"My name is Love" by Darlene love and Rob Hoerburger (1998)

Everybody knows her voice, but not everybody knows her name.

Probably one of the busiest background singers in the world, the powerful voice of Darlene Love was behind some of the classics of 1960s pop: it was Love who sung on "He's a Rebel", "He's Sure the Boy I Love", "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry"  and half of famous LP "A Christmas Gift For You From Philles Records" with evergreen "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". However, for convoluted and complicated reasons, most of these singles were usually credited to other singers and basically wide audience never really knew Darlene Love, unless one really recognised her voice. After the glorious 1960s, when she was a jewel in the crown of mad genius Phil Spector (who used her voice as the main ingredient for his famous "Wall of Sound") she floundered without any solo hits and balanced the decades between singing backing vocals for others and doing manual cleaning jobs, until eventually documentaries, recognitions and awards came her way. 

The book is very easy to read, with Love chatty, conversational style and occasional gossip. She was there, so she knows it all - behind the stage business, hostilities, flirtations, late night parties, tours, etc. The biggest paradox of her life is that her legend is cemented during the years she spent working for Phil Spector - this is her main legacy and the reason she is known - but at the same time, because she was used, cheated and financially robbed by Spector, he is the main antagonist in her book. Without him, we would not know about Darlene Love, but he did almost everything to push her into oblivion. There is a chapter describing how she almost got a new start with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff who at the time were at the top of the world with their "Philadelphia International" recording company - she signed the contract, was working on selection for the new songs and than told that they got an offer they could not refuse and sold her contract to Phil Spector. Who basically prevented her from having solo success and was using her as a backing vocalist again.

"What kept me with Phil so long in the sixties, aside from my contract, was my feeling that no matter what shenanigans he was pulling that day, he always respected my talent. But now he just kept his back to me while I was singing. I’d finish a take, and without turning around to look at me, he’d flip on the monitor and say, “I don’t like it, do it again.” A couple of times I couldn’t even get a line out before he stopped and told me to start over. I looked up and saw them all laughing in the booth, and once, when Phil was turned toward me, I could read his lips: “Watch me make her do it again.” I stood this abuse for about two hours, then I just put the headphones down, put on my coat, and walked out. It was bad enough that he had stolen my contract, but now he was treating me like his slave."

Legally prevented from recording as solo artist, love eventually continued singing backing vocalist on tours with Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick and Cher - there is a palpable impression that along the way she felt lot of frustration, knowing that her contemporaries are enjoying the fruits of their work while she toiled in the background. Occasional swipe at Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick or Tina Turner shows the cracks in the smiling facade and she even admits "But looking at Dionne onstage, standing and singing behind her, I had to take a long, hard look at myself and how our careers had diverged since that great turkey dinner in 1962. Back then we were about even; maybe I was even a little ahead. Now she was one of the biggest stars in the business and here I was singing backup for her. I didn’t begrudge Dionne or resent her success in any way. She deserved it. It was never a feeling of “Why her?”—just “Why not me, too?”

Love eventually got recognition when she was included in a Oscar winning documentary "20 Feet from Stardom" about the world of background singers and how important they are. She was even included in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even as she never had solo success - but as a brick in the famous "Wall of Sound" she has every right to be there amongst the immortals. 

The Eurovision 2024 Epiphany: I am too old for this

 

I watched Eurovision last night and a thought hit me like a brick: I am too old for this.

Now, coming from someone who actually grew up with Eurovision (as mention here already, my very first LP was compilation of all the winners 1956-1981) and was genuinely enjoying re-watching old Eurovisions on youtube, it did not came as a surprise that technical wizardry eclipses music itself. From year to year, show was getting more spectacular and inevitably it attracted artists who counted on some gimmick to stay relevant or to stand out in the crowd. Even last year, I noticed that Eurovision now favours live performances that have dazzlement of most creative video clips. gone are the days when singer would come and sing to a microphone, the focus is now on projected images that create illusion of waves, volcanoes, asteroids and whatnot all around the performer (including the floor) and in all this spectacle, somehow the music itself is pushed in the background.

What I am experiencing now have been experienced by countless generations before me but this is the first time I am feeling it so openly and can't avoid it: I am now a part of the older generation and this new world makes less and less sense to me. In order to put my thoughts in order, I will try to list them here:

1. There is a whole new world of new young people out there, with their code of speech, communication, moral values, fashions and perspective that personally I find childish and immature. This is because it has almost no connection with my generation and I see that I am turning into grumpy old man - the same very probably happened to those who came before me.

2.I gave it the best shot but I don't see any appeal to this music. Yes, the whole concept of Eurovision covering thirty-seven completely different countries means it will inevitably bring variety but since the focus was on the spectacle, most of this won't work without visuals. At certain points while watching another girl wriggling on the floor and waving her long, ironed hair (its alarming how many of them look exactly the same) I couldn't help but think "how would this music work on the radio?". Huge majority of it sounded derivative to my ears, there was hardly anything original here. Even the stuff I liked (Sweden) was ok simply because it sounded familiar. 

3. For the first time ever, I noticed that artists were performing for the TV cameras and not for the audience. In fact, some of them toyed with I-phone kind of camera, like they are posting it all live on Tik Tok. This made all this audience in Malmö a bit more like a background and I seriously expect in the future the live audience might be eventually completely eliminated and replaced with some virtual avatars.

