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Category: Music (Page 31 of 35)

Ask Cher Scholar: Cherokee People

October 23, 2008 / / 8 Comments

On Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Joanne Nichols wrote:

My 27 year old son and I have a bet.  I say Cher did record and release "Cherokee People" (or is it "Cherokee Nation"?)  he says she did not.  Please help and tell me where I can find the release.

I’ve received this question three times, each time the Cher student is practically positive they have heard a Cher version. I’m not telling Cher fans anything they don’t already know to say Cher never recorded this song.

I guess the more interesting question for us is why does the public at large consistently and passionately insist that she did.

Is it because Cher did cover similar Native-American themed kitschy songs in the 70s?

Is it because the song has a kind of organic Cher sound to it? It’s hard to sing it yourself and not sound like Cher?

There are many better 70s drama-fest songs I would have preferred Cher cover, however: "Son of a Preacher Man," "The Night the Lights Went Down in Georgia" (which Cher was offered, but Sonny turned down and Vicki Lawrence recorded it). Cher did do a cover of "One Tin Soldier" for a Comedy Hour Christmas show.

Cher scholars, what are your thoughts?

    

Cake Cutting Music

October 13, 2008 / / 0 Comments

MV5BMjEwNTA0ODM2Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNTkyNzM2__V1__SX420_SY357_ According to the wedding magazine "The Knot" (Fall/Winter), Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" is a good song for cake cutting. Hmmm. I think it's better for a Father/Daughter dance. Is that creepy? What do you think?

Wouldn't a Sonny & Cher cake topper be sweet?

Cher in Translation

October 13, 2008 / / 6 Comments

Cher-italian I didn’t post last week. There was just a lot of drama going on and work was utterly busy. Yeah, I said it. Utterly. My upcoming wedding, planning for which had gone off track for about 6 months,  got back on track last week just in time for the economy to collapse and the political process to implode with crazy candidate behavior and, quite frankly, what seems like scary lynch mobs forming. I’m addicted to election news.

Then I joined a Ulyssesreading group with my bf and some people at work which has been very challenging but rewarding (so far I like James Joyce's overall structure and much of his poetic language but the stream of consciousness, after pages and pages, fails to serve). I’ve been trying to keep up in pottery (did the annual trip to Ojai this weekend where we revisited Sylvia Raz and found a new favorite sculptor, Ted Gall). I’ve also been trying to organize the wedding planning schedule from a 6-month stockpile of notes, keep up with political emails and do the 9 to 5 (which has entailed a lot of web postings of foreign language translations on Internet policy). And then there have been the interpersonal disappointments, the alienation, the self-doubt,  the mild passive-aggressive persecution, the ennui. What can you do?

But I’ve wanted to publish this blog post for months, back when Cher scholar Peter sent me a slew of Sonny & Cher singles on CD in Italian and French. There was a lot to chew on and I kept waiting for my bf to have time to translate the three rare songs; but that time never materialized. He’s just not as dedicated to Cher scholarship as I am. What gives?

I did learn many interesting facts about Sonny & Cher singing in translation in the 60s. Can I just say how very kewl the whole thing is, Cher singing in Italian and French? I really love it. Almost as much as Cher with an Italian accent in Moonstruck. It can really make you think about a song in a different way. According to one website, in 1966 Cher herself competed in Italy with four covers of "Bang Bang" already on the charts by cover artists.  How crazy is that? And Ahmet Ertegun said the song was” one of the greatest post-WW2 songs ever written.” I mean it’s good but… calm down.

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Rags, Stars, 80s Videos, Rosetta Stone, Black Rose, Les Dudek, Elton John, Kathy Griffin and Whatever Else I Can Throw Into One Blog Post

September 4, 2008 / / 2 Comments

BlackRoseIP-2 80s Videos

I’m not even gonna go near The Enquirerthis week or this year for that matter (between all the John Edwards, Sarah Palin and Cher stories I’ll lose my mind). 

