THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW (1987) - Page 2

...2



Winfrey: I wonder, too, when as... when you recognize that you are finally a star, what gives you a charge, a real charge? Because when you reach your position in life, where you can go anyplace in the world, you can buy anything you want, you can... Your friends are all stars, I mean, if you walk down your neighborhood, if you had a block party in your neighborhood, it would be the Who's Who of America, and between all of you in that neighborhood, the gold and platinum records, you couldn't count them. So what really now gives you a charge?

Barry: Lots of things. The reactions from a big concert gives me a charge. But I find that the things that give me the biggest charge are the little things.

Winfrey: Like?

Barry: Like a little kid coming up and saying something. I mean, there was a...
at one of the book signings I did, there was this child who was sick, and his mother accompanied him to the book signing. He was very, very ill. I forget what the disease was, but it was... he was quiet when he was born, he was... and he learned how to speak to "Copacabana."

It was just too heavy. And this little kid was there, dressed like me, you know, dressed like Tony in "Copacabana," and he learned how to speak to the movie that I had made, and he just wouldn't let me go, you know, he just... it was like this. You know, it's... it's things like that that just kill me, they just give... you know, it's not Lalique crystal, you know.

Winfrey: Not the Perrier in the styrofoam cup!?

Barry: It's not the Perrier.

Winfrey: Yeah. Thank you. More with Barry Manilow in a moment.

(Commercial break)

Winfrey: So I hear you... you have a special coming up, too?

Barry: I do, in January. They haven't given us a date yet, but we finished taping it. Quite an extravaganza we made.

Winfrey: Really?

Barry: Yeah.

Winfrey: Just you, or you have guests?

Barry: No, I did... we had everybody... everybody on the album, Diane Schuur and Kid Creole, and I got my friend Gerry Mulligan and Carmen McRae, and it's just everybody I could find.

Winfrey: Big whoop-ti-doo.

Barry: Big, oh, yeah. Phyllis Hyman, you know Phyllis Hyman?

Winfrey: Of course. Can that girl sing.

Barry: Oh, she's wonderful, oh, just great.

Winfrey: Yeah. So why, you just wanted to stretch out a bit?

Barry: What, the special, you mean?

Winfrey: Yeah.

Barry: Well, you know, they... CBS have been very supportive to me, and they've offered, whenever I'm ready to do a special, they're ready to do it, and so when I came up with the idea of "Swing Street" as an album, it sounded like it could make a good special, too, so we just did it.

Winfrey: Great. I wanted to take just a small clip, just so we can see what we're going to be seeing coming up in January.

(Clip from Manilow CBS Special)

Barry: You see, the best part about a place like this is that you can turn it
into anything you want it to be. And tonight, I want it to be a place that, up until now, has lived only in my imagination. A place I call "Swing Street."

(Sings medley with guests)

Winfrey: Yeah, great, great, looks great. I wish you great ratings, because it looks great. And also it looks like you guys had fun doing it, too.

Barry: Oh, it was great. It was great, I never wanted it to end.

Winfrey: Really? How long did it take you to do it?

Barry: About a week.

Winfrey: About a week to do all that? Great. Yes, your question for Barry.

4th audience member: Barry, in the book "Sweet Life - Adventures on the Way to Paradise," do you feel you've gotten there yet?

Barry: I'm heading, I'm getting closer, I'm getting closer, that's why I titled it Adventures on the Way to Paradise. Paradise was a... was a metaphor for Paradise in "Paradise Cafe," because it was such a cathartic experience for me. And I don't think I'm... I'll ever be the same after that. I recommend it. I recommend that kind of experience for all of you. Do one from the heart.

Winfrey: Really? Tell us, you say it was cathartic, in what way?

Barry: Well, I finally wound up doing something that I really, really wanted to do.

Winfrey: It changed your life?

Barry: Changed my life. I never felt that. I was on... you know, I was one of those guys that went to work. Even making records was a... was a job, was a very enjoyable job, but it never really came from the gut like "Paradise Cafe" did.

Winfrey: You say in the book, too, that Bette Midler sent you straight to her shrink.

Barry: I think I was ready for a shrink anyway. She just...

Winfrey: Thank you, thank you.

Barry: She just... she just gave me a little shove, you know. I saw about her things that I admired so much, that I couldn't seem to get to myself, and so...

Winfrey: Like what? Her spontaneity, her...

Barry: Oh, spontaneity, un-inhibitedness, if that's the word. I just admired that. I was raised to be a gentleman, and I was very... I thought... at least I perceived myself as being a very uptight guy, and I saw that that's not what I really want, I was not comfortable doing that.

