THE DAVE CLARK FIVE [1982]

Text by Joe Tortelli, 1982

Introduction © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2018

Images from the Internet

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This article was published in FFanzeen, issue #9, dated 1982, beginning on page 5. It was written by the Boston-area music historian Joe Tortelli. This was originally reprinted with the permission of Tortelli from his own fanzine, Oh Yeah!, issue No. 1, then and now out of PO Box 370, Arlington, MA 02476, or joeyrome@yahoo.com. Joe has written liner notes for such artists as Delaney & Bonnie and the Fifth Estate, has his own music-related television show called “On Topic,” and is currently writing the biography of songwriter and performer Bobby Hebb (“Sunny”).

My own first memory of the Dave Clark Five was seeing the film Having a Wild Weekend at the Benson Theater, in Brooklyn, NY. At the time, I liked it better than A Hard Day’s Night (I was a bit late to the Beatles’ party). There must have been some kind of promotion, because I remember they handed out some black and white 8 x 10 stills from the film. I gave mine away to someone I was trying to impress (yes, a girl), but it didn’t really get me anywhere. Mind you I was 10 at the time… Anyway, I really liked the music in the film, and still enjoy the DC5’s recordings from that period. They seemed a bit different than the other Mersey Beat sounds to my young mind, and I did manage to catch them, if I could (pun intended) when they appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” – Robert Barry Francos, 2018

Mike Smith * Lenny Davidson * Dave Clark * Denny Payton * Rick Huxley

The Dave Clark Five recorded some of the most explosive singles of the mid-1960s. They were a phenomenally popular band during the British Invasion (1964-1965). Their fame and record sales gradually declined over the following two years, until they finally disappeared completely from the American record charts and our teen consciousness.

The DC5’s reputation was hardly enhanced during the ensuing years. The rock values of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s included such things as instrumental virtuosity, lyrical profundity, and musical experimentation – ideas not exactly prevalent on DC5 recordings. The “serious” (i.e., progressive FM) rock fans quickly dismissed the DC5. The DC5 did create pop music; some of the most exciting pop music the rock’n’roll world has ever heard. Their forte was the two-minute single: forceful, pounding rock’n’roll literally bursting forth from those timid vinyl grooves. Guitars, saxophone, drums, organ, voices: all sounding as one, one sounding as all. This was the Dave Clark Five at their best – all the strength, power, and excitement they could muster, squeezed into simple, yet well-crafted two-minute pop songs.

There were (as the more astute among you may already have guessed) five of them: Dave Clark was the drummer and leader of the band. Dave wrote or co-wrote all the group’s original hits. He was also one of the earliest rock stars to produce his own band’s records. Perhaps because Dave was a drummer, the DC5’s earliest recordings have a stronger, fuller drum sound than many other contemporary recordings (cf., the early Beatle LPs). Clark also directed the band’s business affairs and quickly realized the importance of the American audience and market.

Mike Smith was the lead vocalist and organist, as well as Dave Clark’s most prolific songwriting partner. Smith certainly did not have a great vocal range, but he was a great rock’n’roll singer nonetheless. He could wail and scream if necessary, but most importantly, he fit the songs and the songs fit him.

Denny Payton was a British Invasion anomaly – a saxophone player. Payton’s driving sax energized the group’s up-tempo material; he was the secret ingredient in the DC5 “sound.” Lenny Davidson was probably the least-heard guitarist in the British Invasion. The sax, organ, and drums all took precedence over the guitar on DC5 records, so Davidson was more of a rhythm, than lead, guitarist. Rick Huxley was the band’s fifth member and bass guitarist.

Glad All Over

The Beatles had just appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for three consecutive weeks (twice live and once on tape). Their records were dominating America’s airwaves as no one’s ever had. Things were happening so quickly it almost seemed ridiculous to ask, “What’s next?” A week later, on the same “really big show,” we found out…

The Dave Clark Five were next. They appeared before America’s teenagers with neatly trimmed Beatle haircuts, matching suits, and black boots with the highest Cuban heels ever seen.

The DC5 exuded an enormous amount of energy on stage. Their music was direct, fast, and powerful. Visually, the audience’s attention was riveted to the roguishly cute organist/vocalist and the very handsome drummer. But the image of the band that still remains most clear and distinct from early 1964 is that one of the boys stamping their pointed black boots to the drum beat of “Bits and Pieces.” It was, one supposes, a calculated gimmick of sorts, but it was, at the same time, a genuine gesture demonstrating the band’s commitment to the primal rock beat. That stagemanship set the DC5 apart and guaranteed that they would be recognized in America.

“Glad All Over” was the DC5’s initial hit single on this side of the Atlantic. It arrived in early ’64, along with the “Ed Sullivan” appearance and a wave of hype about the band, which drove the Beatles from the No. 1 spot on the British charts. “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” owned the top of the British Singles charts for weeks on end until the DC5 broke the Fab Four’s string with “Glad All Over.” Now the DC5 seemed destined to do the same thing in America.

Of course, this rivalry led to a flurry of press reports about the Beatles and their “new challengers.” Would the upstarts’ Tottenham Sound outstrip the dominant Mersey Beat? Who was better, the Beatles or the Dave Clark Five? These and other questions would be answered rather emphatically in good time, but in 1964, they did appear to be rather important [there were several Beatles vs. the Dave Cark Five teen-type magazines at the time, a wise corporate move to sell copies to the fans of both of the top bands – RBF, 2018].

