Author: Cher Scholar (Page 98 of 102)

For some reason I’m obsessed with the old Alan Parson’s Project song "Dammed If I Do." I used to have it on one of my old K-Tel albums as I kid. Now it’s in steady rotation on my iPod. Last weekend my boyfriend was singing "Eye in the Sky" apropos of nothing and I dug out my old Alan Parson’s Greatest Hits long playing vinyl album. (I’ve been playing a lot of my LPs lately to try to weed them out). I played him "Damned if I Do" and he danced around the room making fun of it. His friend has been lending him symphonic performances of bands like Pink Floyd and The Doors. I asked him to get me an orchestral version of Alan Parson’s Project. He said "Alan Parson’s Project is an orchestral version of Alan Parson’s Project."

By the way, Cher should not cover this song. "I can’t seem to seize the light! I’ve done everything but I can’t get it right." You’ve already played it out in your head, haven’t you?

I particularly like the chorus: "Damned if I do, damned if I don’t but I love you." It changes to "Damned if do, damned if I don’t cos I love you" halfway through. Completely changes the meaning changing ‘but’ to ‘cos.’ Proves what one connecting transition word can do to alter the sense of a sentence. Lesson in poetry, right there.

Anyway, I found some interesting Cher-links this week.

My google blog search brought up this odd page: thin celebrity photos posted to inspire extreme dieting. I love the 80s Cher Jack LaLanne photos found here (and the awsome other-version from the Vogue/Dark Lady album cover) however further research showed this forum site was part of a larger "Pro-ana" site which is short for "pro-anorexia.

"Welcome to the Pro-Ana Forum! Pro-ana is a largely Internet-based movement which views the eating disorder anorexia nervosa as a lifestyle choice rather than a medical condition."

There’s a thread on the group called "threats to kill oneself" and "are you lacking in energy."

Sigh. I would be open to this assertion except personal experience tells me this death-defying lifestyle choice makes your family and friends cry.

Lots of kewl skinny Cher pics have been posted and oogled over at Thinspiration.

Here’s a link to the Time Magazine article from March 17, 1975. This is a very important piece. It was a whirlwind of commotion on the Cher timeline. Her solo show was just starting and she was doing interviews to re-introduce herself to a country who wanted her to go back to Sonny so they could watch The Sonny & Cher Show again because that’s the show they LOVED. The dress shown on the cover caused a stir when she showed up wearing it at a The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and the press thought it showed more skin than it did.

Then there was the fact that a celebrity was appearing on the cover of time Time Magazine. Unless there’s a scandal occurring, this isn’t even done that often today. Time rarely calls out a celebrity phenomenon. In 1975, it was even more rare and it shows Cher was a legitimate cultural Phenomenon with a capital P in 1975. She was…HOT. She was called out as the most photographed woman in the world then (and this is with Jackie O running around), she had two teen-style magazines dedicated to her that year and and two pulp biographies published, one by George Carpozi (Cher) and one by Vicki Pelligrino (Superstar of the 70s….Cher!). She was the IT girl of 1975.

The article in Interview Magazine, December 1998 is not as great as the Warhol issue of Interview from the early 80s (with that wow-wonderful Richard Bernstein cover – I had it framed), but it’s still interesting in that she talks about Sonny, motherhood, biggest fears, and an odd little story about how she willed together the cast of Tea with Mussolini. She also has some interesting comments at the end about the process of being interviewed.

FYI: I write for another blog (a blog subsidiary of Ape Culture) where I do things like compose haikus for Sanjaya and critique other matters of American Idol (don’t hate me…it’s my job!). I also make inappropriate personal declarations in a manner I’m not wont to do here.

I watched the Charlie Rose interview from 1996 on Google Video. Overall it was a great interview. What I like about Charlie Rose is that he asks interesting questions; then he probes for clarification when an interviewee is vague. And Cher is often vague, which is, needless to say, her strategic prerogative. But it was refreshing to see a talking head challenge her. Rose does that in gently prodding way. So we get some interesting information regarding Cher’s interior life, her experiences in therapy, her criticisms of herself.

Charlie and Cher talk about the kind of insecure personality show business attracts. Cher also expresses disappointment in herself for not being stronger at times in order to do the right thing more often. This interview shows Cher is more level-headed and sincere about being a decent, stand-up person than many celebrities of her stature. It also hints that she might have a more realistic idea of her accurate self, which must be a challenge after living in the fame bubble so long.

Rose did irritate me with his constant comments about her smarts and stupidity. He spent way too much time telling her how smart she was, she spent way too much time telling us how smart she was, and then toward the end Rose calls her "so stupid" for believing, in a fit of guilt, that being a working mom might have contributed to her daughter being gay. First of all, this is not a correct idea but it’s not stupid. Many mothers feel guilt about being working moms – and many of them feel responsible about all sorts of things about their kids. It’s a normal maternal reaction; admittedly a knee jerk reaction after adjusting to a secret exposed. No big whoop.

But smarts is an issue that keeps coming up with Cher, going way back to her comments about being a naïve young girl and not being able to match socks, being dyslexic and not doing well in school, and to funny naivetés like thinking Mt. Rushmore was a natural phenomenon.

I was shocked at Rose’s usage of the word stupid. Coming from him, it sounded rude, especially after all the unnecessary smart buttering. It made me question his whole attitude.

I don’t really think Cher is stupid. But I’ve never played Trivial Pursuit with her so what do I know? I don’t think Cher has crazy mad verbal skills but I do think she has many smart visual skillz, plenty of street smarts (Sonny often derided her ‘smart mouth’). She has also exhibited many smarts in putting together a professional, talented and loyal entourage of business players. Such a dummy would never last so long in show biz.

The Cher clip only runs for a half an hour. The second half is an interview with Michael Keaton. Thanks to the Follow This You Bitches blog for finding the interview on Google Video.

Btw, the last time I played Trivial Pursuit I only knew one answer and it had to do with Harry Potter. 🙁