Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

This song is in my all time Top 20 Songs Of All Time. I have perhaps 12 artists giving their spin. I play it often at this time of year & I have 2 different versions (Ricki Lee Jones & Ella Fitzgerad) that bookend my Spring Mix that friends are clamoring for:

Once I was a sentimental thing

Threw my heart away each spring

Now a spring romance hasn't got a chance

Promised my first dance to winter

All I've got to shows a splinter

 For my little fling!

Spring this year has got me feeling

 Like a horse that never left the post

I lie in my room staring up at the ceiling

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Mornings kiss wakes trees & flowers,

& to them I'd like to drink a toast

I walk in the park just to kill lonely hours

Spring can really hang you up the most.

All afternoon those birds twitter twit,

I know the tune, this is love, this is it!

Heard it before & I know the score

& I've decided that spring is a bore!

Love seemed sure around the New Year

Now it’s April & love is just a ghost

Spring arrived on time,

 Only what became of you, dear?

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Spring is here, there's no mistaking

Robins building nests from coast to coast

My heart tries to sing

 So they won't hear it breaking

Spring can really hang you up the most!

College boys are writing sonnets

In the tender passion they're engrossed

But I'm on the shelf

 With last years Easter bonnets

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Love came my way, I hoped it would last

We had our day, now that's all in the past

Spring came along, a season of song

Full of sweet promise

 But something went wrong!

Doctors once prescribed a tonic,

Sulphur & molasses was the dose

Didn't help a bit, my condition must be chronic

Spring can really hang you up the most!

All alone, the party's over

Old man winter was a gracious host

But when you keep praying

 For snow to hide the clover

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Landesman/Wolf

1955

Considering Streisand On Her 70th Birthday

Sometimes I am not the very model of a modern homosexual. I was insane for Barbra back when she was “Simply Barbra”, with the Egyptian eyeliner, the kooky thrift shop clothing, & the Modigliani posturing. Her television specials (1965-1973) were unlike anything I had seen before & I was mesmerized. The first was My Name Is Barbra (1965) made in black & white,& then came Color Me Barbra (1966) which has a sequence shot at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with Streisand wandering among the masterworks & antiquities, singing Where Or When dressed as Nefertiti. Next she's among a circus of animals, singing Try To Remember to the elephant & poking fun at herself by looking eye to eye at an anteater & singing- "We have so much in common, it's a phenomenon." The final act is just her singing at a microphone, with Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home & It Had to Be You. It made quite the impact on little gay 12 year old Stephen. I decided that a person with a big nose & unusual looks could be sexy & talented & adored instead of being made fun of & feeling like an outcast. I had talent damn it, & I was going to be a star!


I obsessively listened to her albums up through Stony End & then I started to loose interest. She took me down that Stony End, I never wanted go down that Stony End, but she took me down that Stony End. She was a Jewish girl from Brooklyn who “was raised on the good book Jesus & my mother worked the mines”. Huh? She seemed to be a woman with a once in a century vocal instrument & very questionable taste in material. Who could blame her for trying to be contemporary? Barbra started a career singing songs that were decades old then & going out of fashion. Songs from the theatre & standards being "the" pop music were being replaced with Rock & Folk.  It was Dylan & The Beatles. But, I would come back to her. I loved the album from 1974 simply named Barbra Streisand. It has a beautiful cover of Paul Simon’s Something So Right, that still gets to me, but it was followed by the horrible Butterfly with a really stinky cover of David Bowie’s Life On Mars (was there ever a worst match of material & singer?)...  & so it went through the decades. I would fall in love with her all over again with The Broadway Album (1985) & then she would come up with icky drek like A Love Like Ours (1999) with not a single redeeming cut.


I downloaded her latest, the Diana Krall produced- Love Is The Answer. Each song is done with a version done with Diana’s jazz quartet & a version with full orchestra, with arrangements by super-duper Johnny Mandel. The album contains some of my favorite songs…ever. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning is like champagne & velvet. I appreciate that, at 67, her voice was richer on the bottom notes & huskier & a bit rough around the edges.