4. Even though Eurovision was always a LGBT magnet, this was the first time that I questioned how appropriate this is for the family entertainment. Performances by United Kingdom and Ireland for example, are not something I would like to watch together with toddlers (or even grandparents), they combined shock value with extreme quasi-pornographic choreography and I found it distasteful, misplaced and misguided. For some time now, Eurovision artists were trying to appear weird (creative?) but this year was THE year of weirdos. 

5. All the girls looked the same and most of the guys were either flamboyant or comedic. Scratch under the surface and suddenly the list of quasi-witchcraft and circus clowns becomes tiresome. One could almost BET that the next female performer will wriggle on the floor, etc

6. One performance that I almost enjoyed was France because at least it had some resemblance to the melody and the singer actually had a beautiful, powerful voice. The fact that Netherlands was disqualified and sent packing home seems quite bizarre, more like Eurovision showing off what can they do, to me this was more like future warning to other contestants. Seems that Croatia had a huge support, both at home and in Malmö, but nothing about this seemed particularly original to me, if I heard this on the radio, I would assume it was some Bon Jovi tribute band. Still, why would (relatively) manly Croatia win if there is a effeminate guy dressed in a pink dress, so award went to Switzerland - I watched is performance with amazement because it was acrobatic in every sense, but did I remember the melody? No 

p.s

I am actually glad that Abba declined to perform. The chance is perhaps missed but this gives them integrity.

"Murder Most Royal" by Jean Plaidy (1949)

I wonder why it took me so long to discover Jean Plaidy - after all, she is exactly the type of historical fiction that I used to love when growing up. I was a little boy besotted with the books about the historical characters, their glamorous lives and unhappy secrets - back than, I made no distinction between the classic historic biographies like Stefan Zweig or popular works by James Michener. Later I have discovered books by Antonia Fraser, Alison Weir and Philipa Gregory, but Jean Plaidy precedes all of them, in fact she might have been the biggest star of historical fiction for decades and what is specially interesting about her is that this lady (born Eleanor Alice Burford - we share the same birthday!) worked under different pseudonyms according to different genres. 

As Eleanor Burford she wrote many romance novels. As Jean Plaidy she created a best-selling historic sagas, including those about Tudors, Stuarts, Catherine De Medici, Lucrezia Borgia, etc. As Victoria Holt she created sensation in US with her gothic romance novels. As Philippa Carr she won completely new audience with multi-generational family sagas. Add a several more pseudonyms that she used occasionally and you get a extremely successful and busy writer whose work covers several decades and she definitely deserves to be at least checked out. I honestly have no idea why I waited until now, perhaps it was simply the look of all those inexpensive paperbacks with her name & I previously assumed it would be old fashioned & silly. After all, she started back in the 1940s so I thought it would be worn out and moth eaten. And just the design of all these paperbacks suggested silly novels for the schoolgirls. Well, I could not been more mistaken. 

I had to start somewhere, so I decided to start with "Murder Most Royal" simply because chronologically it was one of her first really big successes under the pseudonym Jean Plaidy and perhaps it might be the moment when she genuinely found her writing voice - even though there are almost dozen single novels written before this - this was THE moment when Burford allowed her interest in history to inspire her to write a true historical fiction. Initially, I was extremely sceptical, expecting dry prose and lots of romance - it did not help that Philipa Gregory already created best-selling "The Other Boleyn Girl" so I was kind of familiar with the story - but after few chapters I could not resists anymore and I started really enjoying the novel. Plaidy has great imagination, obvious love for history and good research background + even though the novel was published in 1949. there is absolutely nothing old-fashioned about it. In fact, if one does not know the publishing date, it could have been written yesterday. I am now at the point where public opinion goes dangerously against Anne Boleyn and she was almost attacked by angry mob during one of her evening rides in a barge. People obviously feel sympathy for worn-out and pious Catherine of Aragon who was an official queen for more than two decades prior, where Boleyn is perceived as young and ambitious (and not very virtuous) upstart. I am totally sold on Jean Plaidy.

 

Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde and Henrik Ibsen - Audiobooks

In order to boost my Goodreads 2024 reading challenge, I decided to listen some audio books - its not really a task, since I regularly listen some podcasts on my way to work and back, in fact it was actually a pleasure. These three turned out to be completely different and I enjoyed all of them. In fact, one somehow lead to another.

I knew who was Patricia Highsmith but so far never read anything by her concretely - she was forever on my "to read" list. So now I decided to listen her famous debut "Strangers on a Train". Even though I remember the Hitchcock movie and it vaguely reminded me on recently read "The Postman Always Rings Twice", it was still a gripping story and I have resisted to peek at the end, I honestly had no idea where is the story going. This was so good that I decided to go on and listen another audio book.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" was just a delight. I forgot most about it so it was like approaching it for the first time - the recording I listened was done with John Gielgud and Edith Evans - I must admit that it made me laugh out loud on my way to work and I was just super excited with it, it was one of the funniest and wittiest things I have ever heard. Some quotes I still remember:

" I don’t play accurately—any one can play accurately—but I play with wonderful expression."

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”

“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.”

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”

“Never met such a Gorgon . . . I don't really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair.”

"If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life."

This was so good that I continued with Henrik Ibsen and his classic play "A Doll's House" might be the best of them all - the story about middle-class family where superficiality and social status were more important than personal opinions and lives of Nora and her husband was actually genuinely interesting and I listened with greatest pleasure. the patronising husband was annoying as hell, but to some extent so was a Nora herself until she woke up from this lobotomised dream and realised it was all but a nightmare. I found it excellent and might continue with Ibsen and audio books.