In fifteen years of blogging I think this is my first Barry Manilow post.
I’ll join Tom Nichols of The Atlantic in admitting that I sometimes listen to Manilow’s music. (Though I have never seen him in concert.) Here is a taste of his piece, “It’s Okay to Like Barry Manilow“:
But Manilow and the songs he sings are critic-proof. Even Manilow gets it: During the show last week, he admitted that his music is a standard on elevators and in dentists’ offices. “As long as there are teeth,” he quipped, “my music will never die.” It’s not great art, but then, neither were the Carpenters, another beloved ’70s act. (“We’ve Only Just Begun” was written by Paul Williams for a bank commercial, by the way.) Manilow’s voice—much like Karen Carpenter’s, come to think of it—has always just been there as part of my life, and I’m not going to pretend I didn’t like it back then or that I don’t like it now.
You don’t have to admit that you agree with me. I understand. Let’s just say that I can live with it if you can—and that neither of us is going to change the station.
Read the entire piece here.
And yes, I also occasionally listen to the Carpenter’s greatest hits album. 🙂
Sometimes a gentleman can only stifle his impulse to make a comment, and silently avert his eyes.
It is of course OK to like any kind of music that doesn’t hurt anybody. I will be slightly less circumspect than (commentator) John and mention, apropos of nothing whatever, that there are plenty of things that are OK to do that I don’t…
…but I dig the Carpenters and The Who.