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Sterling Hayden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Sterling Hayden (March 26, 1916 - May 23, 1986) was an American actor. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir. He is most noted for his appearance as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove (1964). He also played the Irish policeman, Captain McCluskey, who was gunned down by Al Pacino, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972.

Born in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, Hayden's parents were George and Frances Walter, who named him Sterling Relyea Walter. After his father died, he was adopted at the age of nine by James Hayden and renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. As a child, he lived in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Maine, where he attended Wassookeag School in Dexter, Maine.

Hayden was a genuine adventurer and man of action, not dissimilar from many of his movie parts. He ran away to sea at 17, as a ship's boy, then later was a fisherman on the Grand Banks. After serving as sailor and fireman on larger vessels, he was awarded his first command at 19, and sailed around the world several times.

He became a print model and eventually was signed to a contract with Paramount Studios, who dubbed the 6' 5" (1.96 m) actor The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies and The Beautiful Blond Viking God. His first film role starred Madeleine Carroll, with whom he fell in love and married. After only two film roles, however, he left Hollywood to serve as an undercover agent with William J. Donovan's COI office and remained after it became the OSS. He also joined the Marines under the name John Hamilton. His World War II service included running guns through German lines to the Yugoslav partisans and parachuting into fascist Croatia. He won the Silver Star and a commendation from Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito.

His admiration for the Communist partisans led to a brief involvement with the Communist Party. According to his IMDB biography, "As Red Scare deepens in U.S., he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee, confessing his brief Communist ties and "naming names". Forever after he claimed he regretted this action, holding himself in enormous contempt for what he considered 'ratting'". His ex wife Betty Denoon, to whom he was married at the time states unequivocally that the 'names' provided were those already provided by others.

He professed distaste for film acting, claiming that he did it mainly to pay for his sailing vessels. In 1959, after a very bitter divorce he was awarded custody of his children and then defied a court order and sailed to Tahiti with all four children, Christian, Dana, Gretchen and Matthew. On board as well were the three children of the first mate and his wife. Dede was the oldest followed by Kit and Dana. He wrote his autobiography Wanderer in 1963 and an historical novel,Voyage: A Novel of 1896 in 1976. Both books were well received. In 1986 he died of cancer in Sausalito, California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hayden

Strother Martin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Strother Martin, (March 26, 1919 - August 1, 1980) was an American character actor in numerous films and television programs. Martin is perhaps best known as the prison "captain" in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, where he uttered the classic line, "What we've got here is failure to communicate", which was included by Guns N' Roses in their 1990 song "Civil War".

He also frequently acted alongside L.Q. Jones, who in real life was one of his closest friends, actors Paul Newman and John Wayne, and director Sam Peckinpah.

Born in Kokomo, Indiana, Martin excelled at swimming and diving, and served as a swimming instructor in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, Martin moved to Los Angeles and worked as a swimming instructor in films, eventually earning bit roles in a number of films. Martin's distinctive, reedy voice and menacing demeanor made him ideal for villainous roles in many of the best known Westerns of the 1960s and 1970s.

Martin appeared in all three of the classic Westerns released in 1969: Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (as Coffer, a bloodthirsty bounty hunter); George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (as Percy Garris, the Bolivian mine boss who hires the two title characters); and Henry Hathaway's True Grit (as Colonel Stonehill, a horse wrangler). Though he usually appeared in supporting roles, he had major parts in Hannie Caulder, The Brotherhood of Satan (both 1971), and SSSSSSS (1973).

Strother Martin can also be seen in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke (1978) as the father of Tommy Chong.

Martin died of a heart attack in 1980 at the age of 61.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strother_Martin

Leonard Nimoy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born
March 26, 1931
Boston, Massachusetts


Leonard Simon Nimoy (born March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet and photographer best known for playing the character Spock in the Star Trek franchise, namely the original television series.

Life

Born in Boston, Massachusetts to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, Nimoy spent much of his early career in the 1950s doing small parts in B-movies, TV shows such as Dragnet, and serials such as Republic Pictures Zombies of the Stratosphere in 1952. In 1961 he had a minor role in The Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy".


Nimoy served in the U.S. Army Reserve, receiving final discharge in November 1955 as a Sergeant. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, Nimoy's U.S. Army service record was destroyed in the 1973 National Archives Fire.

Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and is an adherent of Reform Judaism. One of his better-known roles was that of Tevye the milkman, in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, based on the series of short stories by Yiddish author Sholom Aleichem. In 1997 he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002 Nimoy published Shekhina, a photographic study of women intended to visualize the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism).


Career


Stage and screen


Nimoy's most famous role is the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock from Star Trek, the original series (TOS; 1966-69). He earned three Emmy nominations for playing this character.

In a strange twist of fate, Nimoy and William Shatner (who would go on to play Spock's commanding officer, Captain James T. Kirk), found themselves on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain in the 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair". With his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit. Nimoy went on to reprise Spock's character in a voice-over role in Star Trek: The Animated Series, in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in six Star Trek motion pictures featuring the original cast.

Following the cancellation of TOS, Nimoy played a spy called Paris in the hit television series Mission Impossible from 1969-71. Although Nimoy said he enjoyed working with Peter Graves and other cast members, he regarded Mission Impossible as one of the low points of his career. He considered the work boring and unchallenging. He has often said there are times he barely remembers doing the show. It was during the run of the show that Nimoy fell deathly ill with a stomach ulcer. Only expert medical attention saved his life.


