Crazy Eyes

Crazy Eyes
Studio album by Poco
Released September 15, 1973
Recorded May 21-27, 1973
Genre Country rock
Length 37:49
Label Epic
Producer Jack Richardson
Poco chronology
A Good Feelin' to Know
(1972)		 Crazy Eyes
(1973)		 Seven
(1974)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]

Crazy Eyes is the fifth studio album by the American country rock band Poco: released in 1973 it was the album with which founding member Richie Furay ended his original tenure with the group.

Overview

Crazy Eyes, recorded at RCA Victor Studio (Los Angeles) in 21 -27 May 1973, was the second of three Poco albums produced by Jack Richardson whose first collaboration with Poco: A Good Feelin' to Know (1972), had been considered the band's most viable bid for mainstream stardom to date (although it had proved a commercial disappointment).[2] Poco included songs from the Crazy Eyes sessions in the setlist for the tour the group played in summer of 1973, with the album issued 15 September 1973. While Crazy Eyes was in its planning stage Richie Furay had been essentially poached by Asylum Records head David Geffen to co-lead the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band: disappointed with the relative failure of the album A Good Feelin' to Know, Furay was receptive to Geffen's offer but opted to record a final album with Poco[2] and keep silent about his departure until the album was nearly completed.[3] Furay ended his original tenure as a member of with the band's concert at Worcester Polytech (Mass) on 4 September 1973, eleven days before the release of Crazy Eyes[2]. (Furay would have a second tenure with Poco in 1988-89 recording the 1989 album Legacy as a group member.)

The title track of Crazy Eyes was written by Richie Furay about Gram Parsons - (Richie Furay quote:)"If you looked in his eyes, [Parsons] was the kind of guy you could never really read."[3] Furay had actually written the song "Crazy Eyes" in 1969 [3]: previously Poco's most prolific songwriter, Furay wrote only one song: "Let's Dance Tonight", for the album Crazy Eyes as he was largely reserving his songwriting potential for the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band.[2] According to Rusty Young, Poco has never performed the song "Crazy Eyes" in concert due mostly to its complex percussion part, consisting of African drums, among other things. (The Richie Furay Band has begun to play the song live.)

The album also features Furay's rendition of the Gram Parsons composition "Brass Buttons": (Richie Furay quote:) "[Parsons] taught me that one when we lived across the street from each other in Greenwich Village in 1964."[3] The Crazy Eyes album would in fact debut the song "Brass Buttons" as the sessions for Crazy Eyes would slightly predate those for Grievous Angel the Grams Parsons album which would feature Parsons' own version of "Brass Buttons":[3] Grievous Angel would be released in January 1974 four months after the 15 September release of Crazy Eyes (Parsons would pass away four days subsequent to Crazy Eyes' release date).

The lead single from the album: "Here We Go Again" issued in October 1973, was the first Timothy B. Schmit composition to serve as a Poco A-side, while the B-side: the instrumental Rusty Young composition "Fools Gold" was serviced to C&W radio, with neither side becoming a hit. The second single, issued March 1974, was an edited version of Poco's cover of J. J. Cale's "Magnolia" with lead vocal by Paul Cotton: an aficionado of Southern-themed music Cotton had become a fan of Cale's on the basis of Cale's 1972 debut album Naturally which had introduced the song "Magnolia": (Paul Cotton quote:) "'Magnolia' is my favorite J. J. song"......"We slowed [it] down from J. J.'s version, and we played it live in the studio, all of us at the same time"......"My vocal ...was a first take."[4] Not a success as a single, Poco's "Magnolia" was evidently not performed in their live gigs concurrent with its parent album's release but from 1976 the song would become a Poco concert staple during Paul Cotton's periods of tenure with the band. Despite the lack of even a minor hit single the album Crazy Eyes did evidently provide Poco with a commercial boost becoming the group's highest charting studio album up to that point in time with a peak of #38 (the 1972 Poco concert album Deliverin' had reached #26).

Track listing

  1. "Blue Water" (Paul Cotton) – 3:07
  2. "Fools Gold" (Rusty Young) – 2:23
  3. "Here We Go Again" (Timothy B. Schmit) – 3:28
  4. "Brass Buttons" (Gram Parsons) – 4:17
  5. "A Right Along" (Paul Cotton) – 4:43
  6. "Crazy Eyes" (the first song on side two of the original LP) (Richie Furay) – 9:39
  7. "Magnolia" (J.J. Cale) – 6:18
  8. "Let’s Dance Tonight" (Richie Furay) – 3:54

Personnel

Production

References

  1. ↑ Eder, Bruce. Crazy Eyes at AllMusic
  2. 1 2 3 4 Furay, Richie; Roberts, Michael (2006). Pickin' Up the Pieces: the heart & soul of Country Rock pioneer Richie Furay. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press. pp. 154–58. ISBN 978-1-57856-957-1.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Einarson, John (2007). Desperados: the roots of country rock. NYC: Cooper Square Press. pp. 258–60. ISBN 978-0-8154-1065-2.
  4. ↑ Sound Waves October 2013 "'Simple and Sexy": Paul Cotton Remembers J. J. Cale" by Mark T. Gould
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