{"id":40765,"date":"2008-02-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/songs-from-the-seventies-dvd\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:12","slug":"songs-from-the-seventies-dvd","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/songs-from-the-seventies-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs From The Seventies (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the spirit of the Pierce Memorial Archives, I have decided, O Ye DV Faithful, to take the plunge. I hereby announce the formation of the UCAMA (Unfairly Critically Abused Musical Artists) Foundation, headquarters to be announced as soon as I secure land in Cleveland<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Yes, friends, here we shall defend the critically indefensible: the musicians whom for one reason or another, the critical establishment dismissed but aren\u2019t that bad, damn it. (For example, Fergie is specifically disavowed. There\u2019s some crap even UCAMA won\u2019t defend.) We will offer advocacy for music fans; no more will you have to hide your REO Speedwagon CDs behind a copy of the White Stripes that you\u2019ve never listened to. Free your CD players, brothers and sisters; join UCAMA!<\/o:p><\/p>\n

With that announcement, it\u2019s obvious that we have to have a Barry Manilow display; hell, we might have an entire wing devoted to the work of the pop singer because he has taken more critical abuse — in fact, he has taken more abuse from my fellow writers on the DV<\/b> — than almost anyone. (Well, except for Afroman<\/a>. But Chris was having a bad week.) However, as the Executive Director of UCAMA, I\u2019m going to say it:<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Barry Manilow is pretty damn good. He writes great songs, and he does exactly what he wants to — without pretension or trying to be whatever\u2019s popular at the time.<\/b> <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Now that I have completely destroyed whatever street cred I ever had, let\u2019s talk about his latest: the DVD of his PBS special, Songs From The Seventies<\/i>. This is Manilow\u2019s love letter to when he first made it big, and he performs a nice selection of his classic hits and songs that really affected him as a person and as an artist. His voice is still in fine fettle (though I think he has transposed \u201cLooks Like We Made It\u201d down a key or two), his piano playing is still nonpareil, and the background musicians are competent to excellent. There\u2019s excellent rapport with his audience, and he seems to genuinely be having fun.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Manilow nails his originals without breaking a sweat; the hauntingly beautiful \u201cCould It Be Magic?,\u201d \u201cNew York City Rhythm,\u201d and an a cappella \u201cOne Voice\u201d are all wonderful. He even makes \u201cCopacabana\u201d listenable, mostly by stripping it down to guitar and voice only — I still could go the rest of my life without hearing about Rico and Lola, though.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

His choices of covers are interesting, and in some cases brilliant. \u201cHe Ain\u2019t Heavy, He\u2019s My Brother,\u201d \u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d and \u201cIt Never Rains In Southern California\u201d are great songs, and Manilow does them justice; while I\u2019m not a big fan of Frankie Valli\u2019s \u201cMy Eyes Adored You,\u201d he does a credible job. If I have a complaint, it\u2019s that I wanted more; his version of \u201cYou\u2019ve Got A Friend,\u201d relegated to the special features on Disc 2, should have been a highlight. And I\u2019m going to be honest; I wish he\u2019d done more of his own stuff as well. \u201cEven Now\u201d deserves more than thirty seconds in a medley.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I turn forty today, the 28th of February. I no longer care about being cool. My name\u2019s Duke, I like Barry Manilow, and Songs From The Seventies<\/i> was a damned good time.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6339],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-40765","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-barry-manilow","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40765"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}