THE DAVE CLARK FIVE – "Glad All Over"

Oh, and just so it gets acknowledged here – Mike Smith, singer and organist with the DC5, passed away recently from pneumonia aged 64. One of the great unacknowledged screamers in Britbeat (see “Do You Love Me?” – much better than weedy Brian Poole and the Trems – or “Bits And Pieces” for proof) and it’s a real shame he didn’t survive to attend the group’s RnR Hall of Fame induction. RIP, big man.

A Crystal Palace FC terrace anthem at one time… not a Palace fan myself, so dont know if that is still the case, but it was in the late 80s, early 90s.
And if ever a song was designed perfectly to become a terrace chant, then….

It is still a Palace anthem. Very odd to hear several thousand people singing this.

In fact, it’s endlessly fascinating how the football grounds have preserved songs that might otherwise have long since been forgotten. You’ll Never Walk Alone owes its continuing presence in UK folk memory to the Kop; would anyone still remember that old music hall number I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles but for West Ham (I still find it incredibly moving to hear the East End diaspora return from Essex and sing that at Upton Park); there’s Delilah at Stoke, Blue Moon at Man City, Guatanamera (with lyrics changed) absolutely everywhere, same with Winter Wonderland.

I’ve heard Son of My Father not so long ago, though I couldn’t give you an actual fixture. There’s a piece to be written about the role of the football ground in preserving old songs, isn’t there …

I have a pet popular culture project of my own these days. At <a href=http://kinephile.wordpress.com<Kinephile I’m setting out to look at and comment on my not-quite-entirely (I’m loosely referring to the BFI best of British list of 1999) subjective notion of the best British films ever made, in no particular order (except for that in which Lovefilm get to send them to me) and without any attempt to score or rank. (You may generally assume that most films I feature I would give a 6 or more in Tom’s Popular terms.) Some are old friends, some will be new to me, but in each case I’ll be watching afresh before I post.

I’m posting this here because two of the three films featured so far (Brighton Rock, because it pre-dates the British charts, and Another Year because Popular is some way from getting there if it ever does), don’t fit in with the Popular timeline. But this one:

http://kinephile.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/zulu-cy-endfield-1964-bfi-31/

was released even as the Dave Clark Five topped the charts.

Enjoy!

It just occurred to me the other day that Punctum’s stork was located hereabouts, which means we’ve missed the 50th of one of this site’s greatest contributors. Happy belated birthday MC.

Critic watch:

1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2010)
Bruce Pollock (USA) – The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000 (2005)
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (USA) – 500 Songs That Shaped Rock (1994?)
Paul Morley (UK) – Words and Music, 210 Greatest Pop Singles of All Time (2003)
Gilles Verlant and Thomas Caussé (France) – 3000 Rock Classics (2009)
Giannis Petridis (Greece) – 2004 of the Best Songs of the Century (2003)

BBC2 last night showed a movie-length documentary about the DC5, which if nothing else suggested that they were a bigger deal in the US than here. Among those saying the British Invasion was mainly the Beatles, the DC5 and the Stones were Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Dionne Warwick, Paul McCartney, Elton John and (in full make-up) Gene Simmons. The producer was, er, Dave Clark.

It led to an amusing series of tweets from Stuart Maconie: “Is this Dave Clark 5 thing on BBC2 a spoof?”; “Macca looks like he’s doing it at gunpoint”; “All of these people cannot owe Dave Clark money”; “Kim Jong Un would find this DC5 documentary biased and self-aggrandising”.

Other commenters added:
“I don’t believe any of this happened – it’s like The Truman Show meets The Rutles.”
“See those Ready Steady Go episodes Dave Clark owns? DC5 play – cut to screaming girls – girls are clearly yelling “Ringo!””
“Still, at least they’ve got some big interviewees – in this country they’d have Jason Manford, the Merseybeats and Stuart Mac – er …”

I think the doc was Dave’s last will and testament. What happened to the other four? We’ll never know. Three of them are dead (OK, so at least he did mention that). The rest of it was half-truths and fibs (of course they didn’t meet in a gym, or decide to split in 1969).

It was highly watchable, if only to see Elton John say “there were three bands in the 60s – the Beatles, the Dave Clark 5 and the Stones” (in that order!) and to hear Ian McKellan compare Dave to, who was it, Caravaggio?

Stevie Wonder knew exactly how many Top 40 hits the DC5 had – safe to say the producer (Dave Clark) or director (Dave Clark) was feeding him lines. Incredible stuff.

Stevie Wonder was certainly spoon-fed those stats, gunpoint or not. Gene Simmons’performance, liberally dosed in false sincerity, was equally ludicrous and it all seemed to infer: “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Dave!”

I’ve actually just read a magazine article (actually a weekend newspsper supplement) which lionised Dave and his doc again. It mentions Dave’s claim that both Lucille Ball and Dean Martin asked (actually begged) DC to come to their Hollywood homes for dinner and rather than devastating one of them, Clarky played the gentleman, went back to his hotel room and dined alone. It is not recorded what the other DC4 were doing.

As a matter of fact, I have also come across another interview Dave did with respected pop journalist, author and broadcaster (always plugged by Brian Matthew) Bob Stavely on those heady times:

Dave: “After disappointing both Lucy and Dino, I was just climbing in my limo to go back to the hotel and President Kennedy came up to me…”

Stavely: “President Kennedy?”

Dave: “Yeah, it was brilliant. He goes ‘Dave! Both me and Jackie love all your records. Fancy coming back to the White House with me and have a few beers?’ But then I saw Lucy and Dino looking all glum and I thought I’d better not.”

Stavely: “This was 1964?”

Dave: “You should have been there, Bob. It was marvellous to be a Brit in the States back then. The Yanks couldn’t get enough of us, I’m telling you, boy!”

Stavely: “Kennedy was dead. He was shot in November ’63.”

Dave: “Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong, Bobby, me old flower. Coz…and keep it quiet, like, coz Kennedy was so disappointed about me not going round his gaff that he fucking shot himself! That’s where all the confusion comes from with grassy knolls and such. Coz it weren’t no Oswald or any other geezer. The bloke topped himself! Straight! ‘ere, Bob, did I ever tell you about me and Churchill? I was at Chartwell the day England won the World Cup and Winnie sang all me records with Clemmie, his missus, smacking away on the old Hammond organ. She LOVED the DC5, Bob…”
(Cont’d on P.94)

Thanks 23D, I’d never heard Lost In His Dreams before. I’d say they were a top-notch garage band from the start. Their records (and we have to give Clark credit here) were the loudest British records of the day and things like Anyway You Want It and Try Too Hard still sound really tough played out today. They couldn’t really adapt to psych, like many other garage bands.

Their rapid dip in popularity here after a flying start with Glad All Over/Bits And Pieces was presumably because they were always in the US, and so unable to do promo over here. Like Herman’s Hermits, their 68/69 second run of hits was because they were back in Britain, having wisely milked their Stateside fame.

The saddest thing for me is the post-DC5 careers of the other members. Running an electrical retailers? It’s reminiscent of retired football legends of the 60s and 70s, lucky if they got a pub.

Of course, one short reunion in the States would have earned them all a fortune, but I’m guessing boss man Dave wasn’t interested so that was that.

Acceptable as a football chant, but not something I tend to revisit much when I’m listening at home. 4/10 in my view.