First, an insane example of paparazzi molesting Chaz and Cher: http://x17online.com/celebrities/cher/cher_steps_out_with_her_son-02252010.php
Vulture-like photographers descend on them as they separately exit an art show on Melrose. It really shows the true claustrophobia of the situation.
Of course by watching this, you become part of the problem. The same photos can be seen on the Huffington Post. Sigh.
I've been a bit preoccupied with potential job loss, annoying battles with people here and there and other such things the past two weeks. On a slight bright note, I have been receiving some awesome Cher Zine 3 content that I am really excited about and I've started to write some poems for a new book. But it's been a stressful few weeks all around.
As I was driving to my job this morning, I listened to a Wilson Phillips CD my friend Christopher gave me as a gift for puppy sitting his two girls Zella and Kizzy. (He also gave me the awesome Nicole Atkins Neptune City album).
I do like Carnie and Wendy on TV (especially Carnie on Celebrity Ghost Stories, a show I absolutely adore) but I have never really liked the singing group Wilson Phillips. Their records always seemed passionless and vapid and their videos dull and mediocre. But I was willing to give their 2004 album of 60s and 70s covers a try. It was their first album in ten years and they covered not only their parents' material but Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.
Most of the album songs are solid misses. Flaccid remakes. Uninspired. Chynna does do a passable version of her parents' "Monday Monday" and the cover of "Go Your Own Way" is quite good, but I think that's more a testament to how freaking awesome the song itself is. However, the album liner notes by Mitchell Cohen made me do a double take.
We have gathered her to celebrate California. California music to be more exact…a myth that radio wrought, and everyone bought…
Blame Brian Wilson and John Phillips. While you're at it, blame P.F. Sloan and Jimmy Webb and Jan Berry and Jackie DeShannon and any number of Eagles and anyone who ever wrote a song that David Crosby sang harmony on. Not to mention McGuinn and McGuire and a few transplanted Canadians. They defined Southern California for anyone with a record player…
Getting Wilson Phillips to embrace this idea was one thing; getting everyone to agree on material was something else altogether. Right now you're looking at the track listing and asking, "Where are the Association and the Turtles and Love, the Merry-Go-Round and the Grass Roots and Johnny Rivers, Zevon and Newman and Nilsson? Where, for goodness sake, is Sonny Bono?
Wow! That is something. To initiate Sonny into this list of the major artists of the 70s and 60s who defined the California sound. You don't see that everyday. And it is really, really cool. And long over due. And part of a revisionist re-evaluation of Sonny & Cher's contribution to rock music. To not only include him in the list but single him out at the end…quite extraordinary.
It made me very glad this CD crossed my path.
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