By now, everyone knows of the death of Dick Clark earlier this week at the age of 82, and, no doubt, you have perused the news obits that talked of Clark's career...DJ in Philadelphia, American Bandstand, game show developer and host, producer, and (sadly, THIS is how many people below, say, age 40, will remember him), MC in Times Square on New Year's Eve.
That Clark was the ultimate arbiter of rock & roll music and acts for a number of years has been testified to this week by many - Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon to name a few of the earlier ones. I do know that the one group that Clark didn't score for his show back in the day was The Beatles. I wonder if that bothered him?
Two memories for me. One, there was no bigger fan of American Bandstand back when it was a Monday through Friday afternoon show from Philadelphia than my mother. I can still remember coming home from school and seeing my mother watching Bandstand because she liked seeing "all those kids" dance. The other memory is a negative one. The artists who appeared on Bandstand never sang live. All the songs were lip-synced. I never liked that. It seemed like cheating.
We also note the passing of Levon Helm at the age of 71. Helm was the drummer and oft-time lead singer for the 60's and 70's rock group The Band. The Band is famously known as being Bob Dylan's first electric back-up band, but they carved out a niche of their own as well. Never super-duper stars, The Band's influence has filtered down to generations of southern rock/country bands in the intervening years since their heyday.
Enjoy one of their hits now:
RIP Dick Clark and Levon Helm
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