Soul Magazine 1980 Interview With Barry Manilow

Source: http://scootertalk.blogspot.com/2006/09/soul-magazinemarch-1980-part-one-cover.html

SOUL MAGAZINE

March 1980

PART ONE

Cover Headline - Barry Manilow: The Frustrations of Feeling Soulful

Barry Manilow:

Soulful At Heart...
Where It Counts

By J. Randy Taraborrelli

"This isn't going to work..."

I've barely finished my first brilliant question as Barry Manilow takes the microphone from my hand and depresses the "stop" control on the tape recorder. "You're gonna have to take off your coat, sit back and have a cup of coffee," he suggests, matter-of-factly.

Obviously, this was not to be one of those standard journalistic encounters where I, carefully prepared notes in one hand and mike in the other, drill the subject with a brisk barrage of questions. Gently stating the ground rules, Barry adds, "I'm not used to having a microphone shoved down my throat. Why not just relax.... Let's keep this simple. Real simple."

A boyish grin takes the bite out of his candor and it suddenly occurs to me that Manilow is getting quite a kick out of my intense style. Actually, this should come as a relief because the man really doesn't do many interviews.

"Me doing an interview with SOUL is a funny thing. If you look at my music, you'll see that it's all based on R&B stuff," he begins, casually. "It's based on all those fistfulls of chord changes a Leon Ware or my idol, Thom Bell would use. Only it never comes out that way...

"Dissecting any of my music, you could give it to any Black R&B group and they'd have a good ol' time. But who'd believe THAT? It all sounds so clean. It's so..." at a loss for words, he pauses. "It's so...so WHITE sounding!"

No argument there. But Barry Manilow's classic productions, with all those striking climaxes and grand scale finales, are some of the most distinctive you'll ever hear. Because of their sheer passion, his compositions often sound just as compelling as "soul music," even if not very reflective of that genre.

Barry is always guaranteed sock-o sales in the millions with every album he releases for Arista. If fact, all eight have gone platinum -- some are certified double, triple and even quadruple platinum. His ninth album, One Voice, has been added to the list of "doubles" and is still selling strong. There are also six gold singles to his credit (including Mandy, I Write The Songs and Looks Like We Made It).

"But, I'd love to sound as soulful as I feel," he says, wistfully. "It comes out passionate but, for my taste, not soulful -- the way I hear it in my head. So I get the best musicians I can find and do what I can. Someday, maybe I'll put together a Sadie like the Spinners did."

Why the aspiration to compose a piece comparable to one that sold a hair of what he's accustomed to? Believe it or not, Barry's a rhythm and blues mainliner, that's why. The man is hooked on Black music. "It's ALWAYS been my favorite kind," he says. "I'd give my left arm to be able to sing one note like Philippe Wynne. But I open my mouth and it comes out sounding like Andy Williams."

Though a hopeless soul-junkie at heart, Barry's not one to underestimate his own artistic proficiency. "There's more of the personality I depend on in a record like Copacabana than there is in Sadie. What Philippe did with that song is so musically inventive, I don't think I can touch it," he observes. "On the other hand, I'm communicating a story in Copa much clearer than Philippe could. Guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the record..."

If that's true, Barry prefers to fertilize his lawn with sheer personality. Never was this more evident than on his recent production for Dionne Warwick. The album, Dionne, combined every Manilow trademark with Warwick's seasoned virtuosity and was quickly certified gold. It also spawned two million selling chartbusters, I'll Never Love This Way Again and Deja Vu.

Considering this success and the fact that Dionne was singing cross-over blues less than two years ago, one has to wonder if pop music's color barrier can be broken by the hue of a strong production -- despite the shade of the artists' skin. "Cross-over has to do with the record. Period," Barry states, slightly ruffled.

"The fact that I'm sitting here doing an interview with SOUL obviously has nothing to do with the color of my skin. It's because my music affects people...ALL people. The same with Dionne, who, I believe, is the consummate singer. As a producer, I could only offer her input on orchestrations and arrangements. Vocally, there was nothing I could contribute."

