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Cher Songs on Rolling Stone’s List of Greatest Songs

March 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Another deep dive.

In late 2024 I came across an online Rolling Stone Magazine article introducing a podcast called “Why Cher’s ‘Believe’ Has Ruled Dance Floors for Nearly Three Decades.”

Rolling Stone had just come out with a 2024 list of their take on the 500 greatest popular songs and “Believe” had made this list. This was interesting to me for two reasons. One, it allowed me another thought-dive into “Believe” and also it reminded me of Cher’s appearances on previous RS lists and how arbitrary these lists are.

1988

Let’s go back in time. Back when I was in high school in St. Louis I had a subscription to Rolling Stone. The September 8, 1988, issue included a list of “100 Best Singles of the Last Twenty Five Years.” Around that time there had been a best albums issue already and my brother Randy (home from college) and I had had a friendly competition to see who had the most albums on the list. Very surprisingly, we tied. (Five years younger, I was fully prepared to lose.)

But anyway, on this 1988 list, which I recently dug out of the Chersonian Institute’s archives, there was one Cher song. Well, almost one song. It was really the Sonny Bono /Jack Nitzsche penned “Needles and Pins” which ranked at #64 between Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower.”

To put things in perspective, the #1 and #2 songs on this 1988 list were “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. Which seems a bit to much rolling stone considering the name of the magazine.

The paragraph write-up about “Needles and Pins” talked about how the 1964 Searchers version had done something “formidable,” in that it “introduced the twelve-string sound, which would become a staple of American bands from The Byrds to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.” Searchers guitarists McNally and Pender then talked about how this came to be by accident.

(click to enlarge)

This RS write up only mentions one other version of the song, Jackie DeShannon’s 1963 original version. It doesn’t mention Cher’s 1966 version. But then neither does the Wikipedia page on the song, which mention’s the 1977 European hit version by Smokie, the Ramones version in 1978, Tom Petty’s 1985 live version and a smooth 1999 version by Willie DeVille.

But there are others. Here is a sampling:

(After listening to all of these, I need to listen to the inverse song, “Pins and Needles” by Kristina Train just to reset the machine between my ears.)

But nothing was said about the songwriters and plenty more could be said about Sonny’s “best friend” as Cher said in her Memoir of Jack Nitzsche who would go on to become the arranger for Phil Spector during the Wall of Sound era. Nitzsche is often given the most credit for his work on “River Deep Mountain High” with Ike and Tina Turner. He also worked with The Rolling Stones and did the choral arrangements for “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” He would go on to write the scores for movies like Performance, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Exorcist and co-wrote “Up Where We Belong” for the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.

2004

But sadly, “Needles and Pins” wouldn’t stay on the next incarnations of RS lists. By 2004 there was an expanded list of 500 songs. And Sonny & Cher allegedly made that list where “I Got You Babe” ranked at #451. By this time, the top two songs had switched spots. “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan was #1 and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones was #2.

2021-2024

On the RS 2021 list, (which started from scratch and then was updated in 2024 with songs from 2021 to early 2024), “I Got You Babe” had fallen off but “Believe” had landed at #338. (I’m not sure if that position maintained between 2021 and 2024 because I haven’t seen the official RS 2021 list. The song may have been at #337 in 2021.)

So “Believe” remains the Cher song on the list. I would not die on the “Believe” hill, as I’ve often said, but “Believe” did introduce a technical trick that became very popular, I guess like the twelve-string in “Needles and Pins.” But that doesn’t mean it was a well-constructed, conceived or a well-written song. It’s value will be remembered in its production. But “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” had production values that have also stood the test of time. And none of this even speaks to the metaphorical or literary values of a song. Among Sonny’s cowboy songs, for example. “Bang Bang” is certainly undervalued. Or songs that became part of the common lexicon, like “The Beat Goes On” or Diane Warren’s “Turn Back Time” which not only became a meme but has become a yearly meme for the end of daylight savings.

Or maybe it just comes down to votes not values. Where would we be without lists to argue about, I guess.

Music journalists Rob Sheffield (whose 2024 book Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music I just purchased to try to understand that whole phenom) and Brittany Spanos chose “Believe” as one of the 25 songs they would discuss on a podcast created for the 2024 list. And their 6 August 2024  discussion was not only thoughtful and fascinating, as it put thoughtful context around Cher’s entire career, but it also explained how the song “Believe” landed for kids in Great Britain.

I myself did not experience “Believe” as a kid or teen. I was 26 years old and living in Yonkers, New York, hearing the song while driving home from work at Yonkers Contracting and following the song’s weekly charting from my crappy apartment along the Hudson River. I remember being somewhat baffled after coming upon NPR discussing the song one day on my car radio. It was kind of cognitive dissonance for me. Why this song?  So this podcast was interesting to me in that it explains how the song held meaning for an age group that wasn’t mine.

Sheffield and Spanos begin by calling the song “actually perfect…a perfect song,” one that represents the “whole, story, legacy and madness that is pop music.” Spanos says it’s also a song that is “part of the grand story of Cher” and she talks about the ups and downs of her career (big success, big flops and disappearances) and how over the last decade there has been “newfound appreciation” for Cher,” a “Cher revival.” Sheffield talks about the “synthi-ness of the chorus and vocal,” how “new and exciting” it was among other typically Cher-sounding Cher hits of the 1990s. (I think he means 1980s or maybe the late 1980s into the early 1990s, which was the span of her big Geffen-era hits). He said this was a “Cher-like” song on a whole new level.

Spanos talks about being at a friend’s house watching Spice World as a kid and the mother of her friend put  on the DVD for what sounds like the live Farewell tour with the instruction to “pay attention to the wigs.” Spanos says that instruction changed her life. She starts talking about Cher’s history with Sonny. She mistakenly says Sonny was 32 when they met. (Sonny was born in 1935, Cher in 1946. Cher was 16 when they met, Sonny was 27.) Spanos talks about their early pop-folk hits. Sheffield comes in discussing their variety show, how kids would tune in to see which music artists would show that week to perform songs. He said it was a “weekly education in music. They were the DJs.” (This is  overstating it a bit considering the musical acts were often people like Joey Heatherton and Merv Griffin.)

Spanos goes back to talk about the “country/rock covers” of Jackson Highway album and how critics panned it at the time but that it’s actually “a great album.” The digress to say Cher’s swampy “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” is one of the “greatest versions of a Bob Dylan song.” (They make a joke about “outsung, outsold” that I am on the outside of). Sheffield says Cher’s “Bob Dylan connection itself could take up three whole episodes.”

They then cover her solo TV work of the 1970s. Sheffield says Cher would “steal from everything” and she had “wide open taste.” They talk about the “astounding” performance with David Bowie on her solo TV show, the “insane medley,” one of the “freakiest things ever to air on network TV.” Sheffield then brings up the “insane” West Side Story performance from her 1978 TV special.  Spanos also notes Cher as being “integral in bringing Tina Turner back” on TV for multiple appearances when she was trying to relaunch as a solo artist.

Spanos says Cher then stared a band called Black Roses. She says Black Roses three times incorrectly. (It’s Black Rose). They talk about Spanos’ love of the Broadway Cher musical, how she particularly liked the fictional duet between one of the Chers and Gregg Allman doing the Diane Warren song “Just Like Jesse James.” She did not like the actual duet album which they mistakenly mispronounce (as Howard Stern also did in his 2024 Cher interview) as All Man and Woman. The correct title is Allman and Woman. There is no space between All and Man. It’s literally Gregg Allman’s name, as in Gregg and his woman (oy vey) and not some kind of traditional declaration of gender roles. (This is like trying to differentiate between caveman version 1 and caveman version 2.)

Anyway, Spanos says she cried several times during the musical and they call Cher and Gregg, “an incredible couple.” And I think it is nice that a kind of revisionist kindness in reconsidering this union in a new light these days. Sheffield highly recommends Allman’s memoir, My Cross to Bear, and tells of a Cher story in it where Gregg Allman is trying to pick Cher up for their first date in a limo and Cher exclaims that she will not ride in a funeral car and so they take her Mercedes.

Spanos talks about how Cher is “an experimental person.” Sheffield agrees saying Cher would “do anything” and was “not bothered by genre,” be it disco, southern rock, glam rock, hard rock or a medley or West Side Story songs. He says “she is part of every story in pop music.” Spanos says Cher has been “proven right by history” and critics are looking back and re-evaluating her, seeing that her voice does indeed “sound great” singing in multiple styles. They talk about how every year people rediscover the West Side Story clip and how “insane and fun” it is to watch.

Sheffield goes into Cher’s 80s decade of movies, how “she did it the hard way,” how she had no celebrity inside track to movie roles, how Silkwood was not a Cher-type role and how many actresses saw playing lesbian roles as a “career killer move.” “It cannot be stressed” enough, Sheffield says, how “bold and unprecedented and unexpected and unremarked-upon at the time that was.” Spanos talks about the iconic, respected actors Cher co-starred with and how Cher “is holding her own” along side them. Sheffield calls her performance in Mask “astounding,” that she played a working-class biker mom, a character that was very “unglamourous, gritty and unsaintly.” Spanos says that in all Cher’s movie roles she was de-glamming, dressing down, playing an everywoman.” And at the same time, she was having hits like “Turn Back Time,” balancing her gritty acting roles with glam-Cher music moments, keep her acting career going while relaunching as a rock vocalist. Spanos talks about the the “Turn Back Time” video “onesie” outfit. Sheffield enthusiastically remembers “the entire U.S. Navy” on the war ship.

They then talk about the struggles of the 1990s and Cher’s battle with the Epstein-Barr Virus, how she was seen (again) as “past her prime.” There were the informercials and the Writing Camp album (Not Commercial) recorded in 1994 but not released until 2000. Spanos calls it an introspective “great album, one of the first Internet-only releases.” They talk about her reunions with Sonny and his death in 1998. Spanos recalls Cher’s “stunning” and “heartbroken” eulogy for Sonny and how the loss of someone so transformative might have affected her performance in “Believe.”

As they set up talking about “Believe,” they acknowledge that Cher was seen as “washed up” for the first time in her late teens! She’s now in her 50s. She was “not expected to be still going into her 30s.” The song becomes thematic of her resilience. Spanos calls it “one of the great dance songs of all time” and she explains how it arrived during the dance renaissance of the late 90s, the “euro dance club wave,” that the song was an “unexpected sound from a 50 year old.”

They talk about the popularity of what became known as Auto Tune, how the song was ahead by decades in its influence on rap artists like T-Pain and Kanye West. Sheffield clarifies that it is not a vocoder but pitch correction and Spanos talks about how the song is “one of the great hopeful, euphoric dance songs” and how “do you believe in life after love” is a “gutting line.” (Because how common it is to feel like life itself cannot go on after a great, failed love.) They talk about the song in the context of Cher’s 1990s “major health issues” and her “uncertain future,” losing Sonny, one of the great loves of her life…a great love.” Sheffield says the technology is not used to hide” or “to fix flaws,” that the technology “is flaunted” and that right around “the self-doubting part of the song” you get this “flutter” and “vocal pirouette,” that the song is “blatantly digital” and “robotic” in a way that “makes it sound more human.” Cher “expresses a part of the song by altering her voice.”

Spanos talks about how the producer Mark Taylor wanted to experiment with the pitch correction and Cher wasn’t afraid of it. They claim, as does Cher, that the song “changed pop music” and they remind us that the record won a Grammy. Spanos said the song also made people re-evaluate artists in their 50s, especially women, that hitting the age of 50 need not mean the end of one’s chart-making career. Spanos insists that “Cher only gets more popular every single year” and that she’s a “beloved figure in entertainment history.” She talks about Cher’s “remarkable Twitter account” and Sheffield thinks that Twitter “will only be remembered as part of Cher’s timeline.”

(I believe the Twitter/Cher thing is long past. Cher moved to posting social media content on Instagram years ago as her primary social media. Twitter, in the meantime, will probably be remembered more for its entanglement into the fascist politics of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.)

After a commercial break, the hosts introduce Rod Thomas (Bright Light Bright Light), a DJ, artist and producer. Spanos and Sheffield thank him and he says “it’s not exactly a hardship to talk about this lady or this song.” They ask him about his first experiences with Cher and he talks about how his parents were into the Beatles (he was born in 1982) and how Cher was a famous movie actress when he was growing up. He said the first time he paid attention to her as a music artist was on the album It’s a Man’s World. He talks about loving Junior Vasquez’s “One by One” remix but that it wasn’t a hit. He says he “ran out to buy” the “Believe” CD at Woolworth’s in his hometown of Neath, Wales. They joke that Cher was on her 4th or 5th life by that time. Thomas says, “Everyone in school was talking about it, the straight kids, the weird kids, the bullies, the popular kids. Everyone was playing it. You heard it everywhere.” He feels it was the fist time there was “an all-engulfing wave around an artist everyone knew.”  It was a song everyone loved. He feels “Believe” is a “very British-centric sound” and he credits that to songwriter/producer Brian Higgins. He said the song really feels like “you’re in a British gay club.” He thinks the phenomenon was helped by the show Queer as Folk. People then were listening to “really gay music, like Gina G and The Spice Girls”. Very camp. And he believes the song was a legitimate “British gay anthem.”

Spanos says she likes to think about where music started and ended in the 1990s, from grunge to pop-punk to euro pop and House Music like “Believe.” Thomas says it was a time when “everyone was on the same page for a moment in British pop culture.” Whether you were straight or gay, whether you were in coffeehouses, clubs or a shopping center and how unusual that was, “especially for a heritage artist that traditionally younger kids wouldn’t gravitate to.”

They talk about the song being a #1 hit worldwide, a song Sheffield calls “immortal,” a song that you “instantly knew …was a timeless song. Thomas claims that Cher hates the song and how regrettable this is. He says there is a famous interview where she talks about hating how ubiquitous the song was at the time. I don’t remember this from any of the U.S. interviews. Thomas toured with Cher and might have seen a UK interview where she said this.

Thomas says that every time he works as a DJ, someone will request “Believe” and that it’s a “very mixed bag of gender, age and demographic.” “Everyone dances to this song. People melt in these ephemeral things and go feral.”

They ask Thomas where he was when he first danced to the song. He describes a British club called H2O that had three floors: a bar, a restaurant and a club at the top. He says you would hear the song playing on every single floor and that the upstairs club would play the song at least once or twice each night. He says the song represents “a specific sound and a specific moment in time.” He says Brian Higgins went on to do some great stuff but that this song “was a pivotal moment for him, for Cher, for British pop culture and for music.”

Thomas says the song “changed ageism” and put the focus on the song over the artist. Sheffield says Cher had “built her legend already” but that this song “invented a new Cher.” They then talk about Cher’s look around that time, her “wiggery.” How wonderful and cool it was. How her look was “trashy and fabulous…shimmery….” what Thomas calls “gaudy and tasteless but also fabulous and cool.” He also talks about how amazing her voice sounded on the record. “Her voice is perfect.” How the production was perfect and the genius of the technology. Of the Cher Effect, he says, “everyone was doing it in school” (imitating it) and how the song was at its peak for “many, many months.”

Sheffield talks about being at the punk show Mannequin Pussy recently and the venue was trying to “shoo everyone out” but “Believe” came on and then “no one would leave.” Thomas says, “that’s not even my favorite song on that record.” He talks about opening for Cher for nine shows across Europe and how he first saw her show in Brooklyn. He references the video montages and her other dance songs (“Strong Enough” and  “All or Nothing”), but when “Believe” came up “you could feel the room lift,” how fans were there “from every conceivable living age bracket” and that this song brings them all together. He says, “it was amazing to watch it.”

 

Cher and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Experience

March 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

So we have another marathon item to get through, from way back to last October. I’ve broken it up into parts to help us digest it.

I was able to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction “ceremony”
last year, despite my ambivalence about it, because my friend Julie motivated me to go (and she’s a fun person to attend a concert with and she loves Ozzy Osbourne who was also being inducted). Also because the show happened to be in Cleveland (where I was spending a lot of time in 2024), and because it was a chance for me to see a concert with my brother, Randy, who lives in Cleveland.

The whole weekend turned out to be a lot of fun, but this still didn’t resolve my continuing ambivalence about the institution. We’ve discussed before the issues with the gatekeepers, the issues with halls of fame, the issues with institutionalizing rock music. But there’s also the issue of rock music itself.

A very telling incident happened when Julie and I were touring the Hall of Fame the day before the live show. We passed a group of young kids, mostly girls, (late grade school, early middle school?) at the Hall of Fame on a field trip with their Catholic School. This made my friend Julie, who spent a childhood in Catholic schools, very very annoyed. She kept telling me that back when she was a KISS-loving kid in Catholic school, the nuns kept telling them rock music was the music of the devil. Now it’s become a field trip for young Catholic kids, like going to see how Wonder Bread is made.

And I’ve been to the Hall of Fame twice now and when I was there most of the people visiting had gray hair. I do see some youthful strays wandering around respectfully but that’s not the majority. And I love rock music myself, but then I’m a happy-gray-haired too. I often find myself telling Millennials and younger friends who old rock groups are, like KISS. (Hell, last weekend I had to explain to them who Vincent Price was.) It’s not quite the music of the world’s youth any more. And that’s okay. It’s the natural order of things. If it wasn’t we’d all still be talking about how swell Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby still are.

I read an essay on poetry movements recently where the author observed that things written in resistance eventually become “the new national tradition.” Rock and roll is no longer the language of resistance; it has lost its currency of resistance. It’s now tradition. And the Hall of Fame just underlines that fact. Many of its practitioners and listeners have been taken into the grips of nostalgia, just like their parents before them. As they say, what goes around…. And nostalgia is pretty much antithetical to progress.

Which is why the genre has teetered conservative over the decades. It’s practitioners are no longer young rebels. It’s listeners are no longer young rebels. Rock and Roll is a genre that is over 70s years old. For that matter, at 50 years old, RAP music is also quite long in the tooth.

And who likes to admit their own culture has moved on? Nobody. I had a bit of an existential crisis myself the night David Letterman went off the air because soon I’ll be explaining to young people who he is. But that’s a fact of aging and having sex and babies being constantly born with prospects of future musical genres twinkling in the fresh little eyes. Welcome to the human race.

So if Cher had never been inducted into this basically nostalgic circle jerk, it wouldn’t have bothered me. If you can keep a career going longer than rock music itself, I don’t see that as a bad thing, all things considered.

Aim bigger, I say.

And to be clear, I am not trying to culturally disenfranchise old people in pursuit of the often-suffocating cult of youth. Virtuosity will always skew older. Wisdom will always skew older. This is simply a perspective check. Why did we set such narrow limits on the celebration of contemporary music in the first place? It was generational hubris.

But for all of that, I am going to now fan-girl on a few of these aging rock stars below. Including Cher.

The 2024 Inductee Insights Video

The Hall of Fame developed  a short film series for each artist before the induction called “2024 Inductee Insights.” Cher’s six minute film includes the songs “Believe,” “Bang Bang,” “I Got You Babe,” “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” “Turn Back Time,” “I Found Someone” and “Woman’s World.”

It begins showing clips from Cher’s “Believe” video cut with her receiving awards, performing in music videos and on television performances and then, oddly, scenes from the movie Chastity. “The one and only Cher has used her distinctive voice, stage presence and avant garde fashion to achieve unprecedented success while blazing a trail for women artists. A woman who personifies feminine, creative freedom in a male dominated industry.”.

I would add that she blazed a trail for gay male artists, too. They delve into her biography, how she was born in El Centro, California, and grew up wanting to be an actress but got sidetracked working for Phil Spector. “During this time,” the video says, she met Sonny and they got married blah blah blah. I keep seeing this error in recent stories about Cher. As the Memoir confirms, Cher did not meet Sonny while working for Phil Spector.  She already knew Sonny and Sonny brought her to the Spector sessions purposefully and strategically (gold star for Sonny there, pun intended). And the problem with the statement is that it implies Cher came to ideas about a music career on her own, before Sonny. She did not. The video also incorrectly claims she was an extra on the television show Ozzy and Harriet. She was not, but her mother, Georgia Holt, was.

The video claims Cher was obviously  “the shining star of the pair” but her stage freight made them a duo. “I Got You Babe” was a “definitive musical moment for the early hippie counterculture.” They go into her solo hits, somewhat out of order, but okay. {The show a variety show clip of Cher singing “Gypsies” while talking about her life in the late 60s. (My poor soul right now.)

“In a society that idolized blonds” Cher became an idol for dark-haired girls. They saw themselves in her.”

Digression point: I guess that’s true in a way, but many of us did not exactly ever see ourselves in Cher because that was too much of a stretch. We were just happy to see some dark-haired lady being idolized on television. That’s not to say we didn’t see ourselves in other television characters. I recently started watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show again and in episode 4, we meet this girl named Sparkle (Pat Finley, the actress who played, in a much more serious way, the sister of Newhart on The Bob Newhart Show and also the wife of Becker on The Rockford Files). I grew up seeing myself as some kind of amalgamation of the annoying buttoned-up, toxic positivity of Sparkle and the milk-toast, squeamishly-waspy Mary Richards.

Digression to the digression: I used to hate the very sound of Tyler Moore’s voice when these shows first aired in the 1970s and as a namesake, her nebbishness horrified me. Is that what it meant to be a Mary? But one of the beautiful points of the show, which I would come to see as a young adult watching the show’s reruns on Nick at Nite in the 1990s, is that sometimes women who feel unassertive can find strategies to be very effective and assertive. Marge Gunderson, Frances McDormand’s character in the movie Fargo, is another wonderful example of this.

But anyway, I have always felt my person to be this unsatisfying Sparkle/Mary combination, not great identifiers, but accurate I have for a long time begrudgingly accepted. But Mr. Cher Scholar likes to tell me (often) that the way I see myself is pretty far off from how other people see me. So I told him my theory last night and asked him to weigh in: was I more or a Mary, a Sparkle, a Rhoda or a Phyllis? He thought about it for a second and said I was definitely a Rhoda. I’m too much of a wiseacre to be a Mary, he said. (I guess he has a point; Mary Richards would never say ‘nostalgic circle jerk.’) And I wasn’t a Sparkle or Phyllis. I was positive he was going to agree that I was an amalgamation of the milk-toast Mary and the toxically positive Sparkle. Rhoda is my favorite, for sure, but I never in a million years saw myself as a mile within the vicinity of Rhoda. But that was very good news…for me anyway, if not for him.

The next day I came back with three more ladies of the 1970s: Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams from Laverne & Shirley, not too dramatically different from my high school experience), Rhoda or Emily Hartley (played by Suzanne Pleshette on The Bob Newhart Show). He changed the Rhoda to Emily Hartley, which is not bad news either. By the way, this game is much harder to play in reverse. Mr. Cher Scholar was a dead ringer for Rickey Schroder as a kid, but as an adult he’s mostly impossible to place.

 

But back to the Cher Insights video…it goes on to talk about Sonny & Cher’s “string of successful albums” and we see their album covers, one of which was very unsuccessful, Mama Was a Rock and Roll Singer… and then they show the wrong cover for All I Ever Need Is You. The videos talks about the couple’s “chemistry onstage.”

They then turn to Cher’s focus on acting and her “acclaimed roles” in Silkwood, Mask and Moonstruck.

“But she always turned back to music.” So true.

They mention she has been active for “more than five decades” (the museum exhibit just says six) and that she has continually “reinvented her image and mastered multiple music styles” including the earthy folk pop of “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”, (more narrative pop, really; “I Got You Babe” was the folk pop), the melodic disco of Take Me Home,” power ballads like “I Found Someone” (they show the music video clip of her slapping boyfriend Robert Camilletti here). “Cher’s versatility is ever present.”

