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FRIEND & LOVER
“REACH OUT OF THE DARKNESS”
(Jim Post)
Verve Forecast 5069
No. 10 June 22, 1968
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“I met Cathy in Edmonton, Alberta, at this state fair in the summer of ’64,” Jim Post (b. Oct. 28,
1939, Houston, TX), the male half of Friend & Lover, recalled in an exclusive interview. “She was a
dancer; I was with a folk group, the Rum Runners, on a Canadian tour. When we got there, I saw
this wonderful woman jumping off a balcony and two other dancers catching her, and then she
flipped five or six times across the stage:’
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Chicago-born Cathy Conn soon quit her acrobatic activities in order to marry Post. When she
began pining for the stage shortly afterward, Jim started teaching her to be a singer. After much
practice, some demo tapes, and a few discouraging gigs in awful clubs, the husband-and-wife act
landed both a manager and a recording contract as Friend & Lover. A Joe South production of “If
Tomorrow” b/w ”A Town Called Love” was issued by ABC-Paramount, but sales were minimal, so
the label let Jim and Cathy slip away. They played a Playboy Club in Atlanta, toured with the
Buckinghams, and even opened for Eric Clapton’s Cream on their last United States tour.
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“We went to MGM-Verve and saw Jerry Schoenbaum and said we wanted to sing for him. He said,
‘I only take tapes, ’cause I don’t want to be impressed by the way you look.’ So I said, ‘Good, turn
around and look out the window.’ We sang this song-probably only the fourth thing I had ever
written–called ‘Reach Out of the Darkness.’ He liked the idea.”
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“Reach Out” was inspired by Post’s experience at a New York love-in. “People were throwing
flowers; this was before cops knew that the kids were probably tripping on acid. ‘Reach out of the
darkness, and you might find a friend/Freak out in the darkness’ … Wow, man! If you listen, you’ll
hear one of us singing ‘freak out in the darkness’ while the other is singing ‘reach out of the
darkness.’ They mixed it way down, but it’s in there.”
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Despite the huge success of “Reach Out,” Verve issued only two other Friend & Lover singles–“If
Love Is in Your Heart” and “I Wanna Be Free”–plus an album. According to Post, the label
“thought and acted like we were a one-record group; that’s the way they treated us.” Columbia
Records offered the two some $222,000 to sign, but Verve wouldn’t release Jim and Cathy from
their contract. Once they were free, though, they recorded a couple of 45s (“People Stand Back,”
“Hard Lovin”‘) as Jim & Cathy for a Chess Record subsidiary, Cadet. Sales of the Cadet sides were
next to nil; their career on a downslide, Jim and Cathy divorced.
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Jim Post has gone on to record numerous albums for the Fantasy, Mountain Railroad, Flying Fish,
and Freckle labels (the title of his Freckle effort: The Crooner From Outer Space). Since 1988,
Post has been promoting Galena Rose, a one-man play that he wrote and produced. Reviews have
been quite favorable.