Olivia Newton John – I Honestly Loved Her
To put things simply and somewhat crudely, yet accurately, GETTING OLD SUCKS!
This especially rang true with news of Oliva Newton John’s passing on August 8, 2022, almost one year ago. For those of us born in the 1960’s, Olivia Newton John was a big part of our lives, from a string of hit songs during the Seventies that seemed to rule the airwaves, to playing the role of Sandy in 1978’s Grease, possibly one of the most popular movie musicals ever. I know when I was working in the film industry as a journalist, the magazine I wrote for compiled a Top Twenty list of video and then DVD releases for each issue, and despite Grease having been released a long time back, it always appeared on that Top Twenty list, demonstrating its evergreen and mass appeal.
My relationship with Olivia Newton John (whom for some reason I always referred to as Olivia Neutron Bomb, but in a loving way), dated back to my very first record player, bought for me by my parents in the 1970’s. Up until then, me and my two sisters (one older, and one younger) had been getting by with a plastic, toy record player on which we played an assortment of 45 singles. I remember there being a lot of The Carpenters (I still say Karen Carpenter had the voice of an angel, and still listen to them today), as well as Bobby Pickett’s 1962 novelty hit, Monster Mash. There were other singles, but those are the ones that stand out in my memories.
I guess my parents thought it was time we all upgraded to proper record players in our bedrooms and went out and bought three identical players for us, along with some vinyl records to play on those systems. Buying vinyl for my oldest sister was a no-brainer, as she was already immersed in being a fangirl for Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond and the Osmond Brothers, and David Cassidy and The Partridge Family. Eventually added to that mix was The Bay City Rollers. The posters on her bedroom wall, featuring any one of these guys was a giveaway. I do not remember what my parents bought for my younger sister, although it was probably Disney related, seeing how she was very young.
But what to buy me?
For years, even decades, I have thought about this, as it seemed like a no-brainer to me. What young man would not appreciate a Beatles album? It was not like my parents could not have known about the band. They were there in the 1960’s, and I imagine everyone who was knew who the Beatles were. That seemed natural and obvious to me, but they did not buy me a Beatles album.
For the longest time I imagined them going into the record store (there were many of these glorious stores around during my youth – Oh, how I miss them!) and asking the clerk what they thought a seven or eight-year-old boy would be interested in listening to? Now, this clerk was either honest in his belief, or, knowing the answer should be a Beatles album, or something like that, but wanting to goof on them, recommended a couple of Olivia Newton John albums (I do not remember the two). Like I said earlier, in the ‘70’s, Olivia was a recording powerhouse and a successful recording star all over the radio, so the recommendation may have been genuine, but I still had to wonder if it was the obvious choice.
Do not get me wrong, I thank them for this to this day, although Mom and Dad are no longer around for me to continue doing so. If they had of gone for a Beatles album, or one by The Rolling Stones would I have developed the appreciation for Olivia Newton John that I did? I like to believe so, as there is no denying the immense talent of this British born singer, who moved to Australia at a very young age, and grew up there.
The voice is unique and to this day, because of my early appreciation of it, brings a comfort and warmth to my spirit when I put on one of her albums. The very thought that this voice has now been silenced is sad; whether she would have kept recording, releasing new albums, who knows, but if she was out there, somewhere, the possibility would still exist.
I eventually found those albums by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and many, many more, but I never lost my appreciation and love for the music and sound of Olivia Newton John. I am sure many of my friends when perusing my vinyl record collection wondered what the hell, I was doing with Olivia Newton John albums; they did not necessarily mix easy with my rock and roll, punk and New Wave albums, but then again, my appreciation of country music held the same mystery for them.
Like along with me, as well as appreciating Olivia Newton John’s voice and interpretation of songs, she must have been many a young boys first major crush. Upon news of her passing I went on YouTube to check out a few music videos, and reacquaint myself with her music; like a lot of us, life gets busy, and we forget sometimes to stop and listen to those albums that once meant so much to us, and still do today, if we just find the time to include them in our lives. I stumbled across a fifteen-minute video featuring Olivia’s first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, in which she was promoting her new album and her first American television special. Olivia was captivating, and it was fun to see Carson, a consummate pro and interviewer, losing his way, as her beauty captivated and disoriented him. Several times in the interview, he felt compelled to bring up her beauty, and in those moments you can see he was losing his way, rattled by this woman; Olivia successfully befuddled the King of Late Night TV and deservedly so, as along with that voice there was a girl-next-door beauty to Olivia that never faded and never disappeared no matter how old she got. I believe that beauty and that perception of beauty resided in the fact Olivia had a beautiful soul that radiated always and burned brighter with each passing year.
I never had the opportunity to interview Olivia Newton John during my years as an entertainment journalist. I did take a photograph of her at a convention I was covering for a magazine, and still remember vividly the power of her presence on that convention floor; Olivia had a natural, easy-going grace about her. She did not exude the pretensions of an international star; you felt you could talk to her and possibly be her friend, and with someone as famous as she was at that time, that is quite something. I do not know where I heard it, but I did read that she was not good in interviews and did not like doing them. I could see that. As an interviewer who has met many other journalists, I know each and every one of them represented a huge unknown to the performer they were interviewing – would they be fair, or would they take this opportunity to trash them.
