THE HOLLIES - FOR CERTAIN BECAUSE (1966) CLOWN - PARLOPHONE  - RON RICHARDS

Let's be totally honest the Hollies were a paupers Beatles - a very poor pauper, and as far as I am concerned got even worse after Graham Nash left to join David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young (to a certain extent)  to form the legendary Crosby, Stills and Nash.

However their fifth album "For certain because" - (released as Stop! Stop! Stop! in the States) was their first dabble into the realm of psychedelic music, and of all their albums that I've heard- and trust me I've heard a few -  This is the one that stands out.

Overall the album is still pretty pop-py in keeping with their squeaky clean / sugary sweet image, but a couple of tracks do stand out "suspicious look in your eyes" is a beautiful 60's pop tune, the track "Clown" on the other hand is not what you'd expect to hear on the album.

I can possibly imagine during writing the album they decided "ok guys i think we should play it a little bit risque at least for one track just to show we can also fit into this whole psychedelic movement that's all the craze" - which explains why the track is only two and a bit minutes long - the shortest and best track on the album.

It starts with some circus like music and then Bobby Elliot comes in on drums with a beautiful kick start, with either Allan Clarke or Nash on vocals - the rest of the track then carries on at the same pace it's almost like an interlude or skit in the album but with beautiful vocals and simple yet brilliant lyrics.

That's about it on the album - the rest of the tracks are mediocre the track "Suspicious looks in your eyes" comes after and then we are back to familiar territory with the Hollies. They did release a couple of albums after that with a psych sound that fell behind what the Rolling Stones and the Kinks were releasing around the same period.

Graham Nash left the Hollies two years later because he found the music the Hollies were making a bit too sweet and just wasn't excited with what they were doing - a shame because he seemed to be the one person who inspired their most creative period -the UK's loss was California's gain.

The Hollies - Clown

I love this track

Enjoy

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