He co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie Catlow (1971). Nimoy also appeared in various made for television films in this period such as Assault On The Wayne (1970), Baffled (1972), The Alpha Caper (1973), The Missing Are Deadly (1974), Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris (1980), Marco Polo (1982) and he received an Emmy award nomination for best supporting actor for the TV film A Woman Called Golda (1982). In 1973, Nimoy also appeared on an episode of the popular television series Columbo called A Stitch In Crime. He played a murderous doctor and was one of the few criminals that Columbo ever really became angry at. In the late 1970s, he hosted and narrated the television series In Search of..., which investigated paranormal or unexplained events or subjects. He also has a memorable part as a new-age psychologist in Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It was during this time that Nimoy won acclaim for a series of stage roles as well. He has appeared in such plays as Fiddler On The Roof, The Man In The Glass Booth, Oliver, Six Rms Riv Vu, Full Circle, Camelot, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The King And I, Caligula, The Four Poster, Twelfth Night, Sherlock Holmes and My Fair Lady. When a new Star Trek series was planned in the late 1970s, Nimoy was to be in only two out of every eleven episodes, but when the show was elevated to a feature film, he agreed to reprise his role.

After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy broke into film directing in 1984 with the successful third installment of the Star Trek film series (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). Nimoy would go on to direct Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and move beyond the Trek universe with Three Men and a Baby in 1987. Nimoy also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films including the character of Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie in 1986 and The Pagemaster in 1994.


Literary works

Nimoy has written two autobiographies, the first one called I Am Not Spock (1977). The title of this book was controversial, as many fans incorrectly assumed that Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character; however, Nimoy's stated intention was merely to remind the public at large that Spock and Nimoy were not one and the same.

His second autobiography was entitled I Am Spock (1995), and this title was meant to communicate that he finally realized that his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and the real person. Over the years, Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and, conversely, Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way that he never would have thought if he had not portrayed this character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense, he really is now Spock, and Spock is him, while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.

Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is entitled A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts.


Music career

During and following TOS, Nimoy also released several albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records, including Trek-related songs and cover versions of popular tunes. These recordings are generally regarded as unintentionally camp, though his tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films were released.

In addition to his own music career he also directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college.

Current work

Starting in 1995, Nimoy began to narrate Ancient mystery shows on The History Channel including "The Sacred Water of Lourdes" and "The Last Days of the Romanovs". In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting in order to concentrate on his photography, but has subsequently appeared in several popular TV commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He also appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl. Nimoy also provided a comprehensive series of voiceovers for the 2005 computer game Civilization IV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Nimoy

Alan Arkin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor.

Born in New York City to a Jewish family, Arkin is one of only five actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance (for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming) in 1966. Two years later, he was again nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. In a piece he wrote for the Second City book, Arkin wanted to be an actor since he was five. It was in a performance in St. Louis that Arkin caught a casting director's eye, who later met with the actor to tell him about a comedy troupe he was assembling in Chicago and if he wanted a job, it was open. Arkin politely agreed, before heading back to New York City with the impression that he wasn't going to lose out on a career by moving to Chicago. But after another year as a struggling actor at 29 years old, Arkin called the director and asked if the offer was still open. With the offer still on the table, he packed his bags and headed for the midwest, thinking it was a mistake. But Arkin later said that it turned out to be the best thing in his life since it turned around when he joined what was The Second City comedy troupe.

Arkin is equally comfortable in comedy and dramatic roles, in such diverse films as Inspector Clouseau, Catch-22, Freebie and The Bean, Hearts of the West, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (where he played Sigmund Freud), Edward Scissorhands, The Rocketeer, the 1979 The In-Laws, Glengarry Glen Ross, Four Days in September, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Jerky Boys: The Movie and Raising Flagg.

His son is actor Adam Arkin.

Literary career

Arkin has also enjoyed a small literary career, including a pair of science fiction stories published in Galaxy magazine; children's books including The Clearing and Cassie Loves Beethoven, and the science fiction short story "The Amazing Grandy", about Martin Gardner-style debunkers, in the August 2001 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction.


Musical career

Arkin was a member of mid-50's folk group The Tarriers; in 1956 they had their biggest hit with a version of the "Banana Boat Song" (it reached #4 on the Billboard charts), the same year that Harry Belafonte recorded his more famous version. [1]

Arkin co-wrote The Only Living Boy in New York with Paul Simon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Arkin

James Caan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


James Langston Michael Caan (born March 26, 1940, The Bronx, New York) is an American actor. Caan's parents were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. He currently stars as "Big Ed Deline" on the NBC hit series, Las Vegas.

A graduate of New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse where one of his instructors was teaching legend Sanford Meisner, Caan began acting in television in such series as The Untouchables. His first substantial film role was as a menacing villain in the 1964 thriller Lady In A Cage. In 1967, Caan appeared in El Dorado with John Wayne. Caan first won praise for his role as a brain-damaged football player in The Rain People (1969), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In 1971, Caan won even greater acclaim as dying football player Brian Piccolo in the television movie Brian's Song. The following year Coppola cast Caan as mobster Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, which also helped launch Al Pacino's career. For his role Caan was nominated for an Academy Award.

Stardom

From 1973 to 1982, Caan appeared in many Hollywood films. He played a wide variety of roles and refused to be typecast as a mobster. His many films include Cinderella Liberty, Freebie and The Bean, The Gambler, The Killer Elite, Rollerball, Harry And Walter Go To New York, A Bridge Too Far, Comes A Horseman and Chapter Two (a play screenplay conversion by Neil Simon).

In 1980, Caan directed Hide In Plain Sight a film about a father searching for his children lost in the Witness Protection Program. Despite critical praise, the film was not a hit.

The following year, Caan appeared in Thief, directed by Michael Mann, where he played a professional safe cracker. This film is today regarded as a film noir classic and Caan has often said it is the role he is proudest of next to The Godfather.

From 1982 to 1987, Caan did not act in any films. He was suffering from depression over his sister's death, a growing problem with cocaine, and what he described as Hollywood burnout. He made a return to film in 1987 when his old friend Francis Ford Coppola cast him as an Army Sergeant in Gardens Of Stone, a film that dealt with the effect of the Vietnam War on the homefront.