“Glad All Over” was quickly followed on the charts by the equally pulsating “Bits and Pieces.” Both songs were Dave Clark-Mike Smith collaborations, and both were Top-10 hits simultaneously. They were joined in the upper regions of the American Charts by a powerful DC5 rendition of the Contour’s classing, “Do You Love Me.”

All three singles came from the band’s first American album on Epic Records, entitled Glad All Over. This LP established a pattern which the DC5 would follow rather closely on all subsequent albums. Glad All Over included 11 songs, all of which were rather short (two to three minutes), even by mid-‘60s standards. The emphasis was on the hit singles. While it might be unfair to characterize the rest of the material as filler, it certainly could not match the hits.

This and future DC5 albums included a couple of instrumentals (“Chaquita” and “Time”). There were also a couple of cover songs: the above-mentioned “Do You Love Me” and Maurice Williams’ “Stay.” Finally, there were several non-hit originals which tended to be patterned after the smashes, but simply were not as compelling (“All of the Time,” “I Know You,” “No Time to Lose,” “She’s All Mine”).

Glad All Over proved to be an extremely popular album, eventually going Gold (over 250,000 units). During the Spring of 1964. It was the only new rock LP which could hold its own on the charts against the three big Beatle records (Meet the Beatles, The Beatles Second Album, Introducing the Beatles).

During the ‘60s, bands remained popular by quickly following up their initial success with new material. The Dave Clark Five became quite adept at the follow-up, as they proved to be one of the prolific groups of the mid-‘60s.

“Can’t You See She’s Mine” was the DC5’s fourth hit single. It had the same rockin’ appeal as the first three smashes and became yet another Top-10 record.

Another album was also released. The Dave Clark Five Return contained the latest hit single, six other originals, plus three cover songs (including Link Wray’s “Rumble” and the [Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil] classic, “On Broadway”). This LP was clearly patterned after their initial album. Unlike Glad All Over, however, Return only produced one hit song, not three.

In August of 1964, Epic records issued the DC5’s fifth single of the year, the ballad “Because.” This song was a major change of pace from the band’s previous booming hits, and it indicated a new level of musical sophistication and lyrical sensitivity for the band (just as “And I Love Her” had done for the Beatles a couple of months earlier). “Because” went on to become a massive hit and one of their best-remembered songs.

An album featuring “Because” was also released. American Tour had a front cover seemingly patterned after the Beatles’ Second Album, and a title aimed straight at the teenage American consumer. As the single “Because” indicated, the DC5 appeared to be trying to widen their musical horizon somewhat on this LP (through the dreadful instrumental version of “Blue Monday” was hardly necessary). Ironically, the most memorable LP cut was a “Glad All Over” sound-alike, “Come On Over.”

The DC5 closed out 1964 with two singles, “Everybody Knows” and “Any Way You Want It” (followed by an album containing both hits, Coast to Coast). Having found success with both rockers and a ballad, the boys tried to combine both styles in the song “Everybody Knows.” Unfortunately, the tune did not possess a clear focus because of its changing tempo and because it lacked a memorable lyrical hook. “Everybody Knows” was the DC5’s least popular single to date, but it still broke the Top-15.

The Dave Clark Five finished their first year of pop stardom with a two-and-one-half minute definition of rock’n’roll. “Any Way You Want It” was the band’s most powerful single since “Bits and Pieces.” Propelled by Denny Payton’s driving saxophone and surrounded by the densest production imaginable, “Any Way You Want It” muscled its way onto the playlist of America’s radio stations.

Thus, an incredible year ended for the Dave Clark Five. They began the year as newcomers, challenging the Beatles in England, yet totally unknown in the USA. An appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” made them overnight sensations and the most prominent rivals of the Fab Four in the States. They toured the US extensively and were accorded the same frenzied approval from screaming fans as the Beatles. Their seven hit singles and three best-selling albums demonstrated their wide appeal to teenagers in no uncertain terms. In any normal year, the phenomenal rise of this British band would have been the music story of the year. However, 1964 was not a normal year; it was the year of the Beatles.

The DC5 had to “settle” for No. 2. They easily outdistanced the rest of the First Wave of British Invasion groups: the Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Swinging Blue Jeans, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Peter and Gordon, etc. In fact, their only real “rivals,” besides the Beatles, were two American groups who first charted in 1962: those blond, sun-tanned surfers from the West Coast, the Beach Boys, and those falsettoed Philadelphians, the Four Seasons.

The DC5 could say goodbye to 1964 with a good deal of pride and self-satisfaction, but they must have looked forward to 1965 with just a touch of trepidation and uncertainty. After all, their last two singles, while popular, were not as big as their earlier records. Moreover, they were now an “established” act, gazing backwards at newer and trendier stars. And in the ‘60s, there was no shortage of fresh faces.

