Doomed, I tell you.

Thanks to Clodyne for spotting this clip on YT and sharing it with me. It's not about DC but you'll forgive me because he looks great here AND he laughs. Serious ear candy, that laugh. Alas, if only his laughs were pig snorts, we'd be spared this "interest" in him, I'm sure. But no, his laugh is as endearing as those dimples of his. Damn. We were so doomed to fall for him.

He's So Vain? Well, yeah, but is the song about him?

Carly Simon's big hit with the infamous ironic lyric "You're So Vain" is about a David. The latest consensus seems to be David Geffen but I think that David Cassidy should still be in the running for one reason: in an episode of "Ruby & the Rockits", Ruby comments on David Gallagher's less than impressive stage outfit and he protests by saying that Carly Simon went nuts over that outfit back in the day. There were a lot of "in-jokes" on that show and I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of them.

Lyrics to Ms Simon's song here. Read various interview segments with her dribbling hints through the years as to who's so vain on her own website.

Questions you WON'T hear during the Partridge Family reunion

Long-time fans of The Partridge Family know all the answers to the questions that will be asked during next Tuesday's cast reunion on the Today show. It's the answers to the questions that will NEVER be asked that we want!

Seeing as a few of you got the ball rolling in my previous post's comments, here's the idea spun off into its separate entry. In the spirit of good fun (that might verge on bad taste) and in the tradition of David Letterman's top ten lists, here are the TOP TEN Partridge Family questions that will never get asked:

10.Who is getting compensated for appearing on the Today show?

9. Which cast members are profiting from current Partridge Family CD and DVD sales?

8. How much does David think his autograph on Partridge Family memorabilia is worth on eBay? (thanks, Racehorses)

7. Was David "intimate" with any of the three Charlie's Angels who guest starred on the show?

6. Danny keeps mentioning David's hair plugs on his radio show: could we get a close up and take a moment to mourn Keith Partridge's hair?

5. Does David regret revealing his intimate encounter with Susan Dey in his autobiographies?

4. Is it true that previously unreleased songs from the show aren't available on CD because David is asking too much money?

3. Why do David's recent concert press bios state that "HE ALONE" was responsible for seven chart-topping Partridge Family hits?

2. Did Shirley ever have the hots for her stepson and vice-versa?

1. Does David want to be remembered for The Partridge Family or was that then and this is now?

(Joking aside, is Danny seeing a specialist about that perpetual frog in his throat?! It sounds like real bad news. As in take your vitamins religiously and get a throat and chest X-ray every six months bad news. :( )

Who wants to bet that these are the top five questions we WILL hear:

1. Did you ever think that people would still care about The Partridge Family forty years after its debut?
2. Do you mind that you're remembered first and foremost for the show?
3. When you signed on, did you know it was going to be a hit?
4. How did it feel to be adulated that way?
5. What's your fondest memory of the show?

Here's what I will probably email the show:

Longtime fans have seen all the Partridge Family bios so there isn't much mystery left. We want to know the current and upcoming projects of this talented cast. Can we expect any new ORIGINAL recordings from David Cassidy? Also, a lot of his concert-going fans would love to hear him perform material from those three solo RCA albums he did in the mid-seventies.

This year does mark the fortieth anniversary of The Partridge Family's debut on television. Not sure if this cast appearance on the Today show will serve as a proper reunion but it can serve as a memory trigger for those fans who've lost touch with the cast or didn't realize that all four seasons of the show were now available on DVD.

Critics be damned, no other TV show triggers such an immediate feel-good response in me than does The Partridge Family. The show connects me instantly to shiny happy childhood memories and for that, my heart says thank you to the whole cast and crew.

The Partridge Family - What do you want to know?

Next week, NBC's Today Show will reunite some cast members from television's greatest families, including The Partridge Family. If you think there's something left to be discovered about the PF (really?!), you can email the show your question and it might get featured.

Now, you'll note that the Today site says the PF will appear on Tuesday, March 3 but next Tuesday is March 2. In his most recent post, Scott at C'mon Get Happy says that the show is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2. To be on the safe side, record Tuesday's show. ;-) And yes, DC is scheduled to appear. Imagine that.

Yeesh! And you think I'm harsh?

