Blue Ash – Pleasant Dreams

Blue Ash is one of those bands that should have made it to the masses. That has always interested me why great bands like Blue Ash, Big Star, and so many others couldn’t find their way to mass popularity. I’ve been listening to their debut album and it stacks up against their peers at the time and definitely now!

This song reminds me of a great FM album track. Blue Ash toured and opened for such acts as The Stooges, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and more but for lack of sales they were dropped by Mercury Records in May 1974. You would think with those bands they would have picked up a lot of fans.

Blue Ash was formed in the summer of 1969 in Ohio by bassist Frank Secich & vocalist Jim Kendzor. Guitarist Bill “Cupid” Bartolin and drummer David Evans were recruited later that summer. They got their name from a road sign outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, pointing towards a small town called Blue Ash. During a three-year stretch of 1970-1973 the band recorded numerous songs along with hitting the road playing western New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia along with Ohio, performing over 250 shows a year. Think about that for a second… 250 – 300 shows a year!

Their first album No More, No Less was released in May 1973 and received rave reviews in the rock press. This album is usually always in people’s top twenty power pop albums. It is considered a power pop classic and is regarded as highly collectible among fans of that genre.

This one transports me to the seventies.  The intro is around a minute but I love the sustained guitar that kicks in after the intro ends.

Pleasant Dreams

When day is done and night has begun
A smile comes on my face
I know that I’ll be taking me
To a very pleasant place
It’s half-way across my mind
It’s not so hard to find

I’ve been there many times before
And everytime ti’s seems
I know that I’ll be back for more
I’m hooked on pleasant dreams
Without reality there’s
Nothing i can’t see

Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to climb in bed
Lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright

A copper king, a movie star
I’m anything I please
I slip into my private world
Which sets my mind at ease
I do the things I feel you know
I feel the the things I do

Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to climb in bed
To lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright

I wake up in the morning and
It seems I’ve come undone
I make believe I’m not asleep and
I’m pretending that it’s fun
I’m half the man I am
I’m twice the man I’m not

Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to close my eyes to
Lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

36 thoughts on “Blue Ash – Pleasant Dreams”

  5. not a bad song, first time I’ve heard of them. I think I can hear a vaguely Badfinger-ish kind of sound, maybe it is the guitar. Your writeup got me thinking- does opening for a ‘name’ brand really boost your career if you’re unknown? I know in some cases it sure did, especially back in the 70s but it might be a bit of an over-rated gig. What do you think? I think back on the concerts I went to and the only real opening acts that stand out and impressed me hugely were ones I already knew – Love & Rockets for the Cure, Sloan – unannounced! – for Foo Fighters, Smashmouth for Blur, Wilco for REM. I’ve seen other opening acts I barely knew that I thought were decent but never really went home thinking ‘I gotta find out more about them’

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    1. Hardly ever do I remember an unknown opening band. You really have to blow the audience away and that is a hard thing to do being unknown. Lynyrd Skynyrd was REALLY helped opening for the Who BUT MCA really pushed their album also. Most of the time….probably not as much as people think though.

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  6. Never heard of them either- a pretty good sound overall, but there is something… not… quite… there. Something not just theirs? All the frills and style of the time but nothing that is original? Dunno, but it lacks that secret something needed to stand out.

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      1. Just listened to Abra/Seen Her- yep, that rocks out pretty well, but on listening both songs, esp. to the vocals, I think that may be where they lack that ‘something.’

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  7. Never heard this before. Neither the song nor the band. Love the sound … the late 60s – early to mid 70s is my preferred music of choice, so gonna do some digging on Blue Ash when I find time. Thanks. 🙂

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  10. Here we go again, another band I had never heard of before, but keep ’em coming, Max – that song sounds pretty cool!

    I will say when I hear the name Blue Ash, I’m thinking of cemetery and I guess Halloween, though I’ve never celebrated it – in other words, not the most cheerful connotations.

    But probably more than their name, it was most likely lack of support from their label. Since you mentioned them, look at Big Star. Their upbeat name didn’t exactly help them either!

    Obviously, Blue Ash tried really hard, playing 250-300 shows per year – that sounds like a pretty gruesome touring schedule!

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    1. Try out Blue Ash’s Abracadabra…that is the song they are known for but I already blogged about it.
      Oh they got their name from a suburb I think…the first time I posted them…one of the band members commented.

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      7. Thanks! In the meantime, I’ve listened to the first 17 songs on a Blue Ash compilation titled “Around Again 1972-1979” – I really like what I’ve heard thus far.

        Sometimes their lead vocalist sounds a bit like Slade’s Noddy Holder. Blue Ash did a neat cover of the Stones’ “Sweet Virginia”. Also, “Rock On Rock and Roller”, well, really rocks!

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  12. I have missed a lot with my dad’s estate and battling my site.

    I have never heard of them but, I like this track…very “Who-ish” to me with just a tad of Iron Butterfly thrown in. The guitar intro, as its own piece, reminds me, a bit, of the original, short opening chords of Long, Long Way From Home. I wonder if Foreigner (formed in 1976) encountered Blue Ash, somewhere.

    I laughed at the part of reforming in 2016 & being referred to as “Half Ash.”

    Thanks for the intro!

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    1. No problem! Glad you like them….I’ve ran out of unknowns that I had written up….now I have to finish some more.

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