In the three years between the release of the Rascals' "Good Lovin'" single in early 1966 and the appearance of their fifth album, Freedom Suite, in early 1969, much had changed in the group's world. Even their name had changed from the Young Rascals to the Rascals, but in other respects, their evolution wasn't merely cosmetic. Their music had expanded from its blue-eyed-soul base to incorporate psychedelia, jazz, and lyrics of social and religious import. Originally recording as a bass-less quartet motored by Felix Cavaliere's organ and vocals, Gene Cornish's guitar, Dino Danelli's drums, and Eddie Brigati's singing, they'd added a heap of orchestration and session men on different instruments as their studio arrangements expanded. The very fact that Freedom Suite was a double LP reflected the widening scope of both their ambition and the horizons of rock music in general at the end of the 1960s, the two-disc format never even having been employed by rock musicians prior to Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out in 1966.
Such mutation in
focus was
not going to be embraced by all of the Rascals' fans, particularly as
the band had been a hit singles machine between 1966 and 1968, even
though their albums had sold and charted respectably well. Relative to
previous Rascals LPs, and most likely relative to their own high
expectations, Freedom Suite's
commercial performance was disappointing, peaking at #17 and only
staying in the Top Forty for six weeks. Despite containing a #1 single
and a couple of other Top Forty hits, it signaled a downward turn in
the Rascals' fortunes that never would be halted, even though they
would continue to make records for several years.
Yet less than a year earlier, the band's stock among
listeners, critics, and the captains of the record industry could not
have possibly been higher in the wake of that #1 single, "People Got to
Be Free." Staying on top of the charts for an astonishing five
consecutive weeks in the summer of 1968, it managed that rare double
feat of getting people to dance and trenchantly commenting on a
volatile social situation. With an unstoppable chorus and the band's
peerless integration of horns into a soul-rock format, it was not only
their biggest hit, but one of the landmark recordings of the era. So
instantly did it lodge itself in the national consciousness, in fact,
that by November 1968 it was the basis of a lengthy sketch on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,
sung by Kate Smith and an uncomfortable-looking Jefferson Airplane. You
couldn't make that one up.
Despite its infectiously celebratory urge for
brotherhood, "People Got to Be Free" was directly inspired by two of
the saddest events of 1968—the assassinations, within a couple of
months of each other, of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. "After
King and Kennedy and what happened in Chicago, we just had to say
something," Cavaliere told Billboard
later that year by way of explanation as to the group's more pronounced
social commentary. "We don't believe in violence and we don't believe
in utter passivity. We want to point out a middle road to satisfy both
extremes and solve the problems. We're not intellectuals or physical
types like the Doors, though we do lean more toward the physical. We
are entertainers first. We'd like to be known as the gentlemen of rock."
Added Cavaliere to Terje Mosnes on television during
a European visit in February 1969, "We feel that we have a little
responsibility in expressing our views to the people, and so that's
what we do in some of our music. Not all of it, just some of it. We
tell them what we think should be in the world." He also clarified that
the lyrics to "People Got to Be Free" "were written the next week, not
the night" of Kennedy's assassination—"the night was kind of a shock to
us all. That was the inspiration, I believe, for it." As to whether
white people were just as affected by the song as blacks (who were
responsible for the song reaching #14 on the R&B charts), he added,
"Yes, but the black people feel more happy about it. The white people,
they agree with it. But still, it's more part of the black man's life."
But "People Got to Be Free" would not be entirely
typical of the Freedom Suite
album, as Dino Danelli acknowledged to Melody Maker around the time of the
LP's release. "Our next LP is a complete departure from anything we
have done before," he declared. "It's a double album. The first is full
of lyrical songs and the second has instrumentals featuring the sort of
numbers we play in clubs, and never record. It's beautiful—very jazz
orientated. I love jazz and classical music, all those different forms.
Each one of us comes from different backgrounds. I was in jazz for
years and the others in classical music. All these different
ingredients help us create an original style. We progress individually
all the time, in our writing and performing."
A few months before Freedom Suite was issued, another
of its tracks, "A Ray of Hope," had also appeared as a single. It also
consolidated their role as social commentators, Billboard reporting that it had
been written about Senator Ted Kennedy, further marking "the Rascals'
switch to guruing for the above-ground sub-psychedelic set who looks to
the four Rascals as crusaders and compatriots whenever they tour
America with their jubilant, kinetic live show; their durability has
given them a larger voice."
It was also indicative of a turn toward a more
audibly gospel-influenced sound, which was even stronger on their next
single, "Heaven," which was likewise included in Freedom Suite. Asked by Melody Maker whether its orchestral
backing reflected the band's general direction, Danelli responded,
"Actually, no. The record started out as a completely different
concept. It was written for the four of us, then the brass happened and
more people were added. We didn't want to release it as a single, as we
were not really happy. But the deejays in New York seemed to fall in
love with it and told us to go ahead and release it. It wasn't a number
one, but it was Top Ten in the States." (Actually it only reached #39
on Billboard.)
The most unusual feature of Freedom Suite was its division into
one LP of fairly conventional songs with the usual Rascals
soul-pop-rock flavor—even if these were ostensibly grouped into a
"Freedom Suite"—and a second LP of three extended numbers that were
almost entirely instrumental. While Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati
had been writing as a team to supply the bulk of the material on the
Rascals' third and fourth LPs (Groovin'Once Upon a Dream), here
they were back to sometimes writing together (as they did for "People
Got to Be Free") and Cavaliere sometimes composing on his own (as he
did for "Heaven"). Gene Cornish got a couple of his songs in as well
with "Me & My Friends" and "Love Was So Easy to Give."
However, the album's most challenging aspect—and
likely the one that hurt it most in the marketplace—was the decision to
devote the second LP to instrumental material heavy on lengthy
improvisation. While these admitted some of the band's more daring jazz
influences in particular, they were not at all what was expected of a
group that had made short pop songs their forte. It is worth pointing
out, however, that Danelli's drum soloing during these cuts was not
mere trendiness, but something he would have been schooled in as a
drummer with a jazz background. "I used to play with Lionel Hampton,"
he noted to Melody Maker. "I
played for him for about seven months when I was seventeen, in his big
band. Then I split and started to jam with all sorts of old jazz cats.
Maybe you have heard of them—Henry Red Allen? Then I went to New
Orleans and played with everyone there, which was fantastic. That town
is a gas! You see, when I started playing I was a protege of Gene
Krupa. The guys used to like me because I was small and they took care
of me." Further jazz cred was supplied by the appearances of David
Newman (who took a tenor sax solo on "Adrian's Birthday"), King Curtis
(who did the tenor sax solo on "Of Course"), and bassists Chuck Rainey
and Richard Davis, both of whom had also appeared on Once Upon a Dream.
Never again, however, would the Rascals stretch out
so ambitiously and, some would say, recklessly. It was back to a dozen
songs of more standard lengths and structures on their next album, See, which contained their final
Top Forty singles, and has also been reissued on CD by Collectors'
Choice Music. -- Richie Unterberger
and
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