The Dave Clark Five and Beyond: Glad All Over dir. by Dave Clark (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Dave Clark Five and Beyond: Glad All Over dir. by Dave Clark John Clark The Dave Clark Five and Beyond: Glad All Over. DVD. Produced and directed by Dave Clark. Arlington, VA: PBS, 2014. DACF 600. $29.99. This 4 DVD set presents several interesting contrasts and conflicts. Ostensibly tracing the career of the iconic Dave Clark Five, the first disc does an admirable job for the first seventy five minutes at showing the extraordinary influence of the group on the 1960’s pop scene both in the U.K. and the U.S. A tremendous amount of interview footage with personalities as varied as Bruce Springsteen, Whoopi Goldberg, Sir [End Page 557] Ian McKellan, Stevie Wonder and Ozzy Osbourne attests to the popularity of the group during its heyday (1963–1970). Most enlightening, however, are the excerpts of the fulsome speech given by Tom Hanks as part of the DC5 induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Sir Paul McCartney interview containing his commentary about the musical and personal style of the band. The DC5 began as a fairly ordinary American-styled 1950’s rock group in London that underwent a series of personnel changes before settling on the core quintet of Mike Smith (lead vocal and organ), Denis Payton (saxophones, harmonica, and guitar), Lenny Davidson (lead guitar), Rick Huxley (bass) and the leader on drums and vocal. While comparisons with the Beatles are inevitable, the musical style of the two groups was quite distinct. Where the Beatles took their cue from 1950’s white rockers (with a healthy dose of the 1930’s Tin Pan Alley songs favored by both McCartney and John Lennon), the DC5 initially looked more towards black groups and singers such as Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett—largely because of the bluesy, soul-influenced style of Smith’s singing. The importance of the organ and occasional saxophone solos also underline this influence. As the hit records began piling up (the group had an astonishing fifteen consecutive hit singles in the U.S. and even replaced the Beatles as the number one recording band in the U.K. with their first single, ultimately selling over 100 million records), the basic sound coalesced into a tightly arranged and highly sophisticated product utilizing much close harmony singing and arrangements that were, by the standards of the day, complex and musically subtle. In fact, a better sonic comparison than the Beatles would be the later 1960’s recordings by the Beach Boys, which unlike those by the DC5 were dependent on studio technology and occasionally studio musicians as well. The first half of the second DVD in this collection is dedicated to full-length concert and television performances that amply demonstrate the abilities of all the members of the group. Several of the interviewees on the first DVD pay special tribute to the sound of the band and the fact that they were clearly in control of the music. Steven Van Zandt pointed out that the band had a much bigger sound than other groups of the day and both Bruce Springsteen and Gene Simmons (of KISS) cited Mike Smith as one of the most underrated rock singers of all time. Many of those interviewed also cite Dave Clark as one of the most influential rock drummers of the period and Clark himself pointed out that his initial inspiration was the jazz drummer Buddy Rich, whom he befriended in later years. The questions that kept surfacing while I was watching this documentary revolved around why the DC5 is so little known today. While the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Who are rightly looked on as iconic British groups in the 1960’s, the DC5 was, if the evidence presented by those interviewed and Clark himself (who provides much of the narration), equally influential during that decade and certainly, by the evidence of the performances, equally musically talented. The answer seems to come from the business acumen of Clark. He is credited here by no less than McCartney as a business genius who early on asserted control over the catalog of original compositions and recordings made by his group. This...