{"id":901,"date":"2017-10-12T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T13:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/fabulous-fun-fan-fall-music\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T08:17:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T15:17:31","slug":"fabulous-fun-fan-fall-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2017\/10\/fabulous-fun-fan-fall-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabulous Fun Fan Fall: Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cherwalls\"<\/a>Walls<\/h4>\n

This is like my favorite time to be a Cher fan. There\u2019s another<\/em> new Cher song out! She \u201cperformed\u201d a song called \u201cWalls\u201d solo last weekend at the One Young World Festival in Bogota<\/a>. Here\u2019s an audio clip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very "Sirens<\/a>" sounding. Allegedly a single will go on sale to benefit Cher's animal welfare foundation, Free to Wild. Keep a look out for the official recording to purchase. Cher is putting her vocals behind some really great projects this year: Syrian refuges, character-building children\u2019s shows, animal welfare. Hopefully we can all contribute to these causes officially.<\/p>\n

This is Cher\u2019s fourth new song this year. Three of the new songs were released as a surprise without PR fanfare and none have been officially released as singles. According to reports<\/a>, \u201cWalls is expected to be released in the near future with proceeds from sales to be donated to Free The Wild, Cher\u2019s foundation which was created to protect wild animals in captivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cher was recently trying to free the elephant Kavaan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Newnownext<\/a>, "It\u2019s always a cause for celebration when Cher releases new music. But when it\u2019s a soulful ballad that subtly knocks President Trump, it\u2019s doubly amazing. The Dark Lady premiered \u201cWalls\u201d over the weekend at the One Young World Festival in Bogota. While it\u2019s ostensibly about emotional barriers, it\u2019s also a dig at Trump\u2019s favorite pet project\u2014a wall along the U.S.\/Mexican border.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually primarily about animals in cages. But I really do love the fact that the song can be read on three layers. They lyrics are vague enough to be read as tearing down Trump\u2019s Mexico wall, tearing down political, emotional or interpersonal barriers, and about cages keeping in wild animals.<\/p>\n

In college I made a mix tape of animal welfare songs. And yes, "Bless the Beasts and the Children<\/a>" was in the mix, completely un-ironically. However," Tame Yourself" by Raw Youth has always been my favorite animal welfare song<\/a>. Although I see now that the finger crossing in the video is a little over the top. The song was recorded to benefit PETA and was released as a compilation with other animal welfare songs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cher\u2019s song is not maudlin or accusatory. And it does seem elastically vague enough to be readable with multiple interpretations. We don\u2019t know who wrote it yet but it could be another Diane Warren song. The vague language kind of reminds me of her style.<\/p>\n

Which reminds me that Paloma Faith, who has a new album coming out soon and a new single posted on YouTube<\/a>, now has a Diane Warren connection.<\/p>\n

\"Lovecanhurt\"<\/a>So Paloma is an artist that I love so much I\u2019ve accidentally purchased one of her albums twice. And I did this recently. After buying her third album twice, I became enraptured with the video and the song "Only Love Can Hurt Like This<\/a>" and for about a week I listened to it nonstop before I realized it was written by none other than Diane Warren. I love this song. And I know I\u2019ve been pretty vocal about my feelings about Ms. Warren. Like most people, I\u2019m too opinionated about music. And way less opinionated in poetry<\/a> where I'll return to writers I don\u2019t like to see if I might become more open to them.<\/p>\n

Most Cher fans love her Diane Warren songs. My friends, all 80s kids, love her songs, too. I\u2019m pretty much a minority of one in my distaste for them. In fact, my friends and Cher-fan friends might say I have a bonafide prejudice. And in this world of over-opinionization, opinions have become pretty meaningless. I\u2019ll argue strenuously any day of the week that music preferences are completely subjective any way you look at it.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s my blog so I can complain if I want to. However, I\u2019m now faced with the issue of there being Diane Warren songs I like.<\/p>\n

To recap what I haven\u2019t liked: 1) simplistic melodies (Cher\u2019s \u201cTurn Back Time\u201d being particularly grating), 2) easy rhymes and platitudes (Cher\u2019s \u201cLove and Understanding\u201d maybe the worst offender), 3) ubiquitously found on everybody\u2019s albums, including now the incomparable Paloma Faith!, 4) if you write a song about smiles, it has to live up to the smile of the person singing it. (The whole sub-genre of smiling songs we can leave to another day.)<\/p>\n

\"Hos\"<\/a>And this reminds me that John Waite has also released a new album<\/a> with a good version of Donovan's \u201cCatch the Wind\u201d which Cher covered too in 1966. Which yet again reminds me of that day in 1989 when the first Bad English album and Cher\u2019s Heart of Stone<\/em> were released on the same day.<\/p>\n

And in full disclosure, of all the many, many Diane Warren hits<\/a> I have<\/em> liked the following: "Unbreak My Heart," "If You Asked Me To" (Patti LaBelle\u2019s version<\/a>), and as a preteen I really did love the build-up and synthesizers in Laura Branigan\u2019s "Solitaire<\/a>." Oh, and Michael Bolton\u2019s "Time, Love and Tenderness<\/a>" was one of the few cassette singles I ever bought  because it felt like an updated, edgier version of the Barry Manilow\u2019s cheer-up song "I Made it Through the Rain<\/a>."<\/p>\n

But I can live happily never having heard these songs again: "Because You Loved Me," "Look Away," "Blame it on the Rain," "Don\u2019t Turn Around," "Rhythm of the Night," "Don\u2019t Want to Miss a Thing" (ugh, really hate that one), "I Get Weak," "How Can We Be Lovers," "Just Like Jesse James," and Heart\u2019s "Who Will You Run To."<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t argue with the powerhouse that is Diane Warren. All I can say is that I love "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" and have to throw some of the credit for that to Paloma Faith who has really taken the song and made it part of her retro-ouvre.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to find out who wrote \u201cWalls\u201d and if I\u2019ll have to eat my hat again over liking it for the very same reason I don\u2019t like Warren\u2019s other vague lyrical material.<\/p>\n

\"Cherfuture\"<\/a>Everyday People
<\/strong><\/h4>\n

More material from Cher\u2019s commercial with Future (that news feels like old news now, huh?).<\/p>\n