The Association in concert
Topics/tags: Reviews, music
The other day, I went with Michelle and some friends to see The
Association. I will admit that it would not have been a concert that I
would have decided to attend on my own, while there are a few songs by
the Association that I enjoy, such as Along Comes Mary
and Windy
,
they aren’t songs that are particularly meaningful to me. I also tend
to prefer bands that continued to create new music over the decades or
at least whose individual members continued to create new music.
Nonetheless, it was a fun concert, and I’m glad I went. While are only two original members left, most of the other members have been there a long time, so they cohere well as a band. They can’t quite hit all of the harmonies of years gone by, but they come close. And they clearly have fun with what they do; they tell stories, laugh at each other, and interact with the audience [1].
They claimed that they have three of the 100 most played songs of the
previous century, including
Never My Love
(which beat out Yesterday
for the second slot), Cherish
at the number 22 slot, and Windy
at number 61. That’s almost as many
songs as the Beatles have in that list [2].
But what does a band do when they have about half a dozen hits that
people remember and not much history beyond, say, the early 1970’s?
They played a funny song (a version of the Eagles’ Desperado
that
they renamed Avacado
), a song I hadn’t known that had clear Iowa ties
(Dubuque Blues
), and, well, a whole bunch of cover versions, including
an attempt a bunch of the songs from the soundtrack of The Big Chill
[3]. They did a great version of Wouldn’t It Be Nice
with most of
the harmonies intact. And they did a surprisingly good version of
The Weight
[4].
Here are some highlights of the show, at least from my perspective.
- Michelle telling the person next to her that
[5]. It still makes me laugh.Cherish
is almost as much of a creepy stalker song asHappy Together
- Their cover of
The Weight
. I still don’t know what it means, but I love that song. - The middle-aged woman in front of us bopping along to songs.
- And, believe it or not, but it was fun to hear
Along Comes Mary
live.
The folks who were with me were sad that the band never played Requiem
For The Masses
. Maybe next time.
[1] Okay, maybe they only pretend to have fun with what they do. If that’s the case, they fake it well enough that it’s okay with me. I’ve been to too many shows in which the band seems to be just going through the motions.
[2] Yesterday
at number 3, Something
at number 17, Michelle
at number 42, and Let It Be
at number 89. Lennon’s Image
is at
number 96.
[3] There appear to be a wide variety of soundtracks to The Big Chill.
Most include The Exciters’ Tell Him
and Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade
of Pale
, and The Rascals’ Good Lovin
, none of which The Association
Covered.
[4] Whenever I hear The Weight
, I feel like I can close my eyes and
see the scene from The Last Waltz when they sing it. I still love
the movie, but Reading Levon Helm’s description of the making of The
Last Waltz made me see it in a new light.
[5] How else would you interpret the line You don’t know how many times
I’ve wished I could mold you into someone who could cherish me as much
as I cherish you
?
Version 1.0 of 2018-10-02