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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,720 posts)
Thu Sep 14, 2023, 06:36 AM Sep 2023

On this day, September 14, 1954, Barry Cowsill was born.

Sat Aug 26, 2023: On this day, August 26, 1949, Bob and Dick Cowsill were born.

Wed Sep 14, 2022: On this day, September 14, 1954, Barry Cowsill was born.

Fri Aug 26, 2022: On this day, August 26, 1949, Bob and Dick Cowsill were born.

Barry Cowsill

Background information
Birth name: Barry Steven Cowsill
Born: September 14, 1954; Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died: c. September 2, 2005 (aged 50); New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Barry Steven Cowsill (September 14, 1954 – c. September 2, 2005) was an American musician and member of the musical group the Cowsills.

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Career



Cowsill in 1967

Cowsill was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the fifth of seven children. As a teenager, he became the drummer (and later the bass guitar player) of the band initially formed by his brothers Bill and Bob Cowsill, playing popular tunes at local dance clubs. By the late 1960s, the band expanded to include younger brother John (on drums), his mother Barbara, older brother Paul, and younger sister Susan. The Cowsills went on to churn out a string of hits ( including the #2's "The Rain the Park and Other Things" and "Hair" ) before officially disbanding by 1972.

After the group broke up, Cowsill moved frequently and worked various jobs including construction and waiting tables. For a time, Cowsill owned a bar in Austin which he admitted he lost because he "drank it dry. I was drinking my face off in those days." Throughout his life, he continued to play music and participated in various post-heyday incarnations of the Cowsills. In 1998, he released his first solo CD, As Is. In 2002, he relocated to his hometown of Newport, Rhode Island. In 2005, Cowsill relocated again to New Orleans. Shortly before his death, he had made plans to enter a Los Angeles rehab facility to seek help for his alcoholism. His flight to Los Angeles had been scheduled for August 28, but those plans were stymied when Hurricane Katrina hit the city on August 29.

Personal life

In 1987, Cowsill married Deborah Scott with whom he had two children (he also had an older daughter). Cowsill and his wife were divorced in 2003.

Death

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans. Cowsill, who chose not to evacuate, weathered the storm in an abandoned warehouse. Cowsill survived the storm but was in need of help. He called his sister Susan from a pay phone (Susan also lived in New Orleans with her family but chose to evacuate) and left four voice mail messages saying he was surrounded by looters and people shooting. Susan Cowsill did not receive the messages until September 2. Cowsill was never heard from again. After an extensive search, Cowsill's body was found under a wharf on the Mississippi River on December 28, 2005. His body was subsequently identified by comparison to dental records. Cowsill's death was attributed to drowning as a result of the flooding following Hurricane Katrina.

The Cowsill family held two memorials for Barry in Newport and New Orleans.

{snip}

Talk about an underrated group.

About Us

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William Joseph Cowsill, Jr.
January 9, 1948 – February 18, 2006



Richard James Cowsill
August 26, 1949



Robert Paul Cowsill
August 26, 1949



Paul Mitchell Cowsill
November 11, 1951



Barry Steven Cowsill
September 14, 1954 – 2005



John Patrick Cowsill
March 2, 1956



Susan Claire Cowsill
May 20, 1959



Barbara Cowsill
July 12, 1928 – January 31, 1985



William Joseph Cowsill, Sr.
December 2, 1925 – September 29, 1992

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Richard James Cowsill August 26, 1949 - July 8, 2014

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Richard James Cowsill was born Aug 23, 1949 in Portsmouth, Virginia to Navy man William Joseph and Barbara Clair (Russell) Cowsill Sr. and went to join the heavenly 'Family Band' on July 8, 2014.

Rich was the 2nd oldest child overall, and the older of the fraternal twins with brother Bob. Richard was the father of three, Nate, Barbie and Bryan and grandfather of at least four. Richard also leaves his beautiful wife, Susan, who lovingly took care of Richard until the end.



Richard served our country in the US Army and had several tours of duty in the Vietnam War where he was undoubtedly was exposed to the chemical Agent Orange. He was stationed for a time at Fort Gordon, Georgia where he joined the family onstage for the TV show Operation Entertainment. The show was filmed May 20, 1968, but didn't air until October of that year. Rich's military duty was also mentioned in A Family Thing when Susan gave a tribute to him at the end of the show as the intro to the song "What The World Needs Now."

