The Hollies were one of my favorite British Invasion bands from the 1960s. For the uninitiated, it was the first group of Graham Nash, later of Crosby, Stills and Nash, though I must say I prefer his work with the Hollies.The harmonies of Graham and lead singer Allen Clarke were one of the most thrilling in pop/rock, and remain so to this day.I've recently been expanding my Hollies collection, picking up where I left off many, many years ago. Since I was stuck with the U.S. versions of their LPs, I decided to stick with that. I bought Stop! Stop! Stop! on vinyl recently (since it is not available on CD).I also bought Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse. But to me, as I move chronologically forward, they are beginning to lose the magic they had. Fewer of the pop harmony numbers, starting to get into hippy/dippy preaching from Graham and other oddities which probably seemed like a good idea at the time.Anyhoo, this is from Beat Group! - a great little LP cut called I Take What I Want, which rocks pretty nicely for the Hollies, featuring the excellent ringing guitar styling of Tony Hicks, another important contributor.After Graham left, they had what might be their most commercially successful period, but did it by producing dreck like "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "Long Cool Woman in A Black Dress". Sheesh...too bad. Ruined that whole Beat Group! reputation....
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