'Billy and Blaze' And Some Other Books

-

First a very special video. A lot of outstanding DC's pics and a fragment from 'Blue Peter', but someone else is singing. The lyrics, just like for us, remembering David Cassidy even more in November.. Written by Tim Hardin (1941-1980),  a folk and blues songwriter, one more amazing man I got to know because of being David Cassidy's fan..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpqb4x6zHoA

I was talking with Mary Anthony about books a few days ago. It was very interesting for me (a former librarian), also because I'd love to know more about American literature, and of course our conversation made me think of David and books. 

Now no one would ask a teen idol what he liked reading, but 50 years ago David sometimes was asked such a question. And I've read in one interview, I think it was from 1970, that his favourite book was Hermann Hesse's 'Steppenwolf', which has made me laugh really, because that was what most young people said in the late 60s and 70s, me included. The book was seen as an counterculture, because Hesse wrote openly about free love and drug use. But probably DC didn't read it when he was a teen (me either).

Great DC's cover of the song which was written because of early counterculture era clashes between police and young people in LA, in November of 1966. I'm sure DC saw those riots, or even took a part in them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNGVKrFL2fg

He read everything about horses, we can see books on them in DC's cars, he read them in his free time on the set of Partridge Family. And I think that much earlier, when he was a kid, he read books about a boy named Billy, his brave pony Blaze and his dog, Rex. Clarence William Anderson wrote his first book about Billy in 1936. Im sure that David Cassidy read also other C.W. Anderson's books. Born in 1891 he dedicated his life to horses. He wrote 36 books on horses,  (including 11 for children), with his own illustrations. His artwork, drawings, lithographs and engravings hung in many museums and galleries. He was a very known and respected judge of show-jumpers. A great figure in the horse world. He died in 1971.

Seven Anderson's stories read by David Cassidy were published in 1983. They are just magical in his interpretation. I can imagine him while recording, smiling but also sad, thinking about his childhood, his father, about his first pony, his first dog. David's voice..I can listen to him for hours. He had great diction, you can hear every word so clearly, and it's obvious that he enjoyed reading those stories very much. They are wonderful and I've translated some of them into Polish for my grandsons. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLi1YI1ORno&t=35s

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kay Lenz, an Actress

-
Image
Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing today's blog just to gossip about DC's private life, it's because I always admired that amazing woman, Kay Ann Lenz. She had birthday yesterday. 3 years younger than David, a few years older than a typical DC's fan.  In the 70s I heard quite a lot about Kay Lenz . She was very popular in Poland, like the rest of the cast of 'Rich Man, Poor Man'. That tv series was shown in my country I think in 1978, and everybody watched it, also a lot was written about the cast. So one day I read that Kay's husband was a former teen idol, David Cassidy. There was also a pic and I thought that it was just wonderful, I thought they were the most beautiful couple in the world. There was something very moving about Kay. I thought she was different than typical American actress. Such beautiful eyes, but her beauty wasn't an ordinary kind, not for everybody so to speak. When I was a teen I couldn't put in words what I thought a
Read more

They Said I Changed A Lot..

-
Image
Let's first listen to something which was not released, why they didn't want David singing that song is a great mystery for me. Listening to his young, sincere, innocent and magical voice is one in a kind moving experience. You can just imagine David sitting next to you, with his guitar...and.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PbghG6czuw&t=6s Amazing. And of course we believe in David Cassidy and love songs. When I became a real DC's fan in 2018, there was something I used to discuss a lot with my English friend B. How David Cassidy kept changing. A completely different person in each decade. Or even more often. It was something difficult to understand for me. The many faces of David. Each album different from the previous one, different style and even his voice.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4gvxt1WgaA B. thought there was nothing unusual about how David was changing, and I simply didn't follow his career from the beginning, I didn't grow with him, I didn&#
Read more

'I Just Hated Being In The Show..'

-
Image
Last week someone posted a screenshot of the article from May 1974, unfortunately without the date or the name of the paper. Written by a popular journalist Roderick Gilchrist, I think it was Daily Express. We can read that this interview took place at London Weekend Television's Building, on the day before the DC's last concert in Manchester.  And David said, "I feel like the door to the cage has just been opened. And, any minute now I'm going to be able to fly right away from my prison. I can't tell you how happy that makes me feel because I'll be free again.." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG0hjhwKx5s His prison..Of course there have been other teen idols in the history of pop culture, but somehow for those from the 70s it was like someone put a curse on them. Nothing David Cassidy recorded later in life hasn't changed a bit that first opinion some people had of him and his music. My FB friend, Laurie Eby has written, "I researched 'New Y
Read more