Richard had many occupations during his life besides soldier. He sold real estate, did construction, and also sold phone plans. The natural Cowsill charm served him well in sales jobs.

Richard may well have been the most handsome of the Cowsill boys with Bud's gorgeous eyes and the Cowsill mega-watts smile. His sense of humor could be found often, such as in his answer to the Newport News question "What are you looking forward to most about winter?" Richard answered, "The fact that I'll be able to slide to school instead of walking all the time."

His siblings remember him as the fort builder and super-hero cape maker. Below is a clip of Barry talking about Richie building forts and sewing Barry's first Superman outfit, which led to an improvised song.

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{snip}

Fri Mar 18, 2022: On March 18, 1969, the Cowsills performed "Hair" on the Wonderful World of Pizzazz TV special.



The Cowsills Hair 1969 IN COLOR !!
3,039,660 views Aug 18, 2016

looker1208
2.74K subscribers

A video made for the Wonderful World of Pizzazz TV special, aired on March 18, 1969. Sorry for the logo but it arrived to me that way. As a side note, they also filmed a video as well for the song What is Happy for this special. It can be found elsewhere on YouTube.

Sat Feb 18, 2023: On this day, February 18, 2006, Bill Cowsill died.

There's no Wikipedia entry for Dick Cowsill. This biographical information is from a 2021 version of the Wikipedia entry for Bill Cowsill. It discusses the evolution of the band. The entry had been updated a lot by 2023.

Thu Feb 18, 2021: On this day, February 18, 2006, Bill Cowsill died.

Bill Cowsill

Birth name: William Joseph Cowsill Jr.
Born: January 9, 1948; Middletown, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died: February 18, 2006 (aged 58); Calgary, Alberta, Canada

William "Bill" Joseph Cowsill Jr., most commonly known professionally as Billy Cowsill, (January 9, 1948 – February 18, 2006) was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is notable as the lead singer and guitarist of The Cowsills, who had three top 10 singles in the late 1960s. From the mid-1970s until his death, he developed a career in Canada as an alt-country artist, as well as being the producer of a diverse number of Canadian artists.

{snip}

History

The Cowsills

Bill Cowsill was born in Middletown, Rhode Island, the eldest child of the seven Cowsill children—six boys and one girl—and was named after his father, William "Bud" Joseph Cowsill Sr. (1925–1992). At a young age, Bill began singing with his younger brother, Bob (born August 26, 1949), playing guitars provided for them by their father, Bud, then serving in the U.S. Navy. The brothers had originally wanted to form a rock band. At their father's insistence, Bill and Bob Cowsill formed The Cowsills in 1965 with their brothers Barry on bass and John on drums. Their father became their full-time manager, following his retirement from the Navy. He was physically and emotionally abusive towards his family, in both his spousal and parental roles. Such abuse continued during his role as the group's manager.

The group started playing around Newport before they recorded their first single "All I Really Wanna Be is Me" in 1967 on the independent label, Joda. While the first single failed to chart, an appearance on the NBC Today Show to promote it led to Mercury Records offering them a contract. However, three singles on that label failed to spark interest, and they were dropped. Artie Kornfeld, their producer at that time, remained convinced of the band's potential and persuaded Barbara to contribute to backing vocals behind Bill's lead on "The Rain, The Park & Other Things", a song co-written by Kornfeld. It was their first single released on MGM Records, and was also included in their first eponymously titled MGM album. After the success of that single, their younger sister Susan and brother Paul joined the band. This was followed by Bill's attempt to get remaining brother Richard in the group. Bill had been impressed by Richard's drumming and set him up for an audition with father Bud, but after listening for about 30 seconds Bud flatly rejected Richard from joining the group.

"The Rain, The Park & Other Things" single sold over a million copies in late 1967 and reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their second MGM album, We Can Fly, released in 1968 and produced by Billy Cowsill, at the age of twenty, spawned a second Top 40 hit with the title track, which was co-written by Cowsill. In 1968, "Indian Lake" (from their third MGM album Captain Sad and his Ship of Fools) became another top 10 hit, while in 1969 their version of the title track from Hair, with Billy Cowsill singing lead vocals, peaked at No. 2.

The Cowsills made regular television appearances, which led to Columbia Pictures considering a sitcom based on their story and starring most of the members of the band; the deal was abandoned when the producers of the show wanted to replace Barbara in the cast. The show would later become The Partridge Family, with David Cassidy playing the lead singer and Shirley Jones as the mother.

