A&E Special
Saint Iggy
My wife and I just finished watching the A&E "Live by Request." Too bad
I couldn't get through on the 888 phone number. Another outstanding
performance, and what a band Barry has! I would have requested "Please
Don't Be Scared" from his CD boxed set. What did you all think of the
live special tonight?
jazz...@aol.com
GREAT!.
I am glad to finally have the William Tell overture and Forever and a day
on tape.
Barry sounded great, and the format was great. Debra sounded and looked
better than ever. Wil Shirner did the job he had to do, and left Barry to
really use the medium of TV to get his messages across. Barry sounded
fresh and really got his emotions across. I hope it helps Barry sell the
new CD.
But, you know that the songs were pre-planned. There were NO surprises,
so unique songs, nothing really but popular hits. The band never looked
frantic.
I am sure Barry wanted this special to run like clockwork, so everything
was produced. But, I would have loved to hear something unique, something
off an old album, or some danger in Barry trying to remember words, ect.
It was like a TV concert, which was GREAT. But, c'mon,. Watch how Barry
picked the fax, and then sang a perfect version of "I'd really like to see
you tonight".
Nice polish, but not really by request.
Jeff
jeff...@aol.com
Barry was terrific!!!
Looked great and sounded great!!
Yippie!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeff Marx
----------
It's called flowers wilt.
It's called apples rot.
It's called thieves get rich and saints get shot.
It's called God don't answer prayers a lot.
Alright, now you know.
-- Stephen Sondheim in MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
Jen (Wouldn't you like to Know!)
Unfortunately I don't have cable and couldn't find someone who did who
would tape it for me. And you want to hear the ironic part? About 6pm
last night somebody knocked on my door and guess who it was?! It was the
Cable Guy ..hahaha... offering me a month of FREE cable. Can you believe
it? A few days too late. Oh well... hahah
br...@aol.com
Of course it was all rehearsed. I realy loved the whole show, that is
Barry's singing, but I have always enjoyed his "conversations" on both TV
& his "Live" parts on his albums. That is what was realy missing. Still
it was worth waiting for & I've already watched the tape 4 times today.
I've never seen Barry & Debra singing "Baby its Cold Outside" & I've seen
Barry do William Tell at Nassau Coliseum & Faxwood, but its great to have
them on tape. Barry's request from last nights show. Is it very new? He
sang it at Foxwood with the same intro to his fans but I've not heard it
recorded.
Found Barrys "Live In London, England" CD at Tower Records last month.
For export only. I guess somebody put it in the wrong carton. What CD is
"One Voice" on. Thanks.
Maniluv to all you other crazy folks who are crazy about the Barry too.
What a way to go.
dpi...@tigerpaw.com
brib...@aol.com wrote:
>My 17 year old son, the Barry Manilow convert, has just noticed something
>very interesting on the A&E Special. Instead of Barry starting
>"Reminiscing" at the beginning, he started with the 2nd verse and then
>sang the 2nd verse again. I still enjoyed the show & keep watching it
>over & over. Another did you notice. After "I write the songs" he
>starts to sing & the mike is still on top of the piano. Of course he
>realizes what has happened, but the look on his face. A special gem.
>
>Bri
>
I noticed that, too. Did you also notice that he and Debra started to do
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" before the song was even requested? Oops.
Kitty
brib...@aol.com
lorr...@aol.com
In article <19961206164...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
jazz...@aol.com writes:
>But, you know that the songs were pre-planned. There were NO surprises,
>so unique songs, nothing really but popular hits. The band never looked
>frantic.
There is a post over on the AOL Music Message Center from Barry's
management, which explains exactly how the A&E Special requests were
handled. To paraphrase:
They of course knew what they were going to open and close the show with.
None of the phone-in requests were planned. There WAS a list, however, of
songs because in order to rebroadcast the special 2 hours later, a synch
license from the publisher had to be obtained. They started out with 160
songs they thought "might" be requested, and then went to work trying to
get all the synch licenses from all the publishers. He said the
permission to use "Reminiscing" came in at 3 minutes before the show
aired!