Two of the hottest new properties emerging in late 1964 had quite different images. There was the “cuter than cute and nicer than nice” Peter Noone, singing with an appealingly exaggerated British accent. His band, Herman’s Hermits, had a hit in late ’64 with “I’m Into Something Good,” and was preparing a major assault on the American record charts with a series of sugar-coated tunes. At the same time, a group of brooding, unkempt Blues enthusiasts had just scored with their first Top-10 smash in the US, “Time is On My Side.” The Rolling Stones, with their carefully cultivated “bad boy” image, were getting ready to give teenagers satisfaction. And what of the Dave Clark Five…

Catch Us If You Can

The DC5 needed a strong single to maintain their enormous popularity in the highly-charged musical atmosphere of 1965. “Come Home,” their first release of the year, proved equal to the task. A sensitive and complex ballad in “Because” tradition, “Come Home” demonstrated the band’s ability to transcend the bounds of basic rock’n’roll. Despite the success of this record, “Come Home” was the final hit ballad of their halcyon period.

The obligatory album followed in the Spring of ’65. Like the other DC5 LPs, Weekend in London contained the hit (“Come Home”), the covers (“Blue Suede Shoes,” “Little Bitty Pretty One”), and the fillers (too many to mention, though one song, “Til the Right One Comes Along,” indicated that the Clark-Smith writing team were familiar with the recent “I’ll Follow the Sun” by another famous duo).

Weekend in London was the last in a series of DC5 albums whose liner notes referred to their ongoing rivalry with the Fab Four. These liner notes ask the intriguing question, “Is the Dave Clark Five the Number One group in the world today?” The answer is predictable, if unrealistic. It is significant to note that this “rivalry,” which once seemed so real, had become little more than record company hype.

The DC5’s second single of ’65 was a cover version of the Chuck Berry chestnut, “Reelin’ and Rockin’.” The Boys gave Berry’s rocker a powerful, straight-ahead interpretation with absolutely frantic Mike Smith vocals. “Reelin’” was the band’s first non-original single in over a year, and it was probably their weakest selling to date.

Yet another remake followed in June, when the DC5 released, “I Like It Like That.” This Chris Kenner original attracted widespread attention and airplay, which translated into another Top-10 hit for our heroes.

In the dead of Summer, the DC5’s long-awaited movie appeared. Originally called Catch Us If You Can, the film was released under the title, Having a Wild Weekend. While the movie didn’t exactly make people forget A Hard Day’s Night or Help!, the soundtrack originals and the song quality was consistently high. This album included a good mixture of rockers, ballads, and mid-tempo tunes, and even the instrumentals were more appealing than usual. The title song, “Don’t Be Taken In,” the atypical “If You Come Back,” and “I Said I Was Sorry” are among the best cuts from the LP.

Remarkably, only one single was taken from the soundtrack, but what a single it was: “Catch Us If You Can” is not as frenzied as some other DC5 classics, but is just as catchy and hook-laden, and even features a surprising harmonica lead. “Catch Us If You Can” was a smash; the band’s biggest hit in a solid year.

The DC5 were in the midst of their hottest streak since early ’64, and their final single of the year was not about to change that. “Over and Over” was a consecutive Top-10 hit, and their only song ever to reach the coveted Number One position on Billboard’s weekly record charts. The arrangement for “Over and Over” seemed to copy that for “Catch Us If You Can” right down to the harmonica interlude, despite the fact that is was yet another cover tune.

Nineteen sixty-five ended for the DC5 with the release of a “throwaway” LP, I Like It Like That. Apparently distributed to belatedly cash in on the Summer success of the title song, this was not one of the group’s stronger efforts. Even the front cover picture appears to be an outtake from the Glad All Over sessions.

Despite the final LP, the Dave Clark Five truly finished the year 1965 with a flourish. Their final single, “Over and Over,” was sitting comfortably at the top of the charts and their popularity was still intact. Despite intense competition from a variety of British bands and from a revitalized American scene (the Byrds, Sonny and Cher, etc.), the DC5 had every right to be pleased with their surge in the Summer and Fall. They must have been somewhat troubled, however, by the fact that three of their last four singles were non-original cover tunes at the time when Dylan, Lennon-McCartney, and Jagger-Richards were gaining more and more attention for their songwriting talents. Also, their last LP of the year, I Like It Like That, could not have looked or sounded very promising beside the Beatles’ Rubber Soul or the Stones’ December Children, two other contemporary albums.

The problem facing the DC5 as 1965 passed was quite simple, yet quite fundamental: rock music was changing, but they were not. While the Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys and others were experimenting with new sounds and techniques, sophisticated arrangements, and varied instrumentation, the Dave Clark Five were sticking with a tried-and-true rock’n’roll formula. The DC5 had achieved what they wanted (pop-rock stardom) and were not interested in changing or “progressing” to please others.

The DC5’s satisfaction with the status quo can, perhaps, be appreciated visually. During a period when pop styles were changing even faster than rock music itself, the DC5 looked the same as always, right down to their “Beatle” boots and haircuts, matching suits, and clean-shaven faces. In an era when other pop stars were breaking the old rules and making up new ones, the DC5 were still playing the game according to the 1964 rule book. By 1966, this just was not good enough.

At the Scene

Since the Dave Clark Five had charted a dozen hit singles in just 24 months, Epic Records decided it was high time for a compilation album. The Dave Clark Five’s Greatest Hits was issued in early 1966 and soon became their biggest selling LP. This “hits” package contained all their singles to date, except “Come Home” and “Reelin’ and Rockin’.” It also sported liner notes by Gloria Stavers of 16 Magazine.