They then come back to the “quintessential dance pop classic” of “Believe” which “pioneered auto tune as an artistic tool” and that this “worldwide hit” became an “enduring queer anthem.” This feels a bit reductive only because the song had major cross-over appeal (we’ll explore this more in an upcoming post about a podcast about the song.) The video talks about her being an ally of LGBTQIA+ and how she has  influenced other trailblazing artists like Madonna, Beyonce and Lady Gaga.  Why do they keep listing those same three? Were there any male artists they could have found? Any older female artists?  (Zendaya and others will broaden this influence later in their induction commentary.)

“A tenacious performer who has triumphed over adversity and made comeback after comeback.”

The 2024 Inductee Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The preface of the program talks about the Hall of Fame has reached its 39th year. Oy. Even the nostalgia tripping is old. Jan Werener is not even listed under former board members. John Sykes, now head of board, talks about the diverse list of inductees, how rock-and-roll is not a single sound (See? He has to play Twister here because the founding scope was too tiny.)  He says of rock-and-roll, “It’s an attitude….a collusion of rhythm and blues gospel and country, but basically ‘life changing music.'” Life changing music could be anything.

The section on Cher was written by Annie Zaleski, who has a new Cher picture book coming out this year, I Got You Babe: A Celebration of Cher. Zaleski is a Cleveland-based writer and editor who has worked for NPR music, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Salon, Billboard and Vulture, She did the 33 1/3 book on Duran Duran’s Rio album, a Taylor Swift book, Stories Behind the Songs and has done liner notes and illustrated bios of Lady Gaga, Harry Styles and Pink.

Cher section pics include Stars album back cover shot, the butterfly dress picture from her 1978 special promotion, the  the famous Phil Spector, Darlene Love and Cher photo, a candid with her kids and Tatum O’Neal, a Jerry Wexler session shot from Jackson Highway and pictures of Cher with David Geffen, Labelle, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Elton John and Gregg Allman, a picture of Cher holding her Oscar and the hole fit from 1992.

There’s a breakout box called Selected Discography of her supposed important albums and here I take some umbrage. Stars is egregiously missing. Other albums that could have been included: Backstage as well as Man’s World. I understand why Believe is there. Because it has “Believe” on it. And I guess Heart of Stone is there because “Turn Back Time” is on that. And Jackson Highway definitely deserves to be there. (In Cher’s Memoirs, she even tells us Sonny thought that was her best album to that point which is an interesting compliment considering that was the first Cher album he didn’t produce.) But Black Rose? That should not be there. I appreciate that album in many ways, but it is not one of her important albums. It was a brave experiment that didn’t go anywhere. It was a mess in some ways. (Some reviewers lost their minds over it.) It’s far and away not better than Man’s World or Backstage.

But Zaleski does explain Cher’s cultural relevance very well. “Her singular voice has never lost its formidable power,” she says and she covers the musical points many other Cher historians miss, her time with Phil Spector and her inclusion on important records like “Be My Baby,” “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and her work on the Spector Christmas album. She talks about Cher’s “big contra alto voice”  and quotes Cher as saying, “My voice just cut through.” Zaleski repeats, “Cher’s voice has never lost its dominance or power…with her warbling vibrato and graceful sense of dynamics, Cher sounds effortless singing nearly every style of music.” Mic drop.

She then lists the types (and I love the adjectives she uses doing it):

  • Orchestrated torch songs
  • Roaring power ballads
  • Luxe disco
  • Blazing hard rock
  • Playful Broadway showstoppers
  • Slinky soul
  • High-energy electro
  • Melodramatic pop

“She also possesses a unique and recognizable vocal timbre, one that’s dusky and sultry, like exquisite black velvet, with a sumptuous low range and a soaring high one.” (I once compared her voice to syrup but velvet is good too.)

Zaleski calls Cher a generous philanthropist, an outspoken activist, a prolific emoji user, a queer icon and ally and “unabashedly herself at all times….honest, funny, vulnerable and real.” Fans, it doesn’t get better than that. We picked good.

“Cher isn’t afraid to be earnest, her vocal delivery often feels like a direct line to her soul” and she “doesn’t suffer fools gladly, doesn’t mince words.”

The essay covers her stand-out influences, Cinderella’s “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” early musicals, early rock and roll, American Bandstand, seeing Elvis live and Ray Charles on TV. Then she goes into describing Cher’s iconic songs with the same delicious adjectives:

Those qualifiers!! She skims over 1971-74  and the narrative ballads which is unfortunate because that music produced three number 1 hits, plus many other top 30 hits and was arguably one of the peaks, if not the peakiest, in Cher’s popularity.)

She covers Cher’s television grind, long days of writing, rehearsals, meetings, and show tapings. Her “acrimonious divorce,” her 2 Golden Globes (3, the Memoirs reminded us), her 1977 Oscar, the Geffen label era music of “glossy production, blockbuster hooks” that “suited her powerhouse voice.”

Then there was the 1990s health issues and Sonny’s death ending the decade. But also “Believe.” At the time Zaleski reminds us, Cher was the  oldest female to top the Billboard Hot 100.

She calls the ABBA covers album “buoyant” and says the electropop “DJ Play a Christmas Song” (which hit #1 in the Dance/Electronic Digital Sales category) is the song that put her over to the record breaking 7 decades of #1 hits. The only other artist to do it was the Rolling Stones (as you recall Cher’s quip on The Kelly Clarkson Show, “it took four of them to be one of me.”

Finally, the essay remarks on the full-circle duet with Darlene Love on Cher’s album Christmas, as a joyful and “brassy unison.”

In the back of the program were interesting paid-for congratulation pages to peruse, from record labels, publishers, lawyers and streaming services. Cher got a page from her managers, Roger Davis and Lindsay Scott. Warner Music Group’s page included Cher, Foreigner, Mary J. Blige, Kool and the Gang, MC5 and Dionne Warwick. ASCAP’s page had Cher, Mary J. Blige, Foreigner, Dave Matthews, Ozzy, Tribe, MC5, Peter Frampton, Kool and the Gang, Alexis Korner and John Mayall. The Hard Rock Casino thanks everybody, Spotify thanks everybody, there’s a mystery thank you in there too,

You can buy the program here.

Touring the Cher Exhibit at the Hall of Fame

The main image shown all throughout the lobby of the Hall of Fame (click to enlarge) was the very cool picture of Cher in the 1980s incarnation of her Hole Fit. I love that this is the representative photo because, it shows Cher performing, sweating, rocking.

The year’s inductees always get their own little exhibit upstairs.

 

Left outfit: The violet and purple “All I Really Want to Do” fit, an amalgamation of the Farewell Tour outfit (vest) and the Here We Go Again tour outfit, credited to the Cher Collection, made by Bob Mackie. The credits mention the outfit was also worn by Teal Wicks in the Broadway Cher Show.

Display on the monitor below: A Sonny & Cher live show ticket with Brian Farnon and His Orchestra for a show on March 3, 4, 5 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, the South Shore Room and the tagline, “The World’s Greatest Entertainers Appear at Harrah’s.” There’s a Cher quote from a recent interview about how success is like a string of pearls, moments you string together and you’ve got a necklace.

Middle outfit: The “Take Me Home” Fit (red) credited to the Cher collection from the Farewell Tour, made by Bob Mackie.

Display on the monitor below: The Bob Mackie sketch for the dress. There’s Cher quote about a conversation she had with Barbra Streisand and how Cher wants to work as long as she is able to do it.

Right outfit: The Halloween mermaid outfit from the movie Mermaids, 1990, designed by Patty Spinale & Gail Baldoni, now owned by Gary Scarborough.

Display on the monitor below: The Mermaids movie poster. The text mentions Cher six decades-long music career and she’s “also an actress” who “first starred in 1976 play Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean Off-Broadway. This is a big error. She was in the 1982 big-Broadway Robert Altman production at the Martin Beck Theater. The play was first published in 1976. The text also mentions her movies Silkwood, The Witches of Eastwick and Moonstruck.

In the middle of the exhibit there was a large electric sign of rotating copy about all the inductees and this had a very good paragraph about Cher (mimicking the insights video):

“Cher has used her distinctive voice, stage presence, and avant-garde fashion to achieve unprecedented success. A musician who personifies female creative freedom in a male-dominated industry, Cher is the only woman to have a Number One hit in each of the past seven decades . Cher’s breakthrough came from her work with then-husband Sonny Bono. Sonny & Cher’s 1965 hit “I Got You Babe” was a definitive musical moment for early hippie counterculture. Amid the pair’s success, Cher launched her solo career, scoring hits like “Bang Bang.” In 1971, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour TV variety show helped establish Cher as a consummate entertainer and fashion icon. Cher continuously reinvented her style and mastered multiple musical genres. Equally adept at the folk pop of “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves,” the disco of “Take Me Home,” and [rock?] ballads like “I Found Someone.” Cher’s versatility is unmatched. Cher also became a star of the silver screen, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in Moonstruck (1987). In 1998, Cher released the quintessential dance-pop classic “Believe,” pioneering the use of Auto-Tune as an artistic tool. A tenacious performer who has triumphed over adversity and made comeback after comeback, all while influencing trailblazing artists like Madonna, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga, Cher has earned her status as the Goddess of Pop.”

Below this description were in influences and legacies:

Influences: Bob Dylan, Darlene Love, Tina Turner

Legacies: Madonna, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga

Cher was placed at the left end, next to Jimmy Buffet in the U-shaped exabit and directly opposite Ozzy Osbourne. Those two are the bookends. This was not the order of the show in any way.

Studying the fan board again, Barry Manilow is still on there at #54. This makes me a bit crazy. I don’t even think Barry Manilow thinks he should be on this board. But he’s up there with 228 votes. You only need about 100 or to get up there on the fan board.

Elsewhere in the museum was an “In Memoriam” tribute to Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers, (also married to Cher’s best friend Paulette, who was Paulette Betts for many years). The board said he was a 1995 guitarist inductee noted for his “Improvisational magic with the Allman Brothers…his double-barreled harmony and counterpoint” and that he shared lead guitar duties with Duane Allman until Duane died in 1971.  He died in April 2024.

I also scanned the gift shop for Cher books (none yet). There was only one t-shirt, recycled from Cher’s own tour merch. There was a the promo pic of Cher from her 1978 TV special. The vinyl album bin did have Believe, the new greatest hits package and Dancing Queen. As a reminder, my first visit in 2023 only had only one Cher item: the first FunkoPop doll.

Julie bought the Foreigner t-shirt and we both liked what they did with it, creating a special Hall of Fame shirt with their career timeline on the back.

Induction Show Performance and Speech

We weren’t so far away but big monitors in front of us showed closeups. Julie had a sudden migraine headache and missed the show’s high energy opening. Cher’s “Believe” started to big cheers. Dua Lipa came out  strutting in a black leather outfit, The song sounded much more bland coming out of Dua Lipa. But then Cher came out to help finish it. From the televised cut-aways you can see Keith Urban (who played in the Peter Frampton tribute) and Jelly Roll (who played in the Ozzy tribute) both seemed very excited to see Cher. Julia Roberts (who gave the Dave Matthews speech), too. And even Roger Daltry (Peter Frampton). Cher and DL hold hands at end in a very cool gesture of solidarity. Cher’s outfit is both crazy and restrained. Very black and over-lappy. At the end, Dua Lip yells, “Give it up for Cher.”

Dua Lipa and Cher singing “Believe”

We were surprised that Cher opened the show. Usually the push her toward the end for ratings. But after hearing all the other performances, this seemed best.

Zendaya arrived to give the induction speech. I wasn’t expecting much. The prior speeches for Cher have been fair to bad. And I would agree with Howard Stern that I would have preferred someone already established in the HoF to induct Cher. But that said, Zendaya’s was great! Perfect even. She did the job that needed to be done. And her outfit was the best Cher fashion tribute of the night.

[By the way, my sister-in-law Susan kept track of the celebrity situation down on the floor and Zendaya stayed for much of the show and danced to all the performances almost until the very end. In her estimation, Zendaya was by far the biggest star at the event by far.]

Zendaya said there’s not one person “in this room, in this country, in pretty much the whole world who doesn’t know” Cher’s name. “It’s impossible to measure the influence Cher has had and continues to have on every one of us….her impact spans generations. Cher is a “constant inspiration and reference point,” not only with the dance-floor innovation of “Believe” but 27 other solo albums and an Oscar, but lessons in “living in the  spotlight” and deftness in “keeping her sanity.” The audience gives some good cheers during the speech, during which the camera would pan to Cher waiting backstage.

Zendaya underscored this, “Come on, she does it all really, really fucking well.” And it wasn’t just “effortless charm and acting chops” and “stunning dresses” that got Cher into the Hall of Fame. “You need the musical goods and Cher has got the goods.” (Cheer.)

This is so great, that Zendaya made this case about Cher’s music credentials. She talked about Cher being the only solo artist with a #1 in each of the last seven decades, how she’s sold 140 million records worldwide, how Cher became an “instant sensation (with Sonny), shattering stereotypes about what a female artist is supposed to sound like,” creating something “new, innovative and distinctively her own,” how she  navigated ” a multitude of genres, defined new ones and reinvented others” and has “stood test of time.” Zendaya quipped that there are “drag performers all over the world currently in a makeup chair” (this earned a laugh from Roger Daltry) “putting on their best Cher face.”

Zendaya  spoke about Cher being a “brilliant and captivating performer, fearless in her presentation, an inspiration for every female artist who came after her” and is someone who “never acknowledged or accepted there things women were not supposed to do…she did exactly what she wanted,…This fierce woman is a hero, an artist and just about as authentically rock and roll as you can get” (thank you!), an advocate, an ally, and a person “paving the way for people to speak their truth” both “daring and open hearted.” She quotes Cher in saying, “you should never be inhibited by what people expect you do to.”

Zendaya’s speeh

The Induction Video

The video is about four and a half minutes and starts with Cher telling the Hall of Fame to fuck off.  There are 60s pics of Sonny & Cher and how there was never going to be a duo. Cher saying she can’t do this by myself and Sonny saying Cher is a very good singer and he that was “desperately trying to make people aware of that.” Cher is shown in her Rona-Barrett Owlwood bedroom talking about being newly single and being not as dumb or weak as she thought she was.

P!nk says unequivocally “Cher is a fucking rock star…genre-less and brave…one of the most unique artists our world has seen.”

The video then plays “Dark Lady” and the irony here is that song like this might have kept Cher out of the HoF for this long,

Cyndi Lauper then says, “She’s always been rock. Even on her television show. She had all the rockers on.”

They show a short-haired Cher in a TV interview for Black Rose talking about how she wanted to be more rock and roll and they conflate that with images from the Geffen label era and the amazing 1979 Take Me Home tour hole-fit shot. This is very confusing.

Shania Twain then talks about watching Cher “go through all of these evolutions in her life, her fashion sense and herstage presence…she is the most diverse artist ever.”

They show a clip of Tina Turner talking about how they had the same type of careers, starting with their husband managers. Tina says, “she was an icon then and she has remained an icon.” [Thank you, Tina. Because she was iconic by 1975 already.]

They show Cher’s iconic “Turn Back Time” video image of her straddling the canon. (Later when I watched the show’s telecast with Mr. Cher Scholar, he quipped that he’s still waiting for that V.A. claim about some sailor who got blue balls or threw out his lower back while sliding down the deck toward Cher during the shooting of this video.)

P!NK talks about Cher’s voice, “this incredible masculine/feminine mix. You can’t mimic that.”

The song “Strong Enough” plays and Cher talks about performing, feeling energy from thousands of people, “It makes you feel about sixteen feet tall.”

Cyndi Lauper says that “Cher’s success is in her gumption,” how she made “Believe” after they wrote her off. (But for that matter she made “Gypsies” after they wrote her off and “I Found Someone.” She’s the most written-off singer in the history.)

Cher talks about being dropped from two record companies.(But there were so many labels.) Mark Taylor explains the Cher effect works.

P!NK says “I don’t know many people who can say that they put out 27 studio albums and have a hit in every decade.

They show a Vogue cover, the Time cover, a shot of Mask and the Oscar moments.

Zendaya finishes by saying “It’s about time everyone” and introduces Cher as “the coolest woman on the planet.”

The induction video

“Turn Back Time” and Cher’s Speech

Cher then comes out to sing “Turn Back Time.”

Her performance of this song struggles a bit. It doesn’t feel smooth.  She did better at the Victoria’s Secret event earlier in the week and will do better in 2025 for other events. Does that outfit have chaps? But she is very bouncy. Dionne Warwick and her son smiled along. She still owns the stage but she can’t belt out the notes, Jelly Roll and Keith Urban are seen participating again. Thank you guitar solo. Cher might agree because she touches him on the shoulder and he give her a big grin.

In a sea of older artists struggling to stand up, walk or walking without much oomph, my family group commented on how well Cher was moving for her age, how youthful she seemed compared to some of the other aging rock stars.

The speeches would trade off from the right side of the stage to the left. Unfortunately I was on the opposite side of the arena and had to watch Cher’s speech on the monitors.

Cher hugged Zendaya. Cher admitted the speech would be a crap shoot (and it was). We again got a lot of ums and a kind of ditzy-voice Cher uses in these speeches that doesn’t appear similarly in her televised interviews (which are all more concise and assured). Maybe it’s the anxiety. She started off with a joke that getting into the Hall of Fame was harder then getting divorced from two men.

And this sets the tone for the speech. Cher decided she was going to accept the honor as a solo artist and as a woman. She was going to focus on women’s strength and perseverance. She dismisses the men she worked with from the beginning of the speech. And although I was hoping Sonny would get a minute in the sun, I didn’t dislike this approach. I think for the time, especially as it turned out just weeks before the Trumpapocalyptic election, it was the right move. Cher has been solo for over 40 years longer than her work with Sonny (which lasted about 13-14  years professionally, 1964-1977, give or take a few reunions). Cher surely deserves this award on her own. Sonny does get his due slightly in the video, and more so in her Memoir and on the book show in appearances like on The Howard Stern Show interview where Stern said multiple times that Sonny deserved his own spot in the HoF and Cher agreed.

Cher accidentally started to say the “Hollywood” instead of “Rock and Roll” Hall of Fame. She thanked her “guardian” David Geffen for “writing a letter” that she credits for getting in. She told some stories about her life: seeing Cinderella as a four year old, wanting to be famous, having a crazy yet amazing mother who told her she was not the prettiest, smartest, most talented kid, but she was special. She talked about not doing well in school, the ups and downs of showbusiness, being “lower than a snake’s belly” at times, as her mom used to say. Cher says she never gave up. She got from her mom her perseverance. (The television coverage cuts to Mary J. Blige clapping.)

Cher says after she left Sonny she had a car and her clothes and that it took Francis Ford Coppola’s encouragement for her to move to New York to pursue acting more seriously. She mentions getting a play and then getting to work with Meryl Streep. Cher talks about being lucky, being dropped by 4 labels, that her #1 hits in seven decades surprises even her. On the telecast you can hear her clearly say, “I’m a good singer. I’m not a great singer. I’ll take good.”

I misunderstood this at the event. I heard her say “I’m a good singer” and then a commotion. In the bootleg clip below you can see what I mean. Her full comments are completely obscured. I thought she was defending herself, not being self deprecating. But I think her assessment is right. Some of us love her singing but she is a combination of many things (fashion, singing, attitude).

She says, “Believe  changed the sound of music. It was an accident…Believe was kind of a bitch in the beginning.” She retells the story about the record company head complaining that “No one will know that it’s you. Yes, that’s the deal. That’s the great part.” She said it’s been a roller coaster life. But she implored us to “never give up. I’m talking to the women, okay….We keep striving. We keep going. And we keep building. And we are somebody.”

She thanked her family, Chaz, Elijah, her sister and brother-in-law, Slash and Alexander.

She walked off without her award and on the TV broadcast you can see Zendaya trailing after her with it. And then she was not seen again in the crowd or backstage photos. And there was no group song for this induction year, possibly due to some backstage squabbles. There were those Foreigner stories we started hearing the night before the show.

The show was broadcast live on the Disney channel which…I mean…let’s be honest…is not a good look for rebellion and resistance.

The Cher Speech (4:37)

There were images that came out later of Cher talking with Mary J. Blige, posing with Dua Lipa and Zendaya and a video of her interacting with super-fan Flavor Flav.

Kool and the Gang

That was not the last Cher reference in the show however. Chuck D. came out next to induct Kool and the Gang, He referenced “the Roots” and I didn’t understand who they were. Later I found out that Questlove and the Roots are the house band for Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show and they were also the backing band for the HoF ceremony that night. Chuck D. continues, “I know a lotta rappers gotta thank, Cher, right? We gotta thank Cher“ and that gets cheers. He is referencing her auto-tune song “Believe.”

After Kool and the Gang played, my brother and I agreed this was a really fun part of the show. (He had one Kool and the Gang album as I recall.) I even liked “Celebration: which as a kid of the 1980s, I was fully prepared to never have to listen to again. They have plenty of great songs, “Too Hot” and I also like the end of the song “Ladies Night.” (And of course, Miss Ladd, which egregiously they did not play.)

Foreigner

Sammy Hagar did the induction for Foreigner. My oldest brother was the biggest Sammy Hagar fan, but they were both at the Checkerdome that night he recorded his MTV special there in 1983. My younger brother was the bigger Foreigner fan. So it was fun to see this induction with Randy. As I recall he once played me the song “Juke Box Hero” on our credenza-like phonograph and called it a masterpiece. Sammy Hagar later agreed as much.

Sammy Hagar started by taking a long time to tell what amounted to Cher joke.

He said musicians have been asking themselves what the criteria is for getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “What do you have to have done? There should be some rules.” Yes, this sounds logical. He goes on to speculate: should you need to have one hit song? Foreigner has had “nine mega hits in the top 100.” Do you need a gold record? Foreigner has sold 80 million records and has six top 10 albums. Or maybe you have to have been around long enough, longevity, still filling arenas and amphitheaters (he almost says arenas, Cher is still filling arenas but not stadiums. Metallica is still filling stadiums according to a traffic jam I was in last summer in Boston). Hagar continues, even though the tour doesn’t have the original members, that’s how good the songs were. Hagar said this as if it were a compliment; but it seems some fans and members of the band do not see it this way; see the Foreigner article above.]

Then Hagar said that backstage he was thinking maybe the band wasn’t glamourous or pretty enough. (Well imho, Lou Gramm was plenty pretty), but then Hagar said that “if that  were the case, Cher would have been in the Hall of Fame about 10 times already, every time she reinvented herself. Welcome Cher. Congratulations.” (cut to members of Foreigner laughing.) “What was I thinking?” Then he goes on to explain why Foreigner deserved to be in the HoF.

I have to say I was probably more of a Lou Gramm fan. but I sure heard a lot of Foreigner in my house growing up and I know all the hits. I was especially a fan of his solo hit, “Midnight Blue,” and in high school would blast it from my car radio. I thought the interactions between Kelly Clarkson and Lou Gramm were very moving. Graham seemed very old and unsteady.

Demi Levato also did part of the Foreigner performance. Like Dua Lipa, I cannot get into Demi Levato either. There’s lots of leather bustiers and chains. Being a Cher fan I should be primed to like this. But it always feels like these women are trying too hard.

Then Roger Daltry arrives to induct Peter Frampton and this is how it should be. Underdog inductees should always  inducted by an unquestionably accepted members. Franpton shouldn’t have ever have been an underdog but his teen idol status insured that he would be. I looked over at my brother when Roger Daltry came out and our eyes got big (later that night we had to explain to my Dad who he was and yes my almost 90-year-old parents stayed up to watch the whole show because we were there at it).

Before we left for the show, someone in the house (not me and I won’t say who it was) asked why Peter Frampton was even being inducted. Well, Roger Daltry told us why and it was a great speech. The induction video went on to put his guitar playing on the level with Jeff Beck. And then Peter Frampton did an amazing performance with friend Keith Urban, which impressed even the naysayer above. After his performance, Frampton was helped to the stage (due to his own health problems) and he gave what was maybe my second favorite speech of the night, full of humility and wisdom and the insistence that “Kindness is King.”

