First, the video:
Then, the explanation, via Jon Pareles at the NYTimes:
Camping in the rain forest got a new meaning on Thursday night at Carnegie Hall. It was the annual benefit for the Rainforest Fund that features Sting and is produced by his wife, Trudie Styler. The fund supports the preservation of rain forests worldwide and the rights of their indigenous peoples. The camp was in this year’s lineup — including Elton John, Lady Gaga and the diva of James Bond movie scores, Shirley Bassey — and some wry production numbers.
[…] __
The concert’s unannounced performer, Bruce Springsteen, joked that when Sting had told him the theme was ’80s nostalgia, he had responded, “Sting, we’re ’80s nostalgia.” …
__
Sting said that Mr. Springsteen also chose the concert’s all-star finale — a song, Sting said, that he didn’t know. “Everyone in the country knows it but you,” he was told. It was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ”: a 1981 arena crowd-pleaser once scorned as cheesy corporate rock. Now, from its appearance in the finale of “The Sopranos” to a best-selling version from “Glee” to a Springsteen endorsement at Carnegie Hall, it’s well on its way to rehabilitation.
__
I prefer to believe that the slightly nauseated expression on Bassey’s and Harry’s faces has less to do with being reduced to back-up singers than with those hoofies that Lady Gaga is wearing.
Also, it was sweet of the promoters to arrange that conga line of human bon-bons as party favors for the entertainers… poor befuddled Uncle Elton looked so happy to toddle over and pick himself a couple!
(h/t to Commentor Lamh32 for tonight’s entertainment!)
Yutsano
Could also be from having to sing THAT song. You can almost see the thought bubbles. “The fucking Gleesong? Are you people fucking serious? I worked my ass off in a career in music for this??” And of course it’s for charity so they can’t exactly storm off. Bruce and Elton had a grand old time though you can tell.
fucen tarmal
sorry, but after his teary tribute to welfare princess diana, elton john no longer has the right to consider any song, any professional appearance beneath him.
amusing springsteen was the only one counting to come out of the break and no one else was ready, also too, elton john and ozzy are morphing before our eyes.
stuckinred
Tumbleweed Connection was the only the Elton did that was worth a damn.
Sometimes I'm Doctor Science
I’m trying to find out if I can post without being marked as SPAM. AL, could you check if stuff from Doctor Science and my usual email addy/webpage is trapped in the SPAM filter?
If this comes through, AL, check out “Facebook is a feminist issue” over at geekfeminism.
PurpleGirl
Don’t Stop Believin’ was used in a commercial by Hillary Clinton in 2007 although it was not chosen as her campaign song later.
cleek
my wife and i always sing it thusly:
Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlights, people
Livin’ just to find emotion
Hidin’, somewhere with a knife
(and then you make a face like an angry Moe Sizlak luring in an alley with a dagger)
gives the song a little bit of an edge.
mai naem
What the hell is the footwear? There’s got to be podiatrists everywhere jumping for joy for the patients they are going to get from idiots trying to copy Gaga and damaging their feet. Also too, Gaga had to really concentrate to be singing the song. Sting, Elton John and Springsteen were totally relaxed singing. Guess that’s what happens when the studio is creating half of your song.
frankdawg
@fucen tarmal:
bkny
i just do not get lady gaga.
christ, i’m sounding more like my grandmother, but what passes for talent these days is way too much dependent on spectacle.
what a waste of debbie harry.
fucen tarmal
@frankdawg:
i agree with you, i was merely giving his music the maximum leniency possible, and noting the point where taste alone could no longer reconcile his efforts.
mellowjohn
it was also the theme song of the 2005 chicago white sox world series winner.
Lettuce
My (16 year old) son’s a Lady Gaga fan… I don’t have any use for her, more Sex Pistols and Clash and the like, but I’m not going to take Sir Elton over her.
No way.
Kris
wow, some dude on the Internet thinks some musician sucks… that’ll ruin Sir Elton’s day for sure!
Montysano
Apparently we need a “You kids git offa my lawn” tag, since this thread appears headed in that direction.
It seems unpossible that Harry and Bassey are having to take a back seat to someone who sold eleventy million records last year.
Steeplejack
God, that is cringe-worthy on so many levels. And it goes on forever.
The thought balloons almost write themselves.
Debbie Harry: “I used to be the hip, edgy queen of bohemian Manhattan, and now I’m singing backup to Elton John on a Journey song?!”