In 1988 and 1990, Caan starred in the popular films Alien Nation, Dick Tracy and Misery (co-star Kathy Bates won a Best Actress Oscar). In 1992, Caan made the hit Honeymoon in Vegas. He co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicolas Cage and hilariously spoofed his "Sonny Corleone" character from The Godfather.

In 1996 he appeared in the indie hit Bottle Rocket and pursued Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser.

In 1999, Caan joined the ranks of Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum and Powers Boothe when he portrayed Philip Marlowe in the HBO film Poodle Springs.

Some of his most recent appearances have been in The Yards (2000), City of Ghosts (2002), Dogville (2003) and Elf (2003).

Caan has been married four times. In 1960 he married Dee Jay Mathis; they divorced in 1966 and had one child. His second marriage with Sheila Ryan (1976) was short lived, and they divorced the next year. His son Scott was born in 1976. Between September 1990 and March 1995 Caan was married to Ingrid Hajek; they also had one child. He married Linda Stokes in October 1995, but got recently divorced from her in April 2005. They have two children.

James Caan was a Turnberry Island regular. He was friendly with marijuana smugglers Joey Ippolito and Ben Kramer. In 1994, Caan offered his home as collateral toward the $2-million bail and appeared as a character witness for his "dear friend", Joey Ippolito, who was on trial for cocaine distribution.

As a result of his excellent portrayal of Sonny Corleone, Caan is often mistaken for being of Italian ancestry, and has even received recognition from a few Italian-American organizations. However, Caan is of German Jewish descent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Caan

Diana Ross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Origin Detroit, Michigan
Years active 1959-present
Genre(s) Pop, Soul, R&B
Label(s) Motown, RCA


Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross [1] on March 26, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American soul, R&B and pop singer and actress. Ross is one of the most successful female artists of her era, both due to her solo work and her role as lead singer of The Supremes during the 1960s.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the female entertainer of the century. In 1993, The Guinness Book Of World Records pronounced her the most successful female artist ever, partly due to her combined total of eighteen #1 singles, six of them recorded solo and the remaining dozen from her work with the Supremes. Only The Beatles (twenty number ones), Mariah Carey (seventeen number ones) and Elvis Presley (seventeen number ones) have equalled or bettered this accomplishment.


Biography
[edit]

The Supremes

Main entry: The Supremes

Fred and Ernestine Ross had named and christened their daughter "Diane"; however, due to a clerical error, "Diana" was what wound up on her birth certificate [2] [3]. Regardless of the mistake, Ross would continue to use the name "Diane" through her teenage years.

Ross began her long music career with Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown as the doo-wop quartet the Primettes, a sister group to The Primes in 1959. After signing to Motown Records in 1961 and replacing McGlown with Barbara Martin, they changed the name of the group to The Supremes. Barbara Martin left the group shortly afterwards, and The Supremes carried on as a trio.

Although all the girls originally took turns singing lead, Motown chief Berry Gordy made Diane the permanent lead singer starting in 1964, because he felt her voice had the pop appeal the Supremes needed to cross over to white audiences. Ross also began using the name "Diana" at this time. Between the summer of 1964 and the summer of 1967, the Supremes released ten singles which went to #1 on the pop charts becoming the most successful black group of the decade.

In July 1967, Florence Ballard was fired from the Supremes and replaced with Cindy Birdsong. At this time, the group was officially renamed Diana Ross & the Supremes recognizing Ross as the focal point of the group. During this period, the group had two more #1 hits as Motown began plans for a Diana Ross solo career, which was announced in November 1969. In January 1970, Ross officially departed from the Supremes after a January 14 Farewell concert at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. The group moved on with new lead singer Jean Terrell, while Ross put the finishing touches on her debut album.

Early solo career

In the Spring of 1970, Diana Ross, Ross' debut solo album, was released. After the initial moderate success of what turned out to be Ross' signature concert song, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" (U.S. #20, U.S. R&B #7), Ross broke out of the pack with her cover of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's 1967 classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". The original 3-minute love duet was turned into a 6-minute dramatic soul opus, where Ross was in spoken word half of the running time. The song would peak at #1 on both the U.S. pop and R&B charts, and Ross received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.

In the first few years of Ross' solo career, she developed a polished, soulful style that was particularly her own and was well suited to her work with songwriters-producers Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. Ross and Gordy struggled to find a record able to top the success of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". Her second release, Everything Is Everything, failed to produce a top 10 hit in America. However, her covers of Aretha Franklins "Call Me" (her second Grammy-nominated performance), The Carpenters' "(They Long To Be) Close To You", and the Beatles "The Long and Winding Road" on that album showed that she was, indeed, a singer to be reckoned with, exhibiting both the vulnerability and longing that would become her trademark. In the United Kingdom, she enjoyed a massive #1 hit from the LP, "I'm Still Waiting", which spent 4 weeks at the top. The cover photo of that album would later inspire Britney Spears who wears a similar outfit in her 2004 video for her single "Toxic". For her third, 1971's Surrender, she was teamed again with Ashford and Simpson. "Surrender" was notable for several Top 40 solo recordings, however, Gordy decided Ross needed a new outlet for her talent and set his sights on motions picture. It would prove to be a fateful move.

Lady Sings the Blues

When word got out that singer Diana Ross was going to portray jazz-blues legend Billie Holiday in a box-office movie, critics, Holiday's fans and Ross' skeptics laughed at the news. Like many of the singers-turned-actors of the day, Ross was slammed early by critics because "she didn't look like Billie" nor did she have the same qualities that made Holiday so unique when she became a superstar during the jazz era. However, Ross, Gordy, and the newly established film division of Motown Productions carried on with their Billie Holiday bio-pic production, Lady Sings the Blues.

Opening in theaters in the fall of 1972, Lady Sings the Blues became an instant hit and Ross received universal raves for her performance as Billie Holiday. It not only increased the star powers of Ross and Richard Pryor, who played Piano Man, but introduced the world to future star Billy Dee Williams, who would go on to become a leading sex symbol of the 1970s. Ross was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and won Best Newcomer at the 1973 Golden Globes.