Jimmy Buffett

All of my party got up to use the bathroom at this point and to go get snacks. Not me. I did not move. They missed the Big Mama Thorton’s video and the beginning of the Jimmy Buffett’s tribute. Julie was the big Jimmy Buffet fan who initiated me into the two shows I went to and loved. But his tribute was a big letdown. The songs chosen by Kenny Chesney, James Taylor, Mac McAnally and Dave Matthews were all ballads at the exclusion of those festive party songs that were a staple of his live shows. And I love me some Buffet ballads. But the overall feeling of the tribute was of sadness. And it is truly sad that Jimmy Buffet is no longer with us; but I have never left a Jimmy Buffet show feeling sad. I did like how James Taylor explained Jimmy Buffet as a hero in a Greek myth.

Susanne de Passe

Motown’s Susanne de Passe talked forever and forever, ignoring the prompter’s many pleas for her to wrap it up. (We had a good vantage point from which to see the prompter) but she had one good piece of advice, “You have to make “no” your vitamin.”

A Trip Called Quest

The third Cher mention of the night happened when Dave Chapelle (and Randy is a huge Chapelle fan, too)  was inducting A Tribe Called Quest. Fife Dawg’s father, Ward Taylor, introduced his family and ended by saying “Cher, I got you babe: and a wink. And then went on to say, “I am headed to San Jose but I don’t have a GPS. So Miss. Warwick, I need your help” and then he pointed both fingers at Dionne Warwick in the audience. She laughed. (She had returned to the audience after her induction which was nice but I haven’t much else to say about it.)

We all  surmised that Cher was possibly flying home by then but she told Cher she stayed for the whole show.

It was fun to watch Flavor Flav dancing to the great menagerie of old school rappers during the Tribe tribute and I was excited to see Queen Latifa, probably the only rapper I ever got into.

Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige’s speech was my favorite. She talked about how, in order to sustain a career, you have to have humility, that life is full of peaks and valleys. How you have to move with grace. Trust the process of your journey. Share your wisdom and love and respect with all who cross your path. She said you don’t need to wait to be perfect. “You are worthy.” Her knowing chuckle was very, very charming. She emphatically thanked her fans.

The Dave Matthews Band

None of us were Dave Matthews fans but the majority of the crowd in that arena were, which is why they were saved for last. They had been a fan fav in the HoF polls for two years. And although I do love the playful and orgasmic sexiness of the song “Crash Into Me” (“I’m the king of the castle, you’re the dirty rascal…please crash into me”), they only played a snippet of that. Julia Roberts inducted them like a giddy fan. I couldn’t get into it.

Due to Julie’s migraine and the five-hour length of the show, we had skipped dinner and were all pretty hungry by 1 am. We went to Happy Dog, a hot-dog bar in Cleveland and had some booze and fancy, creative hot dogs.

For many reasons, a weekend to remember.

Cher Scholar Review of The Memoir

March 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Big Points

I’m not going to rehash the whole new Cher book. It should be read fully to get the feel of the old tales and new revelations. I’m just going to give my overall opinion and point out a few interesting patterns and things.

Apparently there were three ghostwriters and an editor who make weeklong house calls to  Malibu to hash out this thing out over four months. The first one produced a book of facts, the second one got Cher halfway into telling stories she didn’t really want to tell and the last one got her much farther along. Cher says a fourth edit would have been best. To me, this doesn’t sound like a failure of the ghostwriters, just the normal writing process, drafting and drafting, restarting and rejiggering until you get closer and closer until you finally give up and let it be what it is.

The project from the start was a difficult business, how to balance the obscure details fans want and with the big, over-told stories and basic life structure the nonfans need. I wouldn’t want to be the one to do it. Kudos to all the writers who brought this thing into existence, including Cher.

I think they did a fine balance myself. I do know some fans who are frustrated by the watered-down Cher storytelling style or the fact that information is missing. Of course there is a lot of missing information. I have my own list; you’ll see below. But I think those are understandable. Cher gets to decide. And the book ticks all the main boxes for me: it fleshes out her genealogy, covers her music experiences (some more than others), illustrates chosen life stories (much more than I thought we’d get, tbh), what it all felt like. Plus we got a great survey of Cher’s Los Angeles, where she lived and what she loves in L.A. This inspired me to make a map.

And hey, I’ve read all the Cher biographies and this one still felt new to me. It didn’t feel like a rehash of all the previous books. And it remains impressive that Cher had the clout to get a two volume memoir, something only world leaders usually get.

We got way more Sonny stories than I thought we would. As a Sonny & Cher fan this made me very happy. Sonny’s memoir is mostly about Cher and Cher’s volume one is mostly about Sonny. The Sonny story is pretty crucial. We did get much less about Gregg Allman than I thought we would and barely anything about Gene Simmons, and Les Dudek was like a sentence. But we got information on all the boyfriends in-between.

And here’s the thing: the Allman and Simmons eras are very well documented in hundreds of magazines, interview clips and news articles that tracked Cher’s every move during those relationship years and other biographies cover them as well. KISS books alone give copious coverage to the Gene Simmons-Cher relationship (for those third grade St. Louis boys mocking it so much). Allman Brothers Band books likewise give much more coverage of their relationship. And the fact is fewer mainstream readers care about those relationships. Cher’s childhood and genealogy is not covered anywhere and so that information gives us clues into her personality. So if we had to choose between one or the other: childhood should get the ink. And I’ve always maintained that your genealogy works its way up through you in powerful and sometimes unseen ways.

It reminds me of Carol Burnett’s prequel memoir about growing up in Hollywood and living with her grandmother, One More Time (1986). It had nothing about her life in show business, which we didn’t get until her second book came out, Time Together: Laughter and Reflection (2011) . In a sense, Burnett too managed her story over two books.

I feel the same way about the incorrect facts. I do wish there had been some fact-checking for a few things but those are all things we can easily verify elsewhere (which is why fact checking seems like such a no-brainer). For example, as we know very well from last year’s blog posts, Cher’s advice column was not in Tiger Beat. It was in 16 Magazine. Although fans pretend to be aggravated by those finds, I think they are fun to find on some level because it gamifies the book for fans.

And although it was only a sentence, I loved the part where she talked about her fans, that if they don’t like something she tries, they still like her as an artist and person. That’s so important to say because Cher fans are so different and yet so open. And at the end of the day they are fans of Cher and not an accumulation of Cher stuff. I do think some artists would rather just be appreciated for their production. Either they don’t feel much like a person or they don’t want a kind of personal attention or maybe they just want the cash.

But then again, Cher does care an awful lot about the cash, by her own admission. And the reason for that, we can now see, goes back to childhood experiences.

This book reminded me there were a few categories I forgot when I was listing what musical movements Cher was  a part of. I mentioned she was a member of Phil Spector’s Gold Star Studios circle, part of the mid-1960s Southern California Pop scene (with the Mamas and the Papas, the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Turtles and the Association) and was involved with The Wrecking Crew. But I forgot to mention she was an accidental part of the British Invasion. So weird but true.

And there were two scandals I would have liked to have heard Cher’s perspective on, both taking place during the Gregg Allman era: the Jenny Arness suicide and the Scooter drug trial. It’s hard to know how personal Cher wanted to get but she did give us much more information about the Average White Band/Ken Moss drug party. Cher was also quite candid about her fans (and the rest of America) criticizing her relationship with Gregg Allman and how she felt about it. That coupled with her fan appreciation sentence made me think about all the things fans have been through with Cher.

I made a list.

  • The drug film Sonny made and their sudden subsequent uncoolness.
  • The big style transition from the 60s to the 70s where a bunch of kiddos (enter moi) and old farts jumped on the Sonny & Cher bandwagon to the probable annoyance of existing 1960s fans.
  • Divorcing Sonny.
  • The hookup with Gregg Allman.  (I missed all this because I was in the single digits and didn’t read the news).
  • Dating Gene Simmons and having to endure the whole hiding-in-a- hankey thing but also KISSness in general (and having to hear third grade boys disparage Cher as the Yoko Ono of KISS…and oh the sorrows I have seen!)
  • Black Rose sublimations of Cherness.
  • Epstein-Barr (would we ever see Cher again!?) and the infomercials (I am the oddball fan that loves those probably for the same reason I love Vincent Price on a cooking show).
  • The younger boyfriend  mini-scandals.
  • The occasional verbal missteps that fire up a press but come and go.

Childhood

Although most reviewers wanted to discuss Cher’s experiences with her extraordinary mother, Georgia (and this book was just as much a biography of Georgia as about Cher), I thought Cher did a good job bringing John Sarkisian to life. He had always seemed like a flat villainous character before. I think one of the good things about this book is that it doesn’t try to villainize anybody. Interviews and press liked to draw out the shitty things Sonny did, but in the book people are drawn in their mysterious complexity: Cher’s birth father, her step-father, John Southall, Sonny, and even to a lesser extent Gregg Allman. It’s ironic that she describes Sarkisian as a spoiled youngest son because Cher’s mother was the most unspoiled child as there ever was. How did that even work?

It was also interesting to understand how Cher’s surnames evolved and when they were attached to her and how that affected her identity in odd ways. Pinky Sarkisian is forever etched into my imagination now. It has a lovely internal rhyme.

I appreciate the listing of movie and musical influences, both early and teenage. There were some obscure names in there (obscure now anyway) and it will be interesting to keep thinking about how Cher internalized those influences.

We knew nothing about her step-grandparents before and as it turns out they had a big influence on Cher’s idea of fashion in show business. The button box detail. (There were some great details to bring stories beyond sketches.)

A graphic detail Cher describes a childhood foot injury that she says gives her a “distinctive looping gait “(the Cher strut?) reminded me of the stage foot injury that happened somewhere during the Farewell tour and how much she depends on her feet.

When talking about her family, you got more of a sense of Cher’s feelings about things. This was what I think felt so compelling since she’s usually presenting as such a tough cookie. This especially goes for the very touching relationship between Cher and her sister, Georganne (or Gee). Those moments, in brief snippets, were very moving.

Over and over in this memoir cycle, Cher claimed the usage of “Babe” in “I Got You Babe” went back to her mother’s glam usage of the term. This differs from critics who liked to say Sonny was ripping of Bob Dylan’s 1964 “It Aint Me Babe.”

Cher also brought to life her time studying with Jeff Corey and her first jobs at Robinsons department store and even more detail about working at See’s Candies. And she sorts out all of Georgia’s husbands and lovers for us. That has always seemed sketchy and confusing before. And you can see how disruptive the constant moves become, the patterns that form between Georgia’s upwardly mobile times with her husbands (for the most part) leading to Cher’s glimpses of wealth in Beverly Hills and New York City, in contrast to severe poverty they experienced living in the Valley, where support systems of women took over. You can see these female support systems in Cher’s adult life entourage as well.

Cher’s early viral illnesses also tie into her later struggles with Epstein-Barr Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue.

Cher with Sonny’s parents and daughter, Christy.

Sonny

I believe that for decades Cher has been telling us the truth about Sonny but we just couldn’t hear it. She spells it out as much as possible here. I had no idea the infamous Melissa was gay. That puts quite a spin on Sonny’s ill-fated crush. Cher talks about Sonny’s beautiful hands again. “I just thought this guy was special. Everyone loved Sonny.” She doesn’t recount his childhood as all the other bios do (well enough). She does note that he was kicked out of LA’s Englewood High School for hiring a black band for prom. She sorts through his odd jobs, who his friends were (Sam Cooke, Jack Nitzche), what his music creds were up to that point. I love thinking about Little Richard pretending to hit on Sonny and eliciting an eye roll. Her opinion of their relationships with Phi Spector.

Cher mentions multiple times how Sonny was an avid photographer and took the photo of her standing against the wall at Gold Star Studios. I’m not quite sure which one she means. Which is why it would be good to get a book of Sonny’s photographs someday (maybe sprinkled with some recipes?). Cher says she admired way he “put everyone at ease.”

One of my favorite parts of the book was the listing of locations in Los Angeles, the clubs they went to, the restaurants, the record business hangouts, the houses where they lived. And this part has some of the best, almost unCher-like quips, like her story about how she came to be friends with Sonny and live with him, wrapping it up with  “And that’s how I became the potty-mouthed sidekick to a man 11 years older than me who was in the middle of a divorce. I thought Sonny was the coolest person I’d ever met.”

She doesn’t shy away from discussing all the womens. Sonny would say when women came over, “That’s just Cher. I was just Cher.” And all those women’s attempts to wrestle Sonny into compliance or to wrestle money out of him. Apparently he was dating several women, and not just one who claimed she was  pregnant and wanted abortion money. Cher claims one of these women used the money to get their teeth fixed. Cher also claims Sonny wasn’t really a catch. He had no money and drove a Chevy Monza (in a sentence, how we judge men by their status as indicated by their cars). Cher would sit in the bedroom watching TV or drawing during his escapades. It’s fascinating to think about.

Cher is also pretty honest about her own complicity in slowly losing her autonomy in this relationship, how early illnesses cemented their roles as a woman to be helped and the “macho Sicilian.” Cher says, “I came to feel that he was the kind of guy who’d be there if something bad happened. Before too long, I thought the sun rose and set on his Sicilian ass, even though I knew that I wasn’t his type.” There’s a lot going on in that passage.

“Before too long I began to hero worship my roommate. The feeling wasn’t mutual.”

Cher describes herself as a kid full of phobias and panic attacks and how she evolved from a tag-along to a love interest over time.

And Cher never did expect any high romance. (It was astounding to me how unromantic both of her legal weddings turned out to be.)

Another fascinating character in the book was Uncle Mikey, Georgia’s brother. He was also a very shadowy character in prior books. His highs and lows were fascinating, including the high’s of owning two L.A. nightclubs, The Purple Onion (important to Cher’s story as the first live performance she ever gave) and the Haunted House on Hollywood and Vine, which fans know from the Halloween promotional video where they tour the club and dance. From watching Rifftrax movies, I also recognized the club as the main setting for the movie The Girl in Gold Boots. Cher described it as a “kitschy, goth go-go bar.”

Cher talks about their dogs, Sonny’s aptitude for fatherhood,  (very good, not surprising) and life with both his daughter Christy and also times when Georganne lived or traveled with them. Cher goes more into the Gold Star days than I thought she would. More than even the experiences recording her own albums. Cher doesn’t say much about times spent with Sonny’s family but that she liked his sister Betty. (Fran is the sister who wrote the book about their family’s legal battles, Bono vs. Bono. where family episodes with Cher can be found.)

Cher is faithfully honest about Sonny’s professional attributes (mostly his unwavering belief in Sonny & Cher) and his faults (he started to become controlling pretty early). She admits (similar to many other once  controlled women),  his perceived jealousy and attempts at controlling her “thrilled me because it meant he cared.”

You also come to appreciate how Sonny became Cher’s Dumbo’s feather.

And most of the Sonny section is about how long it took for her to understand that she could support herself both physically, financially and emotionally. She could live without this great love. She could deal with the business of show business herself (with help).

Cher says some of the happiest days of her life were these early years with Sonny when they were living together and working at Gold Star. She details the ups and downs of Sonny & Cher, from the days playing in bowling alleys, roller rinks and later in small nightclubs, who they opened for in the beginning (The Ronettes), who they headlined with (The Beach Boys, The Mamas and the Papas, The Righteous Brothers) and who they fell to the bottom of the bill with after their careers imploded (King Curtis and the Kingpins).

She tells of an early album of covers she did that was scrapped. Oy. All the fans wish we could hear those and other lost tracks. It sounds like “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” was also a Sonny & Cher, Brian Wilson, Darlene Love, Jack Nietzsche, Jackie De Shannon song under Phil Spector with the moniker of Hale and the Hushabyes,

Without rancor, Cher talks about early players, Coleen and Bridgit, managers Charlie Greene and Brian Stone. Remember they did a tabloid tell-all about Cher in the 1980s that resulted in me sending Cher a fan letter about to Cher telling her how outrageous it was. Cher says those managers were “brilliant liars, committed, charming.” Although she doesn’t believe, for reasons she explains, that the London Hilton episode was pre-planned. she says the managers did spread a rumor that a Saudi Prince had asked if Cher was for sale. How that was supposed to drive record sales, I do not know. (She says the lyrics of Ma Rainey’s “See See Rider” were changed to add a reference to the London Hilton.)

We see the first meeting of Cher and The Rolling Stones. One particularly funny story is about how Mo Ostin accidentally signed Sonny & Cher twice. Cher claims Bob Dylan loved her version of “All I Really Want to Do.” Other accounts say he didn’t like it. The picture of Sonny & Cher with Dylan was taken with Sonny’s camera. Cher explains the difference in stories between later managers Joe DeCarlo and Denis Pregnolato. One helped Cher, one ratted her out. She explains Sonny’s nose job and how his nose was ultimately an illustration of his resilience and strategy.

Cher charts the rise of “this odd little song” that was “I Got You Babe” and how the time in England were more of her happiest days with Sonny, how he told people she was “the missing piece” and they went from being labeled freaks in America to becoming famous overnight in England and returning as a mis-identified part of the British Invasion, with all the hysteria that entailed. Cher says she didn’t know she’d be singing the song for the next fifty years [on and off].

Is it me or is the “Laugh at Me” Martoni’s Restaurant story missing from the book? It seemed such a foundational story about how they were treated by “the establishment.” I wonder why it was omitted. She does talk about the cover up story about the fake Tajuana wedding.

And that she’s known her interior designer Ron Wilson since the Encino house. And he has decorated 19 houses for her over six decades. She’s got her people who are loyal to her, another case in point.

She talked about the unrelenting work: gigs, recording sessions, interviews, TV appearances, no dinners, movies or vacations. Only shopping. But she was torn because all the work meant more time with Sonny. And she says she didn’t like it when TV shows treated them like a novelty act. Cher says she started to become a shadow.

She talks about her relationship with Richard Avadon, the champion of the unusual looking. “We weren’t beautiful in the traditional sense at all.” The squared-off nails pic was from the first session (later they would revisit her nails in another 1970s shoot). She says Avedon and his stylists “made me feel beautiful for the first time in my life.”

Cher talked about her first experience with then-reporter, future Mask director Peter Bogdanovich who reviewed a show they did for Princess Margaret and he said they “howled like coyotes” among other insulting things for his Saturday Evening Post profile.

Cher talks about being an abstainer, like Sonny, but not caring if everybody else imbibed (her mother and uncle did, not to mention Sonny’s prescription usage) so she wasn’t supportive of Sonny’s drug film and she said it hurt their career instantly. “Record sales dropped immediately and offers dwindled.”

Cher admits that “keeping us relevant was a lot of work” and it made Sonny moody. Cher gave him some journals [which Mary Bono sold in 1998 to People Magazine after Sonny’s death] and they often communicated through those pages although she didn’t see, until years later, the moving entry he made on his 33rd birthday.

Enter William Fredkin, who was friends with Sonny, and stories about the movies Sonny & Cher made. This started Sonny down a path of thinking he was a movie maker, getting caught sleeping with his secretary and his jealousy surrounding Stephen Whitaker (no kissing!), Cher’s befuddled co-star in Chastity. She said Harold Battiste read a book on scoring so he could do the movie score for Good Times. Cher also loved the cool jazz version of “I Got You Babe.” [Me too; I played it at my wedding]. Cher seems to have fond memories of making Good Times, which was filmed in their Encino home. She talks about their customized ’64 mustangs (which she looks at every time they come up for auction), how she didn’t believe Sonny would ever get the movie made and once he got the funding she felt like “oh shit.”  She was on the birth control pill and felt chubby during the filming, having gained 15 pounds. She both loved and felt sorry for George Saunders and he was surprised at her classic movie knowledge. She talks about the elephant Margie.  Chastity was a shoestring affair with a 15-person crew. Cher doesn’t name him by name but says the director was a real person who had only done commercials before. They wore their own clothes. Cher admits she could have been offended by the portrait that was inspired by both Cher and her old friend Melissa.

Sonny had many more movie plans, a “Beat Goes On” musical and an animated film. The films were flops, each for different reasons, and this depressed Sonny. The firing of Greene and Stone sounds unpleasant. Cher says she liked Led Zepplin and wanted to change with the times but Sonny was 33 and was determining their direction. She talks about her miscarriages and the funny diagnosis of “an angry uterus.”

Cher took Sonny’s cheating, when she walked in on it, pretty hard. Sonny, like a true narcissist, blamed her for the situation in various conflicting arguments. She said she was “overloaded with sadness” and came to understand her mother had been hearing stories for a while. [But then oddly Georgia often chose Sonny’s side in later years.] Cher lightly goes into conflicts with her mother but it’s vague what the fallings outs were over. Later Cher admits everybody knew about Sonny’s affairs but her.

In the midst of these new relationship issues, Sonny and Cher start moving into the Tony Curtis houses (the St. Cloud house and the Owlwood house or “the big house”) and it’s surprising to know they owned them together at the same time. The Owlwood House on South Carolwood, a famous LA. house has a whole chapter in a book written about it (Michael Gross’s Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition, and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles) and is allegedly one of the biggest money sinkholes in Hollywood due to its gargantuan size (9 bedrooms and Cher said you could “starve to death” trying to find your way to the industrial kitchen). No one seems to hold on to it for very long. So to manage that house and another Bel Air house at the same time is a bit astonishing and shows how much cash flow Sonny & Cher might have had in the early 1970s.

As I said, we get more information about making Phil Spector records than we do Sonny & Cher records unfortunately. The rumor was Sonny’s production process was brutal on Cher, lots of lots of takes. But Cher doesn’t confirm or deny that. Compare this to all the stories we’ve heard around the making of “Believe.” The exception is the story of all the arguments surrounding the making of the Muscle Shoals Jackson Highway album.

SHEFFIELD, AL – MAY 5: Singer and actress Cher takes a break during a session for her album ‘3614 Jackson Highway’ recorded at Muscle Shoals Recording Studios on May 5, 1969 in Sheffield, Alabama. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

One of my favorite eras of Sonny & Cher happens to be the nightclub era. This is because it feels like a metamorphosis. Although it was rough, it was also a rethinking of what Sonny & Cher were. Plus it seemed very cinematic in its own way. For example, the contrasting image of a newly glamourous Sonny and Cher in tux and gown making their way through supper club kitchens and waiting behind swing doors for their  cues, navigating the hecklers, the low turnouts, the band, the bad motels, the delight of a baby and toddler, (“Christmas everyday,” Cher’s words) and Sonny’s storytelling, “Good Princess Garbage Who Loved Garlic,”  truly two people with their backs against the wall. Their relationship coming back together through the hardship of small time showbiz, Cher’s wise acre personality finding its way into the show.

The TV Shows

And that all paid off. I was always under the impression that the Nitty Gritty Hour was sort of a pilot episode for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and not a first attempt that didn’t go anywhere as Cher describes it.

She reminds us that their summer replacement led into the Henry VIII miniseries (which probably helped). She does list the names of her supporting actors: King, Cullen, Langston, Steve Martin, Teri Garr (who she says was “funny enough to have her own show”). Sounds like Ret Turner and Ted Zeigler were her favorites. She says her hair was a problem until Renata came abord and that she always did her own makeup until Mask. Before doing her solo number, she would always ask stage manager to go find Sonny so he could watch her sing from behind camera and she did this even after their divorce. Recently I found a scrapbook photo of just that backstage moment.

She also explained a big mystery to me: what that Bono Award statue was. What the heck was that? It was an Oscar with large nose and mustache. Ahhh. Oy.

I love the weekly schedule run-throughs. Carol Burnett did this in her book, too. What happened Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, weeks they had to double-up due to concert commitments (50 a year) or recording albums in one week with Snuff Garrett. (Cher admits she doesn’t “like story songs much.” )

Cher talks of being permanently tired but knowing “this is what I was supposed to do” and that it was fun singing “the best song” referring to the Vamp song. Of Sonny & Cher, “that’s all we want to be and that’s what we were.” Besides, she had Sonny in her ear saying “this is our time.”