I've got nothing on Australian fans. This is what one had to say about an "ageing diva" (oh yeah, she's ancient at 46) who performed recently in Brisbane:

"She couldn't entertain a dead rat, to be honest."

Read about the superstar's dismal comeback attempt in the land Down Under here.

The Donk is Real, People!

Not that we had any doubts. Still, "David" sets the record straight for "Red", a disgruntled audience member who proposed that his unknown illness that concert evening "consisted of having a large head, small penis and being a huge ass". Hilarious post from "David", aka "I Am a Clown", over at the ChicagoReader music blog today at 6:08 PM. Admit it, you've been following the drama too.

Sorry to disappoint, but I won't post a picture here that irrevocably refutes that small appendage claim. You can find your own. And no, there's no need to share it! :)

P.S. I'm torn between labeling this post "wtf?" and "bad press".

What's Going On?

David Cassidy's recent concert reviews - from journalists and fans - are hardly congratulatory this week and the exchange between "River of Music" and "Derek" at this blog reminded me of Janice Turner's insightful article about fandom that appeared in Times Online when a certain superstar passed away last summer. She had this to say about David Cassidy:

"The most troubled person I ever met was David Cassidy, the teen idol of Jackson’s era, unhinged long ago by his fans. For five years girls slept outside his house, followed him everywhere, ripped his clothing, forced him into isolation, made his life empty and lonely. And then, abruptly, when he was no longer the pretty boy du jour they deserted him. Now, two divorces later, he loathes meeting old fans, because they will say, with no regard for his feelings, how old he looks — though they are mostly portly matrons themselves — or get drunk and take a grab at him. To them, he isn’t a man, just an odd manifestation of their teenage years: they own him and they let him know it."

Read the rest of "The fans killed their idol. They always do" here.

I don't believe fans who respond to claims of "very off" performances by Cassidy with "we accept him as he is, an imperfect human being." No, they are still adulating him as someone they'll "love" no matter what he does. He has said in the past that he never felt worthy of all that adulation during those teen idol years (and in his own words, "Really, who is? No one is.") yet they persist in seeing him as a god on stage instead of an actual human being who might need actual help.

Love is an abused word in fandom. Fans unabashedly proclaim love for their idol but it's simply lust and greed masquerading as love: "We want more, more, MORE of you!" That "you" is a mythical being in their heart and a stranger in their life. Loving a celebrity is a bit absurd. Love his looks, talents or wares? Oh, yes! But claim to love HIM? You don't know him. You think you know him. It doesn't really matter because it's a one-way street. He'll never love you the same way. To quote Janice Turner again:

"Fandom is so grossly unequal, so self-abasing. Even when you are closest to your Special One you are humiliated by his — at best — polite indifference to your pathetic, onanistic, unreturned love."

David Cassidy fans, if you think you love him, care for his well-being. His performances are declining in quality, upsetting fans and turning off critics. What's going on?

His Sexiest Song?

In celebration of Valentine's Day, Billboard compiled their list of the Top 50 songs about sex. Notice I did not say "sexiest songs". No. These songs made the list because their lyrics are about sex and they charted highly. That's all. These are not necessarily sexy songs. Billboard explains the list:

"...the 50 most popular songs about sex ever, as based on each song's performance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (from August 4, 1958 -- the inception of the Hot 100 chart -- through the Jan. 16, 2010 issue)."

"Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years."

Now, here's one song that made Billboard's list. It also made a VH-1 countdown at some point and guess who introduced it on that show? ;-)



So, to paraphrase Salt-n-Pepa, let's talk about sex in songs. What do you think is David Cassidy's sexiest song? My choice: "Rock Me Baby" - perhaps the most obvious choice, but what can I say, his voice could prompt deals with the devil. Here's a live clip of him singing it on a European music show back then (don't mention the show please - this clip has been removed from YT in the past). Only found one clip of the 1972 recorded version of the song and it's the one of him in his shiny pink suit on "Top of the Pops".

Daydreaming David Loves Comments!

I've been a very lucky blogger with loyal, articulate and respectful readers whose enthusiastic posting should not be taken for granted. Reader comments enrich this blog and I hope these tips and guidelines make it easier for everyone to participate:

Have content suggestions?
I welcome ideas for blog entries though I can't guarantee that I will use them all. Email me any suggestions, rather than introducing a new topic in an unrelated post, and I will reply.