Ross covered a number of Holiday's songs for the film, including "Strange Fruit", "God Bless the Child", and "Good Morning Heartache", which was released as a single on the double-album Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack at the end of 1972. That album went on to hold the #1 spot on the album charts, and would be Ross' only solo album to reach that position.

In late 1971 and early 1972, Ross recorded an album of jazz standards to accompany the Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack. But Motown did not release the album for over 30 years. The album will be released as Blue on June 20, 2006. Blue includes Ross's renditions of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" and "I Loves Ya Porgy" by George and Ira Gershwin.

Diana & Marvin

By 1973, Diana Ross finally was able to see more chart success as a singer for the first time since 1970. With the Michael Masser produced "Touch Me in the Morning", she scored her first #1 pop hit in three years and received a third Grammy nomination. That same year, Ross released a duets album with fellow Motown artist Marvin Gaye entitled Diana and Marvin, scoring several chart hits. While the album was a moderate financial success, critics noted the lack of chemistry between the two singers, a result of the fact that the album was primarily a publicity move to promote Ross's image and that Gaye was not keen on working with her. This contributed to their parts being recorded separately although it has been suggested that Gaye refused to stop smoking his marijuana in the studio when the pregnant Ross was around. Their partnership did, however, produce some classic moments for them including their takes on the Stylistics' "You Are Everything" and "Stop, Look, Listen" and their own hit, "You're a Special Part of Me".

Mahogany

After the success of Lady Sings the Blues in 1972, Berry Gordy arranged for Diana Ross to take the lead in Mahogany. After firing renowned British director Tony Richardson claiming he did not understand the Black sensibility that the film required, Gordy assumed directing duties himself. The story was about a young woman from the Chicago ghettos who dreamed of being a successful model and fashion designer. Again, she teamed up with Billy Dee Williams as her love interest.

Opening in the fall of 1975, Mahogany wasn't the critical phenomenon that Ross probably hoped for, though it was a bankable success in the box-office. The film's theme song and lead soundtrack single, "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", hit #1 on the U.S. pop charts and was nominated for an Oscar. During the Oscars telecast, Ross became the first artist to perform for the Oscars ceremony via satellite; she sang "Theme From Mahogany" from a bridge in Holland where she was performing a series of concerts.

"Love Hangover", The Wiz, and diana

In 1976, Ross headed into disco territory with the release of the seven-minute dance single "Love Hangover". It became her first #1 R&B hit since "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and the first of many of her songs to appear at or near the top of the Billboard Dance/Club singles chart. "Love Hangover" was released from Ross' second self-titled album, which became a Top 10 Pop and R&B album that summer. The hit had previously been turned down by Cher, Donna Summer, Bette Midler, and Barbra Streisand.

In 1977, Diana broke concert records with a one-woman concert on Broadway. The concert was packaged into both a live album, An Evening with Diana Ross, and a TV special that same year. For her efforts, Ross won a special Tony Award.

In 1978, Ross was back in the film limelight, starring in the film version of the successful Broadway play The Wiz, with Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, and Richard Pryor. Many eyebrows were raised at Ross, then age 34, playing Dorothy, who in all other versions of The Wizard of Oz was portrayed as a young girl. The Wiz, which cost $24 million to make, only brought in $13 million dollars during its original theatrical release.

Unfortunately, projects Ross was planned to appear in, including a movie about Josephine Baker and The Bodyguard, which was supposed to co-star Ross and actor Ryan O'Neal as lovers, didn't come to fruition until years later. Actress Lynn Whitfield ended up playing Baker, and Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner ended up playing the lovers in The Bodyguard (1992).

Diana Ross returned to her music career and released two strong successive albums: 1979's The Boss and 1980's diana. The former, produced by longtime Ross collaborators Ashford & Simpson, was a bigger hit on the R&B charts than on the pop charts, but has since been hailed by most music critics as probably her strongest album as a solo artist. The latter, produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the legendary disco band CHIC, became the singer's biggest-selling record in her career, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. The diana album yielded two classic signature hits: "Upside Down", Ross' first #1 of the '80s and her fifth as a solo artist, and "I'm Coming Out", which became a gay anthem and cemented Ross as a gay icon. Both songs have since been heavily sampled by hip hop artists. The album would have almost certainly continued to produce hits, but when Ross chose not to renew her contract with Motown, promotion on diana ceased and no further singles were released.

The RCA era

Having established herself as the biggest-selling female artist of the Motown label by 1981, Ross felt it was the right time to leave. She released the stunning ballad "It's My Turn" (recorded for the film of the same name starring Michael Douglas), and the song's lyrics were oddly personal and prophetic, signaling her break from Motown. Before leaving, however, she recorded a duet with Lionel Richie called "Endless Love", which proved to be the biggest record of her career as well as her last hit on the Motown label. The single was certified by the RIAA for 2 million units sold and helped to launch Richie's solo career.

In 1983 Ross reunited with fellow Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong at a television special for Motown's 25th anniversary. During the taping, Ross made a scene by shoving Wilson and knocking the microphone from Wilson's hand. This incident was never televised, but generated much negative press at the time (Wilson recounted the incident in her 1986 biography). Also in 1983, Ross garnered publicity when a Central Park televised concert was ruined by heavy rains.

She signed to RCA, and had success beginning with the platinum Why Do Fools Fall in Love; the title track of the LP was a cover of the Frankie Lymon hit. Ross continued into the early 1980s with the major hit singles "Mirror, Mirror" (#2 R&B, 1982), "Muscles" (#4 R&B and her final of 12 Grammy nominations, 1982), "Swept Away" (#1 Dance/Disco, 1984), and "All Of You" (#2 Adult Contemporary, 1984), a duet with Julio Iglesias. In 1984, she released "Missing You" (#1 R&B), a tribute to the recently deceased Marvin Gaye. Although the two singers were not particularly close it would become her final Top 10 hit. In 1986, she returned to Number 1 on the British charts for the first time in 15 years with the Supremes-inspired "Chain Reaction", which was written by the Bee Gees. Surprisingly, the single failed to crack the Top 40 in the USA. After a downturn in record sales during the second half of 1980s, she returned to the Motown fold with Workin' Overtime in 1989.

