I Finally Saw Gladys Knight In Concert

[remicks]

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There are increasingly only a few artists around still alive .... that'd I'd still like to see in concert. Gladys Knight has always been one of them ....and a few nights ago I finally got that wish fulfilled .
As I continue to reflect, my feelings about it are still mixed ....perhaps I had such high expectations there was no way she was going to totally succeed. She did look pretty nice in her all- white pant suit (nice but not glamorous) and seemed of good humour ... all smiles and she performed every song (almost) on my "I HOPE SHE WILL" list.

She spoke a lot between songs ... which I like in a concert ... but not about much really...(most interesting moment, when she gave a nod to Marvin Gaye for outdoing her version of I HEARD IT THRU THE GRAPEVINE) .
Gladys presented herself as "just one of you all " - a point she made often through the night as well as how much it meant to her for us all to be here and together like this ... although she never acknowledged exactly where she was that night. She wasn't ghetto exactly (never a foul word) but she was hemming and hawing about "men" and the "things they do" "the way they are"...such that some in the audience called back "that's right" "you know that's right" etc... that kind of communion.

With her rich repertoire of meaningful songs so rich in lyrical content and sentiment .... I guess I expected Gladys to present herself as a little more refined. When she did do those songs she gave them their deserved respect and her voice ....amazingly strong even now. Great back-up singers too ( it was their vocals -not the songs lyrics themselves - that moved my friend to tears several times, she later explained to me) . Good back-up band - percussion , and drums, and guitars, and a keyboardist imitating all the other instruments ...

But her show was sort of all over the place ... up and down... including a rendition of the Jacksons SHAKE YOUR BODY DOWN TO THE GROUND (why???) and especially when her brother BUBBA came out and did an "impromptu" rendition of Al Green's LOVE AND HAPPINESS during which one of his dance moves causes his "knees to give out" and in a prolonged episode, he begs Gladys to come over and discreetly help him up.

Yes I'm sure I expected too much, I've idolized Gladys Knight forever and remember playing the MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA 45 so many times , the needle turned the grooves to dust : ....

But to expect a classy supper-club type performance
in an ---- Indian gambling casino's bingo room??? !!!!! Hmmmm

and maybe that was her feelings about it all too.

That's how "performances" are nowadays and at this stage of the game ---

all they need to be.


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