Tony Rivers - Tony Rivers Collection, Vol. 3: Harmony Soul (CD)

All Music Guide

The third and weakest volume in RPM's series of Tony Rivers anthologies is devoted to projects that he was involved with in the 1970s. About half of the 24 tracks are credited to the artist himself; the others spotlight groups that he worked with, including Summer Wine, Harmony Grass, Magic Bus, Indiana, Highly Likely, Shine, Hollywood Freeway, and the Brian Bennett Band. There are no recording or release dates given for the songs (half of which were previously unissued), other than that they were done between 1970 and 1977; since RPM is usually pretty good about this stuff, one presumes that the exact information was not available. Rivers' forte was as a high Beach Boys-styled singer and vocal arranger, and the first section of the CD -- which, again one presumes, are from the earliest part of the 1970-77 period -- betray his Beach Boys obsession, often sounding like slicker, more mainstream variations of the Beach Boys' own vintage harmony sound. Ever wonder what the Lovin' Spoonful'...s "She's Still a Mystery" might have sounded like in the hands of the Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, for instance? You couldn't possibly get a better illustration than Summer Wine's version. These outings (a couple of which -- "Do You Wanna Dance" and "Why Do Fools in Love" -- are actually based on the Beach Boys' covers of these oldies, not the original renditions) might be on the smooth side even for Beach Boys devotees, but as early '70s mainstream pop goes, they're fairly pleasant and interesting. You couldn't say that of the material on the last half or so of the disc, almost exclusively written and performed by Rivers himself, and mostly unreleased at the time. These are pro forma lush, very mainstream -- right-of-center, really -- mid-to-late 1970s pop with adult contemporary soul overtones. Not that it's necessarily that much less imaginative than the Beach Boys derivations that open the set, but it's hardly going out on a limb to note that the classic Beach Boys discography is a far better model for imitation than the late-1970s Bee Gees, the mid-1970s Main Ingredient, and the like. Emblematic of one of pop music's least durable eras, it's a tough to listen to that portion of the disc without falling into a grouchy torpor. For that reason this anthology could only be recommended to very few collectors, even the ones that enjoy the '60s sunshine pop essays by Rivers on the previous two RPM volumes of his work. As for the cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that concludes the program, taken from an album in the Top of the Pops series of close replications of chart hits by session musicians -- what's the point? - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read more Less