Forever and Ever, Amen

Some bands have an interesting trajectory. They start out, build a fan base, sign a record deal, have some hits...and then continue for decades afterwards.

At least in name only.

Take a fairly famous example, the Beach Boys, which was founded by the three Wilson Brothers, Mike Love, and (at various times) Al Jardine and David Marks. Time has passed, and if you were to go see a Beach Boys concert today, you would see...Mike Love. And Bruce Johnston (who initially joined the Beach Boys in the 1960s when Brian Wilson quit touring), along with Randell Kirsch, John Cowsill, Tim Bonhomme, Christian Love, and Scott Totten.

I ran across another example recently. The Music's Over published a death notice for Ali-Ollie Woodson, who was a former member of the Temptations. Specifically:

His terms with the group were 1984 to 1986, and then again from 1988 to 1996. His biggest hit for the group was the 1984 #2 record, “Treat Her Like A Lady,” on which he sang lead, co-wrote, and co-produced.

While I don't mean to demean this accomplishment, most people who think of the Temptations do not think of a 1984 hit. In fact, there are some people who would look oddly at me when I mention my favorite Temptations song.



Back to Woodson. It turns out that he has a bit of experience in joining bands that have been around for a long time.

During the early part of his career, Woodson was part of a Drifters revival act of the early ’70s.

On one level I can't fault musicians who join a band 20 or 30 years after it began. I mean, if there are people who want to hear a band's music, then it's nice if the band (or at least something that sounds like the band) is there to provide it.

But on the other hand, I feel kind of funny about.

P.S. My apologies to Randy Travis fans who came here expecting to find a ton of Randy Travis stuff in this post. Let me make it up to you.

Unfortunately, Randy's YouTube handlers requested that embedding be disabled. But (then) 14 year old Owen Pickard had no such restrictions.



Perhaps he'll tour as Randy Travis someday. But then, what would Kelcie do?