If, as many commentators agree, the first chapter in the country-rock story lasts from 1967 to 1973, it is somewhat ironic that most of the albums considered foundation stones in what would eventually become a skyscraper, barely sold a copy between them.
No matter how poignant the lyrics or inventive the melodies (that could also incorporate such diverse elements as R&B and bluegrass), the great record-buying public needed several years of convincing before acknowledging it was a valid hybrid, while all the time taking hordes of blues/rock outfits to their hearts.
When they finally came around to accepting a popularised version of country-rock as something to embrace, it was done so with open arms and open wallets – L.A. based soft-rockers Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles soon becoming not just big-selling acts of the day, but all time.
Grantham, Furay, Young, Cotton, Schmit;
Indeed, pioneering albums such as ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo‘ by The Byrds and by those who had once been members of that groundbreaking band, Gene Clark as a solo artist and Gram Parsons during his stint leading The Flying Burrito Bros, had proved essential in terms of inspiration but achieved zip with regard to commercial impact.
Even when bands who remained a top concert draw such as the latter-day Byrds and the Grateful Dead threw their weight behind recordings with country-rock overtones, they cut little ice beyond the faithful – justifiably so in the case of poor Byrds offerings such as ‘Byrdmaniax‘ (1971) and ‘Farther Along‘ (1972), but excellent 1970 albums from the Dead (‘Workingman’s Beauty‘/’American Beauty‘) were, for the most part, overlooked by the world at large.
Another group who saw their often-impressive efforts released into a marketplace that could hardly care less were Poco.
Formed in L.A. toward the end of 1968 from the remnants of seminal folk-rockers Buffalo Springfield, guitarists Richie Furay and Jim Messina (who had also performed production duties on final Springfield album ‘Last Time Around‘), on parting company with Messrs Stills and Young, joined forces with drummer George Grantham, future Eagles bassist Randy Meisner and pedal steel virtuoso Rusty Young.
Their 1969 debut set ‘Pickin’ Up The Pieces,’ an attractive mix of country and pop embellished with Beatle-harmonies, predated the likes of America and the Eagles to the extent of being too far ahead of its time to find favour outside the converted – a feeling, so to speak, they would come to know well in the years ahead.
During their fledgling years members would come and go through a revolving door barely still. After appearing on the first album Meisner quit before it was released, Poco finding a replacement in Timothy B. Schmit (history was repeated eight years later when Schmit replaced Meisner in the Eagles), with Messina departing after the self-titled second album (1970) met with a lukewarm response.
In restoring their line-up to a quintet, they enlisted guitarist Paul Cotton who contributed a couple of fine songs and some impressive playing to the Steve Cropper produced ‘From The Inside‘ (1971) – a generally likeable collection that once again had songs by Furay and pedal-steel of Young to the fore in making no impact on the charts.
Having a settled line-up for the first time on successive albums, they brought in producer Jack Richardson, who previously had enjoyed hits with Alice Cooper and The Guess Who, to oversee sessions intended to finally move them from the margins to the mainstream. With success for Stills and Young who were exploring country-rock themselves and in the momentum growing around America and the Eagles, as 1972 drew to a close the time at last felt right for Poco to belatedly board the bandwagon of widespread recognition and healthy record sales.
With a producer well-versed in capturing a pristine sound and being a cohesive unit with a clutch of strong material to record, within Poco there must have been a sense the moment had arrived – and on the subsequent ‘A GOOD FEELIN’ TO KNOW (November 1972) there were enough moments of excellence to take them from the shadowlands to major stardom.
Between the power-pop overtones of ‘And Settlin’ Down‘ and the engaging title-track there was a surefire hit-single to be had, while at least three other tracks were of a sufficient high quality to make them memorable by whatever standards were applied.
Yet once again Poco somehow managed to miss the boat. The failure of ‘A Good Feelin’ to Know‘ to take off in the way it deserved eroded belief in Furay of them ever reaching the same level of repute as his former Springfield cohorts – while at the same time created one of the unexplained mysteries of 70s rock.