Please stay on topic
It's a bit of a shame when comments veer off topic because not everyone subscribes to comments and others might miss your information if it's buried in comments. As much as blog comments allow us to converse, they don't replace fan forums where everyone can start and steer a new topic of discussion.

English isn't your mother tongue?
Please don't let that stop you from commenting! If you're worried about getting your message across clearly, you could email it to me for "polishing". I'll send it back to you for final approval and posting. You could also write your comment in your native tongue and use a machine translation engine such as www.freetranslation.com to get the "gist" of it in English and send it to me for editing before posting it. It would be my pleasure to assist any reader this way; just keep your comments concise, please. I have no time to edit "War & Peace" ;-)

Don't be Anonymous!
Chatting with various "Anonymous" personalities is annoying, sorry. Please use a name when posting - it's the third option in the list: name/url. There is no need to enter a URL. The form works with only a name. It doesn't have to be your real name, just as long as you use the same one every time. You don't want us to think you were so unloved as a newborn that your parents didn't even bother naming you, do you? ;-)

Respect David Cassidy's talent
You are reading this blog because you admire David Cassidy's talent, THEN and/or NOW. I will not tolerate comments from anyone who seems to have an agenda of disrespecting him as a person. If all your comments point to flaws in his personality and never praise his actual work, your participation will raise red flags and I reserve to right to ban your participation and delete your comments.

Don't post gossip as gospel
Gossip about celebrities will always exist. Know the difference between truth and gossip and post accordingly.

You'd like to insert a hyperlink in your comment?
Learn how here.

Lastly, please know that I am very grateful to have such a great community of David Cassidy fans with whom to share my musings. I don't respond to every comment but I do read every one of them. I aim for a new blog entry every couple of days - sometimes, I'm more prolific, other times, not so much. It's called life. :-) If you're looking for real-time David Cassidy news coverage: Google is your friend. It might happen that I report on his news and keep on top of it for a stretch, but it's not my aim with this blog and I certainly can't guarantee it 24/7 for very long. If and when I do, I'll change my blog's name to "David Cassidy News Central". ;-)

Thank you again for your sincere participation - to paraphrase Fleetwood Mac, you make blogging fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Replace "girl" with boy and that first verse couldn't better describe how most young fans felt when they crushed on David Cassidy:

"I can't start my day, girl, without thinkin' about ya
I wake up in the mornin' and you're there on my mind
I've been dreamin' about ya
You start feelings runnin' through my head that need no explanation
And the sweetness of your smile has captured my heart
It's such a crazy sensation"

-"Girl, You Make My Day", The Partridge Family on "Shopping Bag" album, written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart

The rest of the song is even lovelier - who wouldn't be wooed by these lyrics?:

"You're the sunshine that I hold deep inside me when I'm cold"
"You're my forever and after"

Complete song lyrics on the David Cassidy Downunder Fansite. And what's not to love about Cassidy's vocals here? He gives "dreaming", "sweetness", "girl" and "day" just the right "punch" to make the song irresistible. He really sang those tunes perfectly, didn't he?

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine's Day, whether you're crushin' or lovin'.

Early Valentine's Day Present: Radio Chat Replay

Miss that radio interview David Cassidy did on the Afternoons with Casey show this week? Tomorrow's your lucky day. Penn's Peak Radio will replay it on February 13, at 3 pm, EST. Click on the "Listen Live" button at the top of Penn's Peak Radio page to listen to their broadcast. Test your connection now (you might need plug-ins).

(Thanks again Barbara!)

Will the Real David Cassidy Please Stand Up?

Self-awareness and self-deprecation: killer combo. Could he be any more irresistible? Compare the David Cassidy in this interview to the one on that Dallas morning show last week (video embedded in my February 6 post). What a difference twenty years make.

No One Here Is Surprised.

Still disappointed though. Every time David Cassidy has a concert date, I hold a glimmer of hope that he'll pull out all the stops and actually deliver something good this time. Because I think he still can. But, nope. Another missed opportunity at the Nokia Theater last night. All the more reason to "cherish" those albums.

If you attended the concert and want to bitch and moan, you can do it here. If you want to praise his performance, you can do that too but you better make it believable. Claiming "spontaneity" ain't going to cut it.

UPDATE: First uploaded video. A bit bizarre, no? Sounds more like a performance you'd catch in a bar-type venue than in a seated one. Double-click on the video to access the YT page. I'm sure the user will post additional footage of the concert.

Sure Looks Sincere, Doesn't He?

Guess they underestimated his acting talent.



Can anyone tell me what the frig John Lennon had to do with the question? Aside from the random "John Lennon was my BFF, now do you believe I'm cool?!" factor.

Who else is hoping the über-fan dinner guest regales the DC fandom with her meeting come Sunday morning? Who doesn't give a flying fig?

And here's my open letter to David Cassidy, because, well, you saw the video too:

David, I'm so, so, sorry I lost track of you all these years. You hate me because I dropped you like a hot potato, but what did I know? I was twelve. Your show had already been off the air for over four years - I discovered you through reruns, for pete's sake! There were no Partridge Family albums left in the stores when my mother did her Christmas shopping - all she could find for me was "The World of the Partridge Family". But you could have tried harder to reach us, no? You had these great RCA albums you could have hawked. (I was still too young to watch "Police Story".) I'm so sorry I was a fair weather fan. I'm back now. I have seen the light: your voice was unparalleled (no offense but I have trouble saying "is" - you have to admit, it has declined in some respects) and I hate - not as much as you do, of course - that people don't credit your talent beyond being a heart throb. And we know that's not talent, that's genetics. So I'm doing what I can to right my wrongs: I'm blogging my little heart out to get the word out that you are talented and all that mania was deserved. It wasn't just hype. It was your talent and your charisma that shone through and touched us. I've been re-discovering your career for the past ten months now and have yet to tire of your albums (well, not all of them - a couple were crap on a disc, sorry).

But please, you have to do your part. You have to respect your fans enough to realize that we know how conflicted you are about that teen idol business. Don't pander to this overblown fake nostalgia bit and go on about how you love your fans for what they've given you (you went this route to promote "Ruby" and we all know how that turned out...wince.) The majority of us abandoned you! We gave you heartache. We made it so that casting agents didn't give you the time of day. We thought we were too cool for you. I'll even admit to some eye rolling when a friend reminded my teenage self of my young crush on you. "The Harder They Fall" indeed.

But now, I've seen the errors of my ways and I won't stand for anyone disrespecting you or The Partridge Family. Today, I am unapologetic in my stance: "the guy has his issues but he had one of the most beautiful male voices in popular music and he's recorded a sublime version of "Ain't No Sunshine"". I can rattle off your accomplishments almost as well as your hundreds of loyal fans who never abandoned you throughout the decades. I am a born again believer. I'm not alone either. Please. Trust us. No more of these uncomfortable interviews with fake fawning from "on-air personalities". We are above that.

While I'm at it, might as well ask you: can you make your records easier to obtain? I'm trying my darnedest to buy some of your albums but they are OUT OF PRINT. The online store showed stock, I clicked "buy" and waited and waited and waited and finally, I received an email advising me it was OUT OF PRINT and I was out of luck. And how about all those unreleased Partridge Family songs tucked away in vaults? Wouldn't it just be the bees' knees to release those gems for the 40th anniversary of the PF? One last thing: that movie coming up? Once it's wrapped and you're actively promoting it, can you NOT say it's the best work you've ever done? Cause that line is getting, like all of us, kind of old.

"Come on baby, let's start anew..."

Suite tickets available for Grande Prairie Nokia concert

Seller's info here.

Never. Sure, buddy, whatever you say....

"He's starred on Broadway and London's West End – with Laurence Olivier, no less. He co-starred, with both his brothers, on Ruby & the Rockits , the most expensive television show ever produced by ABC Family. He received an Emmy nomination for "A Chance to Live," the highest-rated episode of Police Story that ever aired. He revamped and starred in the Las Vegas extravaganza EFX.

