Counting Crows

American rock band Counting Crows came out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Formed in 1991, the band consists of guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, bass guitarist Millard Powers, and guitarist Dan Vickrey. Past members include the drummers Steve Bowman (1991–1994) and Ben Mize (1994–2002), and bass guitarist Matt Malley (1991–2005).

The band gained popularity following the release of its first album, August and Everything After (1993) with its hit single "Mr. Jones." The album sold more than 7 million copies in the United States. The band received two Grammy Awards nominations in 1994, one for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" (for "Round Here") and one for "Best New Artist". 

The follow-up album, Recovering the Satellites, reached number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart and reached number one in several other countries. All but one of their subsequent albums reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 list.

The name Counting Crows comes from an old English nursery rhyme which had to do with predicting the future from the number of birds seen.  Originally the rhyme was about magpies, but as people came over to America, crows were used instead.  

The band's song "A Murder of One" has one version of the rhyme. Adam Duritz just liked the rhyme. 

"One for Sorrow" is the traditional name for the children's nursery rhyme which according to an old superstition says that the number of crows or magpies seen tells if one will have bad or good luck.

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.

THE MUSIC

August & Everything After

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (Eco)

Films About Ghosts: The Best of Counting Crows

Recovering the Satellites

Hard Candy

This Desert Life

August Rising

Across A Wire: Live In New York City

New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall

Dead & Dreaming: Tribute to Counting Crows 

Collective Soul

Collective Soul - 2016 in Camden, New Jersey  Link

Collective Soul is an American rock band that consists of the brothers Ed (lead vocalist) and Dean Roland (rhythm guitarist), Will Turpin (bassist), Johnny Rabb (drummer), and Jesse Triplett (lead guitarist). Formed in 1992, the original lineup consisted of the Roland brothers, Turpin, guitarist Ross Childress, and drummer Shane Evans. 

In 1993, Roland's song "Shine" from the Rising Storm label release of Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid became an underground hit and created a new band lineup.

Ed Roland was reading Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead and came across the phrase "collective soul." In the novel, "collective soul" is a threat to the main character's sense of individualism. Roland has said that the choice was not in support of "Ayn Rand, objectivism, egoism, or anything...we just dug the name."

ALBUMS
Collective Soul

Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid

Dosage

Afterwords

7even Year Itch: Greatest Hits, 1994-2001

Crowded House

Crowded House, 1987 Paul Hester, Neil Finn, Nick Seymour

The rock band CROWDED HOUSE formed in 1985 after the band Split Enz did a farewell tour. Neil Finn (vocals, guitar, piano), drummer Paul Hester and Nick Seymour on bass. Finn and Hester had been members of the New Zealand band Split Enz. Neil Finn is the younger brother of Split Enz founding member Tim Finn, who would join the new band in 1990.

The new band was called The Mullanes and they formed in Melbourne with Finn, Hester, Seymour and guitarist Craig Hooper. When they got a record contract with Capitol Records, they decided to move to Los Angeles to record their eponymous debut album. Hooper didn't want to make the move and left the band. 

Their debut album produced  two Top Ten hits "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong."

Capitol Records wanted (wisely) a new name for the band. The odd name "Crowded House" is a reference to the small Hollywood Hills house the band shared during the recording of the album Crowded House.

In 1996, Crowded House announced that it would disband and they did several farewell concerts. 

Hester died by suicide at age 46. the following year, the band re-formed with drummer Matt Sherrod and released two albums that reached number one on Australia's album chart. Then the band went inactive for several years until a revised line-up was set to tour the UK in 2020 with Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom, and Finn's sons Liam and Elroy. The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the tour.

The band's seventh studio album, Dreamers Are Waiting, was released in 2021 along with a New Zealand tour in March 2021. The band plans to tour Australia in 2022.

     

Chicago and "25 or 6 to 4"

A collage used to promote Chicago in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California, 2005, Source

Chicago is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967. The group was initially billed as The Big Thing. They are a self-described "rock and roll band with horns" but also used elements of classical music, jazz, R&B, and pop music. They produced numerous top-40 hits over two decades and continue to record and perform live.