Little did he know, Cher would take over time itself.

Cher was called at the time one of the top 10 best dressed women in America. Their TV show was in the Top 10. Enter Irwin Spiegel. Sonny starts smoking cigarillos and calling himself El Primo. No one was ever allowed over to “the big house” except on Christmas, Thanksgiving or Chastity’s birthday. (What a waste of all that space!)

It was also interesting to me that Sonny booked them on the Playboy TV show and they accepted gifts from Hugh Hefner (that big lion on the album cover depicting Chastity’s bedroom), but after their separation, Sonny would use her friendship with Hefner to try to say she was an unfit mother in their custody battle. Sheesh, Sonny.

But then Cher meets Paulette in 1972 and this is very crucial to the story. Getting to know Paulette better in the book is very, very important. She’s described as “a breath of fresh air” to Cher. She arrives as the girlfriend of their road manager but eventually becomes Cher’s assistant. She’s worldly in all the ways Cher is not. They swap desires to live each other’s lives. Cher is in a very bad place, not eating, sleeping and by her own admission “needlepointing herself to death.” She has been on the edge, literally, of not one but several balconies. (Oy. Imagine.) She has no control over her life and Sonny is forcing her into a schedule she doesn’t want. She’s watching Paulette and being pulled toward these after-show band hotel-room gatherings Paulette recounts to her. Meanwhile the guitarist has a crush on Cher. It involves a riff and an Etch-a-sketch and it’s where the book slows down remarkably into a veritable suspense story.

So one night in drummer Jeff Porcaro’s room (don’t get me started on the Toto thing, please), Cher breaks ranks and all hell breaks loose. David Brenner is involved, the whole band is involved. Sonny gets dark.

They go on with the show and an episode with The New Seekers, of all people. Cher tells of the Mother Nature skit in that episode in her book. Sonny tells another version of the same story in his. Cher maintains that they were not, in fact, great actors. But that they genuinely enjoyed doing the show and had work chemistry even as they were breaking up. Sonny’s account isn’t identical to this. People who worked on the show wrote about the famous Battling, Bickering Bonos and how Sonny and Cher would go their separate ways immediately after coming off stage.

Which is heartbreaking for all us kid fans who had their imaginations ignited by Sonny & Cher existing that stage ramp with Chastity. What other stage door was so pregnant with meaning as theirs? It’s like we hated to see them leave and had to keep imagining them living life as they disappeared into silhouettes. One of my favorite pictures of them is from a Cher tour book, Sonny & Cher exiting the TV stage with Chastity.

But then as Anthony Kiedis notes in his own memoir, Cher babysat for Sonny’s girlfriend’s kids (Kiedis) during this time. So…it sounds genuinely complicated.

Post Sonny

So the excitement keeps on keeping on after Cher separates romantically from Sonny. For one thing she remarks about “dressing without permission” and I think that’s an important phrase we also heard her use on the book’s speaking tour. Women wearing what they want to wear is one thing, but then braving criticism about it is another. Just the agency to wear WTF you want I think is something we take for granted now. Something men take for granted and something young women also take for granted. Bodily agency is what is being enacted here. And it’s been dismissed (sometimes even by me) as frivolous. It’s not.

Cher also depicts funny post-Sonny moments, like the first time she guffs signing a check with “All my love, Cher.”

We find out that the brother of the guitarist Bill Ham is Cher’s sometimes saxophonist Warren Ham (ex: Black Rose).

And besides lame weddings, the things Cher had to put up with astounded me. Just Bill Ham asking her what movie she wanted to see. David Geffen given her the first valentine’s day gift ever received (she cried). It’s incredible! The 600 cassette tapes she bought because she was finally allowed to explore her own music tastes.

I also found her relationship with Sonny’s girlfriend Connie very interesting. The whole Girls Room thing.

She talks about the affairs with David Paich and mentions the tour with the Toto guys, how she met David Geffen and their early days and all the famous rock stars she got to know through him. And all the movie stars, directors and producers. How Sandy Gallin, Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Hooton and Warren Beaty all kept Cher’s relationship with Geffen a secret as part of Cher’s agreement with Sonny to not be seen in public with another man. Oy vay!

This statement when talking about Geffen thinking she would jump him: “I never made the first move with a guy in my entire life.”

Geffen famously rescued Cher from involuntary servitude with Sonny. That’s all well known. Cher states quite clearly, “Sonny was undoubtedly responsible for making us who we were but…he could never achieved that without my voice.” Cher references having to do this performance after one contract fight.

I did not know Cher had won a Golden Globe for Best TV Actress in 1974. She also won one in 1984 for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Silkwood) and in 1988 for Best Actress (Moonstruck).

Cher and Joni Mitchell

At Bob Dylan’s famous birthday party she sang “All I Really Want to Do” with him and The Band and, I ididn’t know this, “Mockingbird” with Rick Danko. I wondered how hard it was for Sonny to see Cher’s experience and deep entree into the music business on the arm of David Geffen at that time. She penetrated the in-crowd of the music business in ways he never would. Although even so, the music biz always kept Cher at arm’s length.

She is quite candid about the Average White Band overdose party scandal. “Ken moss told everyone I was being an alarmist.” Wow.

She talks about the struggles with her own solo show after David Geffen stopped helping her get the best musical guests (because he was mad she left him for Gregg Allman which is understandable).  There were the censors who “read sex into everything,” the fact that the show was up against The Wonderful World of Disney.

She was at the Troubadour to see Etta James when she met Gregg Allman. The story is pretty funny. She was there with Geffen, Paulette, and Tatum O’Neal (she references O’Neal a bit dismissively, there’s probably an untold story or two in there). Allman’s friend Chank gave Cher a note that started with, “dear enchanted lady” and ended with his phone number. There’s no mention of a finger sucking in this retelling of their first, disastrous date. The second date entailed dancing and went much better. Cher’s take of the Allman Brothers Band is that they were jealous and undermining of Gregg. She admits it was a mistake to have him come on her show, a “lose lose” proposition for everyone. She says the wedding was “not romantic” and there was no honeymoon and he “was gone the next morning”…which strikes me as a more egregious move than leaving his “dope kit” behind. Cher says it was hard to make these mistakes as “the most famous woman in America.”

Her show then went up against The Six Million Dollar Man during its second season and that show was a phenomenon. (Sonny guest starred on it, to add insult to injury.)

She didn’t see much of Gregg during the reboot of The Sonny & Cher Show, she says. He was kind of miffed about the whole thing, thought he was being made a fool of. I can see his point of view. The birth of Elijah seems very dramatic as it fell in between Allman’s rehabs. I forgot after reading the book the whole complicated story and if Allman was even there for it or not (he was and it sounded very moving; he named Elijah). But it Sonny who was on the road with Cher for many of Elijah’s milestones in hotel hallways (similar to the toddlership of Chas). This explains why during Cher’s Take Me Home tour we saw all those photographs Cher said Sonny took of Elijah.

Cher says it was a surprise to find out The Sonny & Cher Show was cancelled while she was on the road with Sonny. That’s surprising to me too considering the last show seemed so…well final.

Cher said it was her idea to drop her name from Allman and Woman and that her favorite track on it is “Do What You Gotta Do.”

The Gene Simmons section is even shorter than the Allman part (could they have warranted a chapter each?) but Cher tells the story of the $2,800 phone call he made to her from Japan. Simmons was really good with her kids, she says, giving KISS-fan Chasity lots of memorabilia, giving Elijah his first guitar and teaching him how to swim. Life in a bandana was a problem, though, as it turns out. It was hard to have a private life with paparazzi inside every restaurant. It’s very hard to eat pasta with a bandana on.

The rest of the book is about the Black Rose / Take Me Home Tour eras which included the factoid that Michael Keaton was the opening comedian for the Take Me Home shows, Cher’s affair with Les Dudek while working on Black Rose and Cher’s failed attempts to break into acting or even get an acting agent, despite being in the lucky position of having actors, producers and directors as friends. She only got encouragement from Shelly Winters and Francis Ford Coppola (who used to play cards with Sonny at the Encino house). She said Jack Nicholson got her the audition with Mike Nichols for The Fortune and she tells the story about why A Star Is Born didn’t happen.

She lists out the names of her dancers who all died of AIDs while only in their 30s. She also talks about her new assistant (after Paulette left to be with Dickey Betts), how Deb Paull had no experience but was crucial in helping Cher get over her stage freight before the new tour, her first without Sonny, shows where the mic went out, the fire alarm went off and how she broke Sinatra’s attendance record and cab drivers would recommend the show to tourists.

The books literally ends with all the reasons Cher was getting movie role rejections: she was too old, too ethnic, too tall, too typecast as Cher, and had a punchline for a personal life. It’s a great place to end the first book.

The Possible Movie

As I said in a previous post, I think this book contains the synecdoche that represents the whole of Cher’s life, an era that defines the other eras.

The early 1970s journey back from being rock stars and those supper-club indignities feel like a very tactile beginning, their traveling nucleus,  their backs-against-the wall bonding through small tours. A movie could allude to everything that came before. Big concerts and tv shows never film as well. They always come across as flat and kitschy. With live shows, you very literally “had to be there.” These times on the road feel very 1970s, and also very A Star Is Born. (Which, by the way, Sonny and Cher track better to A Star is Born than Cher and Gregg Allman do.) It’s also interesting that when things were bad professionally, Sonny and Cher became good again personally.

Casting is always tricky with both Sonny and Cher. Imitations always collapse in flat cartoonishness. Which is egregious considering Cher is one of the most multi-dimensional people in show biz people. The actors should be cool but not publicly understood as cool. Steve Buscemi is a good example I always give. Before their time people. Under the radar people. Despite being right there. (Which reminds us of Sonny’s idea that being before your time is as bad as being behind your time.) They don’t even need to look like Sonny or Cher. It can be an allegory.

The core action is Cher leaving Sonny. That wasn’t the hard part of the memoir to write for nuthin. It pretty much is the movie. It’s the most dramatic sequence in the book by far. Because the first hard thing you have to do is the hardest hard thing you will ever have to do. This is  Cher’s first quintessential solo battle. It’s where the character discovers her strength.  And nothing afterwards could happen if this didn’t happen. And it was emotionally hard to happen. It was physically hard to happen. It was professionally hard to happen. It was a confluence of a lot of things. And that release of tension would release this very large Cher character into the world.

Meeting Paulette is also important to the story, her worldliness and independence and interactions with the band.

The most dramatic thing is this before and after Cher. Plus it’s about Sonny & Cher, arguably the most charismatic coupling ever. Even Cher will say there will always be Sonny & Cher. Sonny even said something similar on Bob Costas, how a magic seemed to happen when they got together, a frenzy.

At their story’s resolution, the Cher character launches into another life and amazing things the movie can allude to but things most of us  already know.

 

Memoir Archaeology

A playlist of TV show performances Cher specifically references in the book made by Cher scholar Alex:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4KcrHavQ0W-ONF7b3T0Yi2Qd2DcEwOK6&si=EvWJ4a9nLpBMSyyy

This LA map of Cher locations I made:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1msdsjnHHDIPBDyabT2p31zs-ukvqYoY&ll=34.09008937559771%2C-118.38576864999999&z=10

The Memoir TV Appearances

February 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

First of all, I’m sorry but this is going to be long. Very long. I don’t have the energy to break it up into multiple posts. Cher did quite a few appearances on television and podcasts, live interviews and Sirius Radio to promote her new memoir, part 1. Which seems to be paying off because the book has topped the New York Times Best Seller list for something like four to six weeks now. And the interviews are interesting for the different angles they explore on the book and because she, in some cases, elaborates on points from the book or they bring up new stories untold in the book.

In the print interviews, there were typical words that would recur: most commonly grit and gutsy. This reminded me of a Cher Zine article I did for Cher Zine 3 in 2011 called “Synonyms for Strong.” I had been a part of a news group years earlier and it had a questionnaire for new fans and I saved them for data review plus the same survey to some non-fans I knew.  Words used to describe Cher were the most interesting part of the study: words like tenacity (ability to survive, survivor, determined, re-invention, resilience), non-conformity was the next popular word (does what she wants, doesn’t care what people think, is not playing the game, is true to herself), third was her bold attitude (boldness, uninhibited, gutsy, courageous, has guts, has moxie, is straight-forward, spunky, tells it like it is, outspoken, speaks her mind) and finally the term self-confidence (self-esteem, tramp but she loves it). All were strong adjectives.

What I find interesting about the TV and podcast interviews is how most of the interviewers ask Cher when her next album is coming out and not when her next movie is coming out. Maybe this is because she’s been attached to so many movies that never got made, that movies for her are now so rare, or because, although she’s a much more acclaimed actress, it’s the music we want.

Here are some of the highlights of those 15 or so interview appearances (that I saw).

CBS Sunday Morning (17 November 2024)

Cher says she felt like she spent half of her adult life writing the book, that it took three drafts and only the last one was close to being right, a 4th draft would have been better. “Like me.” This is the first interview where she talks about how the first drafts were bad because they were just an encyclopedia of facts you could look up (first draft) or because she didn’t want to say much (second draft). She finally felt she had to “do it or give the money back.” She wanted to tell stories but “didn’t have a burning desire” to do the book. As with most of Cher’s projects, she admits she was lured in by the idea that “it would be fun.” But it was instead a lot of work. Some things, like her relationship with Sonny, were hard to explain. And she agonized about those things. She insists here and in other interviews that their television show was not fake affection, even as they were splitting up. But rather it was the only place Sonny and Cher could find peace,  (or Cher could, at any rate), as their relationship deteriorated due to Sonny’s lack of personal interest in the personal relationship and his increasing interest in the business of show business. The show, from Cher’s point of view, was always fun. Cher felt a sense of relief when they were working and more of a sense of equality there because acting came so much easier to her than to Sonny.

Cher then goes into the childhood chapters, how some of her childhood history she didn’t know for many years (the orphanages, the living with caregivers for extended periods, not living with her mother until she was three). Her first memory was of a Bambi highchair. She says she was more surprised by learning of her early shaking beginnings and how her friend Paulette saw the picture of Cher in the orphanage (Cher’s mom Georgia could show it to Paulette but was never able to show it to Cher). The unknown experienced caused a fear of abandonment she’s had her whole life (admitting she is the person to leave most of her relationships first) and a fear of waking up and not knowing where she is. How ironic, Cher says, that she picked a job where she wakes up in different places most of the time. Cher talks about the hard times living with her mother, how she had to be a grownup from the beginning and yet was also really childish. She calls this her “split personality,” how she can still be savvy and naive at the same time. “I was watching and understanding everything…in a childish way.” She says she saw the fights, the chaos but also the fun and the beauty. She talks about how her love of clothing developed from her mother’s friends, “balls to the walls women” who “the moment they got with a man they got stupid.” (Oy.)  She says of her step-dad, “I loved my Dad. I loved him. They were good for each other in one way and so wrong in another. So in love they were both beautiful he was jealous he was flirtatious he had a drinking problem and violent temper.” She said they had to be on guard and hyper-vigilant because “one drink would be the end of everything.”

Cher talks about meeting Sonny who was wearing a mohair suit, mustard color shirt with a white collar and his Cuban (or Beatle) boots. “He was kind of childish. He got to be real with me. I didn’t expect anything. I didn’t want money. Women his age wanted him to be grownup.” She talks about arts and crafts they would do. “Those ladies didn’t want to do that.” She says Sonny was the first person (other than her mother) who thought Cher could be a singer. She talks about being relegated to the chorus in a Junior High production of The Mikado because she was too high for male parts and too low for girl parts. Cher talks about how she was Sonny’s pal at first, just a kid and how she lied to him a few times about her age. And what she felt for him she never again felt for anyone else. “It wasn’t passionate. I just loved him. He could get away with anything. He was different than anyone else and he made me laugh. We had a dream and we started to try to find this dream. He wanted to be the producer and me to be the artist. I didn’t want that. He had tried to be an artist himself and couldn’t do it.” She admits Sonny might have only been pretending stardom was achievable for them. But that ultimately she believed in his belief. “I’m not sure he knew it. I don’t know with him. His faith made you believe. He would propel me and I would go kicking and screaming.” Harry Smith talks about how well their voices blended and Cher admits “He had the worst voice. Mine wasn’t that much better. I didn’t learn how to sing until 15 years ago.” [Many people during these interviews, including me, contend that Cher’s organic, imperfect voice was just fine, maybe even better.]

Cher talks about how Sonny had to find his way in comedy, how he never learned the script or the songs like she would. He would “crash or fall through it. Then we stared laughing and that was his character.” Smith asks her about the phenom of “The Beat Goes On.” He means “I Got You Babe.” Cher again says, “What belongs to you comes to you.” That leads to talk of the lean times and how Sonny and Cher didn’t know anything about money or taxes. And how you shouldn’t bankroll your own movies. She talks about how the comedic Sonny & Cher schtick began with her banter with the band. “They laughed. Then Sonny laughed. Then the audience laughed. Sonny knew there was something there and we started working on that. It took a long time to get that material. I could kind of be who I was onstage. Not so much off.” Then the TV shows. “Freddie Silverman believed in us….People loved it, loved us” but Cher didn’t know it. She was too busy working. She tells the Sax Fifth Avenue perfume department story where she walked through with the show costume designer, Ret Turner, and “everyone just stopped talking” and Turner said, “This is TV famous.” But then  Sonny started to change, smoking cigars, saying things like “run along.” It took Cher a long time to figure out that Sonny stopped caring about her as a wife. She admits Sonny wasn’t jealous. “He had a million women.” She says she didn’t know. “Of course not.” She tells the story about finding him with another woman when he was working on their movie Chastity. Cher reports that he wasn’t faithful to any of the women he was with. But, just as others have said throughout the years, Cher loved Sonny in spite of everything. They were oddly inseparable. “You couldn’t cut it with a chain saw, our relationship. He couldn’t understand it. I couldn’t understand it. I tried my best to explain it.”

Talk then moves to David Geffen, “the sweetest, most fun. most thoughtful boyfriend she ever had.” It was Geffen who dug out her contracts with Sonny and tried to extract her from them. Cher explains how she convinced Fred Silverman at CBS not to pick up the contract on the show in 1974, thereby ending her obligations to work for nothing. Cher then talks about how over the years she asked Sonny in a variety of ways why he cut her out of the earnings entirely. But he was never able to explain why, other than she would leave him some day. [I wonder if this was his way of saying he needed all the money he could get before his days in show business were over.] They move on to Gregg Allman. “I was madly, madly, madly in love with him. He was so sweet and so gentle and so wonderful and he was a heroin addict. I went through a lot with him but we loved each other.” Cher says that at the end Allman’s best friend told her she were the one. Cher says throughout it all, Allman kept trying. She says if you’re a musician and your boyfriend is a musician, there’s a special essence to the relationship, “a spirit beyond being in love.” Cher admitted she wanted to go back to working professionally with Sonny. But America didn’t go for it. “People didn’t like that we weren’t married and that I was with Gregg. His people hated it and my people hated it.” Cher says her early recording days were “not a good time for female artists,” that she never got to choose her songs and that being a solo artist felt not that much different from being a background singer. “Girls run along. There wasn’t much getting control . It took me a long, long time. Even now I make blunders.” “Doesn’t everybody,” Smith asks. Cher says, “I’ve been in the business too long. I shouldn’t be making any blunders. I’m so trusting. I shouldn’t be.”

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (18 November 2024) – Interview clip, skit

Fallon introduces her by saying, “there’s only one Cher. Icon, legend. (Those pants!) Cher comes out to a standing ovation and asks either innocently or cynically, “Is there a sign that says stand up?” Fallon and Cher do a funny Irish dancing skit. During the interview Fallon talks about his prior ideas for her memoir titles: I Got Scoops Babe, Over-Chering, Breath of Fresh Cher and how he was disappointed with the final result. Cher again talks about parts of her life she wanted to guard, how life is much more complicated than she could explain. Fallon calls Cher “just the coolest. You’re a trailblazer,” how after her failures she reinvented herself. She argues with this. She tells the childhood runaway train story, about how Sonny & Cher couldn’t get traction in the United States because of the way they looked. Of Dia Lupa and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance, “I love her. She’s so nice. We hit it off like crazy.” It is here that I learn that Fallon’s house band, The Roots, were the band at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame  ceremony. (This makes sense of the comment I didn’t understand that night. More on that later.)

A few days later, on Thanksgiving, Cher again reappears to do a skit with Fallon where they play The Turkettes, turkeys singing Cher songs.

 

We Can Do Hard Things podcast with Glennon Doyle (19 November 2024)

I had just read Untamed. As the podcast begins, Glennon, Abby (her wife) and her sister Amanda sing “Turn Back Time” together. They say they’re breathless with excitement, called Cher “so warm and wonderful.” They’ll focus on emotionally abusive relationships, Chaz coming out and Tina Turner. “The whole thing is so beautiful” Glennon says and calls Cher a “joyful, beautiful person.” They introduce her as “Cher, the icon.” Glennon said she loved the book, it was “so personal” and tells Cher, “it’s such a gift to learn about you as a person.” Glennon talks about memoir writing and “telling the truth while honoring your people.” Of Cher’s book, she says it was “beautifully done.” They talk about how Cher lost herself a bit with Sonny. But Cher quips that she “was 16 and didn’t have much of a self to lose.” They talk about how forgiving Cher is. And how Sonny struggled early on in the TV show and basically became “ a character who didn’t study his lines.” [In some ways I think Sonny made a better rock star than Cher in that way.] Glennon points out that on the show Cher was “allowed to exist in your Cherness.” Cher said “onstage we were equals. He needed me more than I needed him. Offstage, he was not interested in me being a human at all.” Cher talks about how suicidal thoughts happen when your vision narrows and options seem fewer. The task is to figure out wider options you can’t, at the moment, see. Cher says it never before occurred to her she could leave Sonny. She met him when she was sick and he took care of her and it stayed like that, just gradually worsening into a controlling state. “I never thought to rebel.” But she even forgives herself, “I wasn’t ready until I was ready.” They talk about Chaz being born and how “it lifted me up” and the TV show “lifted me up.” “I wish it hadn’t taken so long.” They talk about advice for women in abusive situations, “If you can’t get out, tell a friend, your mom, get out anyway.”

They then discuss Cher’s current boyfriend, Alexander. Cher says, “it’s very settled. We talk about music, friends, hope, God, desires, Slash, our love of things.” Cher says she’s more willing to argue, “I’m good at conflict, I’ve had it longer and I love him. He thinks he gives more. I think I give more.” Cher talks about the things she learned from her real father “Johnnie” Sarkisian (to differentiate from her step-dad, the man she calls her real father, sister Georganne’s dad, John Southall),  They talk about the last time Cher lost her temper (first answer was with her sister and then she remembers a story about a road manager who shut the door on one of the road crew and how Cher exploded. They talk about her acting career. Cher said she loved Broadway matinees and she compares acting (getting small inside and letting things come out, an internal thing) and singing (let your voice come out). Cher demurs that she’s not an example of courage, “just moving forward, never thought of it as courage.”

The Today Show (19 November 2024)

They introduce Cher as an icon with six decades of songs, anthems all around the world, a TV legend, a movie star, a fashion luminary. Hoda Kotb notes that Cher is always 100% unapologetically herself. Cher says, “It was a journey…when I was 27, I was 16.” At 78, “what are they gonna do to me now?” Cher talks about stories of the orphanage. In different interviews and stories, it seems the political figure changes who rescues Cher back to her mother. It’s a congressman here. She talks about how Sonny dressed so well, the bracelet watch he was wearing when they met and how he had the “most beautiful hands and fingers I’d ever seen.” Cher says “fuck” on TV again during the Eastern Feed after Hoda oddly encourages her to and then frets about it after it happens. She initially says, “we’ll bleep it.” Cher says she stayed friends with Sonny “until before he married Mary I guess.” She talks about how David Geffen and John Sykes helped get her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She says her greatest achievement is her children and “not giving up.” She says Katharine Hepburn told her “it gets greater later.” And Cher repeats that “what belongs to you comes to you.”

