From the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters...I'm (only five days?) late again....
My introduction to this week's tune was the rather ho-hum beginning of its release in 1976, when I was still young and in high school (to steal a phrase). What I remember most about its release is how much my father loved it, playing it again and again on our Magnavox stereo that was just slightly smaller than an army tank. Lots of good memories of that old stereo--with Dad, Mom, sister, and brother....
The Bellamy Brothers (and they are actually brothers, Howard and David) got their start in Florida with a father who played in a local country band and a sister who loved rock and roll. They had their first gig in 1968 and played locally until David co-wrote "Spiders and Snakes" (a fairly decent novelty song) with Jim Stafford. Stafford took the song to #3 on the Hot 100 and it gave the Bellamy Brothers enough cash to get to Los Angeles and start their career. The signed a recording contract in 1975 and by 1976 had their first (and last) #1 hit on the pop charts. Though their pop success was limited, the brothers developed quite a career on the country music scene, having twenty #1 singles, twenty-five top ten singles, and over fifty singles all told on the country music charts. They've been nominated for a Grammy Award, two Dove (Contemporary Christian) Awards, and their single "Old Hippie" was #95 on Rolling Stone's list of the hundred best country songs of all-time. For their career, the Bellamy Brothers have released thirty-seven studio albums (with one making the country album top ten), one live album, nineteen compilations, and eighty-five singles. The brothers are still performing, playing over two hundred gigs a year--not bad for a couple of guys in their seventies.
Fun Fact: The Bellamy Brothers are quite big in Europe (especially Switzerland--so many cool kids in the land of the Alps!), but their major accomplishment is that they are only the second American performers (Johnny Cash the other) inducted into the German Country Music Hall of Fame. Who the fuck knew Germany had its own country music scene? Is this a cool world or what?
"Let Your Love Flow" was the first single they ever released from their 1976 debut album, the rather smartly named Let Your Love Flow (which didn't even rate a Wikipedia entry). The single would hit #1 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 (and in six other countries), while the album peaked at #69 on the Billboard 200.
Every now and again when I'm doing my half-assed research and pre-post listening, something dawns on me that I never noticed when I first began enjoying a song. This week it was how country "Let Your Love Flow" sounded--I seemed to remember it as more of a pop song than it actually was (and might explain their massive popularity in country and western circles in the years afterward). The song has a nice seventies vibe with its message of letting your love flow (so to speak), some nice twangy guitar, and a catchy as catchy can get chorus. The real prize, though, is the harmonies of David and Howard--just wonderful, and probably a large part of what appealed to my father and me. A good throwback to a good time in my life...but aren't they all?
Lyric Sheet: "So let that feelin' grab you deep inside/And send you reelin' where your love can't hide/And then go stealin' through the moonlit nights/With your lover..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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