It was commonly thought that Cowsill's involvement with the family band came to an abrupt end in 1969 when his father, Bud, caught him smoking marijuana, and he was immediately expelled by his father from the group. In fact, Cowsill's dismissal occurred one day after he and his father were in a drunken physical altercation in the lounge of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. The dispute was over Bud Cowsill's insults in relation Billy Cowsill's circle of friends, guitarist Waddy Wachtel in particular. State troopers had to be called to break up the fight between father and son. Billy Cowsill was dismissed from the group the next day. According to his brother Bob, Billy Cowsill's dismissal was the beginning of the end of the Cowsills as a group, since no other sibling could effectively assume their eldest brother's group leadership role.

Following the breakup of the group in 1970, it was discovered that most of the group's wealth had been dissipated through poor investments made or authorized by Bud Cowsill.

{snip}

Illness and death

In the last few years of his life, Cowsill was in declining health, suffering from emphysema, Cushing syndrome and osteoporosis. Cowsill's health went into serious decline in 2004. He required a cane to assist in walking, and underwent total hip replacement surgery and three major back surgeries, a complication from which resulted in a permanently collapsed lung. That year, a benefit concert for Cowsill was held in Los Angeles, featuring the Cowsills, Peter Tork, Susanna Hoffs and Shirley Jones, among others.

Despite his profound health challenges, Cowsill continued to write, perform and record. He retrained himself to sing, to accommodate losing the use of one lung. Six months before his death, he accepted an invitation to perform two songs onstage with Calgary honky-tonk singer-songwriter Tom Phillips. His last recording was "The Days I'm With The Horses", recorded in Calgary on July 18, 2005. The song, written and performed by Stewart MacDougall, was produced by Cowsill, who also sings background vocals. It is included on Rivers and Rails: A Tribute to Alberta, a compilation album by various artists, released in 2007. The album had originally been planned as a 2005 release, to coincide with celebrations of Alberta's centennial. Cowsill also co-wrote, with Ralph Boyd Johnson and Suzanne Leacock, the title song to the album, on which he plays guitar.

Cowsill died on February 18, 2006, aged 58, at his Calgary home, survived by his two sons. Family members learned of his death while holding a memorial service the next day, in Newport, Rhode Island, for his brother and bandmate Barry, a victim of the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Cowsill's body had not been found and identified until January 2006. He was cremated, and his ashes later scattered in Newport, Rhode Island.

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Sun Jan 20, 2013: Favorite Cowsills song. Do you have one?

(snerk)


Hair by The Cowsills

BobCfav

1.03K subscribers

878,074 views Sep 26, 2007
Gaga at the gogo??? Do I hear a brand new verse added in?

actually it's probably one of my top 50 favorites!



the rain, the park & other things
...sigh...

The Cowsills - The Rain, The Park and Other Things

voxdeorum

6.19K subscribers

474,042 views May 4, 2010
I saw her sitting in the rain, raindrops falling on her
She didn't seem to care, she sat there and smiled at me

Then I knew (I knew... I knew... I knew... I knew) , she could make me happy (happy... happy)
(She could make me very happy) Flowers in her hair (in her hair)
Flowers everywhere (everywhere)

(I love the flower girl) Oh I don't know just why; she simply caught my eye
(I love the flower girl) She seemed so sweet and kind; she crept into my mind
(To my mind... to my mind)

I knew I had to say hello (hello... hello) She smiled up at me
And she took my hand and we walked through the park alone

And I knew (I knew... I knew... I knew... I knew), she had made me happy (happy... happy)
(She had made me very happy) Flowers in her hair (in her hair)
Flowers everywhere (everywhere)

(I love the flower girl) Oh I don't know just why; she simply caught my eye
(I love the flower girl) She seemed so sweet and kind; she crept into my mind
(To my mind ... to my mind)

Suddenly, the sun broke through (See the sun)
I turned around she was gone (Where did she go)
And all I had left was one little flower in my hand

But I knew (I knew... I knew... I knew... I knew) she had made me happy (happy... happy)
(She had made me very happy) Flowers in her hair (in her hair)
Flowers everywhere (everywhere)

(I love the flower girl) Was she reality or just a dream to me
(I love the flower girl) Her love showed me the way to find a sunny day
(Sunny day... sunny day... sunny day)

(I love the flower girl) Was she reality or just a dream to me
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