The Howard Stern Show (20 November 2024)

This was a fascinating interview to me. Stern had been really harsh on Cher after her eulogy to Sonny and I never would have imagined she’d appear on his show. But to Stern’s credit, he’s never intimidated by his guests and pushes them beyond initial answers, which always makes for a more quality conversation.

The interview jumps right in asking Cher about her interactions with Joni Mitchell while Mitchell was living with David Geffen during the making of Court and Spark. And this is also the benefit of a Stern interview, he asks about the cool stuff everyone else ignores. Stern says he can relate to Cher’s mother dramas and “the suffering Olympics.” He indicates her mom might have issues and Cher answered that her mother’s childhood was so horrible. He pushes and they spar on ideas. “<om would go dumb with men,” Cher said, “go Republican if he was.”

Stern admits he both “loved and wanted to strangle Sonny” while reading the book. “Sonny Bono should be in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” and Cher answers “oh yeah.” They talk about the therapist story (sonny getting intel on Cher through her therapist) and Stern calls it out about how often Cher forgives people (we’re seeing it happen in real time). “You’re so kind to people,” your spirit.” Cher talks about how she felt protective of Sonny during their David Letterman appearance (not distant as Sonny relayed in his book). “He was going there in an emotional way” and Cher felt protective.  Stern says he was shocked by her background. When Cher says The Wizard of Oz was a favorite movie, Stern quips, “Sonny was the wizard of Oz”  and admits he understands that Sonny “really was the color in your life.”

In deeper ways, Stern asks questions about the days with Phil Spector, The Wrecking Crew. Cher admits, “I never had a plan in life” when talking about time with the Spector crew. Sonny told her, “You’re getting a college education,” Cher calls Eartha kit “mesmerizing and wanting to be like Elvis. Her fandom of Bob Dylan, but “All I Really Want to Do” being a monotonous song. She claimed Dylan “loved our version” (over The Byrds’), said it was the best one. Sonny really loved it.” Stern reminds Cher she has sold over 140 million albums. They talk about Sonny’s initial push and how Cher was happy for him to make the decisions. Stern acknowledges that Cher “tried not to make him a villain. Geffen is the real hero of the book.” Cher talks about the musicality of her grandfather, her love of Hank Williams, her lack of musical agency in her career and how girls don’t “take that shit” anymore, how she didn’t know “I Got You Babe” would be a hit but she knew “Believe” would be. She says she wishes she had kept the cleaner shirt cardboards Sonny wrote his songs on. Who would think to but a basson and an oboe in a pop song, Cher says. “Sonny Bono should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” Stern says again. Cher says, “Well, yeah.” She recounts how Sonny would sing his songs to their arranger Harold Battiste, who was a genius. Later Cher talks about this again, how Sonny would sing his “crazy ideas” to Harold Battiste who would come up with an arrangement. Cher says “Philip did same thing with Jack Nitzsche. “sing down” ideas.

She says that The Rolling stones hated LA. All they met were “suits,” business people. They saw Jack Nitzsche and Sonny and felt they had found their people. They met Sonny & Cher at the Beverly Hilton lobby and began chatting Cher up. Sonny said “That’s my wife.” [But she wasn’t yet.] Cher tells us that Sonny had camera at the London Hilton as they were being told they had no reservation and he took a photo of their names on the register. [Can we get a book of Sonny’s photographs?]

Cher claims S&C had five songs in top 20, something only Elvis and the Beatles had done up to that time. She laments that out of 600 people, there are only 90 women in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She says she is happy to be in there “with all these people I respect.” Stern complains that she should have had a meatier induction speaker than Zendaya (although they like her). Cher defends the Hall of Fame broadcast. “For them it was about TV.” Stern asks her who would have been meaningful to you, Paul McCartney, the Stones? Cher says “Jimi Hendrix – he would have been the one.” She then tells her Madison Square Garden story about meeting him. Stern says, “You love musicians” and then goes into interviewing Gregg Allman whom Stern calls a genius. Like Cher, Stern doesn’t imbibe and they talk about drug usage in rock music. Cher says, “They think its gonna make them happy” and that Allman was wonderful person, sweet and smart and funny. Stern is offended on behalf of Cher for Allman’s nickname for her, Chooch (which he says is slang for vagina). Cher contends Allman “meant it in a loving way. (This is weird, Cher defending Gregg Allman sexism to Howard Stern).

Stern admits the obvious, that every guy fantasied about having sex with Cher and that he personally was embarrassed to watch the Sonny & Cher shows in front of parents. This is something I really like about Howard Stern, how he says what few other men have the guts to say, he has the big balls to be honest even if its potentially embarrassing). Stern compares her solo outfits to a kind of strip show. Cher says Sonny was opposed to skimpy outfits because there were 27 million people watching. She talks about Sonny not letting her play music and after leaving him visiting Tower Records in LA where she bought a bunch of Stevie Wonder records.

“The Beat Goes On” Stern says, “that’s a really good song.” Cher says that song was unusual in that she did her vocal for it first, not like in other duets where they would be standing together. They talk about the Carol Kaye bass line, how she was the only women in The Wrecking Crew and the boys were always trying to fuck with her but she wasn’t having it.

They talk about “Gypsies Tramps and Theives.” “I don’t hate it; I have respect for people who love it. I wasn’t a decent singer until a few years ago. The song was picked out for me. I was told to do it….Nobody cared what I thought.  [I often compare this to other singer’s stories about being asked to sing songs they don’t like and how they had agency to rewrite or rearrange those songs.] They admit “Half Breed” would never be released today. Cher says she doesn’t like her voice on it. Stern says, “I think you sound fabulous” but Cher says she had a hard time sustaining a high note and her tongue would stiffen. She said that produced a “weird sound” and that when she hears the song, “I cringe.” She says the song “I Got You Babe” was manifesting what she and Sonny used to dream about. They talk about the odds of having a hit song, how more talented people do not. Often it entails a special quality. They talk about some of the varied guests on the TV shows: Muhammad Ali, Tina Turner, Kris Kristofferson, Truman Capote, Bob Hope, the Jackson 5,  how she was named one of the10 best dressed women in America. They talk about the road blocks she faced trying to get into acting, how even having the most important friends, “as high as you could go,” didn’t help.

Stern reminds Cher that “Sonny’s show tanked and Cher says, “I didn’t want him to fail. He was hysterical,” funny, that “without Sonny, there would be no Cher.” “Stern asks Cher if she was blasé about the musical career?” Cher says “I am a fabulous girlfriend” as they start talking about Gene Simmons. Stern imagines “guys expect fabulous sex” from Cher and she quickly says, “and they get it.” [Interview highlight, right there.] Of all her boyfriends, Cher says only Val Kilmer left. “I was madly in love with him.” Stern wonders if there is only room for one star? Cher says, “Not true.” They talk about the talent of Gregg Allman, how there were great times and how he was “lovely, interesting and fun and horrible…one of the best singers ever” [I can’t get there]. Stern says her male fans were “outraged he has you. No one should have you.” Cher admits, “They hated us.” Of their duet album Cher says, “he was great. I hated what I did. I was running to catch up with him. I was intimidated.” She says it was not a horrible experience.

Cher says Val Kilmer helped her prep for her movie Mask. Stern says her best ‘fuck you’ was her acting career. Cher talks about how nobody is ever allowed to cross from music to movies and about watching the Silkwood movie trailer in Westwood trailer where the audience stared laughing. Cher says it was “so real” and how her sister stared crying and Cher had to bite her cheek. Then she was nominated for an Oscar. Cher says the nominations are always a surprise. You’re just doing your work, your job. They struggle to remember who won best supporting actress that year and finally come to Linda Hunt.

Cher talks about fighting for Nicholas Cage in Moonstruck. In her mind, he was the only one who could say, “Chrissy, give me the big knife.”[Ok, I see her point now about that.] Cher says if she starts looking at other guys, the relationship is over. “Nobody calls me Cher.” Stern remarks on her nicknames for everybody: Philip, Gregory. She says her sister calls her Stupid, Gene called her Puppy, David called her Sweetheart, Alexander says Baby, Gregory Chooch. [They don’t mention Sonny but he did make shirts and hers was Prima Donna.] He reminds Cher she’s had 17 top 10 hit, #1 hits in 7 decades. She says she  stayed for whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame program. [Even I had thought he had left.] Stern said he assumed she was the first performer so she could go home and go to bed. Cher said it was a TV show; they know who to put on.” She didn’t force them to let her go first so she could leave.

I was wondering if Stern’s prior comments about Cher would be addressed. The mea culpa came at the end. Cher says she hadn’t wanted to do the interview. She’s rather “eat glass” she thought. She wasn’t going to come on. She said she had heard he had said some mean things about her. Stern says, “I’m sorry. I’m a better man now. I was really fucked up. I’m a pain in the ass.” Then he says he voted for her to be inducted. That he was the speaker for Bon Jovi’s induction. So he apologized and said “I’m contrite.” They talk about Richie Sambora. Stern asks her about musical highlights and she talks about opening for The Beach Boys beach boys, meeting the Beatles, that Bob Dylan blew her away, and she finishes with the John Lennon Harry Nilsson story at the Playboy Mansion.

An Evening With Cher: In Conversation With Harry Smith in New York (20 November 2024)

This was the first of Cher’s traveling “talks” about her book. It was also the only one posted in full online. Cher says she never understands why people stands up when she comes on stage. She and Harry change places. “You’re beautiful” and Cher jokes that it “only took three hours.”  Cher said her Dickinsean, Steinbekian childhood will make a good movie, her skid row mom whose father took her to Hollywood to be the new Shirley Temple. She admits Michael McDonald is her woulda, coulda, shoulda. She says she is a good girlfriend, monogamous, funny sweetish, I’m really good, very supportive. Smith says, “to a fault.“ In reference to a picture of Sonny, Cher says “he hadn’t had his nose job yet.” Cher talks about early living with Sonny, how “girls kept coming over and calling all the time” but that he could be playful with Cher who was just happy to be hanging out with him.

Smith talks about how “All I Wanna Do” turned into a duet. He means “Baby Don’t Go.” Cher admits she doesn’t know her address or phone number. She says, “It’s the house with all the palm trees.” (Seriously, that’s what I used to tell my touristing friends who happened up through Malibu). She talks about how much fun Carol Burnett was, how they were both Tauruses. They kid about her name drops: Richard Avedon (I had such a huge crush on him), Jackie Kennedy. She talks about how Sonny played the roles of father, brother, husband, partner and how there were many girls, how he cheated on those girlfriends with one night stand. She talks about the big breakup that started with Sonny’s signing of a three-year contract in Las Vegas. Cher says she asked Sonny for 50% after the breakup and he refused. Cher talks about the journal she bought Sonny, [some of which are in his own memoir and some Mary Bono sold to a People Magazine months after he died.]

They then take audience questions. The first is about Cher being a gay icon. Cher says they both feel like outsiders. Someone asks if she could go back a decade, when would it be. She says the 1980s were fun but she’s having a great time now. Right after leaving Sonny was both joyous and rough. Someone asks her about her West Side Story performance. She talks about discussing it with Art Fisher who was a genius with chroma key, ahead of his time. She says she was a better singer and actress later, indicating maybe she wishes she had waited to do it later. Another question is which Bob Mackie costume is her favorite. She says the Met Gala dress. What is the biggest misconception the public has about her. She says, “I’m really shy when I’m not working” and that performing is a “way to express myself without having to be vulnerable. I know a lot of actors are shy. It’s one of the reasons we do what we do.” She says singing and dancing is like going to a party at someone else’s house, it’s more fun. Acting is like hosting the party at your own house. The next book will cover her acting career. She says she knew all the studio executives, Jack, Angela, Warren, Mitchell, but couldn’t get a job. When she moved to New York, she lived at 4th and Broadway. She says she doesn’t dress up at home. “I am so ratty at home.  I don’t want to be Cher at home.” Smith pronounces “our undying gratitude for you being you.” Cher quips, “who else would I be?” Smith assures her the book is quite amazing. “Maybe you’ll read it.” Cher jokes, “maybe when I’m old.”

Live with Kelly and Mark (22 November 2024)

It’s Cher Day! Kelly says as she remarks on the buzz and excitement not seen there since the president came. Mark says, “there is more people than I’ve ever seen here.” Cher walks to shake hands with the audience. She’s wearing an oversized gray suit with a hanging chain. Kelly says the book “moved me in ways I can’t express. It was so expansive” Kelly says she can tell Cher doesn’t enjoy talking about herself. Cher says, ”people get mad, upset, sad” and say, “what’s the matter with you, Bitch.” Cher calls bullshit on her reputation for reinvention. “It’s not giving up. I want to keep going.” Kelly jokes about wanting Sonny & Cher to be her birth parents. (were my fantasy parents, too) and about Chastity: “That bitch is living my life.” (I didn’t think that but I wanted to be older than Chaz for some reason and was crestfallen to learn I was four months younger). Kelly says the variety shows set an example for working mothers. They talk about how Sonny was very strict. It took me a long time, Cher says. “A house had to fall on my sister. I don’t have a temper. By the time I was done I was done. I still liked…loved him. We had so much fun with each other.” Kelly defends “Dark Lady.”

 

Cher in Conversation with Darlene Love in New Jersey (22 November 2024)

Cher in Conversation with Stephen Fry in London (25 November 2024) –

These were available online for only a short time while I was in Oakland and I couldn’t get a chance to watch them before they were taken down. Boo.

The Graham Norton Show (30 November 2024)

Cher says she tripped up the stairs in her pants on the way out. We start with Josh Brolin’s story about how backstage Cher confused him with his father, James Brolin who was in her movie Burlesque for a minute. Cher says “I had so much fun that day.” Brolin complains that his dad is like 130 years old. Cher says, “So am I.”  Kiera Knightly is also on and she plays “Believe” on her teeth. Cher amazes at how she hits the notes. Later Cher will tell Knightly that she looks good in her new show and Knightly says “thank you, Cher” with a thrilled look on her face. Cher is surprised Graham read the book. Cher tells women and girls not to give up. They talk about how S&C were huge music stars and Cher says the London Hilton story was not a publicity stunt to her knowledge. [Some bios have said that it was.]  Cher says her first interview were in England. She says she is bad she is with numbers. “Someone has to add up my Gin score.” [Funny that because I just had a family reunion in Joshua Tree and could also not add up my scores. I am not dyslexic. I am just numbers dumb (as my family reminded me a million times in the last few weeks but there are many different types of intelligences: visual, musical, mathematical, logical, emotional) and Mr. Cher Scholar’s cousin kept adding up my scores before I could every attempt to do it during a dice game.] Cher keeps saying “there was no dyslexia in those days” and what she means is the diagnosis.  You can tell Cher likes Josh. He tells good Goonies stories. Goonies is the only reason I like Josh Brolin (oh and Flirting with Disaster). This episode is less a four person conversation than last year’s couch with Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. Cher tells about her first career nadir, when her “records started dive bombing” and Sonny & Cher went from performing in arenas (first she says stadiums at first….not that big) to just four people in a bar. “Now I’m an icon and legend” she jokes sardonically. They talk about how S&C had no fan boundaries in the 1960s (Sonny told stories himself about inviting fans into the house and Cher talks about this in the book), Fans would dress like Cher and storm the stage and try to rip their clothes off. There was a Cow Palace fangirl, Cher says, who tried to pull off Sonny’s moccasins, one which had his wallet in it. “They wanted a part of you.” Josh talks about reading Cher’s book (or hearing about it) and compares his childhood to hers, both the fun and craziness of living with his mom and the chaos and Cher’s mom. He talks about his memoirs. Cher interjects with “You’re more interesting than I thought.” (Cher’s has been saying a version of this a lot in this round of interviews: Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel). “You could be my boyfriend.” This makes the crowd laugh. Josh freezes and says “Let me take that in” and looks at Graham and says “I don’t remember your question and I don’t care.”  Josh talks about his drug history and Cher talks about her Benzedrine story. Josh says he discovered he needed the chaos the drugs created. Cher answered that “I’ve created chaos without drugs.” Josh talks about responding well to women like Cher and his step-mother Barbra Streisand, people who say it as it is.

Cher talks about her final album and praying she can still hit all the notes. Jalen Ngonda sings a song and comes over to the couch afterwards, telling each couch person in turn “nice to meet you” and then when he gets to Cher he changes it to “I love you so much.” I really liked this guy when I explored his debut album after the show. Ngonda talks about discovering old 60s and 70s music at age 11, artists like the Temptations, Motown, Sonny & Cher, The Beach Boys, The Doors and Chicago. I’m sorry but Sonny & Cher doesn’t usually make that list. He talks about Smokey Robinson. Cher says “I love Smokey” and Ngonda says “I love you! I got your 45s at home.”

Cher says something else at the end and Graham says “Cher says the darndest things!” Cher is not always amused by Graham Norton.

Cher in Conversation with Jacqueline Stewart in Los Angeles (2 December 2024)

I attended this conversation. and I’ve also been to many book readings. I can assure you, none (not even David Sedaris) have had a merch table. This was held at the Saban Theater. I bought a tote and a magnet. There was also a program with a good write up saying “Cher’s remarkable career is unique and unparalleled….with her trademark honesty and humor, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century.” Sara Gilbert sat a few rows in front of us with her son. There were cowboy hats on gay men. And one ironic fur vest. This was also the first book talk I’ve been to with a intro tour video. It felt out of place but my bookish friends didn’t think so. Stewart calls Cher “one of my favorite people; you look incredible.” Stewart mentions the book’s level of detail. Cher talks about the first book she ever read, still one of her favorites, The Saracen Blade, a novel by Frank Yerby that Sonny recommended to her. They talk about early music that inspired her, Hank Williams, Disney’s Cinderella song “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes.” They talk about her mom’s premonitions, how Cher’s voice didn’t blend and she didn’t even know about blending. Cher compares her contralto range to  Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney. She says performing with Tina Turn was like a “death wish.” Because Stewart is a talking head on Turner Classic Movies, it wasn’t surprising when she said, “Let’s talk movies.” Cher talks about her struggles to get auditions and the irony of her packed shows at Caesars Palace, how she was not happy. “Singing on stage I loved,” she admits, but movie people wouldn’t give her the time of day.  She tried to speak to Francis Ford Coppola about a movie project twenty years ago [this is probably her dream to remake The Enchanted Cottage], and he “just answered me now.” “Altman is a bear’s ass,” Cher says and Sudie Bond was a great actor. “I did two movies with her. She thought I was gonna mug her in the elevator.” [How did Sudie Bond not know know who the most photographed woman in 1970s America was?]. Cher recalls that ” Sandy Dennis said it was the worst audition she had ever seen. Karen Black didn’t like me very much. I almost hit her once. She was such a bitch.” Feeling guilty Cher insists that she shouldn’t “take cheap shots.” She says she told Robert Altman he ruined Popeye. Cher says she was really good at matinees, which were full of little old ladies. Cher says working with Meryl Streep was one of the highlights of her life. Of Mama Mia: “I’m a hired hand in that one.” [So true.] Cher reminds us she is a fan of classic movies and would watch them with her mother. Who were the performers she looked up to? James Dean. Elvis. She often couldn’t relate to the women. Stewart says she’s been told “the dress shouldn’t wear you” and how this applies to Cher. Cher talks about having rubber bands around her shoes and her mother making her wear them to school as a task of humility. Cher talks about her “future body,” how she didn’t fit with the classic beauty ideals but how she “turned my back on it, made own clothes, wasn’t gonna get any place in the regular way, wasn’t a regular girl.” They talk about the respect Cher has now in black and brown communities and in gay culture. Cher says she still feels like an outsider. About the gay community she says, “they never left me. Even when I was down and out. There’s a special place in my heart. So many times I was over. I couldn’t get arrested.” The talk about the Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich boldness compared to Cher. How her dress is often a statement of “women’s empowerment.” Cher says, “I wear what I want to wear. I don’t ask permission.” She also advises, “If you have a dream, follow it. You only have this one life. My nine lives are over.” Sara Gilbert’s son keeps standing up and holding the book over his head. Very excited. They talk about areas of Los Angeles, Cher’s hometown, the prejudice she has against The Valley. “I was poor there.” They talk about her industrious mother and Cher’s yearning to go out into the world. “I wanted wheels. I am a work in progress.” They talk about Sonny. Cher says there will always be Sonny & Cher. Stewart talks about Cher’s gracious, forgiving heart. Cher says, “If you get bitter it’s not gonna hurt him.” They talk about David Geffen. If not for David Geffen I’d be sleeping on the highway. Cher talks about him having the phone receiver to his head all the time and their first date where Geffen was afraid Cher would attack him. Cher says she is the “least likely to jump on a man in the universe.” [She might have to fight me on that one; it’s just not polite.]

They then take audience questions (and here I realize we never were given any opportunity to ask questions so who’s questions are they? One question is about Cher’s famous I am a Rich Man quote. Cher says, “don’t pay attention to expectations. You have to become who you are.” Another question is about her recording history and unreleased albums. Cher says she has no idea. “I didn’t even read the book.” She talks about a new album she’s making, half with her boyfriend Alexander Edwards, half with her “Believe” producer Mark Taylor. She touts Edwards as the VP of Def Jam records and how his songs are “so fresh.” She said she had a good time with the Christmas album and that this was the first time she’s asked people to sing on an album. She says she loves Kelly Clarkson and that for the Christmas album, “I don’t wanna sing all that old shit. Can you imagine me singing “Frosty the Snowman?” [Well, yes, I could. You sang “O Holy Night” quite memorably.] Cher tells us “thank you for coming. You were a great audience.” She points out some friends she knows in the crowd and says she looks forward to seeing them backstage.

The Kelly Clarkson Show (3 December 2024)

Clarkson introduces Cher by mentioning her 17 top 10 hot 100 hits. Again Cher gets a standing ovation. Cher gives Kelly one-of-a-kind gloves made for her for Kelly’s celebrity guest wall. Kelly says the real gift was Cher coming. Kelly talks about her guest stint adding vocals to Cher’s 2023 Christmas song “DJ Play a Christmas Song.” Clarkson says, “I love that you let me sing that song with you.” Cher says she wanted it louder like as a duet. Kelly said she took the job to be like a backup singer. Cher says they will redo it. They talk about Cher’s mother living in the Bowery of every city. That her mom had talent but “I just went farther.” Again Cher mentions that there are 600 men in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to 90 women. She said she had fun being inducted and have previously wondered, “what do I have to do?” She says she’s drinking Coke Zero. They mention her most active social media account:Instagram@cher. They talk about her being an employee of Sonny’s and when the split up contractually she couldn’t work. She tells the story of Sonny cheating on Suzie Cohelo and talking to Sonny about it in Paris with Sonny in the bathtub. Cher is asked to list her top five live events:

  • 5 is the 1967 Carol Burnett Show performance singing with Sonny where they met both Burnett and Bob Mackie.
  • 4 is the 1968 Madison Square Garden charity benefit concert for Martin Luther King where she met Jimi Hendrix
  • 3 is David Geffen’s birthday party when she sang with Bob Dylan and Don Henley.
  • 2 is her performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1965 with Sonny.
  • 1 is the Take Me Home Tour 1979 because it was the first musical project she did on her own.

They talk about how Las Vegas has changed and how she was ahead of her time with residencies there. She said Sonny once told her it’s as bad to be too early as is to be too late.