Last year, she did a small club gig (her last time was in 1961!) at the Village Vanguard for a small group of about 80, mostly fans that won the tickets in a contest from her website, plus pals like Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker & the Clintons. I think that would have been amazing thing to have experienced. I was fortunate to see it in the comfort of my home, thanks to PBS. Barbra won me over again. I found her performance to be funny, raw & rather astounding. 


I have even more conflicted feelings about her film work…but not on this post, except to say that What’s Up Doc? is one of the best film comedies of all time & one of my favorites. When Barbra sings You’re the Top to Ryan O’Neal? Like Buttah.

Barbra singing Memories = please, NO!


Barbra singing C'est Si Bon from Color Me Barbra = perfection.

Old Broads

Shirley MacLaine: 6 Oscar nominations with a win for Terms of Endearment, 20 Golden Globe nominations with 7 wins including Best Newcomer in 1955 & the Cecil B DeMille Look Alike Award. 14 books, all best sellers. Her brother is Warren Beatty. They have never worked together, but that is something I would pay to see, especially if they would play senior citizen lovers. She talks to her dog- Terry & her dog talks back. My favorite MacLaine role – Doris (a thinly disguised Debbie Reynolds) in Post Cards From The Edge.

Barbra Streisand: 5 Oscar nominations with 2 wins, including one as a composer, 16 Golden Globe nominations with 8 wins including the Cecil B DeMille Look Alike Award. 8 Grammy Awards, & one of only a handful of performers to have an Oscar, Emmy, Tony & Grammy on their mantle, & the only artist to have a #1 Album in 5 different decades. Her son-in-law is Josh Brolin. Last year she wrote a frightening coffee table book about her questionable interior designing taste. She gave her very cute son-Jason Gould a role in the underrated Prince Of Tides.  She talks to her dog- Sammy. My favorite Streisand role- Doris in The Owl & The Pussycat.

They share a birthday today- April 24th. MacLaine turns 78 & Streisand, 70. Traditionally, they spend their birthdays together. I would like to be a fly on the wall at that party.

Kooky & Nutty: 2 Icons Share A Birthday

Shirley MacLaine: 6 Oscar nominations with a win for Terms of Endearment, 20 Golden Globe nominations with 7 wins including Best Newcomer in 1955 & the Cecil B DeMille Look Alike Award. 14 books, all best sellers. Her brother is Warren Beatty. They have never worked together, but that is something I would pay to see, especially if they would play senior citizen lovers. She talks to her dog- Terry & her dog talks back. My favorite MacLaine role – Doris (a thinly disguised Debbie Reynolds) in Post Cards From The Edge.

Barbra Streisand: 5 Oscar nominations with 2 wins, including one as a composer, 16 Golden Globe nominations with 8 wins including the Cecil B DeMille Look Alike Award. 8 Grammy Awards, & one of only a handful of performers to have an Oscar, Emmy, Tony & Grammy on their mantle, & the only artist to have a #1 Album in 5 different decades. Her son-in-law is Josh Brolin. Last year she wrote a frightening coffee table book about her questionable interior designing taste. She gave her very cute son-Jason Gould a role in the underrated Prince Of Tides.  She talks to her dog- Sammy. My favorite Streisand role- Doris in The Owl & The Pussycat.

They share a birthday today- April 24th. MacLaine turns 77 & Streisand, 69. Traditionally, they spend their birthdays together. I would like to be a fly on the wall at that party.

Could It Be That It Was All So Simple Then?

Tim was an acquaintance-friend, not quite in my circle, but dating one of my best friends. He was cute, bright, & talented. I knew him for a while before we had a long-ish conversation where I discovered that his father was the esteemed & popular big band leader & arranger- Paul Weston & his mother was the beautiful Jo Stafford, one of the great jazz singers of the 1940s & 50s, with a pure & understated voice.

