With the safety catch off and my line of sight unimpeded, the heightened expectation that soon I’ll be shooting apples in a barrel reaches its zenith as I press play and Barry Manilow’s 43rd album (43 albums? Surely that makes him about 102) starts to kick its heels on my stereo. Up to this moment my prejudices have been hardened by the obsequious press release that accompanies the CD ‘Scores-Songs from Copacabana and Harmony’ – e.g. his 1987 autobiography is referred to as his “literary debut” - and by the crushing memory of all those boy bands who in recent years have inflicted life-suppressing cover versions from the man’s seventies songbook.
With ‘Scores-Songs From Copacabana and Harmony’ we have a selection of tracks from two musicals that Bazza – hey, we go back a long way - has written with Bruce Sussman. The first musical, Copacabana, is based on that song of the same name (here given a ‘2005 Dance Mix’, so expect irony-packed dancefloors next year) and tells the story of Lola who wants to become a showgirl at the famous Copacabana club. This musical has been knocking around for years whereas ‘Harmony’ is yet to have its debut on Broadway, having suffered financial setbacks in recent months.
At this point I should declare that musicals aren’t exactly my cup of tea. Having said that I believe Gene Kelly was a genius, do own ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ on DVD, would like ‘On The Town’ on DVD, have watched ‘Grease’ more than once (sober) and will nod my head in agreement if anyone says that the dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was “magical”. And if anyone thinks these confessions gives them the right to take issue with my masculinity I’ll scratch their eyes out!
‘Copacabana’ opens with Bazza singing on ‘Just Arrived’: “Just arrived track 17, all the way from Tulsa, Okla…..nowhere”, which is possibly the direst first line of an opening song ever, musical or otherwise. Overall ‘Copacabana’ sounds like a tent-load of pop songs pitched on the largest SITE in the world that goes by the name CAMP, rather than a coherent musical, even taking into account the fact that we only have around a third of the overall score.
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On the other hand ‘Harmony’ is an altogether more interesting proposition, not least because of its subject matter which can hardly be labelled standard musical fare. It is based on the true story of Germany’s ‘Comedian Harmonists’ who were a major international success prior to WWII and have been described as the first ever Boy Band, even managing to record with the likes of Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker. They were forced to disband by the Nazi Regime, which will no doubt provide most of the dramatic impetus in the stage production. But will ‘Harmony’ achieve the cachet of Bob Fosse’s ‘Cabaret’ or will it unintentionally play like Mel Brooks’ ‘Springtime for Hitler’? Only time will tell.
Although the music of ‘Harmony’ is less immediate by virtue of forgoing the pop overtones it does sound more like a musical with the use of harmony an unsurprising recurring motif. There is genuine drama and pathos to the selections on show and against my better judgement I’m inclined to root for Bazza on this one.
It’s a shame though that he or his record company haven’t the strength of their convictions to release the complete score to ‘Harmony’ on its own, no doubt adding bits from Copacabana as a means of widening the appeal to core fans, thereby gaining the new musical greater exposure.
Right, now that’s my feminine side appeased it’s time to play ‘Surfer Rosa’, kill some Zombies on my PC and watch a footie match later over a few beers.
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