Y'all must be so excited that I'm diligently working on my autobiography in rock and roll...I have done SO MUCH WRITING today...it's about record production and my journey with many an artist, so McGlynn will be chagrined that he and the cronies won't be in its wonderful pages...
BETTE MIDLER
STAY WITH ME, LIVE VERSION OF SONG ORIGINALLY ON THE ROSE SOUNDTRACK
Oh wow, listening to Bette Midler singing "Superstar" tonight (original title, "Groupie," by Bonnie Bramlett from the Roseanne show; I produced Bonnie in 1988 at the New Kids studio...) and found this nugget, "Stay With Me" - the Lorraine Ellison classic, also covered by Ten Wheel Drive, one of my fave versions.
Bette singing "Stay With Me" live in Las Vegas
https://youtu.be/Oc1oznH5bNE
Listen to the band on this Vegas version...amazing recording...amazingly powerful vocal - originally from The Rose (which was, of course, a renivention of Janis Joplin's life story as she was The Pearl...or just simply "Pearl.")
https://youtu.be/Oc1oznH5bNE
Stay With Me
Lorraine Ellison
Produced by legendary Jerry Ragovoy.
Joplin covered his material with relish!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pDBuPK0_DU "Stay with Me" (often credited as "Stay with Me Baby") is a soul song co-written by Jerry Ragovoy and George David Weiss.[1] It was first recorded in 1966 by Lorraine Ellison,[2] and produced by Ragovoy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay_with_Me_(Lorraine_Ellison_song)
TEN WHEEL DRIVE was an anomaly, they were too big to play WOODSTOCK at the time, though they were invited and passed. Which, of course, was the biggest mistake as they would have been superstars had they performed in the mud at the festival.
My writings on this group are extensive...and no wonder that Clive Davis chose Genya Ravan to replace Janis Joplin, which Genya balked at - performing cabaret on the Tonight Show rather than doing as Columbia Records requested. But here on Polydor TWD come up with this masterpiece - Ravan ripping into Lorraine Ellison's classic with an abandon that, yes, only Janis Joplin could muster. I met Ravan at a record convention in Florida, the Musexpo in 1980, oh my God we've known each other forty years now...she was producing Ronnie "Be My Baby" Spector and the Dead Boys, but as I listen to "Stay With Me" and compare Bette Midler's marvelous rendition, Ellison's unquestionable classic, it is hard to deny that Ten Wheel Drive took this and made it theirs. The production is exquisite, majestic and eternal.
Paul A Rothchild - producer of Joplin's Pearl, most of the Doors albums and, soundtrack to The Rose, of course, re-created Stay With Me with some of Lou Reed's band, one being a dear friend of mine (hey, some of this is going into my autobiography.) At the Chateau Marmount - where we stayed in 1986...Burt Bacharach called for my business partner at the hotel, which was a thrill for anyone who loves the Dionne Warwick classic. So my legendary producer friend woke me up and demanded I go for dinner at Carlos and Charlie's (I was exhausted from the flight) ...so bleary eyed we sit down and - voila - Hervé Villechaize from Fantasy Island "Da plane, boss, Ze plane..." was sitting across from us. Jo Jo stayed at the hotel...she would've loved it.
(Paul and Paula Prentiss sitting across from us a year later...) as Jo Jo always said, Hollywood is just so magical.
Well, I had Mr. Rothchild's number so I had Jimmy phone him as they were friends...and got to say hello to one of my all-time favorite producers (The Doors, Joplin, Midler...)...geniuses of record production... just by osmosis one can feel the energy....
Brief Replies album John Carisi Conductor, Music Director Tony May engineer
As I said, you can feel the energy, Rothchild's production of "Stay with Me" for Bette's The Rose film is amazing, with members of Lou Reed's band you have the dynamic convergence of the gods of 70's rock. It's explosive ...Midler's nuanced vocal sounds like she studied both Ellison and Ravan and dips into both their catalogs...after all, she's emulating Janis Joplin for the film with a key Ragovoy song that Joplin never got to get to. And you know that she eventually would have.
Bette Midler's film version, pure dynamite:
But on this live rendition, Midler sounds like she's with Delaney and Bonnie ...and gives the blues classic a country flair - Live Divine Miss Millennium https://youtu.be/l-gfB4ZTytA
You can't go wrong with any of these renditions, vital song with so many perspectives on it...what a delight.
Jools Holland with Ruby Turner...NICE!
TEN WHEEL DRIVE
Gotta see if Bonnie Bramlett ever did "Stay With Me"
Here's the original SUPERSTAR (hit for the Carpenters but covered by Bette Midler after Bonnie did it .....https://youtu.be/qpZ7BOSmO64 This is the quintessential version...I believe Eric Clapton is on guitar... take the Bramlett "Groupie" and Genya Ravan's "Stay With Me" (remember, Bette Midler recorded them both) and you have a lesson in musicology that few can match. "And I can hardly wait, to sleep with you again..." something too much for the Carpenters...who changed it --- "to be with you again." Luther
Vandross also sings "to be with you again" performing his Vanilla
Fludge (intentional...Vanilla Fudge, actually)) slowed-down version
along with Stevie Wonder's "Until You Come Back To Me" https://youtu.be/6hAuObm4FAQ
Tremendous...precious recordings.
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