Jeff Barry produced and co-wrote all of the songs on the record. Some of his co-writers include Andy Kim, Bobby Bloom (of "Montego Bay" fame) and lead singer Ron Dante. Perhaps Barry had gotten tired of writing such bubble gum babble as "Sugar, Sugar" and "Jingle Jangle" and wanted to write more "serious" compositions. Maybe he was trying to reach every nine year old Archie fan's inner hippie. Or maybe it was all done as a gag. Who can say for sure but this definitely ain't the same "band" that sang "Shang-Bang-A-Lang"
The album cover is the first indication that we won't be spending the next 35 minutes at the malt shop. The cover depicts a group of people frolicking (dancing...maybe?) at the beach under a glaring super nova like sun. We only see the people in silhouette but they seem to be lacking any...uhh...bathing suits. Now we can't say this for sure and there is nothing gratuitous about the picture, but compare it to the cover of their first album and, well...we've come a long way, baby.
Also, if you look closely, don't the two individuals in the foreground look kind of like aliens? Aliens? Goodnight! Why are naked dancing aliens on the cover of an Archies' album? What the hell is going on here?!?
The first two songs on side one ("Sunshine", "Who's Gonna Love Me?") are your typical early seventies teeny-bopper tunes. But the third song, "Mr. Factory", is where the fun begins. A Floyd Cramer like piano and a bluesy guitar open the track as Ron "Archie" Dante sings about disappearing birds, dirty rivers and pollution spewing automobiles. Although The Archies may have been budding eco-revolutionaries, they were respectable enough kids to address their adversaries as, "Mr. Factory" and "Mr. Motorcar. Sample lyric:
"The air is dark and dirty/When it should be fresh and purty."
The next two songs, "Love And Rock N Roll" and "Over And Over", follow the standard Archies' song formula; upbeat music with lyrics about love repeated, well...over and over.
The only distinguishing feature about either of these songs is the opening guitar lick on "Over And Over" , it is a note for note ripoff of The Music Explosion's, "Little Bit Of Soul". "Little Bit Of Soul" was produced by Kasenetz & Katz, Jeff Barry's bubblegum music rivals. So, it may have been done as a friendly tribute or perhaps a giant "Screw You!" to them.
Side one ends with the catchiest song on the album, "Waldo P. Emerson Jones". A great slice of sunny seventies guitar pop, the band sings about an annoying pathological liar who claims, " He took his chopper up to Woodstock and he worked his way backstage." The supposed helicopter flying Mr. Jones also boasts, "He knows The Beatles, S&G and Jimmy Page."
Now I would say just about every eleven year old in the world knew who The Beatles were back in 1970. Some may have been familiar with Simon & Garfunkel and Woodstock but how many cartoon watching elementary school students were hip to Jimmy Page? If they were, they probably weren't listening to The Archies' new record.
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| Jimmy Page: The sixth Archie? |
Side two kicks off with, "A Summer Prayer For Peace." Traditionally, back in the vinyl era, the producer placed the songs with the most hit potential as the lead off tracks on each side of a record. Apparently, Jeff Barry must have thought that this song about overpopulation had the potential be the "Sugar, Sugar" of 1970.
A slow folky number, Ron Dante and friends implore the 3 billion people of the world to live in peace "forever together" while two stentorian narrators recite population numbers from around the world (France...50 million...Japan....101 million...Australia...12 million etc.) over sad sounding music. You gotta wonder how this song went over at your average suburban slumber party. It's not exactly a fun song to play Twister to.
I guess Jeff Barry knew what he was doing as the song was a big hit overseas. It actually went number 1 in Sweden and South Africa. It did not chart in the U.S. The prayer must have fallen on deaf ears, however, since the world population is at 7.5 billion and growing.
Side two continues with more teeny-bopper fare, "Dance", "Comes The Sun" and the catchy, "Suddenly Susan". Then it's time for one more hippie-let's-all-be-brothers anthem, "One Big Family". Sample lyric:
I have a brother in Birmingham
I have a brother in Amsterdam
I have a brother in Kokomo
I have a brother everywhere I go.
This is followed by the rousing fist pumping chorus:
We're one big family
And our daddy's in the sky
We're one big family
Don't make your brother cry.
This could be a plea for world peace or a scene from the family station wagon on a road trip to Disneyland. It's difficult to say.
The album closes with, "It's The Summertime". We are back in bubblegum territory here with a song about, well...summertime. In fact, it's difficult to forget the name of the tune because the word , "summertime", is repeated nineteen times. Yes, I counted. (And yes, that is sad.)
The Archies' "Sunshine" is a fun/weird artifact from another time. A time when even a band of cartoon characters thought they could change the world. It's worth a listen.
"A Summer Prayer For Peace" The Archies
--Casey Redmond
Shangri-La, Ohio
rnrcasey@gmail.com
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