Returning to Motown

Her Motown releases since 1989 have not been as successful in America as they have in Europe and Japan. For example, while 1991's The Force Behind the Power and the single "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" disappeared without a trace in America, the album and the song became bigger hits overseas. In fact, the single gave Ross a bold UK comeback, debuting in the Top 10 and peaking at #2 for 2 weeks over the holiday season. The album sold just under 600,000 copies and produced four additional hits: "One Shining Moment" (#10), and "If We Hold On Together" (#11; also #1 in Japan with over 465,000 copies sold), the title track (#27) and Heart (Don't Change My Mind) (#31). Following this success, One Woman: The Ultimate Collection went to #1 on the UK album chart in January 1994, selling 1.2 million copies in England alone, and 3 million copies throughout Europe. "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" finally became a #1 hit in the USA for the American Idol finalists in the summer of 2005, proving that the ballad had hit potential and that Ross's original had indeed been unjustly overlooked in the USA. 1995's Take Me Higher and 1999's Everyday Is a New Day performed similarly in the USA.

Diana expanded her versatility during this period by both recording a live opera album (with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras) and a live jazz album. Both releases did respectfully well on the Billboard Classical and Jazz Albums charts, reaching #1 on the former and the Top 10 on the latter. As a result, this made Ross one of the only artists to achieve fame in other genres other than the usual Pop and R&B. After the moderate success of Everyday Is a New Day, however, Ross was let go from Motown, after a lackluster 13 years, in 2002.

During the 1990s, Diana returned to acting, appearing as a schizophrenic in the 1994 television movie Out of Darkness, and as a singer who's willing to reconcile with a daughter (played by Brandy Norwood) that she abandoned as a baby in 1999's Double Platinum. Ross was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in Darkness.

Troubles at the top

Ross seemed to settle into middle age as the 1990s continued, but by the end of the decade, the singer landed in hot water after she was frisked by a female security guard at London's Heathrow Airport, and was ignored by Airport official when she complained that the guard's actions had not only been inappropriate, but verged on sexual harassment. She claimed it had not been necessary for the guard to feel her breasts and between her legs as she was wearing a skin-tight body stocking and was obviously not carrying a concealed weapon. Her complaints fell on deaf ears and after the security guard smirked at the Star as she returned to catch her flight, Ross approached the guard and frisked her in the same way she had been frisked, exclaiming "There, how do you like it." The security guard didn't like it. Ross was arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped.

In the 2000s, Ross tried to put together a tour with the former members of The Supremes. However, former Supremes founding member Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong passed on the tour, after being offered only $3 million and $1 million each, respectively, to join the tour, compared to the $15 million offered to Ross. Ross ended up recruiting Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne to begin the Return to Love tour. While Laurence and Payne were Supremes during the 1970s, they were never in the group at the same time or with Ross. The resulting tour was faced with problems, and was cancelled after the tenth show.

In 2002, Ross was pulled over for drunk driving outside of an Arizona Blockbuster Video store. After failing several sobriety tests and finding that her alcohol-blood level was 0.20--far above the legal Arizona limit of .08--the singer was arrested and later charged with a misdemeanor. In 2004, she served a 2-day sentence at a jail cell in Connecticut. The prison guard would later be accused of allowing Ross to do what she wanted while she was in prison. Ross only served 47 and one-half hours in jail, and was almost forced to return to serve another two-day sentence before a judge decided against it.

Current work

In 2004, Diana Ross, age 60, attempted a major comeback. She began touring again, first in Europe for the successful "Love Life Tour", then later taking part in a brief tour in America as well. She later performed in tribute to her friend and former Motown Records alum Stevie Wonder at the 2004 Billboard Music Awards, alongside Mary J. Blige and Destiny's Child.

Ross, who as of present does not have a recording contract, was chosen (at the age of 60) to be the 2005 face of MAC Cosmetics "Icon" makeup line. Her face was featured in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue to promote the MAC makeup line. Her signature line of makeup featured limited edition pink makeup brushes and are now sold out and have become collectible. Rumored to be working on a new album, she has also turned up on duets for artists such as Ray Charles, boy band Westlife, and Rod Stewart, whose duet with Ross garnered Ross her first charted Billboard single in six years when "I've Got a Crush on You" made a notable debut at #33 on Billboard's adult contemporary charts, later reaching the peak at #19 (2006). Ross recently had done another tour of Europe and is planning to do several shows in South Africa before the year is out.

In December 2005 Diana Ross' first single of the decade, "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", was released in the UK. The song was a collaboration with the popular boy band Westlife, and debuted at inside the Top 5 with high sales (#2 UK, #2 Ireland). However, after its successful first couple of weeks, the single dropped down the chart and after 8 weeks was gone from the UK Top 75 (Westlife's previous single was still in the chart the next week with 16 weeks on chart). It is important to note that the song was released at a time when the UK singles chart is exceptionally busy (late December) and was faced with stiff competition from new and preceding singles. The song stayed strong on the Irish Singles Chart.

35 years after the release of Ross' debut film, "Lady Sings The Blues", Paramount DVD released the film on DVD for the first time. A limited edition "collector's edition" featured exclusive interviews and commentaries from Ross, Berry Gordy and the film's director as well as deleted scenes from the film.

Next Album

Diana is working on her next album, which is scheduled for a fall 2006 release. It is likely to include duets, such as her recent duets with Westlife and Rod Stewart, and the main concept of the album will be all about love.

