AlternativeSoundtrack4 #22
(Dee Clark – Raindrops)
As yesterday’s slice of musicology pronounced…themusicologist is ‘A Little Busy’ at the moment so i’ll keep it brief. The dialogue today says it all. Eddie’s done his conkers and still hasn’t learnt any ‘character’, Bert still hasn’t learnt any compassion and Sarah, (who comes down to the arena unnoticed), learns that maybe Eddie is not the man of her ‘dreams’. Heart wrenching….
The music is courtesy of the majestic Delectus ‘Dee’ Clark whose voice is how I have always imagined an angels would sound. Yet another BIG mod/ernist dancehall classic, (and eary musicologist memory) from the dawn of a new era, (1961), and yet another on the Vee Jay label which between the years 1960 – 1962 did as much as any label to direct the new sound. Unfortunately that wasn’t backed up by artist renumeration and even though the record sold TWO million copies and hit #2 on the ‘Pop’ charts it signalled the end rather than the beginning for Dee who never scored another hit and ended up absolutely ‘pot-less’ in a Welfare motel in the 1980’s….Tragic.
But his memory lives on and the music he made is as good as it gets…So even though he is no longer with us…Dee this one’s in honour of you..
themusicologist 
from the moment Sarah agrees to go on this trip with Eddie every scene is like watching a train crash happening in slow motion….scene after painful scene unfolds with nobody hearing what anybody else is saying!..especially Eddie who seems in a world of his own hellbent on beating somebody!…..For me Raindrops was and still sounds one of the best songs of that magical early 60’s…I used to wait excitidly for it to be played on Sunday’s at the Lyceum and relish every note and beat of it!! I dont think there was anywhere you could have bought it back in the day so it was a matter of waiting until the next sunday to hear it again…so big thanks for including on the alternative!
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Hope I’m not boring you???
Still digging away on the first of the Sweet Soul Music CD’s. This nugget relates to Dee Clark’s 1961 smash hit Raindrops…….
This is how he remembered writing it…. “We were coming from New York, heading to Chicago on the turnpike. It was raining cats and dogs. I was sitting back and my guitarist Phil Upchurch was driving. I was keeping tune to the windshield wipers, like ‘Oh rain, oh rain…’ then I got my writing tablet out of the glove compartment and just started writing. Inspiration struck. When I got to Chicago I thought ‘Oooh man, I might have something here’.”
Man, you sure did “have something here” Mr. Clarke!!
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