Musical Musings
And my favorite performance by my favorite actor
Bonnie Tyler died. The Welsh singer was 75 and achieved worldwide fame with her hit song “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It sold 13 million copies and became her standard. Like Tyler, some singers get forever associated with one song. For example, Don McLean and “American Pie.” That monster hit has a long history of interpretations. Is it about the death of Buddy Holly? About Bob Dylan (“the Jester”) stealing the “thorny crown” from “the King” (Elvis Presley)? Or was it mostly beat poetry that sounded good because it rhymed?
McLean has been cagey about this. He was once asked (for the thousandth time) what the song means. He responded, “It means I don’t ever have to work again.”
Some singers define decades. In the 1920s, as record players became more affordable for the middle class, many young ladies swooned over the “dreamy” Rudy Vallee. In the 1930s it was Bing Crosby, in the 1940s Frank Sinatra, in the 1950s Elvis.
In the 1960s the music biz began to focus on bands because of Beatlemania. This ushered in the great era of classic rock, reaching its apotheosis in the 1970s with bands like The Doobie Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Eagles, Boston, Kansas, The Who, Yes, Journey, Chicago, Steely Dan, Supertramp, Electric Light Orchestra, Crosby, Stills & Nash.
I remain out of it with today’s music. I don’t think I’ve heard a whole song by Taylor Swift. I am impressed with the pipes of one Lady Gaga (her halftime show at the 2017 Super Bowl was one of the best). But someone could give me the names of a dozen contemporary singers and I probably won’t have a clue about any of them.
If I had to choose some female singers to take with me to a desert island (by recording, thank you) I’d select Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Jo Stafford, Linda Ronstadt, and the Andrews Sisters.
Those sisters had a sound that’s never been surpassed (though a British trio called The Puppini Sisters comes close). They had huge hits in the ’40s, their most famous being “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” which was first performed in the Abbott and Costello movie Buck Privates (1941). It’s worth a listen:
Who we listen to shapes who we become. That’s what’s so unsettling about our cultural moment and the rise of “influencers.” There are podcasters and bloggers who are motivated by clicks and not by substance.
