Taking a Break

Back after Easter.

Not a Teen Idol, Sorry

Well, the powers that be at that big ol' American talent show changed their minds. Contestants sang Billboard #1 hits and not teen idol material, as I had reported last week. Guess the threat of dodging "Puppy Love" and "ITILY" became too real for someone.

Anyhoo, if you want to know how young Mr. Urban did, you can watch his performance here. He looks and sounds a lot better than I initially thought but I can't detect a tenth of DC's sex appeal in him. And perhaps if he had been dressed differently, his sliding around stage wouldn't have looked so incongruous? As it was, it baffled, but not so much that I'm tempted to watch his performance again to analyze it. If people are still comparing Urban to Cassidy after last night's performance, well, it's their little delusion to cradle. As the title of another #1 hit said so well, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing."

A Treat and Damn Google Alerts

Here's a pic I'm sure will be new to many here. Now, wasn't that a treat?

And direct from the "Google Alerts make me discover crap and everybody has free speech" camp, here's some guy's list of music to be eradicated from your ipod. Poor chap knows very little of DC's music if he thinks he belongs in the same camp as Milli Vanilli. Wish I knew what criteria he used to make this list because while I'm not a fan per se of many of these artists, a few have some very catchy tunes. What's the harm in that? Here are a couple I'd add unabashedly add to my ipod. Didn't appreciate Hanson's first hit when it came out - now I think it's pop gold. Thanks to their perfect soundtrack, Wang Chung is forever inextricably linked to the 1985 movie "To Live and Die in L.A." Before that, they had some catchy dance tunes too. Seriously, who can resist "Dance Hall Days"?

Sounds like....?

r-r-r-ip??

Clodyne has uploaded the clip that generated this screen capture. Even though I'm not a fan of David Cassidy's blond period, his charismatic energy and voice here keep me glued to my screen. And yes, I'd feel the same way if his jeans were two sizes bigger. ;-)

Incidentally, this show is one instance where he is simply introduced as David Cassidy, actor and singer, with a plug for his current or upcoming projects. No mention is made of The Partridge Family or his teen idol reign. If I had come across this show back then, almost ten years past my crush on Keith Partridge, I'm not sure I would have recognized him. (Apologies if I'm repeating myself - I may have mentioned this at one point but can't find it in my entries. Might have been in comments.)

All I've found so far...

is a picture of one of David Cassidy's show at Epcot. (I think he's wearing his white shirt again.) Perhaps the social networks are buzzing with reviews? I don't have a clue because I don't frequent them. No worries though, this blogger's getting up to date with technology. When I found this picture with the title "Keith's posterous", I thought it was a typo. Keith Partridge's posterior! I am so there. Thank goodness I thought it was too good to be true. I now know that Posterous is a blogging platform. ;-) Who comes up with these names!? (They do realize that Twitter starts with "twit", don't they?)

Lucky Scots!

He does play the less obvious songs in concert. Just not this side of the pond, I guess.

They're Going to be Teen Idols!!!

Who? Those AI contestants mentioned in my previous post. Seems that for every show, there is a theme to help them select a song to perform. This past show's theme was "The Rolling Stones", aka the "butcher-iconic-rock-songs-show", and the next one will be "teen idols" (can't find an official press release, sorry). Hmm. Guess the powers that be WERE inspired by the buzz that Urban looks like a young Cassidy.

How much shall we bet that someone will pick "ITILY" to sing? It's almost a given, isn't it? How much cooler would it be if someone tried their voice at a lesser known Partridge Family song or a David Cassidy solo one? Actually, one of DC's biggest hits isn't that well known in the States and might be an interesting choice for an AI contender: "Daydreamer". Could any of them lend it the right amount of wistfulness without turning it into a saccharine mess? Mr. Urban?

How far back will they go for their teen idol inspiration? The forties, fifties, sixties? Thinking of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, The Beatles... Surely they won't bypass the seventies with The Jacksons, The Osmonds, DC and Shaun Cassidy?!? Someone HAS to pick David Cassidy. He is, as we say in French, incontournable. A teen idol mountain that can't be bypassed. If he is, it would be a damn shame.