I was, & remain, a huge fan of Jo Stafford’s & I think Tim was taken aback a bit when I gushed. I actually dragged him back to my apartment to show him my collection of LPs of his parents’ music.


He was kind enough to invite me over to the house in Beverly Hills. He owed me nothing & we were not really close. It was a lovely gesture. I brought one album for Jo Stafford to sign. She was very lovely & quite funny. She & her husband had a great act throughout the 1950s, as Jonathan & Darlene Edwards, a bad lounge act. Stafford, as Darlene, would sing off-key in a high pitched voice; Weston, as Jonathan, played an untuned piano off key & with bizarre rhythms. They won a Grammy in 1961 for Best Comedy Album for Jo Stafford & Paul Weston Present: The Song Stylings of Jonathan & Darlene Edwards, on which the pair intentionally butchered some of the best popular music. The couple continued to release Jonathan & Darlene albums for several years, and in 1977 released a final single, a cover of The Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive with I Am Woman on the flip side. A very funny couple.

During my short visit with the Westons, their neighbors from behind their Beverly Hills house dropped by to talk about what to wear to the Academy Awards the following week. This handsome couple were nominated for an Oscar for Best Song, for a little number that they called- The Way We Were, sung by their good friend Barbra Streisand who was also nominated for Best Actress. I was just a little starstruck, but I was able to tell Marilyn & Alan Bergman that I would be seeing them at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion the following Monday (the awards were held on Mondays then, the day that theatres were traditionally dark, I guess so actors in Broadway or touring shows could attend).


My good school chum & fellow actor in the theatre program- Gina had offered me a ticket. Her father- Arthur Piantadosi was Secretary of the Academy that year & a 7 time nominee (he became an Oscar winner, for Best Sound for All The Presidents Men). They were not attending the awards & had a single ticket up for grabs. I wore my tux from Private Lives, which was still in production at the time. I was frantic about getting some makeup stains off the white dinner jacket. I got myself to the Chandler Pavilion, parking a mile away, & I was seated a row away from Paul & Linda McCartney & Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward (who was nominated). The nominees that year:




Best Picture:
THE STING, American Graffiti, Cries & Whispers, The Exorcist, A Touch of Class


Actor:
JACK LEMMON in Save the Tiger, Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail, Al Pacino in Serpico, Robert Redford in The Sting


Actress:
GLENDA JACKSON in A Touch of Class, Ellen Burstyn in The Exorcist, Marsha Mason in Cinderella Liberty, Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were, Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams


Supporting Actor:
JOHN HOUSEMAN in The Paper Chase, Vincent Gardenia in Bang the Drum Slowly, Jack Gilford in Save the Tiger, Jason Miller in The Exorcist, Randy Quaid in The Last Detail


Supporting Actress:
TATUM O'NEAL in Paper Moon, Linda Blair in The Exorcist, Candy Clark in American Graffiti, Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon, Sylvia Sidney in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams


Director:
GEORGE ROY HILL for The Sting, Ingmar Bergman for Cries & Whispers, Bernardo Bertolucci for Last Tango in Paris, William Friedkin for The Exorcist, George Lucas for American Graffiti

My new good close personal friends- The Bergmans did win that night.  I deeply wanted Streisand to win. I still love The Way Were  & the moment where Barbra moves a lock of Robert Redford's blond hair with her gloved hand still destroys me. Babs lost to Glenda Jackson in a stunning upset. I still have my ticket/pass to the ceremony.

Jo Stafford left us in 2008. The Bergmans continue to work. I have watched the Oscar Ceremony on TV since I was 5 years old. I used to hold up a big brass candlestick & practice my acceptance speech in the bathroom mirror: " I thank no one for this award. I did it all myself with talent & gumption..."