I am going to digress here and may have told this story in a previous article, and if I have, please forgive me, but it clearly illustrates the pitfalls of being a celebrity and being interviewed. It was a press conference for Genesis and solo artist Phil Collin’s 1988 film Buster. Like many of the journalist there, I put my tape recorder down in front of him, pressed ‘record’ and went about taking photos of Phil. The singer-actor was gracious and spent more than an hour talking with us, and as each tape recorder in front of him (there were many) clicked off, he would hold it up, ask whose it was, and did they want him to flip the tape and hit record? Phil did not need to do this, but he did and was a wonderful interview. The next day in the daily newspapers, I read the coverage of the press conference, and discovered each of the reporters for these institutions made it look like Phil was difficult during the event, giving off rock star attitude. This was NOT the case! What they wrote about him was a lie, miscategorising his general, friendly, cooperative and laid-back nature. I guess that is boring, so indicating bad behaviour and attitude makes things more exciting.
Based on my experience at the Phil Collins press conference, if it was true Olivia was reluctant to give interviews and talk to the press, I can understand that. I do know, that unlike many of the performers and bands I admired and followed growing up, I read very little, if not nothing, about Olivia Newton John in the music press. And that was fine, as that left a little mystery in our lives, as I continued to buy her albums and appreciate her immense talent.
For the longest time, I did have a bone to pick with Olivia and that was over her 1981 album and song, Physical (yes, I know you were thinking it was regarding her 1980 film, Xanadu, but I enjoy watching it, even as bad as it is). I always thought her music video for the song, although funny, was one of the biggest cop-outs in the music industry. Anyone who listens to the lyrics of that song know it is about sex, not working out, but upon release, Olivia shied away from its true meaning and tried to convince us it was a lot more innocent than it was. In 1984, on her album, A Private Heaven, Sheena Easton sang, Sugar Walls, and never attempted to pretend it was anything but sexual, so why did Olivia need to hide the sexual nature of Physical? I did not understand for a long time, and I believe, part of that misunderstanding was the fact I am male. To believe there is no double standard when it comes to sex and the sexes is naïve, even today. It has been a long time since I have been young, but I imagine that even today, if a young man gets lucky (engages in sexual intercourse), he is looked upon as a hero, a stud, but the young lady who engaged in that congress with him, is not, and possibly labelled a ‘slut’ by those who are harsh, or ‘easy’ by those attempting to tone it down – nonetheless, none of it is flattering or deserved.
Olivia recorded the song, and rightfully so, as it is a good song, and was one of the hits off the album, but understandably had second thoughts. I cannot imagine what she had to face making her way in the music industry in the 1970’s. There is no doubt she had the talent, but she was also an attractive, young woman entering the entertainment industry, one known for more than a few predators over the decades – just ask Marilyn Monroe! She made it and did so by cultivating a ‘girl-next-door’ image that served her well; the fear that singing something so overtly sexual might offended an audience she built over the years, and might turn them against her, was probably quite daunting. Do you want to throw everything you achieved away over a song – even a hit song? Could she dare to be overtly sexual? How would audiences have responded? She had to ask herself all these questions, and decide, and if she made the wrong decision, was she throwing everything away? Today we live in a time where if your celebrity is waning, you just release a ‘sex tape’ and pretend you did not want it out there. If you are a young singer like Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus, catering to a preteen audience and you wanted to be taken seriously as an adult, you just got overly sexual, to prove you are no longer that, but a woman. In the 1970’s and ‘80’s, this dynamic did not exist, and I imagine, Olivia did not want to be the one to test the waters and see if it would work; at the same time, she was already perceived as a woman, just one with a wholesome image.
I was wrong to criticize her for this, although that criticism did not affect my opinion of the album, Physical being one of my favourites – I dare anyone to find one track that does not work on that album.
So, it has almost been a year since we lost Olivia Newton-John, so why has it taken so long to write this tribute? As I said earlier in this article, GETTING OLD SUCKS! Since Olivia’s passing, we have lost Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, Loretta Lynn, Tina Turner, David Crosby, Lisa Marie Presley, Jeff Beck, and Gordon Lightfoot, to name a few. Many of those lost were not of my generation, but earlier, but all of them had a significant presence in my life while growing up, and when you start to see that generation passing away, and performers like Bruce Springsteen, now 73-years-old, you realize you are getting up there in age, with less years ahead of you than those behind you. It is nothing to dwell on, as it is simply a reality, we all must face, but from time to time, when you are lying awake late at night, unable to fall asleep, the thought does hit home.
Olivia Newton-John’s passing was one of those celebrity deaths that did hit home. The world lost an amazing woman and talented performer. The only comfort in all of this, is the fact like all performers, she has left behind a body of work that continues to entertain to this day. I can still listen to her, and I do. It is my hope that future generations do not ignore her but can find the beauty in her work that has nurtured me since I was a young boy, and dropped that first record player needle on her album, wondering why my parents bought it for me, and what I was in store for. Little did I know, but long have I enjoyed. Thank you, Mom, and Dad, and thank you Olivia Newton-John! ♥