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Do Wah Diddy Diddy & A Mojo Workin' with a Hippy Hippy Shake by Mike Marino The British Invasion

was a musical assault to rival the military precision of the N ormandy Invasion. The Beatles acting as Recon cleared the path for the Rolling S tones, the bad boys of rock and roll, grit and blues with middle finger attitude for the middle class, they may not have been getting "satisfaction," but they h ad balls. While the Beatles merely wanted to hold your hand, the Stones told you to fuck off and get off their cloud. Then there was the Dave Clark Five the one group the Beatles actually felt could knock them off the charts. Lennon in a la ter interview said, "We felt that if we could last 10 years as musicians we'd be doing good. The only group we worried about was the Dave Clark Five!" The DC5 had that keyboard sound going with pretty boy Clark in the drummer's sea t. The key to the Five was the vocalist, Mike Smith. Blues voice with a raspy ed ge that cut through the pop bullshit as clean as a machete in a bamboo forest. A long with their pop hits, the additional album cuts were gems, such as the down and out in the wee small hours of the morning urban rendition of "On Broadway" a nd the party hearty jukin' "Reelin' and A Rockin" with Smiths voice redlining on blues overdrive slamming all four rock and roll gears. Not all animals belong in a zoo nor are all Eric's a burden, but when Eric Burdo n and the Animals awakened the charts with the Rising Sun you knew they wouldn't bring you down. The Animals were as unlikely as it got to being chart toppers, but they were a carnivorous musical ensemble that attacked the charts with a vor acious hunger seasoned with a vicious and raw sound that was just as at home in the Mississippi Delta as it was on Carnaby Street or Picadilly Square. Other groups that blasted to the top of the rock and roll mountain during the as sault included the Swingin' Blue Jeans who put some blue jean ass with hipster c lass in the Hippy, Hippy, Shake and the Spencer Davis group was telling the worl d that now I'm a Man and it was time to Gimme Some lovin' all fronted by the voi ce of a teenage Steve Winwood who would not only define the Spencer Davis sound, but, later would also lead a secondary invasion of Brit artists with the format ion of Traffic and Blind Faith, not to mention his own solo career that continue s into the 21st Century. Every invasion needs comic relief and the Brits fielded their version of Jerry L ewis, the group, in the guise of Freddy and the Dreamers who broke through the c harts with a song and dance called. Do the Freddy..arms flailing like a spastic in heat, and feet kicking out to the side all on a solid bedrock of pop schmaltz . This was followed by "I'm Telling You Know" with almost the same sound, making them the forefathers of the group Ace of Base where each song is indiscernible from the other and just as forgettable. It's one of those songs I hear, rarely, but when I do..I have to admit, I start singing along, but don't tell anybody... also if you do, don't flail your arms about wildly in public it could get you se dated and institutionalized. There were other groups too participating in the invasion such as Manfred Mann w ho hit the Billboard ground running with a jaunty little ditty called "Do Wah Di ddy" and yes, there actually was a Manfred Mann who was a 22 year old South Afri can keyboardist who was raised on rock and jazz. The distinctive vocals and harm onious harmonica riffs were unleashed by Paul Jones who along with Mike Smith an d Eric Burdon had a bluesy rasp that resonated full tilt boogie to any song he p ut his talents too including Hootchie Kootchi Man, Got My Mojo Workin', Bring It To Jerome and Smokestack Lightnin' In a later incarnation the Manfred's became Manfred Mann Earth Band and had another hit on their hands with The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo), a Dylan composition. Justin Bieber? Fuck that! A wimp by any standard...Hermans Hermits with teen fro nt man, Peter Noone rocked! The girls loved him, while some guys wanted to be Mi ck Jagger some wanted to be Noone..Noone got the chicks, we wanted them too, but

, you had to be Noone. From Mrs. Brown You've got a lovely daughter to I'm Henry the Eighth the Hermits conquered the pop charts unlike teen heart throbs David Cassidy, Leif Garrett or gasp, Bieber! Besides watch VH-1 and you can get your N oone fix. I know Peter and have been friends for a few years now and he is the o ne who first told me that his good friend Mike Smith, vocalist for the Dave Clar k Five had lung cancer and wasn't going to make it. I gave to the collection the y were taking up and sadly the "voice" that rocked a generation will stilled. Mi ke is no longer with us, but with friends like Peter he was rich beyond measure. As I write this I am listening to my DC5 vinyl, scratches and all, but man..tha t voice kicks ass!

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