Tampa Calling

The new 3-DVD set Streisand The Concerts is being marketed as the perfect Mother’s Day gift, and it’s true that in the two live concerts captured here — “Live at Arrowhead Pond/July 1994,” from a multi-city tour that marked her first public concert appearances in 27 years, and “Live in Concert 2006,” recorded in Fort Lauderdale — there are more than a few moms (and a few gentlemen, too) swooning in the audience. But this package is of interest not just to fanatic Babs fans but to anyone interested in the art of singing.

Because what this set confirms is just how extraordinary a singer Barbra Streisand is. You knew that, of course, but over the years the sheer size of her public persona — the mannerisms, the speechifying, the self-aggrandizement — has tended to obscure the talent. Tracing the arc of her career from the groundbreaking ’60s TV specials (excerpted here on the third DVD), it’s clear that her musical intelligence was not only there from the beginning but has only improved over time. It’s also fascinating to see the development of Streisand the entertainer, from wacky ingénue to ultra-polished diva to the woman we see in 2006 — relaxed, open, wryly humorous. And all the way through there’s That Voice, with its tonal purity, bang-on pitch and astonishing power; even at 64 (her age at the 2006 concert) she can still hold a note like nobody else, soaring up to a big finish that leaves audiences awestruck.

Celine Dion, eat your heart out. Read the rest of this entry »

What musical artist made the most dough in 2008? Madonna. How much?

How ’bout — ta-da! — $242,176,466.

The rest of the Top 5 goes like this:

2. Bon Jovi: $157,177,766
3. Bruce Springsteen: $156,327,964
4. The Police: $109,976,894
5. Celine Dion: $99,171,237

To see the remainder of the Top 20, click here.

How did my mom go from owning such a wide range of rock n’ roll records, from the Beatles to Black Sabbath, to devoting her ears solely to Celine Dion? Living in the land of oldsters and hipsters (some people are both), this question ultimately pervades every aspect of existence in Tampa Bay. Issues of marketed generation norms, like older people being more mild mannered and set in their ways and younger people experimenting with sex and drugs, maintain arbitrary divisions between age groups and sonic preferences. Generalizations of the 1960’s “Summer of Love” are quickly ripped to shreds in records by bored mutants like The Stooges. Their self-titled record in 1969 and Fun House in 1970 destroyed notions of the singular cultural experience by being nasty and unlearned instead of nice-sounding and well-trained. History has never been as cut-and-dry/black-and-white as we are led to believe. Likewise, our present continues to be very complicated.

All my life I’ve heard things like, “now that John Lennon could sing” or “Eric Clapton knows how to play real guitar music” or other such flapdoodle. People who make statements like those assume there’s a correct way to sing or play guitar, and other musicians who are inferior or get it wrong should do something else. Iggy Pop’s snarling vocals and Ron Asheton’s unsophisticated, immediate and exceedingly raw approach to the guitar challenged the notion of perfect technical skill as the ultimate goal in music. (Pictured: the late Ron Asheton, photo by Dena Flows.)

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