by Robert Wilkinson
Our Friday eclectic musical feast features three Gemini greats! Today’s show has some very strange and funny tunes, as well as British Invasion rockers!
We begin the dance celebrating the life and music of Francis “Mike” Rossi (29 May 1949), co-founder, lead singer, and lead guitarist of the Status Quo, one of the UK’s best loved bands. Leader of “the most uncool band in the world,” he has the nicknames “Frame" or "The Gomorr" (The Grand Old Man of Rock and Roll).
I remember groovin' to their very psychedelic phase shifting first hit written by Rossi in 1968! Here they are live on Top Of The Pops giving us the very trippy "Pictures of Matchstick Men."
Last year I had a great live clip from German television of “Ice In the Sun,” but someone got greedy and pulled it. Instead, here’s a live version from Vienna in January 1969 of that tune, which was their 3rd hit in a row! "Ice in the Sun."
Mike also co-wrote these big ones, “Caroline” and this rock masterpiece that sounds a lot like the Flamin’ Groovies at their best, “Down Down”
Live at the Marquee in 1972, here are “Don’t Waste My Time” and “Paper Plane"
The Quo also scored big with some great rockers written by Rick Parfitt, including "Whatever You Want," and from the same 1982 show, "Rain," (not the Beatles tune)
From 1979, "Again and Again," and live in 1977, cranking out the John Fogerty rock and roll anthem "Rockin' All Over the World."
We’ll close this brief set with 25 great minutes of Status Quo Live in 1970
For our first encore, we now move and groove to 14 minutes of Status Quo live in Glasgow in 1976! "Roadhouse Blues”
For our second encore, from 1984, a one hour live show at the Milton Keynes Bowl! The Status Quo – End of the Road 1984
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From rock to bubblegum pop, Friday was also the birthday of singer, songwriter, and producer Joey Levine (May 29, 1947). He was the vocalist for the Ohio Express, The Third Rail, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, The Music Explosion, and the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus. These were all comprised of studio musicians, so basically these bands only existed in the studio. Since then, he’s written dozens of television jingles. On with the show!
The classic antiestablishment gripe by a schlemiel! The lyrics are really funny! From the Third Rail, (a band composed of Joey with Artie Resnick – “Under the Boardwalk” and “Good Lovin’” – and his wife), the humorously frantic “Run, Run, Run” which we'll follow with these strange offerings from 1967 called “No Return” and “Dream Street”
The banality continues! While Joey sang lead for the studio version of the Ohio Express, he had nothing to do with the touring version of the band. Here “the band” lipsynchs to “Yummy Yummy Yummy.” After that, they hit the charts with the next three. Here’s the studio version of “Down at Lulu’s.”
An early effort by the production team at Kasenetz-Katz was this ripoff of “Louie Louie” and several other tunes, mashed together in the very bubblegum “Beg, Borrow, and Steal,”
The touring band did this pair on Beat Club in 1969. It’s amazing the group lasted as many months as it did, given the “quality” of their songs. So we’ll mercifully close this proto-death metal set with the appropriately named “Mercy” and their million selling “Chewy Chewy.”
From the 1910 Fruitgum Company, it gets even more bubblegum with “Simon Says” and “1, 2, 3 Red Light,” sinking to a new low with “Indian Giver”
From the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, “Quick Joey Small” and “I’m In Love With You” (Yes, this does sound like Crazy Elephant, another Super K production.)
Joey, you certainly made your mark on pop music in the 60s. You had a certain “sound” that a lot of people liked for a very brief moment in history.
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Our third set comes from yesterday's birthday boy Lenny Davidson (30 May 1944) lead player for London rockers the Dave Clark 5, one of the greatest bands of the British Invasion! The DC5 rivaled the Beatles on the charts long before the Rolling Stones, Who, or Kinks ever made the international scene. The Dave Clark Five were among the first of the British Invasion bands, and broke on the scene with “Glad All Over,” which knocked the Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” off the #1 slot on the UK charts in January 1964. Yes, they were THAT big a deal! They rocked, and rocked hard!
From wiki, “The Dave Clark Five had 17 records in the Top 40 of the US Billboard chart and 12 Top 40 hits in their native UK between 1964 and 1967. Their song “Over and Over” went to number one in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 on Christmas Day 1965… and they played to sell-out crowds on their tours of the U.S. The Dave Clark Five was the first British band of the British Invasion to tour the US, and they made 18 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show - the most of any British Invasion group.”
Unfortunately, all their live performances are lip-synched, or done to a backing track. Still, the original studio sound of these songs gives you a sense of the excitement this band generated as they battled the Beatles for the top spots on the charts spanning two continents!