Winfrey: Are you a better person onstage as a result?

Barry: I think so. You know, being on... you know, I think there is something to what people say about really enjoying that performing thing. You really are just... you can just be a child onstage. You can just let go. It's really quite a... quite an experience.

Winfrey: We'll be back. More of Barry in a moment.

(Commercial break)

Winfrey: Barry Manilow has been entertaining us on The Oprah Winfrey Show today. You wanted to talk to Barry, and ask him?

5th audience member: I just want to ask you how it felt last Wednesday night, the opening night of your new tour, after being off for two years?

Barry: I was very excited about it. I was very... well, how did it feel, it felt thrilling. It felt... I missed it, I would never have believed that I would have missed it. I missed it, I loved it.

Winfrey: What were you doing off, writing the book?

Barry: I was being very self... I was reflecting, I was trying to decide what it was I wanted to do. Actually, you know, I don't think I would have done it if I hadn't come up with something that killed me, like the "Swing Street" project. I would have stayed away until I came up with something that killed me, because it's just not fair to anybody to come out there and do something that is not... like, you're not really behind.

Winfrey: Okay. You wanted to say what?

6th audience member: Well, I just wanted to tell you, Barry, the new concert is great, and anybody who ever makes fun of you should go see it, because they'd never make fun of you again.

Barry: There you go. Thanks.

6th audience member: And I just wanted to ask you what you have done for the two years. Have you made commercials, have... ?

Barry: No, I did the book, I did... I searched. I searched; you all ought to try it. It really... you know, if you can, you all ought to try it.

Winfrey: What does that mean, Barry, you searched?

Barry: I searched. I wanted to come up with something that killed me.

Winfrey: And "Swing Street" did?

Barry: "Swing Street" killed me, kills me.

Winfrey: We're talking about... she said people making fun of you. In your book you write, "On the road with Bette," about a reviewer. Do you remember this reviewer? That said, "And lastly, Barry Manilow has got to go. Somewhere along the line, someone made the mistake of telling him he could sing. Towards this end, he has a new album out, "On Bell," and treated us to four solo numbers to open the second half. Manilow, who has his hair done at the Clip 'n Snip Poodle Salon, apparently thinks he is a potential star. To underscore his hallucination, he has a piano stand-in like a movie star has a lighting and blocking stand-in."

And so on and so on and so on. You remember this review, right?

Barry: Oh, yeah.

Winfrey: Have you seen the reviewer since?

Barry: He died. Need I say more?

Winfrey: Don't mess with Barry! You die! Oh, goodness gracious.

Barry: You know, we've all... we've all had our problems with the press, you know. I mean, you put yourself out there, you've got to accept it.

Winfrey: But at the time that you... because I understand that you all were at... I don't remember if it was a restaurant or where, but they brought out the review, and so on, and wonderful things were said about Bette, and you expected nice things to be said about you, and...

Barry: I didn't even think about nice things or bad things, I just... I never expected to be reviewed. But little by little over the course of those weeks, the reviewers had been saying nice things about "Could It Be Magic," and about the songs that I had been singing, and so I sort of like puffed my chest up, I was ready to go, and bam, you know, it just... but it was just the beginning of that kind of thing, that's happened to me year after year.

Winfrey: When people do Clip 'n Snip jokes, poodle salon, all that kind of stuff, and talk about you, because it's very difficult, people don't understand, it's very difficult, it takes great character to stay here. It doesn't take that much character to get where you are, but it takes a lot of character to stay there. So when people start taking snips at you, how did you handle it?

Barry: Well, I went under for a while. I pulled the covers over my head and not get out of bed because I was embarrassed to go back to the band.

Winfrey: Did they make you paranoid, did they make you paranoid?

Barry: Sometimes. And that was really rough, because it would affect the shows. I would... you know... I know that the audiences were liking what I did, and then I would actually listen to them and not do the commercials medley now and again, because they would say, "Who could take anybody seriously who does commercials?" and then I... then I wouldn't do it, you know, I'd say well, maybe I shouldn't do the commercials...

Winfrey: Maybe I should be serious?

Barry: Yeah, you know, it's just... you know, it sort of throws you. But you know, these days they seem to be coming around, and even though I... I really appreciate finally them saying nice things, I really don't care. I care what I think, I don't care what... I care what you think and I care what I think, I don't care what they think anymore.

Winfrey: Really? That's again, growth, it's growth.

Barry: It is. You know, when they say, you know, they...

Winfrey: It's what Cosby, when he was on here, said you learn to just flick it off, you team to do that.

