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RE: Third division of music




On Tue, 1 Oct 1996, Butman, Holly wrote:

> Barry,man, I've never got the attraction.  When I hear Barry I want to 
> either laugh or vomit.  Which doesn't mean I don't think Barry has his place 
> in my music library, but he'd be just about my last pick for romance.  Is 
> this just me - does Barry really work for everyone else?  Do I truly have no 
> soul?  I bet Kevin Kruse will have something to say about this... (are you 
> still here, Kevin?)

I once had the pleasure of seeing Barry White at a cozy little venue
called the Hardee's Walnut Creek Amphitheater. It was beautiful. He had a
twenty-piece orchestra accompanying him, in addition to his rock-solid
backing band. 

But the best part of the show wasn't the sound, but the sights. Barry, 
dressed in a long, flowing Nehru-meets-Don-Cornelius coat, was presiding 
pver the finest presentation of swankdom I've ever had the pleasure to 
witness. The backdrop was a giant padded headboard with these
billowing satin sheets draped about forty feet in the air. All throughout
the show, these four slinky Pam Grier-esque dancers were parading around
the stage. At one point, they were wheeled out to center stage, wearing
gold bikinis and lounging in six-foot-high martini glasses. 

Very swank. I felt like an extra in "Shaft's Big Score."

But the coolest thing was that you really got a sense of the way that he 
himself simultaneously gets into and laughs at his own image. It's like 
his guest spot on "The Simpsons" or that appearance he did in the 
otherwise painfully bad series of Bud Light "I love you, man" ads.

Would I use Barry to seduce someone? No. Barry's music is loaded with so 
much excess testosterone that I'm afraid someone would get seriously 
injured if it were ever used as a straight-faced means of romanticizing.

Do I think he's a musical legend? Sure. But remember, I'm also half of 
the team that inflicted the 'XYC listeners with the "Trailer Park Music" 
shows. Hell, I think Merle Haggard's a genius, much in the same way as 
Barry White. Each takes their respective genre (seductive soul and silent-
majority country) and elevates it to the Nth level. If you appreciate 
them for what they do in comparison to every one else in their field,
then the judgment's obvious: they do what they try to do perfectly.

Yours in Barry,
Kevin Kruse

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