The band logo which appears in many styles
 on their album covers, Public Domain, Link

There had been a Chicago-based rock cover band with six members called the Big Thing that played in Chicago nightclubs and covered Top 40 hits. When the group began working on original songs in 1968, their manager, James William Guercio, wanted a name change. They became the Chicago Transit Authority but changed it after their first album to the shortened Chicago to avoid legal action being threatened by the actual mass-transit company of the same name.

Their first record (April 1969), Chicago Transit Authority, is a double album, which is rare for a band's first release. It made it to No. 17 on the Billboard album chart and sold over one million copies by 1970, and was awarded a platinum disc. The album included a number of FM radio hits – "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Beginnings", "Questions 67 and 68", and "I'm a Man." The band was nominated for a Grammy Award for 1969 Best New Artist of the Year.

Amazon lists an incredible 186 albums under their name, which includes studio albums, live recordings and many compilations in different formats.

Chicago II

One song on their second album is "25 or 6 to 4." It was written by Robert Lamm, a founding member of the band. The song title has confused many listeners.

In a 2013 interview, keyboardist Robert Lamm said he composed it on a twelve-string guitar missing the two low E strings. He said the song is about trying to write a song in the middle of the night. The song's title is the time at which the song is set: 25 or 26 minutes before 4 AM. But other interpretations emerged. One was that it meant a quantity of illicit drugs. Another was that it was the name of a famous person in code. 

         

The Turtles, Flo and Eddie and The Crossfires

 

Once upon a time, there was a high school band called "The Nightriders" with Mark Volman, Don Murray and Dale Walton. Like most high school, garage bands, they went through changes in members. In 1963, they changed the band name to The Crossfires and began performing guitar-driven surf instrumentals.  The band now included other Los Angeles high school students - Howard Kaplan (changed in 1965 to Kaylan), Al Nichol, and Chuck Portz. The Crossfires as a surf-rock group was active from 1963 to 1965.

When the rock and folk-rock sound became the most popular genres, they rebranded themselves as a folk-rock group under the name The Tyrtles. The stylized misspelling follows that of The Byrds and The Beatles but soon opted to correct the spelling.

Kaylan and Volman dropped the saxophones and became the band's vocalists with Kaylan as lead singer, and one of the keyboardists. Meanwhile, Volman began to harmonize with Kaylan's lead and became the third guitarist and percussionist in what was now a sextet.

They were now The Turtles on White Whale records. Their breakthrough hit was a cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" which reached the Billboard Top Ten in the late summer of 1965.

Their biggest hit is "Happy Together" which knocked the Beatles' "Penny Lane" out of number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1967. It was The Turtles' only #1 single and it remained there for three weeks.

In 1968, they released a concept album called The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. They recorded 11 songs in 11 different styles and pretended to be 11 different bands with names like "Nature's Children" and "The Fabulous Dawgs." They got two hits from the album:  "Elenore" and "You Showed Me" which h both made it into the top 10.

Their 1969 single "You Showed Me" (written by Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds) was their last top 10 single.

The Turtles released a second compilation album, More Golden Hits, and a B-sides and rarities album, Wooden Head in 1970 and disbanded.

Kaylan and Volman made an unlikely move and joined the Mothers of Invention. They used the name The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie. Their contract with White Whale Records prohibited them from using the name The Turtles or even their own names in billings! Eventually, the name was shortened to Flo & Eddie. They recorded with the Mothers, appeared in Zappa's film 200 Motels in 1971, and later released records on their own.

Starting in 2010, the Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie toured throughout the United States as part of the "Happy Together" tour that has continued and has included other acts from the 60s and 70s such as Gary Puckett, Mitch Ryder, Mark Lindsay, Mark Farner, Gary Lewis, Micky Dolenz, the Buckinghams, the Cowsills, the Grass Roots, and the Association.

Two box sets, The Complete Original Album Collection and All the Singles. 

 

The Cranberries

The Cranberries live in Montreal, 2012 via Wikimedia

The Cranberries were an Irish rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland, in 1989 by lead singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan, and drummer Fergal Lawler.

