sing it just for me barry!
Here's a shot of me watching Barry Manilow playin' the Hilton in Vegas. This is the kind of material PBS is running at 1:00 a.m. during their pledge drive. Yeah, the same high-minded progressive network that brings you Nova and Frontline. The whole experience, and the sum of its parts, reminded me of watching an episode of Sid & Marty Kroft's "
Lidsville" (the theme song of which I've always given high praise to).
I caught myself early on sneering at Barry with my haughty superior attitude. Then I realized, you can hate this crap but you can't hate the MAN. BM's just doing his thing for the bread and the dames. He's just a workin' schlub like the rest of us.
Something is perhaps askew with my life right now.
sing it just for me barry!
10 comments:
I have a splinter in my finger!
In the mid-'80s (I was in my mid-20s, do the math) I went out with this woman a couple of times. I decided not to pursue the relationship when she told me her favorite music was Barry Manilow. (Of course I didn't tell her that was the reason.)
Looking back, that seems embarrassingly shallow of me. But I was a musician coming from a punk rock background, and at that age the cognitive dissonance would have been just too much to handle.
(And curse you, Geritopia, for dredging up the Lidsville theme from the cultural detritus of my memory! Take this: Banana Splits!)
more spew: it's worth noting that manilow has a tractor beam pull on a certain demographic of females. i won't go into too much detail but i think there's a lot of sweat pants, slimfast and big hair involved. between barry and richard simmons there's enough hypnotic sway to overthrow the globe.
Years ago, I saw Barry walking down the avenue talking with Prince (when he was still known as). I think it was prince. If not, then some other music man of similar caliber. I'm aging, and my memory is fading.
You all know you like Barry Manilow. You're just too stinkin' cool to admit it. He can actually sing. (swoon swoon). Yeah, when I was a kid, I listened to 93KHJ (on my Trans sistor radio). Those were the days.
PBS leaves me offended anymore. It's almost more commercial than commercial TV. I think the Pres of KCET is one of the highest paid TV execs in the world (or some trivial thing like that that allows me to validate my disdain for them).
um, i wonder if perhaps--and i'm going out on a real limb here--mr. manilow might, just might, be gay. he was married briefly, decades ago...and never since. has the man ever even been linked to any starlets/porn stars/plain ol' women? no matter--for my money, "weekend in new england" will always be a superb ballad.
Yeah. What IS it about him?
Coud it be magick?
Barry Manilow. I understand that you can't like him, but you can't really hate him either. He's unassailable, in a way. He probably doesn't need a bodyguard, because no one would ever try to hurt him. No wonder he's billed as the, "Most Innocuous Man In Show Business."
There's something about this Manilow that gets readers attention. He seems to please people as well as divides 'em. I think he'd be the perfect secret weapon for our government. GET ME MANILOW!
OK, yes, I'm somewhat ignorant, I'll admit, and I'm something of a, "slut," so to speak (but only in the literal sense), but that doesn't mean...
What were we talking about again?
I got the splinter out!
Who the hell is Mary Bantilow?
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