A tribute to David Cassidy tonight. Hearing the news earlier this evening that David Cassidy had died, owing to complications from organ failure, it’s one more element of our past exiting the scene, and from what I can gather, far too many this year.
To be honest, I never saw The Partridge Family – it was after my time. TV was random for me during that period and I just wasn’t into the idea of the show anyway. But I was certainly aware of the mass appeal David Cassidy had for mainstream audiences. How you couldn’t listen to an AM radio station and not hear one of the many Partridge Family singles which dotted the airwaves at the time.
And David Cassidy tried to break out of that mold of the squeaky-clean kid. The nude cover he did for Rolling Stone was ample proof he wasn’t all that interested in being a Teen Idol – that there was a desire to be taken seriously.
I dug this concert out and gave it a listen. First off, it sounds like it was recorded from an AM radio broadcast, or even a Shortwave broadcast – the sound is dim and the mix sounds haphazard – in fact, pretty crappy. But it was made specifically for Radio Nederland, presumably for their radio network or a shortwave broadcast. It was part of a regular series called Poster which featured many popular acts of the day in concert. And my apologies for the miserable sound quality.
In that context, it’s quite rare. Aside from TV specials, I haven’t seen or heard any live concerts, aside from amateur films taken with no sound. So this one may not have visuals, but at least it’s a record of a concert which took place during the height of David Cassidy’s popularity.
Maybe I had forgotten, or I wasn’t paying too much attention at the time, but listening to this concert, I was struck by how middle-of-the-road the material was. David Cassidy may have been the epitome of the Teen Idol, but his musical material certainly didn’t reflect that.
At any rate, if you can put up with the questionable sound, here is an almost 40 minute slice of a concert performed by David Cassidy during one of his many European tours, recorded for posterity by Radio Nederland and offered as a tribute in memory of his passing.
