Manilow... and Pinterest.

I've noticed that I've been getting some new 'followers' on my Pinterest page, and I was trying to figure out the common interest of those particular pinners. And this morning, I got it... Barry Manilow.  The new followers on my Pinterest page have their own boards featuring Barry.

One thing about Manilow... once you're a fan, you're a fan for life. There's no turning away from Barry and his music. Not if you 'get it,' and all of Barry's fans seem to fit that category. Bottom line... Barry Manilow is a nice guy, plain and simple, a very nice guy. He has been just that from the beginning. He never turned 'Hollywood,' never disrespected his fans, his music, his craft.

When that song "I Am Music" first came out, all of Manilow's fans understood the meaning... he was singing as Music, and not at all saying that he was music and the one and only person out there writing the songs. The critics killed Manilow when that song was released, but the critics didn't 'get it,' and they certainly didn't get what Barry was (and still is) all about.  Manilow seems to disregard the critics, and surely his fans do the same.

So there I was this morning, looking through the Barry Manilow boards of the pinners who have begun to follow my Pinterest page. Lots of photos on-line that I hadn't seen before, so of course I pinned them to my own Manilow board. That board just keeps growing and growing.

I've been to Manilow concerts in New York (at Radio City and at Jones Beach), several concerts in Houston, and we flew to Las Vegas to see Barry (a Christmas gift from my husband). At nearly all of those concerts, we had front row seats. (Fan club members get priority seating for priority prices, but Barry is worth every dollar.) Sitting so close to Barry, it was easy for him to look directly at me, and at a concert in The Woodlands, he shook my hand (but I was too excited to even thank him for all the music over the years).  At the Vegas concert, Barry took my hand and danced a few steps with me... we were separated by a velvet rope that kept the front-row fans from sitting on top of his piano. How tempting that was...

When I'm in my car, Manilow's music is the only thing I listen to... my six favorite CDs are in the player and all I have to do is press a button and Barry is driving with me. And there are days when the drive isn't nearly long enough.

Looking at Barry's photos on Pinterest this morning... some of the pictures were a little heart-breaking. I remember clearly when Barry's hair was turning a very handsome salt-and-pepper shade, and he was looking distinguished and world-wise.  Then all of a sudden, his hair was beginning to look reddish and blondish and spike-y and very un-Manilow-like. And then came the face surgeries... oh Barry... who told you that plastic surgery would be the way to go?

The surgeries took away his Barry-ness, and erased that Manilow-magic from his facial features. Of course, his big heart is still the same, and his gigantic talent can never be altered... but gracious, I would do anything if they could take away all of those surgeries and give us back our Barry.

Manilow fans were growing older very comfortably with Barry before all of those surgeries, having followed his music and his career from the 1970s... it was heart-breaking to look at some of those photos and see pictures that were nearly unrecognizable as our sweet and simply-nice Manilow.

We still love you, Barry... and we love your music... but please, please, enough with the surgery.