The Cowsills on "Playboy After Dark"
They woulda been The Partridge Family if the producers hadn't wanted to fire their mom and replace her with Shirley Jones. Susan is still making records and playing gigs. John is playing drums in the Beach Boys Band. I have a great Dwight Twilley MTV concert where Susan and John are in the Twilley Band (Susan & Dwight were a couple for many years.) I opened for the Cowsills at Maxwells in the early/mid 90's and they were great. Susan signed my poster "Spike will you marry me" (!).
I guess one of the Cowsills married a Playboy Bunny... The Cowsills-Playboy After Dark.mov
The first song is pretty corny ("Jesus Christ Superstar" I think) but they really rock out on the 2nd tune. Susan is an ultra hip dancer.
Great fun Spike!
Posted by: Mark | July 31, 2005 at 05:18 PM
loving the snow crash quote.
Posted by: abraham | August 01, 2005 at 04:50 AM
Hey Spike: the first song is from the musical "Oliver!"
Joe
Posted by: Joe | August 01, 2005 at 11:38 PM
Oops: It's called "Where Is Love?"
Posted by: Joe | August 01, 2005 at 11:38 PM
Wow, that's great. There's a moment during the second number (around 4'10" in), where the camera catches Ma Cowsill looking on with a "why are they rocking out?" expression on her face.
Susan is one of the coolest people ever.
Posted by: harveyw | August 04, 2005 at 10:31 AM
Great find, Spike! Kind of dorky of the Cowsills to opt to wear such corny get-ups like those suits with the clownish red bow ties when we see the back-up singers are sporting afros, beads and striped bel bottoms. I mean, that was around the time where the Beatles were in full beards and Paul Revere & The Raiders stopped wearing Minute Men suits and started sporting psyche gear. And wasn't that a gas to see the little Cowsill girl groovin' with the *out-of-sight* black back-up singer? Very cool.
And damn! I'd better stay after school and bone up on my pop culture studies! I had no idea a Cowsill married a Playboy bunny. Does anyone know if she actually posed (nude) for the magazine or if she was just a bunny at one of the clubs or was she just part of the show's background bunnies?
Posted by: Les Toil | August 06, 2005 at 01:32 AM
this gets better everytime I watch it!
Posted by: Mark | August 06, 2005 at 07:03 AM
Susan married Peter Holsapple of the dB's and played with with him in the Continental Drifters. I think they're not together anymore, but don't quote me on that.
Posted by: Karl | August 18, 2005 at 11:32 PM
Not only are they not together, I'm pretty sure she's with another guy from the Continental Drifters now. I don't know all the details but there was some Fleetwood Mac type shit going on.
Incidentally-I'm actually friendly with Holsapple's 1st wife Ilene Markell (a great bass player) and was there the night the two of them met at Maxwell's...
Posted by: Cookie | August 22, 2005 at 01:21 PM
The early 90's incarnation of the Cowsills was incredible. I saw them play in Los Angeles a bunch of time. I dont think they ever released an album of the songs they did back then...
And oh man, the 11X11 record is incredible...."I really want to know you"...WOW!
Chuck
Posted by: Chuck Kelley | November 04, 2005 at 03:13 AM
fwiw, the first song "where is love?" is from the musical "oliver!"
Posted by: dboo | November 15, 2005 at 08:29 PM
FYI, the Cowsills did indeed put out a CD of their 90's "power pop" tunes. It's incredible and deserves to be heard. It's called "Global" and can be purchased online at www.robinrecords.com or you can get there from their website www.cowsill.com.
BUY THIS CD! You can hear samples of the whole thing on the Robin Records website.
Posted by: Kate | April 15, 2006 at 09:58 PM
The black guy dancing with Susan during the instumental break looks like Byron Gilliam, who for a time was a regular on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" in the early 70s...
Posted by: Mike | July 29, 2006 at 08:10 AM
What isn't readily available on CD or DVD these days in Susan's work with Vickie Peterson as "The Psycho Sisters." Probably had a lot to do with the ad hoc nature of the gigs they played -- since they were also doing a lot of outside projects at the time -- as the two are wont to do. This included, of course, their work with the Drifters.
One "Sisters" 7 inch single was released ("Timberline" -- in 1992) but the gals have supposedly continued to pair up from time to time to finally release a debut album. Dunno, though, that news has been around a while. And there's always that need for that latest tres chic night gown to wear on stage for any Sisters' reunion. Probably gives the roadies fits just trying to find a decent one in the storefront window after Frederick's just closed.
You can check out this info and more at on this Psycho Sisters fan page:
http://www.seds.org/~michaelk/P.html
There's a list of tracks -- a few of which they'd written together -- and covers of their own stuff written for their respective bands through the early and mid-90s. This includes, of course, The Bangles, Drifters -- even one Cowsills tune. A CD release of most or all of this stuff would be impressive.
Vickie Peterson married John Cowsill a couple of years ago. [ Speaking of Fleetwood Mac....]
Posted by: pelle lindbergh | December 26, 2006 at 12:05 PM