Lady Gaga: A Star Is Born 2018 Super Bowl 2017 Jazz n Tony Bennett

"When this performance makes your GRANDPARENTS say they appreciate Gaga, life is complete. Now they understand her true talent that they couldn't see behind the huge charade (I love both ways)" Sophie Connolly, referring to Gaga's Vegas stage performance, Sinatra 100 All-Star Grammy, December 2015. YouTubeReader. November 2018: "I guess you can say the same with her movie, A Star Is Born. But by this time, she's already established herself as a superstar who can sing any song if it's necessary for her to do so. With us seniors, La Vie En Rose is one of them," Andy Young.

An original article by Andy Lim:

Whether you're into today's pop music or otherwise, #Lady Gaga doesn't need any introduction. Her very name invites discussion and her chameleon-like changes of face, hairstyle, costume, has made her an enigma, even today. Many seniors who love 60's music may have heard of her but do not know her music.

She has the vocal range of a contralto, the lowest female voice type, that is, soprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto. And her songs like Just Dance, Bad Romance, Poker Face, Paparazzi, Edge of Glory, Born This Way and Telephone are some of her hits.  She is considered to be one of the best selling musicians of all time.

Born in the mid 80's she grew up listening to the music of The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Queen, Pink Floyd, Mariah Carey, Led Zeppelin, Elton John and others.

                    Lady Is A Tramp (Video by tonybennettVIVO) 

So why is she appearing on a 60's music blog?

I've been watching her on YouTube (not live when she was here a few years ago) and appreciate some of her current hits but when I saw her perform again at half-time during the Super Bowl 2017 a few days ago, with her super-league championship display of vocal, musical and acrobatic talents, I realise she must be introduced to Singapore Seniors.

Whenever I asked some music friends to listen to her, the first usual comment would be their demolition of her strange name.  And they are not impressed. 

"Give me Aretha Franklin or Nancy Wilson anytime," they would reply.

"Or Natalie Cole," another senior would remark. 

"Yes and Connie Francis," said a third.

Her name describes her because I went gaga the first time I saw her on YouTube with Tony Bennett singing, The Lady Is A Tramp, a hot jazz standard with most all Singapore seniors and still hot today. And a classy tramp with a beautiful voice she was. 

Now, why would a current pop singer with about 175 million albums and singles sold be interested in recording old jazz classics?

Here's the story. In 2011, after listening to Lady Gaga sing Nat Cole's Orange Colored Sky, Tony Bennett invited her to record Lady is a Tramp with him on Duet II, an album of jazz hits that included Michael Buble, Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin and Sheryl Crow among other greats. 

Who Can I Turn To, The Way You Look Tonight, Stranger In Paradise and On The Sunny Side of the Street were some of the songs recorded.

Then in late 2014, Lady Gaga did another jazz album with Tony Bennett. This time around she shared her album with no one except Bennett alone and singing with him, Cheek To Cheek. 

Standards included those composed by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. It was Lady Gaga's wish to introduce these songs to a younger generation of listeners as the songs are evergreens and have universal appeal.

In mid-2014, she started promoting the album. Her performances were either with or without Tony Bennett. At the same time, she decided to have another tattoo, a Miles Davies trumpet and proclaimed, "Its jazz time, world!"

They appeared at venues with smaller audiences and if you watch some of their videos on YouTube, you should be convinced that she belongs in the class of one of the world's great jazz singers.

Cheek To Cheek, Nature Boy, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Sophisticated Lady and Goody Goody are just some of the songs I am familiar with. 

Bridge the generation gap with her jazz goldies and like Christina Aguilar (*read my posting of her with Cher), I appreciate Lady Gaga just as much.

So senior readers here is  Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Don't go gaga watching her. Listen to her sing...

Disclaimer: This post does not promote any album by any artiste. 

