Saturday, May 5, 2018

The Hollies - Live 1968

The Hollies don't get much respect. True, they were more of a singles band than an album band, but they created lots of classic songs, a majority of which they wrote themselves. For me, their best era was when they had Graham Nash in the band (from their start through most of 1968). He tried to pull the group in a more progressive direction before leaving, but once he left, they got stuck in a very square mode that was at odds with most of the great music happening at the time.

There isn't a lot of quality recording of the Hollies playing live. Luckily, there is a show from 1968 (the Lewisham Odeon Theatre, London, in May), done not long before Nash left, which was included as part of a box set on the years Nash was in the band. This is a short recording, only 24 minutes.

Luckily, I was able to find another show, also from 1968 and from before Nash left (Split, Yugoslavia, in August). I took the songs from that show that they didn't play in the other show and added them to the end. That makes it a 36 minute long album, a more satisfying length.

The Hollies didn't attempt to impress with instrumental soloing in their live shows. However, they were a tight band and certainly brought all their vocal harmonizing skills.

01 Stop, Stop, Stop (Hollies)
02 Look through Any Window (Hollies)
03 The Times They Are A-Changin' (Hollies)
04 On a Carousel (Hollies)
05 King Midas in Reverse (Hollies)
06 Butterfly (Hollies)
07 Jennifer Eccles (Hollies)
08 Carrie Anne (Hollies)
09 Dang Me (Hollies)
10 The Very Last Day (Hollies)
11 A Taste of Honey (Hollies)
12 Do the Best You Can (Hollies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15122424/THollis_1968_LewishmOdeonTheatreLondonBritain__5-24-1968_atse.zip.html

Originallyl, I used the cover art of a photo of the band playing in Split, Yugoslavia. It was a screenshot from a YouTube video. But it was low-res and blurry. Over a year later, I replaced it with a much clearer photo of the band performing for the BBC in 1968.

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