The Other Bono: Remembering Sonny (and the Pre-Crazy Cher)

[Rapunzel]

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/09/21/the-other-bono-remembering-sonny-and-the-pre-crazy-cher/


The Other Bono: Remembering Sonny (and the Pre-Crazy Cher)
Cher's zillionth album comes out this week. Spare a thought for her underrated Republican soulmate, Sonny Bono.

by Kathy Shaidle
 
September 21, 2013 - 3:00 pm

Cher’s new album drops in a few days.

There was a time when I’d have been very excited about that.

Believe it or not, back in the 1990s and the years that preceded them, Cher was different: apolitical, effortlessly hilarious, and humble.

I saw her in concert back then and her audience was the most diverse I’ve ever seen: all ages, races, and sexual orientations, gathered to celebrate the unsinkable survivor with the single name, who’d had hits in every decade since the 1960s and won deserved acclaim for her acting.

That was before Cher contracted Bush Derangement Syndrome and never found a cure.

It was also — I realize just now — before Sonny Bono died, in 1998.

Her unforgettable eulogy at Sonny’s funeral, and her exquisite televised special remembering their lives together, were Cher’s last great public moments before she descended into crazy-homeless-lady bitterness.

They’d been apart for years by then, but had Sonny served as Cher’s ballast all along?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gdHdd5ejAeY

[Cincinnatus]

Cher's most recent contribution to America's Arts & Letters was, Day 1, to roundly criticize Miley Cyrus' slutty performance at the MTV's Video Music Awards.

"I'm not old-fashioned," Cher told USA Today in an interview published Tuesday. "She could have come out naked, and if she'd just rocked the house, I would have said, 'You go, girl.' It just wasn't done well. She can't dance, her body looked like hell, the song wasn't great, one cheek was hanging out. And, chick, don't stick out your tongue if it's coated

And then on Day 2 apologize for having said that (lest anyone think she isn't hip and open minded):

And maybe it was the young star's high-road tactics — not to mention a barrage of criticism about her criticism — that prompted Cher to backtrack on Twitter yesterday. "What I should have said [is],"I didn't like it that much,but she's Pushing The Envelope,being an ARTIST !" the Oscar winner wrote. "She's Talented,& DIDNT COMMIT A FELONY[.]"

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/19/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/cher-miley-cyrus-comments-ew/

I can remember the days when Sonny and Cher used to mingle with the hippies and tourists on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. It may be the death of Sonny that drove her into diva mode, but it may also be she began to think seriously of herself as an Artist (capital A) after she got nominated as best supporting actress for Silkwood in 1983. Whatever the case somewhere in there she began to think of herself as a STAR of the first order and thus far above the unwashed masses, a political and social sage in her own right.

[truth_seeker]

I enjoy her singing. The rest I ignore.

[PzLdr]

Bono wrote [with Jack Nitsche] one of my favorite songs, "Needles and Pins", done by [among others], my favorite band, the SEARCHERS.  :dx1:

[flowers]

The last time I saw Sonny was on a late night TV talk show. He was asked about Cher. He said the reason she acted that way towards him is she never got over him. About a year later he died and Cher was a mess. He seemed to be correct about that.

[truth_seeker]

Live on Letterman, 22 years after their hit song, after their TV era, after their divorce and a year before his death.

Like her or not, she was/is an accomplished singer, comedienne, and actress.

He was an accomplished songwriter, Entrepreneur/showman, congressman.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMRLwX2jV7A

Sonny seems to cry a bit at the end of the song.

[jmyrlefuller]

Live on Letterman, 22 years after their hit song, after their TV era, after their divorce and a year before his death.

Like her or not, she was/is an accomplished singer, comedienne, and actress.

He was an accomplished songwriter, Entrepreneur/showman, congressman.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMRLwX2jV7A

Sonny seems to cry a bit at the end of the song.

Hollywood has a way of wrecking marriages. The stress, the temptations, the constant beseigement from all angles. Yet, somewhere deep down, if two people love each other, they never stop, even in the toughest of times.

Sonny and Cher is one perfect example. They both moved onto other spouses, but within two years, they were back working together. Another example is Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Their TV show eventually tore them apart, but once cooler heads prevailed, especially near the end of Desi's life, they were once again very close to each other, even though both had remarried by that point. Like Cher, Lucy was never the same after Desi died (although the failure of her last sitcom may have also been a factor in that).

[Rapunzel]

But for Sonny Bono no one would even know who Cher is.  He was the brains, she had the voice.