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Many times the first thing people ask when meeting musicians is "What are your influences?" This is an understandable impulse to attempt to understand the unknown thing by referring it to something you might be more familiar with. However, this is not possible if both parties don't share a cultural heritage. Growing up in the Sixties and Seventies of last century was quite a different time to the experiences available to many in my cast, for example. So... with the aim of providing anyone interested in MY influences, I am providing some of the cultural artifacts that I grew up on, and have become obvious to me as influencing myself, and my music. Hope you enjoy taking some time away from today in order to understand today better:
Kiss Me Kate, music and lyrics Cole Porter is one of my favorite musicals, by a master. Here's a link about the show:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_Me,_Kate Let me know what you think.
Movies about Vaudeville. Though too young to ever experience the golden age of vaudeville, the Hollywood movies like There's No Business Like Show Business, and The Seven Little Foys were a window to an era I missed out on, but learned to appreciate. I picked this one, not because its the best, but because it starsBob Hope, who was a huge influence on me by co-starring with Bing Crosby in theRoad Movie series. Gypsy is probably the best musical ever written, but not available in full at the moment, so here's one of my favorite moments:
In my opinion, the best score by Lerner andLoewe. Richard Harris is miscast, but Vanessa Redgrave is so good I don't mind.
Alice Cooper beside Barbra Streisand. Who'd have thunk it? Alice's 1973Billion Dollar Babies was the soundtrack of my youth. While Babs is still my favorite singer to listen to.