Journale 38

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Los Angeles Times - September 8, 1981

HE DOESN'T WRITE ALL THE SONGS - OR THEIR ENDINGS By Dennis Hunt, Times Staff Writer   Late last year, pop singer Barry Manilow started suffering from a special kind of anxiety. Though it's unsettling, just about any singer would give a right arm to experience it. To get it, you have to reach the pinnacle of pop music. Elton John, John Denver and Donna Summer have labored through it and Kenny Rogers and Billy Joel may have to cope with it in thc next year or two. It doesn't have an official name but let's call it superstar panic. The symptoms are nervousness and occasional depression. It flares up at the first signs that the artist may no longer be in pop music's Top Three and may soon be demoted from superstar to just plain star. The first signs are an album that sells slowly or concerts that fall one or two thousand short of capacity. Manilow's first bout with superstar panic occurred last fall when his last album, "Barry," inched to its first million. Eventually it sold 1.5 million but that's disappointing to an artist who, at his peak a few years ago, was selling in the 3-4 million range. There's always the excuse that the music business is in a horrible slump, but deep down the panicky superstar knows that any really hot artist can seIl out shows or records under any circumstances. "The career has leveled off," Manilow observed the other day in his office, a luxurious hillside home above the Sunset Strip. "Thank God, it hasn't really gone down. But it's not where it was a few years ago." What's happening with two of Manilow's three concerts this week is enough to bring on another attack of superstar panic. His Thursday show at the 8,400-seat Anaheim Convention Center is sold out but his dates tonight and Wednesday at the 18,000-seat Inglewood Forum aren't. A year or two ago, all his shows would have sold out instantly. But don't shed any tears for Manilow just yet. These local concerts are among the first in a 44-city tour that, with a few exceptions, covers smaller, less prestigious towns he hasn't played in years. Most likely, fans in these places will flock to see him. Also Manilow's new Arista album may reverse the dip in his career. "If I Should Love Again," a slick pop package of mostly romantic ballads, should sell well because it fits the current sIow-song trend and because it's the best of his 10 albums. Concerned that he was in a ballad rut, Manilow stretched in several directions on the last album, "Barry.' ''I got crazy on that one," Manilow recalled. "I said, 'I gotta change; I gotta be different; I can't keep doing the same thing because they won't go for it.' I was frantic. I was trying so many things I got all balled up."  On "Barry," Manilow attempted to give his middle-of-the-road audience same variety. The album features ballads, of course, but also unconventional-for him-songs like "The Last Duet," which he sings with Lily Tomlin, and "Only in Chicago," a pop/R&B number written with Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire. Now, rather than frenzied efforts to be different, Manilow has retreated to his strong suit-romantic ballads-and has given up trying to second-guess his audience. "I'm going to do what feels natural to me," he said. "I don't want to get too far away from the strengths again. It's only natural for artists to try to make changes because they don't want to repeat themselves. I'm still worried that I'm sounding the same and I know I do sometimes. But it's not so bad. People still like my old style. Maybe I'll find something someday that's different. Maybe I'll go through what I went through on the last album all over again someday. But I hope not." Unlike most artists, Manilow has a refreshingly realistic approach to his talent. He acknowledges that he has, at best, an average voice. His purpose, he said, is to entertain and not to dazzle an audience with vocal prowess. Audiences love Manilow for his melodramatic songs and also for his enthusiasm, sincerity, humor and the vulnerability he shows his fans. The technical skills that critics are always downgrading are secondary. Manilow's behind-the-scenes talents are more impressive than his performing. Writing, producing and arranging are his real strengths. Long after his performing career is over he'll be active in these areas. "I can't be on top forever with this singing," he observed. "But when things really drop off I won't get  crazy because I can do these other things and stay in the business. When the fame goes I'll miss it, but I won't die." A fast-taIking New Yorker, 35-year-old Manilow teems with nervous energy. Though he's lived in "laidback" Los Angeles for several years he's still operating at that frantic, New York pace. "You'll never see me fat," said the tall, thin singer. "I burn up too much energy the way I live. But I do slow down sometimes. Unless I'm at the studio until midnight, at 6 p.m. you can find me at horne (in Bel-Air) in front of my fireplace with a glass of wine, with my lady or a friend, listening to classical music. Driving is relaxing for me, too. I relax when I'm driving back and forth to the office, listening to the radio and my favorite cassettes." Though Manilow seems like a caldron of nervous energy now, he was much worse in thc mid '70s when, with hits like "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Could It Be Magic" and "Copacabana," he was rising to the top. "I was a crazy man back then," Manilow said. "I was scared. It's harder to get where I am than it is to stay here. I was driving everybody around me crazy. I guess it was just insecurity. I got the world's worst reputation. I feel a lot better about myself now. I'm a lot saner than I used to be. I feel more secure now." Most of the time, anyway. Manilow confessed there's one situation, the release of a new album, that never fails to make hirn panicky. Since "If I Should Love Again" will be released in two weeks, Manilow will, no doubt, be a nervous wreck again very soon. "I hold my breath with every album," he said. "Sometimes I run away. I don't want to know how it does. I don't want to hear the reviews. I don't want to know where it landed on the charts. It's an awful time for me. I never think I'll live through it but I always do." Manilow doesn't have to cope with these stresses and pressures alone. He said his therapist and his insightful acting coach, actress Nina Foch, both have a calming influence."This business is crazy and it can drive you crazy," he concluded. "Being at the level I've reached is nice but it's awful, too. It gets under your skin and you can lose your perspective. I have to keep telling myself, 'There's more to life than this business, there's more to life than this business ...'"

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