The DC5’s Greatest Hits sums up the band’s major contributions to the mid-‘60s music scene: It includes 10 great songs from the blistering “Bits and Pieces” to the sensitive “Because,” from the uninhibited “Glad All Over” to the enthusiastic “Over and Over.” Typically, the four songs are less than two minutes long, and none is more than three. The DC5’s ability to produce powerful, succinct singles is well-documented in this fine album.

A new single was also released in early ’66. “At the Scene” was an attempt to recapture the energy, beat, and drive of the “Bits and Pieces” era. And it really does succeed as an energetic rocker with mildly “hip” lyrics (“Everyone who is lonely / I’ve got a place for you / Where the music pla-a-ays… / Till way past 2”). The problem, of course, was that the music world had changed since “Bits and Pieces,” and what may once have been a smash, was simply a solid, but unspectacular, hit in ’66.

“Try Too Hard” followed “At the Scene” in the Spring. With its piano and guitar frills and relatively sophisticated arrangement, “Try Too Hard” sounded more contemporary than its forerunner. It did not, however, set the record charts on fire. The B-side of this single was a three-minute drum and harmonica solo accompanied by vocal screams and moans, suggestively titled “All Night Long.” It may not have been the last word in avant-garde music, but it certainly was not standard DC5 fare either.

Two more singles were issued in the Summer of 1966. Neither the moderately paced rocker, “Look Before You Leap,” nor the ballad “Satisfied,” is noteworthy because it was the first ballad to be released as a single since “Come Home” in early ’65.

Two uninteresting albums were produced during this period. Try Too Hard contained the title hit plus nine other new, but uninspired, originals. Satisfied With You included “Look Before You Leap,” the title song, more originals, and a superfluous version of the Rascals’ “Good Lovin’.” These two LPs indicated that the DC5 had finally ended the habit of placing instrumentals and golden oldies on each album. Following the lead of the Beatles and Stones, the DC5 were increasingly relying on their own writing skills. Unfortunately, the DC5’s songwriting abilities did not match those of their more respected countrymen.

Dave Clark continued to co-write all the group’s original material. Mike Smith was playing less of a role in the musical collaborations, while Lenny Davidson and Denny Payton were becoming more important. None of the various writing teams tried to guide the band in a new direction so this condemned the DC5 to apparent mediocrity in a year of great musical change and experimentation.

The Dave Clark Five’s second “greatest hits” compilation in less than a year emerged as 1966 came to a close. More Greatest Hits contained  two more hits from early ’65 (“Come Home” and “Reelin’ and Rockin’”), as well as four more recent singles (“At the Scene,” “Try Too Hard,” “Satisfied With You,” and “Look Before You Leap”). The quality of this LP could not compare with that of their first “hits” set, and its sales slipped likewise.

By this time, the Dave Clark Five had clearly fallen from the front lines of contemporary rock’n’roll, both creatively and commercially. While they still managed to tour and make television appearances (they appeared on “Ed Sullivan” quite often), their record sales were declining sharply. In a year which witnessed the release of such seminal albums as the Beatles’ Revolver, the Rolling Stones’ Aftermath, and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, DC5 fans had to be content with Try Too Hard and Satisfied With You. Unquestionably, 1966 was a disappointing year for the Dave Clark Five.

At the turn of the year, a new single, “Nineteen Days,” was issued. Neither this rocking single, nor the follow-up LP, 5 X 5, managed to restore the band’s sagging popularity.

You Got What It Takes

Finally, in early 1967, a Dave Clark-Lenny Davidson composition revived the group’s fortunes. “I’ve Got to Have a Reason” had a bit of a “Catch Us If You Can” sound and a catchy chorus. While not exactly a chart-topper, “I’ve Got to…” was the band’s best effort in close to a year.

Then, in the spring of ’67, the DC5 struck pay dirt. “You Got What It Takes” had been a sizable rhythm and blues hit in 1960 for Marv Johnson, an early Berry Gordy discovery. The DC5 remake featured surging horn lines and an effusive Mike Smith vocal. The upfront horn section represented a new direction for the band, while Smith’s vocal was one of his best ever. “You Got What it Takes” gave the DC5’s popularity and record sales a much-needed boost. The vital question fans asked was whether this was a fluke single or an overall resurgence for the band.

The next album was titled, cleverly enough, You Got What it Takes. This proved to be their most convincing 12-incher since the Having a Wild Weekend soundtrack. The new LP included the title song, “I’ve Got to Have a Reason,” and some strong new originals (“Play with Me,” “Dr. Rhythm”). “Tabatha Twitchit” was not a DC5 composition, but their version of the turn was pure contemporary pop. Unfortunately, it was not released as a single in the States.

“You Got What it Takes” did not usher in a new era of chart supremacy for the DC5, though they did manage to score again. Digging back even further into musical antiquity, the group released a single version of “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” the Summer of Love. “Baby…” was a “big” production number with plenty of horns, a brassy lead vocal by Mike Smith, and just a touch of “Winchester Cathedral”-style nostalgia. The flip side of the single, “Man in the Pin Stripe Suit,” is a delightful, Beatle-influenced composition, which features fairly adventurous (for the DC5, anyway) instrumentation (harpsichord) and production.

The final DC5 single to chart in the USA was issued in late ’67; it was called “Everybody Knows.” For trivia buffs, it should be noted that this made the DC5 the only rock act to ever chart with two different songs, each of which possessed the same title. The DC5 closed out their album-making careers with one final American LP, also called Everybody Knows.

