Category: Peripherals (Page 18 of 21)

No More Worst-dressed Lists?

October 23, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Mr. Blackwell, the celebrity with no first name, has died. OMG, how will we know how to judge what celebrities are wearing now?!

He was a bit schizophrenic with Cher. At first she was one of his best dressed in the early 70s; but then by the 1984 she topped his worst list and then was on it again in 1999.

See a compilation of the yearly worsts:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3KVqscVrccxibkegEYLw94QNTdwD93U1VF80
No one seems to care about compiling the best.

One writer takes apart the Mr. Blackwell phenomenon

Now I'm getting wise to what it takes to attract Mr. Blackwell's attention.

The Spice Girls made the worst-dressed list in 1998. Today, they're old news.

Cher topped the same list last year. The reason? She made a major comeback from obscurity. She was news again.

What was interesting, at least to me, was that just four years ago, Blackwell dismissed any mention of Cher. He said then, "She hasn't been around for a long time, and she buried herself completely when she did that navel bit. She's no longer on my list."

What a difference a few years make.

"You've got to talk about people that you can see," he once told an interviewer.

We are seeing Cher again. We're also seeing her navel, and everybody else's.

Blackwell is an interesting guy.

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 / Cher Scholar / 2 Comments

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:

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.
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:

Cher can co-write some catchy sh*t.
This song can be contorted into vastly different pop and rock genres.
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 / Cher Scholar / 3 Comments

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.

Sonny & Cher Musicians and Cher in a Movie Alert

August 21, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 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.”

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 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!

Estelle Getty Dies

July 25, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Estelle Getty died this week, the first Golden Girl we are to lose thus far. But Getty also played Barry Manilow’s mum in the TV musical Copacabana and Cher’s mum in Mask.

My favorite line from Getty in Mask was when she walked into the dark living room after returning her grandson Rocky from a baseball game and saw Cher (as Rusty) on a bummer (as Sonny would say).

She shook her head, rolled her eyes and said “Florence.” The she turned around and walked out.

Cher Medvetz?

July 25, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

This week Liz Smith confirmed the new Cheromance.

His name is Tim Medvetz and he’s known on the Internets as a motorcycle customizer and a controversial reality-show Mount Everest climber. A quick google search provides his basic dets:

http://www.womenridersnow.com/PublicFiles/printerarticle.asp?ArticleID=445&DepartmentID=8

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/everestbeyond/bios/bios-2007.html

http://twinsbullpen.blogspot.com/2008/04/boof-and-tim-medvetz.html

Stars Guitarist

June 26, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Fred Tackett was profiled recently online. He is still a member of Little Feet and he played in the band on Sonny & Cher shows:

“I played in bands for variety shows, like ‘Sonny & Cher,’ then the Cher show, Tony Orlando’s show, and Donny & Marie Osmond. You could do three of those shows and retire – they’d even pay you three-quarters of your pay for the summer reruns. It was a magical time.”

He was also credited on two of the best of Cher albums Two the Hard Way and Stars.

Learn more about Fred at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Tackett

Cher on 20/20

June 19, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

At the end of last year Jimmy Dean sent me some taped TV appearances on DVD. I talked about Black Rose and Monte Carlo earlier, but I was finally was able to watch the 20/20 interview from Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean when it was originally a play on Broadway.

This instantly brought back memories for me. This was back in 1981 before Entertainment Tonight and its insane spawns that all seem like the same show now. Back then you couldn’t get a Cher sighting outside of shows like 20/20. I remember taping this interview (the first Cher interview I ever taped in any format) on my old, top-loading tape recorder. I was 11 or 12 years old and playing back my little audio-cassette, I about memorized every word of this interview. Seeing the visuals again after all this time feels truly bizarre yet thrilling. This interview had some amazing early-80s photos of Cher. I wish I could find a copy of it on the youtubes.

Some highlights

Cher says she hopes the critics don’t make Hamburger Helper out of her. Hamburger Helper, remember that?
She made 4k a week. The producer of the show noted that other stars on Broadway were making 50-60k a week then, so we are made to understand Cher was getting a very low salary-of-love.
Cher also confirmed that it took her 6 weeks to earn what she was earning in 11 minutes doing her show in Vegas. She said then (and she said recently about her new Vegas show) that the money doesn’t matter; but someone must have cared enough about the money to have figured that out.
Her teeth look amazingly crooked from the angle they filmed the interview, more so than on any TV appearance I can recall. I always say I miss Cher’s old, crooked teeth - but have you ever seen a modern star with such crooked teeth? When I was seven I remember my parents saying “Why are you a Cher fan? She has crooked teeth!” I couldn’t figure out what someone’s teeth had to do with anything – but who even remembers Cher had crooked teeth these days? She had awesome teeth. It had everything to do with the way she moved her mouth so lusciously.
Cher is seen gleefully dancing at Studio 54 and they put up a picture of her with Ron Duguay. I know she was supposed to have dated this hockey star at the time but I never knew if I should believe it or not. But now that she confirms she once dated Tom Cruise, I guess anything is possible.
20/20 reminded me that People Magazine (the issue which ran during her Broadway run, the one with that fold-out cover with her kids) called her “The First Lady of Flash.” This is probably the best, most succinct and inclusive accolade to date – and it’s an old one.
Cher actually squeals in this interview.
She says she’ll be nervous before she goes out for her debut performance as Sissy and says she’ll probably have to go to the bathroom and be sweaty and cold.

Cher’s Personal Trainer

June 19, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Interesting article on Angie Best, Cher’s on-and-off personal trainer.

Is chocolate part of the typical training regimen?

Cher in Elton Video?

June 19, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

Years ago someone posted a link to a video on the site of the guy who does the video mixes for Cher's shows saying that if you click the Elton John section and then the video for "Original Sin" – at the middle mark of the video, a Britney-Spears-blonde walks through a party, kisses Sonny Bono and then Cher who is holding a baby.

I’ve just watched the video and I don’t think it’s Cher at all because:

It doesn'tlook like Cher in the eyes and lips
That baby does not look like Chastity at all
That Cher does not move Cher-like

Tell me what you Cher-scholars think.

Category: Peripherals (Page 18 of 21)

No More Worst-dressed Lists?

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

Wrecking Crew Documentary is Awesome

Sonny & Cher Musicians and Cher in a Movie Alert

Estelle Getty Dies

Cher Medvetz?

Stars Guitarist

Cher on 20/20

Cher’s Personal Trainer

Cher in Elton Video?

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