Did anyone check to see whether she posted something on FMyLife?
frankdawg
@Kris:
Well, first he would have to have a rent boy read it to him since he appears to be functionally illiterate.
But, since the Internet is now the paper of record for future historians I think it will be important to note that there were people that recognized the extreme level of suckage he represented, a veritable Eyjafjallajokull of suckatude, a suck geyser if you will, the Tivoli Font of suckwad, Niagara Suckalls, the Queen Mother of suck as it were. Else wise all that may remain are his recordings leaving future generations wonder what the heck was wrong with popular music.
And Kris, chill – unlike _SIR_ Elton I have no delusions of adequacy, I just have opposable thumbs and a wireless connection. 8-{D
adolphus
I think my favorite Elton John discomfort moment was when he and Axl Rose did a duet for a Freddie Mercury tribute. I think it was Bohemian Rhapsody. When John put his arm around Rose for the final ballady minutes you could practically see homophobe Rose throw up a little in his mouth. I always wondered how much disinfectant he used to scrub off teh ghey cooties after the show.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen two celebrities who weren’t hadn’t had sex with each other more uncomfortable in each other’s presence.
But then again maybe….
Joey Maloney
Pursuant to yesterday’s marathon, I find David Sirota’s latest in Salon apposite.
[Oh, FYWP. No blockquote, this is all Sirota…]
Imagine, if you can, an alternate universe.
Imagine that in this alternate universe, a foreign military power begins flying remote-controlled warplanes over your town, using on-board missiles to kill hundreds of your innocent neighbors.
Now imagine that when you read the newspaper about this ongoing bloodbath, you learn that the foreign nation’s top general is nonchalantly telling reporters that his troops are also killing “an amazing number” of your cultural brethren in an adjacent country. Imagine further learning that this foreign power is expanding the drone attacks on your community despite the attacks’ well-known record of killing innocents. And finally, imagine that when you turn on your television, you see the perpetrator nation’s tuxedo-clad leader cracking stand-up comedy jokes about drone strikes — jokes that prompt guffaws from an audience of that nation’s elite.
Ask yourself: How would you and your fellow citizens respond? Would you call homegrown militias mounting a defense “patriots,” or would you call them “terrorists”? Would you agree with your leaders when they angrily tell reporters that violent defiance should be expected?
more at link
Nicole
The only person who should be singing “Don’t Stop Believin'” is Steve Perry. In 1981.
dmsilev
@PurpleGirl:
I remember that one. It was a spoof of the final scene from The Sopranos. I also remember someone (Ann Althouse?) insisting that an off-hand reference to onion rings in the commercial was in fact a coded psycho-sexual reference to Bill Clinton’s affair.
dms
Steeplejack
@Joey Maloney:
I thought your blockquote was working before I refreshed the page. Maybe it was all one paragraph.
Anyway, all you need to do is put two underscores on each blank line between paragraphs in the blockquote. Viz.,
(h/t Monkeyboy © 2009)
cleek
@Joey Maloney:
he’s right, of course.
and some of us have been saying exactly that since before Bush took us into Afghanistan. but we are hippies.
sparky
@Joey Maloney: thanks. at this point i am happy to see anything get into the quasi-mainstream news to make this point. i was going to say maybe we need some cams in the houses of ordinary people there but that recent footage from Iraq didn’t seem to give anyone much pause. what’s left of the veneer of civilization in the US is flaking off at an alarming rate.
as for the vid here, well, i am mighty happy that i have flashblock.
Joey Maloney
I read that as “i am mighty happy that I have flashbacks”.
eemom
I think “Lady Gaga” is a really, REALLY stupid name and it irritates me every time I hear it.
ETA: and I don’t CARE if I’m an old get off my lawn-er.
khead
I like this version.
Rosalita
yeah well, a lame attempt at the song, but Bruce boss-ified it as much as he could…I’ll watch him do just about anything
and PS, mid 40’s here, and I didn’t understand Gaga either until I finally listened to a CD. I think her music is fun and great for dancing.
Ked
Wow, I thought I was the only one who noticed that Journey’s music was aging well. I’m particularly fond of “Separate Ways” – there’s something awfully 90’s j-pop about it which brings back fantastic memories of college life.
Nicole
@khead: Everything’s better with banjo!
