The Tokens

The title of this album was not only a reference to the Joni Mitchell song covered by the group (obviously inspired by the success of the Judy Collins' hit-single version), but also to a concept of sorts. The long hair, the beard, and the cigar, coupled with the informal dress that the three members of the Tokens depicted on the cover of Both Sides Now are sporting/smoking/wearing, tell a lot of the story of this album -- yes; these are the Tokens of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" fame (and they even add a vamp very similar to its opening to this album's title track), but they've advanced with the times, abandoning the crewcuts, matching suits, and clean-cut image of their late-'50's/early-'60's work. Released by Buddah/Kama Sutra Records in 1970, Both Sides Now showed two sides of the group, the first side of the album offering the Tokens covering such current compositions as the title cut from Joni Mitchell , Buddah Records' stablemates the Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine," and Melanie's "Beautiful People," the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby," and Les Emerson's "Brandywine"; as well as one song -- "She Lets Her Hair Down" by Paul Vance and Leon Carr -- that started life as a ubiquitous commercial jingle (for Breck) (one of the first "modern," folk-rock style jingles of its type for a major national product and ad campaign). The latter song (which was also a single from Gene Pitney) is a gorgeous piece of pop-style folk-rock, recalling Spanky & Our Gang, and "Sunday Will Never Be the Same". And "Don't Worry Baby" may actually be prettier in the hands of the Tokens than it was in the Beach Boys' original version, with a lean yet animated acoustic/electric guitar and drums arrangement, supported by strings, around soaring harmonies -- it wouldn't be totally surprising to learn that the Beach Boys added their updated, improved version of the song to their early-70's sets (and, thus, the Reprise-era live album) after hearing the Tokens' version. And then there's the second side, which was dominated by more of an early-'60's sound, more self-consciously an "oldies" venture, starting with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Tonight I Fell in Love." The presence of "If I Were a Carpenter" in a gorgeous folk-rock/pop rendition, busts up the concept a little, but the album holds up very nicely. Both Sides Now was, for a long time in the early- to mid-'70's, a ubiquitous cut-out -- even when they were fully solvent, Buddah/Sutra had lots of trouble keeping LPs by anyone other than the Lovin' Spoonful in print for very long -- in the New York area that helped introduce a whole new generation of listeners to the group's work. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide