Lost/Forgotten Album #327

[Jon]

Well, this should be a bit interesting.

The Osmonds??!! Why not?

Have I ever steered you wrong before? Nope. Never.

Besides, Crazy Horses, released in 1972, was picked as one of the 500 best heavy metal albums in the universe in Chuck Eddy's "Stairway To Hell", coming in at #66 (or #66.6 if you want to get really technical). That's right before Billy Squier's Don't Say No, so it has to have some merit. 

Per Chuck Eddy: The title track's got the most apocalyptic Book Of Revelation imagery this side of Dylan/Osbourne and I swear to Joseph Smith its demented kicks and whinnies were stolen outright by Aerosmith in "Back In The Saddle"...  

Sure, there's some schmaltzy stuff here but when they rock, boy do they rock. And not only is there rockin' geetar, they also have no problem adding horns. Such rebels!

Time for some Allmusic.com thoughts:

Crazy Horses is killer. With Donny's tonsils now off making albums of their own, his presence here is confined to keyboards, allowing the elder Osmonds to fulfill the vocal duties, and to rock out accordingly. The mad synth boogie of the title track would be a classic rock staple had any other artist recorded it, and it's not alone, as "Hold Her Tight" and "We All Fall Down" follow its lead into seriously rocking territory. True, the ballads do spoil the show a little, but only from the point of view of a "serious" rock fan trying to justify this album's presence in his/her collection.

Crazy Horses

1. Hold Her Tight
2. Utah
3. Girl
4. What Could It Be
5. We All Fall Down
6. And You Love Me
7. Crazy Horses
8. Life Is Hard Enough Without Goodbyes
9. Hey, Mr. Taxi
10. That's My Girl
11. Jule
12. Big Finish

Availability: A two-fer featuring this album and the followup The Plan is available for around $11 new.

[Scott]

I cant get the image of the Crazy Horse video out of my head now!  THANKS!  Do you know how many years of therapy it has taken to erase that?  All for not! 

[Jon]

I shouldn't feel happy about this.

But I do.

[Scott]

I existed in Utah for 7 years.  Think about that crap...  SEVEN FETCHIN' YEARS!  Hard time if you ask me!  Oh My Heck this is major flashback stuff...

• No coffee at work
• Women wearing "shorts" to their knees
• A Mormon church every city block.  I lived so close to one that they would block my driveway on Sundays.  Had to complain and post signs, so that endeared me to my neighbors ...
• Business closed on Monday evenings, who does that?
• and every new neighbor we met trying to convert us.

I tell ya, I can overcome a lot but that no coffee thing was harsh!  FETCHIN' HARSH I TELL YA!

I'll get through this post, but its gonna take a lot of flippin' Marie Osmond pics to make me feel better about it!  I need a cup of coffee....

[Scott]

WAIT A MINUTE.....

Youre not a Mormon now are you?

[Jon]

No, but I did live in Utah for awhile in the late 90's....

[Scott]

So you know exactly what I'm sayin! ...  FYI lived the from 91 to 98. Worked in Orem at WordPerfect/Novell

[Jon]

Actually, I believe I was there in 2000. It was a suburb of SLC, but they had this really cool media store there, maybe Media Play?

Yeah, I know what you're sayin'., They would be grouped around the mailbox and tried to talk to me when I was picking up the mail. Quite annoying, those white shirts and black ties. 

[Scott]

Fetchin' FETCHERS!

[RJhog (Admin)]

I've gotta say, on the surface, this may be the most interesting album you've ever posted (note, I didn't say the best, just the most interesting).  There was a song called Down By The Lazy River by The Osmonds that I liked way back when, at least I think that was the title.  

How 'bout that Zeppelinesque opening riff?  Horns and some definite riffing, but the popiness in the choruses weaken the track in my opinion.  But Utah is terrible.  Same goes for Girl.  Not good.  Sounds kinda like a band trying to be Beatlesque and failing miserably.  What Could It Be is a much better Beatles sounding song, at least in the chorus.  The verses are sort of wimpy.  We All Fall Down tries to rock it up a bit more, but really, this isn't all that much different from what I would have imagined.  

Crazy Horses is beyond all imagination for such a group.  Not a good song, but totally different than The Osmond's reputation.  Life Is Hard Enough Without Goodbyes has some pretty cool guitar work and might even be the best track here.  Or maybe that first track is, but regardless, this never gets beyond the "everyone should hear this once in their lifetime, but only once" mark.  

Gotta hand it to you, you do your job well.

[Scott]

You have no idea how terrible Utah really is...

[RJhog (Admin)]

When I think of Provo, Utah, I think of Irwin M. Fletcher and Don Corleone. 

[Scott]

Love Fletch!