Can the Osmonds ever really be considered truly rad? Is there a point, historically speaking, when the twee songs of the Bros Osmond flip over into “good” bad musical territory? Good question (even if I do pose it myself!).

Many people—-most, probably—would argue “no” that it’s not possible for the Osmonds to be truly rad, no matter what I might think—they were a freakin’ Mormon rock band comprised of biological brothers to begin with, two bigger strikes would be hard to think of—but have these close-minded naysayers ever seen the Osmonds dressed like pimps straight off the Parliment-Funkadelic Mothership performing “Crazy Horses” and driving the crowd absolutely wild?

Feast your eyes on this clip of the Osmonds, in outfits that would cause Huggy Bear to blush, on German television in 1972 doing their classic almost heavy metal single, “Crazy Horses.” Admittedly this song is an anomaly in their repertoire, but tell me this tune ain’t rad! It’s as rad as fuck and you know it is.

Imagine if Run DMC had sampled this song instead of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” and all of a sudden, The Osmonds would have been hip. It could’ve happened. And in a least one alternate universe, it probably did…
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Armageddon rock: The very metal sound of The Osmonds

Spacerock druids Lumerians performing lysergic Osmonds’ cover