— by Danny Faragher
In June of 1976, my brothers and I embarked on a tour of the Eastern Seaboard to promote our first album for ABC Records, The Faragher Brothers (aka The ‘Yellow’ Album). The LP had been three years in the preparation and making, and had required a lot of sacrifice and hard work. It was a labor of love, however, and we were proud of it. A few weeks prior, we had turned heads with our performance at the Roxy opening for Rufus, and had made a TV appearance on Soul Train (the first white band to be featured). It felt as if the wind was at our backs, and when we boarded the jet plane that summer night at LAX, we did so with excitement, eager to show that we were the real deal. We could write, we could sing, and we could play, and, Lord have mercy, we could do it all with soul.
In a just and perfect world the tour should have been the triumphant opening act of a long and successful career, and this is what we hoped and believed it would be. Oh, but Murphy’s Law does not take kindly to such hubris, my children, and instead of our traveling show being the well-oiled machine we’d envisioned, it more accurately resembled the misadventures of Spinal Tap (A case in point being the day the ABC promo men arrived in a stretch limo to take us to the record department of a prestigious Manhattan store to sign autographs. When we arrived, alas, to everyone’s chagrin, not a single copy of the LP could be found.). Most of the mishaps were beyond our control, caused by either incompetence and laziness on the part of promo men and agents, or by a proactive subversion by our management.
That being said, the band’s music was always spot on, always soulful, and performances proved to be an oasis from the chaos that seemed to envelope us. For an hour or two each night, we could hit our mark, and focus our energy into the grooving vocal and instrumental lines that created a harmonious whole, becoming a well-oiled machine in a perfect world. Thank God for the music.
The video that has recently surfaced was taped while we were in Philadelphia. The footage is from a syndicated television program, The Steel Pier Show, hosted by local legend Ed Hurst on WHVI Channel 6. Hurst, who still does a radio show at 85, had been doing the gig since the 1950s when it was broadcast from Atlantic City’s Steel Pier. His program was a precursor to American Bandstand. The band, augmented by sidemen, Mouse Johnson on drums, and Chuck Crews on guitar, performs Best Years of My Life. Enjoy!
Danny Faragher will be playing and singing songs from his albums, Dancing with the Moment, and Blue Little Corner, as well as other tunes from his storied career, and will be accompanied by a full band consisting of Tim Horrigan, Craig Copeland, Chris Blondal and Bryan Faragher. Together they will span the musical range from Jazz to Blues to Funk to West Coast Psychedelic.