Cher in Conversation with Joel Selvin in San Francisco (4 December 2024)

Desert Island Discs (British) (aired 15 December 2024)

This was another great interview because it focused on music and thereby produced questions other interviewers don’t ask and answers Cher normally doesn’t give. (Question 1)  What are the misconceptions? Cher, “That what I wear is frivolous.” She’s says she’s not one thing. She’s shy when she’s not working. She says she used to not like her records. But she’s gotten used to them. “I’m all things, the persona you see and the self you don’t see.” She says she’s been on the road most of her adult life. As for the R&R HoF, she is proud to be in there with people she respects. For each question, she picks a song. For this question it’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harem. “I like the sound. I don’t care what they say. It’s the feeling. Sonny was too middle of the road. He would want to understand the lyrics. I just thought it was genius.” (Question 2) They talk about characteristics of mom, tough, funny, smart. “We fought lots. I never talked back. The way to get her was to stop talking. Give yes or no answers.” She talks about her birth father, Johnnie Sarkisian, who met Georgia during the war and was a good dancer. She says she has his half smile, his lack of temper. Cher says she did like him although he was a mess. “He was who he was, cute, charming, kind. For this segments, she pick “Love Me Tender” by Elvis. Elvis, Cher says, was the “beginning of me knowing what I was gonna do.” She tells the story of seeing Elvis when she was 11 years old. Her mom loved music. Her grandfather and uncle played guitar. They all sang together. She loved Elvis’ gold suit, the drama of his entrance.

(Question 3) They talk about Georgia’s six marriages and how her mom’s girlfriends were her real family. She talks about some of her step-dads: Joe Collins, John Southall, the most crucial dad figure in their lives. She talks about the poverty, eating on the same pot of beans, shoes with no soles. Cher says she’s gone barefoot her whole life, sister that she and her mom have the same voice, that her mom said things in a funny way and had a ridiculous laugh. Cher picks for this segment, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” a song she first heard when she was 4 or 5 years old, before sister was born. (Question 4) Cher talks about being a terrible student, how she only learned by listening, but that she was great at sports and pretty popular. She talks about organizing the Garland and Rooney like performance of the musical Oklahoma. How did it go over? Cher says she just “let it go” and “felt like I had a bad flop.” She choose the song “Evil” by Stevie Wonder but says she could have picked 10 other songs of his. She likes the special lyrics of this one, the concept and believes Wonder is a genius like Beethoven. She says it “felt like liberation to me, the first music [post Sonny] that I got. We became friends.” (Question 5) They talk about her first impressions of Sonny, so electrifying although he was not handsome. He was “unbelievably dressed” and had beautiful fingers, was “really charming.” They talk about her time working with Phil Spector, who Cher says was “21 and a genius. She picks the Spector classic, “You’ve Lost that Lovin Feeling” by the Righteous Brothers. She remembers Brian Wilson, Sonny, Darlene at the session doing backups, Billy (Bill Medley) getting ready to do vocal. According to Cher, “We all stopped. The whole world stopped. We knew this was gonna be one of the great songs.”

(Question 6) Cher tells the “I Got You Babe” story. Cher says “I didn’t think much of this song” when Sonny sang it to her in the middle of the night. But then admits in the studio “it sounded really good.” She wonders how Sonny, “how does he even know the oboe and bassoon?” She said the song had a fresh sound. “I don’t think it’s the greatest record I’ve ever heard” but that “it captured a moment.” She says it knocked “Help” off the top of the charts. Cher says they had sold or hocked everything they had had to get to England. There she was asked for her first autograph. Cher says Sonny was a traditional Sicilian in terms of relationships, that Sonny’s “Dad that way with his mom,” the patriarch. “He didn’t want me going anywhere or to have friends…he didn’t want any escape routes.” Cher says she became used to Sonny taking care of her but then it started to bother her when Sonny lost interest in her as a person. She was also “disappointed and angry, past furious” when she discovered he had taken her half of their earnings. ” I couldn’t work without his permission. I was forced into the contract. I wasn’t home eating bon bons [when they made all that money]. I was there at Motel 6.” But she reminds us again that “without Sonny, there would be no Cher.” And then, here is the kicker. That she would pick this song for the Sonny segment. It seems to almost pain her, too, to say it out loud: “Ugh. ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me‘ by Bonnie Raitt. I love her. She’s a great musician. She’s got a great voice, plays slide like a demon. It’s one of the best love songs I’ve ever heard.” [I got a little verklempt at this part of the interview. This is probably as emotionally raw as Cher has ever been when ruminating on Sonny.]

(Question 7) They talk about Cher’s incredible iconic outfits and her fashion history, the recent exabit of some of them at London’s V&A Museum, the numerous scandals they occasioned. Was that intentional? Cher demurs, “I wasn’t sophisticated enough to know what we were doing” and Bob Mackie was so young. She says they were recycling old Carol Burnett gowns in the beginning. “She had some great gowns too. CBS was always bitching about the costs.” They discuss The Dress, a.k.a. The Naked Dress, The Met Gala dress. Cher says she had to be naked sunbathing to wear it and they had to spray water on it to attach it to her skin so that when she wore it, you couldn’t see the fabric, only the sequins and the mirage was that she was naked just wearing sequins and feathers. They talk about Cher being under the microscope for decades and a part of “unrealistic beauty standards” Cher insists she “plays by my own rules.” That there is definitely a standard to keep up which is not expected of men. But she says, “men in Hollywood are vain” but that they can be “straggly and old. Helen Mirren ages really well, Judy Dench” That leads to a discussion of the “[Franco]  Zeffirelli ladies” from the movie Tea With Mussolini, “ I just wanted to listen. Joan Plowright took her clothes off and jumped into the water.” Cher says she was “sweating vapors” during her scene with Maggie Smith. How did Maggie Smith respond? She said, “Don’t be ridiculous.” They talk about the Silkwood preview and everyone laughing, And like everything, Cher isn’t bitter about that audience response. She calls it “visceral; you can’t argue with it.” But it made her sad. She plays “Minute by Minute” by The Doobie Brothers for this segment. “I had such a crush on him [Michael McDonald]. I should have told him.”

(Question 8) They talk about Cher’s two sons, Elijah and Chaz, Elijah’s heroin addiction, Chaz’s transition. Cher says, “you do your best, be supportive, keep trying. Elijah is so bright, so smart. It hasn’t served him well. He’s above all of us.” [This does seem the crux of the problem. Intelligence doesn’t always engender wisdom.] “Greggory, he tried hard. They’ve got demons. It is what it is.” Cher talks about how freighted she was during Chaz’s transition from female to male. “Chaz is great, a great person.” She says she’s close to both of them. They talk about Cher turning 79 soon and how she’s still relevant. “I like creating stuff” but that the next album will “probably be my last album.” She says the voice runs out. There will come a time when she can’t hit the high notes. “I’ve got great songs. I really want to try my best.” They then talk of sending Cher to the deserted island. How would she manage? Cher admits she doesn’t have any practical skills. Just tenacity. She talks about her deserted island song by saying Sam Cooke and Sonny were good friends. Her song is “A Change Is Gonna Come” which is her all time favorite song. She says there are “people whose voice comes from some other place.  The book would be The Saracen Blade [mentioned above] because it “opened a whole new world, a whole new thing,” starting her on a path of reading. Her luxury item would be an eyelash curler because her mom once said every woman would need one on a deserted island.

L’INTÉGRALE with Éric Jean-Jean (French) (19 December 2024)

Mr. Cher Scholar assisted with the translation and transcription of the questions and French commentary.  One question I had for Mr. Cher Scholar was how do the French consider Cher?. Do they know her? What adjectives do they use? Mr. CS said Jean-Jean, (a name he found funny, from one John-John to another), did not spend any time explaining to the French who Cher is. It was assumed that the French know who she is and her career markers and products.

Jean-Jean states she has sold over 100 million albums, is an “actrice” who has won several Golden Globes, an Oscar and a best actress at the Cannes Film Festival. She has had an incredibly rich career, he says, “une carriere incroyablement riche, trop riche pour un volume.” too rich for one volume. “She called us from the California hotel where she is staying.” (This as Jean-Jean explains later was due to the first Los Angeles fire, the Franklin Fire that came right up to her house in December of 2024.)

They play a piece of “Strong Enough” and Jean-Jean says the book goes up to  about 1980. When are we going to read the second part? Cher says she missed three deadlines on the first book and she hasn’t started part two yet.

Jean-Jean talks about Cher seeing Ray Charles sing “Georgia” on TV. What was going on in her head at that moment? Cher says she was, “on my floor, lets crossed, peanut butter and jelly sandwich” and that it was a “watershed program every day as teenager.” She’s talking about American Bandstand.

Jean-Jean explains that her surname is Sarkisian (it was) which is Armenian. He talks about how her mother worked as a waitress but had a career as a singer and actress in a few films. Was this a complicated childhood for you, Cher? Cher answers, “You think? I love my mom. We fought like cats and dogs. She talks about her birth father’s lack of a temper, her mom’s voice, how her sister has it too, but “me a little bit more.” They play “I’m Your Yesterday,” the duet Cher once did with her mother and Cher tells the story about trying to lip sync it for television but couldn’t tell which parts were her. [I can tell. They are very similar but Cher’s voice is more smokey and syrup and her mother’s is more crystal and champagne.]

Jean-Jean says “your mother married several times. You moved a lot with each new father. How was that for you? Cher says her mom didn’t stay very long. Men come and go. She just remembers the extraordinary beautiful women. Jean_jean says her mother’s childhood was marked by poverty and violence and their heritage is Cherokee, “anglaise, irlandaise, française” and your father, Armenian. That gives you what type of character? Cher says as a child she was “not thinking life is horrible. This is your life going through it.” It was both fun and sad. Her mom’s history was very bad. “Mine was better than hers. I’m an American. That makes me a real mess.” She talks about her trip to Armenia which she says was amazing, a medical supply trip. She says she arrived after the wall fell in 1990. She talks about the picture of her sitting on the toppled statue of Lenin and how “everyone I met was so amazing, gracious. I have Armenian eyes.” She talks about her Armenia relatives, her father her Aunt Roxie.  Jean-Jean notes that Cher went back to Armenia in 1993 to discover her heritage. Jean-Jean says “Did you feel Armenian, like you found your Armenian roots or are you definitely an American? Cher says she is definitely an American woman. But she can be many things. She did feel at home there. “They were so happy to see me. ” She says America is built upon people from other countries.” In Armenia, “everybody looked like me. People don’t go to Armenia like Azerbaijan. They have gas. America never bothered to help Armenia. They have no natural gas. They don’t have anything.”

Mr. C.S. was unsure what Jean-Jean was saying at this point “except arguably the most beautiful woman in the world” or “nobody could argue that they might have the most beautiful women in the world.”

Jean-Jean asks Cher to tell us about how her mother took her to see Elvis Presley when she was 11 in Los Angeles at the Pan Pacific. They talk about Elvis in concert, her seeing him on Ed Sullivan, his gold suit, how she wanted to be like him. Jean-Jean says “you say that your mother was so beautiful that night, the most beautiful woman in the world. Cher says [and I think to differentiate her mother from herself, because she doesn’t consider herself so self-evidently beautiful without a lot of makeup] “those days women could just wear lipstick, mascara, rouge. You had to be beautiful with those three things.” This reminds me of her Desert island comment about the eyelash curler. If you’re that beautiful, that’s all you’d need.

Jean-Jean continues talking about Elvis on stage, his eyes and his hair that matched Cher and how she wanted to be like him. He asks, singer actor or star? Cher talks her grandfather, mother, uncle guitar, how they all sang together and she thought everyone did that, about seeing Dumbo and Cinderella. She says she had no Plan B. She’s not much of a planner anyway. She says due to her dyslexia, she had no academic future. She tells the story about failing the math test. They play “Walking in Memphis,” which Jean-Jean introduces as coming from the It’s a Man’s World album of 1995, originally done by Marc Cohen and the song is about Elvis and that this is the first “choque” of Cher, which neither Mr. C.S. or I knew what that meant. Choque means “shock.”

Jean-Jean notes that Cher was “16 ans” when she left home and worked as a “magasin de bonbons” (at See’s Candy Store) when she met Sonny Bono. Was it in New York or Los Angeles? And what did you feel at that moment? Cher says she met Sonny at Aldos Café, a coffeeshop that was under a radio station in Los Angeles. She says people were all calling to him when he walked in, “Sonny! Sonny! It’s Son! I thought he was special.” She said it was an experience just seeing him. “He didn’t like me at all” but they ended up as pals. Hanging out as friends. He was promotion man with singles and would meet DJs to try to get songs played. “He was very good at it. He had a good personality. Everyone liked him. He was affable.”

Jean-Jean explains that Sonny began working with Phil Spector in the famous Gold Star Studio (I’m amazed the French know all of these details of American music) and you accompanied him. And one day Phil Spector asked you to replace Darlene Love of the Ronettes (this is a mistake, Love wasn’t one of the Ronettes but that is a fine point since all the groups cross-pollinated as needed…however Love mostly sang lead vocals with the Crystals, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, and as a solo artist under Spector’s productions.) How did this story happen? Cher said she had no place to go. Sonny offered that she could stay at his apt, “but I’m not attracted to you.” He heard her singing while making the beds one day and started promoting her to Spector after that. She says the experience, “was fabulous” because it was going from The Valley to a studio with the most famous music people. She talks about the songs she recorded there. They play Darlene Love’s song “Winter Wonderland” which Jean-Jean explains is from Spector’s Christmas album of 1963 and he calls this Cher’s debut as a singer.

Jean-Jean asks Cher to recount why she didn’t realize she had a very special voice. Cher says her voice wasn’t good for background  because she was too loud. “I didn’t blend well in the beginning,” [I would argue she still rarely doesn’t.] “I never thought of being a real singer and get paid for it.” Jean-Jean asks her to remember the first solo song she did as Bonnie Jo (Mason). How it’s about being a fan of Ringo Starr? Cher says the DJs wouldn’t play it. They thought it was a man singing a love song to another man at a time when that was illegal. They play “Ringo I love You.”

Jean-Jean wants to know if Phil Spector was already crazy when Cher worked with him in the mid-1960s. Cher says “not in the beginning. He wasn’t crazy. Very eccentric.” She says they had fun together. “His parents were first cousins. He had a great sense of humor.” Cher says everyone in the studio was in their early 20s (except Sonny who was 27). “Everyone was quite young. In my mind everyone was old because I was 16 .

Jean-Jean says Sonny & Cher first found success with “I Got You Babe.” Can you tell me how that song came about? Cher tells the IGUB story. Says their piano at that time was in the living room and they had no furniture. Jean-Jean asks “And when did you realize this was a good song?” ? And Cher says while they were in the studio doing it, everyone came in and was curious about the song and the words. My mom called everyone babe. Jean-Jean plays “I Got You Babe.”

Jean-Jean notes that “you say in the book that Sonny became difficult. You cay Sonny could be hard on you. What happened at that time? Drugs like Phil Spector? [Oh, that’s funny.] Cher doesn’t say anything about drugs [aside from prescription drugs, Sonny didn’t abuse any] but she says “Sonny would take care of everything. I didn’t know about the business world. I was happy to just sing.” Cher says they became famous and that was amazing, But then their careers “went into the toilet.” T

Jean-Jean reminds us that Cher’s book covers the decades of the 1950s, 60s and 70s primarily. You say Sonny was strange. He hired a detective to follow you when you were alone (and Mr. C.S. isn’t sure what is said here but possibly something about Sonny’s two-timing Cher. Cher says she became used to it. That at 16 she don’t think to ask why he was doing what he was doing. “He was fun. I didn’t notice. I was flattered. It’s hard to explain. When I started to grow up, had my own thoughts, he wasn’t going for that.”

Jean-Jean says Sonny also wrote several songs like “Bang Bang” on the second solo Cher album, The Sonny Side of Cher in 1966, a song that had a lot of success in France [I can’t find the French charts. I wish I could as this is my favorite question of the interview]. How did this song come about? Cher says “it was such a strange song. We loved it. It sounds like it shouldn’t be a relationship song. It was a strange take on love.”

Jean-Jean asks her about the French singer Sheila’s version (1966) and the Italian-French singer Dalida’s version (1966). And he plays the original song. [Going to search for those songs lead me down a rabbit hole that resulted in this page, a repository of “Bang Bang” covers.]

Here Jean-Jean seems to be talking about a kind of album from CBS. How did that happen? Mr. Cher Scholar and I think he’s talking about the album encapsulating the nightclub shows, Sonny & Cher Live. He says we’re going to listen to an excerpt of that “mythic show” and we think he means the CBS show. So all of that is getting confused together, more so when he plays “Can’t Take My Eyes off Of You” from their appearance on the Playboy Club show, not the Comedy Hour. This song was not on any album or segment of their CBS show. (the TV shows were not big in Europe so they’re not as familiar with it.)

Cher explains how they lost all our money, started at the bottom again in horrible nightclubs, “People didn’t like us. We dressed like our style before” in some “unpleasant places.” Eventually they changed to a tuxedo and gown but “people didn’t like our music.”

Jean-Jean astutely talks about all the artist of Lauren Canyon, the Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, Jefferson Airplane (technically true I see from a Google search but I always associate them with the San Francisco psychedelic sound, not the Southern California sound). What was that like at the time? Cher says, “you don’t think about famous people when they’re your friends. ” You’re not in awe of them. You think,  “that’s a great song or Michelle looks great tonight. They’re just your friends.” Jean-Jean continues that she also met at the time Jimi Hendrix and Salvador Dali. Cher says this is just show biz (baby!) and you run into people.

Jean-Jean notes that in 1975 Sonny and Cher divorced. How did you feel at the end of this marriage? Cher says, “He drove me crazy but we were always friends. “My wife could say that” quips Jean-Jean. on stage, Cher says working with Sonny could be so much fun, the best time. “I don’t think two people could get along so well playing around and singing. He liked playing around and I liked playing around.”

Jean-Jean says, now they’re going to play the cut “The Beat Goes On” from the 1967 In Case You’re In Love album (I love that he notes the albums), a song written by Sonny Bono and he asks the audience, have you ever heard any song like it?  After your separation that was a new stage for you, in 1980s you stared doing films. Did you like this new career as a comedian?

Cher says she wanted to be funny and sing since was five. She starts to tell the Mick-Jagger-You-Should-Go-To England story but then corrects it to the Francis-Ford-Coppola-You-Should-Go-to-New-York story (they’re very similar stories as it turns out).

Jean-Jean recounts that Robert Altman gave her the role as a fan of James Dean in a Broadway play. Jean-Jean then recounts Cher’s “remarkable career” in films like Silkwood, Mask, Les Sorcieres D’Eastwick, how she won best actress in 1987 over Meryl Streep and Glen Close (for Moonstruck, which in France was called Éclair de Lune) and then he incorrectly says she played Morticcia in The Adams Family (this was Anjelica Houston, and is a big gaffe) and then goes on to discuss Mermaids which was strangely called in France Les 2 Sirènes. Why two? There were three women in the story.

They then play “The Shoop Shoop Song,” (pronounced choop choop) from 1990. What should we know about that song? Cher explain the movie being the story of the mother of an eccentric family. Cher says it was the story of my sister and my life and my mom, two daughters, one is kind of crazy, a mom trying to make it. She describes the scene where they are setting table with the radio on, singing and dancing. [The movie is not literally their story. It was a novel by Patty Dann and also her MFA thesis from Columbia…but in any case, I  think I now understand this movie.]

We’re coming to the end of the hour Jean-Jean says. He wants to ask about the story of “Believe,” the last song he’ll play from the 1998 album of the same name. He comments on its enormous success, historically the first to use a “novelle technologie,” the vocoder (incorrect, it was a pitch machine later named AutoTune). Can you tell us more? Cher says the verse was never very good. She says the pitch machine was able to you on the note and they played with it.  Let’s listen to Believe, Jean-Jean says. It’s the only song played in full.

Jean-Jean notes that autotune has been used heavily by rappers. My last question, “Do you believe in life after love? [Oy] Cher says, “Yes there is life after love. It’s a strange concept. There is no life without love, you couldn’t live without love. Love is always coming to you.”

Thank you so much Cher.

Jimmy Kimmel Live (7 January 2025)

This marks the 400 TV appearance I have tracked. Wow.

Cher first tells Jimmy Kimmel “you got balls, dude” for what he said about Trump in his opening monologue. I rewatched the show recently in Cleveland with my parents to see what he had said in the monologue. (My mom is a big Jimmy Kimmel fan because he keeps mentioning his staff and labor issues). The monologue seemed pretty typical of his usual monologues so maybe Cher just hadn’t heard one of them before.

Kimmel says, “I take that as a great compliment from you. You do have balls in the spiritual sense. And there’s a lot of that in here (the book).”

Kimmel notes that her book has spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and that it’s very exciting to have her on the show. Kimmel says “maybe it’s annoying to you when people are interested in your life” but that he was honestly interested. For Christmas, does she cook? Cher said she had 26 people for dinner, six she didn’t know (friends of relatives and friends). She says she decorated and there were lots of cute kids there including Slash, the son of her boyfriend, Alexander. Kimmel quips, “I’m gonna try to sneak in there next year.” Cher says she is in possession of Sonny’s popular red sauce recipe that was his mother’s recipe and that she makes it occasionally for Christmas. “Olive oil, garlic and onions and I’m on my way….Son made it great and he handed it down to me.” She hasn’t taught it to others, however. “It is with me. I’m taking it to my grave….which could be any moment.”

Everyone groans and Cher says, “When you’re old, you know?”

Kimmel again notes her book was #1 for six weeks in a row [maybe just four]. “That’s a lot of weeks.” Is Cher surprised. Cher says she didn’t want to “squish it together” in only one volume. With the first one she wanted to see how it was, did she do a good job, would people be interested. She notes the book goes back from her great-grandparents up through the television years. Kimmel asks if there will be three volumes? “Will this interview be part of the next book?”

In a Man Show moment, Kimmel wants to talk about Cher’s losing virginity to guy in Toluca Lake. Do you think we could find the spot? Cher says she doesn’t even remember the guy. “I have people I’ve mentioned and I’m wondering what do they think, like one guy who was very instrumental in helping me to leave Sonny and I wonder how does he feel about it. He was a really good person.” This excites Kimmel and he want to dig him out. Cher thinks he’s in Texas. Kimmel calls out, “Open the fucking book. Guillermo. Go through it real quick. Get him on phone?” No, Cher says.

They talk about Sonny and how she felt equal only when she was working on their show. “I loved it. We loved it. We worked so well together. It kept us closer longer than I really wanted.”

Kimmel trots out the 16 Magazine Sonny & Cher advice column. He decides to ask her a question from it to see if she would respond in the same way. The question is not one of the columns I had found last year, by the way.

[Do show writers scan the internet for interview ideas? This reminds me of the time David Letterman referred to the Cher Historians among us. Are these just coincidences?]

Anyway…this elicited a very annoyed Cher stare.

Here is the question Kimmel reads:

Dear Cher, I have a problem. I hope you can help me. I’m 13 years old. I like a boy who is in my class and he seems to like me but sometimes he teases me. He hits me gently on the face and calls me names just to be fresh. I’m also four inches taller than he is and please tell me how I can get him to be my steady. Unhappy, Ridgefield, NJ

Kimmel asks Cher how she would respond to Unhappy now? Cher says, “Kick him to the curb.” The audience likes this and she smiles. Kimmel then reads the response from the 1960s Cher.

Cher says, “Oh God.”

Dear Unhappy, As I’ve said here many times before, if a boy teases you it’s a sure sign he digs you. Just be good natured about it and give him a nice friendly smile now and again. Sooner or later, he’ll come around. As for being four inches taller (Cher interjects, “nah”) well most girls are taller than boys nowadays. I’m talker than Sonny and he couldn’t care less. In fact, he digs me in boots with medium high heels. Hang in there. Keep trying and you won’t be unhappy for long.

We should hear Kimmel’s response now as opposed to the response he would have given on The Man Show.

Cher shakes her head. “Come on girls. We know that’s not true.”

In that time, they’ve found out the guitarist’s name. It’s Bill. Cher says, “I know.” She’s not willing to share his last name. “Because of him, not me.”

