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Monday, June 30, 2008

"But Clive didn't like it, so...."

If you haven't yet, check out the new "Vault" on the new manilow.com. I can only imagine how much stuff got left off the records when the final track list was compiled. Not everyone is going to like every track that gets posted up there but even if that's the case, it's an insight into not only Barry's creative process but into the nuts-and-bolts of how the crew decides which songs end up on which album.

The songs are formatted so that they cannot be imported to iTunes or burned on a CD, etc. That's called a hint, kids, take it. There are two songs up there now, playing in sequence. If TPTB wanted to, there's a way to still encode the songs and have them play separately or on demand. They're smart people, they'll figure it out. >;-)

Fans have been clambering for more new music for - what, months? Years? Well all of these songs recorded years ago are new to us, so it counts. And Barry/TPTB can balance what the fans want to hear and what Clive wants on a record. (We fans all have a little fun at Clive's expense but we know he's part of the brains behind the outfit and if it weren't for his business sense, we wouldn't have Barry's career to enjoy at all.) But to me he's still Mr. Mole.

So - when's the next vault song coming out?

(Addendum 7/1/2008 - I was right! They did figure out how to split up the songs so they each play separately on demand! Nice job, Stiletto. Now, how about floating Barry's notes and the jukebox over your ImageReady slices using >div< tags so that the size can be expanded without screwing up your graphics?)

3 comments:

  1. I find the fact that the two songs he share with us were prefaced by "Clive didn't like this one". Do you detect a bit of sarcasm there, or perhaps a little bit of disdain? It will be interesting to see if the next song has the same preface. Just a thought...

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  2. Yes, I noticed that, hence the title of the post. I have a hard time seeing the emotion in Barry's notes, so I don't want to ASSume anything. I'm always interested in his commentary on his songs or performances, especially the "Vault" tunes coming out now.

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  3. Well it really doesn't matter what Clive likes or doesn't like anymore since he's no longer in charge at Arista. As for the songs not being available for downloading;there are certain people on a site that seem to think that Barry expects his "fans" will do it anyway and since he has bootlegs of Frank Sinatra it's perfectly acceptable for them to do so if Barry doesn't make them available any other way. I pointed out that Barry may decide to stop making these tracks available because of their behavior but that didn't seem to make any difference and as usual they continue trying to justify their bad behavior. I really do hope the actions of a few "so called fans" don't ruin it for the rest of us.

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