Althouse: What we're listening to at Meadhouse.

December 26, 2010

What we're listening to at Meadhouse.

ADDED: Same song, in concert, recently.

37 comments:

The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/26/10, 10:10 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: That has to be one of the worst music videos I have ever seen.

(Love Cher though); 12/26/10, 10:18 AM
Big Mike said...: That's the video you're showing Meade this morning?!?; 12/26/10, 10:33 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "That's the video you're showing Meade this morning?!?"

Why does that alarm you?

Anyway, I said "listening."

"I think she was the Lady Gaga of her time."

I find that statement offensive.; 12/26/10, 10:37 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "That has to be one of the worst music videos I have ever seen."

I think it rules. The horse is so inert. Cher is so absurd. She was so committed and so (simultaneously) comical. No one compares to Cher. Not Madonna and surely not Lady Gago. There is one Cher.; 12/26/10, 10:39 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I mean Gaga.

Gaga, Gago. Waiting for Gaga to gogo.; 12/26/10, 10:40 AM
AllenS said...: Say what you want, Cher has been very successful. In her spare time, she isn't sitting on the couch eating potato(e) chips either. She's working out. Oh, baby!; 12/26/10, 10:42 AM
rhhardin said...: It's a knockoff of Gypsies Tramps and Thieves; 12/26/10, 10:44 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/26/10, 10:48 AM
AllenS said...: I think that Gwen Stefani has a lot of talent.; 12/26/10, 10:54 AM
Big Mike said...: @Professor, I'm scarcely alarmed, merely surprised and a bit amused.; 12/26/10, 11:18 AM
Unknown said...: I'm sure it was a number from the old Sonny and Cher Show, not a separate video. She had a good voice, Bob Mackie costumes, and, when they got away from the dreck she was putting on vinyl at the time, the producers backed her up with great arrangements of what were still known at the time as 'the standards'.

Ann Althouse said...

"That's the video you're showing Meade this morning?!?"

Why does that alarm you?

Anyway, I said "listening."

"I think she was the Lady Gaga of her time."

I find that statement offensive.

Only to the former Mrs Bono.

"That has to be one of the worst music videos I have ever seen."

I think it rules. The horse is so inert. Cher is so absurd. She was so committed and so (simultaneously) comical. No one compares to Cher. Not Madonna and surely not Lady Gago. There is one Cher.

BTW, if you were only listening, why all the commentary about the inert (almost certainly tranquilized) horse and all?

PS Sure you didn't mean Godot?; 12/26/10, 11:38 AM
Bill said...: Gah! That's one of the five deadly songs that sends me into a frenzied rage and now I've got it stuck in my head! Thanks a lot!

"I think she was the Lady Gaga of her time."

I have to agree with that. When I first saw Lady Gaga (after hearing about her for months) I thought "Meh. She reminds me of Cher."; 12/26/10, 11:47 AM
traditionalguy said...: I always found Cher an attractive woman with a sensuous persona. On a map from northern Georgia down to Columbus (Ft. Benning) and across Alabama to the Mississippi the half breeds with black hair and tribal facial structure are in the majority of folks, and are intelligent and strong. All of the behind the glacier Norwegian-Frankish pure breds ( Think Bret Favre)are actually a minority. Cher seems to me to be an intelligent survivor. She would be welcome in my world any day. I believe she married a band singer from Macon, Georgia.; 12/26/10, 11:57 AM
madAsHell said...: I was really impressed by the Christmas Carol videos that were posted by Instapundit. It's a bunch of 20 something musicians with a serious interest in their music. They all play instruments, and some have serious voices.

The musicians seem to be dispersed across the country, and share tracks and videos over the internet. The audio tracks are over-dubbed, the video is edited, and then shared on YouTube.

This one tells the whole story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME2snsmOJgs

It's American Idle (OK...Idol) without the drama.; 12/26/10, 12:49 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ann,

I think it rules. The horse is so inert. Cher is so absurd. She was so committed and so (simultaneously) comical.

That's why everything sucks now - that's all you want out of it. You don't want good, you want irony.

It's fucking trash (of the highest order).; 12/26/10, 1:00 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "BTW, if you were only listening, why all the commentary about the inert (almost certainly tranquilized) horse and all?"

I was playing it on my computer. I saw it. Others heard it.

"I have to agree with that. When I first saw Lady Gaga (after hearing about her for months) I thought "Meh. She reminds me of Cher.""

My point is that Gaga may be considered the Cher of her time. Not the other way around.

Those who don't appreciate Cher don't have a feeling for the fashion and style component and don't get the actress part.

