I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JULIANA HATFIELD-Sings Olivia Newton John (2018).

When I was a kid, I loved Grease.  My parents took me to see it multiple times and I loved the soundtrack.  There are still things from the movie that I am just “getting” now because I was so young when I first heard it.  I listened and sang along to Grease thousands of time.  I didn’t care for Saturday Night Fever (too dark and grown up), but i did love Xanadu.  So clearly I loved Olivia more than John.

I did not love “Physical,” the only other ONJ song I had heard, but honestly who didn’t dance around singing the chorus.

Aside from those songs I didn’t know a lot about ONJ’s career.   I had never heard of “Have You Never Been Mellow” until I bought the 1984 album by The Feederz.  They covered the song in the only way that a band whose album cover was literally sandpaper (to mess up the neighboring albums) would do.

Decades later I loved Juliana Hatfield.  I saw her live at Boston College (she opened for the B-52s and I left between acts because I was too cool for the B-52s).  She sung heartfelt and direct songs in a sometimes childlike voice.  But she rocked pretty hard too.

Juliana seems like an obvious choice to cover Olivia, except I didn’t think that Juliana had the range.  But boy was I surprised.  She hits high notes that I don’t recall her hitting before.  And while her singing style is still pretty soft, she really powers through a lot.  She also multitracks her voice from time to time to give it more power.

Plus, how great is that cover?

I didn’t know all of the songs on this but I grew to like the all.  I like the gentle synths and the cool guitar line on “I Honestly Love You.”  But she really impressed me with her take on Xanadu’s “Suspended in Time.”  She hits some beautiful notes and really makes the song wonderful.  I particularly like the e-bow.  “Magic” from the soundtrack also sounds great.  I’ve always liked this song so a cover has to meet some tough standards.  “Xanadu” is another great version–JH nails this soundtrack.

She hits some really wonderful high notes on “Have You Never Been Mellow?”  I’m still not sure if I’ve heard ONJ’s version.

“A Little More Love” adds some of Juliana’s crunchy guitar to the verses, but the chorus is pure ONJ.

I also had no idea she sang “Please Mr. Please,” which I remember from when I was a kid.  Who was listening to country stations in New Jersey back then?  Apparently much of ONJ’s pre-Grease career was in the country realm.

As I was going through this collection I discovered that ONJ sang a ton of versions of songs that I had no idea about.

Songs that she did a cover of which do not appear here:

• God Only Knows
• Jolene
• Me and Bobby McGee
• If You Could Read My Mind
• Angel of the Morning
• Take Me Home Country Roads
• Summertime Blues
• Ring of Fire
• He Ain’t Heavy…He’s My Brother [!]
• Don’t Cry for Me Argentina [!]

And that was all before she did Grease.

This collection mostly covers her records from Grease (1977) to Physical (1981), but there’s a couple of older songs too.

I had given up on her by Physical, but JH’s version of the title song has some nice chunky guitars and emphasizes the cool riff in the song–it’s much less discoey than the original.  There’s even a loud (but short) guitar solo and some cool noise at the end.  She also sounds a lot more like Juliana than Olivia on this one.

I didn’t know anything from Totally Hot, the album in which she dressed all in leather (like Sandy!).  I feel like “Totally Hot” is the least successful song here.  The lurching style is kind of clunky.  Although JH is clearly having fun by the end with the multitarcked vocals.

“Don’t Stop Believin'” is not the Journey song.  It sounds so very ONJ to me (with the high vocal notes at the end of each line).  JH sounds a lot like ONJ on this one.

The biggest challenge has to have been “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”  It’s the only song from Grease that she tackles. JH sounds a little flat (not in notes, but in…power?) during the verses.  But the multi tracking on her voice makes the chorus sound wonderful.

“Dancin’ Round and Round” comes from that rockin’ Totally Hot album and JH covers it perfectly.  “Make a Move on Me” has some interesting guitar and synth sounds.