Speaking of the banjo- did not expect that voice to come out of that body. He’s like the hootenanny Rick Astley.
scott (the other one)
I think you’re nuts–Shirley’s grinning whenever Springsteen sings.
As for
that’s the same thing my parents used to say about David Bowie. Why can’t he just stand there and sing like Perry Como?
matoko_chan
Gaga is pure performance art…..imagine a bride-of-frankenstein ballerina with hooves costume and singing Journey drunk with an old queen.
the culture mashup boggles the mind.
simply full of win.
i adore her.
Leonard Stiltskin
It’s hard to deny that Lady Gaga is talented, even if you don’t particularly care for her music or image. And it’s hard to deny her genius in marketing herself. How many singer/songwriter/piano playing female singers break out these days? Because that’s who she was- Stephani Germanotta-before the transformation.
As someone up thread said re: Elton John, I’m sure Lady Gaga will trade the curmudgeonly negative internet comments for the sold out shows and millions of record sales.
CaseyL
Hey, hey, hey! I love Journey!
Admittedly, I love Journey when Steve Perry and Glee are singing…. this one? Erm. Not so much. Listless when it should be energetic, muted when it should soar, sorta ‘way to miss the point of the song, dudes.’
But this performance crossed the line from *yawn* mediocre *yawn* to Holy Shit What Was That? when the dancing boys arrived. Like something directly out of an old Loonie Toons cartoon, except in
their underwearswimsuits instead of tails and top hat. And, yeah, it was priceless the way Elton grabbed a couple (“lads for later”).That priceless moment made it all worthwhile.
tim
Wow. Yikes. They all sounded like shit. I mean, I get that live music should sound a little raw, but it shouldn’t sound off key and horrible.
I guess folks are just supposed to be thrilled they are in the same room with these megastars, and not care what the actual product sounds like. Which is, of course, stupid.
Awful.
Shell Goddamnit
I had no idea who she was until I followed a link to the mess that is that Telephone video, and decided that at any rate LGG is an acre-and-a-half of fun. And I’m old, and don’t like kids on my lawn, either.
But the footwear has got to go.
Dan
Music snobs and old people complaining about young people’s music and how it isn’t up to par with what came before. Are some of you even aware of what you sound like?
Splitting Image
@adolphus:
Elton did that? I forgive him for his involvement in “That’s What Friends Are For” and about a third of “Candle in the Wind ’97”.
I’ve never been much of a fan of the guy, but when there’s a moment to seize, he sure knows how to seize it.
The Moar You Know
@khead: Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is all kinds of awesome and restores my faith in music and humanity.
gogiggs
I don’t care for Lady Gaga’s music and that name is beyond stupid, but she does have talent. She can play an instrument and she writes songs. Every time I’ve seen her I haven’t cared for what she was doing, but she at least seems like someone who might do something really cool someday.
“Don’t Stop Believin'”, on the other hand, has always sucked and will always suck. It’s popping up in the Sopranos finale was just a rotten cherry topping off a shit sundae.
Lettuce
Let me say, for the last time…
I don’t like Lady Gaga, but my son does and I’ve watched her videos. She has talent, not talent I like, but she’s clearly got talent.
Sir Elton I didn’t mind around the time of Madman Across the Water or Tumbleweed Connection… Not that I ever got into him, or wanted the records.
So, yeah, I like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Matthew Sweet and on and on…
Doesn’t mean I don’t have any eyes.
wag
This is a whole lot of fun being had at Sting’s little event. Skip Sir Elton’s version of Material Girl and go straight to 2:28 when the song changes. It’s WAY worth while, and gives context to the dancers in the Journey cover.
Anne Laurie
@frankdawg: For the record (as you say), I have greatly enjoyed ALL of these performers’ previous work… in fact, 11-11-70 is one of my very favorite albums, because I am old enough that it was new when I was a teenager. But this clip was irresistable because it really did seem like the tail end of a raucous family wedding where, as my Irish granny would say, drink may have been taken. The only indefensible part is those shoes, Miss Gaga… they’re not even cute.
Wag
The only indefensible part is those shoes, Miss Gaga… they’re not even cute.
Will
Did the NYT reviewer mean that Sting didn’t know “Don’t Stop Believin”, or that Springsteen didn’t? I find it hard to believe Boss didn’t know that song.
goatchowder
I guess you can have it Any Way You Want It