The next book should come out in November but Cher admits she hasn’t started the new book but that she finished this one late too but still hit the deadline. “We’ll see,” Kimmel says skeptically. “November of what year?” Cher says, “I’m a little tardy. I think I’ll be better this time.”

Kimmel says he feels like she can help her and starts to ask rapid fire, random questions. Does she drive a car? Cher says she hasn’t driven in a while but just bought a car and will drive soon. What does her drivers license say? She says it doesn’t show her last name. She had to go to court and get special dispensation to prove she is known by one name. “It’s not easy,” she says. Guillermo pipes in that he wants to do it.

Has she ever been to Costco. Cher says, “I think once.” Kimmel says, “You’d know if you had. May I please take you to Costco sometime. I’d love to take you to Costco.” Cher says a flirty little “okay.” Has she ever played a video game? Yes, she has. Which one and when? “None of your business. A month ago.” Has she ever been on jury duty? Cher says she tried as research for the movie Suspect where she played a lawyer (“doesn’t count,” Kimmel says) but the judge thought she would be too distracting. Who is the most intimidating person you’ve ever met (present company excluded? That gets the Cher stare.

Cher lists Obama, Tina Turner, Ray Charles. If you could turn back time (Cher interjects, “this is so dumb”) what year would you go back to. Cher picks 60. Was it her best year? No, 40 was her best year. She stared to work in film and started to get respect. Why not 40, then? Cher laughs and says 60 seemed like a good number. “When you’re 78, 60 sounds great.”

Kimmel shows a picture of Cher and Jimmy Carter (the one under the street sign) and says they look like they’re having an intimate conversation. Did she know him well? Cher tells the story of The Allman Brothers giving Carter some of his earliest campaign money and how she had dinner with the Carters on their first night in the White House. She starts but doesn’t finish a story about President Carter calling her once for a favor. This turns into the story about why Cher didn’t get along with Johnny Carson, who had her thrown out of a party. And then time is up and Kimmel starts to wrap up.

Cher says, “You’re a lot nicer and funnier than I thought you would be.”

The Jimmy Carter story reminds me that my friend Mikaela recently sent me an excerpt of Amy Carter talking about Cher at the White House and how this was one of her most memorable moments of that time.


If you’ve made it this far, apologies for the likely many typos. I would proof this yet another time but we have to move on to other things, my own review of the memoir, the Hall of Fame week, the new commercial and other upcoming things. So. Much. Stuff.

Kiss-and-Tell Autobiographies

June 24, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I was using an online bootleg of Sonny & Me; Cher Remembers to finish documenting what was in that TV special and I discovered at the end of the bootleg were some Entertainment Tonight segments from 1998 tagged on, including interviews of Cher on the set of the movie Tea with Mussolini responding to news about Mary Bono helping mount a TV movie about Sonny & Cher based on Sonny’s 1991 kiss-and-tell biography. It was around this time when Mary Bono started to come across as not-a-friend-of-Cher, this biopic news coming after Sonny’s funeral bruhaha died down.

It wasn’t the first gossip of tension there. It was rumored Cher took issue with some of the things Mary Bono had been revealing around Sonny’s late-life struggles with prescription drugs. Cher, like a regular Italian mafioso, was rumored to want to keep such news in the family.

I don’t know where to put this TV movie, to be honest, for various reasons. The origin of it, Sonny’s book, like Sonny himself was “a mixed bag” (as Cher has said recently). There were some good behind-the-music stuff in the book, but then he goes and talks about his sex life with Cher. Icky but we’ll get to that in a minute.

The movie didn’t crawl into bed with the sex storyline which was good. Although I have to admit I do have a fascination with “the Sonny & Cher Bedroom” but only up to stories about them having sex. For me, Sonny &  Cher were more like my fantasy parents. And who wants to go there with their real or fantasy parents? I prefer the quaint stories of Cher reading a book all night in the master bathroom or her wanting to keep the TV on all night to sleep, bedroom stories which sounds interesting in a sort of innocent, albeit still groovy, way. The bedroom seems symbolic for Cher as the core of the house. She has for decades held court in her bedrooms over interviews and Sonny & Cher even captured their bedroom on their last album cover.

The biggest problem I have with the movie, which is the problem I have  with any Sonny & Cher re-enactment, is that it is always hella-boring. And Sonny & Cher were anything but boring characters. It all just proves how completely inimitable they both are, Sonny too. Not to mention that the re-enactments keep portraying Sonny incorrectly, like a happy-go-lucky, trod-upon, luckless, aw-shucks fellow. And that is so far off-the mark when you consider the portrayal of anyone who has ever described Sonny: his family, his friends, his colleagues, his ex-wives. It’s not even an accurate on-stage read of Sonny. And you can tell this if you just pay attention. What we continue to get are just cliched readings of Sonny, dismissive shallow looks. And it is so annoying, a disservice to both Sonny and Cher.

I also don’t know where to place the movie in the Cher-o-sphere. It’s not a TV special but it is a legitimate moment of Cher history (for good or bad). It’s not a TV appearance. A network movie has been made depicting her life. So which bucket does it live in?

I do have Sonny’s book listed on by Book page. It’s Sonny’s documented point-of-view. You can’t fully dismiss it.

Cher Universe just published an MTV Rockline interview from the early 1990s which includes Cher response to Sonny’s book when it came out. Cher maintains in the interview that she did very much want to refute much of what Sonny said in his book but decided she didn’t want to kiss-and-tell. She wasn’t going to respond in kind.

To be fair, Sonny did some great things for Cher and he did some horrible things to Cher. His evaluation of their career are valuable. But his tales of their private sex life comes across as seedy and self-serving. And since we have to go there, (like walking in on your fantasy parents having sex), I feel I have to dance around what he said. And I just want to say that when you’re considering healthy sex between two people, it stands to reason that a 16-year old in a relationship with a 27-year old might be a different sexual relationship than a twenty-something TV star will have with a rock star of approximately the same age, or a forty-something rock/movie star will have with a younger man or whatever the combinations are. Different relationships have their own energy systems.

And why are we even talking about this? Because Sonny’s comments weren’t meant to be anything but tales out of school, the jackpot gossip of “What was it like to sleep with Cher?” (at best) or designed to continue to make Cher feel bad in a public space (at worst), like a punishment for a separate success that had occurred without him. In any case, not a loving or paternal move.

Cher didn’t respond in-kind and I think that says a lot about her character. After Sonny died, she became even more protective. Since then, for years she said she wouldn’t tell her story until “everybody has died.” Well, everyone has pretty much died and she still seems to be struggling with it. She still doesn’t want to throw anyone under the bus, I think she has recently said.

Telling your story is important, but it’s tricky, no doubt. What greater purpose can your stories serve? Fans are interested in details and things we might not know, how things came to be. What were the disappointments and joys we don’t know about.

On the borderlines, maybe it would be good to stick to feelings. We truly own our feelings, after all.

On a micro-level people deal with this every day: how much should I tell my friends and family? Sharing stories creates intimacy between people. But how much intimacy do you want?  Whatever the case, we all own the story of our own lives.

Maybe it’s like talking to a therapist. You’ll get nowhere in self-discovery unless you try to be as fair to all parties involved as you can be. Maybe that’s a good rubric for public stories as well. A balance in all blame and kudos; humility in all stories.

Rock and Roll Royalties and Royalty

June 1, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Rock and Roll Royalties

Cher has won her battle over Sonny & Cher song royalties with Sonny’s widow, Mary Bono. The court ruled that the “terminations rights” section of the Copyright Act does not trump a divorce agreement, which gave Cher 50% of the royalties on Sonny &Cher songs. Mary Bono and her family of heirs still maintain the other 50% of Sonny’s royalties.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the “isn’t Cher rich enough” thing. I think here is where it is important to remember that of all the wealth Sonny & Cher accumulated from 1964-1975, Cher received nothing. In fact, the contracts were written so much in Sonny’s favor that, at the divorce, Cher was forced to pay Sonny millions in “lost future earnings” due to their act breaking up. So for all Cher’s work for ten years, she walked away with their house and primary custody of Chastity, which she ended up sharing with Sonny anyway because, as she said at the time, she wasn’t about to take Chastity’s father away from her.

And although Cher didn’t write the songs, her participation in them made them hits and this divorce settlement can be seen as a reparation of that great abuse of contracts a man made against his own wife.

Rock and Roll Royalty

Paul Grein has written a great article called “12 Reasons Cher Belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” which was published last December during the Christmas album bruhaha and I completely missed it. To be honest, I got kind of tired of these rock-and-roll hall of fame crusades. And since this article was written, (maybe because this was written), Cher was finally included to the 2024 induction list.

And really this isn’t about a hall of fame. This is about Cher’s legitimacy and credibility in music. That’s what I’ve always been blathering on about. Cher fans are always concerned about her credibility in ways other fans of other artists (working in more respected genres) are not. So I really appreciate this article and I would like to talk about its points because they are the very markers of coolness and legitimacy in rock music.

Grein already points out that the HoF itself has broadened into many sub-genres, like R&B, rap, country. “If ABBA, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and Dolly Parton are in, what’s the rationale for leaving Cher out?” And here I’d like us to keep focus on the “keeping out” from the idea of legitimacy and credibility every time Grein mentions the HoF, because that is just what a hall of fame sanctions, a pre-existing status of credibility and legitimacy.

Grein pretty much follows the trail of rock legitimacy I’ve been tracking over the last umpteen years. What makes a person worthy of respect in music: is it record sales, is it concert tickets, is it loyal fans (or should we say the more male-coded aficionados?), is it years aboard the show biz, is it good critical reviews, is it influence, is it innovation, is it a stance or posture, did she help define an era or genre?

And…

Yes, She Helped Define an Era or Genre

Sonny & Cher helped define the mid-60s folk-rock and pop-rock era. Grein notes that Sonny wrote three “fine songs” with “I Got You Babe,” “Baby Don’t Go” and “The Beat Goes On.” I would add “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” to that list and call them strong songs of that era. Grein concedes that S&C were more pop-sounding than The Byrds (or the Mamas and the Papas, I would add), but that “their sound and look” helped define that era.

I would add that any thought of the summer of 1965 necessarily includes Cher singing “I Got You Babe.”

As a subset of this, Cher “was one of the first artists to have a big hit with a Bob Dylan song.” Her version (at #15) trounced the Byrds version at #40). Cher’s hit Bob Dylan song even preceded Dylan’s own first hit by a week (“Like a Rolling Stone”).

Yes, She Defines Rock and Roll Attitude

Grein says Cher has proven to be a risk taker. She gave up a lucrative Vegas career to become an actress. He says the HoF’s focus seems to be a youthful “rule-breaking attitude and spirit.” Grein says Cher telling the HoF to go fuck themselves on National TV was “a pretty rock and roll thing to do.” Grein also notes that, like Willie Nelson, “Cher exhibited an IDGAF attitude long before anyone had coined that acronym.”

Grein calls Cher’s Oscar dress of 1986 “one of the greatest sight-gags in Oscar history.” It was also a f*ck-you to the Academy for their snobbery around her performance outfits, boyfriends and prior status as a music and television star.

Cher: not afraid to say F*ck You.

Yes, She Has Many Hit Records Spanning a Record-Breaking Period of Time

All while multi-talking. “One month before she won the Oscar,” Grein says, “she had a top 10 hit with the rock ballad ‘ Found Someone.’ The very week she won the Oscar, she entered the Hot 100 with the follow-up hit, ‘We All Sleep Alone,’ co-written by Rock Hall members Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.”

Her albums, Grein says, span53 years from Sonny & Cher’s Look at Us in 1965 to her Christmas album of 2023. Her No. 1 singles on Billboard Hot 100 span 34 years from “I Got You Babe” in 1965 to “Believe” in 1999.  Grein also points out that her Grammy for “Believe” spanned 34 years after Sonny & Cher were nominated for best new artist.

Yes, She Has Killed It In Concert Tours

“Cher was among the first female artist to undertake a massively successful solo tour.” She has headlined “seven major concert tours” including her farewell tour which “was one of the top 10 highest-grossing  tours of that decade….For the first half of the decade, it was second only to The Rolling Stones’ Licks Tour in total grosses.” At that time it was “the most successful tour ever undertaken by a female headliner. The 236-date tour finally ended in 2005 after having played to more than 3.5 million fans and earning more than $250 million.”

The TV special of that tour earned Cher a Primetime Emmy, joining “an impressive array of women who have won in that category for one-woman concert specials” including Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Adele.

Yes, She Has Had and Impactful Influence

Grein also talks about the artists Cher either paved the way for or artists who cite her as an influence: Madonna (the aesthetics of shock), Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Taylor Swift (there’s a Cher quote on the wall that begins the great song, “You Need to Calm Down.“), Cyndi Lauper, Little Big Town, Adam Lambert, P!nk. Tracy Chapman and Chrissie Hynde (who re-recorded “I Got You Babe”) have cited Cher in interviews as well.

Grein quotes Shon Faye to say, “If Madonna and Lady Gaga and Kylie [Minogue] and Cyndi Lauper were playing football, Cher would be the stadium they played on, and the sun that shone down on them.”

Yes, Cher Has Had the Harshest, Meanest Critics but Some Great Critics, Too

As I wrote in 2020, Cher escaped bad reviews from famously harsh reviewers Lester Bangs and John Mendelsohn (who some claimed would have given God a bad review).

Lester Bangs reviewing All I Ever Need Is You in 1972:

John & Yoko. Grace & Paul. Paul & Linda. Sonny & Cher had the formula down years before any of those melodious romances hit the stage and were a hell of a lot more appealing too., although that may not be particularly significant—the same thing could be said for Louis Prima and Keely Smith. And let us not forget Paul and Paula. The reason that Sonny & Cher are so much nicer to think about than the aforementioned crew of dilettantes, barterers and their wives is that Sonny & Cher don’t put on the same kind of airs.  How you feel about them at this point pretty much depends on how you feel about showbiz in general. If you think that Johnny Carson is a honk and the Copa just a hangout for alcoholics, if you cannot abide the sigh of black ties and/or tiaras between you and your artist-heroes, then you probably don’t like Sonny & Cher; I have seen reviews of their recent albums by earnest 17-year old rock critics lambasting the devoted duo entirely in terms of “us” versus “them.” And at the recent MCA convention in Burbank, when Sonny & Cher played a long, slick supperclub set climaxing with their eight-minute histrionic orgy on “Hey Jude,” I observed people all around me set their faces in that grimace they never pulled out for bluejeaned mediocrities. And those that thought themselves too hip for this schmaltz would make remarks later about the “tastelessness” of it. Why? Because Cher tells Sonny she’s not gonna ball him after the show, and drops innuendos about the size of his dong? Well, I’ll settle for Sonny & Cher being just blue enough for them poor old farts and fraus in the belly of the beast, because I like slick supperclub music, I like glittery Las Vegas-style entertainment without one iota of artistic aspiration. I’ll even put on a tie. Maybe I’m just getting old but I would rather see Sonny & Cher with a bourbon and water in front of me anytime than squat sweating in another concert hall while another rock group runs through amplified oatmeal highlights from the last big album it took them eight months of overdubs to produce.

John Mendelsohn reviewing Sonny & Cher Live in 1972:

Granted that they’ve gone through some heavy changes since they practically single-handedly insinuated folk-rock into the American musical consciousness, 

….what Sonny & Cher’s detractors always fail to mention is that the couple have matured into such sensitive interpreters that they can transform even the most over familiar material into searingly soulful expressions, as witness Cher’s fiery treatment of “Danny Boy.” Truly Cher has developed into one of our most inspiring ladies of song, capable of evoking emotions that not even a Nancy Sinatra or Marcia Strassman can deal with without some evidence of strain..

Grein lists some other great Cher reviews I had never seen before. like Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone in 2019:

…there are no other careers remotely like hers, [particularly] in the history of pop music” and he referred to Cher as “the one-woman embodiment of the whole gaudy story of pop music.”

James Reed from The Boston Globe in 2014:

Along with David Bowie, she is one of the original chameleons in pop music, constantly in flux and challenging our perceptions of her.”

Joe Lynch in Billboard from 2017:

It seems odd to say anyone as famous as Cher is under-appreciated: the woman has five No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, an Oscar for best actress and has remained a household name for half a century. even so, Cher’s impact as a musical force is unfairly disregarded or minimized…Years before David Bowie toyed with gender-bending, Cher brought her deep contralto voice to the top of the Billboard Hot 100…

James Dunn in Rolling Stone in 1996:

Cher is the coolest woman who ever stood in shoes. Why? Because her motto is, ‘I don’t give a shit what you think, I’m going to wear this multicolored wig.”

Alec Mapa in The Advocate from 2003:

Cher embodies an unapologetic freedom and fearlessness that some of us can only aspire to.

It just occurred to me all of the above are men. Some of the womens in rock criticism need to say something methinks. Besides me.

As Grein points out, right now the HoF is 25% women. If there are only 25% of women in rock music right now, that would be a fair amount. How many women are there in rock music since the dawn of rock and roll? Someone else please do the math.

Yes, She Is An Innovator

Like or despise auto-tune, it had a huge impact on Rap music. She also innovated many rock and roll “looks” including popularizing bell bottoms, long straight hair (she had girls using irons on their hair!) and inspiring the term “Giving Cher” for innovating the biggest kind of iconic attitude.

In fact, in fashion Cher is both an influencer and an innovator. With Bob Mackie, she invented the scene-stealing red-carpet look. Grein says that her Met Gala dress from 1974 is still being imitated “40 years later.”

And Bonus Yes, She Loyally Supports the Cause

Grein also says she “brought a rock sensibility to prime-time” television all through the 1970s variety series solos numbers and guest spots. This, he feels, (as does Cher scholar Robrt Pela), was Cher’s “biggest hurdle to being taken seriously…the smash success” of those shows. The shows “gave airtime to a lot of rock artists.” He mentions this includes Linda Ronstadt, Ike & Tina Turner, David Bowie (in his U.S. television debut), The Jackson 5 and Patti Labelle (among many others: The Spinners, The Supremes, Fanny, early Rick Springfield and Elton John). The shows also showcased original rock and roll artists in tribute shows, including Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis,

And most of all, Cher has been loyal to Sonny, (even after he tricked her out of a decade of earnings). Years of fake-snipping aside, years of mutual-real-snipping aside. Cher time and time again has given Sonny his due (as well as fair criticism, most recently calling him truthfully, “a mixed bag.”) She has tried to support their legacy together, despite the lack of respect he continues to receive (disrespect even), and there is not a thing more rock and roll than that.

Cher Scholar Catches Up

April 28, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I’m woefully behind. I feel like I’ve been through something in the past few months.

Here’s what we’ve missed in Cherlandia.

Cher TV

I’ve kept working despite a LOT of drama, including but not limited to, losing one of my two dogs and twice, almost losing my mother. As a coping activity, I spent a day or two adding information and links to the Cher TV page in the TV Appearances and Interviews section: https://www.cherscholar.com/tv/. I’m not finished. I keep finding more. So far we’re up to 332 TV appearances but I’m not trying to list every Entertainment Tonight appearance or local interview. Just indicative ones.

Cher Documentary

I came across a recent YouTube documentary, Cher, In Her Own Words. I think artist documentaries are sometimes great for fans but sometimes not great for the kind of fan who finds a lot of errors or don’t understand why certain things are covered and not other things. Or how they don’t get anywhere near the core of the person.

I’ve never seen a Cher documentary I’ve liked. Ever. And this is no exception. I’ve actually lost my notes about it in the mayhem that was my spring. But it has a cheesy voice over and all the same images in the wrong decade buckets. It’s filled with inane, unrelated footage to fill in the space.

But it was interesting in that it had footage from recent interviews where Cher did seem to focus more on her ideas about her own career. And there was new footage of stuff, like behind-the-scenes filming of Good Times I had never seen. I also noticed that some of the same interview footage was used for the Cher reel at the I Heart Music Awards in April. Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvBojJMeXdo

Deaths of Peripherals

The director of Moonstruck, Norman Jewison, died in January. She tweeted a nice message about it. I read in April that actor Ryan O’Neal also passed in December and I wondered how I missed it, maybe in all the Christmas album bruhaha. I was never a fan of Ryan O’Neal but he did star in the movie Faithful with Cher, probably a fan and critic least-favorite movie. Actually, one of the things I didn’t like most about it was Ryan O’Neal who played an all-too believable schmuck.

Court Cases

Two depressing court cases slogged involving discomforting personal family-drama stuff:

Cher’s attempt to prevent Mary Bono from terminating Cher’s Sonny & Cher royalties looks promising as the judge seemed to side with Cher. A friend of mine recently asked me, “doesn’t Cher already have enough money?” to which the logic seemed to be the richest party should always lose, acceptance of which would cause a legal run on the rich people. But in any case, I have to side with Cher on this one. She was already hornswaggled by Sonny for all their earnings. This was his mea culpa or at least a legal agreement to avoid spousal support. Mary Bono has two of Sonny’s children to think about but there are two other children of Sonny’s out there as well. Mary Bono also had her own congressional career and was not left high and dry when Sonny died.

And Cher’s bid for conservatorship over her son, Elijah Allman, continues (along with its unfortunate timing after the emancipation of Britney Spears). It seems Allman has reunited with his wife in the meantime and he appears to be back on the wagon. I do believe Cher is working out of motherly concern and not out of greed. It’s a tricky situation because Elijah is an adult. I’m not a mother so I’m not going to do any further speculating.

Dinner at Cher’s House

For months, Cher was promoting a charity event (which took place this weekend) in support of Free the Wild. Both the top bidder and a selected-fan would win a dinner party at Cher’s Malibu manse. I would love to hear more about the dinner. What food was served? Did the promised witty conversation occur? I wasn’t in any position to attend such a thing myself but I did want to donate to the good cause. If you are so inclined, you can too: https://www.freethewild.org/.

Cher Feting

Cher had a spring of accolades. She won the Equal Justice Icon Award on 29 March. She was given the Icon award at the I Heart Music Awards on 1 April with Meryl Streep doing the introduction and dueting with Jennifer Hudson. Cher’s speech was a bit of a ramble but that’s kind of her speech style. I love Meryl Streep but her speech was no great shakes either, especially compared to Beyonce’s great speech that night.

There was a bit of controversy about Hudson out-singing Cher during the duet but I think the bigger story is how much support from the black community Cher is receiving right now. It was evident in the night’s show and Hudson’s comments at the end of the duet. Cher will also be part of the Amfar Gala on 23 May.

And so now we proceed to the accolade that many fans have long been waiting for. That Hall of Fame.

Before we get into that I want to say a few things. I’ve been criticized off and on all my life for things I’ve liked. It hasn’t bothered me much. I have no guilty pleasures. We’re all on our own journey, after all. But last night I watched Who Done It, a fan documentary about the movie Clue.

Now I was there to see this movie in the theaters. I can’t remember who’s idea it was to go see it but my friends and I immediately became convinced this was an amazing movie: the level of talent, the perfect but also unusual casting, the tight comedic timing, the comedic range of the script, the creativity, writing, directing, all of it.

But the movie flopped when it opened. It was the Office Space of its decade (another movie I was on board with in theaters). Looking back, the movie was ill-timed amongst the suburban realism and super-gravitas of the 1980s. Compare the movie to Ghostbusters to see what I mean. This unpolished but competent documentary explained how Clue was an homage to not only a thread of camp in Agatha Christie (a writer who was also very uncool in the 1980s), but to the pacing of His Girl Friday (1940). This was a decade where camp was pretty much on the downlow from the mainstream (outside of John Waters movies). The 80s took themselves very seriously. Plus the movie had no megastar, the reviews were mixed and there was that confusing idea of multiple endings which were not packaged together in one viewing experience (until cable and home rental). The movie really was a gem under a cheesy pretense.

