8/15/07: Seals & Crofts “Unborn Child” (1974)Yesterday was Dash Crofts’ birthday, and, boy, does he have a lot to look forward to this year. After being neglected for decades, the back catalogue of Seals & Crofts is finally getting a CD reissue campaign from the
Wounded Bird label. That’s nine albums all set for release on September 18th—and probably available earlier from the website.
This isn’t necessarily an endorsement. There are plenty of underrated ’70s soft-rock acts, but we’re not sure that Jim Seals and Dash Crofts rate a revival. Their main legacy remains that line in “Summer Breeze” about the jasmine in their minds, while “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)” provided many proms with a theme. But even this (usually) pro-abortion site has to admire the sheer audacity of 1974’s “Unborn Child.” It’s not only an amazingly strident anti-abortion anthem, but was the title track of that year’s album.
The duo—both members of the Baha’i Faith—even insisted that the reluctant executives at Warner Brothers release “Unborn Child” as a single. It only got as high as #66 on the Hot 100. That was enough to get feminists coming to their concerts with picket signs in tow.
You can find
the complete lyrics to “Unborn Child” (as written by Crofts’ sister-in-law) at the official Seals & Crofts
website. To sum things up: There’s a little baby who’ll never cry or hear a sweet lullaby, and it’s a good thing that the unborn child doesn’t know what his mother’s planning to do because it involves his unripe body getting cut off from the tree of life. There’s also a lot of pleading for the mother to stop and turn around and go back and think it over.
It’s surprising that some hipster comedian hasn’t already incorporated a dramatic reading into his act. On the other hand, imagine the impact “Unborn Child” must’ve had whenever it infiltrated the feel-good radio programming of 1974. Seals & Crofts somehow kept a successful career going for several more years. That wouldn’t happen today. As we might have mentioned before, the fine metal-pop band King’s X once suffered a severe setback after dolts mistook their protest against capital punishment as an anti-abortion anthem.
And though Seals & Crofts get together for an occasional tour, we also admire how—unlike most sensitive rock acts—the duo were serious enough about their faith to eventually give it priority over their musical career. We used to cite Cat Stevens as another inspiring example, but that didn’t work out.
Make it your own: Serious fans of Seals & Crofts will be outraged to know that
Get Closer isn’t on the reissue schedule. Casual fans will be equally unhappy that there still isn’t a decent Seals & Crofts compilation. Rhino just reissued the incredibly crappy
Greatest Hits package from 1975, and the folks at Warners were still angry enough that they made sure “Unborn Child” wasn’t one of the album’s ten tracks. So, again, the reissue label is
Wounded Bird.
Unborn Child—along with eight other albums—is set for a September 18th release, and can probably be found earlier direct from the website.
It’s not likely that we’ll ever write about England Dan & John Ford Coley.
