Friday, November 2, 2007

Lighthouse - "One Fine Morning" (1971)

Unlike The Ides of March, which hit it big out of the gate with "Vehicle" and then dropped out of sight, it took this 11-man Canadian group four albums to finally have a hit.

A far brighter and jazzier song than "Vehicle," "One Fine Morning" could have easily been mistaken for Chicago or BS&T. This was a huge band with a big sound -- an unmistakable electric rhythm guitar riff that any beginner could play, all kinds of horns, a string section, shaking tambourines, a funky bass over the extended drum bashing intro, and suitably jazzy electric piano solo.

Somehow, and you have to give them a lot of credit, they get this monstrosity moving in a fast-moving groove, building to a big blast of a climax. You have to love these 70's horn-driven singles that didn't fade out -- they ended in one colossal blasted chord.

Again, a good song that becomes great when heard in its full extended album version.

My only geek trivia, is that I remember Donnie and Marie Osmond opening up their mid-70's ABC-TV variety show one night with this song.

I went searching for a YouTube version of Lighthouse performing this song, but there were none. I sorted through a lot of poor sounding videos until I found this one that sounded decent and had the full version of the song, even if the visuals look like bad diner paintings. Just shut your eyes and listen to the tune, which was a big hit in '71.




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