This is how you talk to a coward

FUCK OFF, DONALD! Kamala will never fall for your offer to debate her on Fox. It'll be TOTALLY rigged: audience packed with your Maga screamers, you'll cut her off, call her crazy (and WORSE) roam around and threaten her like you did Hillary. Think we don't know you by now?

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) August 3, 2024

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Pathetic misogynists

Republicans have gone after Bette Midler. Republicans have gone after Taylor Swift. Republicans are now going after Cher. At some point these pathetic misogynists need to get a life and leave women alone.

— Brown Eyed Susan🟧🟦 (@smc429) October 19, 2023

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCLXXVIII--Barry Manilow: Can't Smile Without You

My partner hates driving, so whenever we go anywhere, I'm the one behind the wheel.  As such, she has never complained about the music I play when we're driving--no matter the artist or the type of music or how many times I play a certain CD she's never said word one.  Until I played this week's artist's greatest hits--about halfway through she asked how much longer I intended on playing this particular CD, since it was not in any sense a pleasurable listening experience.  Have to admit that outside of this week's song she was correct, and after one listen it went into the CD collection in the basement where it will rest for eternity.

As you might have surmised from the first paragraph, I'm not much of a Barry Manilow fan, but I've often felt that every music artist, should they release enough singles, will eventually have one that I like (note that Led Zeppelin, REO Speedwagon, and Styx have proven the exception to this rule).  Unfortunately, as well, Manilow's biography is about as boring of a Wikipedia entry as I've read here while doing my half-assed research, so I won't put my rabid readers (both of you) through an extended bio.  In fairness to Mr. Manilow, he's sold over 85 million records, sold millions upon millions of tickets for his tours, and had numerous very highly rated television specials through the years so one can safely assume he's handled his career quite nicely without my adoration.  Manilow has also won a Grammy Award and produced several of emaycee fave Bette Midler's  albums.  For his career, Manilow has released 31 studio albums (with one of them hitting #1 and numerous others the top ten), and 57 singles (with three reaching the top of the charts and many others the top ten).  For those wondering, I know that after this week's post my induction into the Coolsville Hall of Fame has been permanently derailed.

Fun Fact:  Manilow has expressed surprise that people consider his music wimpy, which leads me to believe he doesn't know what the word wimpy means....

"Can't Smile Without You" was released as a single by Manilow (the Carpenters released a version in 1977) in 1978 from his album Even Now.  The single hit #3 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 while the album attained the same chart position on the Billboard 200.

Were it not for the movie Four Wedding and a Funeral (in which a very campy acoustic version of "Can't Smile Without You" is performed at the first wedding and made me revisit the song), this post is probably never written.  But after reflection it dawned on me that the song is a nice wimpy ballad, catchy as all hell, and sung with just enough bravado by Manilow to make it worthy enough for the annals of Friday Night Jukebox.  I fully realize that a number of you will scratch your heads and say "What the fuck?" but it is what it is, and I'll see you next week....

Lyric Sheet:  "I can't smile without you/I can't laugh and I can't sing/I'm finding it hard to do anything..."

Enjoy (or not):

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Or one big shit burger

pic.twitter.com/vELWbst7AK

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) December 1, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

Republican Senators, that is

pic.twitter.com/EwPNUQVghG

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) November 17, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

Idiots gotta idiot

Trump sent a letter to GA's Sec of State demanding to decertify 2020 election results. What do you call it when they've recounted 3 times & you still won't believe the results? DONLUSIONAL!

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 21, 2021

 The Republican Party Is Now a Fascist Cult Just Like Nazi Germany

Peace,

emaycee

Touche

pic.twitter.com/xRP7pMJ7le

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 26, 2021

 The Republican Party Is Now a Fascist Cult Just Like Nazi Germany

Peace,

emaycee

 

Touchdown!

pic.twitter.com/797FPCVmR6

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 5, 2021

 People Who Refuse the COVID-19 Vaccine Are Why Our Lives Can't Return to Normal

Peace,

emaycee

Experience the divine

#CPAC attendees cheered that President Biden’s vaccine goals hadn’t been met. It takes a special kind of stupid to be mad at the guy who wants you not to die.

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) July 13, 2021

Taxing the Wealthy Is Good Politics for the Democratic Party

Peace,

emaycee

 

The Divine Miss M

Leaked Kremlin docs claim Putin helped elect #Trump in 2016 because he was an "impulsive, mentally unstable & unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex." But is it a complex if he actually IS inferior?

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) July 17, 2021

Taxing the Wealthy Is Good Politics for the Democratic Party

Peace,

emaycee

 

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCVIII--Better Midler: The Glory of Love

 As I've gotten older my appreciation for what might be called standards has increased exponentially.  Songs such as "Mona Lisa," or "Smile," or "My Funny Valentine," or even "La Vie en Rose," really stay with me and I especially enjoy hearing the many different takes that numerous artists have on them.  While I am unfamiliar with any versions of this week's tune not sung by the Divine Miss M, I still have a few years left to seek them out and give them a listen....

Bette Midler left her hometown of Honolulu in 1965 for the bright lights of New York City at the ripe old age of 20, landed a few Broadway roles later in the decade, and built a name for herself singing in gay bathhouses throughout the city.  She released her first album in 1972, had her first hit, and the rest as they say, has been history.  Throughout her career Midler's larger than life charisma has served her well, leading her into acting and stand up comedy.  She is an Oscar away from having a career EGOT (she's been nominated twice), having won three Emmys, one Tony, and three Grammys.  She's also won four Golden Globe Awards.  For her musical career, Midler has released 14 studio albums (with four reaching the top ten), 41 singles (a #1, a #2, and a #3), and had twenty world tours.  Earning extra bonus points from me, Midler had been a frequent and unapologetic critic of Donald Trump and his administration.  Frequent readers (both of them) know I am quite the fan of female vocalists, and Midler is as good as it gets for me.

"The Glory of Love" (Midler's version) was released in 1988 on the soundtrack to the movie Beaches.  It was not released as a single.  The soundtrack reached #2 on the Billboard 200, and is the best selling album of her career (and also features her only #1 single, "The Wind Beneath My Wings").

If you've never seen it, the movie Beaches is overly sentimental tripe, with Barbara Hershey doing a perfect impersonation of a wooden toy soldier (emphasis on wooden) though she's supposed to be playing Midler's (whose performance is the only reason to watch) BFF since childhood.  Nonetheless, I've seen it numerous times...just to watch Midler's performance of "The Glory of Love" (and I actually own the soundtrack).  Originally written in 1936 by Billy Hill, the song is a simple paean, amazingly enough, to the glory that is love.  But it's not sappy--Hill's lyrics make perfectly clear that love has its ups and downs, but in the end is worth the while.  Midler, accompanied by a piano and a touch of strings, sings it with all the kindliness that such a topic richly deserves.  Her closing--the singing slowed, almost in a whisper, is just the right lush flourish to make the song her own...and a fine way to end a tune that will be song for generations.

Lyric Sheet:  "You've got to win a little, lose a little/Always have the blues a little/That's the story of, that's the glory of love..."

Enjoy:

273,000+ Dead Americans Because of Donald Trump's Incompetence

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee