Cherish the memories of founding The Association

This is the second part of an interview with longtime Wimberley resident Jules Alexander, one of the founding members of the 1960’s rock group, The Association.

Jules Alexander helped start The Association, a band that produced hit after hit in the late 1960s.

The Association’s most popular songs — “Cherish,” “Windy,” “Never My Love” and “Along Comes Mary” — are still heard on oldies radio stations and played at weddings.

Over the years, the band’s popularity led to appearances on numerous TV shows and The Association opened the Monterey Pop Festival back in 1967. That iconic festival featured Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Simon and Garfunkel, and Otis Redding.

In the 70s, hits dwindled, but the group remained popular on the concert circuit. Members would come and go. But the music lived on.

Jules, who has lived in the Wimberley area for more than 30 years, was in on the ground floor. You mention a name in rock and roll and it’s likely Jules has met them: Janis Joplin, the Beach Boys, Ricky Nelson, David Crosby, Cass Elliot, the list goes on.

End of musical career?

In the 1990s Jules had an accident with a table saw and lost part of a thumb. He figured that was the end of his music career. But he was wrong.

He took some time away from music and worked as a data analyst for a computer company. “I really enjoyed that. It is incredibly creative. It’s almost like writing music,” he says.

When one of the members of The Association became terminally ill, Jules was asked if he’d return. He jumped at the chance. So in 2012 it was back with the band and life on the road, singing and playing the guitar.

He loves the interaction with the audiences and says the constant travel is not a problem.

“The audience is always a mix,” he says. “The bulk of them are older. But then there are younger ones who don’t even know who we are. We just play our asses off.

“It’s funny, because you can see how the faces (in the audience) change when they hear the music. It brings back memories. We try to always do a meet and greet after the show and people tell us what our music has meant to them over the years.”

A typical schedule finds the band playing Clearwater or Jacksonville, Fla. early in the week and a few days later they’ll be in Costa Mesa or Sacramento, Calif.

“The travel isn’t that bad at all,” Jules says. “We have these big, wonderful buses that are very well appointed.”

Jules notes that most of the income is generated from the concert dates. Royalties from radio play amount to ‘peanuts.” “They play the song like three million times and you get a check for $25,” he says.

Fans love the group

Along with performers such as Joe Cocker, Chubby Checker, Herman’s Hermits and Johnny Rivers, The Association has been ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Judging from comments on various blogs and social-media forums, that’s not a popular decision.

Here’s one fan’s comment on the website futurerocklegends.com:

“I have always been appalled that the Association has been snubbed by the Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame. Let’s list a few of their musical accomplishments:

1. They have THREE songs listed by BMI as the top played songs of the ENTIRE 20th Century….

2. A seriously significant run of million selling songs….

3. The Association wrote and performed the songs and score for the hit movie Goodbye, Columbus

4. How many bands in Rock ‘n Roll history could successfully perform the enormous VARIETY of song styles that the Association did in their career? They did Pop, Rock, Hard Rock, Love Ballads, Swing, Folk, Protest Songs, Psychedelic, Country, Gregorian Chant...They could do it all!

I could probably go on for pages but I think you get the idea.”

Now, that’s what you call a devoted fan. There are thousands of them out there.

Jules thinks his previous exchange with an influential critic in defense of Ricky Nelson’s song “Garden Party” hurt the band’s chances of getting in the hall. “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not about music,” he says. “It’s about what’s popular now.”

The Association was elected to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003, joining artists such as The Four Seasons, Alabama and Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Many styles

Over the years, The Association has performed almost every type of music. The new description for their style is “sunshine pop” — easy listening music characterized by groups like The Mamas and The Papas, the Beach Boys and the Fifth Dimension. “That’s the new label,” says Jules. “I really don’t care what it’s called. Good music is good music.”

Whatever the music’s called, Jules and the group have no plans to call it quits. After 50 years, there’s still an eager audience out there.

Jules is a music fan too, and he follows the local music scene closely. “I had no idea (there were so many musicians here) when I moved here,” he says. “You throw a stick in Wimberley and you knock a guitar out of someone’s hands.“

He points to Erik Hokkanen — who plays the fiddle and guitar and performs everything from gypsy tunes to surf music — as an example of a type of musician that can be seen locally. “He’s world class,” says Jules. “He’s as good as anyone I have ever seen.”

That local talent pool can come in handy for a group like The Association, which over more than four decades has had 47 members in the band. Paul Wilson is a Texas State University professor who has been involved with many bands locally such as The Jonathans and at one point was even part of Wimberley’s Volunteer Fire Ants. He has been brought into The Association and seamlessly filled the gaps left as members rotated in and out of the lineup.

About a third of The Association’s performances are in conjunction with the Happy Together Tour, organized by members of the 60s band The Turtles. The tour is in its 11th year and features — in addition to The Turtles and The Association — The Cowsills (the group inspired the “Partridge Family” TV show), The Vogues, (“You’re The One” and “Five O’Clock World”) and Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and the Raiders).

Unfortunately, the 2020 tour fell victim to COVID and was rescheduled to 2021. What happens to this year’s tour remains to be seen.

A few years ago, as Jules tells the story, the band was playing a gig in Victoria, B.C., Canada. Victoria is on an island, accessible by ferry. Members of the group were riding in a van loaded with musical instruments and drove up to the ferry’s ticket booth. The lady inside spotted the instruments and asked if they were in a band.

“Yes,” Jules answered. “We’re The Association.”

The surprised response of the lady selling the tickets: “I thought you were all dead.”

Jules gets a good laugh from that story.

Once this virus passes, it’s back on stage singing “Cherish” and “Windy” again for adoring audiences.