Folk Rock - The Fleetwoods

Folk Rock

The Fleetwoods

Dolton BLP-2039

1965

I am a sucker for folk-rock.  Slap that label on an album and I'll probably buy it or at least think long and hard about it.  I didn't even hesitate about this one, I bought it as soon as I saw it.  I am a fan of the romantic lush pop recorded by the Fleetwoods in the late 1950s and early 1960s so even though I was pretty sure this was not really folk-rock, I knew I wanted it.  This was their final album and it seems like a desperate attempt to stay relevant with the changing times, but I find it worthwhile and enjoyable.  About half the record is folk-rock and most of the remainder is commercial pop given a "folk-rock" treatment, namely jangly electric guitars over a rock rhythm section.  The group's vocal harmonies are the biggest strength of the record and the primary reason I play this when I could be listening to the Byrds instead.  The group tackles several folk-rock classics.  Their cover of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want To Do" regrettably sounds more like the Cher version than the Byrds version but I dig the Fleetwoods' vocals more than either.  The arrangement for Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" was obviously lifted from the Turtles' hit version.  It lacks the force of the Turtles' version but sounds very pretty nonetheless.   Their version of Sylvia Fricker's "You Were On My Mind" closely imitates the hit version by We Five right down to the big hooky bass line that drives it.  The vocal is a little stiff, but I like the group's enthusiasm.  Their version of Gordon Lightfoot's "For Lovin' Me" is weirdly given a bossa-nova style arrangement rather than a folk-rock one even though it is an actual folk song.  It sounds lovely and I like it a lot but it does not mesh with the rest of the album.  I have my doubts about the folkiness of Gale Garnett's "We'll Sing In The Sunshine" even though she stuck it on an album called "My Kind of Folk Songs" and it charted on Billboard's country chart.  The arrangement is straight pop and the song suits the Fleetwoods very well.  I prefer it to the original.  The rest of the songs are basically pop songs.  Lee Hazlewood's "Not The Lovin' Kind" was a top 40 hit for Dino, Desi and Billy and the Fleetwoods' performance sounds very similar.  It is not a folk song but I think it is the most convincing folk-rock performance on the album. Their version of the Toys' hit "A Lover's Concerto" begins with some harpsichord suggesting a chamber pop approach befitting its J. S. Bach origin, but then the jangly guitar and rhythm section kick in giving it an unconvincing folk-rock sound.  "You Can't Grow Peaches On a Cherry Tree" has a vaguely folk feel to it but it could also be an easy listening song.  I presume they picked it because the Browns released it as a single around this time and they have a similar sound.  It was also covered by Nancy Sinatra later.  Jerry Cole's "Run, Don't Walk" sounds more surf than folk-rock to me and rocks about as hard as any Fleetwoods' song I have ever heard.  Their cover of the Fortunes' British Invasion hit "You've Got Your Troubles" also doesn't sound like folk-rock and sticks to the hit version for its arrangement.  I like it more than the hit version because I prefer the Fleetwoods' vocal.  I never bought Sonny and Cher as a folk-rock act and the Fleetwoods cover of their "Baby Don't Go" doesn't even bother to force it into a folk-rock arrangement.  Since I can barely tolerate Sonny Bono's nasal whine I prefer the Fleetwood version once again for its superior vocal.  The concluding song on the album "This Is Where I See Her" was written by John McCartney and the album's arranger Billy Strange.  Although it has a folk-rock arrangement, it is straight romantic pop with a nice swelling chorus.  It is perfect for the Fleetwoods' style and I wish more of the record sounded like it.  It is easily my favorite track and although the Fleetwoods were obviously out of touch with the zeitgeist of the time this song suggests they might have had a future if they had followed this vein a little.  This song's quality does make me regret that this was the Fleetwoods' final album.  This record is too much of an oddity for me to endorse it whole-heartedly, I suspect some Fleetwoods fans will be alienated by its rocked up sound and non-fans may dismiss it as derivative.  I personally eat it up and play it more than any of my other Fleetwood albums even though I fully recognize that it is not up to the standard of their classic work.  It is not all that easy to find but if you are a folk-rock nut like me you might want to give it a try if you stumble upon a copy.  Recommended to fans of the Tokens.