David Cassidy Loses His Partridge Plumage

David Cassidy still sports the long, shaggy hairdo of Keith Partridge--plus a few gray hairs--but says he wants to shed his old teeny-bopper image with a comeback album.

“The reason I’m back is not to try to re-create that,” Cassidy said of the days of swooning 14-year-olds and nude poses for Rolling Stone magazine, “but to try to create today.”

The former star of “The Partridge Family” television show would just as soon forget such mid-70s pop tunes as “I Think I Love You.” With his new album, called simply “David Cassidy,” he hopes listeners will see his serious side.

“I was really naive enough to think people won’t assume the music I’m playing on the show and that light, fluffy sort of airhead character was really me,” Cassidy said.

After leaving songwriting and television, Cassidy raised racehorses and worked in theater after a few solo albums failures.

One song on the new record, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” is about trying to find his way through life.

“It’s about the jive that corrupts your sense of dignity, your sense of integrity,” he said.