Here’s what kicked it all off! I have two versions of this amazing song that blew up the American charts! This version is the original video done at the time to promote the song and the band, so enjoy one of the more exciting songs ever written, the cranked-up “Glad All Over” (US #6 Feb 1964, UK #1 Nov 1963)
And this one is “live” with a backing track on The Ed Sullivan Show, as you can tell from the vocals. “Glad All Over”
From Top of the Pops, their second smash hit! “Bits and Pieces” (US #4 April 1964, UK #2 Feb 1964)
Here was an enormously popular song from their first album, a cover of the earlier hit by the Contours. This was released a month before “Glad All Over,” and it’s a great rave up! “Do You Love Me” (US #11 May 1964, UK #30 Oct 1963)
Before we move into 1963, a special nod to their third single. From February 1963, proto-DC5! “I Knew it All the Time”
Moving into the thick of their hits, from their second album, an appearance on Ready Steady Go doing the danceable “Can’t You See That She’s Mine” (US #4 June 1964, UK #10 May 1964)
Here's the "B" side to "Can't You See That's She's Mine," the beautiful “Because” (US #3 August 1964, UK #10 May 1964)
From the 1964 movie Get Yourself a College Girl, the “A” side “Thinking of You Baby” and the reverb and delay-drenched “B” side, “Whenever You’re Around” (UK #26, Aug 1964)
From Shindig in 1964, another big hit! “Everybody Knows” (US #15 Oct 1964, UK #37 Jan 1965)
My personal favorite from the band, “live” on Shindig in 1964, the reverb and delay drenched call and response stone rocker, “Any Way You Want It” (US #14 Nov 1964, UK #25, Oct 1964)
Electric blues! “Come Home” (US #14 Feb 1965, UK #16, May 1965.)
Here the audio-only version by the DC5 of the Chuck Berry classic, “Reelin’ and Rockin’” (US #23 Apr 1965, UK #24 Mar 1965) Also from that album, a video of a hard rocker titled "I Need Love"
Classic N’awlins get down music written by Chris Kenner and Allan Toussaint! “I Like It Like That” (US #7 June 1965, July 1965)
He and Dave co-wrote the soundtrack tune for the movie Having A Wild Weekend, the bouncy “Catch Us If You Can” (US #4 August 1965, UK #5 July 1965. Very Beatle influenced!)
From 1965, “Over and Over” (US #1 Nov 1965, UK #45 November 1965)
A great rare truly live performance at the 1966 Royal Performance of “19 Days” and “Georgia On My Mind.”
Here's another most haven't heard. This Beatle-inspired rocker went to US #12 in April 1966, so for your enjoyment, "Try Too Hard."
Here’s an obscure double side that went to UK #50 in May 1966. The “A” side was “Look Before you Leap” and the “B” side was “Please Tell Me Why”
This is about as live as we’ll get today! Enjoy their last big US hit, a cover of the earlier Chris Kenner rocker, the Stax/Volt inspired sound of “You Got What it Takes” (US #7 Apr 1967, UK #28 Mar 1967. Love those intro horns!)
The DC5 actually had two hits with the same name! This is a completely different song than their Top 20 hit in 1964, and features Lenny singing lead on “Everybody Knows You Said Goodbye” (UK #43, Dec 1967)
Here’s a great 15 minute clip from Shindig episode #19, with Billy Preston, the Blossoms, the Shindig dancers, shaking it up! The edits are choppy, but it’s still classic footage of the DC5 cranking out a medley of “Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces,” “Can’t You See That She’s Mine,” “the Name of the Place is I Like It Like That,” and backing Roy Clark in “Bread and Butter Man.”
The next two clips may need to buffer. The first is a strange 24 minute show from 1966, called TJ’s and is hosted by Sal Mineo. The intro features the DC5 doing “Zippity Do Dah”and it’s said to feature the DC5 and Phil Spector. Again, it requires a bit of buffering, so if you want to see it, be patient!
TJ’s featuring the Dave Clark Five
Last year I had a 43 minute show called Dave Clark Five – It’s Magic but it’s disappeared this year.
This amazing film surfaced this year! This was a film released in 1968, and is “skits and montages set to their greatest hits from the time.” Hold On It’s The Dave Clark Five
Here’s a score! It’s a 23 minute concert from July 1965 at San Carlos, CA! The sound quality is poor, since it’s obviously a bootleg. Enjoy the energy anyway, since it’s live! The Dave Clark 5 Live in 1965 – San Carlos CA
For our closer, a great live technicolor performance clip from London 1964 of their first two huge hits! “Glad All Over" and "Bits and Pieces”
For our encore, we’ll close with the song that brought us here. This is original period footage of the mania that accompanied the British Invasion! One mo’ time, with major league attitude, the song that introduced the DC 5 to the world, the rocking “Glad All Over”
It’s gone again. Every so often I find a fantastic hour and 39 documentary from 2014 about the British Invasion, and the various parts the Beatles, Stones, and DC5 played in that global event. It has commentary from Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Macca, Stevie Wonder, Tom Hanks, Ozzy, Dionne Warwick, Twiggy, and Laurence Olivier, who said the DC5 were “as well known as the English dictionary.” As Gene Simmons says, it was modern electric church! At the time, it was certainly more exciting than anything the religious windbags were putting out there. Better luck next year.
Last year I had an awesome 3 hour and 24 minute documentary about the entire British Invasion with the focus on the Beatles, DC5, and the Rolling Stones titled < i>The Beatles vs the Dave Clark Five but it’s disappeared. Instead, I found this 13 minute clip of that era. For your enjoyment, The Beatles and the Dave Clark Five
I also found this 42 minute CNN documentary called The Sixties – The British Invasion
We’ll end with this 8 minute mini-documentary. What Happened to the Dave Clark Five
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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