Personal

Diana Ross is the second of six children, three girls and three boys, from factory worker Fred Ross and teacher Ernestine Earle Ross. From 1971 to 1977, Diana Ross was married to music promoter Robert Ellis Silberstein, with whom she has two daughters (Tracee and Chudney). From 1986 to 1999, she was married to Norwegian businessman Arne Næss Jr., with whom she has two sons (Ross and Evan) Diana Ross youngest son Evan is starring in the upcoming film ATL. (Næss died in a South African mountain accident in January 2004).

Before her first marriage, Ross had been romantically linked with both Motown labelmate Smokey Robinson and Motown chief Berry Gordy, with whom she had her first child Rhonda. After her first marriage, she dated actor Ryan O'Neal, and KISS bassist and singer Gene Simmons.

Her oldest daughter, Rhonda Ross Kendrick, is a songstress and actress. Her second daughter, Tracee Ellis Ross, is an actress who received claim to fame as one of the stars of the hit sitcom Girlfriends, now in its fifth season on the UPN network. Ross' youngest daughter, Chudney, in the meantime, is a model and television producer. Her TV credits include the reality show version of Fame with Debbie Allen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Ross

Stop! In The Name Of Love :: Diana Ross

(Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland, Jr.)

Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart

Baby, baby
I'm aware of where you go
Each time you leave my door
I watch you walk down the street
Knowing your other love you'll meet
But this time before you run to her
Leaving me alone and hurt
(Think it over) After I've been good to you ?
(Think it over) After I've been sweet to you ?

Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Think it over
Think it over

I've known of your
Your secluded nights
I've even seen her
Maybe once or twice
But is her sweet expression
Worth more than my love and affection ?
But this time before you leave my arms
And rush of to her charms
(Think it over) Haven't I been good to you ?
(Think it over) Haven't I been sweet to you ?

Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Think it over
Think it over

I've tried so hard, hard to be patient
Hoping you'd stop this infatuation
But each time you are together
I'm so afraid I'll be losing you forever

Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart

Baby, think it over
Think it over, baby
Ooh, think it over baby...

Vicki Lawrence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vicki Lawrence (born Vicki Ann Axelrad on March 26, 1949, in Inglewood, California) is a comedian, actress, and singer.

She has also been credited as Vicki Lawrence Schultz; Schultz being the surname of her second husband, Al Schultz, to whom she has been married since November 16, 1974, and by whom she has two children, Courtney (May 3, 1975) and Garrett (July 3, 1977).

Comedy

As a comedienne and actress, she is best known for her work on The Carol Burnett Show, of which she was a part from 1967 to 1978. Lawrence's ascension to become part of the Burnett show is part of Hollywood legend; she was literally hired for the show on the basis of a letter she had sent to Burnett and the producers, with a photograph of Lawrence that clearly showed her resemblance to Burnett. Despite her beginner's status, Lawrence proved to be a valuable part of the comedic team on the show, and played many memorable characters, particularly the role of Thelma "Mama" Harper in the recurring "Eunice" sketches.

Her portrayal of the "Mama" character was so popular that NBC created a sitcom, Mama's Family, based on characters from the skit. (Burnett reprised Eunice for the sitcom.) The series ran from 1983 to 1984 on NBC; it was reprised from 1986 to 1990 in first-run syndication. She also reprised the "Mama" character on stage forVicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-Woman Show.

Lawrence has made appearances on other programs, such as the sitcoms Roseanne and Yes, Dear. She has also appeared with Burnett, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway in the Burnett show retrospectives that were broadcast in 2001 and 2004.

Other careers

As a singer, she is most known for her #1 one-hit wonder, "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia," which was released in 1973. (Cher was offered the song first, but turned it down.)

As an emcee, she hosted the daytime NBC version of the game show Win, Lose or Draw, and has also appeared often as a popular panelist on such game shows as Match Game, Password, The $10,000 Pyramid, and The $25,000 Pyramid, as well as Hollywood Squares, where she appeared both as herself and in character as Thelma "Mama" Harper. Lawrence won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Talk Show in 1993 for the eponymous Vicki!, but the show was canceled after only two seasons, due to low ratings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Lawrence

The Night The Lights Went Out In Geogia
Vicki Lawrence

He was on his way home from Candletop
Been two weeks gone and he thought he'd stop at Webbs
And have him a drink
'fore he went home to her
Andy Wolloe said Hello
And he said Hi, whats doin', Wo
Said, sit down, I got some bad news, it's gonna hurt
He said, I'm your best friend and you know that's right
But your young bride ain't home tonight
Since you been gone she's been seein' that Amos boy, Seth
Well, he got mad 'n' he saw red
And Andy said, Boy, dontcha lose your head
'Cause to tell ya the truth
I been with her myself

That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That's the night that they hung an innocent man
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer
'Cause the judge in the towns got bloodstains on his hands

Well, Andy got scared and left the bar
Walkin' on home 'cause he didn't live far
See, Andy didn't have many friends
And he'd just lost him one
Brother thought his wife musta left town
So he went home and finally found
The only thing Papa had left him and that was a gun

And he went off to Andy's house
A-slippin' through the backwoods quiet as a mouse
Came upon some tracks too small for Andy to make
He looked through the screen at the back-porch door
And he saw Andy lyin' on the floor
In a puddle of blood and he started to shake

Well, the Georgia Patrol was a-makin their rounds
So he fired a shot just to flag 'em down
And a big-bellied sheriff grabbed his gun and said "why dya do it"
And the judge said Guilty in a make-believe trial
And slapped the Sheriff on the back with a smile
Said suppers waitin' at home and I gotta get to it

That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That's the night that they hung an innocent man
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer
'Cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands

Well, they hung my brother before I could say
The tracks he saw while on his way
To Andy's house and back that night were mine
And his cheatin' wife had never left town
And that's one body that'll never be found
See, little sister don't miss when she aims her gun

That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia, oh-oh-aah
That's the night that they hung an innocent man, ah-huh-unh
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer
'Cause the Judge in the towns got bloodstains on his hands

The Sunday School Teacher asks, "Now, Johnny, tell me frankly
do you say prayers before eating?"
"No sir," little Johnny replies, "I don't have to. My Mom is a good
cook."