Looking for clues as to why a significant breakthrough did not occur leads to the conclusion that Poco, in being ahead of the game, fell victim to bad timing. Under the direction of Richardson, the country leanings are all but erased and they adopt a more rock-based stance, Young, for most of the record, moved from pedal-steel to form a guitar triumvirate with Furay and Cotton – of a sort the Eagles would form when Don Felder, pitching in alongside fellow guitarists Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon, became their fifth member in 1974.
This newly created battery of electric guitars allows Poco to begin things with a resounding kick – Furay, composer of ‘And Settlin’ Down‘ calling out ‘boogie‘ over a tough-rocking intro that sounds closer to Free than the Flying Burrito Bros.
The blend of voices and clearly defined guitar solos obviously made an impression on their competitors in the country-rock field, two years later the Eagles recreating the song as ‘Already Gone.’
Although not written by an Eagle, the opening track of their 1974 ‘On The Border‘ LP has many of the same inflections, Poco and Furay reveling in a happy romance while Frey and his Eagle pals sound glad to be free of their romantic entanglements – but based on originality and wittier lyric, ‘And Settlin’ Down‘ is the superior song.
With the first of his three contributions, Cotton keeps the level of accomplishment high with ‘Ride The Country.’ Following on from the superb ‘Bad Weather,’ the undoubted highlight of ‘From The Inside‘, he comes up with a song of equal merit – despite Cotton being involved in an apparent Neil Young impersonation contest with Gerry Beckley of America (their recent hit ‘A Horse with No Name‘ mistaken around the world for Neil).
If making a comparison Poco again win the day. Interesting Young-affected lyric (‘Take my hand and run/Take me down to the river blue/Throw a whisper to the wind that all you’re sayin’ is true‘), good guitar work and nicely arranged harmonies.
If CSNY had made an album in 1972 this could easily have been a song submitted by Young and therefore widely acclaimed – indeed, it would not have sounded out of place on ‘Harvest,’ his huge-selling album of the same year.
So thus far two shots, two goals, the record starting to sound like a Buffalo Springfield reunion effort – whose shadow grows longer still with a cover of ‘Go and Say Goodbye‘ a Stephen Stills song that appeared on the 1966 debut album of his former band.
While hard to truly dislike – Young featured doing a mean turn on dobro – it just sounds too self-conscious as a reminder of their country roots, the arrangement caught somewhere between what they once were and where Poco had moved onto.
Between ‘Ride The Country‘ and ‘Go and Say Goodbye‘ the spotlight falls upon Schmit as writer and vocalist with ‘I Can See Everything.’ Blessed with a smooth, distinctive voice, his real strength lies in being a fine singer rather than wordsmith, the lyrics to this agreeable mid-paced track occasionally sounding overwrought – although at 24 years of age nobody else could write like Jackson Browne either.
That said, there is an overriding sense of this being a group with full confidence in how they sound, Eagle-eared listeners sure to hear similarities to ‘I Can’t Tell You Why‘ at the moment Schmit sings ‘Every time I try to talk to you.’
As a writer Schmit fares slightly better on ‘Restrain‘ which benefits from a more direct lyric, (‘But you’re just a mirror reflecting a show/Quiet on the scene now, come out and take a bow‘). Ironically, this is the closest Poco come to sounding like the Eagles, the harmonies and ominous guitar lines reminiscent of ‘Witchy Woman‘ a track on their debut LP that came out five months before. In 1976 a fine rendition of the song would appear on ‘Poco Live,’ Schmit once again delivering a great vocal while around him Cotton, Young and Grantham, (Poco by this time a quartet), rock out like a restrained version of Neil Young back-up band Crazy Horse.
With his other two offerings, ‘Keeper of the Fire‘ and ‘Early Times,’ Cotton is establishing a format for the chunky, guitar-based compositions he would contribute to Poco albums for more or less the next fifteen years. While at times the meaning of some of his lyric couplets can be hard to grasp, he appears to have total conviction in what he’s saying and whether its alluding to difficult times gone by or uncertainty in the present, his key influence in songs that could be described as (Neil) ‘Young‘ man blues never seems far away.
