The Association Wow SPAC Crowd of 8,000

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, August 6, 1969

One of Best Shows of Season

If the Association are what today’s music is really all about, then it’s pretty darned good. In fact, as presented in concert last night at Saratoga Performing Arts Center with 8,000 attending, it proved to be one of the best shows of this and of the previous three seasons.

The seven young men comprising the Association are a versatile, talented, thoroughly professional group, who sing well, play a wide variety of instruments extremely competently geared to the strong tempo of most of their tunes, and manage to do all this, while being entertaining—and nary an obscene, protest sign, word or innuendo along the entire program either.

Perhaps not sartorial wonders, the Association are superior performers and delighted the well-mannered, completely devoted crowd with not only most of their greatest hits, but offered a “preview” of several selections from a new album, yet to be released.

If one can judge from the half dozen songs presented from this new album, it’s sure to be a hit and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving group. “Under Brauchis” is one certain to be a hit. Their humor toward the audience and amongst themselves, their frequent brief minutes of “dead air part one and two” and “dead air meets Abbott and Costello,” while they tuned up, readjusted their amplifiers and moved from one instrument to another-“it’s changing of the guard before we go to Right Guard”—was all in good taste.

Certainly their greatest song “Cherish,” won the sustained applause it so richly deserves as a fine modern love ballad, sung and played beautifully. Other hits included “Time for Living,” “Birthday Morning,” a really 1920’s-meet-1969’s number complete with whackadoo and razzamatazz called “Parallel 23,” a delightful satiric spoof that sounded like it came right out of a musical comedy production.

Other applause-getters, and much of the audience recognized each succeeding tune after only a few opening bars, included “Six-Man Band,” “Dubuque Blues,” “Never My Love,” “Goodbye Columbus,” “Windy” and the very moving, “Requiem of the Masses.”

Unlike many of the other today groups, the Association are thoroughly professional, talented young men, who will manage to be around for a goodly number of years, continuing to play to packed houses and selling countless records. They don’t rely on gimmicks as replacement for talent and it’s a refreshing, welcome change.

Today the Philadelphia Orchestra offers a student matinee at 2:30 p.m, with William Smith conducting.