The Osmonds have very special memories for me, for I am sure that others here on this forum had sisters who thrashed record players to death for week after week with Osmond records. The only difference was that Kittys favorite Osmond was Merrill not Donny.

So some while back I sifted through a few Osmond reviews and discovered that the osmonds work has been frequently referred to as psychedelic. Steven Cook in his AMG review of Crazy Horses informs us that on this LP the boys “roughen up their clean cut image with Hard rock and psychedelia.” Further to this the osmonds masterpiece (The Plan) was referred to as Psychedelic in a number of reviews. And if that was not enough some other individual tracks have also been called psychedelic.

I was aware that some of their late 60s singles were borderline light psych, so maybe the osmonds had two (or more) psychedelic periods.



As I was repainting the house, what better way to fill the silence than a trip down memory lane with a mess of old Osmond records and a good number of mp3s to fill out the gaps. So I downloaded their early singles and had looked forward to these with some curiosity and compiled as much of their psychedelic material as I could muster and was armed with a few days worth of music to paint by.

This was truly a good way to reassess the osmonds and come to terms with their psychedelic side.



I listened to their early singles - or at least the ones I could dig up. Most of them were standard pop but some certainly were interesting. Flower Music would be regarded as very lite psychedelic and is quite nifty. Nothing too out there. Best of their early singles was the B side Mary Elizabeth ( the B side of the catchy I can’t stop) which is quite a period piece of orchestral pop. It has a particularly nice swirling ending that almost drags it to a level of orchestral psych of the time. I must also mention their excellent rendition of Mollie A on one of their other B sides. It might not be of particular interest to people here but it is a rendition of a Samoan tune and I am amazed at how well they pin those island male harmonies. I am exposed to island music a lot of the time and they are very hard for westerners to emulate.

So next, the psychedelic masterpiece "the Plan" I have got to say first that I was not surprised to find that most of it was not especially psychedelic, coming off as your normal osmond product with more thoughtful lyrics with moral themes - but the biggest surprise is that there actually is psychedelic stuff on here.

The most psychedelic moments happen in the first part of side one and than its business as normal until The last days right near the end.


Now War in Heaven isn't so much a song but more of a orchestral arty music piece. I should add that when I put The Plan on I accidentally put it on repeat so this song played to me time and again. At first i thought it was a piece of random rubbish and as it went on I thought "Gosh this song is long" and than "Is this the whole side?" before realizing that it was on repeat, and I could not be bothered changing it at the time as I was into quite a bit of work.


But the funny thing was that when I got round to clicking on the next song I had had a revelation. This song which both reviewers and Osmond fans had written off was actually brilliant. It is a strange piece to be sure and very spooky, and it got spookier with each repeat. It was like something from the soundtrack of a especially creepy ghost story. The eeriest thing about the song is the fading in and out vocal piece softly calling "Let me take care of you, and keep an eye on you" which I assume was intended to be the kindly word of god but comes off as the creepiest part of the song especially when repeated time and time again. I was amazed to find out that the song was only 1 minute 40 long and the voice actually only appears once, but back to back-ad infinitum it was an experience. My recommendation is to repeat it at least 3 times because it actually works best this way.

Traffic in my mind is the most overtly psychedelic thing here with lots of psychedelic ingredients - echoing vocals/instrumentation phasing and strident acidic guitar and than fading to carnival noises and a chanted “don’t take it too easy” vignette at the end.

Before the beginning brings it back to the more typical Osmond fare. However it starts off with a unusual string intro and has a odd psychedelic piece of distorted vocals tacked on at the end. This leads into the strange Movie Man. This song is worth

special mention as it is quite a whimsical and somewhat odd number. Its a combination of novelty quirkiness with a catchy tune, some might refer to it as McCarney styled psychedelic piece but it's more vaudevillian, however none the worse for it. Than there is nothing much happening with a slew of unremarkable tunes (through some would differ -especially my sister) until The Last Days. This is a song meant to be menacing and spooky because it marks the appearance of him downstairs and features a bit of rock guitar and a some interesting passages where the music is slowed right down, especially at the end. Not especially psychedelic but interesting. And it would have made a suitable ending to this record except that they decided to tack on the most upbeat number at the end - probably so it had a optimistic ending rather than a more appropriate downbeat one.



I have to say that the best memories came from the Osmonds Crazy Horses Lp. This was Kittys favorite and was on constant rotation in our house. It was a revelation listening to songs that were so familiar to me 30 years ago and had gone so completely from my life. Most were not even played on golden oldies radio, so it was like entering a time vault.

Than I made the uncomfortable discovery that some of these songs had quite good tunes and were well sung (there was never any doubt that the Osmonds actually could sing and harmonised well - they were just uncool)



To the topic of what works and what is psychedelic - I could say that none of it is really psychedelic at all. Hold her Tight is based on Led Zeps Immigrant Song and that’s not especially psychedelic. The two McCartney Sgt Pepper inspired songs “what could it be” and “we all fall down” are interesting. The first is quite a pretty tune could have come from the 60s but I cannot see that really making it a psychedelic piece. The latter is a more up beat number with plenty of orchestral flourishes and a bit of flute which may explain the reference. And that is it for the psych touches.

Apart from those I am quite taken with the freshness and vitality of "Crazy Horses" itself with its wailing Yamaha -it was a atypical Osmond number and probably all the better for it.

Another number that I found appealing was the breakneck pop of Julie which had a great dance beat and catchy hook.

Of course there are howlers like being told that the party haven "Utah is the place to be" As well as that some of the quieter numbers really did drag the album down a bit. Although not as much as their LP Phase 3 which is just dirge from start to finish, and I will say no more on that one. Crazy Horses was clearly their creative zenith, and it stands out as their best album overall. This album actually was very punchy and I was surprised how hard they tried to make it really rock. In fact if you removed the smooth MOR production and recut the tracks in a raw form with greater emphasis on the guitars ( and removed the osmond name ) you would have had a respectable rock record.



The Later LPs become more MOR (with country touches) and I do not see much evidence of psych tendencies at all.



Lastly there was the “The Sensational Incredible Fantastic Osmonds” compilation of early hits that was also on high rotation in our house. At times the songs could be quite catchy (one bad apple - it’s not bad. “Does that mean it’s good?” you ask...well not necessarily) but certainly nothing groundbreaking.



So anyhow - there you go Phil, Paul, Stewart, Greg and other fine folk - something else to put on your turntable.

Hello Daniel,i bought the twofer cd containing both the albums covered here"Crazy Horses" and "The Plan"a few year back releases by the 7Ts label(part of cherry red).I bought this cd on the basis that i think the song"Crazy Horses"was immense(GULP did i really say that?).I always thought of having the cd as a dirty secret, so im so glad to find out im not the only one on here to have both albums............Now as for playing this cd,its been many moons since i actually sat down and listened to it,but Daniel you have tweeked an interest in hearing those albums again.From what i remember the album"Crazy Horses"(72)was rather enjoyable,but "The Plan"(73)is just a blank to me,so i shall be spinning this cd sometime today........i must admit and say i would never had thought The Osmonds were particularly psych or had psych touches to their music,but from what i can remember of Crazy Horses there were certainly more rock compositions than slowed up loved up drivel type of song!!! So congrats and thanks Daniel for making me wanna hear those albums with a fresh ear!!!!!

Maybe a comp of their grooviest cuts is in order..
I'm sure someone like RPM could do a good job..

and imho crazy horses IS immense!!

Yes, always like Crazy Horses, but never thought about listening to an album of theirs.

The Plan is a surprisingly good album the track Are You Up There is especially good well worth a spin