Where is the love for: David Essex.

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Seems like a pretty creative and original artist to me (at least as far as the first half of the 70's go). The singles were great too. Hold me close, Lamplight, Gonna make you a star, Rock on etc.

Maybe a re-appraisal is in order. What say you?

― Kris England, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 16:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Gonna make you a star!

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got love. Hearing those songs on the radio, you could understand what Glam meant.

― brianiac (briania), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

To me he always sounded a lot nearer Dr John and Peter Hamill than Slade and the Sweet although he was of that era.

Is it just me that detects elements of some pretty left field stuff in his work? My guess is that he had a better record collection than many of his contemporaries, not to mention a more finely tuned ear for the strange. Plenty of sarcasm in there too which I always feel is an underrated facet in music.

― Kris England, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm a Yank, so I say: "See her shake on the movie screen. Jimmy Dean- James Dean"

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

He has been reappraised, through Marcello's brilliant piece, near the bottom of this page (5.4.04): http://nostudium.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_nostudium_archive.html

My particular favourite would be the self-titled 1974 album, but you have to admire the utter audacity of "Out on the Street". "City Lights" is astonishing; rather like McCartney-meets-PIL: interestingly, the sleeve notes describe McCartney singing it to Essex in a restaurant... And even "Gold and Ivory" is a reasonable record in all.

― Tom May (Tom May), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm seeing him live in a couple of months, on the same bill as David Cassidy, The Osmonds (MINUS Donny & Alan but PLUS Jimmy), and "Les McKeown's Bay City Rollers". Third row from the front, no less!

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

In a parallel universe he would be on a double bill with the reformed Van Der Graff Generator.

― Kris England, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

He's to appear on a track on the new Saint Etienne album, interestingly... tantalisingly even.

― Tom May (Tom May), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

A friend playing "Window" to me, very loudly, very early in the morning whilst we were both drunk and stoned made a very big impression on me. He was describing how much the record had freaked him out as a child and I could believe it.

To me he is much, much stranger and more extreme than Bowie or his like, and whilst being a grannys favourite too! Marcello's piece, linked by Tom earlier, hits the nail squarely.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Several great singles. Not heard any full albums by him (often the ultimate test as to whether an act really holds up artistically or not). If there is one artist from that era who really deserves reappraisal, I would rather pick Gilbert O'Sullivan though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno. Marcello's heard the albums and makes a pretty damn good case for reappraisal.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I have actually reappraised our Gilbert as well...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 05:16 (twenty-one years ago)

...not forgetting to scroll down quite a bit...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 05:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Marcello's piece is truly excellent (as are the rest of his reviews.) Not much more needs to be said really except: People who have not heard his work, go out and buy some of these reissues..you are in for a real treat.

― Kris England, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 14:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I also remember "That'll Be the Day" being a pretty good rock movie (and perhaps containing Ringo's best acting).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

"Rock On" is, was, and ever shall be.....crap. As was Michael Damien's cover of it, only more so.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"Rock On" is, was, and ever shall be.... glacial. A tribute to the fifties that avoids everything then being reived about the fifties. What else even sounds anything like this. Essex also slots nicely into todays post-punk revivalism.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

reived = revived (above.)

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

He duets witrh Sarah Cracknell on a track, called "Relocate," from the new Saint Etienne album. Unfortunately it's for me the weakest track, melodically, on that CD.

― brittle-lemon, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

A tribute to the fifties that avoids everything then being reived about the fifties

Oh yeah, James Dean...he's real obscure.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

d essex is truly terrifying.

― hold tight the private caller (mwah), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I always assumed that the sound of David Essex's early 70s records was more down to Jeff Wayne than anyone else.

http://www.loadofold.com/boots/wayne.html

― harveyw (harveyw), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

But the self-produced "Gold & Ivory" manages a few genuinely great pieces of work - "Good Morning (Darling)" and the bleak orchestral-dub of the floating prison that is "Britannia" - which goes to show that Essex himself wasn't bereft of sonic adventuruousness, and clearly had a lot of input in terms of what he wanted from Wayne.

I think I would have to go for Essex over O'Sullivan, but simply because I am not aware of GO'S's work over an album's duration, and that those 2 Essex records are so great ("All the Fun of the Fair" is quite close behind "Out on the Street" and "David Essex"). Gilbert O's singles are on the whole magnificent, at least during the 1970s.

Is there much of worth in Essex's post-"Gold & Ivory" work? Marcello seems to close the story very appositely with that record, but I do sense there is more to say, and barring these two singles, I know next to nothing of the rest of his career, bar of course the accepted wisdom that he went definitiely for the MOR grannies' vote: "Me and My Girl (Nightclubbing)" is a genuine oddity and clearly "Silver Dream Machine" I don't mind, either; 's a bit like ELO. "A Winter's Tale" doesn't particularly interest me, though.

― Tom May (Tom May), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't like "Rock On" that much, but I find both "Gonna Make You a Star" and "Hold Me Close" are great pop singles.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex, if you think "Rock On" is crap you really need new ears - the track is astonishing, it has the kind of space i've honestly never heard on any other record. He was breathtakingly beautiful around this time too.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

MC was spot on, in describing the 'raised-eyebrow strings' and the Perry-Whitfield amalgamation/furthering that it is. "Britannia" is, for me, just as good, and focused on pricking British certainties. It's actually one of the most wide-ranging and powerful uses of polemic I have heard; certainly less of a 'pop' song than "Rock On".

― Tom May (Tom May), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Some valid points made but can anyone anywhere defend
either 'Me & my girl nightclubbing" or "Silver Dream Racer" ?
And he made that dreadful TV 'sitcom' on a barge - so crap the name escapes me.

― peter d (peter dee), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"A tribute to the fifties that avoids everything then being reived about the fifties

Oh yeah, James Dean...he's real obscure"

I meant sonically, but I could have been clearer about it.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Silver Dream Racer is an excellent song, reminds me slightly of Tips For Teens by Sparks from "Whomp That Sucker". Love the moroder-esque arpeggio running through it.
The film of the same name is a disgrace however and looks as if it cost about £38 to make. That said, the scene where he gets off with the "burd" in the shower is a lesson in smoothness we could all learn from.

― JohnFoxxs'Juno, Thursday, 12 May 2005 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

As I said somewhere else on ILM recently, Essex's work on Mercury is just as weird as his CBS stuff, if not weirder ("Imperial Wizard" etc.). I might write about it at some point in the future, but not right now.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 12 May 2005 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex, if you think "Rock On" is crap you really need new ears - the track is astonishing, it has the kind of space i've honestly never heard on any other record.

My appreciation of its production is hampered, I think, but its ridiculously crap lyrics. They obscure any positives about the track.

He was breathtakingly beautiful around this time too.

Personally speaking, I think he looks like Neil Diamond with an extra chromosone.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000251P.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 12 May 2005 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd love top hear a dub of "rock on".

xp ha!

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 12 May 2005 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

ah wsnt there a shep pettibone rmx in the 80s? never hunted it down myself, but not hard to get ahold of by the looks of things

― hold tight the private caller (mwah), Thursday, 12 May 2005 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven months pass...

hey, i have to do a poresentation in music class about all songs that james dean appears in and i cant find out the reason why david essex put in his song rock on his name and i cant find a connection to the lines above 'jimmy dean', so can anybody help me with this problem please? thanks..

― seda, Wednesday, 10 May 2006 16:46 (twenty years ago)

OMG awesome. good luck and please shout me out in your presentation!! my name is conrad.

― Confounded (Confounded), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 18:23 (twenty years ago)

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