Olivia Newton-John. Yay or Nay?

I know...as she NEVER EVER drones on about it, does she?

Don't feel too bad....I would have likely embarassed myself in the same situation. Most of us here would have. I mean she was a goddess then! I would probably be too chicken today to ask for an autograph in fear of coming off like a fawning nervous twit.

Also as an aside....I thought she was already dating Lee Kramer by 1976? I'm not up on Livvie's dating history,so I could be wrong.

 

Olivia and Kramer split up a few times. Not sure when they broke up for the last time, but she sacked him as her manager in 1981.

 

You don't need to crank Gold. That CD is so loud and compressed you could still hear it with the volume set at zero.

 

I'm doing something new by randomly making a playlist of albums to listen to for each week. Coincidentally, Clearly Love is the first one on next week's list. I already finished the list for this week, so I may as well start the new one early! I'm gonna kick back and blast this album from my headphones today to celebrate Livvy's birthday. For 67, I think she's definitely aged surprisingly well .

BTW, is that Soul Kiss thread starting on October 1st?

 

The Soul Kiss thread is starting anytime now. When @Chris_Sydney gets his finger out

I thought you said Clearly Love wasn't one of your favourites? Has it grown on you now?

 

It may if I listen to it. The reason that it's in the playlist is because it was randomly chosen. I'd rather not explain the process unless people want to know

 

I'll leave you to your little ways.

Clearly Love is sweet, but hardly top tier Olivia. Let It Shine, Sail Into Tomorrow and Just A Lot Of Folk are the strongest tracks for me. The rest is perfectly decent, though. Just doesn't hold up as well as Don't Stop Believin' or Have You Never Been Mellow.

 

Or to use the analogy of CLEARLY LOVE being Olivia's own version of Elton John's CARIBOU ....meaning an LP of perfectly decent quality that would have been looked at more positively if not for the misfortune of being sandwiched between two classics, thus said LP is of inferor quality by default. For Elton, The LP that came before CARIBOU was GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD and the LP that came after was CAPTAIN FANTASTIC. However, over the years I have happened to gain more affection for Caribou (and it's twin ROCK OF THE WESTIES )than the LP's they were sandwiched between. Probably because they get slagged so often that I feel affinity for their underdog status. That hasn't happened for CLEARLY LOVE or it sister COME ON OVER yet for me personally (although they have lovely moments.)

 

Yeah, to be honest Farrar and ONJ were working at such a pace, the quality was bound to slip. That those mid-70's albums are as good as they are is a miracle. Of course, Olivia's voice being at it's sweetest, purest peak helps things along...

Elton was under even more pressure as he and Taupin had to write two albums worth of material a year as well! I agree that Caribou and ROTW being compared to Captain Fantastic and GYBR led to them being thought of as lesser than what they actually are, though I still think side 2 of Caribou is a bit weak.

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/happy-birthday-livvy.466843/

 

Allmusic's rating for Clearly Love is 2.5/5, but the review doesn't seem to reflect that. The review is actually quite positive, just like the music itself I guess
http://www.allmusic.com/album/clearly-love-mw0000193771

 

Nice review.

It's interesting how a lot of 70's reviews highlight her looks.

 

I've noticed that a lot on AllMusic, but mostly the other way. Giving a release 4 stars but the review sounds like a 2.

 

I think they sometimes change reviews for certain albums, and I'm guessing the old rating is kept in that instance.

 

That could be it.

 

Agree with you on side 2 being weaker than the first side, however the last two tracks save it, IMO. ROTW was just a fun rock and roll record (although fueled by mountains of peruvian powder),

MCA worked Livvie and Elton to death! Livvie of course hit her stride in the late 70's IMO....Elton hit a wall in contrast.

 

She's got some pretty good reviews on AllMusic. I was surprised.

 

She got a new lease of life in 1978 thanks to Grease. And of course, she made some of her best work after this.

It took Elton a little longer to hit his stride again, though I do like the majority of his albums.

 

Are you an Elton fan, @Chris_Sydney?

 

Of course! 'Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirty Cowboy' is my favourite Elton album, but I enjoy most of his catalogue. I played 'The Diving Board' for a few weeks' straight when it came out.


x

 

I'm very fond of some of his 80's and 90's albums, but a lot of people on here seem to think he was past it after CFATBDC.

 

I enjoy a majority of his catalog as well, and I personally think the end of his classic period was BLUE MOVES and the release of his GREATEST HITS VOL 2...However this is not an Elton thread,,,it's a livvie thread so...lets get this show back on track with something we all like....pictures of the birthday gal herself!

 

More eye candy...

 

Toomorrow ( 1970).

 

It was not a question of nerve. I would have hit on her given the chance. But what happened was I was standing in an area I really should not have been standing in. Right in between two limousines right at the artists entrance. There was a cop ten feet in front of me who had already given me the evil eye. I was standing there with my camera hoping to catch a shot of Paul entering the arena. I was in Beatle heaven watching every limo pull up waiting to see who would exit. Then all of the sudden I get a tap on my shoulder and I turn around and I am eyeball to eyeball to Olivia. She had on a peach angora sweater and she looked fabulous. I moved out of the way and she walked passed me. It didn't really register to me that that was ONJ until she stopped and talked to the cop in front of me. It only took me a few seconds to realize what had happened but by then it was too late to do anything about it.

I don't remember the name of her boyfriend but I had read in People magazine about a month earlier that she had broken up with her boyfriend and she did not have a date for the show. If she would have had a boyfriend I doubt she would have had a problem getting another ticket.

The DVD Rockshow that Paul released two years ago was recorded in Seattle just a few days after the concert at the Forum in LA so it is basically the exact same show I saw. I cannot begin to describe the impact that the performance of Live And Let Die had on me. I have never seen anything in concert to equal it.