Davy Jones

[John Wright]

Unfortunately, the soundtracks have been removed from some of the YouTube clips so I can't remind myself of what DJ sounded like but I'm surprised that he's rated among the 'greats'. Good times, young times, fun times ...

Some TV tributes have confused things. Micky Dolenz sang I'm A Believer, Davy Jones sang Daydream Believer.

[Lateralthinking1]

Interesting comments. I agree with Cloughie's comments about the Brill Building. Sedaka, of course, was originally at Julliard. The strong songwriting all round was miles away from the current pop. Along with the humour, I think that makes the "first boy band" tag a little unfortunate. What is lethal about now is that combination of non-musicality and absence of personality.

Also agree with frenchfrank's comments about the programme being seen with hindsight as a precursor to the Goodies. That is to the extent that I can recall. Bryn mentions Zappa. That in turn brings to mind perhaps the crazier moments of the Beatles' films. Either side of the Monkees, The Goons and Monty Python must feed in there too.

Paul Gambaccini's point about them being "the first manufactured group" has some weight. However, it is the sort of comment that almost asks for questions. I should have thought that Tamla Motown might have something to say about that view.

[MrGongGong]

Paul Gambaccini's point about them being "the first manufactured group" has some weight.

Isn't the Berlin Philharmonic a "manufactured group"

[johncorrigan]

Of course they weren't a band really - they were four actors playing at being a band for a TV programme - I remember the SHOCK! HORROR! PROBE! when the Sundays splashed out that they didn't play their instruments - they didn't need to be able to play - they were actors. Later on they grabbed a bit more control learned to play a bit more and there's some fine songs in there - they were also pretty funny, I thought. Me and my pals wanted to be like them, living in a beach house in California with your pals and doing 'Monkee stunts'.

I enjoyed Peter Tork's affectionate tribute to DJ on Last Word today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cks4w

[Lancashire Lass]

I never thought my first post on these august boards would be about DJ, but since he was my first big crush I didn't have any choice! I was very proud of the fact he came from Manchester, which is near where I come from. I never reflected on his musical abilities, but I'll go along with all the nice things that have been said.

Thinking about it, while I'm sad that this is yet another proof of the inexorable march of time, it's also uplifting proof of the huge watershed of the sixties which has never been equalled. I mean, commentators today talk about DJ and other icons of the period as if they were still relevant in the 2010s (which of course, they are). That's like public acclaim in the 60s/70s for artistes of the Charleston era. Which didn't happen.

A few years ago, I went to a reunion concert in Wimbledon Theatre which included some members of Sweet and Slade. Half the people there were under 25. Me and my friend were in the bar during the interval, when suddenly this distinctive riff starts up (obviously, the beginning of the second half). A gaggle of sub-25-year-olds who'd been at the bar started screaming "BLOCKBUSTER!" and headed back to their seats. We had no idea what it was, but they knew it off by heart, and they probably weren't even alive (or only just) when the record was in the charts.

Previous generations have had to put up with being considered past it -- we can consider ourselves
cool because we were there :-)

[Lateralthinking1]

Welcome Lancashire Lass. Some happy memories there. I always thought it was good that Slade went into music and not teaching English. They and Sweet were among the discs played at kids' discos I attended in New Malden aged ten and eleven (although the biggest musical excitement was always the Temptations' long version of Papa Was a Rolling Stone). Fast forward to 1983 and there was a very boozy student Christmas night in the Brewers Arms in York. I think the entire pub, arms linked, sang My Oh My for two hours. It was seventies in decor then - everything in shades of beige - but if it is still there it is now a gastro joint with levels.

[teamsaint]

Welcome Lancashire Lass. Some happy memories there. I always thought it was good that Slade went into music and not teaching English. They and Sweet were among the discs played at kids' discos I attended in New Malden aged ten and eleven (although the biggest musical excitement was always the Temptations' long version of Papa Was a Rolling Stone). Fast forward to 1983 and there was a very boozy student Christmas night in the Brewers Arms in York. I think the entire pub, arms linked, sang My Oh My for two hours. It was seventies in decor then - everything in shades of beige - but if it is still there it is now a gastro joint with levels.

Welcome indeed.

after the Monkees really introduced me to pop music, Slade were the next big thing for me, aged 10. every new single was an event, every TOTP appearance something to remember. And some good records too. Coz I luv you, Look what You dun.....Happy days. At that time me and my friends had great stuff to listen to......T Rex, Bowie, Roxy Music,Sweet (and some who haven't stood the test of time so well , perhaps!!.)But Slade were our real heroes.

[johncorrigan]

But Slade were our real heroes.

My first encounter with them was on a short lived programme for kids' TV hosted by Alan Price - I used to rush home from school to see it - pretty sure they were the house band - Noddy with a skinhead - bit disconcerting to me, I seem to recall, but better than Merry Christmas Everybody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-v6ZoH_fEk

[Lancashire Lass]

Thank you for that warm welcome!

My favourite seventies band was Mud -- Les Gray (also RIP) in those sunglasses, great stomping music and that dead easy one-foot-in-front-of-the-other-dance.

It may have been The Decade That Taste Forgot, but there was an innocent sense of fun -- almost institutionalised, in fact -- and pop-stars were allowed to have personality. Now you get identikit bland "product" -- with anything outrageous usually carefully planned -- and no sense of spontaneous fun at all.

Oh dear, that puts me firmly in the class of R3 listener that RW wants to get rid of :-)

[cloughie]

Thank you for that warm welcome!

My favourite seventies band was Mud -- Les Gray (also RIP) in those sunglasses, great stomping music and that dead easy one-foot-in-front-of-the-other-dance.

It may have been The Decade That Taste Forgot, but there was an innocent sense of fun -- almost institutionalised, in fact -- and pop-stars were allowed to have personality. Now you get identikit bland "product" -- with anything outrageous usually carefully planned -- and no sense of spontaneous fun at all.

Oh dear, that puts me firmly in the class of R3 listener that RW wants to get rid of :-)

There was enough of a legacy from the sixties for the seventies to produce good stuff - 10cc were brilliant! Many champion the punk era - for me there was too much poor music-making and spitting, but there were good bands which emerged from that era. As to your assertion re RW, that statement makes you very welcome on these boards.

[Lancashire Lass]

There was enough of a legacy from the sixties for the seventies to produce good stuff - 10cc were brilliant!

As to your assertion re RW, that statement makes you very welcome on these boards.

:-)

I had sent some angry e-mails to R3 but had no idea there was an agenda to destroy it until one day I Googled "dumbing-down of Radio 3" and found this place!

Yes, I forgot 10cc -- radical, intelligent and funny. I suppose any decade to some extent is standing on the shoulders of the decade before .... except that the shoulders concerned in the last two decades must be pretty well subterranean by now...

[MrGongGong]

Yes, I forgot 10cc -- radical, intelligent and funny..

But hardly Can or Beefheart ?

[teamsaint]

But hardly Can or Beefheart ?

And hardly SAHB or The Jam

(or Bowie, or the stranglers , or XTC, .............)

[cloughie]

But hardly Can or Beefheart ?

But easier on the ear!

[cloughie]

And hardly SAHB or The Jam

(or Bowie, or the stranglers , or XTC, .............)

We all have our favourites but I suspect that my formative music years were the 60s where yours were the 70s!