David Cassidy on the Web
David Cassidy Gets Happy
June 15, 1998
By Lyndsey Parker
www.music.yahoo.com
David Cassidy reclines nonchalantly on an overstuffed chair in the sumptuous lobby of the Chateau Marmont Hotel, the Hollywood Hills hideout notorious for the debauched escapades of its many celebrity guests. This is where a drunken Jim Morrison fell from the roof, where Madonna first met Sean Penn, where John Belushi died from a drug overdose; modern-day scandal-monger Scott Weiland even recorded a song about this five-star den of iniquity. David has battled his own vices in his past--as divulged in wicked detail in his pulpy autobiography, C'mon, Get Happy...Fear And Loathing On The Partridge Family Bus, and in a recent VH1 Behind The Music documentary--but nowadays he's a happily-married father, the star of the biggest show on the Vegas Strip (the $40 million spectacle EFX), and the head of his own new record label, Slamajama Records (which just issued David's first album in eight years, the curiously titled Old Trick New Dog). His darker days of post-Partridge Family fallout, self-imposed retirement, dragged-out legal battles and fast-lane excesses safely behind him, the only thing David's struggling with today is a bit of a head cold, which he is medicating with nothing stronger than a cup of honeyed English Breakfast tea.
It's been 24 years since David walked off the Partridge Family set for the last time, hoping to shed the squeaky-clean teenybopper image forced upon him by studio execs and prove himself as a serious actor and musician. "I don't like the term 'teen idol,'" he says firmly. "I always back away from labels. I think it inhibits your creativity and your opportunities. Man, don't call me a former teen idol. Don't call me a heartthrob. Don't call me a sex symbol. Tell me I'm bad, tell me I'm lousy. But don't call me that."
He then suggests a few labels with which he's more comfortable: "Call me a writer, a singer, a producer, an actor." David is indeed all of those things; "record company mogul" is only the latest in a long line of showbiz titles he's held over the past two decades. He's acted on television (and was even nominated for an Emmy for his performance in a Police Story two-hour TV movie) and on the stage (his theater credits include Broadway's Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Blood Brothers, the London production of Time with Sir Laurence Olivier, the starring role in the touring company of Little Johnny Jones, and EFX); he's written songs recorded by the likes of Cher, Asia and Heart, as well as the theme songs to The John Laroquette Show and the post-riots "Rebuild L.A." campaign; he developed the Fox Network sitcom Ask Harriet; he even ran a successful horse-breeding business for a time. Old Trick New Dog isn't even David's first "comeback"--his last album, 1990's David Cassidy, yielded the U.S. top 40 hit "Lyin' To Myself."
"I've been lucky enough to be in a creative field, and I've done what a lot of people assumed I couldn't do, because of my early career," David reflects. "But I think a lot of that was based on me playing a role on television, and people identifying me with that role, when I was a lot different from that."
However, David seems to have accepted the reality that he'll probably always be best known as Keith Partridge. Though he still rejects the "teen idol" label as adamantly he did even in his reluctant Tiger Beat heyday, he nevertheless seems more than willing to revisit--and even gently poke fun at--his colorful past. He donned bellbottoms for the first time in nearly two decades to star alongside peer Leif Garrett in Roman Coppola's hilarious '70s parody movie Spirit Of '76, he hosted Nick At Nite's Partridge Family marathon and VH1's 8-Track Flashback, and while performing at his recent record release party--which was ironically sponsored by Teen magazine--he good-naturedly quipped, "I used to BE Teen magazine! See Leonardo DiCaprio on that cover? That used to be me! Yes, I'm Leo's dad!"
When asked about his sense of humor regarding his early pinup days--when he set the still-unbroken record for the world's largest fanclub (some 200,000 members)--he shrugs and with a chuckle, puts everything in its proper perspective. "I have no apologies for being so successful! It's great. I did it when I did it, and I have no regrets about doing it. I got to do something that maybe 10 people in the history of the planet--the Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Valentino--got to do."
Perhaps the most surprising and convincing proof that David has come full circle is Old Trick New Dog, which features updated versions of four Cassidy classics: his 1971 solo hit "Ricky's Tune" plus three Partridge Family gems, "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat," "I Woke Up In Love This Morning" and, of course, "I Think I Love You."
