Author Archives: clivedav184z

The American people have done so much for me, have restored so fully my self-confidence, that I am constantly twisting and turning in an effort to live up to their expectations of me. Ingrid Bergman said, “You must go on … Continue reading →

From my Times interview with a broadcasting legend.  Among other things, we talked about his early years at the BBC, his passion for the piano and his unlikely role as a pioneer of world music: There is a strange whistling … Continue reading →

An extraordinary aspect of the decision-making in Washington between 1961 and 1975 was that Vietnamese were seldom if ever allowed to intrude upon it. Successive administrations ignored any claims by the people who inhabited the battlefields to a voice in … Continue reading →

My Times review of Tina Turner’s autobiography, a sequel of sorts to her 1980s bestseller, “I Tina”. Once again, her stage partner Ike  – wife-beater, drug addict and musical pioneer – looms large: As awful as Ike was, there remains … Continue reading →

I always associate northern California with the late sixties, when I spent some time here. The hippie stuff was fun for about five minutes and then, by late ’67, the barbarism had set in.  A typical story: A woman I … Continue reading →

I can’t stop laughing at this. A 1982 cartoon by Trevor Holder, discovered via @PunchCartoons.

When Presley and [Pat] Boone were the two most popular singers among American teens, were they really the idols of opposing camps? Or does that way of seeing them just reflect the fact that the few teenage music fans who … Continue reading →