In recognition of her Carnegie Hall Concert 50 years ago tonight, there’s a lot of new interest in Judy Garland.
Here is a great article from this month’s Vanity Fair:
In December 1959, Judy Garland, only 37 but with a quarter-century of hard living behind her, lay near death in New York’s Doctors Hospital. Alcohol and pills were the culprits. When in reasonably good health, Garland, who stood an inch under five feet, weighed 100 pounds. Now she weighed 180. Her tiny frame was grotesquely swollen with fluid and her liver severely compromised. Her eyes were glazed; her memory was failing; her body was shutting down. Walking by Garland’s hospital room, a close friend overheard a clutch of doctors discussing her condition. One of them turned to the friend. “I have to tell you the truth,” the doctor said. “I don’t think she’s going to make it.”
She made it. “She had the constitution of an army,” Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft says. “She just knew she had to keep going.” But three weeks later, after 20 quarts of fluid had been drained from her body, her lead physician told Garland, “For the rest of your life, all your physical activity must be curtailed. You are a permanent semi-invalid.… It goes without saying that under no circumstances can you ever work again.”
Garland fell back onto her pillows. “Whoopee!” she cried, weakly.
A trip down memory lane for a few of us…
I kept thinking of missing albums, like Boz Scaggs “Silk Degrees” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” when I realized they were from the late 1970’s…
I am getting senile…
This has been the first rock roll decade without revolution, or true revolutionaries, to call its own. The Fifties witnessed nothing less than the birth of the music. The Sixties were rocked by Beatlemania, Motown, Phil Spector, psychedelia and Bob Dylan. The Seventies gave rise to David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, heavy metal, punk and New Wave.
In comparison, the Eighties have been the decade of, among other things, synth pop, Michael Jackson, the compact disc, Sixties reunion tours, the Beastie Boys and a lot more heavy metal. But if the past ten years haven’t exactly been the stuff of revolution, they have been a critical time of re-assessment and reconstruction. Musicians and audiences alike have struggled to come to terms with rock’s parameters and possibilities, its emotional resonance and often dormant social consciousness.
The following survey of the 100 best albums of the Eighties, as selected by the editors of Rolling Stone, shows that the music and the values it stands for have been richer for the struggle. Punks got older and more articulate in their frustration and rage, while many veteran artists responded to that movement’s challenge with their most vital work in years. And rap transformed the face — and voice — of popular music.
via 100 Best Albums of the Eighties | Rolling Stone Music | Lists.
Filed under Music
One of the many things I love about “Glee” is that it’s given so many Broadway people a wider audience and bigger paychecks.
We saw several younger members of the cast on and off Broadway in “Spring Awakening”.
We also knew Matthew Morrison from Broadway. We had seen him in “Light in the Piazza” and maybe a couple of other things. I hated that he had left “South Pacific” by the time we got to see it as we had been looking forward to seeing his Lt. Cable.
So I’m quite pleased to see him making it big now. We already have our tickets to see him live, again, when he comes to Greensboro this summer.
Here is an interesting article about him I thought I would share…
Morrison is Glee’s break-out male star, and not just because he gets to share screen time and vicious dialogue with the best female character, comedy nasty cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (played by Jane Lynch). On the set he’s known as “Triple Threat”: he can sing, he can dance, he can act. So, after rigorous training, can most of the other cast members. But not with the natural-born – and professionally honed – savvy of Morrison.
Prior to Glee, he was a Broadway stalwart with a decade of well-regarded, award-winning performances behind him, in shows including Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza and South Pacific – he was the male lead in the latter when Glee creator Ryan Murphy cast him in the show. He went from earning “something like 10 grand a week” to a figure he can describe only with a cat-that-got-the-cream smile.
With seven to 10 years’ age on most of his castmates, he is also a little more sanguine about the hoopla surrounding what has become one of the biggest TV shows in the world. “I’m so happy I got to live out my twenties in New York and be free to do whatever I wanted to do, not under that public eye and that scrutiny,” he says. “I feel bad for the rest of the guys that they’ll never experience that.”
Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Music, Television, Uncategorized
The Great Billie Holiday was born on April 7, 1915 and left us entirely too soon…
But her recordings live on…
As does her legion…
For those of you who only remember Diana Ross in “The Lady Sings the Blues”, here is the real Lady Day:
“Strange Fruit”
“God Bless the Child”-She co-wrote this one…
“Good Morning Heartache”
Filed under Entertainment, Movies, Music
Whenever Politics give me the Mean Reds, there’s nothing like an Audrey Hepburn film to take the edge off…
This was one of her best. Hard to believe it was made 50 years ago…
It’s still one of my favorites…
Filed under Entertainment, Movies, Music
She’s 89 today…
Here are a couple of clips: One of her most famous song and one of her and her friends talking about the “real” Doris Day.
I’m not ashamed to admit it; I just love Doris and wish her many more happy birthdays!
Filed under Entertainment, Music
A little Friday night entertainment….
Seems perfect for the Friday after St Patrick’s Day- and an almost full moon…
Hell, any excuse to see Cheyenne Jackson- and Kate Baldwin- performing this one more time…
From the wonderful revival of “Finian’s Rainbow” we were lucky enough to see on Broadway a couple of years ago…
Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Holidays, Music
I can’t believe she can get full Social Security today.
Liza’s 65!
Liza Now:
And some vintage Liza:
Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Movies, Music, Television
One Question: Why???????
They are way too old for this foolishness now.
Let us remember them as they were….
Not as pathetic geriatric shadows of themselves just trying to supplement their Social Security checks at the cost of their pride…
Although Davy does seem to have held up the best…
Here they come, walking down the street… veteran pop stars the Monkees are reuniting for a 10-date tour 45 years after they first got together.
Three of the band’s original members – Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork – will play a series of gigs in May, including the Royal Albert Hall in London.
The band, who were put together in 1966 to star in a television show, had nine top 40 hits including I’m A Believer and Pleasant Valley Sunday.
Critics initially hit out at the manufactured nature of the band, with Californian rivals The Byrds mocking them in their single So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.
But the band eventually proved themselves, writing more of their own songs and starring in 1960s cult film Head with Jack Nicholson.
Tickets for the tour, which includes dates in Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham, go on sale on Friday.
The band’s fourth original member Mike Nesmith, who went on to record a series of critically acclaimed country albums, is not taking part.
via The Monkees reunite 45 years after first getting together – Mirror mobile.
Filed under Entertainment, Music
Lost in the 21st Century 