Their efforts worked a bit better in Cellophane Symphony but for me, their finest album moment of this album trilogy is Travellin'. The one-off true originality they displayed in the C and C single, they failed to repeat in other songs throughout the album in which they sounded like they were trying to be a part of a musical "scene" but just didn't have it naturally in them. With the C and C album, I feel they tried very hard to be taken seriously as an "album band" but too often fell self-consciously contrived "imitation". In terms of albums, I feel somewhat differently. Crimson and Clover and Sweet Cherry Wine would easily make my top 50 all-time favorite hit single list if I was to seriously make one.and the very overlooked Ball Of Fire along with Mony Mony (THE definitive version of ALL versions!!)would both be somewhere in my top 100. Did it have something to do with the cover art which had no pictures of the band? Would it have sold more if they had put their picture on it and called it Sweet Cherry Wine? How many people loved it? (I did and still do, despite its quirks.) How many were surprised by it? How many were alienated by it?Ĭlick to expand.Tommy James and The Shondells are my favorite 60's band who "majored" primarily in the hit single category. In a jolt of an ending, in this era of love, peace and flower power, the very last words on the album are "I hate you!"Īlthough it was hooked with a hit single, I've read that the album didn't sell particularly well. It sounds like a drunken party and has been interpreted as a statement on Tommy James' years of service to Roulette Records under the cutthroat rule of Morris Levy. "On Behalf of the Entire Staff and Management" is a rather mean-spirited satire on companies that give their workers a gold watch for 25 years of service. "Love of a Woman" is another return to more familiar territory, but running over 4 minutes and heavy on wah-wah guitar.
Lyrics that acapulco gold rainy daze cracked#
"I Know Who I Am" is an unexpected slice of black comedy with lines like "Here's to the guy who's got chapped lips from eatin' too many potato chips and I cracked up when he smiled at me and almost bled to death."
"Loved One" was practically disco 5 years before its time. "Changes" combines Biblically based lyrics with a synth break over a 5/4 time signature, running for 5:36. "Papa Rolled His Own" is a quirky Vaudevillian piece with a title that tells us exactly what it's about. James, being a Christian pacifist, said that the sweet cherry wine was a metaphor for the blood of Jesus. "Sweet Cherry Wine" was a hit, but it's also a powerful anti-war song with a spiritual dimension. "Evergreen" is an ethereal piece of mood music with an ecologically conscious message. "Makin' Good Time" is a bit closer to the sound we were familiar with, but rocking just a little bit harder. It would sound right at home on a Pink Floyd album. While it was hooked with the hit single "Sweet Cherry Wine", it also contained some highly experimental and off-the-wall stuff that was probably "too far out" for many fans of "Hanky Panky" and "I Think We're Alone Now." The Crimson and Clover album may have broken it to us gently but Cellophane Symphony pushed the envelope quite a bit further, opening with the title track, a 9:37 instrumental with a languid, spaced out tempo, dominated by a Moog synthesizer, and not a trace of Tommy James' vocals. In between the two was their strangest and boldest album of all, Cellophane Symphony. On their final album (and 3rd part of the "trilogy"), Travelin', they got into a hard-edged blues-based groove. After some years of playing basic feel-good pop/rock that some even labeled "bubblegum", the band ventured into "psychedelic" territory on their Crimson and Clover album with an extended jam, wah-wah, fuzz, other distortion effects, backwards gibberish, socially conscious and spiritually insightful lyrics, weird and quirky sound bites between the songs, and a reprise of the title song. Cellophane Symphony is what I consider the second part of the Shondells' "experimental trilogy" (Their last 3 albums as a band).
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