Entertainment For Lively Minds
Oh Cliff!
Oh, Cliff
Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if
You really are a Cliff
When fascists keep trying to push you over it
Are they the lemmings?
Or are you Cliff?
Or are you, Cliff
So said The Peoples Poet, Rik from The Young Ones and after watching Piers Morgan meets Cliff Richard tonight I have to agree. I'm not a fan of Cliff Richard but you have to admire a man who has stayed in the public eye for 50 years, has survived being the English Elvis, worn his Christianity as a badge, kept us guessing about his sexuality (not a subject I would ever go near) and had a number 1 single in 5 decades. 5 decades when having a number 1 single mattered.
Watching tonight brought to light again the British insistence on sneering at success and popularity, something I have been guilty of http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/sir-paul-mccartney-what-my-problem .
OK Cliff might not be your favourite but does he deserve to be shunned by radio stations, ignored by the music press and generally vilified for being, well, Cliff? There's been some rubbish of course (Millenium Prayer) he's been making music for 50 years for God's sake, but there's some real quality too. Isn't it time we all put our preconceptions to one side and gave some credit to the biggest selling British artist of all time? (Summer Holiday is a top film too isn't it?)
There was a great line in tonights programme when Piers Morgan asked Cliff what his best song was. Cliff sat back in his chair on the terrace of his Barbados home and said "If a Martian landed now and asked what do you do? I would play Devil Woman and say, "That's what I do"" So this is what Cliff does, enjoy!
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It's a proper good pop song.
Can't love Cliff, though.
I could tell you the story of when he joined my ma-in-law's tennis club..
You big tease!
Go on then - dare you!
He got kicked out
For not wearing whites to play. "You can't do that, I'm Cliff Richard!" "Oh yes we can.."
Some people
Cliff's finest moment, IMHO
Cliff should have been born in America. I think he'd have been taken a tad more seriously. But he is a bit of an arse, isn't he?
What last night's programme proved...
....is that he's nothing like as much of an arse as Piers Morgan.
"Really?" says Piers. "You're asking us to believe you've never discussed your sex life even with close friends?"
"Yes," says Cliff. And nation finds itself agreeing.
Anyone but Piers Morgan
I try and avoid Saturday night TV like the plague but did catch about 15 minutes of the programme.
That's all I could stomach.
Not because of Cliff Richard but because of that clown, Piers Morgan.
If he set up an interview in my front room with Paul McCartney, Keith Richard and Bob Dylan, I think I'd find an excuse to put distance between myself and Morgan.
On Cliff.
I won't name names (oh, OK, Joe Strummer, Morrissey, Elvis Costello, New Order) but there are many sacred cows in the music business who enjoy a 100% credibility rating who aren't fit to lace Cliff's tennis shoes.
Cliff was a British rock 'n' roller.
Post-Stones and post-Beatles a seemingly easy thing to be with absolutely everything clearly mapped out for the novice.
In 1957 it seemed impossible that anyone from this island could approximate Elvis or even try.
Cliff did, and many of his early 45s are truly fabulous.....'High Class Baby', 'My Feet Hit The Ground', 'Mean Streak', 'Dynamite'.
Furthermore, unlike many sacred cows, he actually 'shifted product' and the milkman has actually heard of him.
I wish a magazine, if feasible, would get hold of Cliff and say to him, 'Right Cliff, you the man, no stitch up, ten page interview on early years up to the Beatles, no tennis, no religion, no Sue Barker, only anecdotes about the 2I's, Larry Parnes, Little Richard, Fender Strats and ROCK 'N' ROLL allowed. Oh, and we'll stick a picture of you and the Shads from '59 on the cover with the headline, 'Cliff, a real pop music icon. Everything you've ever thought about him is wrong'!
An interview / feature
such as the one you suggest, would indeed be fascinating, Cliff (and the Shads) was (were) undoubtedly crucial in UK pop history - even if it was as something to react against. Move It is still a thrilling record tho' as a lot of people have pointed out the quality didn't last. These people won't be around forever - the recent Joe Meek biopic would suggest there is a interest too. Come on someone!
and surely The Werd is the magazine to give us that feature
if anyone can. They have the people with the credibility to convince Cliff and his people that it won't be a sniggering stich-up but will stick to the important stuff - the pre-Beatles years when Cliff was seen as dangerous and 'the real thing'.
