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Joe Viglione: All Music Guide
Paul A. Rothchild produced the final Janis Joplin studio album, Pearl, as well as many a Doors disc, and the late producer was the perfect guy to tackle this tribute to Joplin featuring "The Divine Miss M" as "Pearl"/"The Rose." In March of 1980, the version of "When a Man Loves a Woman" from this 1979 film soundtrack went Top 35, and Midler's biggest hit followed her Oscar nomination, but it was a well-produced version of the title track, different from the album, which went Top Three, the gold single the biggest of her six hits up to this point in time. It's a strange twist of events, Bette's previous 1979 album, Thighs and Whispers, has technically better sounds, Arif Mardin drenching it in the disco of the day, but that artificial episode pales next to this project, which features Lou Reed's "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" bandmates guitarist Steve Hunter and drummer Whitey Glan. The concerts were recorded live during June and July of 1978, and there's more than a touch of the Mitch Ryder sound on "Whose Side Are You on," the album opener. Hunter was in the Mitch Ryder band Detroit, which led up to Lou Reed's ensemble, so the level of authenticity goes far beyond what filmmakers put into, say, the Blues Brothers. They utilize a different set of musicians on "Love Me With a Feeling," the "Turtle Blues" of this story, vaguely referencing the original title to the Big Brother & the Holding Company album that tune came from with the "sex, drugs and rock & roll" chant. Bette Midler is a star perpetually evolving into icon, and this album's success, as well as the two hit singles it spawned, certainly helped the film, as much as the movie brought Midler to a new level of fame. Her voice is terrific on "Midnight in Memphis," and the material is extraordinary for many reasons. Midler gets to show what a tremendous blues singer she can be, drawing from the many elements she's secured from years on the stage. It's a pivotal moment in her career. The rendition of Genya Ravan's chestnut, "Stay With Me," penned by one of Joplin's favorite songwriters, producer Jerry Ragovoy, could have been the showstopper album track here. It isn't. The listener has to know the film in order to understand why the singer's voice is purposely falling apart. The strange twists of fate mentioned earlier appear again here ?the soundtrack to the Janis Joplin biography film contained studio versions of great live performances that are in the film; as Midler cut a different version of the title track,which became a number one adult contemporary hit and Top Three on the popular charts, "Stay With Me" also should have been re-recorded. Had Midler released a version of that tune with the same desperation and passions of "When a Man Loves a Woman," this LP might have had that so necessary third hit to catapult it into the record books. one of the best moments in the film is missing from this "soundtrack," the questionable move of leaving Bob Seger's "Fire Down Below" off of this disc. It's one of the most memorable moments in the film, tailor-made for MTV. Three years after this release, Bette Midler put another soundtrack out, Bette Midler in Divine Madness. The last two songs which end side two are actually "Fire Down Below" and "Stay With Me," and though Bette can't touch Genya Ravan's classic performance, this is still how the music should have been presented on The Rose soundtrack LP. It's hard to get too down on this record, though; it has the magic, it established Bette Midler to the larger audience she deserved, it brought Paul Rothchild the follow-up to Pearl he was cheated of by Joplin's death, and it rocks. The bluesy feel was a complete about face from the previous Thighs and Whispers, and, actually, it is truly Bette Midler's only real rock & roll album. That it did so much for her might suggest she try it again.
Billboard Magazine
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK RECORDING-The Rose, Atlantic SD16010. Produced by Paul A. Rothchild. Most of the music on this soundtrack to Midler's highly-acclaimed acting debut is raucous, tough, rowdy rock'n'roll. An exception, and the best cut on the album, is the title song, a clear midtempo ballad. Three bands supply the instrumental backing on the various cuts, featuring such musicians as Norton Buffalo, Bill Champlin and Robbie Buchanan. Two live monologs also spark the LP, recalling the bawdy passages that may earn Midler an Academy Award in her first major film role. The album is packaged as an ancillary product of the film, with even the director of photography receiving a front cover credit.
Best cuts: "When A Man Loves A Woman," "The Rose," "Midnight In Memphis," "Keep on Rockin'," "Stay With Me."
Paulette Weiss: STEREO REVIEW
There is none of Midler's usual Forties camping in the movie's concert scenes, however. These sequences are filled with the low-down, hard-to-be-a-woman blues and rough-house rock that were Joplin's trademarks. Although Midler's vocal tone is smoother, she conveys the essence of Joplin's gut-wrenching twists of phrase and her total absorption in the music. Her performance of Stay with Me, Baby, the Rose's swan song, is a dramatic and musical tour de force.