Thus, as the year 1967 ended, so did a remarkable chapter in the history of rock’n’roll music. Like 1964, 1967 was a watershed year in rock history. The artists who dominated the mid-‘60s were supplanted by new acts (Cream, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Jefferson Airplane) with a more serious message and a heavier, more contemporary sound.

The Dave Clark Five, evidently, accepted their fate philosophically: the band returned to England, where they continued to record both as the DC5 and Dave Clark and Friends. And though some of these were released in America, none found any real success.

Epic Records did issue two more DC5 albums. The first was a double album of old material called, simply, The Dave Cark Five. Oddly, it contained only a few of the band’s hit singles. The second was released in the Spring of 1975 and titled, appropriately, Glad All Over Again / The Dave Clark Five’s Greatest Hits. This two-record set captures all the exuberance and excitement of the DC5 at their single-making best. It contains all their biggest, most memorable songs (“Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces,” “Because,” “Catch Us if You Can,” “You Got What it Takes”), a few obscure gems (“Good Time Woman,” “Forget,” “Here Comes Summer”), and thoughtful liner notes by Ken Barnes.

Interest in and appreciation of the Dave Clark Five has grown somewhat in the past couple of years, largely as a result of the emergence of the New Wave scene. And that seems appropriate, for the Dave Clark Five deserve to be remembered fondly by all those who enjoy driving pop and energetic rock’n’roll.

Documentary Review: Here to be Heard – The Story of the Slits

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2018

Images from the Internet

Here to be Heard: The Story of the Slits

Written, photographed, directed and edited by William E. Badgley

Head Gear Films / Molasses Manifesto /
Moviehouse Entertainment / MVD Entertainment Group

86 minutes, 2017

www.slitsdoc.com/

www.mvdvisual.com

Long before there was Pussy Riot in Russia, there was the British band, the Slits. The Spice Girls may have been cutesy talking about “Girl Power,” but it was the sheer force of art-meets-anger that fueled the members of the British punk outfit, the Slits. Even before there was the raucous and sexualized-yet-strong-female-focused riot grrrls groups like Hole, there was the Slits.

As with most bands, there were some personnel changes in the Slits, especially as they rose out of the notorious group Flowers of Romance, but they definitely started off strong more because of the timing of their emergence than their musical acumen. Please note that this is not any kind of insult, as there were a lot of great bands back then where were musically miniscule (e.g., most British punk groups at the time), but were both culturally important and enjoyable to those in the right frame of mind (e.g., and again, most British punk groups at the time).

Unlike in much of the US press, the British music press quickly joined the fray and focused on the punk scene, be it negative or positive (an example of the latter being Caroline Coon). With Palmolive, who was the Slits’ initiator and bassist at the time, having been a flat mate of Woody of the underrated 101ers – who became Joe Strummer – it is no surprise they joined the early “White Riot” tour of the Clash (when the Clash still mattered, i.e., pre-Sandinista; but I digress…).

Like most biographical films about bands, there’s a heavy dose of chronology, but this one takes a wise turn. It starts and continues with the theme or spine of original bassist Tessa Pollitt going through her band scrapbook, and using that as a motif to launch into both events in the Slits trajectory, and also philosophical “rear view mirror” looking at the cultural environment into which the group was immersed.

The obvious road taken, though not the only one, is addressing the Feminist standpoint, which I actually agree with: I remember the time in the 1970s when even male musicians I liked were not kind to women (or other races), such as Johnny Thunders’ song “Who Needs Girls.” While there actually were female members in some of the early punk bands (Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, for example), it was rare to find them as in-your-face as they were in the British punk scene. That they seemed to mostly disappear during the New Romantics ‘80s is another story, but for this nascent scene, the Slits were a powerful role model that gave rise to many others, such as the Raincoats, X-Ray Specs, and arguably Siouxie and the Banshees (also from remnants of Flowers of Romance), who followed a more rhythmically bottom-driven sound.

It was important than Don Letts (who is understatedly described as merely “filmmaker” here) lends his voice, as he was such a strong influence on the Slits members’ – and especially Ari Up’s – musical influence with his spinning of reggae at the clubs in London in the mid-to-late 1970s, introducing the sound to the likes of the Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, and the Pistols (Lydon’s PiL would be bent in that direction). Letts impact led the Slits to arguable create their own subgenre, punk worldbeat, or perhaps atonal worldbeat. They definitely shattered both the punk and worldbeat stereotypes by synergistically combining them into this new hybrid sound, for which they definitely deserve the credit.

The Slits also introduced musicians who would go on to their own heightened careers that arguably superseded theirs, such as Neneh Cherry and Budgie (Peter Clarke), one of their drummers who performed on their first LP Cut, who went on to play for Siouxie and the Banshees.

What I liked about the interviews here is that nearly everyone had a direct connection to the band, rather than second-hand press. The one possible exception is Vivien Goldman, who is described as “New York University’s punk professor” (first of all, she’s British, so she may have actually been there to see the band, but it’s not clear; second, she is not “the” punk professor there, as I know others, such as Dr. Brian Cogan, who wrote The Encyclopedia of Punk Rock, but I digress again…).

