Works
Fred Dagg first came to public attention as a closing satire item on the NZBC farming show, Country Calendar - much as he does currently with Brian Dawe weekly on the 7.30 Report. He went on to become a household name in New Zealand in 1975, with the release by Clarke (as Dagg) of two singles with EMI, "Traditional Air"/"Unlabelled", and "We Don't Know How Lucky We Are"/"Larry Loves Barry", with the latter making it to number 17 on the national music single charts.
An album called Fred Dagg's Greatest Hits followed and was a massive seller. Thirty years after its release this album remains one of New Zealand's all-time biggest selling records.
Another single recorded with Diamond Lil was an even bigger hit in 1976. "Gumboots"/"Save The Last Dance For Me" climbed to number 6 on the charts. "Gumboots" was a modified version of Billy Connolly's "If It Wasna For Your Wellies", itself an adaptation of the old song "The Work Of The Weavers".
A second album, Fred Dagg Live was released in 1976. Following on in the style of the first, it was also a huge seller.
1977 saw the release of the film Dagg Day Afternoon, co-directed and co-written by John Clarke and Geoff Murphy, and starring Fred Dagg. The film, under 45 minutes long, is essentially a series of sketches tied together with a loose narrative about Dagg's secret mission to find a "bionic sheep" (or 6 million dollar ram) which has been lost by the government. While disappointing on the narrative level the film nevertheless is a showcase for the rare gem that is early Kiwi comedy, highlighting a penchant for comedic understatment, an emphasis on New Zealand speech patterns (verbal reversals and wordplay) and the ironic stabs at the obvious.
A third and final album was released in 1979 called The Fred Dagg Tapes.
In 1998 the Fred Dagg Anthology CD was released by Columbia. It contains a range of John Clarke's material, including most of the items Fred Dagg is most remembered for. A lot of the second half of the Anthology isn't genuine "Fred Dagg" material, having been created by Clarke after he'd retired Fred Dagg and moved to Australia. A number of mock interviews were first broadcast on Australian current affairs television, and lampoon prominent people (such as businessman Alan Bond) who would not be familiar to a New Zealand audience. There are also six "farnarkeling" reports, which parody sports news and were first performed by Clarke on the ABC's The Gillies Report.
"We Don't Know How Lucky We Are!" was re-released in 1998 with revised lyrics. This re-recording was driven by Graeme Hill, and Sky TV's Sports Cafe.
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“Men seem anxious to accomplish an orderly retreat through the centuries, earnestly rebuilding the works behind them, as they are battered down by the encroachments of time; but while they loiter, they and their works both fall prey to the arch enemy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)