By the way, did you know that Cher won an Oscar?; 12/26/10, 1:13 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @Crack Now, we're listening to the Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy/Cornell 1964 (at John's behest). Okay with that?; 12/26/10, 1:15 PM
William said...: I like singers like Rosemary Clooney and Linda Ronstadt who put on pounds and wrinkles and spend their declining years singing the blues and Gershwin standards....I never had any appreciation for Dinah Shore as a singer, but she certainly knew how to age attractively. Cher is trying too hard.; 12/26/10, 1:20 PM
jungatheart said...: I want your ugly.; 12/26/10, 1:23 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ann,

Yea - of course, you know my connection there, by now.

I'd say go for Money Jungle, too - Mingus and the Duke:

Brilliance.; 12/26/10, 1:28 PM
Christy said...: My great grandmother was a half-breed Cherokee. When I was a kid, seemed like every kid in East Tennessee had a g-g-grandma who'd been a Cherokee Princess.

Sixty Grit, in the Smoky Mountains is an artist loop/colony. One artist whose focus is Native American culture would be worth buying if she didn't throw in symbols of the Cherokee with Navajo and whatever else came to mind. Am I wrong to see that as patronizing and racist? She does render nice wolves, however.; 12/26/10, 1:41 PM
Bill said...: "My point is that Gaga may be considered the Cher of her time. Not the other way around."

And I almost made the point myself, but then I decided it was too much of a distinction without a difference. But if that was your point then, yes, it's more accurate.

My point was just that Cher and Lady Gaga seem eerily similar. I see either one and I think "Did the rest of the Vegas showgirls call in sick today?"; 12/26/10, 1:51 PM
michaele said...: That is a very impressive concave stomach that Cher is sporting in that video.; 12/26/10, 2:18 PM
Toad Trend said...: 'Moonstruck' was her best work.

Never had any appreciation of her music and have the same gag reflex as others when I hear this song.

She's to the Allman Brothers what Yoko Ono was to the Beatles.; 12/26/10, 2:39 PM
David said...: "I think she was the Lady Gaga of her time."

Lady Gaga is fun but she has a long way to go to match Cher.

All this video has is:

Great song
Great singer (and beautiful woman)
Fabulous costume
Chutzpah
A horse; 12/26/10, 4:50 PM
David said...: "now I've got it stuck in my head!"

Precisely. Great song.; 12/26/10, 4:53 PM
Dutch Canuck said...: Cher isn't a Cherokee half-breed: she's a Cherokee octoroon!

Lady Gaga is the Madonna of her time.

I think of Cher as being the female post-army Elvis. She seems to have studied "Kentucky Rain" and "Suspicious Minds" like textbooks, decoding the intonations and vocal mannerisms, imitating them almost perfectly (if occasionally off-key).

But she outgrew Elvis, and is a much better actor (but then, Elvis knew he was lousy).; 12/26/10, 7:14 PM
Deb said...: She married Greg Allman of Allman Brothers Band after she divorced Sonny. Yes they were based in Macon.; 12/26/10, 7:47 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: The Crack Emcee: That's why everything sucks now - that's all you want out of it. You don't want good, you want irony.

It's fucking trash (of the highest order).

Why everything sucks now? Back in Althouse and Cher's time they loved campy, they loved trashy. Did you miss the 60's and 70's?; 12/26/10, 8:04 PM
Synova said...: Other than being very singable (always a good thing, frankly, to write songs with a melody and in a register that people who can barely carry a tune can sing along to) the songs half-breed and gypsies are about being the "other" and so they appeal to the romantic notion of being the oppressed outsider. I remember the Sonny and Cher show and some of the songs from when I was very young and above all, even though Cher herself looked more like an alien than human, found the songs incredibly romantic in that alienated-pre-teen sort of way.; 12/26/10, 8:35 PM
Penny said...: "...the songs half-breed and gypsies are about being the "other" and so they appeal to the romantic notion of being the oppressed outsider."

CUT!!!!

What the heck?

Who hired this idiot?; 12/26/10, 9:18 PM
Synova said...: Huh?; 12/26/10, 9:19 PM
Craig said...: Lost my virginity at age 19 to a half breed Cherokee woman from Kerrville TX. She was ten years older than me and her boyfriend was my college roommate. I think she seduced me because my roommate was getting too serious about their relationship. I was her third virgin. Her legs weren't as long as Cher's.; 12/26/10, 11:39 PM
jamboree said...: Gaga is the Elton John of her time.; 12/27/10, 3:54 AM
bagoh20 said...: That video would make a nice still photo, but that's about it.; 12/27/10, 1:56 PM
Beldar said...: Let's see, I think this was Cher post-first boob job but pre-cosmetic dentistry. I think I had that song on quadrophonic eight-track cassette, though, when I was in high school.; 12/27/10, 4:42 PM