The band classified itself as an alternative rock group, but they incorporated aspects of indie pop, post-punk, folk-rock, and pop-rock into their sound.

In mid-1989, brothers Mike, 16, and Noel Hogan, 18, formed a band called Cranberry Saw Us (a pun on cranberry sauce) with drummer Fergal Lawler, 18, and singer Niall Quinn. Quinn left in 1990 and the three continued as an instrumental band until 18-year-old Dolores O'Riordan answered their ad for a female singer.

As the band moved on to new material from Noel Hogan and O'Riordan, playing gigs and signing a major label deal, the name was changed to The Cranberries. 

The Cranberries' fame went international fame with their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, with the 1994 hit singles include "Linger" and "Dreams." Five of the band's albums reached the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and eight of their singles reached the Top 20 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

There was a 25th-anniversary reissue of The Cranberries’ debut album that had sold over 5,000,000 copies in the US and over 600,000 in the UK. The album has been remastered at Abbey Road (under the supervision of the band’s Noel Hogan) and is now available on vinyl. They were one of the biggest bands of the 90s.

The group broke up but returned to the stage in 2012 with a new single "Tomorrow." The reunion was short-lived. O'Riordan started legal proceedings against Noel Hogan in October 2013 and the case was struck out in July 2015 and the cause was not divulged.

But the band did get together again. Unfortunately, on 15 January 2018, O'Riordan died unexpectedly in London. She had recently arrived there for a studio mixing session on her D.A.R.K. album and to discuss the upcoming album of the band with record label BMG. It was ruled that she had drowned in her hotel room's bathtub due to sedation by alcohol poisoning.

Official band website cranberries.com

The Cult

 

I have mentioned before that the original incarnation of this site is still online, but it's "locked" to editing and out of date. Unfortunately, the email address on it still works, so I get a good amount of mail with complaints about omissions and errors.

One of the top complaints is about what I had written about The Cult. I mistakenly said that The Cult started as the Sudden Death Cult. The band must have a pretty good cult following still because people are always complaining about the goof.

Let me set the record straight here.

The Cult are a British rock band, formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in Britain in the mid 1980s as a post-punk band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary."

They went more mainstream, especially in the United States, in the late 1980s as more of a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine".

They have been described as a fusion of "heavy metal revivalist sound with the pseudo-mysticism of The Doors and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". That's quite a mix.

There have been varying lineups since 1981 with the longest serving members being vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy.

Formed in 1981in Bradford, Yorkshire by vocalist/songwriter Astbury, he named it Southern Death Cult. The name comes a 14th century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (or Southern Death Cult) which existed near the Mississippi delta area.

The connection can be heard on songs like "Horse Nation" which shows Astbury's interest in Native American issues. The lyrics include "See them prancing, they come neighing, to a horse nation" which is taken almost verbatim from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. The song "Spiritwalker" deals with shamanism and was influenced by his reading of Australian Aboriginal beliefs.

In April 1983, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed the band "Death Cult". Duffy had previously been in The Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate.

They softened the Gothic connotations of the name by shortening it to "The Cult" in January 1984 before appearing on the (UK) television show, The Tube.

They released the album Love in 1985, which charted at #4 in the United Kingdom, and which included singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "(Here Comes the) Rain".

The harder rock sound came with their third album, Electric and their fourth album, Sonic Temple, which were their North American "breakthrough" albums.

In the early 90s, the band was coming apart (alcohol abuse, off-stage tensions etc.) and they split in 1995.

Four years later, they reunited and recorded the album Beyond Good and Evil (which took its name directly from a book by Friedrich Nietzsche).

All of their albums were reissued in Asia and Eastern Europe in 2003 and Japan in 2004. In 2006, the band did a series of world tours.

Their last release was Born into This


There is a compilation of early recordings under the name Southern Death Cult.



Here is a Wikipedia entry on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Death_Cult and some information on the Native American connection.

OTHER ALBUMS 

Steel Box Collection: Greatest Hits

Of Sonic Temple

B.O. Rare Cult

The Cult - Pure Cult - DVD Anthology 1984-1995