One person who is talked about only momentarily is Ari’s mother, Nora Forster, who was one of their later managers (and who is credited here offhandedly as part of the reason they initially broke up), and famously married the much younger John Lydon in 1979 (they are still wed). What surprises me, though, is that neither Nora nor Lydon are part of the interviews presented. But on the other hand, from what I’ve seen of Lydon and the fact that they are raising Ari’s three kids, perhaps they didn’t want to be involved.

Before she passed on in 2010 at age 46 of breast cancer, Ari stated she wanted this documentary completed, and both Tessa and Viv were strong proponents of her wishes being fulfilled. That being said, nearly all members of the band through its original run in 1976 through 1982, and then it’s revival with Ari and Tessa being the only original members from 2005 to 2010, are represented here, including Budgie.

One of the best thing about this film is how well it mixes newer footage and interviews with archival ones of the band both on stage and off, often on tour. It’s beautifully seamless and well handled.

The documentary focuses a lot on Ari’s nonconventional attitudes and behavior, and how the other members were drawn into that bright light; it shifts back and forth between what good friends they all were to how they would fight a lot on the road. The footage of the tours, which were recorded for a film they were going to make at Ari’s insistence, however, definitely show camaraderie.

While there are some holes in the history (e.g., Ari reportedly refusing chemo because she would lose her hair, and what some of the later-version Slits members are currently doing as this seems to focus more on the original line-up), this is still extremely well done at capturing what the band was trying to do, what they achieved, and a bit of their legacy (although this is another area I would have liked to see expressed more).

And to complete the first paragraph, I feel compelled to posit: before there was all that was the Slits, there was the boom boom of the proto-punk Shangri-Las from Long Island, New Yawk. I’m just sayin’…

Review: 24 x 36: A Movie About Movie Posters

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2018

Images from the Internet

24 x 36: A Movie About Movie Posters

Directed by Kevin Burke

Post No Joes Productions / Snowfort Films / FilmRise / MVD Visual

82 minutes, 2017

http://24x36movie.com/

www.mvdvisual.com

Hopefully, this is past the Statue of Limitations: when I was in my late teens, I worked as an usher in a cinema palace in Brooklyn that has now been razed. It was one of the big ones with only one screen then, a balcony and two aisles that were split into three sections (smoking on the right side, only). My boss hated me, but that’s neither here nor there. In back of the ticket booth, there was a stack of previous film posters that the boss would not give out to us¸ saying its company property; however, when the stack got too high, he chucked them into the trash bin out back. So, I starting sifting them off the bottom, never taking enough to be obvious, only enough of them to have a nice stack after a year. Some include O! Lucky Man and American Graffiti. And yes, I still have them.

Film posters, back then, were exciting. It wasn’t merely photos of the stars dressed in costumes layered on top of each other with the film’s name underneath, they were luscious artwork that was full of imagination and talent. Horror and Sci-Fi were especially attractive. I still remember seeing the poster for The Masque of the Red Death in the theater as a very young kid and being impressed by it. While the film was pretty bad, the poster still stands as great art.

This documentary combines artists, collectors, directors and movie poster shop owners, and weaves a series of ideas about the history of the poster on many different aspects, from the very beginning of graphic art that was used in the silent era.

Broken into chapters, we learn that poster artists were not generally compensated well, nor were they allowed to sign their work until at least the 1970s or ‘80s. Despite that, the documentary correctly posits that the poster showed a possibility of what was in the film being shown. Even The Goonies, in its goofy way, posited a type of adventure. But over time, as actors’ agents and the players themselves became more powerful, the poster became dominated more by an image of the star than what the film was about. There’s a close-up of the face of Tom Cruise, or Will Smith, with no context to the actual story. With Photoshop and egos, the posters became, as I said before, a series of interchangeable pictures of the stars.

As a digression that I think is relevant, I recently went into a bookstore and saw three different magazines that had covers about the Avengers movie that just opened. Each of them had the exact same five photos of its stars in costume, but in a different order, obviously thrown together. I once argued that technology killed rock and roll for a while when the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s, and then that happened with the poster world.

During an interview segment, artist David Byrd (who gives some of the best quotes here) states that the computer, while scary, is just a technological tool, much like the invention of the paint brush. He’s right, and perhaps one day film historians will look back and talk about how amazing the poster art of the 21 Century was compared to whenever they are doing their research. That being said, this film shows just how cut and paste – and unimaginative – modern posters are by showing a series of them side-by-side that are nearly identical in form, but tell nothing about the film it’s supposed to promote. They give a great example of a dozen or so Johnny Depp films where the posters are nearly duplicated.

To change gears for a sec, just so you know, I’m giving sort of a titles version of the film, not really disclosing much, because the interviews are the thing, and there is a lot of information throughout. For example, and I hadn’t thought of this before, the pictures of the cast needs to be large sometimes because with all the Internet streaming services, the posters are mostly thumbnails and the pic needs to be larger and simpler to make it out.

Marshall McLuhan once said that when a technology is replaced, it comes back as art. This is also true of art. Much as the Ramones arguably brought back rock’n’roll to the mainstream after Sgt. Peppers, a group of fans in Austin, TX, started a company called Mondo that started bringing back original art silk screened art movie posters to some popularity. Most of the collective, which includes some major artists, are shown and interviewed here, which of course, inflamed the opening of newer start-up poster companies. Fascinating stuff.