I just might tune in next week. Oh, and here's DC giving Terry Dempsey's "Daydreamer" just the perfect forlorn notes. (Wouldn't you just love to know what he's saying around the 0:30 mark?)

Urban Legend

Through Google Alerts, I've learned that more than a few people see a resemblance between one of the current American Idol contestants and a young David Cassidy. Apparently, this young man looks like DC and sounds like him in the Partridge Family. Now, I don't follow that glitzy talent show but I've seen a couple of pictures of the young man in question and all I can say is "Huh?" Yeah, yeah, I see the feathered hair. But it's not the same cut, people. It's feathered towards his face. Total opposite of Cassidy's style which was feathered AWAY from his face ;-) Subtle difference but oh what a difference. Not to mention his dissimilar features. AI dude has chiseled cheekbones. Cassidy had a baby face. Look at the eyes, the nose, the smile. Not taking anything away from the young man's good looks but come on people, compare objectively. There is no resemblance. If you want to compare his looks to any past teen idol, look at Bobby Sherman. Similar hairstyle and piercing blue eyes.

As for the young contender's voice, here's a clip of him massacring a Rolling Stones classic (starts at 1:27). If that performance has piqued your interest in his vocal talent, well, you're on your own to hunt YT for more. I am so not there. You're welcome to report back if his voice matches our man's. To make amends for exposing you to this sacrilege, I've included Streetheart's cover of the song which, imho, surpasses the original.








(Helpful pic of Bobby Sherman to fill those memory blanks. )

"Put on Your Red Dress Baby..."

When I heard David Cassidy's eponymous release of 1990, one song stood out: "Hi-Heel Sneakers". I liked the sound of it but thought the lyrics daft. Well, turns out that it's the only song on the album that wasn't co-written by Sue Shifrin. It's actually an old R&B tune by Robert Higginbotham who scored a Billboard Hot 100 hit with it in 1964 as Tommy Tucker. The song has been covered by over 200 artists, so chances are good that I was the only one in the dark about it. Here is the original version by Tucker (Higginbotham), Jerry Lee Lewis' cover and David's, of course. Also found a version by Elvis Presley but can't embed the video. The link is at the bottom of this post - it's worth a listen.

Hearing the song performed in its original R&B style, the butchery it suffered at the beat of those drum machines is even more evident. It would be cool to hear DC perform it today without the electronic trappings that saddle his comeback album and indelibly time stamp it 1990. Someone should remind him of this classic.







Elvis's version.

Light Comedic Acting, You Say?

Recognize anyone in this John Laroquette Show clip? How about in this one? He did the music for the show's opening theme as well. Crazy thing is I used to watch this show and I remember the bottled water scene. How did it not register who I was seeing? I, assiduous reader of show credits, missed this?! I swear, the nineties must be to me what the sixties are to hippies: a lost decade.

A Forgotten Partridge Family Gem

Wow! Isn't it nice to hear him play "One Night Stand" during a concert? He should include it in his playlist today - it really stands the test of time and is a refreshing change of pace from "Echo Valley" and "ITILY". Would people be that disappointed not to hear "ITILY" during a concert? It's been done to death and beyond. Nothing tops the initial recorded version and fiddling with it mars its innocence. So many other Partridge Family songs to re-discover.

This clip was REALLY fabulous. Thank you Clodyne for sharing, once again.

By the way, is that THE shrieker we hear? The one who bugs in recent concert clips? Surely not!?!?

Just a Great Little Interview

Thanks to Clodyne for this 1990 clip. David is promoting his "David Cassidy" album and looking mighty fine doing it (oh, just shoot me for noticing). What's not to love here? He answers the questions concisely, is self-deprecating AND gracious to boot.

What the heck was I doing at the turn of that decade to have missed this?!

(Don't forget: you can double-click the video and get to YouTube if you want to leave a comment on that video.)

Who Is He, Indeed

Thanks to Catgil for this nice slew of seventies clips set to a lovely Partridge Family song. Bonus Q&A at the end.