Come on Mark... make it happen.
Could be a Christmas special
Headline - Mistletoe and Whine?
I've never really understood...
the level of condescending scorn heaped on Cliff by the smarmy, smug end of the trendy music press. Sure he had some off patches in his career but so does any long lived artist (fans of Trans, anyone?). Fact is he released some pretty good songs in the late 50s/early 60s, a couple in the very early 70s and in the late 70s/early 80s.
When the awful Y2K Prayer was in the charts I recall seeing a journo quote on the BBC news which just typified this. I think it was that journo with the sticky-up "Vince Clarke in Erasure Years" hair cut turns up on all those pop culture retrospective clip shows and whose name I can never remember. Anyway, the quote which almost made me fall of my seat laughing/in amazement coming from a music journo was, with a suitable sneering, scornful and dismissive tone of voice, "Well, of course, the only reason it got to number one was that all his fans went out and bought it."
As if this was wrong and a bad thing - personally I always thought that was how the charts worked... people who like an artist/a record go out and but it and it gets up the charts in proportion to the number of records sold. Or have I got something wrong.
Of course, the subtext behind the actual words was "He has no RIGHT to be at number one because he's too old and not sufficiently credible in my eyes." Never mind that the popular music charts are supposed to be a reflection of the most popular music in terms of record sales.
John Robb?
I like his written work. Not so much the talking head version...
That's yer man...
...apologies to him if it wasn't him who said it (but his TV pop culture talking head persona does get a we bit annoying sometimes and the brain still suggests it was him).
Piers Morgan - "Another name for Anus"
You have that nailed. He is one of the most loathsome animals ever to grace Fleet Steet. If you hacles and blood pressure do not rise when his name is mentioned, see a doctor
But his two volumes of diaries are VERY funny
Hasselhoff Syndrome
nah, sorry he's naff apart from Move It and the SH movie, but any fule noe that
I don't like much of Cliff's music....
... nor his personality but, then again, I say the exact same thing about Johnny Lydon.
Both in the same showbuisness "game" as far as I can see.
Let him play on your BBC as much as the next guy I say.
Stick Around
long enough and everyone becomes a hero. Let's face it though, Cliff had hits...and that's it. And he had hits by following trends. He never defined a sound or a movement that hadn't been better defined by someone else a few months earlier. And as for British Elvis I reckon Billy Fury was closer to the mark.
Cliff. He sang. He played tennis a bit. He had hits. No one can remember most of them. He never meant much.
There. Put that on his headstone.
Interesting
To compare him with Billy Fury.
Would you say Billy's big hits were Rock n Roll in the same vein as Move It ?
Billy could Rock,no doubt about it,But Billy was just a little bit late to be The First British Elvis. I understand The Comparison,Great Looking Guys (Cliff was none to Shabby in those days according to 'Er Indoors)who had fantastic voices.
Tommy Steele was the first to be compared but then was considered to be too clean, Cliff was considered to be dangerous,funny now i know.
The whole Elvis UK thing was based on timeline and Cliff's recording output seems to Mirror Elvis's more than Billy's at that time,Late 50's.
Ranger-What a great idea mate.Cliff 56-59,that's what i want to hear about too.
can i reccomend Pete Frame's Wonderful book "The Restless Generation: How Rock Music Changed the Face of 1950s Britain"
Move it.Mean Streak and Dynamite are just great records.
Never meant much?
Cliff's popularity from '58 to '63 has only been eclipsed in Britain by The Beatles. As Danny Baker would say, 'Fact'.
I adore Billy Fury but, crucially, Cliff was first.
And he was a 'hero' straight away, first 45-first hit, we're not talking about a Velvet Underground here (great though they are) who got 'discovered' later.
Do you think the average Joe in the street could name more Clash songs than Cliff Richard songs? No way, Jose!
And exactly which British group sounded like The Shadows before the Shadows?
There's an argument to be made that Cliff & The Shadows could be the most influential British pop stars ever because, at one point ('58/'59, post-Lonnie, post-Tommy Steele, pre-Billy) they were the 'only' British pop stars!