A college drama group presented a play in which one character
would stand on a trap door and announce, "I descend into hell!"
A stagehand below would then pull a rope, the trapdoor would
spring, and the actor would drop from view.
The play was well received. When the actor playing the part became
ill, another actor who was quite overweight took his place. When
the new actor announced, "I descend into hell!" the stagehand
pulled the rope, and the actor began his plunge, but became
hopelessly stuck. No amount of tugging on the rope could make
him descend.
One student in the balcony jumped up and yelled: "Hallelujah!
Hell is full!"





Pastor Dave Charlton tells us, "After a worship service at First
Baptist Church in Newcastle, Kentucky, a mother with a fidgety
seven-year old boy told me how she finally got her son to sit still
and be quiet. About halfway through the sermon, she leaned over
and whispered, 'If you don't be quiet, Pastor Charlton is going to
lose his place and will have to start his sermon all over again!'
It worked."



A little girl was sitting on her grandfather's lap as he read her a
bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the
book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately
stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up,
"Grandpa, did God make you?"
"Yes, sweetheart," he answered, "God made me a long time ago."
"Oh," she paused, "grandpa, did God make me too?"
"Yes, indeed, honey," he said, "God made you just a little while ago."
Feeling their respective faces again, she observed, "God's getting
better, isn't he?"

Whaddaya know, Diana Ross is 62 huh.

Heard a joke yesterday.

Old Tom had a birthday coming up, his 85th.
His friends got together, and decided they would pay for a memorable visit by a call girl for him.

On the day in question, the woman, dressed down and looking good, rang his doorbell.

"Hi, I'm Mandy, and for your birthday I'm going to give you super sex!"

Tom said, "I'll take the soup".

Wow! listeners. I just had an afternoon siesta, and I feel as though I am some place else.

Thanks again to our hawkman for the bio's and I think we know most of them. The church jokes were precious and I have one true observation to add.

Our piano player's son was very, very restless in church because the sermon was quite long. The minister finally showed signs of winding down when he said, "and in closing, may I say one more thing." to which the child replied in a loud voice.

NO!

Needless to say, that was end of the sermon.

Hey, McTag. My sister sent me that one, Mr. super sexy. <smile>

Back later to review Bob's background folks.

Bob, we here at WA2K want you to know how much your background enlightens us all. The smallest facts about your celebs are revealing and wonderful and make those people come to life. I had no idea about Tennessee Williams, but I taught The Glass Menagerie, and read most of the others.

I think Diana Ross did a superb job of acting in the Billie Holiday story, and I recall her having been arrested. Of course, most of us know Robert Frost, and I would like to add one to poem to your "Road not Taken."

The Gift Outright

The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

-- Robert Frost






Written in 1942, recited at JFK's inauguration in 1961.

Good day all.

Remembering Tennessee:




Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead.

The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that's true of everyone, don't you?

In memory everything seems to happen to music.

Tennessee Williams

Karl Shapiro


I Am an Atheist Who Says His Prayers


I am an atheist who says his prayers.
I am an anarchist, and a full professor at that. I take the loyalty oath.
I am a deviate. I fondle and contribute, backscuttle and brown, father of three.
I stand high in the community. My name is in "Who's Who." People argue about my modesty.
I drink my share and yours and never have enough. I free-load officially and unofficially.
A physical coward, I take on all intellectuals, established poets, popes, rabbis, chiefs of staff.
I am a mystic. I will take an oath that I have seen the Virgin. Under the dry pandanus, to the
scratching of kangaroo rats, I achieve psychic onanism. My tree of nerves electrocutes itself.
I uphold the image of America and force my luck. I write my own ticket to oblivion.
I am of the race wrecked by success. The audience brings me news of my death. I write out of
boredom, despise solemnity. The wrong reason is good enough for me.
I am of the race of the prematurely desperate. In poverty of comfort I lay gunpowder plots. I lapse my insurance.
I am the Babbitt metal of the future. I never read more than half a book. But that half I read forever.

Ah, There's our Raggedy. I was wondering about you, PA.

Stella!

and I love that quote by Tennesse Williams, honey.

I have a friend who named her cat, Maggie. A seal point siamese.<smile>

One of the most provocation expressions from The Glass Manegerie was:

"Gentlemen callers." My Gawd, listeners. what is it about antique expressions that make us single things out from a really great work.

edgar, I had forgotten about Karl Shapiro, so I went to the archives and found this one:




The Contraband

I dreamed I held a poem and knew
The capture of a living thing.
Boys in a Grecian circle sang
And women at their harvesting.

Slowly I tried to wake and draw
The vision after, word by word,
But sleep was covetous: the song
The singers and the singing blurred.

The paper flowers of everynight
All die. Day has no counterpart,
Where memory writes its boldface wish
And swiftly punishes the heart.

Copyright 1998 by Karl Shapiro

Speaking of Siamese, listeners.

Artist: Peggy Lee
Song: The Siamese Cat Song


We are Siamese if you please (meow)
we are Siamese if you don't please (meow)
now we lookin over our new domicile,
if we like we stay for mabey quite a while

(whisper:) do you see that thing swimming round and round?
yesssssssss mabey we could reaching in and make it drown
if we sneak in not to fool it carefully
there will be a head for you a tail for me

(whisper continued...) Do you hear what I hear? (grrrrrr)
a baby cry
where we finding baby there are milk nearby
if we look in baby buggy there could be
plenty milk for you and also some for me.