It’s also interesting that a large majority of the new wave of posters focuses on fantasy, horror, noir, sci-fi and cult films; I’m surprised there aren’t more musicals, because that is so open for splashes of bright colors and design, but it does makes sense for me for the genres that are popular to be so, as they are also based on imaginative machinations.

One of the “chapters” is dedicated to all the new artists that are coming up, and there are lots of interviews and examples of their work. And natch, there’s a second on the collectors and how they approach the direct market as opposed to the secondary market (e.g., eBay). A chapter I found really interesting, though, was about licensing, as artists and marketers discuss the positives and negatives of getting permission to use images from copyrighted films (the same arguments can be made for downloading films).

Another point brought up a couple of times, once in detail, is that the expectation now in mainstream films is that if the poster is artwork, the assumption is that it is an animated feature. What isn’t mentioned is that it is most likely (in my opinion) a result of the relatively recent rise of Pixar (and hence Disney) and the re-emergence of popularity of animated films. Every positive has a negative, and the modern movie poster – or the expectations of it – reflects that.

Considering this is Kevin Burke’s directorial debut, it’s an impressive output. He takes the talking head concept and keeps it interesting throughout, adding in some really nice animation around the posters that is fun to watch. While this is hardly the first documentary to use animation to liven up the imagery, he uses it effectively in a way that makes the viewer keep watching the screen, rather than just listening. But of course, movie poster art really is an art form, and deserves the attention on its own right. Burke punches it up to a nice level.

The way to look at this film is to equate it to comic books, as it is a symbiotic collecting field and buying/trading mode. In comparison, this film would be more about modern comics than the Golden and Silver Ages, or the Comix period.

That being said, as much as I enjoyed the film, I would like to see a second one that digs significantly deeper, perhaps how the earlier posters effected culture for example, or how the art was used to send a specific message to the audience on both a conscious and subconscious level, such World War II imagery to promote the war effort at that time. They’ve done well scratching the surface; now let’s talk about the bigger picture and go into the deep end of the poster pool.

LENNY KAYE’s Connection [1981]

Text by Carolyn Lee Boyd / FFanzeen, 1981

Introduction and live photos © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2018

Video from the Internet

 

Lenny Kaye solo at the FIX (W)PIX benefit (pic: RBF)

This article was originally printed in FFanzeen, issue #8, dated 1981, by Carolyn Lee Boyd, a bard who often went by the nom de poem Tarantula.

Carolyn was a big fan of the Lenny Kaye Connection, as was I. This band was formed after Patti Smith famously retired at the height of her punkitude period, running off to Detroit to marry guitarist Fred Smith and to raise her brood. With a well-underappreciated LP, I’ve Got a Right, the Lenny Kaye Connection often played at CBGBs among other places, and Carolyn and I would often go to see them. At the time, she lived a block away from the infamous Binibon Restaurant,  and I’d pick her up and off we’d go.

Beyond Lenny, part of the focus of the band was an electric piano, which can be heard especially in their political song, “I’ve Got a Right,” which is as relevant today – or more so – as when it was released during the Reagan administration (see video below). The Connection was also the back-up for Jim Carroll’s [d. 2009] album, Catholic Boy, including his biggest hit, “People Who Died.” Often, Jim would jump up on stage and sing the song with the Connection. Carolyn would inevitably get mad at me, because I would boo him. I had read Carroll’s autobiographical The Basketball Diaries, and I hated how much he made taking heroin and stealing sound cool in a day when the drug was such a prevalent negative force in the music I was listening to at the time.

Whenever Lenny would play something off the Connection’s only album, however, I’d be happy, including his cover of the Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renée.” Sometimes their long reggae riffs would be a bit much for me, but in all, the band was great fun and I have Carolyn to thank for introducing me to that. – RBF, 2018.

 

Lenny Kaye Connection: Lenny and Patrick, CBGBs (pic: RBF)

The time is 10:02 PM. The place is Max’s Kansas City. The fabulous Lenny Kaye Connection is topping the bill, and the Faithful Activist Neanderthal Society (FANS) is coming to order (so to speak). For those who have not been exposed to recent national and international journals, magazines, newspapers or broadcast programs, and haven’t heard of the FANS, it is a secret society dedicated solely to the Presleyan Theory of Evolution, that all life began at the invention of the electric guitar, and all history before that is a mass hallucination. Obsessive? Bizarre? Anti-social? Know thy enemy!

Winner of the “Conceptual Art Barstool” for “Drink Until You Only Think You Have Passed Out” competition and the honorable, venerable, and redeemable at your local grocer curator of the Museum of New Jersey Rock Stars Except Bruce Springsteen and President of the Lenny Kaye Clone Association is Victor. A microphone sticking out of his lapel and a movie camera up his sleeve, he plans to record the whole show and next time save the cover charge by playing the tape and film, and just pretending he is at the show. Victor is from the Bronx.

At Victor’s sides are Reta and Shorty Cookie (the Laverne & Shirley of New York rock’n’roll), 10 days off the Lear jet from death-defying Detroit. Reta is struggling and starving out the long years until super-stardom: charging it to Mom and Dad at Bloomingdale’s, crashing elite parties (it’s all in how you dress), and wearing $1200 worth of second-hand clothing. Shorty Cookie is working on her rock star crush #4968. She’s grown out of dead stars, media stars, and is now concentrating on a member of the band. Fortunately, the band is half blond and half brunet, in case she switches types between the first and second set.

