David Ackles Biography
20 February 1937, Rock Island, Illinois, USA, d. 2 March 1999, Tujunga, California, USA. Part of a showbusiness family, Ackles' early vaudeville appearances were the beginning of a period as a child actor. He studied literature at college before displaying a compulsive passion for music with compositions for ballet, the visual arts and light comedy. Although initially signed to Elektra Records as a contract songwriter, Ackles persuaded the company to record him. His 1968 debut David Ackles aka The Road To Cairo showcased a mature talent, and his deep, sonorous delivery matched an often desolate lyricism. Ackles' graphic, sometimes chilling, gifts were particularly evident on "The Candy Man' from Subway To The Country, in which a war-scarred amputee exacts retribution by selling pornography to children. Both releases garnered considerable acclaim from both critics and peers. Bernie Taupin, lyricist for Elton John, produced Ackles" third selection, American Gothic, in which the artist's now customary proficiency excelled on the mammoth, melancholic "Montana Song". The UK rock band Spooky Tooth recorded a sensitive version of his "Down River".
Ackles switched labels to CBS Records in 1972, but although Five & Dime maintained his outstanding qualities, commercial indifference doomed his career and no further records followed. Ackles went on to work in film and theatre (his musical Sister Aimee was staged in Los Angeles in 1995), and taught songwriting and theatre studies in California, before his death from cancer in 1999.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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