Yes. Perhaps
I should have added 'to me'. He never mattered 'to me'.
Never did.
( Shrugs )
Still doesn't.
He's made some good records...
and he's made some bad ones.
It could be argued that Move It
is really only noteworthy due to it's British origin. There are far better Rock and Roll songs. The rest of his output varies bewteen mediocre and dire to my ears. I know it's received wisdom to knock him, but I honestly cannot find anything there that's musically redeemable whatsoever. If it gives some people pleasure, well good on him. That's what counts. Artistic merit ? I don't think so, unfortunately.
We Don't Talk (about Cliff) Anymore
Still remember Cliff's TV shows as a staple of Staurday nights.
The Cliff hairstyle - sort of a long moptop with curled in sides - was the default barnet of choice for 70s man.
The Cliff dance - knees bent, hipsway, pointy fingers, bunny overbite...a classic much copied
The barnet, the dance - all in evidence below. A song I loved as a kid. Still do - truth be told
Bunny Overbite (1942-2009)
Known universally as "The Man Who Makes the Big Difference", Overbite was pop's equivalent of a Hollywood script doctor, or, in his own playful words, "the go-to guy when an act has dug itself into a deep hole and thrown away the key with the bathwater".
Part subtle Svengali, part blustering Barnum, part convicted sheep-worrier, it was Overbite who whispered the fateful words "A glove son, just the one, mind", first in the Top of the Pops Green Room to Alvin Stardust, and again a decade later during rehearsals for the Motown 25th Anniversary show - originally to Smokey Robinson, although a certain former child star, desperate for a trademark bit of "business" to reboot his faltering career, also happened to be listening in. The rest, as they say, was a protracted law suit.
Overbite's last piece of golden advice was proffered to Lady Gaga this summer: "Here, babe. This is a Cumberland sausage. Use it wisely. Love you."
He never married.
A sad loss. Not as well known
as Epstein or Loog Oldham but a seminal figure nonetheless.
"Bunny was always there when I needed him - and frankly -even when I didn't"
Sir Riff Pilchard
"One day it will all make sense - trust me"
Those were his prophetic words about the débâcle that followed Frank Sinatra's appearance in a fuchsia body stocking at The Sands, Las Vegas, in 1973.
Archie... Have you been eating those little white
cakes from the gents loo again?
That picture
definitely cannot be of "Bunny" Overbite. He was strictly a cravat man, and would never have committed the sartorial faux-pas of wearing that tie / jacket combination.
Yrs, A Pedant.
My God, you're quite right
Although he always zealously shunned publicity for himself, here's a pap snap that is widely believed to be the last picture ever taken of Bunny, clearly very much committed to his "Gaga period" right up to the end.
Archie.
You are a silly sod.
I don't know much about Bunny, but was he the one who stole Nena's tube of Immac?
Who passed Noel Gallagher a copy of The White Album and told him to listen to it, but not too carefully?
Who, at Voltz und Furstdamm Powertoolgehirenshoppen, opened an expenses-paid account in the name of Blixa Bargeld?
There must be more. We need to know.
He dabbled in the 'Dark Arts' too
before that gig at the Albert Hall, he told Mr. E to mumble more and sing a bit lower.
I believe his biggest regret was
not having a quiet word with Hank marvin about those specs!
But by then he was out of favour with Cliff and the Shads.
If his influence had continued we might imagine a world where Cliff went to the Bhagram with the Fabs and released an album of spiritual tracks with Ravi Shankar. Might have made this whole rehabilitation thing unneccessary.
Perhaps the only song where the word 'sheep'
...is sung, in extended form, by the backing vocalists. Class.
Apart from, er, Sheep
by The Housemartins
I seem to
remember on the Neil Young documentary 'Don't Be Denied' that the shadows were a major influence on him when he started out. That'll do for me.
