I wasn’t going to get
through the month of Voices without The Divine Miss M. I’ve been a Bette Midler
fan for decades. Even though a lot of her material verges on the sappy, she
makes it work. She’s like an earth mother—she survives everything. And she
laughs at it all.
I’m not saying I
don’t have “The Rose” or “From a Distance” on some of my playlists (and
“Friends” has a great beat for the gym). But probably my favorite Midler song
is “In My Life”. I think it’s my favorite cover of that song, as well.
When I went hunting
for a video of it to share with you, I came across this unusual
performance—just Midler and a ukulele player. Now there’s a command
performance.
For a change of pace,
I’m also giving you Mary Black’s version of “Mo Ghile Mear”. This is an example
of art transcending the message, since the song is one of about 5,000 about
Bonnie Prince Charlie, one of the most useless objects of misplaced idolatrous devotion
in all of history, and a prime example of the idiocy of hereditary monarchies.
To my mind, it’s bad
enough that the Scots spent all that time in whiney-ass hand-wringing over the
“king over the water”—always conveniently forgetting what a plonker he was at
both field command and running a government in exile. As far as I’m concerned,
they can lament him to their little hearts’ content, and keep on writing those
soppy songs about him, since it seems to help with their innate inferiority
complexes. But this one has the goddess representing Ireland moaning about him,
too; and I think that’s just a tad beyond the beyond.
However, frankly, the
sound of the song is lovely, and I can listen to Black sing practically
anything and feel better for it. So I’ve included it for today.
(I apologize for this
particular video, which features heavy-handedly Scottish-type paintings of a particularly
cringeworthy 19th Century fashion; but it’s the only one I could
find that has the best version of Black singing it. So close your eyes and
listen. Don’t think of England.)
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