Mom had this album in her collection. To this day, I have never heard it. I can’t even say if it was hers or left by Dad or something else. I remember the cover vividly. In fact, to get this image I went to Bing image search and typed in Frankie Laine Hell Bent For Leather. I remembered it exactly. So it had to have some kind of impact. Can you think of an album from your childhood that you knew so well and yet never heard? Before I proceed let me share this with you. I thought I searched Frankie Laine but on closer inspection of the search window which is still open on another tab, I see that I actually typed Frankie Lame. Do you think that the LAME was an unconscious manifestation of how I feel about country music? I’ve never been a fan of country music.
As a child, I remember watching Hee-Haw, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell and other country music television programs. I don’t hate it, i just can’t get interested enough to listen to it or buy any. I’ve gotten close. By this I don’t mean that I was standing in the checkout with a Garth Brooks CD then set it down at the last second. I mean that I have purchased music that in some instances comes very close to resembling what people may call country music. Some of that early Olivia Newton-John stuff has that country twang to it. Rhinestione Cowboy actually has the word cowboy in the title. Maybe I’m just fooling myself when I say “That’s not Country, it’s Bluegrass or Folk music.
I must admit that this Frankie Laine album has got me curious now. I wonder what it sounds like. I guess I may just have to break down and pick it up to see. I also wonder if we never dared to play this because it had Hell in the title and at our young ages we were afraid of what it might lead to. This is another examply of musical influence. I could buy Frankie Laine and really enjoy it then go back and collect more of his catalog. That backfill method has been employed on numerous occasions as you will see.
The 5th Dimension – Up Up And Away
Cher – Gypsys Tramps And Thieves
The Partridge Family – I Woke Up In Love This Morning
The Animals – House Of The Rising Sun
The Carpenters – We’ve Only Just Begun Karen Carpenter has such a great voice. It seems so natural and never forced or strained.
The Zombies – Time Of The Season
The Bee Gees – Words
I love the Partridge family video even more now then I did in the 70’s since I now know that only David Cassidy had any musical background and talent and all of the others were playing “air guitar” so to speak.
House of the Rising Sun is still a classic. I can usually identify that song within the first few guitar notes.
The Carpenters, like Bread, make me a little misty eyed every time I listen to them.
Time of the Season was as close to “Hippy Music” as I could get in my youth. It seemed like such a free love and drug song. It still mellows me out hearing it today.