Rick Nelson - C or D?

I like him, but my one CD of his music seems to be an 80s re-recording... which is confusing.

'Garden Party' is the most self-referential Rick(y) N track I've heard: he even mentions 'Hello Mary Lou'.

"Traveling Man" remains one of my favorite songs of all time.

And he does indeed portray "Colorado" in Rio Bravo.

Also a devastatingly handsome man. And I am straight. But please, if you see some of his early 20s photos, you shall agree.

And "Garden Party" is a classic; very poignant, but a bass line for the ages.

Garden Party.

i learned my lesson well.
you see, you can't please everyone
so you got to please yerself.

Dude is great. The track I was into in the past year was "Mighty Good," another from the Imperial years.

every time i end up at a karaoke bar, one of the only song i can consider singing is garden party.
i never sing anything though but i look through the books anyway e_e

love that song. how is his other stuff from that period? that's really all i know of his post-teen-idol days. (love the teen idol stuff.)

i like everything i've heard of his w/ the stone canyon band. the albums aren't GREAT or anything, but there are catchy songs.

the garden party LP also has fan-favorite "let it bring you along"
available for $3 or less at used record stores across america.

in a fascinating sign-of-the-times, an import CD of "rick nelson & the stone canyon band" sells for $35 on amazon.

no fear though, "garden party" is only a dollar.

"Poor Little Fool" gets me every time.

Bunch of interviews with his (two) biographers and others here: http://www.examiner.com/article/teenage-idol-travelin-man-an-interview-with-rick-nelson-s-biographer

http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/r/ricky_nelson/fools_rush_in_crd.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuP9UczTIT4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuP9UczTIT4

More cowbell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpuVaQvCbO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2X55EF4Fhs

I decided to log back into ILX after a hiatus of two months to comment on Rick Nelson. (let's hope i can stay off the politics and film threads, which are toxic.)

I never really paid that much attention to the wannabe-Gram Parsons phase.

his "wannabe-Gram Parsons phase" actually /preceded/ any of Gram Parsons's famous recordings!

I've never been too confident on how to define "country-rock," since rock and country have been intertwined from the beginnings of the former. but I suspect that whatever definition you choose, Rick Nelson is something of a pioneer. (I guess the contrast with someone like Jerry Lee Lewis is that while Jerry Lee, in his studio recordings at least, shifted from rock to something like mainstream country, Rick Nelson's mid-1960s recordings never really abandon rock even while making country music. not too far from, say, Buck Owens, but coming at it from a different direction.)

Didn't he play the kid in 'Rio Bravo'?

he did! he's quite pretty in it, but I feel confident in saying he isn't a very polished actor. in fact, I use a scene from this film to teach acting! the contrast between John Wayne, who knows exactly how to use his body and voice to convey relaxation and authority, and Nelson, who although playing someone with confidence seems completely uncertain what he's doing, is really striking... and teachable.

actually if anything his presence reminds me of Chris Isaak in "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me." both actors make a nervous habit of kind of rolling their head around on their shoulders. I dare say Isaak has more screen presence than Nelson, though.

anyway, classic. I've been known to listen to "Hello Mary Lou" a few dozen times in a row.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hPGcsFllM4

Fuck fuck fuck! the Garden Party LP is seriously good. First time hearing it. Why is this one so obscure? This deserves to be a popular record from the era.

He was a victim of rockism surely.

“are you really real” is such a fucking good song

opening track sounds like peak dave edmunds

not sure i agree he was a victim of rockism (also kinda unsure what that means), worth keeping in mind that harvest was the best selling album of 72, same year as garden party, and the latter doesn’t feel so mm out of step

maybe you mean that people were yearning for sensitive insightful auteurs and ricky’s teen idol status disqualified him from being a “serious” voice in the emerging adult contemporary ?

maybe a better point of comparison is “nashville skyline” — when the poet philosopher ventures into countrified cliches it’s a “statement” but rick is just grasping at straws trying to present as authentic ?

the big glammy songs def work better than the excursions into neo troubadour territory imo but i do really like this record

“are you really real” feels like the ur-text for the niche celebrated donnie and joe emerson lofi yacht rock record

the chuck berry cover beats the ny dolls at their own game a year in advance, complete with a bizarre santana-via-fusion-era-soft-machine guitar solo !

the slide solo on “nightime lady” is so dreamy and magical

also double-tracked flute solos can never be bad

more than one flute solo on this record

yup

Xpost: Kind of saying bullshit since I didn’t live through that decade, but I’m assuming a handsome man such as him who was very popular with the younger crowd due to his previous singles was automatically ignored by serious critics at the time. Only explanation I can think of for the under appreciation for this album; too mature for his previous fanbase, too famous as a pop idol for rockist critics of the time to consider seriously.

Ya can't please everyone

://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/garden-party-205920/

://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=3401&name=Rick+Nelson+and+the+Stone+Canyon+Band

Wow at byline of that first.

Greil Marcus liked Ricky, see the Treasure Island section of Stranded, although right now all I can find is:
https://greilmarcus.net/2015/03/11/she-belongs-to-me-fortunate-son-121369/
and came across this:
http://swarmuth.blogspot.com/2010/05/hidden-confederates-in-bob-dylans-attic.html?m=1

Thanks for proving me wrong, had the notion this was panned or ignored by critics... it’s obscurity is still a mystery to me, then. I’m on my third listen and it sounds better every time.

The “Garden Party” single itself made it to Treasure Island as show here
http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=3172289350&frmid=10&msgid=549732
The old Liberty collection of Ricky’s singles also made it, iirc

As shown

Still a fan

Also, excellent post from amateurist upthread.

Hadn't seen this before, but agree w threadstarter and others re interest of having James Burton and other A-List Cats fortifying the early sides; Ozzie checked with Memphis and made sure of that (he and Harriet were music biz vets). So having them all in the weekly living room performance was probably the most regular rock-pop fix you could get on prime time TV back then, normalizing it, grooming Mom and Dad, way before the "Gentle On My Mind" theme crossover of The Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour---
Anyway, last week I read on the Randy Meisner Retrospective site that RM left the original Poco for Rick's Stone Canyon Band, along with a couple of his colleagues from The Poor (who later went on to New Riders and some other musically related situations), and all this proto-country rock activity with related potential even in Ricky-not-yet-Rick's sundown soda pop sound re-emerged in Richie Furay's 2022 cover of "Lonesome Town"---not a great song, but it lends itself to the Ricky-Rick-Richie spare-lyrical feel (on a mostly ick album, material-wise);
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDhV5SscEgc

Sorry! An even better track, but not the one I meant to post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfsay534BQE

I don’t think “Lonesome Town” is such a bad song. After all, the likes of Bob Dylan and Françoise Hardy both covered it.

The Cramps too!

No, it's not bad. Never heard any of those!

It won the POLL! https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet? boardid=41&threadid=100276

Ricky Nelson US Top 10 Hits 1957-1964

Macca did it as well.

Gosh. Will have to get back more.

Ha i’ve never listened to Garden Party, and expected only LA lite country rock. But then the first song kinda blurts ¡GLAM! at me a minute in— restrained maybe, but haha, that slays.

You don't remember this Real Life Top 10?
https://greilmarcus.net/2014/10/30/real-life-rock-top-07-15-86/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sNSsdeGetk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiuGGagp67Y