Although his legal name was Spencer David Nelson Davies (he dropped the ‘e’ from his last name early on), those of us who were fortunate enough to be his friend knew him as Spence.
When my friend died on Monday (October 19), the news hit me like the grill of a Mack truck going 200 (miles or kilometres, you choose). Spence was 81 but I always thought he’d live into his 90’s. His mother did. He came from strong Welsh stock and that’s one of the initial things we had in common.
Every week we seem to be losing more and more of our show business icons. Lesley Gore passed awhile back. She was my first teenage crush. I mentioned that to her the first time I interviewed her. She let me down gently.
The recent passing of Paul Revere of Paul Revere and Raiders is another in an extremely long line of musical celebrity deaths. There have been much bigger names who died in the past few months – Joan Rivers and Robin Williams deaths reverberated around the globe – probably because they both brought so much laughter to the world. I’m in the first wave of Baby Boomers, so Lauren Bacall’s death, though sad, didn’t resonate as much personally. James Garner’s passing did. I used to watch him faithfully every week on “Maverick” when I was growing up and later “The Rockford Files” was must-see TV for me.
But there are three deaths that occurred during the past couple of months that touched me in a way I hadn’t expected.
This month’s title comes from a 1964 medium-sized chart hit (it climbed to # 39 on Billboards’ Hot 100), “We Love You Beatles” by The Carefrees, a British female trio also known as The Vernons Girls (see the rest of that story below). It was an adaptation of “We Love You Conrad” from the Broadway musical (and later movie), “Bye, Bye Birdie”. It was one of many Beatle novelty songs that hit the airwaves and the record stores once Beatlemania firmly established itself in North America starting in February of ’64. Quite a few of these novelty songs were played on the radio, even if their life was brief (this was near the end of the novelty record era), but most of them didn’t make even a dent on Billboard, Cashbox or Record World charts.
Here’s a bit of background on a couple of them.
John Lennon said it best in one of my all time favourite songs of his: “So this is Christmas and what have you done. Another year over, a new one just begun.” I do so wish that Lennon was still here to continue with his amazing talent. But some self-centered asshole with a hand gun and a diseased brain (or a mind-controlled one, for all of you conspiracy buffs) silenced that legendary voice forever 33 years ago.
For much of my adult life, I’ve lived in the past. At least professionally. Writing and producing radio and television programs about events and people from the past – John Lennon being one. Over the years, I’ve written and produced six separate multi hour radio specials on Lennon and created one television documentary for CBC Newsword, (as it was then called).
Over the past 40 years, I’ve been fortunate to interview well over a thousand rock stars, pop stars, musicians, songwriters, session players, engineers and producers. The stars usually have a pat answer (although not always), but I’ve always enjoyed interviewing behind-the-scenes people as they have the best stories and usually don’t get to tell them that often.
I conducted my very first interview when I was 15 years old. Before I continue, I think a little background is in order here.
I’d been interested in radio since I was 13, so for my 15th birthday in July, my parents bought me a tiny portable tape recorder. They say size matters, but this recorder only took 3 inch reels, and that was more than enough for me. It literally fit in my hand (no jokes please). The interview subject was my 8 year old brother, who talked about his friends, school and what life might have in store for him when he grew up. Sadly, I no longer have that tape or I would have blackmailed my brother years ago and retired to Kauai.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 