Quote:
Originally Posted by Neapolitan
Well that Rotten Tottenham charlatan, all this time I thought he wrote the lyrics, I'm stunned...
Well, not that I'm challenging the veracity of your statement but how do you know?
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Been a follower of the group for years, there are a lot of websites around with very interesting info on what went on in that band. I got a chance to speak to Mike Smith when he toured the US a few years back with his "Rock Engine". He was very critical of Clark's using his name on the songs he (Smith ), Davidson and Payton wrote. There's a guy in the UK called Ron Ryan who has a very good website called Ron Ryan Music ( it won't let me post the link as I'm a new member) where he tells how Clark "conned" him out of his songwriting credits.
In addition of course is the basic fact that Clark didn't drum on any of the records either, that was UK session drummer Bobby Graham. It's sad for the other guys in the group that the guy taking all the credit and kudos is basically "economical with the truth" , maybe they should have been named the "Fake Clark Five".
One other lovely bit of exaggeration is on record sales. At the height of the group's success around 1965 they put out an album claiming on the sleeve they'd sold 35 million records. In 1993 they ( Clark) released the group's first cd , in the liner notes he claimed the group had sold 50 million records even though they'd released nothing since 1977. The cd failed chartwise and Clark never released another album until 2008. The sleeve notes on that says the group sold 100 million records. So effectively with no product on the market they double their world wide sales in 15 years! Some achievement by anyones standards!