"I'm really proud that I feel this way about the songs--that I wanted 20-odd years later to go back and recut them," David enthuses. "Look at Clapton with 'Layla'--he's certainly cut that song every possible way, and that's always been his signature song. So why not? People come up to me and talk about these songs every day. And they were my favorite songs of the era. So I wanted to incorporate the songs and embrace the songs and be true to the songs, and yet sing them as a completely different guy now. And so consequently, they're much sexier, they're more soulful."
Indeed, David's radical reworkings of these beloved, breezy bubblegum tunes--complete with sassy female backup singers, low-rider bass thumps, salsa-disco percussion and David's decidedly breathier, lustier vocals, all captured with the slickest, silkiest production techniques modern studios have to offer--sound like the output of a full-grown, red-blooded man, not a pretty-boy teen sensation. The remakes actually have a lot in common with seductive adult crooners like George Michael--who, ironically, briefly collaborated with David in his pre-fame, pre-Wham!, pre-restroom-scandal days.
David traces his current groovy style back to "the acts I used to listen to as a kid growing up: Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett, the Supremes, Sam & Dave. There were lots of soul bands back then. I mean, the Rascals were a white band that played soul. You can name lots of them that were R&B/ soul-oriented. Hendrix was, very much so." He also cites his trio of sexy mid-'70s RCA albums (now united on the Razor & Tie Records compilation When I'm A Rock 'N' Roll Star)--which featured collaborations with Brian Wilson, the Turtles and Mick Ronson, as well as covers of the Beach Boys' "Darlin'" and Wings' "Tomorrow"--as the beginning of his dabblings with blue-eyed soul.
It's quite likely that "I Think I Love You" in particular is a song whose time for a revival has come (not that this light-hearted ode to puppy love ever really went away). "I Think I Love You," the biggest Billboard chart hit of 1970, popped up twice in the recent hit horror flick Scream 2--in the celebrated cafeteria scene where Jerry O'Connell serenades Neve Campbell, and as a punked-up rendition by Less Than Jake on the movie's soundtrack. The song also accompanied a much-seen Levi's commercial that received both Emmy and Cleo Award Nominations. And speaking of awards, David himself received a lively ovation when he warbled the feel-good number for the surprise finale at last year's Billboard Awards ceremony.
"It's been in people's consciousness; it's hard to call it just a record," says David of the song. "It's almost like an earmark of a whole generation, a certain innocence. People love it; I love it. It's a great song, and great songs survive, and they get recut and redone. With a great song, you can do it lots of different ways in lots of different styles--look at how many people cut 'Fever.'"
David's learned a lot about the record business in his nearly 30-year career, during which he's bounced around from record label to record label. "I have gone through the experience of being with a big record company, and I've gone through the experience of being with a small record company," he asserts. "I've gone through the experience of putting out a good record that wasn't heard, and a mediocre record that everybody bought. So I understand what it takes." After his relationship with his last record company, the now-defunct Enigma, turned sour (which may partially explain his eight-year recording hiatus), David was understandably wary of jumping into another deal. "I realized that I'd walk in with my hat in my hand, going, 'Please listen to this, please sign me,' and I thought, 'Wait a minute. I've sold nearly 30 million records, I play to nearly 3000 people a night, and those are people that are potential record buyers. A lot of fans of mine are out there. I know that this is something I should do myself, because I know how to get to them; I know how to reach them,'" he explains.
As David began composing and recording again in the post-Enigma early '90s, he took notice of all the rising independent record labels, and thus the idea for Slamajama, the label David now runs with partner Linda Blum, was hatched. Though Slamajama has only released David's album so far, David fully intends to sign other acts--he even recently scouted for fresh new talent at Las Vegas's first annual EAT'M music conference. "It's something that I really feel committed to as an artist, that there are a lot of extremely talented artists out there that never get heard, never get listened to, because of the tight inner circle of managers, lawyers and record executives," David says savvily. "There are acts that are very viable that may not fit the specific roster or image of a label. I'm looking for talent. And hits. I understand that. The rest of it is pretty easy."
With just one release under its belt, Slamajama is already off to an impressive start. Old Trick New Dog was released two weeks before its official street date over the Internet--despite David's previous negative Internet experience (an impostor posing as David made false statements in a chat room about the sexuality of David's late father, stage actor Jack Cassidy; David now refuses to communicate on the Web, unless it's via his official home page)--and in less than two days, it was top five in online record sales.
"It's an incredible thing to do, to build a small new company, and with your first piece of product, within a week you're in the black!" David raves, flashing the famously photogenic Pepsodent smile that launched 200,000 fanclub memberships. "It's a very cool thing."
