For divergent opinions, two links :
1/ if you are in a hurry :
Dick Clark, "the oldest living teenager" has died at the age of 82. I never fully understood his appeal, but I remember my grandfather truly disliked him. My grandfather blamed Clark for ruining music and being involved in payola in the 1950s. It is where Clark first made his fortune...
MORE HERE
2/ if you don't :
A lengthy article by Ben Fong-Torres : Dick Clark: 20 Years of Clearasil Rock, Rolling Stone's 1973 interview with the 'American Bandstand' creator
R.I.P.
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In the early days of his career (1955-1965) he recieved thousands of 45RPM records by artists hoping to get a break. Most of those records are one-of-a-kind and collectors would pay a small fortune to get some of these records. Where are all those records now? In the dump? Did anyone bother to document these records? Another piece of record history - Gone With Payolla!
ReplyDeleteMy guess is he threw them away. I remember reading an article about Clark in the late 1950s. He was being interviewed by a major magazine and the reporter mentioned wanting a picture of him with his record collection. He didn't have a single one at home so he called up some friends in the business and they delivered albums to his home for the photo. I have nothing against him, and he did a lot for rock and roll, but he was basically a salesman.
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