Babs & Shirl... A Kooky Love Story

Was I kooky when I was young? I know that I love a kooky old person, hell…I am a kooky old person. When I was younger & I met someone with that kind of kooky personality, I knewthat when I grew old, I could look forward to being able to have 12 dogs, & drink Champagne for breakfast, the kind of things you are not supposed to do when you are younger. When you’re as old as I am, people say “oh, Steve hasn’t got much longer to live, let him have some fun” which is really quite depressing when you think about it. When I younger they would say “he is surrounded by canines & he drinks too much!” which is a bit sad too. Anyway, as I grow old, I want to be thought of as kooky.

Barbra & Shirley are 2 kooky dames. They share a birthday. Really. They spend every birthday together & have for more than 40 years. I wish I could be the Brenda Vaccaro fly on that wall at that party.




She took me down the Stony End, I never wanted to go down the Stony End, but she took me down. I liked Barbra Streisand best when she was “Simply Barbra” with Egyptian eyeliner, the bobbed hair, the thrift shop clothing, & the refreshingly kooky delivery & demeanor. She was a true original, before she let Jon Peters give her an afro, record Bowie covers & star in a Star Is Born. Still, she has had a remarkable & long career, & possesses one the greatest vocal instruments in the history of pop music. I think she is a strong director, with the actors in her films often earning Oscar nominations.


This year, now in her late 60s, she actually knocked Madonna & Mariah off the top of the charts. She is the only artist to win Oscars for acting & songwriting. Streisand has received an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, Peabody Award, & the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. The winner of multiple Grammy Awards, Streisand has sold millions of records, 50 of them gold & 30 platinum. She is also the only artist to have Billboard #1 albums spanning 5 decades.

My favorite Streisand performance was in What's Up Doc?, one of the most perfect movies I can think of. My favorite album, outside of of her earliest recordings, is The Broadway Album, a nearly perfect album.

Shirley Maclaine is convinced her pet dog can communicate with her. The star owns 11 other canines but insists her relationship with rat terrier Terry is so unique, dog & owner understand one another. She says, “I talk to her & she answers me. I have serious discussions with her & I’m convinced that on some level she really listens. “She is selective about the questions she answers, though. For instance, she likes the question, ‘What shall we do next in the kitchen?’ Other questions she just thinks are a waste of time.”


She was named after Shirley Temple & grew up in Virginia with her brother Warren Beatty. She does it all: nightclubs, films & theater actress, dancer, activist, & author.


When Carol Haney broke her ankle during the run of the Broadway musical- Pajama Game, her understudy- Shirley went on for her & became a star. She has been making films since Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry in 1955. When lost the Academy Award (her 2nd Oscar nomination) for her performance in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, MacLaine said, "I thought I would win for The Apartment, but then Elizabeth Taylor had a tracheotomy". She finally won the Oscar for Terms Of Endearment, of course, but my favorite MacLaine role was as a thinly disguised Debbie Reynolds in Postcards From The Edge. I like that she continues to work.




Happy Birthday to both these talented broads!

Me & Barbra... Not Always A Love Story

Sometimes I am not the very model of a modern homosexual. I was insane for Barbra back when she was “Simply Barbra”, with the Egyptian eyeliner, the kooky thrift shop clothing, & the Modigliani posturing. Her television specials (1965-1973) were unlike anything I had seen before & I was mesmerized. The first was My Name Is Barbra (1965) made in black & white,& then came Color Me Barbra (1966) which has a sequence shot at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with Streisand wandering among the masterworks & antiquities, singing Where Or When dressed as Nefertiti. Next she's among a circus of animals, singing Try To Remember to the elephant & poking fun at herself by looking eye to eye at an anteater & singing- "We have so much in common, it's a phenomenon." The final act is just her singing at a microphone, with Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home & It Had to Be You. It made quite the impact on little 12 year old Stephen. I decided that a person with a big nose & unusual looks could be sexy & talented & adored instead of being made fun of & feeling like an outcast. I had talent damnit!