I started a new ceramics class last Saturday and then came home and threw a small dinner party that evening. On Sunday I was so exhausted I crashed and spent 12 straight hours watching “80 Hours of 80s” on VH1-Classic. It was like a flashback to my teen years where I spent the days and night watching 80s videos. All day Sunday I kept saying I should at least read my mail during the commercials and videos I hated (like U2s "With or Without You" or anything by The Romantics) but I found myself just as mesmerized as I was 20 years ago through every single ridiculous yet charming video.

It makes no sense. I feel like I have severe attention deficit watching modern videos with all their jump cuts and poses. But 80s videos, were nothing but mindless shenanigans in front of a camera happen, those suckers hypnotize me for hours. I wasted the entire day laying on the couch. I didn’t even eat much. I even saw a few video’s I’d never seen before and decided to seriously re-evaluate Sinead OConnor (due to "I Want Your Hands on Me") and reconfirmed my yen for P.I.L. (with "Rise"). Then one video practically got me to giddy as I hit the record button on my Crap-o (my Comcast DVR) – it was like 1986 and I was hitting Play on my prehistoric VCR that would groan for two seconds before actually recording anything so that now I have tapes and tapes of videos with the beginnings missing. But this song I saw only once or twice in the 80s but loved it, LOVED IT (and could never find on 45, CD or even now on iTunes!) The Producers singing “What’s He Got That I Aint Got” – perfect 80s-ness.

Blog Questions

To answer a few recent questions posted on the blog:

  1. How is Rosetta Stone going? I love it so far and am still trying to find time to work on it more often. It's designed to teach you how to learn a language as you first did as a toddler. I got 98% on my first lesson; and I am so not a left-brained/memorize-it sort person. So that’s a good sign. 
  2. Do I think the unavailability of Starshas contributed to its current cult status among fans? Most probably so, but I still think that fact is more of a detriment to Cher’s long-term respect as a talented musical artist than it is a kewl underground gem we can all bond over. Why? Because it’s not like Neil Young who maybe has a rare great album that’s become a cult find but he also has plenty of other critically acclaimed albums to rest his laurels on. Cher has lots of pop albums that are easy to find and a few awesome ones that are hard to find. It’s only a cool thing among fans. The rest of the world is still in the dark about it. I will concede that I’m not sure Cher’s respect among critics will even yet treat Stars fairly, but I think she’s definitely getting there, each year more and more respect.

Kathy Griffin Meets Cher
Kathy Griffin’s implored Rosie O'Donnell to introduce her to Cher in exchange for getting Rosie into some braniac conference. This all happened on a recent episode of Griffin’s reality show. Here’s a story about her meeting with Cher.

Black Rose
I was doing research on the spelling of Les Dudek’s name for a Cher Glossary I’m putting together for the revamp of CherScholar.com and I came across this interesting Wikipedia entry that claims there are enough spare tracks for a Black Rose (see kewl pic above) album #2 and that "Don’t Trust that Woman" was written by Les Dudek and Cher. But I thought the co-writer was Elton John (as Lady Choc Ice) and that the song ended up on John’s album Leather Jackets (see the lyrics and credits here on an Elton John discography site) and as explained by Elton John and Cher on The Joan Rivers Show.

However, lesdudek.com list the same song same lyrics for his Gypsy Ride album and claims it was written by Cher and himself: http://www.lesdudek.com/disco/gypsy.htm. Here's the sound clip: http://www.lesdudek.com/disco/byte/gr/gypsy09.mp3.

Yahoo Music clears it up and says it was written by all three of them.

Three things I conclude from this lesson:

  1. Cher can co-write some catchy sh*t.
  2. This song can be contorted into vastly different pop and rock genres.
  3. I like Les Dudek’s voice. I really do.

Do you think there was a jam session with all three of them on this little piece? Nah.