But if there were two clear and obvious reasons why ‘A Good Feelin’ to Know‘ should have put Poco indelibly on the map, they lay with the Furay songs ‘Sweet Lovin‘ and the title-track.
Quite how ‘A Good Feelin’ to Know‘ missed out on becoming a huge hit single borders on the inexplicable. Every element sounds in place; upbeat song oozing positivity, neat interplay between the guitars and vocals, great production, all of which leads to the obvious question – if the Eagles could achieve a hit with ‘Take It Easy‘ what on earth stopped Poco doing likewise with ‘A Good Feelin’ to Know‘?
How upside down must the rock world have been in a year when great singles such as this, ‘Easy To Slip‘ by Little Feat and The Kinks ‘Celluloid Heroes‘ could fall by the wayside while Little Jimmy Osmond and Lieutenant Pigeon cleaned-up? Despite what you may read in other posts on this blog, 1972 was not all Bowie and the Stones.
With regard to artistic merit, few songs of the period are as affecting as album closer ‘Sweet Lovin‘.
Conveying the emotion he felt on the birth of his daughter, Furay writes a heartfelt lyric (‘Sun shinin’ in the night, my newborn child/Oh my, sharin’ her lovin’ with me/I can see in her smile‘), with this nigh-on perfect track built upon a layer of keyboards and gospel harmonies, the melody perhaps the only example of country-prog in existence – Poco evolving to a level where they sound less Gram Parsons and more Pink Floyd.
This was songwriting and performance of the highest order and on its own should have established Poco as a force to be reckoned with – yet alas, this admirable album was to fare no better than their previous releases and as already stated, the title-song made no headway when released as a 45.
Disillusioned by its failure, Furay stuck around for one more album, the next Poco LP becoming bogged down by his overlong, heavily orchestrated ‘Crazy Eyes‘ title-track, after which he was enticed to an all-star line-up being put together by David Geffen.
Late in 1973 he joined Eagle acolyte J. D. Souther and former Byrd Chris Hillman in the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Furay writing their immediate big hit ‘Fallin’ In Love‘ – a piece not a million miles removed from ‘And Settlin’ Down‘ and ‘A Good Feelin’ to Know.’ It raced into the US Top 20 – the irony of it being the weakest song of the three surely not lost on him or his former bandmates. But what looked promising in 1974 was all over a year later, Furay heard to lament in the midst of them recording a lacklustre second album: ‘I left Poco for this?’
From here he drifted into a solo career, intermittent albums thereafter reflecting his conversion to Christianity.
Back at camp Poco, Cotton, Young, Schmit and Grantham reacted to the departure of Furay by continuing as a quartet. While shunting between labels they cut two very good albums – ‘Cantamos‘ (1974)/’Head Over Heels‘ (1975) – and others that were not so hot, the 1976 ‘Rose of Cimarron‘ set distinguished only by the outstanding title-track (penned by Young who began writing after Furay left), this song a perennial favourite of revered BBC DJ John Peel.
The game looked up in 1977 when Schmit jumped ship to the Eagles, Grantham also deciding he needed a break. On considering their options Cotton and Young decided to continue, although with all the drummers and bass players L.A. had to offer, made the somewhat strange choice of recruiting two Englishmen, Steve Chapman (drums) and Charlie Harrison (bass), for their continuing country-rock ensemble – only for the move to work a treat, ‘Legend‘ (1978) their first LP for MCA, may not have been too much to write home about, but it met a receptive audience and dropped into a niche no Poco album had previously found.
Remaining high on the US charts for six months it spawned two big-selling singles (‘Crazy Love‘ by Young and from Cotton the excellent ‘Heart of the Night‘) and before 1979 was out they had played Madison Square Garden – Poco finishing the 70s in a place ‘A Good Feelin’ to Know‘ should have landed them seven years before.
POCO – A GOOD FEELIN’ TO KNOW (Released November 25 1972):
And Settlin’ Down/Ride the Country/I Can See Everything/Go and Say Goodbye/Keeper of the Fire/Early Times/A Good Feelin’ to Know/Restrain/Sweet Lovin‘;
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