Fashionably late, Renaldo, celebrated rock’n’roll magazine entrepreneur, journaliste and Man-About-Town, fait son entrée, dressed in a purple pirate outfit with red sash and plumes, and accompanied by his cowering entourage of writers, artists, and other flunkies, who are rolling out a red carpet saying, “Mr. Big is here.” He is on the cover of this week’s National Enquirer in a story about “The Terrible Secret He Hides” – he has met Doris Day, Faye Wray and Murray the K, but never the Big Boombah from New Brunswick. He just can’t face tight, black leather pants ever since his mother made him wear them to school in the first grade and all the other children laughed. (And even if he could, he’d just use his influence to welch a copy of the “Child Bride” single.)

Who says rock’n’roll isn’t high-class entertainment? Take Lenny’s opening band – please! After paying the standard cover of $6 (“You didn’t really want open heart surgery, did you, Ma? Great! See you tomorrow!”), the most that FANS (being basically cheap) can muster for the bound and gagged Cleveland art band, banging on its pots and blowing into saxophones, is light clapping. They are polite in case the band is friends of Lenny’s. Victor unobtrusively sets up his two-storey soundboard, while club patrons pace back and forth peering – is it really Lenny or is it Memorex? Reta’s antenna bleeps away – It’s Cheetah Chrome showing metal! Keef picked with Jack Daniels! Bob Dylan blowin’ in the wind! Shorty Cookie chairs a meeting of the Yours-For-A-Song Society in the Ladies Room. Renaldo’s beeper goes off – a reminder from his secretary that it’s time to go to some trendy club that doesn’t advertise, in order to get back in time for Lenny’s opening chord.

It’s common knowledge that right before the first show is the best time to catch Lenny backstage (except now that everyone knows who’s read this, it won’t be true anymore). Victor is always at the head of the line with something to autograph (having wallpapered his apartment with Lenny autographs, he is now plugging up the holes in his walls) or a photo of the band to give Lenny (as if he doesn’t know what they look like). Abandoning their fearless leader of his fate, three-quarters of the Connection creep down to the bar, deserted now that all the customers are backstage, for five minutes of peace and privacy. Reta and the sobbing Shorty Cookie, her face pale and Hawaiian-print mini-skirt wrinkled, smash against the wall as HE passes, staring blankly, not realizing she is his fate, his destiny, or doom. So, oblivious to the obvious, he orders a beer as if nothing had happened between them at all.

Twelve midnight and each FANS scrambles to the front row that s/he always sits in. The band walks on, in order: Patrick O’Connor on bass, a Robert Redford look-alike and the band’s compass and big brother figure. He’s steeped in more affection than he knows (the FANS plan to take him out to dinner, if they can figure out which Patrick O’Connor he is in the phone book); Lenny Kaye – you all know Lenny Kaye, and his address and phone number too; drummer David Donen, Keith Moon talent and teen idol charm, he is an extreme example of Einsteinian energy, and none of the FANS spend less than half the show watching him; newest and leftist (on stage) is that gorgeous Prince of Staten Island, that classy King of the Keyboards, Jan Mulaney, sitting quietly and extraordinarily in his little corner playing his heart out, the fourth member in the winning combination.

Halfway through the first song, Shorty Cookie grabs the set list for the Connection collection and is charged by a 300 lb. roadie around the stage until she jumps back to the seat. The band begins “Giving It All Up (For Love Again),” a rocker Patti Smith would love.

Lenny (minus a set list) has just done the bathroom humor intro to “Passin’ Through” (try it backwards), a melodious and melancholy, egalitarian Lenny love song. No connection set would be complete without a nugget-if-you-duggit, and my favorite is “Party Doll” which, as usual, sounds a lot dirtier when Lenny sings it than on the original [by Buddy Knox – RBF, 2018]. Then the experimental rhythm track over the time-travelling verbal avalanche of “Beast Language.” “Child Bride” is the band’s registered trademark and rumor has it that Lenny was up to 4 AM autographing mail order copies of the single. Prehistoric or future tense, rocking or tear-jerking, first show tight or second show loose, the Lenny Kaye Connection is a fun band on the verge of going to places I don’t think even they knew they were aiming for.

One AM. Time to run after a cab, split the fare, and go home to dream each FANS’ special dream. For Victor, it is to own that one unique, cosmic, ultimate and most rare of Lenny Kaye relics in the world, to put into the museum. For Reta, it’s to appear on Tom Snyder in front of an audience of her own screaming FANS after a sell-out show at the Palladium, and have her face on Rolling Stone and People. All Shorty Cookie wants is one amused inkling of recognition from HIM. For Renaldo, it’s for Lenny Kaye to ask to interview him.

All the FANS share the same nightmare: success for the Lenny Kaye Connection. Well, not success, but success – Shea Stadium, no backstage passes, Bianca Jagger, losing the band to big-time hype success. Horror after horror – Lenny goes to Washington to be Special Advisor on Cultural Affairs and Liver and Onions; Jan Mulaney, 16 Magazine “Hunk of the Month”; a new Clairol hair color named “Patrick O’Connor Red”; David Donen guest-hosting “The Tonight Show”… where will it end?

So remember, when you go to a Lenny Kaye Connection show, you are on FANS turf; you are an intruder, outsider and contagion. Show some respect. You have been warned!