot bigger, “She added. “These songs, sometimes they will come to us out of nowhere, not from our brains or our point of view at all. And you have to wonder what the hell is going on. I know Bob went through it with ‘Katrina,’ and so did I. “

Bob adds: “Some songs take years to write. “Some songs can stay on your lap for 15 minutes and all writers know about it.”

Fans won’t have to wait years to hear it Rhythm of the World live (it’s good that they’ve been waiting for this album for thirty years. First, the band will take on the Andy Williams Christmas Show at the Andy Williams Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri. With 2023, the promise of New Cowsills show with new fans.

The new year will also bring the band closer to its 60th anniversary. And what would young Cowsills say to that? “My teenage self would say, ‘Don’t give up. Never give up. Got a job, but try to push through the dream,” says Paul.

“If you had told me at 11 or 12 when this band first broke up,” Susan said, “that I would still be in this band with these guys, I don’t think I would think. so. And now, my life unfolds, I know exactly that is the case. But back then, I didn’t think so. So how fun is that?”

“We thought those thoughts when we were young musicians,” says Bob. “We joked, ‘If I do this at 40, someone take me off that stage right away!’ Because we’ve all been Street old. And look what we’re doing. I mean, are you kidding me? If someone says to me, ‘No, Bob. The songs you’re making today, they’ll carry you through the decades. They’ll be there for you eventually, ‘I would say,’ what movie are you writing? ‘ But here I am. So what can I say? “

Rhythm of the World will be released on September 30th.