But with all that, David Cassidy understands – and appreciates – that when people hear his name, the first thing that still comes to mind is The Partridge Family, a television show that appeared in 1970, ran for four seasons and garnered not one Emmy nomination. It was seen as fluff, but its fans were, and remain, fervently loyal.

"It'll never bother me that I'm best-known for that," Cassidy says with a laugh during a phone interview from Los Angeles.""

Bolding mine, of course. From the article here.

What a bloody hypocrite. Guess it wouldn't do to verbally admit it STILL bothers him. At least not outright, in an interview publicizing an upcoming show, where fans can expect to hear "a lot of songs from the Partridge Family catalog" no less. Wonder how soon we can expect another "that was then, this is now" outburst?

Gotta love the intro to the article. A list of his accomplishments phrased in a way to make us realize that they are vastly superior to the fluff show that was "The Partridge Family". By gosh, ""Ruby & the Rockits" was the most expensive television show ever produced by ABC Family"! Can you imagine how good it must have been?!

By the way, that spring project he'll discuss during next week's radio chat is a movie.

Pretty sure I've already featured "Lyin' to Myself" in one of my posts, so here's "Living a Lie" from his third RCA album from the mid-seventies, "Gettin' it in the Street". That other voice you hear is Gerry Buckley's. "Doesn't really matter" indeed as I doubt he'll play anything from those RCA albums.

Counterfactuals

"Counterfactuals are the woulda-coulda-shouldas of life, all the things that might happen in the future, but haven't yet, or that could have happened in the past, but didn't quite. Human beings care deeply about those possible worlds - as deeply as they care about the real actual world."

Alison Gopnick, "The Philosophical Baby - What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and The Meaning of Life"

(Not everything I read has to do with David Cassidy, you know. I just have a gift for relating it to him. :-))

So, if anyone asks why you're reading a blog about David Cassidy: you are pondering the counterfactuals of his career.

New Song from David Cassidy...

Well, for me at least. Perhaps if I had been actively following him in the late eighties and early nineties, I might have heard this at one point? Thanks to CherishDavid for sharing it via that great fandom meeting place in cyberspace. His phrasing sounds "lazy" here, for lack of a better word, but his voice is still bloody sexy. The song ain't half bad either. Could still be a hit...

Favorite Keith Scene in The Partridge Family

Well, seeing as David Cassidy considers himself "first and foremost an actor", I would be remiss not to muse about his acting roles once in a while. Honestly, when I rediscovered him via YT, his talent as a vocalist wowed me so much that it overshadowed his acting for me and fueled pretty much half of my blog posts.

Let's turn to his acting now. Most of us discovered him through "The Partridge Family", so tell me about your favorite scene of his in that show. Now that the whole series is available on DVD, it will be easy for us to identify the scenes correctly.

First, let's get some obvious assumptions out of the way:

-Keith Partridge was NOT a complex role and no one is proposing that David Cassidy's performance was Emmy-worthy
-"The Partridge Family" was a lighthearted sitcom built around selling records - its creators and producers had no aspirations to create a show worthy of critical acclaim or a spot in a time capsule (if they had, perhaps they would have paid more attention to story continuity!)
-We are commenting on DC's acting here (did he elicit the correct emotions from you and was he believable in the scene?), not the script quality nor the story plausibility

When I can actually stop my eyes from ping-ponging all over David Cassidy's gorgeous face during close-ups and concentrate on his expressive eyes and his delivery, one scene does stand out. It's from the first episode in Season 3, "This Male Chauvinist Piggy Went To Market". You remember the episode? Keith loses a "battle of the sexes" challenge to his sister Laurie and Goose, the school bully, makes fun of Keith for losing to a girl. Their verbal exchange escalates and Laurie intervenes and physically prevents Goose from hitting Keith. To be disabled by a girl further humiliates Goose who vows revenge on Keith.

The confrontation between Keith and Goose happens after a concert (from the 19 minute mark) and Keith plainly tells Goose he has no intention of fighting him. Cassidy plays this scene subtly and convincingly. His stance, his voice and his eyes especially, convey the natural fear, defiance and resignation one would expect to feel when standing up to a bigger opponent. Look at his eyes when Goose asks him "You mean you're going to stand there and let me take a poke at you?". He even gulps at the right time. That might be my favorite scene of DC's in the show.

Your turn.