Cliff and Piers Morgan, there's a right win double
Living Doll is his best and I can listen to that but his stuff is not "OK" or "not bad" for the most part, it is shit.
the restless generation by pete frame
an excellent account of why cliff richard and the shadows mattered at one point... they were going to change the world, but got sucked into the vacuum of light entertainment(the X-factor of it's day), and it was downhill from then on.
early cliff and the shadows(aka the drifters, as they were then called) is pretty damn good rock'n'roll considering it's early vintage(hank marvin alledgedly owned the first ever telecaster in the UK, a pink one that you can see him play(a;beit in black+white) in expresso bongo).
for that alone, cliff should be slightly revered...
cliff was also responsible for giving us the genius that is jet harris.
now that is a claim to fame.
haha, if that is part of the rehabilitation of Cliff
it isn't helping.
I'm not sure what was more
I'm not sure what was more dangerous about that clip, Cliff's cross handed bongo technique (never advisable over 100bpm) or Laurence Harvey's Fagin-alike Jewish accent.
Stop Press
I'll hang back and let others say their piece after this but I've just come across a wonderful essay by Bob Stanley from last Thursday's 'Guardian'. It's on their website.
This favourable opinion towards the man isn't about 'irony' or revisionism.
Cliff & The Shadows are genuinely at the top table, a piece of furniture that only has about 20 other occupants.
Please, anyone, (Bob Stanley?) a definitive cover feature is itching to be researched but it can only now really come from one angle......a favourable one, as we've all heard the other side a million times.
Decided to make up a playlist
of the tracks Bob Stanley mentioned in the article for my own perusal, and added some stuff mentioned here and a few others...
http://open.spotify.com/user/prefab12/playlist/64SYKgGsfUAzcuLdvDY310
Dynamite
a bit different to the Single Version. lovin it or should that be Livin Lovin It ?
Look,
seriously ( and, hopefully- from me anyway- finally! ) being a 'British' version of something that others did much better is no cause for re-evaluation or hagiography. So no British band sounded like the Shads. Probably true. Shrugs. But hundreds of American ones did.
No one had ever sounded like The Beatles though.
Who...
...who were these American groups who sounded like the Shadows?
The Ventures
for one. And the Tornadoes. Then, from Sweden, the Spotnicks.
The Shadows...
...had their first hit with Apache in the summer of 1960. It was a sensation. The Ventures didn't have a hit until some months later. The Spotnicks were formed the following year, and The Tornados, who were British, started having hits the year after that.
The Shadows were the original, and the best.
You say Tornados, they say Tornadoes
The Tornados were, indeed, British and were an integral part of the Joe Meek stable
The Tornadoes were a US band and rode the surf music wave (do you see what I did there?)
Neither of them pre-dated the Shads; neither of them pre-dated Apache come to that.
The Shadows were one of the most influential bands in the history of popular music.
My mother always warned me
that my bull in a China shop approach to the finer delicacies of pop history would land me in trouble one day.
And here's another bloody great Cliff single
Carrie - he didn't write it, but so what? It's a great song, great arrangement, great vocal, back of the net. I agree about We Don't Talk Any More too. Wired For Sound is terrific an' all.
Can’t be arsed with Cliff
Not bothered about the fact that he’s middle of the road; or that he’s “square”; or that he plays tennis (what‘s wrong with playing bloody tennis anyway?). He just always comes across to me like a bad actor pretending to be a pop singer, getting it ever so slightly wrong and being a bit embarrasing. Or like when David Brent made that video.
If he'd died in 1960
he'd be feted as the first British rock star and a great lost talent. He'd be up there with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.
Neutered rock 'n' roll
What use is that? Not much. And popularity does not denote quality any more than not selling a lot of records does.
This is the best of Cliff
Despite the video being awful
This is a bit of a tune too
Great song
I remember
Cliff getting the 'Who the hell...' treatment in Q way back; it had him bang to rights as being sanctimonious and obsessed with sales figures and chart placings as a supposed indicator of quality. And, lest we forget, he really gave 'ver kids' a severe ticking-off in support of Norman Tebbit at The Brits during the Thatcher tyranny. Yeah, you tell 'em, Cliff...
Although I do like Miss You Nights.
( Sound of
vigorous wretching ).
A slightly worried Pedant writes
I think you mean "retching"? Unless you're doing something more interesting than I think...
Saw Cliff and the Shadows on Friday...
.. at their opening night at the O2 Arena on the 50th Anniversary Tour. My other half's been a fan on and off since around 1960. I'd been with her once before to a Cliff solo concert so I knew I wouldn't dislike it... but in fact I was gobsmacked by what a stunningly good show they put on.
