He wrote the songs and then had the skin on his face pulled taut
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Okay, thanks for letting me get all the heavy stuff out. It really did feel good to release it and now I am ready to get back to my inane, quirky stuff for a while.
A couple of nights ago as I was shutting down the house for bedtime, I turned the television onto PBS, since my kids like to watch “Arthur” in the morning as they drink their hot chocolate and wake up. So I turned on Channel 28 and, woah ginga. There was Mr. Barry Manilow.
Barry is a guilty pleasure for me. I don’t fully acknowledge that I like him in front of others. Partly it doesn’t come up very often and partly well, it seems kind of lame. But I’m out here owning it. I do like Barry Manilow. So I caught the beginning of a concert and he was singing something like “New York City Rhythm.” I recognized it, but I don’t know what the actual title is.
He’s 64 now and the camera did not really get too close to his face. But when it did, it kind of revealed a crazy image. I am positive he has had plastic surgery and there are some weird peaks and valleys going on along his chin and jaw line. Also, I am positive he has to use alot of flesh-colored pancake makeup to cover the scars.
He looked like a strange Ken doll. Now don’t get me wrong, his singing was stellar. No question. sis
When the question of lip synching comes up I always wonder what someone like Clive Davis could do with my voice. My voice is terrible, let me just throw that out there. I have no grand illusions. I do sing at church, but it is so quiet I doubt the person in the pew in front of me can hear me. I can barely hear me.
But I always wonder if some producer in a music studio could adjust a song I sang into something decent. I especially think that when I see a performer live and then he or she sounds nothing like the album. That’s when I think to myself, ‘Who are you and what have you done to the Pet Shop Boys?’
Okay, so back to Barry. He did walk about the stage and sang into the mike, but he really reminded me of Frank Sinatra or Sammy Davis Jr., in that he had no moves. He walked about the stage and snapped his fingers as he sung into the mike. He doesn’t need to bust a move or anything, I just realized that his surgically-enhanced 64-year-old face and spikey wig hair didn’t really jive with his on-stage persona.
I also had the thought that he reminded me of Liberace. No, not because of his flaming persona, he just had that plastic, uptight body language. So then he sang “Could It Be Magic.” I learned that he based that song off a Chopin Interlude. I found that interesting.
Now that they had me hooked, they cut back to the PBS Station and the on-going fundraising efforts. Grrr. I know it’s Public Television and it survives because of the good-hearted, granola-eating, peace-loving folks of the world. I’m not one of those folks. I pay the cable bill and that’s where it ends.
So I hung in there for five minutes. That’s what you get. If you’re
going
to beg
for money I’ll
give you
a solid five
minutes and then you
better get back to the show. Otherwise I’m going to bed. In between the begging for money, they showed a very short clip of one of the PBS hosts interviewing Barry Manilow.
First, let me say his face looked crazy. I don’t need to go any further than that. I truly would be afraid to see him after he washed his face clean. But the woman interviewing him was talking about how he had the record of all time for having 25 #1 hits in a row.
And Barry really lost my respect with this return comment. He said, “Really? Is it 25? I’ve lost count.”
A little humility, Barry. I would have respected him more had he said, “Yes, it is 25 and even I find that amazing and surprising.”
He just came across as so arrogant and vain. And of course I wondered if there is any successful person out there — celebrity or Everyman — walking this earth who has not lost their humility. Is no one thankful for the things they achieve? Is there always such a sense of entitlement?
I’m just a chick from the midwest. I do complain alot, I’m working on that. But I am so thankful for my husband, my daughters and my health. All of that and anything more is a true gift to me — a gift that is given to me by the grace of God.
I’m also thankful for the musical stylings of Mr. Barry Manilow. I just wish he could be a bit more humble.
[...] been popping my own zits for a good 25 years. If that were true I would look like the Elephant Man. Or Barry Manilow. And my instincts told me that all those years ago as I stood in line waiting for the [...]
[...] What happened to his face? Yikes! He’s been Manilow-ed. Put some mayonnaise on the lens and pull back from the close [...]