I saw the piece and it still hasn't made a Merman fan of me. She tended to sing everything the same way, which Bowie does, and she has a melodramtic approach that tends to make everything sound artificial to me, which I also find Bowie has. I would never rank him with Cantor or Jolson, who were much more real, and never the Bing, whose greatness still remains unassessed (check out his early stuff -- the guy was all that and a Hotwheel track). skip h on 7/2/02 6:48 AM, Oppenheim, Phil at Phil.Oppenheim@turner.com wrote: First of all, y'all say that like it's a *bad* thing. Did you happen to check out the excellent piece in the NYT about Ms Merman and what an amazing interpreter/ performer she was? Secondly: aside for their mutual predilection for chiffon, I don't really see the comparison. Surely Bowie's more like Eddie Cantor (theatricality, multiple character persona) or Jolson (tendency towards the maudlin) or Bing (idiosyncratic balladeer -- and duet-mate!) or even Carmen Miranda. That said, I *do* like the idea of The Thin White Duke taking on The Fat Old Broad ... -----Original Message----- From: Mark Saleski [mailto:marks@foliage.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 9:23 AM To: zorn Subject: Re: Worst Bowie

I think they meant Dave Bowie, stadium rock's answer to Ethel Merman

skip h

dang, i wish i'd made that analogy!