The main reason for this is that they stuck entirely to the early pre-Beatles material and included around nine Shadows instrumentals in a 40-song setlist. It was obviously the presence of Hank, Bruce and Brian Bennett that brought out a much stronger male contingent too. The ladies to gents ratio at the other Cliff show I saw was around seven to one. Here it was more like three to one.
Seeing the old trio of Cliff, Hank and Bruce line up together, all knocking on 70, all looking fit, well and happy and with none of their talents diminished, was curiously moving. I know Cliff is the ultimate in smiley showmen, but they really did look like they were loving every minute.
And how could a guitar geek like me not relish the sight and sound of Hank Marvin playing Apache, FBI and the rest on his fiesta-red Strat and a what looked like a Burns Double Six 12-string?
Four nights earlier I'd seen Jeff Beck playing a rock and roll set at the O2 Indigo next door, including a nod to Hank with versions of Apache and the lovely instrumental ballad Sleepwalk. The Shadows played both numbers too, so that was another treat in a compare-and-contrast kind of way.
I'd never realised how good Cliff, Bruce and Hank are at harmonising ... a few songs featured three-part vocal arrangements that could rival CSN in terms of precision and musicality.
There was no vast array of backing musicans to take the weight off the old guys – just the three Shadows, their bass player of 20 years, and two other players who added keyboards, an occasional third guitar and extra percussion.
What a great band they were in their day... and how fantastic that they're still playing so well.
the problem with Cliff Richard is
that his crimes vastly outbalance his good stuff.
But like any really popular musician there are things to like there.
His crimes are thus
* the misogyny of songs like Living Doll and Devil women. They are both really bad. (to be fair he is a product of the times as are we all)
* the awful Christian crapola of Saviours Day and Lords Prayer and all that awfulness.
* his overpowering cheesiness
* the hypocrisy of his singing and selling sex and also chastity and religion.
But all that as it may I am sure there are a few Gems in his Jewel box. I may have a listen to a few of the ones mentioned on this thread.
This is the one song by him that I love. Totally and utterly. I heard it in a taxi once and was moved to ask the driver who it was. I was floored when I found it was Cliff. This song is immense. The backing vocals are perfect.
http://open.spotify.com/track/2wLfMh5e1tX9ift0PbLhkZ
Here's a video of it, but I warn you the backing just isn't as good and his lackluster performance is very unengaged.
Devil Woman
I saw an interview with him where the Pearly Gate Bothering Pillock was very proud of the fact that the lyrics dealt literally with the pits of brimstone awaiting those of us who dare to venture forth into the crepuscular entwines of, and dally with, ( wait for it ) evil women who are, like , into Tarot Cards and cats purring menacingly on Moroccan scatter cushions. My kind of gals, Cliff. You blinkered, prejudiced, sun baked reptile pelt.
Cliff: a few songs I like, a few I dislike & lots in the middle
Which makes him a lot like The Fleet Foxes, Status Quo, U2, Abba, Neil Young, Tom Jones and a whole host of acts.
The man is an entertainer. Like every other act in the world, he doesn't appeal to everyone. In his case, he's more popular with the blue rinse brigade. So what? He's an entertainer, he entertains folks and he's sustained a long career doing what he and they enjoy. He's lived a decent and productive life. Best of all, he's happy. Good luck to the man.
(BTW: the best part of the ducumentary for me was when Cliff stonewalled questions about his sexuality and Morgan - paragon of intrusive, sensationalist tabloid journalism - agreed that it was a private matter!)
It's the niceness
I can't cope with the niceness. It's unnatural.
I like Cliff
Some good singles, but I interviewed him once and to be honest although he's perfectly pleasant and has the odd good anecdote, there's not a lot going on behind those eyes. He was totally controlled by his manager and just basically did as he was told. Without said manager, I wonder if he would still be around today...
Still, he's really into music and knows his stuff.
In fairness...
I always thought that he'd end up an entertainer in the Doonican/Bygraves/O'Connor bracket. Good to see that he's returned to his Rock n Roll roots for one more run to the bank
Vindication
Cliff's rebirth gathers pace. They used Devil Woman on Strictly tonight!