PBS' 'Glad All Over' celebrates Dave Clark Five
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RMartinez:
Bruce M.:
Regardless of credit issues, I watched a fair amount of the PBS special and came away with my feelings about the Dave Clark 5 pretty much unchanged: They were a second-rate imitation Beatles who had a few catchy singles, and that's about it. Eminently forgettable.
Kind of like every band from the UK in the mid 60s. No one was of the caliber of the Beatles back then. Yes, the Stones were ok, and the Who. But they really did not get a foothold in music until the Beatles broke up. They were all copying the Beatle formula. But yeah, DC5 were third level, below the Stones and the Who.
Anyone who has stood the test of time from those first British Invasion years evolved as songwriters. You had to because you had The Beatles and Bob Dylan leading the pack, and the sounds of the 60's were so fertile and became incredible. Dave Clark Five were the quintessential boy band. But they never progressed in their songwriting, and their sound never changed, and that's why they didn't last. To me they were like the English Beach Boys, but never on the level of The Beatles. They had a pretty decent string of hits while it lasted though.
