Carole Bayer Sager autobiography

I've known for some time that CBS wrote an autobiography, but presumably due to lethargy and procrastination (problems that seem to be growing as I grow older), I hadn't bothered ordering it until this past Friday morning.  As I ordered the Kindle version, I could begin reading it immediately, and finished reading by Saturday afternoon. The title of the book, "They're playing our song" comes from a musical written by Neil Simon based on the musical lives of CBS (who wrote the lyrics to the musical) and Marvin Hamlisch (who wrote the music).

The book can roughly be divided into two parts: pre-Burt Bacharach and post-Bacharach, where the cut off is roughly 1980. The first part is what most interested me and contained a certain amount of information about CBS's formative years, when she was over-weight and very anxious. For some reason, her birthdate isn't noted in the book - 8 March 1947. She went to the famous New York High School of Music and Art (which is where the film and tv series from the early 80s, "Fame", was located) then continued to New York University. She even spent some time as a teacher before the royalties from her first hit song, "A groovy kind of love", came in; these dwarfed her income as a teacher. One amusing early incident has her on a blind date with Paul Simon, set up by their respective mothers. With no chemistry in their meeting, they discussed who was the first to use the word 'groovy' in their lyrics.

The period leading up to the making of her first record is the period that most interests me and I intend to read this portion again. Some of the songs had been written before this period and recorded by others, whereas others were written especially for the record. There's a section detailing a meeting with Bette Midler, who was just becoming famous; “Why do you always use the same words when you write your songs?” she [BM] asked me [CBS] as we began. “I mean, why don’t you ever bother to find new words? You’re lazy.... Look at these words,” she said, randomly opening a book. “ ‘Curious’! You’ve never used the word ‘curious’ in a song. That’s a good word.” She opened another book. “ ‘Iconic.’ ‘Misfit.’ ‘Drunk.’ Where are these words in your songs? Everything’s ‘home,’ and ‘rain,’ and ‘light.’ ” She was impassioned now, glasses on the tip of her nose, shouting random words at me while throwing down one book and picking up another. “ ‘Dangling’! ‘Branches’! ‘Forbidden’! Those are good words! Have you ever used any of them?” “Let’s write a song about someone who’s breaking up with her boyfriend,” I said. “No-o-o-o!” Bette said, making sure the Os resonated in the room. “You didn’t hear anything I said. We’re not here to write some sad breakup song like you always write. Let’s throw the moron out of the house.”

This is how "You're moving out" came to be written. BM recorded the song before CBS and apparently there was bad blood between them for some years as BM's version did not sell whereas CBS's version was a minor hit in Britain (this was the song that introduced me to CBS in 1977). I went looking for this on YouTube and found a clip of her performing the song on 'Top of the Pops'; normally I would enclose the word 'performing' in quotation marks as most people appearing on this song mime to their records. But this clip has an alternative version; whilst the backing music is similar (the trombone seems to be missing), the vocals (not only CBS's, but all of the vocals) are completely different - and not as good! The album version, along with a different (and somewhat amateurish and embarrassing) video can also be found on YouTube.

The first album was recorded after CBS had split from her first husband, Andrew Sager; she then spent two years with Marvin Hamlisch, living and liking, but not loving, him. In about 1981, she met the very talented composer Burt Bacharach, and from here onwards, the story becomes less interesting. BB comes across as incredibly narcisstic: a good example of where it is better to divorce the artist from the art. BB also persuaded CBS to have cosmetic surgery which is why pictures pre-BB show her as flat chested, whereas later pictures have her with a fuller bosom.

In fact, pictures from 1981 onwards have her looking somewhat like Elisabeth Taylor, which is somewhat ironic as later on ET became her neighbour and friend. Even more ironic is that following CBS being installed as a judge on 'American Idol', the following tweets (included in her book) appeared on Twitter:

01-25-2007, 10:01 AM MaryMorph 
I missed the beginning of AI last night—who was that Joan Collins lookalike guest judge? We came up with all of the carols we knew, but couldn’t identify her!
01-25-2007, 11:11 AM Miss_Liss
The consensus in my office is Elizabeth Taylor, but I guess that’s another dark-haired woman who obviously has a really close relationship with her plastic surgeon :D.

In a sense, this book reminded me of Graham Nash's autobiography, 'Wild tales': the first half of the book, up to the recording and release of 'Crosby, Stills and Nash', is very interesting, but becomes somewhat boring afterwards. These people know everyone and write songs with them all the time. There's an amusing incident where Bob Dylan invites CBS to write a song with him, but the other anecdotes are less absorbing.

Going back to Bette Midler and her criticisms of CBS's word choices, I took a look at some of my recent lyrics, that include words like pathways, enchantment, rearrangement, bluffing, yearning (all of those in one song), communications transmogrified, democracy, tyranny, ambiguous (another song); I could go on, but I think that I've passed the 'BM litmus test'. I admit that I consciously try to use expressive language, however difficult it is to fit multisyllabic words into tunes. But then, I'm not writing pop songs and don't have to find lyrical hooks.