And many of these things were lost on my high-school self, to be fair. But my friends and I were obsessed with the movie in a way our other classmates were not. It was part of our oddball identity. We memorized the lines and watched it on cable and then as a VHS rental over and over again. We loved Tim Curry, not just for Rocky Horror but for Clue. We idolized him just as much for Clue. His work in the movie musical Annie was similarly overlooked, that being another movie that tanked with critics and moviegoers when it was in theaters but later found respect.

And until yesterday I thought Clue was just another odd-ball misfit that I loved and defended. But no. It has become a bonafide cult hit with younger generations. And as I was watching this documentary I was like yeah, another thing I was onboard with years before it was cool or understood.

I would say I have a taste for the underdog but I really don’t think that’s what it is. I like good things. Things I like are great. I mean not everything they do might be great. (I think we can all agree this is not great. But this is fucking great.)

Last night I felt something that was not quite smugness, but definitely a better assurance about my barometers. I don’t like bad things. I’m usually on to something.

And I have been proselytizing about Cher all my life. Like since I was five in whatever rudimentary way I could. And I’ve also been questioning what is it that gives something value, which includes challenging the status quo because when you start poking around, popularity is usually on shaky ground: is it record, concert and swag sales, is it criticism, is it influence on younger generations, is it breaking records, working with the best people (musicians and directors)?

Or is it a cabal deciding? Because that is the least rational of the things. Which is what bothers me about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the trumped up scarcity (that is really ceaseless marketing) and its cabal of judges.

The RnR HoF takes itself very seriously. Which is why Spinal Tap is so great. It’s also why Clue is so great. And that very seriousness undercuts its own blind-spot valuations by over-valuating personal taste.

And yet, I also can’t pretend Cher’s 2024 induction is not significant in any way. The fans are very happy. This is a good thing. They have wanted this for a long time. She did very well in the pre-selection fan voting (as the top woman, if that’s the bar we must watch).

Cher was included in the final roster for induction in October in Cleveland, Ohio. I have been making the case for Cher’s credibility for so long, it does feel like a small vindication. Her rise to respect has been slow and ongoing. I track its origins to the 1990s when VH1 started airing old Cher show episodes on Tuesday nights and also when her Behind the Music episode ran for an hour and a half instead of the typically alloted hour.

Slowly since then a new generation of cultural critics and performers like Pink! and Perry Ferrell of Jane’s Addiction have been making the case as well. In the last five to ten years she’s been almost revered with an iconic status. This was not the reality for fans in the 1970s when she was a fashion joke akin to Paris Hilton. Or in the 1980s when she was given acting credibility but still withheld from any kind of music credibility, although her music output far outweighs her acting output.

Allegedly Cher wanted to be inducted as Sonny & Cher, which is another amazing facet of this story, how loyal Cher is to Sonny at the end of the day and after all these years and how she clearly and repeatedly states that her entire music career was Sonny’s dream. Which is why Cher’s induction is Sonny’s accolade as much as it is Cher’s. Sonny is vindicated here as much if not more than all the fans are. And Sonny deserves a great amount of credit. Cher was his discovery and his insistence. He is a crucial piece of Cher as she stands today.

But we also have to realize that it is Cher who has broken the big records. Her solo records, her longevity, her continued stance of rebellion, her own Cherness. So it seems fully logical that she would be the inductee. Sonny was like the rocket launcher. An impossibly strong and brilliant one. As Cher states in the aforementioned documentary, there was nothing about Cher early on that screamed movie star or rock star. But Sonny saw it.

I still feel the same way about the HofF, even now that Cher is “in.” But I do acknowledge the acknowledgement. The complaint that “Cher is not rock” can still be heard out there in the complainosphere? To which I would say exactly, she is much bigger. Rock and roll is nothing but all those many things that prop it up: blues, gospel, folk, punk, torch, country, showtunes, jazz, dance, rap, metal, the infinitely-alternative everything, the hairdos, clothes and mythology…it’s a posture more than a quantifiable genre.

Cher has recorded in many of those styles and her influence is proliferating as we speak. She is an entertainment Wonder Woman. An ongoing vaudevillian Viking.

Yes, I have been making the case for Cher, like I said, since I was in the single digits and I’m gonna keep doing it. Because I know I’m on to something. The HoF feels like a hard-won concession at this point.

But the things I like are much bigger than that.

 

Read More!

How Pink! exists as a singer because of Cher

How Perry Ferrell of Jane’s Addiction encouraged votes for Cher in the RnR HoF

The Cher Autobiography and Biography in Interviews

February 18, 2024 / / 0 Comments

So I continue to think about Cher’s in-progress autobiography, in both its book and movie form.

Just to note: cherscholar.com does have a Cher biography reference page. There have been only a few good Cher books despite the span of seven decades. The best writers have been J. Randy Taraborrelli, Mark Bego and Josiah Howard, although there have been some really great fan-created books as well. Check out the full list: https://www.cherscholar.com/books-2/.

After we last left this topic, Cher scholar Toby recommended I watch the Bob Dylan biography I Am Not There. And I should have watched it sooner because I really loved Cate Blanchett in Manifesto (it was very literary). And experimental biography is what I most liked about Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

But I guess you can have too many experiments going on because then it’s hard to evaluate the results of any single one. It’s like the scientific maxim to keep your hypothesis simple. Maybe this is true of art as well.

And due to too many experiments working their way through I Am Not There, to coin a Gertrude Stein phrase, there becomes no there there. But they were all interesting experiments individually, so let’s discuss them one by one.

(Let me know if I’m missing any.)

Experiment 1:

Biopics of music artists often suffer from impersonations instead of interpretations. This was the great failure of the one biopic of Cher we have already seen, And the Beat Goes On: The Sonny & Cher Story. It would be difficult to put on the skin of any iconic performer, but nearly impossible for the inimitable ones.

Why not experiment with multiples? Christian Bale and Kate Blanchette were my favorite Bob Dylans in I’m Not There.  The deployment of multiple Dylans seemed like a genius solution to the problem of finding one actor who can hit all the different eras. Cher has already borrowed on this idea with her Broadway show and three Chers co-habituating and communicating throughout the entire story, albeit those Chers without name-brand interpreters.

And collectively, maybe multiple actors gets to the same point that a really good deep-layer interpreter would get to anyway, something beyond the surface level of looks and mimicry, something that can live above and apart from the person described.

I think Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita is a good example of this. And as I’ve said, the Fanny Brice musicals. Another actor can come in and embody the spirit without our fretting about lookalike and soundalike-ness.

To me that all seems like a red-herring at the end of the day (or the end of the soul, as it were) and so it makes the idea of multiples a moot point. Yeah, we’re all comprised of separate people. But we’re all also one person too.

Experiment 2:

I love the idea of entangling the myth of a life with its facts, myths created by iconic images and I’m Not There did that really well. And like with multiple actorly embodiments, this experiment plays on the idea of there being no “I” there or “no there there” as Gertrude Stein would have it.

And I think this dilemma is baked into the whole Bob Dylan thing so this experiment was not only the most interesting to me but felt very pertinent to its subject.

I think the very same issues play similarly into the Cher story, (most ideas formed about Cher are based on a few iconic images), so this would be an interesting experiment to borrow from.

Experiment 3:

The different Bob Dylans were also embodying Dylan’s own iconic mentors in somewhat interesting mashups: Dylan with Woody Guthrie or Billy the Kid or Arthur Rimbaud and this was probably one of the least interesting experiments for me. How much of you is what you love and admire? Maybe that’s its own movie right there. Because this is one experiment that requires more finesse than there is time for as one experiment of many. It just came across as too surface-level for me. One of my favorite quotes is from Charles de Gualle, “Don’t ask me who’s influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he’s digested, and I’ve been reading all my life.” It’s so complicated.

We all put on uniforms to walk through the world and we often borrow the clothes of those we admire. But what then? There’s a lot more to explore there.

Experiment 4:

Time shifts, which are interesting in any other postmodern depiction, but here they just felt too tangled up in all the other experiments, different times interspersed with different Dylans.

Experiment 5:

Let’s make it a musical, but just barely.

That all said I actually liked the movie. All the competing experiments just made the film extremely self-conscious as a biopic. That’s not a crime though. There were beautiful and interesting shots (which could save any flawed Cher biopic, by the way).

On a related note, I’m making my way ever-so-slowly through a bathroom stack of New Yorkers. My friend Kalisha recently gave me a more modern issue from July of 2023 because there was a short story in it that reminded her of Haruki Murakami, a writer we both like. In the same issue there was an essay by Parul Sehgal, “Tell No Tales,” about how storytelling has pervaded areas where it shouldn’t, like politics, office PowerPoints, religious screeds.

But also biographies. Sehgal says,

“The American poet Maggie Smith, in her new book, ‘You Could Make This Place Beautiful,’ notes wryly, ‘It’s a mistake to think of my life as plot, but isn’t this what I’m tasked with now—making sense of what happened by telling it as a story?’ She goes on, ‘At any given moment, I wonder: Is this the rising action? Has the climax already happened or are we not even there yet?’ It’s not just the unruliness of life that is ill-served by story and its corrective resolution.”

Cher only had one long-form interview last year while promoting her Christmas album on the 60-minute BBC special “Cher Meets Rylan.” It’s the last interview we have to talk about from that blitzkrieg of publicity and it’s relevant to our topic today because Cher had a few new biographical stories to tell in it.

Ryland calls Cher a s diva, icon, goddess, a pioneer in fashion. The fact that Rylan is so young he came to Cher from the song “Believe” sill seems incredible to me. Therefore the majority of the retrospective Cher reels were from the 1980s and beyond.

They talk about how much she loves London and how some of her outfits are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. They talk about her Christmas album and Cher says that because the songs didn’t really go together, she worried people wouldn’t “get it.”

She tells a story about her mother Georgia getting up on the roof of her house and nailing her shingles back on as an example of how kick-ass she was. Cher also said Georgia was talented, hysterical and Cher said she died so she could be herself again.

They talk about the dyslexia, the Cher sayings (“If it doesn’t matter in five years,” borrowed from her mother, and “I am a rich man.”)

Cher has been wearing fingerless hand-gloves for all of these interviews for some reason.

She tells a new story about running away at nine-years old with her friend Anita, first on a horse and then on a train. This has to be in the biopic. And it’s eerily similar to Dylan’s young train mashup-moment in I’m Not There.

She talks about playing all the boy parts in a backyard-like production of  Oklahoma when she was in grade school. She covers her jobs at Robinson’s department store and the candy store with the old ladies. She talks about meeting Sonny in the coffee shop below the popular radio station, Sonny’s smile and how he wanted to make her a singer but that she was just loose energy at the time, not focused and really shy.

She notes that Sonny & Cher had five songs in the top 40 at the same time, some songs which were prior-nonhits re-released  when “I Got You Babe” became a summer phenomenon.

Steaming has confused statistics like these. My friend Christopher recently gave me a phone lecture on the way the charts worked before and after streaming and how Taylor Swift just scored 26 songs at once on the Top 100.

Cher talks about how she used to make  clothes with her friends and how Sonny was so game to wear whatever she came up with. “We thought we were beautiful. People thought we were grungy.”

And then strangely, we skip to 1979 to talk about Studio 54. The new shocking story there is how Cher once took Al Pacino to Studio 54.

It was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of Cher and Al Pacino on an outing together (just like it is for me to get my head around Sonny & Cher singing late 1970s rock ballads).

Al Pacino was working on a Broadway play. A quick scan of his Wikipedia page and knowing the span of Studio 54 was 1977-1986, the play was either “The Basic Training of Pavlo,”  “Richard III” or “American Buffalo.”

Anyway, after Cher invited him, he brought the whole cast, Cher says, and everyone had a great time except for Al Pacino who looked uncomfortable the whole night. Oh dear. Not surprising but quite an embarrassing Cher-date-fail for Al Pacino.

Cher talks about her acting in “Jimmy Dean” and how the actresses were great. She talks about being pen pals with her idol Audrey Hepburn. She says she doesn’t work for the accolades, that “you do work for the work” and the awards are a bonus. She calls Meryl Streep Mary Louise.

She again says she was dropped from two record companies and that the song “Believe” took a lot of people because the verses were not good. Rylan reminds us that “Believe” is still the UK’s biggest selling single by a woman artist.

Cher talks about her former place in Wapping where she was living at the time of recording “Believe,” that it was an old rum warehouse. Ryland says the song was crucial for a gay boy to hear, how he believed “this is the world I’m gonna grow up in now.” (That was actually very moving.) He talks about the song’s impact on the music industry. Cher says AI pisses her off.

So the technology thing is complicated.

Cher talks about how for her 1970s-era variety shows, she would meet with Bob Mackie for three hours each Wednesday and how Mackie was making one amazing thing after another. She still goes out in jeans. She’s still a jeans person. But she also loves wigs.

She says she met Elton John the first time he came to America and she found him adorable. They were all friends: Elton, Diana Ross and Bette Midler and she tells of a time they all went shopping in New York.

She says she’s lived a thousand lives, (she calls herself “older than dirt”) and that this is a biography problem.  Rylan asks her if she’s had a fav Chera.  She says she’s been written off in so many eras and accused of reinventing herself. She says she wasn’t reinventing; she was just out of work.

Cher Scholarin Out in the World

January 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments

So I noticed a few things at the end of last year while Cher Scholarin.

One was when I was coming home from a family reunion in Cleveland, (where my parents now live), and I was using Spotify logged in as Mr. Cher Scholar to locate Cher’s new Christmas album.  I noticed that the Cher Scholar playlists were coming up kind of high. (See left.)

But then I thought maybe that’s because Mr. Cher Scholar might have played those playlists once before and he was getting a personal shuffle. It’s hard to be scientifically objective in the universe of algorithms.

Results are definitely not consistent. You don’t even get the same major categories searching via phone app versus phone browser or desktop app.

I also visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this visit to Cleveland. Julie had gone earlier in the year and saw the electronic board of fan votes. At that time (May, 2023) Cher was in the #8 position and Britney Spears was the next female #10. She sent me a picture.

Cher was at #4 by the time I visited in November and shockingly Cher was not only the highest-ranking woman but still the only woman (solo or in a band) in the top twenty! Britney Spears was the next female listed at #21. Unbelievable.

But you can chalk all of this up to the kinds of people who visit the Hall of Fame (it’s not a cheap ticket). It’s also  not a pristine sample of everyone’s views by any means. It’s just a sample of the views of people who have the money and interest to travel to Cleveland and visit the RnR HoF.

I myself dutifully voted for Cher, as did Mr. Cher Scholar but I think that was probably just unspoken peer pressure. I don’t think he honestly cares a whit about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artists.

Some of us have been theorizing the many reason’s Cher, as a record breaker, is not in the HoF: the silly perception of her from the varsity show, the lack of her cool factor in music, dislike of Sonny’s promotional (possible payola) background. My friend Christopher told me last weekend that HoF founder Jenn Wenner (recently removed from the HoF board due to some asinine comments he made about female and black artists), vowed never to let the band Foreigner in due to a personal grievance, which Christopher said was particularly egregious due to the impressive variety of their output.

But then on some basic level I just don’t understand Hall of Fames. We went through the Football Hall of Fame (also near Cleveland) on the same trip. To make sense of them, (and don’t get me started on museum theory and the idea of false scarcity: we’ve been there already), I spent the time counting both footballs (103) and guitars (167). There were no guitars at the Football HoF and no footballs at the Rock and Roll HoF. Go figure.

ASMR

So ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and it’s like the pleasure sensations you might get from certain tactile ambient soundtracks. I first heard about it from the trendy kids at the community college here in Albuquerque. It was a “thing” a few years ago to seek out ASMR videos which include things like people tapping their fingernails on hard surfaces, quietly whispering or silently unwrapping things, samples of vocal fry (okay, if that’s what you’re in to).

I was already primed to like this shit. Mr. Cher Scholar says one of my favorite movies, Into Great Silence, is just one long ASMR movie. I can also locate it near my love of really prominent movie foley (like from the 1970s-era) and my love of the sound of my feet walking over the plethora of varieties of New Mexico dirt paths.

So for a while now I’ve wanted to collect up all the Cher-related ASMR videos. Years ago these videos were very pleasant. But I’ve noticed a trend for ASMR practitioners to be too too repetitive (and almost too loud) these days. Full minutes of tapping the outside of a Cher shirt is just silly.

Also, unboxing videos have taken on a life of their own and some don’t even have any ASMR quality. People just like watching things be unboxed as it turns out.

Here’s a playlist for you of both ASMR and unboxing videos:

  1. Unboxing the Christmas album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z24VNjbzgFQ&t=46s
  2. Unboxing a Believe CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF2zUUo5IXo
  3. Unboxing the Believe CD box set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpz4UWLa1B4&t=231s
  4. Unboxing the It’s a Man’s World CD box set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNAN99o3mXk
  5. Unboxing It’s a Man’s World  vinyl box set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OneddA7ZTOg&t=124s
  6. Cher’s Eau de Couture perfume unboxing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPKGcxNgmNM (classic ASMR)
  7. Unboxing the Chersace shirt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F1uc7rz6lI&t=146s
  8. Some lucky fan got a box of Cher stuff and unboxed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywlU2kdvPV4&t=2154s
  9. Unwrapping the I Paralyze CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAoAStxayA
  10. Unwrapping the Living Proof CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sdONiBIIdA
  11. Cher samples of vocal fry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKJxbNynro8&t=261s
  12. This funny lady enthusiastically whisper-reads a Cher magazine while chewing gum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NZ4rLUvrGQ&t=238s

Cher in Literature

I’m always surprised when I find references to Cher in very fine literature. Last year I found two instances of this. Earlier in 2023 I started reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I really enjoy Murakami and have been working my way through his books. 1Q84 is a tome at 1,157 pages of awesomeness. And the book kept coming back to references of Sonny & Cher and the song “The Beat Goes On.”

Here’s the novel summary from The Encyclopedia Britannica: “Set in Tokyo in an alternate version of the year 1984, Murakami’s reality-bending novel explores star-crossed lovers Aomame and Tengo’s involvement with a mysterious cult. References to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four abound explicitly and thematically.”

Page 499

Page 534

Page 544

Then right before Christmas I read a Donald Barthelme story from the book Forty Stories called ‘Porcupines at the University.” In the story the Dean of a college thinks an oncoming herd of porcupines are all about to enroll at his understaffed university. But a cowboy porcupine wrangler is simply driving them across the country in order to seek his own fame and fortune for his trail songs. He dreams about appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show or The Sonny & Cher Show (which were never concurrently showing but never mind.)

 

The Biopic Problem

December 12, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In many recent interviews Cher has been lamenting over and over how impossibly unwieldy screenwriters are finding her life story to be, how this has prevented the movie from proceeding.

This is so majorly NOMB, but…

I have thought about this problem of the biopic over the years (anyone’s biopic) and specifically Cher’s meandering case, if only in the daydreaming realm.

And I’m so not trying to be a Nicolas Hyams here. I have no desire to contribute to this biopic project or write Cher’s story for the screen. I don’t feel this is one of my missions in life; and these thoughts below are just in the spirit of brainstorming.

One of the best biopics of someone like Cher was probably done by Barbra Streisand playing Fanny Brice in the movies Funny Girl and Funny Lady, another prototypical song and dance heroine navigating life in the big show biz.

However, on a recent Graham Norton episode, Cher recently stated her distaste for any kind of serial version of her story, like Julia Roberts’ miniseries suggestion. Although that was handled super amazingly well in the mini-series Fosse/Verdon.

A TV miniseries doesn’t have the opulence of a motion picture.

So if you simply must contain the Cher story in one movie, even say a 2.5 hour movie, I would imagine you would have to do what Joyce Carol Oates calls synecdoche, having one thing symbolize the many things. In her MasterClass Joyce Carol Oates talked about novelizing the life of Marilyn Monroe and the example was that one of her abortions stood for something like eight of them in total. There was no need to talk about each one. In Cher’s case that would be husbands/lovers, records, tours and movies.

You simply can’t address this life literally in a movie-amount of time.

In the movie Lincoln they used one heroic political (and miliary) battle to represent Lincoln’s entire life. I don’t think you could do that with Cher because of the mutli-faceted nature of her career. Liconln was mainly a politician. One political battle could stand for them all. But Cher has no single battle that wouldn’t neglect entire swaths of who she is and what she’s done.

Like Silkwood for example, a  representative battle for sure but telling the story of the making of Silkwood is without the world of pop music and precludes the large sub-story of Sonny. Similarly, the movie Coal Miners Daughter tells the story of a lifetime and music career through the lens of one marriage, but that doesn’t work for Cher either because she went on to have a life beyond her life with Sonny.

And I want to say an autobiography as book is exactly the time and place to address a life in a literal way and should do so. It should include experiences of every man, friend, family member, record, movie and tour.  It can be War and Peace, and in Cher’s case it probably should be (if anyone’s should). Infinite Jest it up. Mark Twain’s autobiography is two 700+ page volumes and he didn’t know Phil Spector.

It can be Lord of the Rings, each book a veritable epoch.

A movie can only contain so much, can only tell a simple story, a stripped-down, simplified version of reality, say two symbolic men: the Svengali-type and the boy-toy type and the tension between the two. The story isn’t about Cher’s children, (they have their own life story to tell), but can have a few scenes about Chaz and Elijah in regards to the tension between parenting and a career in entertainment.

And I keep focusing on tension because a movie has to have one archetypical struggle. And I think in Cher’s life that struggle is not “working through fear” as it was in the Broadway show. Although that’s part of it, for sure. It’s just not big enough. Because what caused the fear to manifest in the first place over and over again?

It was, I would suggest, that bulwark of intimidating judgement. Judgement from the establishment of Hollywood and the establishment of rock music. Judgement from fellow compatriots scratching out an existence in show business. The judgement of Cher upon herself.

It’s looking deep inside and admitting what you’ve have to prove to the world. That’s the thread. Because maybe everyone else would have just capitulated at the threshold of that fear. Why keep going?

The central idea is that fight for legitimacy and respect. If only because the story arc goes from lack of it to an overabundance, the fight against being seen as a joke.

And how Cher turned that around over a very long period of time, over a whole lifetime.

And maybe the movie ends right at the precipice of legend-hood, right before she steps onto the stage of respect and standing ovation. The moment bigger than the biggest hit or the Academy Award, some symbolic stage of acceptance.

After all, we all know what comes after. We’re all here for it.

It’s not about the songs, movies, co-stars or husbands as they stand individually. It’s about one person’s struggle to get from 1946 to 2023 in show business and battling the snobs and hipsters. And not just as a woman (although that’s part of it) but as a human being.

The movie can even show how it was never about reinvention but about a consistent self evolving and dealing with the constant assumption of a cynical reinvention. It’s really about self-actualization and the friends and men along the way who helped or did not help.

All told with representative, partially-fictional character mashups. Because sometimes to tell a concise truth, you need to fictionalize the elements.

It’s taken Cher full lifetime to achieve her turnaround from lack of respect to her current top-of-the-heap status. It’s quite extraordinary. And so I feel the movie should be a life story, not just a representative-event story.

Even the music could be mashups of unlikely combined songs. The Broadway show worked with this a bit with medleys and songs placed out of context. But truly bizarre mashups of old songs threaded into surprising new songs reflects more how Cher’s career has come to pass in this most recent decade, her old rediscovered material playing beside her new material. We watch Moonstruck or Good Times mashed-up beside Christmas  and “Believe.”

A biopic doesn’t need to be literal and maybe shouldn’t be. It can have characters designed to represent ideas and common experiences.

Possibly the creators of this effort have thought about all of this already and they’re still stuck. But there are very good life stories out there. It can be done.

 

Anyway, this may be my last post of the year due to some illnesses in my family.  So if we don’t talk until the New Year, have a Merry Christmas, a happy holiday season and a very, very Happy New Year.

I’ll try to wrap up all the remaining Christmas album festivities next year.

I leave you with these two songs as a season’s greetings: “honest men know that revenge does not taste sweet” and “just follow the day and reach for the sun.”

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