Susan Cowsill of “the original family band” lives in New Orleans so I ran a search for Cowsills album covers. The cover of 1968’s Captain Sad and his Ship Of Fools is a beaut. What’s not to love about clean-cut youngsters wearing masks with a pantomime ship captain in the mix?
I’d never heard this album before and I really enjoyed it. The Cowsills’ gorgeous harmonies shine through on this record as does a distinct McCartney influence in the writing and arrangements. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We have two covers for your perusal: the masky one and an alternate cover that rips the mask off the Cowsills. But Captain Sad is smiling. Bad Captain Sad, bad.
The biggest hit on the album was Indian Lake. I have two-fer’d the American and Spanish single covers or is that side-by-sided?
The Cowsills were also the spokesfamily for the American Dairy Association. Here’s the punniest of the print ads:
Finally, here’s the whole damn album in the YouTube playlist format. It’s great fun and there weren’t any commercials until after the 8th track.
We had this album when I was a youngster, and it is terrific in a bubblegum pop kind of way–as such things go, there’s not much better. And I did indeed find the album cover fascinating and stared at it for hours trying to discern the meaning behind it.
I always associate that stylized MGM lion with 2001: A Space Odyssey, which didn’t hurt the fascination factor.