I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— the exhibition Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris— French artists who came of age in the 1890’s (inspired by Paul Gaugin) — will be at the Cleveland, Ohio Museum of Art to September 19th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this short essay by the American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner, on why Joe Biden should not renominate Jay Powell as Fed chair (even though he’s been good on monetary easing) in favor of Lael Brainard, the lone Democrat on the Fed (of whom Kuttner was once quite lukewarm about).
FIFTY YEARS after her death, the poet and member of the Algonquin Hotel's famed Round Table of authors, humorists and actors, Dorothy Parker— whose remains were left at a crematorium then dumped in a filing cabinet for fifteen years and who left the majority of her estate to Martin Luther King Jr. — has now (after her ashes were buried in a NYC cemetery last year) received a headstone.
THURSDAY's CHILDREN are a bonded pair of Iowa kittehs who can only be adopted together at their shelter — the female looks out after the blind male.
AN INTERESTING SIDELIGHT by Charlie Pierce on the Kraken-Pot legal team being referred to bar associations by a federal judge:
There’s a serious psychological study to be done on the subject of 'When Lawyers Go Bad' along the lines of those done on doctors who end up prescribing speed for themselves.Lin Wood was Richard Jewell’s lawyer when Jewell was pilloried falsely for the Atlanta Olympic bombing. Sidney Powell was an assistant U.S. attorney and prosecuted drug kingpin Jimmy Chagra for the latter’s role in the assassination of federal judge John Wood. (Charles Harrison, father of Woody, was the triggerman in that episode and died in SuperMax.)These were serious people before they became nationally known rodeo clowns. Something went badly wrong in them.
PROGRAMMING NOTES — as I will be travelling for the Labor Day weekend, I will not be posting an Odds & Ends for next weekend. As is my practice, I will post a Trump-centric "Who Lost the Week?!?" poll, for those who relish the chance.
I will host the Top Comments diary next Thursday evening, with a profile of a college football coach who has sought to reduce injuries and concussions of his players (via methods that often earn him scorn) ... yet he has not only succeeded in achieving those goals, he has turned a losing program into a winning one.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Lilo the Cat— an Oregon kitteh who went missing for two months …. until identified by her microchip, one hundred fifty miles away.
FOR THE THIRD TIME in the past few years: there will be a new album release by the late saxophone giant John Coltrane — another one of those amateur live recordings (made in 1965) that stayed in someone’s attic for decades — and this is his landmark suite A Love Supreme, which will be released on October 8th.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (no common questions).
SEPARATED at BIRTH— TV/film stars Zach Galifianakis and Nick Offerman.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… earlier this month, I recounted the story of how Michael Jackson came to record the ballad Human Nature on his landmark Thriller album — in which an incomplete song by Toto’s Steve Porcaro improbably found its way to the album producer Quincy Jones, who called upon a noted lyricist to revamp its lyrics, whom I mentioned in passing.
Since then, in a different forum: I was bowled-over by seeing the wide range of musicians who have recorded songs with lyrics by John Bettis— so it’s small wonder that Quincy Jones called upon him in a pinch. Thus, tonight’s tale.
John Bettis was born in 1946 in Long Beach, California — from parents whose roots are in the Ozark Mountains, so that he heard country music at an early age. In high school in 1962, he played the lead role in the play Carousel— and discovered his career path:
“I looked down at the score I had to learn – written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein – and saw how the words and music went together,” he said. “Something was triggered in me; it’s mysterious to this day. But I wanted to do that.”
After graduating, he joined a folk duo that opened for folk musicians such as Hoyt Axton as well as Ian & Sylvia … and then attended Long Beach State University, where he began writing songs for the school choir … and met Karen & Richard Carpenter.
When the sister-brother team was signed to A&M Records in 1969: recording numerous Bettis co-written songs was not able to break The Carpenters on their first album. Then, Herb Alpert suggested they record the Bacharach-David song Close To You— which broke their act big-time in 1970.
By this time, Bettis was spending a good deal of time in Nashville, and Lynn Anderson recorded his song Top of the World, becoming a hit on the country charts. This led the Carpenters to record it, reaching #1 on the pop charts in late 1973.
Some other hit songs he wrote in this period included Ronnie Milsap (1978’s Only One Love in My Life), Juice Newton (1982’s Heart of the Night) and more interestingly, Donna Summer (1982’s The Woman in Me). At this time, John Bettis began to hear from Hollywood … and thus came to write for the 1985 film Vision Quest— with Madonna recording Crazy for You. All along, John Bettis came to write with numerous musical composers … ensuring long-term career success.
He also wrote lyrics for television, with Where There is Hope (from The Guiding Light) as well as As Long as We’ve Got Each Other (from Growing Pains) — both of which won Emmy Awards. In 1988, he wrote for the 1988 Olympic Games (in Seoul) the song One Moment in Time— recorded by Whitney Houston.
John Bettis will turn age seventy-five in October and has served as a past president of the National Academy of Songwriters. In 2011 he was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
I mentioned the wide range of musicians who have recorded a song he wrote lyrics for. Besides those already mentioned, you can add: James Ingram, 38 Special, Jackie DeShannon, Dionne Warwick, Rita Coolidge, Lee Ann Womack, Barbra Streisand, Nanci Griffith, Peabo Bryson, Jefferson Starship, Julio Iglesias, George Strait, Journey, Joe Cocker, Judy Collins, Harry Connick Jr., Johnny Mathis, Cass Elliott, the Marshall Tucker Band …. and also Cloris Leachman plus Carol Burnett. As I like to say … if there is a pattern there, I fail to discern it.
Of all of his array of tunes … besides Human Nature, my favorite is one that he wrote with music by Michael Clark … yet it wound-up in the hands of a troupe that they did not have in mind originally: instead, seeing it as a country music song.
The Pointer Sisters were looking for a follow-up hit to their rendition of the Bruce Springsteen song Fire— and in 1981 when their producer Richard Perry heard a demo of Slow Hand, he knew it would be a big hit for them … reaching #2. And a year later it did, in fact, became a country music hit (for Conway Twitty).
As the midnight moon, was drifting through The lazy sway of the trees I saw the look in your eyes, looking into mine Seeing what you wanted to seeOn shadowed ground, with no one around And a blanket of stars in our eyes We are drifting free, like two lost leaves On the crazy wind of the night
Darling don't say a word, cause I already heard What your body's saying to mine I'm tired of fast moves I've got a slow groove... On my mind
I want a man with a slow hand I want a lover with an easy touch I want somebody who will spend some time Not come and go in a heated rush I want somebody who will understand When it comes to love, I want a slow hand