Unreleased Recordings
What a huge disappointment it must have been for David Cassidy. He wrote such a great, full of passion and desire love song all by himself and ..of course it wasn't a song suitable for Keith Partridge. No way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4SqracF0eA
So Wes changed it. We should remember about those unreleased The Partridge Family's recordings. They show how Screen Gem and Wes Farrell controlled DC, hadn't let him became a musician he could have been. And Wes was aware how David was good at the age of 21. Not only he got the look, not only he had a fabulous, strong voice, but he also wrote songs..all by himself. Music and lyrics. Wonderful songs. It was necessary to show him his place. It must have been so frustrating for DC. Another one, 'Mystical Lady'. I can imagine Wes Farrell thinking, 'O no, not again. Keith Partridge singing about sex!'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvl_ppcLeU4
In 1973 they were not on speaking terms and couldn't stand each other at the recording studio. DC : 'During the four years I was recording TPF albums, I was never allowed to become the songwriter I should have been because of the control that Wes Farrell had. I did write a few songs on those albums, but I'd usually had to write with Wes.(..) Part of the reason was money and at times I blamed Wes's ego, although he was good at what he did and I was young and inexperienced..' (David Cassidy : Could It Be Forever?, 2007)
And that altering the tape speed. I was shocked when read in the DC's autobiography that at first he didn't know about it. No one told him. Difficult to imagine.
"Lay It On The Line' with the DC's true voice
It also makes me think how hard he worked. We got ready products, TPF's and DC's solo albums, but how much work, prepearing, learning, recording (many times) each song took. Responsibility. And also so many disappointments.
'Sometimes I yell at the top of my lungs. Not at people. Only when I am by myself, like when I learned they released a certain record of mine as a single which I didn't want them to do. I was in my room alone and yelled a word which I better not repeat...'
http://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/InPrintPages/News1971October24TheNewsAndTribune2.pdf
And PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION
Interesting about adjusting the speed of the recording to make David sound younger. Something that was not exclusive to David’s recordings. “Hungry Heart” was sped up to make Bruce Springsteen sound younger. David was in good company with “The Boss”.
ReplyDeleteWow Bruce's voice too. Of course it was nothing unusual, but it's scary that DC had no idea about it at first, at least he wrote it in his book. It speaks volumes how he was naive and easy to manipulate in the early 70s, and that he should have had another manager, not Ruth Aarons.
DeleteRuth had never managed anyone like David before. With his career, she was out of her depth. I think they altered the voices of most teen idols back then. They did it to Davy Jones, he’s actually got a deep voice. Not to ask someone’s permission to alter their voice is awful, to do it without telling them is even worse. They thought of David as their “property “ to do with as they wished not a person.
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