  

Wrecking Crew Documentary is Awesome

August 25, 2008 / / 3 Comments

Cherwc If you live in LA, go see the documentary The Wrecking Crew at the Arclight in Hollywood this week only. The movie not only has good commentary from Cher, it has a semi-lengthy clip of Sonny & Cher in sessions for their Wondrous World album and interviews and conversations about the many musicians and producers who worked with them in the 60s and 70s. You get a great sense of what recordings were all about during that time of that frenetic westcoast sound S&C were part of. You also get:

  • Extensive interviews and discussions about drummer Hal Blaine, who played on many a Cher and Sonny & Cher album.
  • Interviews with Snuff Garrett – including a clip where he talks about “Gypsys Tramps and Thieves” a fact that made me rethink the musicians used for the All I Ever Need is You album. If the Wrecking Crew played for Snuff on the solo Kapp album Cher in 1971, they most likely played on the duet album as well instead of S&C’s live band at the time who played on their first live album.
  • Jimmy Webb was also interviewed extensively but not about anything related to Cher.
  • This tightly knit group of studio musicians were more often than not excluded from album credits even though they were the real musicians behind so many iconic albums, even for heavy-hitters like The Beach Boys and The Byrds. Conventional wisdom was that it would have been embarrassing to credit them. Buy at least producers like Phil Spector and Snuff Garret made sure they got paid well. It’s also interesting to note that Sonny Bono did credit them on Sonny & Cher’s debut album Look at Us: Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine, Don Randi, Mike Rubini, Don Peake, Julius Wechter.
  • Cher commented that she didn’t know how great these musicians were when she recorded with them; she was very shy and new to recording and she was basically just trying not to get in anyone’s way. Years later other musicians would ask her about working with these musicians with awe and respect.
  • The Wrecking Girl had one chick, Carol Kaye, and she was awesome! Worth seeing the movie for her contributions alone. She explained first hearing and working on “The Beat Goes On”  and coming up with that great bass hook. She sang how the song sounded as written (kind of adult contemporary, not very groovy) and how she thought ‘we gotta light this thing up!’ Very funny. She said Sonny loved it and they used it. Her story was indicative of how these studio musicians contributed in substantial ways to songs from Herb Albert to The Beach Boys.
  • More interesting tid-bits about what contributed to the wall of sound: the ceramic walls of Gold Star Studios, the bleeding between playing instruments and making musicians do so many takes, they became exhausted (less showboating).
  • If you see the movie at the Arclight in Hollywood, you are in a one-mile radius of where all these great songs were recorded. Amazing insight into 60s California sound.

I also learned a lot about Plas Johnson and Tommy Tedesco who was doing guitar on just about every iconic piece of music from the 60s or 70s, including many TV themes like Bonanza and MASH.

At the end of the movie there was a Q&A with Don Randi (who played piano on Look at Us)  with the film’s director. The film is doing very well in festivals and showcases but is looking for a distributor. They do plan a DVD and soundtrack at some point. There are 125 songs in the movie, so that will be an interesting soundtrack. Check Wreckingcrewfilm.com for more information. Or read my post from last week.
   

Cher Houses

August 21, 2008 / / 2 Comments

Biscayne3 Last week, Jimmy Dean asked me if my comments about Biscayne Bay were a joke. Alas…no.

Here is the house:  http://www.luxist.com/2008/08/07/chers-former-home-in-key-biscayne-estate-of-the-day/

Here is the lyric:
(note: most sites get the lyrics to this song wrong; their attempts at the first sentence don't even make sense. Cher scholar Tyler was the only one I found who posted them right.  

Pirate
Lyrics by: Gary Harju
Music by: Steve Dorff and Larry Herbstritt

He sailed on in with the summer wind
That blows on Biscayne Bay
Everybody called him Pirate
Dark and handsome in his own way
And the fire in his eyes
Lit all the fire inside of me
And soon we were feeling so much more
than the wind and waves and sea

Chorus:
Pirate, I'm not gonna take your soulPirate
I only want the right to love you
I know the sea won't let you go
Pirate, my love will only chain you down
So just know how much I love you
And then turn that ship around

Second Verse.
Every time that he'd sail back to me
We'd fall in love again
And my face would fill with wonder
At all the places that he'd been
But I knew his sweetest love song
Was when he heard the trade winds blow
And I loved him way too much
To tell the secret he should know

Chorus
Third Verse…
Now as I watch in silence
Another young man goes to sea
And his silhouette is stirrin' up
A painful memory
And I know his heart is set to sail
But mine is set to cry
Cause I feel as the way I did
The day his Daddy said goodbye
I told him…..