He said that many of the people who called in "froze" when they learned
they would be speaking to Barry, or just simply didn't know WHAT they
wanted to ask for! He said hardly anyone who got through asked for a song
that wasn't on the list.
Barry's band wasn't frantic because they had rehearsed just about every
song several weeks before the show.
Hope that helps clear up any misconceptions. Go over to the message
center and read the whole thing, if you're on AOL.
IMHO - ya gotta figure that with 2 million people trying to call in; odds
are that it would be the "civilian" fans who would get through, and of
course they would ask for the hits! I was pleasantly surprised myself to
hear people actually asking for the remotely obscure like "I Am Your
Child" and "Brooklyn Blues."
Lorrie
Michael & Heather-Be Smith
YOU GO, GIRL! Thanks for searching out the definitive word on
how the program was really handled, and for filling us in. It was such a
dynamite show, any way you look at it...I'm getting a little bit tired of
seeing so many negative posts about how the show wasn't interactive
enough, or the new album isn't good enough. With fans like that, who
needs enemies?
I, for one, am just grateful that after 20+ years, Barry is still
out there sharing his music and his life with us, looking great, sounding
better than ever, and still able to bring the house down.
If we want to be negative...let's get negative at Conan O'Brien
and his snotty comment two weeks ago. He made a joke on his show about
"I hear that Barry Manilow has announced he's taking a vacation. What I
want to know is, taking a vacation from what?" The press being what it
is, I've seen this stupid line echoed and repeated in just about every
newspaper and magazine there is for the last two weeks. And it's not
even funny...it's just mean-spirited and ignorant!
Let's get behind the man(ilow) and give him all the support we've
got. Lord knows, he gives us enough!
Preaching to the choir again,
Trekster
br...@aol.com
Hay Trekster
I take my hat of to you. How great to hear of more good stuff about the
Barry. I sometimes wonder if we Barry fans are so protective of him
because of the Conan O's in this world. I think that to be a fan of
Manilow's is to have to hear the abuse about our favorite man. We've
heard it all & one day we should get together and let the world know of
HIM. My family always used to have just another dig about Barry. I
dragged them to his shows & now my daughter stood in line with me to get
tickets at Radio City & one of those tickets was for my son.
So we'll keep on taking the abuse but we fans know the secret. Go to a
Barry show & he takes you away from the world outside. Listen to a CD and
"I remember when I first heard this" We're luck to have Barry Manilow to
love and the rest of "them" knows diddley squat.
Maniluv forever
Lynn
shes...@aol.com
I agree with you. Down with the people who make nasty remarks about our
"Man"ilow.
mira...@aol.com
Trekster wrote:
<<let's get negative at Conan O'Brien and his snotty comment two weeks
ago>>
Where's Conan been, UNDER A ROCK? This may get interesting as Barry will
be on the Tom Synder show this Friday. On my CBS station this airs
immediately after Conan. I wonder if they broadcast from the same studio?
p.s. to Lorrie, thanks for your post of the "official" word on the special
from the AOL board. You did a great job of summarizing what was said.
Angela
br...@aol.com
Trekster wrote
"Let's get negative at Conan O"Brien and his snotty comment two weekw ago
about Barry"
Angela wrote
"Where's Conan been, UNDER A ROCK?"
Lynn says
"Conan who?"
Maniluv
Lynn
shes...@aol.com
Tom Snyder broadcasts from California. Conan from New York
mira...@aol.com
Thanks, Lynn, for making me realize I screwed up. Snyder (on CBS) and
O'Brien (on NBC) are on opposite each other (but I do have one channel
that shows Synder an hour later, which is how I got confused). Anyway,
Barry will be on Snyder while Conan has somebody else. Maybe he'll figure
it out when his ratings for Friday night stink.
daal...@aol.com
Jeff,
I was at the taping. And I can tell you that with the possible exception
of the Internet Request (notice:the laptop was not plugged in) the phone
calls were certainly not scripted. I suppose you might want to keep in
mind that by request means that people will want to hear the song THEY
know. And thats what you saw happen. I thought the special was GREAT!!
