Singer and bass guitarist Merrill Osmond tells the story behind 'Crazy Horses' by The Osmonds. A short documentary by Top 2000 a gogo (Dutch Public TV) from 2005.
Merrill has such a soothing voice, I could listen to him forever, and I bet he is the kind of guy you could have a real good conversation with. Love the Osmonds. They’re the best.
I love the Osmonds and I really love this song. I heard a story from one person who said that when Crazy Horses came out, the radio station decided to play the song, but didn’t say who was singing it. They asked people to call in and guess the group singing. People said Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, most every one said it was a heavy metal band. When the DJ then came on and said that it was the Osmonds, the people were shocked. WOW!
C’est super car nous sommes un petit groupe de fans Français -es qui les suivons sur Facebook. Ça fait toujours plaisir de savoir qu’il y en a encore. Avez vous pu les voir à leurs concerts?
I was something like 8 years old first time I heard this song in the early seventies. I think it was instrumental in my becoming a life long metalhead and metal guitarist. This song and Deep Purple. Awesome combination. Osmonds,- you rocked !!
When I was a kid, nobody that liked heavy rock, took the Osmond Brothers seriously. When I heard Crazy Horses, that changed my opinion. Loved Donny's Soldier of Love.
@@ffjsb Its better than how we danced in the eighties. I never heard of the song til this channel, I always thought it was sad how media tries to make jokes out of some musicians when music is music. My only beef is there's a little too much repetition of the title, but although I don't listen to their music I always had respect for the Osmonds. Or maybe I just thought Marie was hot.
Todd Massengale, you are correct sir it is a very good song and I was growing up at the time The Osmonds were at the height of their popularity and I would never have believed that they recorded a song that actually Rocks this way!!!!!
I remember hearing this when I was a kid on the radio but I didn’t hear the name of the band lol. So I thought it was one of those rock bands my parents listened to lol Years later as a grown man I discover it was the Osmond’s and I was completely shocked lol. So I started looking at all of there other music and became hooked. I now own everything they ever released on vinyl and digital on my iPod and iPhone lol. Try putting this song on repeat and workout to it! You will sweat like never before lol
Merrill was and is over the top talented, cool, brilliant. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Las Vegas at a convention where talent is booked for fairs, shows, etc about 12 years ago. To be honest, I listened just a little to the Osmonds in the 70's, so I really didn't know much about Merrill and the other brothers, except for Donnie. He signed an autograph for me, was gracious, and I said something stupid like this is for my wife, she's a big fan. Wish I would have known back then how awesome he was as a performer.
Just played the live version from Wembley to my 38 yr old daughter (Which is amazing by the way!) Who is this singing?” She had no clue until she counted the members of the band! 🤣🤣 I saw the Osmonds twice ... once in San Diego & the other at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas!! My bedroom walls were covered in teeth. 😂 They were amazing!!
J'étais a leur premier concert a l'Olympia et il n'y avait que des jeunes comme moi entre 13 et 18 ans mais pas de vieux babas aux cheveux long du tout il doit confondre avec un autre pays !
I was six when this song came out. The first time I heard this was on a program called 1 van de 8 (dutch for 1 of the 8). I loved it so much I learned the lyrics by hart. Did not understand word of English, but could sing this by hart.
My sister had a crush on the Osmonds when she was about 12. I'm a year younger and like most boys that age I really didn't care for them. But looking back its not a bad song. I think in the hands of a more experienced rock group it could ve could've actually been a classic.
Crazy Horses banned for supposed drug references? Wow. I guess the music banners of the day never listened to One Bad Apple, Yo Yo, Down By the Lazy River etc.... Amazing Go All the Way by the Raspberries was allowed. Crazy Horses still rocks and remains my favorite Osmonds song!! Thanks guys!!
Why do you think Donny Osmond came out so strong against the PMRC in the 1980s. There were so many artists in the 1970s whom you don't expect experienced bans. John Denver's Rocky Mountain High was banned too. And just don't think politicians banning music is just a yesterday thing. The incoming President of the European Commission, former German Family Affairs Minister mrs Ursula von der Leyen banned Rammstein's album in 2009.
Concern over environmental damage flared up quickly around 1970, at the time of the first Earth Day event, and that's what inspired this song not too long afterwards. Suddenly, most of us were worried that we were permanently poisoning ourselves to death everywhere in the world. The USA at that time had by far the most motor vehicles internationally, and their effect on widespread air pollution specifically was scary - thus "Crazy Horses", whose name, by the way, is taken from a famous Native American chief of the 19th century.
That story about the France concert was funny! It's ashame that the song was banned in a few countries bc they thought it was about drugs. Crazy Horses is an awesome song! Check out the slightly slower version on youtube posted by zatopecara..it's pretty cool. Another great rocker on the Crazy Horses album is Hold Her Tight. On The Plan album I really like The Last Days, Traffic On My Mind and One Way Ticket To Anywhere. I love watching The Plan Medley promotional video.
My thinking as to why Crazy Horses was banned is actually pretty simple: Horse is a nickname for Heroin. People use it when they want to hide the drug aspect from others. ("Hey....I'm getting a Horse. Back soon").
Another good rocker on album is 'Hold Her Tight'. And The Plan album has some other rockers on it. I really like 'The Last Days', 'Traffic On My Mind' and 'One Way Ticket To Anywhere'. There is also The Plan Medley promotional video on youtube.
With or without the Faith I have adopted, (that they themselves were BORN into and I wasn't)- 'Crazy Horses'... is epic, acid rock. I love how Merril explains how they studied such groups as: Zeppelin, Floyd and even the Beatles- THAT'S their inspiration!? They matched wits with them and, as far as I'm concerned, they TIE or are even better than those groups! It's like trying to pick an ice cream flavor, there's VERY difficult choices! lol.
I don't think it sounds metal at all - I can't think of too many metal songs with a "chunka-chunk chunka-chunk chunka-chunk" rhythm guitar not to mention a horn section. Add in their outfits and choreography of that era, if it had just a little fatter bottom end it could be heavy funk like some of the songs by Funkadelic - not the lyrics of course. This is how Donny performed the song in Vegas ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x7jyhlNhvvY.html - to me his updated arrangement leans more towards R&B like Prince or Michael Jackson than metal.
When being much younger I confused this song with Zeppelin's Immigrant Song - hearing them back to back, there is an undeniable connection in the rhythm!
It might have been nice if they did experience life abit! There parents watched them closely and im thinking the 60s with all its sycadelic stuff and other things how the osmonds stayed away from it! Kudos 2 the parents but if they would have experienced life abit mbee there music would have been ALITTLE edgyier but they were stil very talented!!
The Donny and Marie shows took the onus away from the original brothers that were turning out some great stuff, 'My drum' on the phase 111 album is worth a listen. Also on other albums 'Hey mr Taxi' 'Gotta get love' 'Sun Sun Sun' . A great favourite of mine is from the 'Around the world' album recorded at Earls Court in 1975, Jay singing lead on 'Some kinda wonderful' as he's playing the drums. When I was speaking to him about Earls Court, he told me that he remembered that and that 'It was Crazy'!
I must be missing something; how would anyone think it's about heroin? Genuine question too 😂 thou I'm from the UK... Is there a slang about horses related to heroin? 🙈
I loved this song when I was a kid. It was an absolute anachronism compared to their other stuff, which was just bubblegum dross, let's be honest. Still, I loved Donny and even looking at him in this reminds me of being eight years old and the big poster on my bedroom wall. But 'Crazy Horses' is an exceptional song from these "kids".
