Chords for Billy Cowsill Interview with Terry David Mulligan

[G] _ _ _ _ of his 46th birthday [Gm] [D] William Cowsill.
_ [Abm] 46 earned [G] every one of them.
[Db] Nicked in battle.
[Em] Now we have [B] talked Blue Shadows, we've talked Hatcher and [Db] your [E] partnership.
[D] I wanted to talk Cowsills because this is [B] Backtracks
and there is [G] some amazing musical legacy and heritage [Db] there.
The Cowsills as I understand were not a rock and roll [Gb] band per se
but a [Am] family that sang [G] and were a pop group.
_ [E] That's what _ [Bm] _ [Em] was [N] projected by the industry.
[Dbm] However, [G] interestingly enough, [Gbm] going back as far as [C] _ [G] _ 1964 _
which [Ab] was three years before the Rain of [G] Park and other things came out
and we signed to MGM.
_ We were [Dm] signed to [E] a rhythm and [A] blues, what [Abm] they called in those days
a [Bb] black label, Afro [N]-American label.
Our first label was Joda Records which was Johnny Nash and Danny Sims.
[Bb] They had [Eb] Al Cooper and Tim [Abm] Harden [G] on their roster
and they wanted us, just the four of us, myself I was 15 at the time,
my brother Bob was 14, the drummer was _ _ 7 and Barry the bass player would have been 9.
They wanted us to be kind of like [Cm] _ _ a [G] black rhythm and blues,
or rather a white rhythm and blues band.
They gave us Jimmy Reed records [F] to take home to listen to.
That's how I [G] learned to play harmonica back then.
[Dm] _ [G] Then Shelby Singleton saw us at Sun Joint
and he worked for Mercury Phillips in those days. _ _
_ _ _ _ He saw us, he had just come off Harper Valley PTA.
Shelby Singleton signed [A] us to Mercury _
and got us our [G] first chart record called Most of All
Bubbling Under at 113.
_ Then Artie Kornfeld was an in-house [Gm] producer at Mercury.
He and Steve Duboff _ [G] were writers.
[Fm] They had just written The [G] Pied Piper by Christie and St.
Peter's.
And Artie saw the band, independently produced us at [D] A&R Studios
[G] when Phil Ramone owned the [Eb] place
[B] _ _
[D] and brought the [G] master to MGM in the spring of 67
and they [Dm] signed us.
[Eb] _
That's how we got on MGM.
But it was [Ab] only the four guys.
We worked [Dm] for about [G] half a year with Artie in the studio.
As the Cowshills?
As the Cowshills.
We'd [C] done things prior to the reign [G] of Park.
They had us _ [Gm] _
[Em] come around here by Smokey Robinson and the [G] Miracles.
All kinds of stuff [D] to see.
He was a [A] producer and he wanted to see what we were capable of doing.
[Dm] My mother and sister did not enter the scene
until MGM said, we like the band, we need something.
You [D] need a hook?
[G] It was a gimmick.
So they said, _ your sister and your mother sing?
We said, the four guys went, yeah.
[Eb] Well, they're [G] in the band.
So we got signed as the Cowshills
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Gm] in the early summer of 1967
with the four of us and my mother and my [Cm] sister.
[Ab] _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _ _
[Ab] _ _ [N] _ I [G] _ thought the Reign of Park was a real nifty [Gm] record
[Ab] and something to springboard off [C] of
into something a little bit more contemporary.
_ [G] _ It was not my idea of a rock and roll record,
nor was it anybody's.
It was just a good [C] pop record.
And [F] I wanted to [G] play rock and roll.
_ So we went through several producers,
[Am] Wes [Gm] Ferrell being one of them.
He'd [A] just come off Hang On Sloopy with the [Gm] McCoys
and he came up with Indian Lake.
_ And I thought that was pretty much
kind of a downslide from Reign, you know. _
Song-wise, anyway, I thought the Reign of Park was a [Am] better song.
_ [Em]
And Wes [A] hung around until he had too many cheesy songs
and [D] I fired him.
[Am] I said, you think you can do better?
Now I'm 19, 20.
[Dm] I [Ab] said, I'll [Dm] outsell you two to one or something like [Gm] that.
[A] Carl Reiner wanted us to do [G] a skit
in [Ab] a TV [G] special he had
_ _ [Abm] _ [Db] about [A] fashions from Japan.
He wanted us [G] to model wigs.
So he had us do
_ _ [D] a [N] _ _ pre-record, which is basically
you pre-record something in the studio
so you can lip [G] sync and dance around
so you don't have mics following [N] you all around
for the people that don't know what a pre-record is for.
[G] We went into an 8-track Scully
8-track [Ab] Scully on La Brea Avenue
and cut hair, just the four guys and my sister
who [G] goes, and spaghetti. _
_ And it sold 2,000,005.
So [Bbm] Wes knew.
_ [F] I did it.
Wasn't he the greatest?
Modern flower, magnetic,
Betty, mango, tango, shango,
[Bb] and the jetty!
The [B] cow shows were good news, bad news.
[N] Good news in that it gave you a profile.
Bad news in that it gave you a profile.
[Bb] Perhaps at [Db] a time when you didn't necessarily [G] need it.
[Eb] [E] Has it all [B] worked out for the best, you think?
Well, you know, [Ab] those were extremely formative years for all of us.
I was all of [B] 18 and 19.
My [A] _
brothers were [Dm] 16, [Abm] 15, 14.
Everybody was really, [D] really impressionable.
[E] And it took a [A] lot_
[G] I've been through therapy.
[Dm] _ _ [G] And it's working. _
[C] Yeah, man, you know, it's [G] tough.
It was good music [C] and I'm glad.
We're in the top 500 of Rolling Stone of all [B] time.
And it's [G] really cool.
We made our [D] niche.
But it wasn't the niche that [G] I really wanted to do.
And my mentors, the people that taught me music
like Waddy Wachtel [F] and Warren [G] Zeevon
and Lindsey Buckingham,
the people I used to hang out with and play bars with in Hollywood
before anybody was [Ab] famous,
were the [D] guys I wanted to impress.
[A]
And this music was [G] not making it for me,
[C] which is why I left.
And [A] I went on my [Gm] little odyssey of _ [Ab] [A] 15, 17, 18 odd years.
_ [Gm] So it had its ups and its downs.
[G] The up part was that it was a real [Db] family
and we really [Bb] sang and it was a precursor [D] to a lot of family groups,
as you may [Ab] well know.
The Jackson's [G] came after [Db] that, the Osmonds,
[E] and things like that.
So [A] it started a kind of a [Eb] cool trend in [A] pop music.
_ [N] And also there was a downside because for a while, you know,
you're [Bm] not taken seriously.
If you're, you know, oh, that [A] was Bubble Gumbo, that was this, you know.
[C] _
[Gm] And [Am] so [Ab] I couldn't get a deal [G] to save my life for the next 10 years,
you know, not to save my life.
[E] In fact, people would hear stuff and go,
man, this guy's great.
Who [G] is he?
And if it was a cow, so it was like.
_ _ [D] But now [Dm] all the guys that are running record [Eb] companies
and the business are all our [Ab] age now.
[N] So they have fond memories of that.
And now [G] I'm in a good position.
[C] Happy [D] birthday to you.
Thank you.
[Gm] Happy birthday, man.
[Abm] Way to go.
Thanks very much.
His name is Billy Cowsell.
[Dbm] If he comes your way, he won't come as Billy Cowsell.
He'll [D] come as the Blue