Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy -
Sep. 21st, 2007 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgYeah, I got it.
The last, (I HOPE) in a series of albums Barry Manilow has put out - Greatest Hits of the (decade), and the latest is the Seventies version.
To its credit, it's the nicest one of the bunch, with a decent package and so on - but. I feel like I have to hide the damn thing.
So keep that in mind -
For the most part, it shares the distinction of being a karaoke album. You want to go sing karaoke with Barry Manilow, pull out any one of these albums, go get plowed and use your imagination. It won't have to take you very far. With very few exceptions to this rule, all of these albums have this very basic issue -
It's Barry Manilow covering material that in its original incarnation, was successful because of the character of the original artists, not because they were great tunes in and of themselves.
However, it isn't without a chuckle or two. And, after all, it is Barry Manilow. You ever had to wonder what exactly was in that song, oh so long ago, wonder no longer. It's Barry - so you can hear every word. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cadhla shares this trait on her CDs - she provides lyric sheets when you can't play the CD. Because you don't need them when you're listening to the CD. And she writes wonderful lyrics.)
Hearing Barry Manilow sing about being "broke and underfed" is amusing all by itself - but the turn he does this tune is worth listening to:
Barry Manilow - 'It Never Rains In Southern California'
So THAT'S what the guy was saying all this time...
(There's a track recorded with Rosie O'Donnell covering Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that I will have to shell out $$$ when it appears as a bonus track somewhere in the future. In the meantime, I have to give mad props to the boy for refusing to appear with - uh - an idiot. He hasn't said a word about anything political since Bush came to office - but has been the first to step up for the troops (recording a special version of "Welcome Home" from the Mayflower Album for them, for example - there's been other things) and anyone who doesn't think my boy is a patriot, hasn't heard Let Freedom Ring, the piece he did for the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The reports are frankly, tempests in teapots, but hey. He said "I strongly disagree with her views. I think she's dangerous and offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her." Atta boy.)
I think, as an apology for having to put up with the stuff that made money, he's also covered some of his own stuff from the seventies - acoustic versions. Now, one could argue that 'Mandy' was always acoustic - I did, and skipped over it - but an acoustic version of 'Copacabana' - that truly over-produced tune off the "Scores" album - acoustic?
It's intimate, quiet and a complete surprise. It took me more than three tries to listen to it, however. I'm dead tired of Copacabana. DED.
Barry Manilow - 'Copacabana' (Acoustic)
And then dive into the four track bonus CD/DVD. More acoustic versions of three more tunes - and then you hit the one track that was worth buying the whole thing for.
Could it be magic? Well, maybe. I've written on this song once before, if you have some means to search the journal before tags came into use - he did this song himself, after putting just about everything into hock to do it. (After he'd tried to get it into press with Tony Orlando's help, who made it sound like "Knock Three Times." Of course that didn't sell. His own didn't do so well, either.)
Then he covered a tune that got attention, and OH YEAH, there was this first album sitting out there.
Barry Manilow - 'Could It Be Magic" - Trevor Horn Dance Mix
Now, damn it. I'll have to make that video now.
Barry Manilow? Go back to Concord Records and go make jazz albums again. RIGHT NOW. I've been very patient. And good.
GWAN.
The last, (I HOPE) in a series of albums Barry Manilow has put out - Greatest Hits of the (decade), and the latest is the Seventies version.
To its credit, it's the nicest one of the bunch, with a decent package and so on - but. I feel like I have to hide the damn thing.
So keep that in mind -
For the most part, it shares the distinction of being a karaoke album. You want to go sing karaoke with Barry Manilow, pull out any one of these albums, go get plowed and use your imagination. It won't have to take you very far. With very few exceptions to this rule, all of these albums have this very basic issue -
It's Barry Manilow covering material that in its original incarnation, was successful because of the character of the original artists, not because they were great tunes in and of themselves.
However, it isn't without a chuckle or two. And, after all, it is Barry Manilow. You ever had to wonder what exactly was in that song, oh so long ago, wonder no longer. It's Barry - so you can hear every word. (
cadhla shares this trait on her CDs - she provides lyric sheets when you can't play the CD. Because you don't need them when you're listening to the CD. And she writes wonderful lyrics.)Hearing Barry Manilow sing about being "broke and underfed" is amusing all by itself - but the turn he does this tune is worth listening to:
Barry Manilow - 'It Never Rains In Southern California'
So THAT'S what the guy was saying all this time...
(There's a track recorded with Rosie O'Donnell covering Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that I will have to shell out $$$ when it appears as a bonus track somewhere in the future. In the meantime, I have to give mad props to the boy for refusing to appear with - uh - an idiot. He hasn't said a word about anything political since Bush came to office - but has been the first to step up for the troops (recording a special version of "Welcome Home" from the Mayflower Album for them, for example - there's been other things) and anyone who doesn't think my boy is a patriot, hasn't heard Let Freedom Ring, the piece he did for the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The reports are frankly, tempests in teapots, but hey. He said "I strongly disagree with her views. I think she's dangerous and offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her." Atta boy.)
I think, as an apology for having to put up with the stuff that made money, he's also covered some of his own stuff from the seventies - acoustic versions. Now, one could argue that 'Mandy' was always acoustic - I did, and skipped over it - but an acoustic version of 'Copacabana' - that truly over-produced tune off the "Scores" album - acoustic?
It's intimate, quiet and a complete surprise. It took me more than three tries to listen to it, however. I'm dead tired of Copacabana. DED.
Barry Manilow - 'Copacabana' (Acoustic)
And then dive into the four track bonus CD/DVD. More acoustic versions of three more tunes - and then you hit the one track that was worth buying the whole thing for.
Could it be magic? Well, maybe. I've written on this song once before, if you have some means to search the journal before tags came into use - he did this song himself, after putting just about everything into hock to do it. (After he'd tried to get it into press with Tony Orlando's help, who made it sound like "Knock Three Times." Of course that didn't sell. His own didn't do so well, either.)
Then he covered a tune that got attention, and OH YEAH, there was this first album sitting out there.
Barry Manilow - 'Could It Be Magic" - Trevor Horn Dance Mix
Now, damn it. I'll have to make that video now.
Barry Manilow? Go back to Concord Records and go make jazz albums again. RIGHT NOW. I've been very patient. And good.
GWAN.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 08:05 pm (UTC)Right now, Mason Williams is playing in the background. You remember him... the guy that wrote Classical Gas and The Smothers Brothers Theme.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 10:43 pm (UTC)But THANK YOU for sharing the "Magic" dance mix. He was doing this on tour for a while in, oh, I guess it was the early '90s, and I LOVED it. I have this very clear memory of his backup singers performing the number at Shoreline; there was actually a man in the group, who took the first verse and changed the line to "You're my lifeline/Angel of my lifetime," which gave it a nice punch that I thought worked well with the new tempo. (He also did this fabulous leap down the center-stage staircase to join Barry and the other girls front and center for the last chorus.)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-22 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-22 06:57 am (UTC)Singing With The Big Bands and it's been out since 1994. He also did a lovely tribute album to Frank Sinatra you might want to give a spin as well.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-22 01:46 am (UTC)When your icon boogied into view, I was listening to Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang covering Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain," and it worked perfectly. (Of course, in my experience, everything fits everything perfectly, but still...)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-22 07:00 am (UTC)Nobody knows how to suffer like Barry Manilow...but then again, nobody finds people so interesting as Barry Manilow, either.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-22 03:33 am (UTC)