...AND THE DRUNKEN DIVA SAY, "BRING IT ON!"

I am not old enough to remember this for myself, but I've read quite a bit about it. So, in 1972 when Berry Gordy and Motown Records branched out into the wonderful world of cinema he decided to bring the story of Billie Holiday to the screen. That would be a challenge for the finest of filmmakers. Poor Berry was way over his head. Now, I saw LADY SINGS THE BLUES when I was in college. Despite Gordy's TV-Movie-Like approach to the life of Ms. Holiday and his insistence to create something of a hero out of the character played by Billy Dee Williams and the Cliff Notes edition of a life filled with passion, sadness, desperation, happiness, adventure and the blues --- Diana Ross gives a very good performance. She is believable and brings the horrid script and film to life. She does quite well in the role until she has to sing. I avoided Billie Holiday for years because I had this sad idea that she sang like Diana Ross. My loss. Anyway, the film was fairly panned by critics except for Miss Ross' performance -- for which she received the OSCAR nomination. If she hadn't sung, she might have won.

Ross, in my opinion, has never been a great singer. She can carry a tune -- but it has always been more about the attitude, the look and all those pretty dresses! There is no soul in that voice. Her vocals rendered the songs made famous by Billie Holiday to pop trash.

For years, Miss Ross has claimed that Mr. Gordy ignored her original recordings and take on the Billie Holiday/Jazz/Blues sound and co-opted it for that infamous Motown Sound. About a decade after the film came out, Mr. Gordy hinted that he had made the decision to toss out Ross' original vocal work and had her work with the producers and mixers who brought The Supremes to life. Hmmmm... Of course, this is also the same woman who hired Chic to produce an LP for her which she quickly shelved and re-recorded and produced by the same folks who "destroyed" her jazz work. Hmmmm... The re-issue of the DIANA lp to DVD which features both the Motown version and the original Chic version shows us that Miss. Ross made an error. Chic created a cutting edge sound that would have taken the Diva in a new direction but she opted out on that. Her loss. ...of course, that LP was a big hit and her vocals are just fine for the disco-lite she re-fashioned after the new-wave-ish sound that Chic attempted to establish for her. The same is not true for the music in LADY SINGS THE BLUES. ...Billie Holiday gone the way of pop/Doris Day/glam/pink lighting...

With the recent release of LADY SINGS THE BLUES to DVD, this debate has started again. Diana Ross trying to deflect the negative reviews of her horrible vocals to the blame of the film's producer/director and her creator --- Berry Gordy. Blah, blah, blah.

Well, kids -- Miss. Ross may refuse us the pleasure of MAHOGANY on DVD (somewhere sits a cargo of over one million copies of that film on DVD just waiting to be released to us. But, alas, Miss Ross has nailed down that cargo. BUT -- she has finally whipped Gordy to submission and the original tapes which Ross made with some of the finest jazz musicians still living in the early 70's have re-surfaced. Miss Ross has reportedly "put a great deal of effort" into the restoration of these recordings and they will be finding their way to our record stores later this month in a collection called, "Blue" --- yes, this is the Diva's last chance to show us that she can get down and jazzy. This, so says Miss Ross, is what we should have heard in the film before silly ol' Berry got his hands on her and her jazz band. The interesting thing is that "inside word" is saying that the recordings are quite good and they could have very well saved the film much of its embarrassment. Hmmmm... Well, I shall be picking it up because I have deep respect for anyone who had the nerve to record a disco song about the decor of a house and make it a Top 10 hit.

"Every-bod-ie wants ME! I am MA-HAH-GANYYYYY!" ...did she really know where she was going to?

Meanwhile, the new issue of that joyish Netherlands magazine "for homosexuals" is out. ...BUTT is a post modern gay porn/poetry/lit/socio-political rag for the ages. The men are not "model" perfect. The porn is perverse, but proud. The writing is solid and there are thoughts and ideas being challenged that we've not seen the likes of since the beginning of ADVOCATE (which has become a glossy gay version of PEOPLE) ....Actually, I think that BUTT and BITCH are the two best magazines going at this time. The new issue of BUTT features Julian Ganio as the cover boy. A bit over-weight and a chaser of portly men over 60 --- Julian is also an up and coming fashion designer. He poses in a kitchen and his bedroom. The pictures, like all in BUTT are meant to look low-fi and funny. It rocks. Now, if only it could get as smart as BITCH. It is trying. So, if you are homosexual -- check it out. If you are not, check out BITCH. It rules. And, if you are a straight male --- and issue of BITCH would do you good.