Barry: Well, it's never easy, you know, but the fact is that they say, you know, now I'm making music that's good, you know. Anybody who says "Weekend in New England" is not good is wrong.

Winfrey: Right.

Barry: They're just wrong.

Winfrey: And so when you go through this process, it ultimately makes you better all around?

Barry: Oh, I think I've become a stronger person for this whole experience

Winfrey: What about relationships? Because you said, again in that chapter, about life being bananas at the top, it's very difficult when you are a superstar, to have relationships and develop them, because you... you don't have time to worry about the little things going on in other people's lives.

Barry: Well, all of that is true, but I think that personally, I am a man that is committed to each thing. And I guess, you know, I mean, I've had opportunities to form pretty good relationships, strong relationships, and I'm... I mean, I have good friendships, but I'm talking about romantic relationships, I mean, things like that. And I just have opted not to do it. I guess there's a fear inside of me somewhere.

Winfrey: Really?

Barry: That if I committed totally to one woman, that I would have to stop committing to the music, and I've always just... I've always stopped myself halfway there, you know.

Winfrey: Don't you want it all, though, Barry? Don't you want it?

Barry: I'll have it someday.

Winfrey: Really? What about Susan?

Barry: What about Susan?

Winfrey: You know, Susan. You know! Do you ever... do you ever see her anymore?

Barry: We talk now and again, yeah.

Winfrey: You do?

Barry: Yeah. She's a good girl. She's a good girl, she's always been terrific.

Winfrey: Okay. That's the end of that question. - Yes?

7th audience member: I just wanted to know how your mother was?

Barry: Ah, she's doing great, thank you for asking. My mother was in a little... a little under the weather, but she's doing great, thank you very much for asking.

Winfrey: Has she been to... probably not as many concerts as you, but does she come to all... does she follow you around the country?

Barry: Yeah, she's real...

Winfrey: Are you good to your mother, Barry?

Barry: I think I am.

Audience: Yes, yes.

Winfrey: I didn't ask you. I asked Barry Manilow the question, are you, are you?

Barry: Yeah, I think I am. She's good to me. I'm good to her.

Winfrey: What special things have you... because that's the true test of a good man, how he treats his mother.

Barry: Well, then, I'm a good man.

Winfrey: You're a good man. Okay.

8th audience member: I love the commercial medley.

Barry: Oh, do you?

8th audience member: That was the thing that got me hooked on you.

Barry: Really?

8th audience member: Yeah. I'm in advertising now.

Barry: See that?

Winfrey: That did it?

8th audience member: I don't know. But a couple years ago, you mentioned that you had done commercials under another name. Are you still doing that?

Barry: Yeah, well, I just don't use my name. I just... yeah. I don't use another name, I just... they just don't know who wrote it.

8th audience member: Okay. Are you going to do any more?

Barry: I have. You know, I did that Bank of America commercial, the "Bank on a leader" thing. And I think I'm up for a Pepsi spot, too. I do it to sharpen my composing chops, because there... the competition is real rough in commercials, and you've got to really write a very catchy melody in a short amount of time.

Winfrey: I wanted to ask you, when you're composing music, rather than commercials, or commercials, what comes first, the words or... the lyrics or the music?

Barry: In my case, I usually like to write a melody to the lyric. Everybody will tell you different methods of writing, but I usually get the ideas for the melodies from the lyric.

Winfrey: And when you're doing all these love songs, who are you singing to?

Barry: Different people. Different people. But it's always one person, it's always one person.

Winfrey: Really?

Barry: Yeah, I picture one person sitting out there, and I sing to them. Sometimes it's Grandpa.

Winfrey: Really?

Barry: Oh, yeah, you know, you can call on emotions from anywhere.

Winfrey: I know, since memory, I know, I know.

Barry: But you know, it doesn't have to be, you know...

Winfrey: But when people hear you singing these love songs, and they never thought that you were singing to Grandpa, I'm sure.

Barry: Well, I don't usually tell you who I'm singing to, because then it would
ruin it for everybody.

Winfrey: Yeah. Thank you, Barry. We'll be back. Barry's going to sing "Swing Street," when we come back.

(Commercial break)

Winfrey: So, from the new album "Swing Street," here's Barry Manilow with "Swing Street."

(Barry sings "Swing Street")

Barry: Oprah, before we go.

Winfrey: Yeah?

Barry: I just want to give you something.

Winfrey: Oh!

Barry: Your own bottle of Perrier, finally.

Winfrey: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm sorry I can't talk more.

Barry: I'm sorry I can't talk to you.

Winfrey: Thank you. Thank you.