The Original vs. The Cover – “Crazy Horses”

We haven’t done an Original vs The Cover in quite a long time, so I thought I’d do one. And why not pick something a little out of the ordinary and pick a song from The Osmonds…yes, that’s right, The Osmonds. The song is off their 1972 album called ‘Crazy Horses’ and was written by Alan, Wayne and Merrill Osmond. The album saw the band go from a boy band into this grown up guys band. They finally get to write and pick the songs where the label had done that prior to this album. It is probably the heaviest song they have ever done.

The single was really big going to #2 in the UK and #14 in the U.S. It brought a new audience to the band that had been mostly women and now the guys were taking notice. The song was actually banned in several countries as they thought the song was about drugs as Horses is sometimes used for heroin. And there was a line about smoke in the air and that was mistaken for drugs as well. But this is The Osmonds, the song was actually about the big gas guzzling cars of the 70’s and how they were not good for the environment. The brothers were actually a little ahead of their time with an environmental song.

It has been covered by so many bands over the years, but I wanted to pick the version that made me love the song and that was a cover by the Swedish band, The Poodles. Their version was the opening track to their 2018 covers album called ‘Prisma’. I don’t like covers album, generally, but this one kicked some major ass. Let’s get to the music.

THE OSMONDS:

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The Poodles – ‘Prisma’ – Album Review

Not a huge cover albums fan, I was very apprehensive on this release.  I do like cover songs, you know, maybe throwing one on an album, but not a whole album.  Cover albums can be very hit or miss. The band either interrupts the songs in to their own sound or they copy it exactly adding nothing special and that is always my fear.

The Poodles decided to do a covers album for their 7th studio album and all though I am a huge fan of the band, this worried me greatly.  But being a fan, a did give it a spin.  The good news is the band took an approach of picking songs from artist that are not in their specific genre of glam metal and they definitely achieved that goal.  The album title ‘Prisma’, I can only assume was picked to signify the songs would be looked at from different angles or viewpoints and they would add their own color to them.  And was that achieved?  Well, let’s discuss that and find out.

The opening track of the album sounds like pure, classic Poodle.  The song is “Crazy Horses” by the Osmond Brothers from 1972.  Yes, I said that right…the Osmond Brothers.  Now that is definitely going outside your genre.  The song is cranked up much heavier and would fit perfectly on any Poodles’ album.  What helps is that I am not real familiar with this song so I have no preconceived notions of what this song should sound like.  Their first choice is making me think this might be a great covers album.

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