Poco (Official Thread)

[Craig in Indy]

Re: Official Poco Thread

I never thought I would see an Opus dedicated to POCO, but you have proven me wrong

Nice post, Eberg.

I am a Poco fan, too. I had a dog I named Poco, and was constantly explaining to people what that name meant and where it was from

Did you know that the band's original name was Pogo, but they got some grief from Walt Kelly so they changed it? True story.

 

[0000]

Re: Official Poco Thread

I am very happy to see this thread, eberg. Well done.

I've been a huge Poco fan since college (way too long ago to even think about). I always found it interesting that back in their early years they were considered the authentic item, and the Eagles were thought of as wannabes.

As far as the personnel on the first album is concerned, I was under the impression that no one has been able to recall with certainty if the recording as issued actually contained any of Meisner's performances, or if he'd left already.

For me the title of "best album" will always be a toss-up between Crazy Eyes and Cantamos. Both are classics in their own way, with the former heavily influenced by Ritchie Furay, and the later being more of a full-band effort. Both have uncommonly good songs.

I also really enjoyed Legacy and thought it was great to have the initial movers and shakers back together to try to recreate that magic. Where else are you going to find Furay, Messina and Meisner all together? My only problem with the album is the engineering/mixing. I've listened to it over and over, and compared it carefully to all the other Poco albums from the band's prime, and decided it comes down to this - reverb, especially on the drum tracks. To me, that's a sign of decades-old arena rock acts, and is completely foreign to the relatively dry instrumental tracks Poco always laid down. They may have sweetened the vocals with some reverb, but rarely the instruments.

One other extremely worthwhile CD issue of theirs is the fine, fine 2-CD retrospective, The Forgotten Trail. It's got a wealth of material on it, some previously unreleased, and is a great overview of the band's career. It also has some incredibly comprehensive liner notes as well.

damn, you would have done a better job than I did on this thread

I'm still a bit new to them, and especially a band with so much material I'm over my head

as for the first album, I just went with what Wikipedia had the line up as, but I think he is on there.. if you compare the influence he had with the Eagles(whom I'm more familiar with) and then compare that to Poco, there is a similar vibe/certain way of playing or singing coming from it... I could be wrong and maybe he just influenced the writing of it... isn't he credited on the record though? I don't own a hard copy of it, but I've looked at one plenty

 

[Craig in Indy]

Re: Official Poco Thread

damn, you would have done a better job than I did on this thread

I'm still a bit new to them, and especially a band with so much material I'm over my head

as for the first album, I just went with what Wikipedia had the line up as, but I think he is on there.. if you compare the influence he had with the Eagles(whom I'm more familiar with) and then compare that to Poco, there is a similar vibe/certain way of playing or singing coming from it... I could be wrong and maybe he just influenced the writing of it... isn't he credited on the record though? I don't own a hard copy of it, but I've looked at one plenty

NP, eberg, you did a great job, and you get big points in my book for starting the thread in the first place. I'll have to go back and see what my source was about the reported state of confusion regarding who was and who wasn't on that first album. It could well be the liner notes from The Forgotten Trail. They're that comprehensive. I think that's also where I read that Schmit was ambivalent about leaving Poco for the Eagles, but they (the Eagles) offered him a full equal partnership in the band (something they never did for Don Felder), so the rest of the guys in Poco told him he'd be nuts not to jump ship.

 

[0000]

Re: Official Poco Thread

NP, eberg, you did a great job, and you get big points in my book for starting the thread in the first place. I'll have to go back and see what my source was about the reported state of confusion regarding who was and who wasn't on that first album. It could well be the liner notes from The Forgotten Trail. They're that comprehensive. I think that's also where I read that Schmit was ambivalent about leaving Poco for the Eagles, but they (the Eagles) offered him a full equal partnership in the band (something they never did for Don Felder), so the rest of the guys in Poco told him he'd be nuts not to jump ship.

THanks

I'll see if I can come up with anything tonight with google, and do you know if Poco and The Eagles every toured together? It would have made sense and possibly been the ultimate country rock experience... and I always feel Felder kind of get the short end of the stick for how much he contributed to the Eagles... he also taught Petty to play guitar in the early days

 

[Craig in Indy]

Re: Official Poco Thread

THanks

I'll see if I can come up with anything tonight with google, and do you know if Poco and The Eagles every toured together? It would have made sense and possibly been the ultimate country rock experience...

I don't know if they ever did or not, but I can't tell you how many times back in college I'd wished that they had.

Felder...also taught Petty to play guitar in the early days

Just like my old friend Bob Applegate taught Dan Fogelberg how to fingerpick (or so the story goes).

 

[Groovy Man]

Re: Official Poco Thread

One other extremely worthwhile CD issue of theirs is the fine, fine 2-CD retrospective, The Forgotten Trail. It's got a wealth of material on it, some previously unreleased, and is a great overview of the band's career. It also has some incredibly comprehensive liner notes as well.

Agreed. If anyone wants to check out Poco, the 2-CD retrospective, ''The Forgotten Trail 1969-74'' is the way to go. If you like 'country rock', I guarantee you'll love it.

Personally, I really enjoy the early Poco albums.

Pickin' Up the Pieces (1969)
Poco (1970 )
From the Inside (1971)
A Good Feelin' to Know (1972)
Crazy Eyes (1973)
Seven (1974)

and the live album, Deliverin'(1971)

 

[Craig in Indy]

Re: Official Poco Thread

One other little bit of Poco trivia that I heard somewhere along the way was that the title of their debut album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, was a reference to the band carrying on after the somewhat messy dissolution of Buffalo Springfield, of which Furay and Messina had been members. In fact, it was left to the two of them to finish the final Buffalo Springfield album Last Time Around by themselves after Stills and Young split.

 

[Craig in Indy]

Re: Official Poco Thread

And my personal vote for best Poco song, and this is a tough choice, because there are so many that are great:

Either "A Good Feelin' to Know" for being such quintessential Poco, or "Crazy Eyes" just for its ambitious reach (plus it's written about Gram Parsons, so how can you go wrong?).

 

[Craig in Indy]

Re: Official Poco Thread

More Poco trivia - Epic records reportedly back-charged the band the extra production cost of the cutout cover of the Cantamos LP (an effect that was not duplicated on the CD issue - another cover art loss from the LP era), and it pissed the guys off badly enough that they took advanatage of the fact that their Epic contract was expiring right then and switched to ABC for the subsequent Head Over Heels.

 

[0000]

Re: Official Poco Thread

And my personal vote for best Poco song, and this is a tough choice, because there are so many that are great:

Either "A Good Feelin' to Know" for being such quintessential Poco, or "Crazy Eyes" just for its ambitious reach (plus it's written about Gram Parsons, so how can you go wrong?).

Good Feelin' To Know is one of the first I listened to

I don't like Crazy Eyes that much, I may have to give it another listen, I don't know if I really gave it a fair chance, I didn't think the band would be as versatile, so I was expecting something else, but I'll definitely give it another chance, but I'm surprised your favorite isn't something from Rose Of Cimmaron or one similar to that would more acoustic and folk-y type elements