Some Things Are Better as Remakes

Dysfunction, the Sixties and Italian Tweeters

I am no real fan of Cher nor would I suggest that she should go back to dysfunctional marriage, but I still feel that she and Tina Turner did their best work in the 1960s and early 1970s, especially Tina. What's Love Got to Do With It? Well, to me Tina was at her best when doing stuff on the order of "Sexy Ida", "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" and "Flatbush City Limit".

Cher, I think, never topped "You Better Sit Down Kids" in which she sang the song from the perspective of a man leaving his wife. That was the first time that I realized the gender roles handed down to us up to the mid-1960s did not have to be sustained. And, boy, if the video above were not disturbing enough for the audio, what was up with those mannequins?

However, some of the stuff Cher and Sonny did in Italy around 1965 or so was the top of their form in my mind. The closest she came to ever getting back to that was with Eros Ramazzotti in 2001 with "Piu Che Puoi". I've never figured out what the hell he is doing under that underpath, but he looks damned fine doing it.



"The Beat Goes On", however, was best done in the version below by Mina Mazzini. It proves that back in the 1960s, Rome was far more swinging than London.

Eros Ramazzotti - Bambino nel Tempo

Hearing a factoid on the order that Bananrama is the most popular British girl group of all time or that Eros Ramazzotti is the most popular Italian pop singer of all time makes me do a double take. Granted, he's from a country where Puccini and Verdi sell better than a lot of pop pap.

Now in his mid-40s, his salt and pepper locks and fondness for velvet and brocade blazers only make him more appealing. He obviously opted for reaching the enormous Latin American market instead of the U.S. which he's never conquered despite being produced by Trevor Horn and duets with duets with Tina Turner (passable, but uninspired), Cher (cheesy but passable song, but he is at his most munchable in their video), onetime girl friend Patsy Kinset (whatever), Pavarotti (inevitable) Andrea Bocelli (inevitable but unfortunate), and Anastacia (actually not half bad)

He is possibly the one singer more nasal than Rufus Wainwright, but when he's on target as with this tune, he deserves all the hoopla afforded him. As with most of his albums, this one was also released in Spanish which was pretty decent, but it just doesn't have the same sweep as the Italian original. It really manages the capture the sadness and joy of being alone on an adventure as a boy or as a man in his 40s. Towards the final 3/4s of this clip when he pulls out the harmonica while contemplating the heavens, it really takes on the level of powerful pop poetry that hasn't been seen in top 40 music in this country since at least 1980 or so. The lyric reaches for thoughts a bit higher than what is usually broadcast on local airwaves:

"At this time of doubt/I can't keep fooling myself/even with so much hope/I keep a bit of the naivety/I long to keep going like I did then/always asking why...

....loneliness keeps me company/while I'm breathing salty air/this place seemed magical in my memory/like a young boy I'm looking for an answer I don't have/just as I did long ago/It makes no difference/It just grows more stunning with the passage of time..."

Though not exactly profound poetry, it's a sharp contrast to the drivel of some 45+ shrill like Fergie braying about "all that junk in my trunk" on this side of the pond.

The vibe of this song really makes me think of the film The Best of Youth, another Italian puffy pop pastry, that pulls at me with a mix of sadness, longing and joy. I really love the idea of the best of youth, optimism, a lack of cynicism, and contentment with solitude and salty summer breezes making life joyful with all of its pain and unbearable lightness.