Bet not one person in our studio knows from whence that came.

this pic was posted in the music forum



the stars from left to right, gordon lightfoot, james taylor, harry chapin and john denver

apparently they played together at a benefit concert

here's a tune from each

If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
'Bout a ghost from a wishin' well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I'm a ghost that you can't see
If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind that drugstores sell
When you reach the part where the heartaches come
The hero would be me
But heroes often fail
And you won't read that book again
Because the ending's just too hard to take

I'd walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love, let's be real
I never thought I could act this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it
I don't know where we went wrong
But the feelin's gone
And I just can't get it back

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
'Bout a ghost from a wishin' well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
But stories always end
And if you read between the lines
You'll know that I'm just tryin' to understand
The feelin's that you lack
I never thought I could feel this way
And I've got to say that I just don't get it
I don't know where we went wrong
But the feelin's gone
And I just can't get it back


Carolina In My Mind
James Taylor

In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine
Can't you just feel the moonshine
Ain't it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind
Yes I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind

Karen she's a silver sun
You best walk her way and watch it shinin'
Watch her watch the mornin' come
A silver tear appearing now I'm cryin'
Ain't I goin' to Carolina in my mind

There ain't no doubt in no one's mind
That loves the finest thing around
Whisper something soft and kind
And hey babe the sky's on fire, I'm dyin'
Ain't I goin' to Carolina in my mind

In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine
Can't you just feel the moonshine
Ain't it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind
Yes I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind

Dark and silent late last night
I think I might have heard the highway calling
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
Signs that might be omens say I'm going, going
I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind

With a holy host of others standing 'round me
Still I'm on the dark side of the moon
And it seems like it goes on like this forever
You must forgive me
If I'm up and goin' to Carolina in my mind

In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine
Can't you just feel the moonshine
Ain't it just like a friend of mine
To hit me from behind
Yes I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind

Goin' to Carolina in my mind
And I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind
Goin' to Carolina in my mind

(Goin')
(I'm goin')
(Say nice things about me 'cause I'm goin' southbound)
(Carry on with out me 'cause I'm goin')


Taxi
Harry Chapin

It was raining hard in 'Frisco,
I needed one more fare to make my night.
A lady up ahead waved to flag me down,
She got in at the light.

Oh, where you going to, my lady blue,
It's a shame you ruined your gown in the rain.
She just looked out the window, and said
"Sixteen Parkside Lane".

Something about her was familiar
I could swear I'd seen her face before,
But she said, "I'm sure you're mistaken"
And she didn't say anything more.

It took a while, but she looked in the mirror,
And she glanced at the license for my name.
A smile seemed to come to her slowly,
It was a sad smile, just the same.
And she said, "How are you Harry?"
I said, "How are you Sue?
Through the too many miles
and the too little smiles
I still remember you."

It was somewhere in a fairy tale,
I used to take her home in my car.
We learned about love in the back of the Dodge,
The lesson hadn't gone too far.
You see, she was gonna be an actress,
And I was gonna learn to fly.
She took off to find the footlights,
And I took off to find the sky.

Oh, I've got something inside me,
To drive a princess blind.
There's a wild man, wizard,
He's hiding in me, illuminating my mind.
Oh, I've got something inside me,
Not what my life's about,
Cause I've been letting my outside tide me,
Over 'till my time, runs out.

Baby's so high that she's skying,
Yes she's flying, afraid to fall.
I'll tell you why baby's crying,
Cause she's dying, aren't we all.

There was not much more for us to talk about,
Whatever we had once was gone.
So I turned my cab into the driveway,
Past the gate and the fine trimmed lawns.
And she said we must get together,
But I knew it'd never be arranged.
And she handed me twenty dollars,
For a two fifty fare, she said
"Harry, keep the change."
Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go...
I stashed the bill in my shirt.

And she walked away in silence,
It's strange, how you never know,
But we'd both gotten what we'd asked for,
Such a long, long time ago.

You see, she was gonna be an actress
And I was gonna learn to fly.
She took off to find the footlights,
And I took off for the sky.
And here, she's acting happy,
Inside her handsome home.
And me, I'm flying in my taxi,
Taking tips, and getting stoned,
I go flying so high, when I'm stoned.


Back Home Again
John Denver

There's a storm across the valley, clouds are rollin' in
The afternoon is heavy on your shoulders
There's a truck out on the four lane a mile or more away
The whinin' of his wheels just makes it colder

He's an hour away from ridin' on your prayers up in the sky
And ten days on the road are barely gone
There's a fire softly burnin', supper's on the stove
But it's the light in your eyes that makes him warm

Hey it's good to be back home again
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long-lost friend
Yes 'n' hey, it's good to be back home again

There's all the news to tell him, how'd you spend your time
What's the latest thing the neighbors say
And your mother called last Friday, "Sunshine" made her cry
You felt the baby move just yesterday

Hey it's good to be back home again - yes it is
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long-lost friend
Yes 'n' hey, it's good to be back home again

Oh the time that I can lay this tired old body down
Feel your fingers feather soft upon me
The kisses that I live for, the love that lights my way
The happiness that that livin' with you brings me

It's the sweetest thing I know of, just spending time with you
It's the little things that make a house a home
Like a fire softly burnin' supper on the stove
The light in your eyes that makes me warm

Hey it's good to be back home again
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long-lost friend
Yes 'n' hey, it's good to be back home again

Hey it's good to be back home again - you know it is
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long-lost friend
Hey, it's good to be back home again
I said hey it's good to be back home again

Ah, dj, it's good to have YOU back home again.

Wow! Gordon Lightfoot looks like a twin to Robin Williams, and you're right about The Lady and the Tramp. <smile>

Well, most people here know how much I love James Taylor.



Artist: James Taylor Lyrics
Song: Fire And Rain Lyrics

Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things
to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now

Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now

You know, listeners, that is so like Frost's Fire and Ice, no?

not home yet, still north of toronto at my sisters, but home tomorrow