And I was so happy to be there. It was a night I will NEVER forget! And
I'm on camera too (grin).
Alan
R. Stacy
lorr...@aol.com wrote:
>
> There is a post over on the AOL Music Message Center from Barry's
> management, which explains exactly how the A&E Special requests were
> handled.
Hi, Lorrie!
Thanks for sharing Garry's AOL post, and it was a wonderful
show...but it was still deliberately misrepresented as super live,
totally spontaneous, and "who knows what will happen". Even Barry
himself further perpetuated this concept in his pre-show interviews.
I also thought "call us, fax us, e-mail us with your requests" was
also very misleading. I think most of us are agreed that there wasn't
one spontaneous remark by a caller or song request that wasn't carefully
screened. Garry Kief made the remark in his AOL post that in 90% of the
calls, the fans "froze". I think that's how alot of fans genuinely
react, and it would have been nice to hear an honest, "Oh my gosh, I
can't believe I'm really talking to you!"
My point is that it seems that it was agreed long ago by A&E and/or
Barry's management, that a truly unscripted, spontaneous
show where ANY of Barry's songs might be played and ANY of his fans
might get on the air was not what they were really going for. So it's
unfortunate that that terrific show wasn't advertised as just a Barry
Manilow Special...because I think there are alot of fans who loved the
show but feel uncomfortable that the advertisements (and Barry's
personal comments) to hype it were so misleading. Garry Kief can make it
SEEM like it was all for a good reason and the sensible thing to do, but
not all of the fans are television producers or AOL subscibers.
(And, Garry, I can't help but say I've got a bridge I'd like to sell
ya...)
Alice
jeff...@aol.com
daalmick wrote:
>I was at the taping.
What taping? It was live!
Duh.
lorr...@aol.com
In article <19961210074...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
jeff...@aol.com writes:
>daalmick wrote:
>
>>I was at the taping.
>
>
>What taping? It was live!
>
>Duh.
>
>
>Jeff Marx
Geez, Jeff, I was at the taping also. It was live AND also taped for
broadcast later.
Duh.
Lorrie
daal...@aol.com
Jeff,
Yep, DUH!!! I am still flying high, so it was LIVE!!!
Alan
Jennifer
daal...@aol.com wrote:
>
> Jeff,
>
Song...we never got to hear what she wanted...it was cut off soooo fast
so we could see the staged and rehearsed version!
Jennifer
it had to carefully screened and it was staged. I also felt the public's
intelligence was a little insulted thinking that "it's live!!! and
nobody knows what's going to happen during this hour and send all your
e-mail/faxes"...really.
What would have been really nice was to have this as a "live" special
and to just have some calls from fans asking him some interesting and
general questions - to get to know about Barry type of thing. Here in
Toronto never got to see any advertisements promoting the show or by
him..nothing was played here. All in all I did thoroughly enjoy it and
could have taken another hour!
Dream64512
I am in total agreement with the post by Trekster...thank you! And for
those that feel this special WASN'T "for the fans"....please go back and
watch your tape again! Barry has said in interviews that because so many
of us DO see his shows more than once, he tries to change things and keep
them fresh. Mandy was different and so beautiful. Copa....WOW! I loved
it. He could have ended Brooklyn Blues the "civilian way" and all would
have been happy. He didn't. He gave us Tiddy Bum along with it. What a
thrill to have THAT one on video! I was privately swooning when I
realized that he was going to sing Could it be Magic the "old way". It's
been a long time since I've heard the origional version LIVE and I was
melting....and then....BAM! He did the ending with the "uptempo version"!
Tell me this wasn't "for us"!! Did you catch how he looked at the
audience and the cameras after THAT and said "Suprise!"? And the
ending....PLANNED....no, it wasn't one from the "top 40"....this one
really was for US....Forever and a Day, and as Garry has posted, he
planned that one.....and I for one am so greatful for that and for the
whole show....one for the fans.
Carolyn
HTrain1465
will you share a copy of your tape with another fan? I have everything
but the end, it started to snow really hard and the satellite link went
out just as Barry started to sing I write the songs. I really need to see
the end of the tape.