How the Good Shines Through

SOME GOOD YEARS - The Cowsills

I love music documentaries. One of the best I've seen is "Family Band: The Cowsills Story," which would be excellent even if the titular act hadn't sold millions of records. It's simply a compelling look at the ups and downs of a large family over the course of three decades or so.

 

A short version of the band's history (since the long version is in the film and on Wikipedia): four brothers from Rhode Island formed a band in 1965, were later joined by their sister and another brother, and then by their mother (and another brother from time to time in later years). They were managed by their father, which didn't end well.

Among other hits, the Cowsills had two singles that made it to #2 on the Top 40: "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" and "Hair." Famously, the band inspired "The Partridge Family" television series.

There were departures and fallow periods, but Bob, Susan and Paul Cowsill carry the torch to this day, continuing the family tradition of excellent musicianship.

Back to the documentary: it ends with a song Bob wrote, "Some Good Years," a look back at personal history with affection, wisdom, and harmonies that evoke the Beach Boys without being derivative. It's an earworm of the best kind.

Bob has generously taken time to answer my questions about "Some Good Years":

"Some Good Years" is a track from this 1998 LP

 
1 - Did you record a demo or any alternate versions, or is the finished record essentially what you heard in your head as you composed the song?  

Bob Cowsill: I recorded "Some Good Years" along with two other songs from "Global" ("She Said To Me" and "Is It Any Wonder?") alone.  I played all the instruments except drums and the keyboard descension part on "Some Good Years," which I asked Gary Griffin to play because I couldn't. All I had to do was sing it to Gary and he could reproduce it - very talented.

 

I had no plans other than record some songs I had written because that's what you did with songs. You recorded them - with or without a label or a reason - well actually, the reason being you've written songs, now what? Well, you record them.   

 

I was in the middle of these do-it-alone sessions when we (me, Paul, Susan) took a meeting with Dick Clark and turned down his invitation to join his cavalcade of stars on a summer tour, and during the post-meeting we were having I mentioned I have these songs I've been working on and that triggered us all going into the studio and recording "Global," John included.  I had pretty much finished "Some Good Years" so we added Paul and Susan and John to the backgrounds already there and beefed those up, then added John on the drums (I had used a drum machine to construct the track with).  

2 - The song was recorded and released a few years before the release of the "Family Band: The Cowsills Story," but it plays over the end credits so perfectly it sounds as though it was written for the film. What did inspire the song, originally?

BC: I had always loved what I called "Retirement videos" of athletes. They always had a great song playing while they showed the best highlights of the player's career.  So what I did was I specifically wrote "Some Good Years" with the idea of getting it to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for his retirement video.  The original lyrics were all about Kareem and his history.  I still have them buried with everything else in my garage so will at some point dig those out and frame them or something.  

 

So eventually I realized pretty much every one has had some good years and even the bad and harsh parts of someone's life smooth out over time and don't seem as harsh anymore.  

 

 

3 - Did you arrange the harmonies yourself or did everyone pretty much know what to do after all the years of singing together.

BC: On that particular song I was sort of loose in the candy field and could do whatever I wanted just working alone on things so that vocal arrangement was all done (I just kept using my own voice to build the vocal stacks) by the time Susan, Paul and John showed up, so I just added their voices to what was already there.  I actually used my wife, Mary, for the girl answer ("they were some good years) and ended up adding Susan to that and keeping them both in the end.

 

4 - In the wonderfully "unplugged" live version from 2008, you and Susan and Paul all look so very happy to be singing this song. What do you recall from this performance?

BC: We recall how exciting it was to meet Florence Henderson and sit and visit with her.  We're always happiest when performing and singing because that's what brings this family together so if we're singing anywhere we're hanging out with each other and the kids and it's always very rewarding.  To be asked to sing on a TV show like that is so fun and it involved meeting Florence Henderson and it was all very exciting.

5 - You give thanks to DJ Barry Scott in the liner notes to the Global LP; what's the story with his being the first to play "Some Good Years" on the radio?

BC: Barry Scott was wonderful ... is wonderful.  He brought us together for a show in Boston (think late '89 or so) when we really weren't doing much of anything and we all flew in and played at a place called Zanzibar's.  We hadn't played in years and that was a big deal for us. Bruce Johnston, Paula Abdul and John Stamos were there and we just enjoyed it so much.  So we always credit Barry Scott for bringing us out there and triggering us getting back together for a while back then and recording and all.  Barry is a Boston DJ and he played "Some Good Years" even when it wasn't released or on a label - he just thought it was a great song.

Barry Scott

6 - Your brother Paul plays keyboards on the rest of the LP, but you and Gary Griffin do on "Some Good Years" (Paul does sing background vocals). Why was this song different?  

BC: Well, like I was saying, it was just me at the time when we started those three songs but Paul was going to provide the sound for "Global" with the Roland D-50.... the Roland D-50 is the keyboard sound of "Global" and Paul immediately took over keyboards as soon as we started. I was actually thrilled I wasn't going to play everything - which is fun to do if you're working alone but now we were at full monty and that wasn't going to be necessary.

7 -The song is a positive look at one's past; have you always been an optimist or was this a lesson learned along the way?

BC: Both - but I was always impressed as I got older that things that I thought were horrible or tough in my past softened over time and didn't seem such a big deal.  It's like the recruit who complains of boot camp and tells everyone how hard and unforgiving boot camp is and the tortured letters to home and the "suffering" .... and then later in life you meet these guys and their attitude is, "Oh yeah boot camp....that wasn't as bad as I thought at the time."  

 

So, it's that kind of natural progression I think the brain does where we can better understand the harder things that happened in our past and realize they weren't as bad as we thought.  Every experience has a good side to it and I believe the good part stays with us while our brain softens the bad part.

There are some wonderful legacy videos on YouTube where people have used "Some Good Years" in exactly the way it was intended, so I always feel extra good when I see that and am glad they were touched and motivated that way by the song.

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The Cowsills launched a podcast this year...

...and you can stay in touch with them at the Cowsills website and on Facebook.