Read Cher and Christina Aguilar:
* http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2014/04/when-roaring-20s-meets-rambunctious-21st.html

Lady Gaga - La Vie en rose sings this classic piece in her movie A Star Is Born

                   

Images: Google.  

Her many faces taken from:
https://www.360nobs.com/2011/11/poker-face-the-many-faces-of-lady-gaga/

YouTube: Lady Is A Tramp (tonybennettVIVO) and Cheek To Cheek (Ruben Christian)

                                I Wish @ Stevie Wonder Tribute.

November: 2018

#Lady Gaga and the latest about her:

She's in a movie that's drawing the world to see it and the fourth interpretation of the classic called, A Star Is Born (2018). Let's hope she wins the Academy Award. Bradley Cooper is in it too.

Mr Donald Trump's 'Hombre' Triggers Nostalgia

President Trump's Tweets:

Mr Donald Trump's presence as POTUS, his regular, interesting but controversial Tweets and his recent use of the word hombre has jolted my memory to yesteryear when I used to patronise the Capitol Cinema at North Bridge Road to watch what was known as Western movies. 

It was a common practice for Singapore movie goers to patronise the cinemas and watch these films on the wide screen during the fifties and sixties. With themes of conflict, gun slingers galore and stereo-types in these Cowboy movies, the genre was popular culture then. And who can forget John Wayne.

Movie Nostalgia:

Why has my memory gone back to these Westerns? Since trailing the US presidential campaign city to city last year on Cable TV, and listening to President Trump's controversial Mexican Wall speeches, my mind went reverse mode and I started remembering movie titles like: Man From Laramie, The Kentuckian, Oklahoma, Wichita, Sante Fe Passage, The Oregon Trail, The Man From Gavelston and Cimarron. 

Then there was: The Treasure of Pancho Villa, Commanche, Gunfight At The OK Corral, Rio Bravo, Cheyenne Autumn, The Treasures of Sierra Madre and Viva Zapata among others.

These movies drew crowds in the 50's and 60's, remembering that those were post-war years, and there was hardly any entertainment then. 

Vocabulary Nostalgia:

As a child, and to my mother's anguish, I learnt many American cowpoke terms that had migrated from Mexico. In order to understand the movie dialogues, I needed to understand these loan words, now established and official.

The vocabulary included:  buckaroo, corral, desperado, lariat, lasso, ranch, stampede, rodeo, sierra, bronco, mustang, fiesta, coyote, puma, burrito, sombrero, rumba, tango and of course hombre.

So Mr Trump's term about bad hombres takes me back to the typical cowboy movie scene in a saloon (bar) when the Sheriff tells the gunslinger, "You're bad, hombre. Get on your saddle and vamoose. This is my town!" I would kick the hombre out too if he were a drug dealer or criminal. 

Then I remember Westerns where the cowboys were always at war with native Indians (previous bias name: Red Indian or Injuns) from the Apache, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Comanche, Cheyenne, Mohican and other tribes, depending on the fancy of the movie directors, plot or country setting.  

The same cowboy scene on screen sometimes shows the native Indian Chief with his flaming head-dress saying to the soldier, "White man talk with forked tongue; white man die." Now it's a standing joke in many cartoons.

Chuck Berry Video shows Presley copied his moves, for sure.

 Pop Music Nostalgia:

The campaign trail, while watching Anderson Cooper going through US country names on CNN, switched my mind to songs like, Galveston, El Paso, The Streets of Laredo, Blue Moon of Kentucky, The Ballad of the Alamo, North to Alaska.

I could remember, The Yellow Rose of Texas, San Antonio Rose, Yellow Rose of Texas, Battle of New Orleans, Colorado Trail, Wichita Lineman and By The Time I Get To Phoenix.

A song I knew well was Chuck Berry's, Back In The USA  where he named cities and towns (You Tube above) in rapid fire. Here goes: Detroit, Chicago, Chattanooga, Baton Rouge, St. Louis, California and Delaware.