 I obsessively listened to her albums up through Stony End & then I started to loose interest. She took me down that Stony End, I never wanted go down that Stony End, but she took me down that Stony End. She was a Jewish girl from Brooklyn who “was raised on the good book Jesus & my mother worked the mines”. Huh? She seemed to be a woman with a once in a century vocal instrument & very questionable taste in material. Who could blame her for trying to be contemporary? Barbra started a career singing songs that were decades old then & going out of fashion, as songs from the theatre & standards being "the" pop music were being replaced with Rock & Folk.  It was Dylan & The Beatles. But, I would come back to her. I loved the album from 1974 simply named Barbra Streisand. It has a beautiful cover of Paul Simon’s Something So Right, that still gets to me, but it was followed by the horrible Butterfly with a really stinky cover of David Bowie’s Life On Mars (was there ever a worst match of material & singer?)...  & so it went through the decades. I would fall in love with her all over again with The Broadway Album (1985) & then she would come up with icky drek like A Love Like Ours (1999) with not a single redeeming cut.

Today I downloaded her new Diana Krall produced- Love Is The Answer, just released today. I have yet to listen, but I have high hopes. Each song is done with a version done with Diana’s jazz quartet & a version with full orchestra, with arrangements by super-duper Johnny Mandel. The album contains some of my favorite songs…ever. The one song I have listened to- In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning is like champagne & velvet. I appreciate that, at 67, her voice has gotten richer on the bottom notes & is huskier & a bit rough around the edges.

Last Saturday, she did a small club gig (her last time was in 1961!) at the Village Vanguard for a small group of about 80, mostly fans that won the tickets in a contest from her website, plus pals like Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker & the Clintons. I think that would have been amazing thing to have experienced. I have even more conflicted feelings about her film work…but not on this post, except to say that What’s Up Doc? is one of the best film comedies of all time & one of my favorites. When Barbra sings You’re the Top to Ryan O’Neal? Like Buttah.



Barbra singing Memories = please, NO!

Barbra singing C'est Si Bon from Color Me Barbra = perfection.

In A Very Unusual Way

I am quite enamored of the song- A Very Unusual Way. This song is not new, but it is new to me. It is from the 1982 musical Nine (not to be confused with 9, District 9 or Cloud 9…all playing in theatres now). Although I grew up as a fierce little musical theatre queen, I got off that jag in the 1980s around the time of Miss Saigon & Cats (now & forever). I have rarely returned to musicals since, although I loved the movie version of Chicago & Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge is a favorite. A Very Unusual Way has music & lyrics by Maury Yeston. I am really looking forward to the movie version of Nine. The trailer is jaw dropping amazing & what a cast! I don’t how this song with the haunting melody & obliquitous lyrics ever flew passed my listening radar. I heard it first on a Barbra Streisand concert that aired on TV this spring. Except for her Broadway albums in the 1990s, I had been off the Barbra thing since Stony End, but the concert was impressive & I can not get this song out of my head. It speaks to me in a personal & very unusual way.



In a very unusual way one time I needed you.
In a very unusual way you were my friend.
Maybe it lasted a day, maybe it lasted an hour.
But, somehow it will never end.

In a very unusual way I think I'm in love with you.
In a very unusual way I want to cry.
Something inside me goes week,
Something inside me surrenders.
& you're the reason why,
You're the reason why

You don't know what you do to me,
You don't have a clue.
You can't tell what its like to be me looking at you.
It scares me so, that I can hardly speak.

In a very unusual way, I owe what I am to you.
Though at times it appears I won't stay, I never go.
Special to me in my life,
Since the first day that I met you.
How could I ever forget you,
Once you had touched my soul?
In a very unusual way,
You've made me whole.

In a very unusual way Oh,
I owe what I am to you
What you have done for me.

Though at times it appears I won't stay, I never go.
Must always be there
Special to me in my life, Special to me,
Since the first day that I met you.
Since that first day.

How could I ever forget you
Once you had touched my soul?
In a very unusual way
You've made me whole.