His successful affiliation with Dionne was not Barry's maiden voyage into cross-over rhythm and blues. Last year, he scored Somewhere In My Lifetime, a rhapsodic production for Phyllis Hyman. The song helped launch Phyllis' career and managed to sneak into pop circles, if only on the strength of that slick Manilow sound.

But despite a genuine interest in Black music and recent successes in that field, Barry doesn't anticipate producing other R&B artists in the near future. "I'd be too in awe," he explains with a flash of that polished grin. "I really couldn't contribute anything other than the sound of the arrangements. I wouldn't know what to say to one of the major R&B singers. I mean, what am I supposed to tell someone like Philippe? I'd like to sit him down and have HIM tell ME how it's done.

"And Donna Summer, a spectacular singer with a track record of something like a hundred disco songs, I can't wait until she sings that first big ballad. It'll be a killer. It's gonna make Mandy look sick..."

Perhaps because of its consistency, Manilow's own success seems to be an easy target for criticism. His sold-out concerts are often bludgeoned by high-brow critics. Those million-selling albums are sometimes lightly dismissed as nothing more than "Manilow marshmallows." Maybe this accounts for his inaccessibility to the press. Maybe not.

In one breath, Barry says, "Listen, I learn a lot from the people who put me down," but in the next he betrays a certain vulnerability to those attacks. "Okay, so I wish they wouldn't do it so heavily," he admits. "I mean, they call me NAMES in the papers! They say I'm a talentless fool, ugly with a long nose and 'Who knows why the ladies scream?' What can I learn from that?"

Despite any heavy criticism, record sales and awards paint a picture of success. A Grammy last year (for Copacabana), a Tony (for a recent stint on Broadway), an Emmy (for one of his three ABC-TV specials), Barry's got 'em all.

"It's not a bad life and I can't complain," he notes. "To make hit records and NOT be a star would really be the perfect life. I'd like to keep this whole thing as simple and informal as possible. I'd like to not be stopped on the street all the time. I'd like to not always have to look good. And dealing with 20 thousand people every night, well, it can be frightening. It's not my favorite thing..."

How does he handle all those unpleasant results of stardom without suffering from a swelled ego? Manilow has a fool-proof method that's partially based on a denial of his incredible success. He prefers to believe it's the artistry and not the artist that makes the whole world sing.

The theory may be a bit naive, true. Be that as it may, Barry manages to maintain a refreshing humility, despite what's happening around him. "It's the work they applaud, not me. If I thought they were applauding me, I'd run away," he confesses. "I have to believe it's just the music and I'm sharing common life experiences we can all relate to. I'm singing songs I, too, love and applaud.

"But the more successful I become, the more I seem to demand of myself. I'd love to be able to say it wouldn't matter if I never had another hit, but I can't. The more the records go platinum, the more it becomes important to me that I top them."

Though he doesn't know how long he'll be able to successfully compete with himself, Barry will venture one prediction. "I do guarantee that whatever I do will be of the high quality people expect of me," he concludes. "My stuff will always be creative and will ALWAYS have my personality in it. I mean, you could put Earth, Wind and Fire behind me, and it'd STILL sound like Barry Manilow."

We often speak of a "message in the music" -- Black music. It seems almost sacrilegious to apply this phrase to a pop artist who, obviously, doesn't carry a message relating to the Black experience. Yet, isn't the delivery of intensely SOULFUL messages a primary reason for this entertainer's mass appeal?

"It's ALL in the message," he concurs, enthusiastically. "I give the people a package they enjoy. All I do is deliver so you might say I'm just a...a simple coffee boy."

Enjoying incredible success as a songwriter, producer and arranger, 33-year-old Barry Manilow is quickly becoming a triple-threat legend. But as far as he's concerned, he's just delivering strong coffee. That's all. Let's try to keep this as simple as possible, shall we?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PART TWO

Warwick, Hyman and Davis:

The Manilow Connection

By J. Randy Taraborrelli

"I gotta tell you that when we finished the album and listened to it in completion, everyone knew it was a hit," recalls a glowing Dionne Warwick. Of course, she's referring to the "come-back record" Barry Manilow produced and arranged for her. "The chemistry was so right that there was no way it couldn't have hit," she continues. "In fact, we're still looking at each other kinda crazy wondering what'll happen next..."

A little over a year ago, it would've been quite difficult to envision Dionne accepting a Grammy Award. Her recording career was all but shot as a result of an unsuccessful five year stint with Warner Brothers. Today, Miss Warwick is nominated for four of those coveted awards thanks to the Manilow connection and her first album for Arista.

The successful team-up with Barry was exactly what was needed to, as she puts it, "give my fans the kind of record they deserved." Surprisingly enough due to his hectic schedule, Manilow will not be involved with Dionne's next album. Is the lady worried? Well, let's put it this way: she's STILL Dionne Warwick, with or without Barry Manilow.

"I'm quite sure the public expected another album from me produced by Barry," she notes, "and I'm sure they'll get one eventually. Meanwhile, the fact that Dionne Warwick is back will be enough for the people who follow me. I'm anxious to see their reaction to my new album, produced by Steve Buckingham."

And when will this project be released? Well, that's one question Dionne is very happy not to have an answer for. "My album is still doing crazy things on the charts," she says, incredulously. "I can't tell you when I'll release another 'cause who knows how long the one Barry did for me will self! As a matter of fact, Barry recently told me I may not have to record again for ten years! What can I tell ya? He may be right!"

It was only a one-shot deal that brought the talents of Manilow and Phyllis Hyman together. "I thought the record (Somewhere In My Lifetime) was incredible," says Phyllis, succinctly. "But I didn't think it would be a big seller, which it wasn't.

"It happened to be a big turn-table success and a great performance song. When I do it in concert to large Black audiences, they go crazy. They just go absolutely nuts..."

Black audiences going "absolutely nuts" over a lush Manilow composition is nothing unusual to Phyllis because, "He's very much an R&B lover," she observes. "You'll usually find R&B type songs on his records. People always think of him as being sweet and melodic but Barry's really very soulful."

As for another studio affiliation with Barry, Phyllis can only keep her fingers crossed. "He's so busy and EVERYONE is seeking him out for productions," she says, "I only hope we can get together again..."

Actually, that decision lies in the capable hands of Clive Davis, president of Arista Records and the man responsible for uniting Manilow with Phyllis and Dionne. Davis even lent a hand in the selection of material for recent albums by Warwick and Manilow.

"Originally, we believed Gladys Knight would cut Somewhere In My Lifetime, he recalls. "I always felt Gladys was interpretive and Barry, being the type of performer with a feel for the soul artist who reaches into pop, would have been the ideal producer."

But Gladys' split with Arista's Buddah subsidiary squashed those plans. Phyllis wound up with the song and, says Davis, that fateful union was a stepping stone to Barry's work with Dionne.

"It was a natural evolution, I thought. The fact that Dionne's audience is stronger from an R&B point of view, but also reaches out into a pop market, made it easy to see that Barry would work well with her. It was an exciting challenge for us...and, obviously, it was successful."

Davis predicts that Dionne and Barry will collaborate on another album project "in the very near future." He also mentions that Dionne will be a very special guest" on Barry's fourth ABC-TV special this spring.

As far as the future of Manilow's spiraling career is concerned, Clive Davis takes a realistic viewpoint. Someday, he realizes, it may all come to a crashing end. Nothing lasts forever. Not even Barry Manilow.

"The odds do get difficult, as far as perpetuating the historic success he's enjoyed," Davis admits. "But we're both dedicated to his career, even if we go down swinging. Every album has to be more appealing than the one before, and that's what we work for. You know it's gotta run out sometime," he concludes, "but we're working to postpone that date to the unforeseeable future."

Originally posted 9/03/2006 08:48:00 AM