Speaking of Cher houses, the brownstone in the movie Moonstruck just sold for $4 million instead of the asking price of $5 million. Times are tough, man.

The LA Times also wrote about the selling of Cher’s Malibu house which they call The Palm Palace.

     

Sonny & Cher Musicians and Cher in a Movie Alert

August 21, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Here’s a link to a story on a new documentary about The Wrecking Crew, a gang of studio musicians who for Sinatra, Streisand, S&C and many others and included both a young Glen Campbell and a young Leon Russell.

Coincidentally, I just made Mp3s of three songs from my only Leon Russell album:

  • Tightrope" – which is why I picked up the album in a used record store in St. Louis back in the 80s.

    "I’m up in the spotlight
    Oh does it feel right
    Whoa, the altitude seems to get to me"                        
               

  • "Stranger in a Strange Land" – which I can actually hear Elijah covering nicely in my head. Or Cher too for that matter.
       
  • And the oft recorded "Song For You" – Russell wrote this song so I feel this should be the definitive version, not The Carpenters’ or Ray Charles'. However, I do think Cher’s version is great, far better than The Carpenters version because she sounds more experienced to Karen Carpenter’s voice of innocence. I feel the inverse applies to their dual recordings of “Superstar” – the innocence in Karen Carpenters voice here serves the song better. As for versions of “Song For You” I also really like the R&B/rap group City High’s version (I love their song “What Would You Do.” I really do). Actually, I think I take umbrage with the words 'definitive version'. What does that mean anyhow? The version that quintessentially defines the song? What the hell? Is that even possible?

But I digress. There’s this documentary out on The Wrecking Crew:

“The stars, he said, were accommodating, including Cher, Dick Clark and Campbell,” said producer Denny Tedesco, 47-year-old son of Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco. “As big as Cher is, she was very giving. It brought her back to that period when she was 16 years old. It was a wonderful time for her. And it was a lot of fond memories for Glen. He said he missed not having to be 'the guy.' Tedesco, a Woodland Hills resident, grew to admire his father even more after all the research and filming.”

Halblaineglencampbell Visit http://www.wreckingcrew.tv/upcoming.html to find a screening in your town.

Here's another Wrecking Crew interview that includes another S&C musician, Hal Blaine: http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/004300.html

As, you may know many S&C band members from the early 70s went on to form the band Toto and as I was starting to convert my vinyl to MP3s recently with my new turn-table, I came across these Chicago liner notes from Chicago 16(yes I bought it for “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” in 1983 when I was 13, I’m not ashamed of it!). I found many familiar names in the liner notes: Steve Lukather guitars; David Paich synthesizer, Steve Porcaro synthesizer programming. And I can’t shake this feeling that I’ve seen Chicago’s own Bill Champlin on a Cher album credit somewhere. Am I crazy? Please don’t answer that. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Jimmy Dean also alerted me last week of Jerry Wexler’s passing. Wexler was a famous Muscle Shoals Aretha producer for many landmark albums of Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield among many others. The awesome Dusty in Memphis was recorded the same year as Cher's unheralded 1969 album 3614 Jackson Highway which Wexler was one of the producers on. Jimmy Dean also mentioned that no news reported his brief association with Cher. I searched google in vain to find such a reference myself. However, I did find this exert of a bio of David Geffen (scroll down and click the link "The Operator") that claimed Wexler was Geffen’s long-time nemesis. The excerpt covers details of the night Cher met Geffen and the general gist of his involvement and substantial aid to Cher in her time of mid-70s legal crisis, which is quite important in considering where she is today. You could almost say there would be no Sonny & Cher without Sonny and there would be no Cher solo without David Geffen. And possibly no Cher into the 21st century without Cher herself. She’s been svengali-less for decades now!

    

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