Staying Power

by

Barry White

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Having survived his second career as a self-parody (crooning over Arby's sandwiches, saving the snakes of Springfield, etc.), Barry has earned the right to take a moment and reflect on what it all means. The result is this mildly entertaining, oddly Republican record.

The centerpiece is a bizarre little tune called "Get Up" which, contrary to one's expectations, is not an exhortation to phallic prowess but rather ye old-fashioned Protestant Work Ethic - i.e. "Get up off your ass and do something." A worthy sentiment, to be sure, but somewhat distracting when attempting to get close to the very special lady of one's choice.

There are the requisite number of make-out soundtracks (featuring lyrics like "You're so precious and cute / You're very very sensitive / You like flowers...") but they all lack the purple-satin plushness of his classic stuff. Mostly this is due to the brittle crispness of the contemporary production (i.e. the famous Barry White orchestration, always the most important part of his sound, is reduced to occasional, repetitive, thin, and probably synthesized strings). But one must also acknowledge the unstayable hands of Time. (There's some wisdom Barry didn't get around to.) His duet with the great Chaka Khan finds the lady in reasonably good voice but as they pant and moan about "turning out the lights", "making it right", and so on, I can never help thinking, "These people are old to be my parents."

So maybe what F. Scott Fitzgerald meant to say was that there *are* second acts in American lives; they're just never as good as the first.