Let's Talk About Classic Music: Classic Song !6 - Seals and Crofts .

Classic Song 26 - Seals and Crofts "Hummingbird"

Let's talk around a timeless, classic pop single.

The start time I heard Seals and Crofts was in 1970,

when mybrother Rodbought and playedtheir

earthy sophomore album,Down Home.

Produced byJohn Simon,

whose credits read like the who's

who of mid 60s - mid 70s recording artists,

Down Home catapulted me into the very complex

vocal and instrumental duality of Jimmy Seals

(guitarist,vocalistand main composer) and

Dash Crofts(mandolinistand vocalist).

I became a devoted fanatic of their music,

and searched high and low for any news

or new songs from the dynamic duo.

I shortly found out that they were

followers of the Baha'i faith,

and re-read Seals' lyrics with a

slightly more contextual sense of

their meaning and meaning, both within

and without the song structures they were

married to. When their third album, Yearof

Sunday was released, I dove headlonginto

the new songs with a determined desire

to both memorize and - hopefully -

understand their original

reasonsfor being.

Time passed...

The next thing I knew, 'twas the summer of '72.

Seals and Croftsreleased their fourth album,

featuring the truly stunning lead-off single,

"Summer Breeze". But it was the album's

first sung on side one (and second single)

that totallyknockedme off my big feet.

Here's "Hummingbird" in two versions:

the first video features the one itself

(as good as the album cover artwork),

while the second blurry video shows

Seals and Crofts playing "Hummingbird"

for themselves and a minor studio audience.

First, let's take a face at Peter Pigeon,

feathered native of Kinsale, Ireland

(andmastermason, apparently).

Mozz the Elder

www.vapormusic.com