The “I Honestly Love You” reprise is more fun because of the extended noisy guitar at the end.

This is a really fun collection of songs, including many songs I had forgotten I liked.

1. I Honestly Love You [various, depending on country of release, you know, like The Beatles]
2. Suspended In Time [X]
3. Have You Never Been Mellow [HYNBM]
4. A Little More Love [TH]
5. Magic [X]
6. Physical [P]
7. Totally Hot [TH]
8. Don’t Stop Believin’ [DSB]
9. Please Mr. Please [HYNBM]
10. Hopelessly Devoted To You [G]
11. Xanadu [X]
12. Dancin’ ‘Round And ‘Round [TH]
13. Make A Move On Me [P]

X = Xanadu ; HYNBM = Have Yo Never Been Mellow ; [TH] = Totally Hot ; [P] = Physical ; [DSB] = Don’t Stop Believin’ ; [G] = Grease

[READ: January 29, 2019] Is This Guy for Real?

I enjoyed Box Brown’s Andre the Giant book.  In fact I’m quite the fan of Box Brown’s work.  So you bet I was going to read Brown’s biography about the enigma who was Andy Kaufman.

I was old enough to be aware of Kaufman (from Taxi, mostly), and young enough to be interested in the wrestling aspect of what he was doing.  Even if I had no idea what was real during the whole thing.  Apparently no one else did either.  What’s interesting is that you probably couldn’t get away with these kinds of stunts now because of the pervasive media.

Andy Kaufman grew up as a pretty normal kid who liked Mighty Mouse, Elvis and wrestling.  He also liked to imitate all three.  The one unusual component of his arsenal of favorite things was Babatunde Olatunji a Nigerian drummer who played his high school.  Andy was transfixed by the drums and set his mind to playing them.  All of these would comprise his stand up act,

Andy lost interest in wrestling when his favorite guy–the heel Buddy Rogers (whom everyone else hated) was beaten in just forty seconds.  Andy was at that event and was devastated.  He gave up on wrestling and dove deeper into Elvis (even while others were moving to The Beatles).

No biography of Andy would be complete without some information about Jerry Lawler,  Jerry was a wrestler who dubbed himself The King.  As a kid, he used to send drawings of wrestlers to local TV stations and they would show them during the matches,  He even got to meet the wrestlers.  He eventually became a lowly wrestler and worked his way up to the big names.

Meanwhile Andy was honing is comedic skills.  He made a kids show on TV and then started to go to improv nights with his “act.”  He loved to alienate the audience and himself.  He enjoyed being the “heel.” of the comedy club.  He also created Tony Clifton, an abusive singer/storyteller whom Andy modeled after an actual bad lounge artist he happened upon one night.

One day a friend showed him a video of women wrestling which he found very erotic,  He managed to bring that into his act.  If any women could beat him, he would give then $500 (and maybe sex, if they wanted).  He took this very seriously and wrestled a lot of tough, strong women.  He never lost (but much of that had to do with the 3 minute time limit the women were given).

He went on TV with this act, down South when there were competing wrestling networks.  This eventually led to him wrestling in larger and larger venues  He made friends with Jerry Lawler and eventually Classy Freddie Blassie  He loved being a heel so he would make fun of everyone in Tennessee.  Eventually he challenged Jerry Lawler and they had a televised fight in which Andy wound up with a “broken neck.”

I remember him fighting Jerry Lawler and saying, wait is the guy from Taxi?  Why is he wrestling?  And why is he such a jerk?

After the match, he wore a neck brace all the time, including on a Letterman episode.  I had no idea it was all an act, an extended joke on everyone,

So when he died, who knew if that was a joke too.  In fact apparently the crew from Taxi didn’t even go to the funeral because they thought he was joking.  I remember my friends talking about how it was all a hoax too.  Some people still believe it is.

Box Brown has lots of interviews and stories to fill out the book.  There’s not a ton to talk about in Andy’s life, but Brown makes it all exciting and fun.  And his artwork is terrific.