Now the reader may understand why our Singaporean boys and girls from the sixties recorded songs of such a nature. The influence from the US was tremendous. 

It's only words and words are all I have,
To take your heart away...

Vaya Con Dios. (Go with God).

This article is original.
Images: Google.
You Tube Videos: Chuck Berry Back To The USA from: NRRArchives.
                          Les Paul Mary Ford Vaya con Dios from:catman919.

Lyrics: Words Bee Gees.

Troupadors: 60's Pop Band From Perth Australia

After university lecturer Steve picked up my story, When Phones Were In Booths, Not Pockets*, he wrote me an article about a group from Perth, Australia that had performed in Singapore in the 1960's.

As a teacher, his writing style questions readers on information they might want to disclose to help others understand more about Singapore music. Do respond if you have any information regarding the records and bands he is discussing. His reply and article appears below.

Thanks very much Steve (image right).

Recently Andy showed a record cover which depicted members of Singapore band The Jets using the telephone booths at Singapore’s old International Airport. It’s now the Paya Lebar Air Base. I sent Andy a photograph of another band using the same phone booths and he asked me to write about them. This is what I know.

Dr. Steven Farram, Darwin, Australia.

The Troupadors were a band from Perth in Western Australia that formed in the mid-1960's. They had the reputation as one of the best show groups around and are reported to have appeared on radio and television, as well as the usual nightclub circuit.

In 1969 they travelled to Singapore with singer Lyne Mather. The band had a lot of line-up changes over the years and I am not sure who the other members were at the time.

Advertisements in the Straits Times from May 1969 show that they appeared at a number of different clubs, including The Kelong at The Cathay Hotel (‘Singapore’s finest entertainment rendezvous’), and The Moonshine Nite Club at Ocean Beach Hotel (said to be an exclusive new dine and dance spot that had just opened that month).

They also had a regular Sunday T-Dance gig from 3 to 6 pm at The Baron at 39 Upper Serangoon Rd. Other regulars at The Baron (advertised as Singapore’s first supper club-disco) were The Blackjacks and The X-Periment. As well as the bands, ‘dance hostesses’ and ‘fine cuisine’ were also available. Admission was free. Sounds like a good deal to me. Does anybody remember those clubs?

According to the Music Minder website, drummer and bass player Jimmy Lee was not only a member of the band when they were in Singapore, but also manager. It sounds like he might have been a local. Does anybody know anything about Jimmy?

The same website claims the band cut four records between 1967 and 1972, but totally overlooks this one, which appears on the local Life label and was presumably recorded in Singapore.

For me the standout track is Conversation, which is a good rendition of the Greenaway-Cook-Lordan song that was a hit for Cilla Black in 1969, first entering the UK charts in July that year (according to the Official Charts Company).

I have no idea how long The Troupadors remained in Singapore, but they eventually returned to Australia and continued playing there for many years. From what I can see on the internet, they reformed a few years ago and are still putting on a show today.

Lyne Mather is not with them, however, and I get the impression she was not with the band for long. Nevertheless, she was with The Troupadors at the right time to make her own contribution to Singapore 60's music history.

Eliza Arifin and JB Musafir

I have seen one other record that shows the Paya Lebar Airport phone booths on the cover, but I can’t remember whose record it was. Does anybody know? I do, however, have one other record that depicts something of that old airport. It’s by Eliza Arifin backed by band JB Musafir, whose members were presumably from Johor Bahru. The photo on this record cover shows Eliza standing in front of a fountain at the airport.

There are quite a few record covers that show members of bands in front of another famous Singapore 60's landmark. Can anyone guess what place I mean? (Clue: It’s no longer there. It was demolished in the 1980's).

Images and You Tube of Troupadors: Today Tonight Channel Seven Perth, 7 May, 2014.

Copyrights Reserved: Dr. Steven Farram and Andy Lim.

*Click to read:
http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2017/01/when-phones-were-in-booths-not-pockets.html