“Is that a martini?” David Cassidy asked, peering off stage at a table mid-set at BB Kings on Saturday January 10th, 2015. “I don’t use that anymore”, he continued. David plead guilty to his third DUI a year ago and as far back as 2008 admitted he had a drinking problem. On stage, it seemed like there was something going on with him as well but apparently it wasn’t alcohol. Before the first song of the evening, a bluesy take on “Come On Get Happy” David referred to as his modus operandi, rock nyc writer Cathy Dupuis and her friend Grace Trotti Forcino (celebrating her 35th birthday with significant other Vince Abruzzese) asked me if I thought he was high on something.
High? I don’t know what David’s problem was, but he sweat profusely from one end of the 90 minute set to the other, cradled his guitar creepily, got the tone really quite spectacularly wrong with his girl fans, and botched “In My Life”. Tributes to BB King, Davy Jones, John Lennon and Gerry Goffin were at least one too many. He couldn’t find the right key on song after song and his stories missed way too often. Thank God the voice is intact.
I’d seen David a couple of years ago (here) and while the man was obviously in his sixties, he maintained enough of his teen idol vibe to be impressive. Three years later and there is a step missing and there is a sense of unfulfilled promise and considering it is David Cassidy, a man who peaked at 21 years of age, it makes sense without being particularly pleasant. It was a sad performance. David presented himself as a music guy, a blues fan at the age of 17, he wasn’t a songwriter or a band member, and soon discovered all that was left was nostalgia.
So we get stories, the same as last time, when I wrote: “Born in New York, he began his career as a two dollar an hour mailboy, got a job on Broadway and quit his day job, then followed his muse to Los Angeles where in 1967 at the age of 17, he was in place for the the summer of love … his band are nothing special and while the leader can play guitar, he isn’t good enough for this and doesn’t have much feel for the blues. Think of Michael J. Fox at the end of the first “Back to The Future” -that’s what we’re talking about. Later he tells a rambling story about carrying the namesake of the club we’re ins’ guitar “Lucille”, up a hill. He proceeds to cover “Sweet Little Angel“. The blues guitar is a little better than I claimed but otherwise it is about the same.
Still, three things don’t change.
1. David looks great, for a drinker he doesn’t look particularly bloated, he has even maintained a little of the sexual ambiguousness that made him so beloved by young girls for so long. He looks his age without looking old at all.
2. He plays the hits properly, “Cherish”, “I Woke Up In Love This Morning” and “I Think I Love You” in succession will put a smile on the most hardened cynics face as David takes his time and does them right, strong, straight up on versions that respect his legacy.
3. The voice.
Always, Cassidy has had a voice that shows depth with a beauty and ease perfect for young girls and for older women remembering the young girls they were: beyond sincerity, it exudes an unthreatened sensuality. He sings low but not too low, not even a tenor; David never rumbles but rather goes inside the songs. Covering “Daydream Believer”. Cassidy survives the comparison to his peer. Davy Jone was sweet but a hoverer, he hovered throughout a song, Davy’s come on was an invitation and he sang above the music.Cassidy isn’t like that, he is too far out at sea emotionally and when you listen to him, he is lost in feelings, lost in love. Remember, he looked feminine (he looked like Susan Dey) and he seemed to move between the sweet deep vocals filled with feeling and the sitcom good looking proto-glam pop star -he sings within the strings. This survives. I don’t know why it has but the singing is exactly right, when he is being insincere he remains sincere. There is a forthright emotional tug on “Doesn’t Somebody Want To Be Wanted”, even the spoken word part where he is trying to sound insincere. I really admire the way he enunciates, the way he interprets every word, how he pours himself into his songs. there is place for his millions of girl fans to live in the timbre of his voice, it is unthreatening yet filled with a sensual promise.
Cassidy has had such a strange career, oddly he was what he wanted to be: a music guy. But he got caught up in being a pop idol for millions and when it came time for him to change directions in his mid-20s he couldn’t do it. And he should have really, he had the voice and the attitude and he cared and he was serious but maybe he didn’t have the material he needed to pull it off. . If anything, he was too big, he couldn’t downgrade, couldn’t lower his expectations. The album that should’ve transitioned him, The Higher They Climb, The Harder They Fall from 1975 (David co-wrote one song with Harry Nilsson, the second best song on the album, and took writing credits on others) was the one that didn’t manage it: “Faded teen idol Da Idy… this is missing the middle part of his name…”. A product of its time, the album was a big, beautiful piano based, quasi-concept album about Da Idy’s decline and fall and with at least one superb cover, “Darlin'” and a number of almost equals the UK bought in and the US didn’t and that was the artistic height of his career. Produced by Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, yes that is Carl Wilson singing back up on “I Write The Song” (the best version you’ll ever hear), it flopped in the States yet in those times part of the blame may have been a failure to get behind the disco hit in waiting “Give It Up For Love”.
I mention this to try and get some perspective on Cassidy’s career after a sad performance. He wasn’t nothing, he was a real talent, with a great voice and inches away from maintaining his career into the 1980s and beyond and it didn’t happen. The voice, however, remains.
Grade: C
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