The time is right for Bette Midler, a lady of flamboyant excess on stage working the nostalgia bag, she is, in fact, capable of reaching back to a heavily pantomimed version of Bessie Smith‘s “Empty Bed Blues,” which she follows up with “Chicago Blues” a new piece that perfectly the blue – Blues Of Depression. “Cryin’ In The Chapel,” early sixties, is delivered with a message into the writing habits of that age before, as she says, we found out that the Beatles and Dylan had been lying.
There’s Mae West, the Andrews Sisters, the muggery, the grotesquerie – all worked into Miss Midler’s act. She has recently signed with Atlantic and it will be interesting to see how this company corks all this fizzing talent into record form.
