The Association was a music group in the true sense of the word. There was never a named frontman because no one stood out from the rest. Even fans would have been hard-pressed to list the Association’s line-up.
Co-founder Terry Kirkman, who has died of heart failure at age 83, was among its six and then seven members. Like his colleagues, Kirkman was a multi-instrumentalist (mainly wind instruments) and a fine singer. The group was known for its intricate vocals. While the Mamas and the Papas were getting lots of press for harmony singing, the Association also brought great multipart harmonies to the radio in the mid-1960s.
The Association is now curiously forgotten. To someone who did not live through the era, they might appear to be just another pop band with a handful of hits. Looking at their chart record today shows only a few, but they were very big hits – and memorable hits: “Windy,” “Along Comes Mary,” “Never My Love.” These were all huge.
One song set a new standard for love ballads in the ’60s: It was called “Cherish” and was written by Terry Kirkman.
“Cherish” isn’t heard much now, even on oldies radio. But in its day, “Cherish” was the epitome of the romantic pop ballad. The yearning singer trying to convince a young woman that he is the only guy who has true feelings for her. Heartfelt lyrics, a beautiful melody, and multipart harmonies. It was an early high point for the Association and a No. 1 hit record.
Terry Kirkman wrote other good songs for the band, including some minor hits, and he penned some of the group’s strongest album tracks. But it was “Cherish” that sealed his reputation.
The Association had its share of hip credentials. Their first radio success was “Along Comes Mary.” This was a big hit from the summer of 1966 with lyrics about a girl or about marijuana, depending on the listener’s perspective. The song was included on their debut album, And Then … Along Comes the Association. At odds with the sly drug references in “Along Comes Mary” was the album cover, which showed group members in coats and ties, as did their second album cover. But photos can be deceiving.
If getting a drug song on the radio wasn’t enough, the Association also earned hip-cred by opening the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. They earned rave reviews from organizers and fellow musicians, including Steve Miller. The group was still performing in suits and ties at this flower power festival.
They soon switched record labels – from Valiant to Warner Bros. – and changed their wardrobe. Their new album was called Insight Out. Gone were the suits, replaced in one photo by casual and semi-psychedelic clothes. Insight Out became one of the biggest-selling albums of 1967, thanks in part to its inclusion of “Windy” and “Never My Love.” By the time of their 1968 release Birthday, album graphics had grown into full-blown psychedelia, but the songs stayed true to their trademark multipart harmonies.
The Birthday album included Terry Kirkman’s song “Everything That Touches You,” but the big hits were now behind them. They continued to tour and release records, but none caught the public’s attention like the early singles. The Association recorded the music for the movie Goodbye Columbus and have four songs on its soundtrack album. They were open to trying new things, but may have chosen the wrong projects.
Composer Jimmy Webb brought his unique orchestral cantata to the group. The work ends with a section called “MacArthur Park.” Webb thought this would be great for the Association – and maybe it would have been. Certainly, the group could have used another big hit. But band members chose not to record “MacArthur Park,” which is too bad. They were not alone, though. Several others rejected this unique work of Webb’s. Bad decision all around, since Richard Harris’ record of this seven-minute epic went to No. 2 in the summer of 1968.
As the group’s career wound down, the inevitable place-filling releases were issued – first a greatest hits album and then a concert recording. The Association Live was recorded at one show in early 1970. This record demonstrates that the original band could recreate their intricate harmonies on stage.
It’s interesting to have this complete concert because it shows they were not content at this point to abandon the hope of another hit. Included in the setlist are songs they were trying to get on the radio – numbers like “Just About the Same” and Kirkman’s autobiographical piece, “Six Man Band.” Neither became hits, but both are good songs. The group also plays early, pre-fame material that didn’t make the charts, like “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” This live set opens with another of their early, non-hit singles, a hot version of Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings,” something that gave the band further hip credit.
I talk about the band’s hip cred. I felt that I had some personal Association cred. I owned their first two albums on the Valiant label, before they were reissued by Warner Bros. I also had a couple of their Valiant label singles. Want more? Because I bought their concert album when it first came out, my copy includes a band member’s recitation of a James Thurber poem. This spoken track was removed from subsequent pressings for copyright reasons. Fight back your jealousy.
I saw the Association in Des Moines in the fall of 1970, shortly after the live record came out. I liked the concert, but they didn’t play as many songs as on the album. I was irked that they omitted “Dubuque Blues” from their set, a number about an Iowa river town. They were in Iowa, after all. The band themselves were irked by the echo of the venue, Veterans Auditorium.
In spite of arena acoustics, the group sounded good. They closed with several songs written by Terry Kirkman, including “Cherish,” “Requiem for the Masses,” and the optimistic “Enter the Young.” “Requiem for the Masses” is a choral commentary on Vietnam and is among the Association’s most ambitious vocal works.
Terry Kirkman left the Association in 1972. He was probably smart to get out when he did. The hits never came back for the band, and the sound of radio had changed since the Association’s peak years. Harmony groups shifted to Crosby Stills and Nash and the Eagles. Kirkman went to California, where he worked as an addiction counselor. This made sense.
Although the Association was not viewed in the same light as the drug-soaked Doors or Jefferson Airplane, Kirkman undoubtedly saw his share of the drug culture. Terry Kirkman’s co-founding band colleague, bassist Brian Cole died of a heroin overdose in 1972 at age 29. It was a dangerous time to be a rock star. The original members of the Association no longer sing together, but their music lives on. I’m playing my eight-track tape of the Association’s Greatest Hits right now. Talk about cred!
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