And thanks to Clodyne for this second video of a TV show segment promoting his 1990 "David Cassidy" album. Fair to say that this is the first of many installments of the David Cassidy "Then and Now" saga in North America? No mention of his 1985 Romance album or what he's done during the eighties. The press certainly didn't help him shed that "former teenage idol" title. Identity crisis? What crisis?

No, I Mean That Sincerely

Here's a clip of David Cassidy performing in Queensboro, New York, last November. He lists people's reactions to his admission that he doesn't rehearse. I'm in the "Why?" camp. And no, I mean that sincerely. :) Why, David, why? Maybe if you'd rehearse, you'd have time to tune your guitar and wouldn't need to futz with your equipment or complain about technical issues in front of the audience. Stuff like that doesn't make your performance spontaneous, just careless.

Incidentally, the song he's performing here was initially written by Carl Perkins and reworked by The Beatles to be a lament about groupies. DC has changed the lyrics here. Is it still about groupies? It's a lament, for certain.

A Sliver of Hope...Maybe Someday

Here's some behind the scene footage from the Partridge Family reunion on the Today show. The four really look at ease around each other. It reminds me of my 10 year (cough, cough) high school reunion not long ago. Hadn't seen these friends in a decade (cough, cough) but once the usual questions were asked and answered, we were all sixteen again. One still looked it. That was freaky. And here's one popular blog entry that views the cast reunion from the whole "everyone is getting older" perspective.

I've read that lots of people are talking about this reunion. True? If so, there's still a sliver of hope that it will trigger another wave of fans "re-discovering" The Partridge Family and subsequently, David Cassidy's solo work (as it happened for me and most regular readers here). It's really only a sliver of hope because so far, everything I've come across on the 'net is pretty superficial. Will people ever get past the cast's looks and ITILY to discover David Cassidy's actual talent? Maybe Someday ;-)




From the Partridge Family Notebook album.

Missed Opportunities?

Okay, so I've had more time to ponder the Partridge Family reunion's point and impact. As Barbara and I noticed in my previous post, Susan Dey is the one getting the headlines over this reunion. The internets are all abuzz wondering why she was absent.

Well, of course, that's what the 'news' will be. What else was said during those short segments on Today that would interest anyone? A lot more interesting to wonder about what's NOT being said...By the way, it's intriguing to see how 'news' tidbits from a Today show propagate over the Internet - content is just pilfered from one site to the next - I scanned dozens of Google page results to find very little original content.

Just curious as to why no one mentioned that the series was available on DVD or that all the albums had been re-released as CDs (or did I miss this?). Guess none of them are making any dough off the merchandise? I also noticed that David didn't mention that possible movie to start in April.

YouTube will probably give us a better idea of the reunion's impact. Will viewership and comments increase for PF videos? If this "reunion" rekindled fond enough memories for people to reacquaint themselves with the show and music, it's done its job, I guess. IMHO, both the show and the music have held up extremely well over the years (or maybe I'm just deathly allergic to reality TV and today's music) - it would be groovy if others discovered this as well. ;-)

They Came, They Sat, They Conquered

Did we learn anything new? No. Did everyone play nice? Yes. Me happy. You happy?

Missed the grand Partridge Family reunion? Video here.

Thanks to Barbara-Just David for the podcast link to Danny's radio show if you want to hear him call in his radio show from the Today set. Listen at the beginning of the 5AM for the radio hosts talking about the reunion. Danny's first call begins at 6AM, second call at 7AM and his last call in is at the 30 minute mark of the 8AM section. (I confess: I still haven't finished listening to these.)

I knew the "post-mortems" on the show would be a lot funnier than anything on Today. This article is funny but the comments are even funnier. Might update this entry if I can find something else worthy amongst the robot-generated blog entries Google regurgitates.

Actually, I'm surprised at the number of snarkier than snark comments about the show's lameness. Has the public become so hip and cynical that they have to spit on the stuff they held dear as kids? (just realized I've used regurgitates and spit in the same post - is there a theme here?)

A lot of the "articles" make big news of Susan Dey's absence. Terrible wastes of keystrokes - I won't even link to them as I'm sure you all have better things to read. ;-)