On listening to a preliminary copy of the soundtrack album (Atlantic SO 16010), I felt that, as with Streisand's A Star Is Born, the music was a Hollywoodized idea of rock- 'n'-roll. Although the songs have drive and intensity, the arrangements are often over-orchestrated. Midler more than holds her own, but sometimes, on Midnight in Memphis, for instance, she is up to her navel in instrumentals.
Since there are relatively few complete musical sequences in the picture, the disc contains some narrative filler. The preliminary version I heard opened and closed with a pathetic snatch of Let Me Call You Sweetheart, sung hesitantly by the Rose, disoriented and dazed, as she is dying on stage. The title song, with its pretty but forgettable
melody, is the only ballad on the disc.
The album is obviously not a typical Midler record. It lacks her usual variety of material and her sensitivity to current sounds (you'll find all that in her studio album "Thighs and Whispers," reviewed on page 85 in this issue). You should not miss her brilliant performance in the film, but be prepared for the emotional drubbing that comes with it. The details of the Rose's disintegration are presented so graphically that only the most callous will remain unshaken
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French Album Cover
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British Album Cover |
만능 탤런트인 베트 미들러(Bette Midler, 영화배우로는 베트 데이비스(Bette Davis)라는 이름을 사용)는 하와이 출신으로 어린 시절부터 연기와 노래에 재능을 보였고, 후에 대학에서 드라마를 전공한다.
1965년 영화 [Hawaii]에서 엑스트라로 출연한 것을 계기로 뉴욕으로 이주하여 브로드웨이에 정착해 영화와 인연을 맺기 시작, 정식 일자리를 얻기 전 레스토랑과 나이트 클럽에서 일하던 그녀는 67년 뮤지컬 [지붕위의 바이올린(Fiddler on the Roof)]에서의 단역으로 약간의 인지도를 얻게 된다.
1970년 그녀는 컨티넨탈 클럽, 게이 베스하우스(gay bathhouse)에서 선정적이며 컬트적인 요소마저 느껴지는 원 맨 쇼를 펼치며 명성을 쌓아갔고, 이 때 훗날 그녀의 초기 앨범 작곡가이자 프로듀서가 되는 베리 메닐로우(Barry Manilow)를 피아노 반주자로 만나게 된다.
1972년 조니 칼슨(Johnny Carson)이 진행하는 Tonight Show같은 TV 프로그램 출연을 통해 자신감을 얻게 된 그녀는 예전 베스하우스에서 활동했을 때의 별칭을 딴 [The Divine Miss M]이라는 데뷔 LP를 발표한다.
앨범은 'Do You Want to Dance', 'Boogie Woogie bugle Boy'를 히트시키며 1년 안에 골드를 기록했고 그녀에게 그래미 최고 신인상(Best New Artist)의 영예를 안겨주었다.
이어 발표한 [Bette Midler](73)는 비록 히트 싱글을 탄생시키지는 못했지만, 브로드웨이 뮤직/코미디계에서 그녀를 확실한 스타덤에 등극시킴으로써 베트 미들러의 쇼는 늘 초만원을 이루었고 쇼 기획자들의 영입 0순위로서 최고의 인기를 구가하게 된다.
75년 솔로 활동을 위해 베리 메닐로우가 떠난 후 [Songs for the New Depression](75), [Broken Blossom](77), 디스코 앨범인 [Thighs and Whispers](79)를 발표하며 순회공연을 하던 그녀는 약물과용으로 요절한 록 가수 재니스 조플린(Janis Joplin)의 일대기를 다룬 영화 [Rose](80)의 주인공으로 열연한다.
이 영화로 아카데미상을 수상한 그녀는 'When A Man Loves A Woman', 'Stay with Me', 'The Rose' 등이 포함된 사운드 트랙을 히트시키며 화제에 오르기도 했다.
81년 자신의 활동사를 연대순으로 정리한 [A View From a Broad]라는 책을 발간하기도 한 그녀는 끊임없이 배우와 가수로서의 열정적인 모습을 보여주었다.
89년 영화 [Beaches]의 주제가인 'Wind Beneath My Wings'로 팝 차트 정상의 자리와 그래미상을 거머쥔 그녀는 90년 [Some People's Lives]를 발표, 'From a Distance'의 히트에 힘입어 플래티넘을 기록했다.
90년대에 들어서도 그녀의 활동은 멈추지 않아 91년 2차 세계 대전 영화인 [For the Boys]의 사운드 트랙으로 골드를 기록하는 한편 95년 [Bette of Roses] 발표, 96년 [The First Wives Club] 영화 출연, 98년 TV 시트콤 [Isn't She Great, Bathhouse Betty] 출연 등 중년의 나이에도 불구하고 끊임없는 저력을 보여주고 있다. |
