Still in "Morning"...

Well, if you've visited this site much at all then you know about the slavish devotion I have to 1970s disaster movies and that at or near the top of the list are The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974.) For years, Poseidon was my all-time favorite, but in the last decade or so Inferno has crept up to at least meet it. Imagine, then, my elation when I discovered that the vocalist who enjoyed a #1 hit single with Poseidon's Oscar-winning theme song, "The Morning After" and who also sang Inferno's Oscar-winning love song "We May Never Love Like This Again" (also appearing in the film while doing so) was coming to town for a one night only concert!

Yes, Miss Maureen McGovern made her way to the hinterlands for a night of piano-accompanied song. Not only had McGovern sung the two afore- mentioned songs, but she also was a cultural touchstone to me in other ways. For example, she also recorded the love theme from Superman: The Movie (1978) "Can You Read My Mind" and provided the lively sitcom theme for 1979's Angie, which starred Donna Pescow and Robert Hays. There was also the disaster movie spoof Airplane! (1980), which starred Hays. McGovern played a nun on board a flight felled by food poisoning and in it sang a memorably goofy rendition of Aretha Franklin's "Respect." Later, she originated the role of Marmee in the Broadway musical Little Women.

With a friend awaiting the start of the show.

I must say I was just a little nervous about what I was in for when I bought second-row center tickets for this concert last weekend. In the first place, it's been 45 years since McGovern ruled the radio waves with "The Morning After" (the very first single she'd ever recorded, having only done a few demos beforehand.) A visit to youtube was also not terribly encouraging. Long, brassy red hair and an awkward arrangement of the song.

Her hair when I saw her was several inches shorter.

However, I needn't have worried. She was in marvelous voice, looked lovely (far below her calendar years of sixty-nine, but looking in no way pulled, plastic, immobile, etc...) and was highly expressive. Her hair was a warm autumn brown styled in a fresh, free-flowing, shoulder-length cut. (This is not from the night in question, but is a close representation. Photography of the performance was not allowed.) The set was augmented with some ever-changing string lights that sometimes vaguely put one in the mind of the S.S. Poseidon's famous Christmas tree.

I really was not part of the target audience for this event, surprisingly enough. It was sort of geared towards the Baby Boomers, with the music of Carole King, Phoebe Snow, Joni Mitchell and others, though the music was timeless enough, especially when she went to Gershwin, Arlen and other classic songwriters. One of the highlights, if not THE highlight, was when she suddenly went into a rendition of "Over the Rainbow," a capella and without benefit of microphone, that was simple and stunning.

I had this on cassette and nearly wore it out!

Naturally, I awaited the numbers that meant the most to me personally and they came in an encore. She referred to them as a "medley-ette" with "Can You Read My Mind" seguing into "We May Never Love Like This Again" which led to "The Morning After." I have to admit that this triple-whammy did choke me up as the memories of these films and songs flooded over me.

Afterwards, I got to meet her and have her sign one of my typically loony picture montages. She had spoken about how she was influenced as a child by 1930s and '40s movies being shown on black & white TV in Youngstown, Ohio and I relayed to her how my first exposure to The Poseidon Adventure was on a black & white TV as our color set had been recently burglarized. I let her know that some of her music had served as sort of a soundtrack for my childhood, which may not have been the most discreet thing to say to someone staring seventy in the face, but I think I won her over. See the comment she wrote in the allotted white section of the photo montage.

You know how we get those musical earwigs in our head and just can't seem to get rid of them, sometimes for days...? Well, needless to say I have had "The Morning After" on auto-repeat in my brain ever since Saturday night. It's not bothering me, though, the way some of those aural assailants sometimes can. It's giving me a remarkably peaceful and happy feeling, something McGovern was striving for in her latest album geared towards uplifting songs.