This was written by Allan Clarke, Roger Cook, and Roger Greenaway. The Distant Light album was out for a year before this song was released as a single. Before the single was released, lead singer Allan Clarke left the group, replaced by Swedish singer Michael Rickfors. After "Long Cool Woman" became a hit in the US, Clarke rethought his solo career and came back.
This is the only Hollies single without any backing vocals. The reason why Clarke is the only singer on this record is that he didn't intended the song to be released on a Hollies album, but as a record of his own. When the band learned that he intended to do a solo recording, Clarke was issued an ultimatum - he could either remain with The Hollies or pursue a solo career, but not both. Clarke told Rolling Stone in 1973: "I think with me the band feared that if I got a hit I'd leave. How can you stop destiny? Now, if they originally agreed, I might not even have left. 'Long Cool Woman' would have been released a year earlier, and we'd have done a few tours of the States and maybe would have been really big."
From an interview with Roger Cook:
?: Was there ever a bigger hit in history where people don't understand the words?
[Yes, as a matter of fact, how about "Louie, Louie"?]
RC: That is wild, isn't it? Allan loved all that slapback echo on his voice.
?: This is the Hollies.
RC: Yeah. And that's the reason you can hardly understand the words. And, of course, the words are a kind of a little English-y. We wrote it in England about the bootlegging days in the '30s in America. … We’d just gone out and had a skinful ourselves, you know? We came back to the office and thought it was fun to write a song about — What did they call it when they banned drinking?
?: Prohibition.
RC: Prohibition! So, we wrote a song about Prohibition and all the bad people surrounding it. The FBI raiding and this (woman) singing at the bar. (The narrator) doesn't want her to get in trouble. So he kind of saves her.
For nearly 50 years, I didn't understand a single lyric until I looked them up on the Web. The song makes a lot more sense. I agree, it's a great song.
It's different from their other songs because they were trying to sound like CCR's "Green River". From Infogalactic:
The song was written in the swamp rock style of Creedence Clearwater Revival, in terms of the vocal, rhythm, and melodic style. It came out in the spring of 1972 (the same year Creedence split up). Clarke imitated John Fogerty's vocal style, which was based on the Creedence song "Green River". According to Clarke, the song was written "in about five minutes". However, Fogerty was not impressed. He filed a lawsuit against the Hollies for plagiarising his song "Green River". It was settled out of court with Fogerty receiving half of the proceeds for the song.
[ + ] COF
[ - ] COF 0 points 3.7 yearsAug 28, 2021 09:27:42 ago (+0/-0)
This is the only Hollies single without any backing vocals. The reason why Clarke is the only singer on this record is that he didn't intended the song to be released on a Hollies album, but as a record of his own. When the band learned that he intended to do a solo recording, Clarke was issued an ultimatum - he could either remain with The Hollies or pursue a solo career, but not both. Clarke told Rolling Stone in 1973: "I think with me the band feared that if I got a hit I'd leave. How can you stop destiny? Now, if they originally agreed, I might not even have left. 'Long Cool Woman' would have been released a year earlier, and we'd have done a few tours of the States and maybe would have been really big."
From an interview with Roger Cook:
?: Was there ever a bigger hit in history where people don't understand the words?
[Yes, as a matter of fact, how about "Louie, Louie"?]
RC: That is wild, isn't it? Allan loved all that slapback echo on his voice.
?: This is the Hollies.
RC: Yeah. And that's the reason you can hardly understand the words. And, of course, the words are a kind of a little English-y. We wrote it in England about the bootlegging days in the '30s in America. … We’d just gone out and had a skinful ourselves, you know? We came back to the office and thought it was fun to write a song about — What did they call it when they banned drinking?
?: Prohibition.
RC: Prohibition! So, we wrote a song about Prohibition and all the bad people surrounding it. The FBI raiding and this (woman) singing at the bar. (The narrator) doesn't want her to get in trouble. So he kind of saves her.
[ + ] HughBriss
[ - ] HughBriss 0 points 3.7 yearsAug 28, 2021 08:35:13 ago (+0/-0)
It's different from their other songs because they were trying to sound like CCR's "Green River". From Infogalactic:
However, Fogerty was not impressed. He filed a lawsuit against the Hollies for plagiarising his song "Green River". It was settled out of court with Fogerty receiving half of the proceeds for the song.
In my humble estimation, John Fogarty was a dick.
[ + ] Thisismyaccount
[ - ] Thisismyaccount [op] 0 points 3.7 yearsAug 28, 2021 08:38:25 ago (+0/-0)