4/5
Back To Cheek
2009. I hadn't been away in four years (we're all starting to know the feeling right?). Me and my best man had an American dream in the City That Never Sleeps. Times Square bright lights. Big Apple big city. Our itinerary? The Mecca of Madison Square Garden to see legendary now Laker Carmelo Anthony's Knicks in the "World's Most Famous Arena". The Empire State to the Top of the Rock. All overlooking the vast green of Central Park. New York, New York. So good we had to do it twice in the same year. We even scored some Late Night tickets with David Letterman. Hosting one of the Chilean miners and legendary '30 Rock' comedian Tracy Morgan. We did everything except Breakfast at Tiffany's. If you can make it back here, WE can make it back anywhere. But the big ticket was on Broadway. Shining a light at the Beacon Theatre. A benefit for the troops to help our heroes. Our President Barack Obama live via satellite years before we all Zoomed like Commodores to our Teams. This was a night like no other. So much so we got fleeced on Stub Hub for hundreds of dollars. Who was making money off this benefit should have been ashamed of themselves and maybe we looked like we condoned that, but at least most of our money was going to the soldiers. That was already worth the price of admission. What came next was the icing for your cherry. Jerry Seinfeld (maybe even Bill Burr if my getting old memory serves). My hero Bruce Springsteen auctioning off his acoustic guitar ("I got 10 dollars"), Daily Show (made it there too) host Jon Stewart as the presenter. The one and only, unforgettable Tony Bennett. Now THAT'S New York City. Once in a lifetime. I think I left my heart here before we actually flew to San Francisco of all places. Now a decade and change later, sadly the classic crooner is calling it curtains on a live career that was truly the best show in town. Now going 'Cheek To Cheek' with Lady Gaga and 'Love For Sale'. The follow-up to their duet album exactly a decade gone is the perfect swan song. Play it again Tony. Thanks for the memories.
Going Gaga, only Michelle Zauner AKA Japanese Breakfast is working harder in another year of 'Women In Music' going Haim. 'Crying In H Mart' with her New York Times bestselling memoir that's about to be turned into a movie for the director. All whilst having a 'Jubilee' of classic album drops like the video game 'Sable' soundtrack last week. Lady Gaga herself just last month remixed her classic 'Chromatica' album from last years out of this world calendar in quarantine for the 'Dawn Of'. And this fall the born star is going to take on Bradley Cooper and all his movies (GDT's 'Nightmare Alley' and PTA's 'Licorice Pizza' (speaking of Haim for all you Streis-hands) with her 'House Of Gucci' with Adam Driver, Salma Hayek, Tom Ford, Jared Leto and Al Pacino. We're far from the shallow now. As a decade later Gaga and Tony reunite after their Grammy for more gold that deep dives with a dozen delightful tracks to the time movie like music soundtrack sounded like Sinatra...or Nancy. All to get a kick out of you like these boots were made for walking. It's all 'De-Lovely' as the opening number kicks in for the perfect pair who last time out had a spell on us with 'Bang, Bang', ring-a-ding-ding soaring standards of the great American songbook. 'I Get A Kick Out Of You', the sensational single 'I've Got You Under My Skin' (that will nostalgically with a new lift seep so sweetly into yours), they all get a classic cover from the two distinct talents that 'Night and Day' couldn't be more different, but at the same dusk 'til dawn complimentary time are a perfect fit like a suit and tie and best dress the same. The King of Long Island and the Queen of the Upper West Side, New York. Born for each other like they were born this way on some sentimental evening. Giving a shadow to our smile in this boulevard of broken dreams like a stranger in paradise.
So suit up with 'No Time To Die' when we finally get to see 007 back on the big screen for Daniel Craig's last dance as James Bond. Bennett, Tony Bennett, there's no one quite like him left. With all due respect to the bubbling Michael Bublé. He playfully flirts with us and his charismatic chemistry with our Lady in Gaga, wearing a black dress that looks like she's about to walk the red carpet to another Oscar win (she is...amongst more). The born star who can play Streisand whilst others can't pronounce her name (see Bradley Cooper (is that Barry Gibb?) teaching the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman's son Cooper how to say her name right in the trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Licorice Pizza'), scores and soars here. Especially with her velvet vocal range on the stellar standout 'Do I Love You' (yes) that even makes her iconic 'Shallow' whoa, whoa's that literally spearheaded that movies hype from the trailer sound like it's merely treading water. Anything goes as Bennett devotes, "Whenever skies look grey to me/And trouble begins to brew/Whenever the winter winds/Become too strong/I concentrate on you," on the beautiful ballad and timeless love song 'I Concentrate On You' that demands your full attention. All from a man that could just speak on a record and have you 'Dream Dancing'. But boy when he sings like it's 'Just One Of Those Things', oh how he vocally matches his musical marriage even in his career's Winter this fall. One that like a warm embrace wrapped around you like a scarf will have you 'So In Love' with him...and her and the stage they set, even quarantined at a distance. So 'Let's Do It' as said song gets the party started like a trumpet blare as finally these 20's may roar again like a Gatsby. All I'm a way modern music wish it could as this sound now norm becomes as contemporary as it is classic. All as these two that are the big band best of the best like that chairman of the board tell you 'You're The Top' in closing. 'Love For Sale' like the album titled lead single pitches you lyrics like this, "When the only sound in the empty street/Is the heavy tread of the heavy feet/That belong to a lonesome cop/She opens shop/When the moon so long has been gazing down/On the wayward ways of this wayward town/That her smile becomes a smirk/She goes to work". And it all sounds like the storybook history pages of a legendary legacy. "Old love/New love/Every love but true love for sale/Appetising young love for sale/If you want to buy her wares/Follow me and climb the stairs." We will. Here we come stepping and not by half. SOLD! TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Love For Sale', 'Do I Love You', 'I've Got You Under My Skin'.
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