Leslie Gore on Cousin Brucie's 60's show , Sirius XM, not long before we left her. One of many qualities of Gore is her ability improvisation. Notice her stylized changes to Maybe I Know and , also, her 'blues' singing. Yes, Leslie hits alot of colorful 'black'notes such as the high '-5' note on thefade out of 'It's My Party.'
Leslie Gore Survived, Became a Star In A World Outside Her Own -Rare Videos
Leslie Gore on Mike Douglas Show 1970s
Lesie at Palm Springs Follies 2000s
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Wonderful tribute to mid-60s pop -rock sensation , Leslie Gore who passed last week, from an oldies fan, newman James Rosen. Rosen may be too young to remember the heyday but who is right on an interesting critique about an 'outisder,' if you will, who somehow perservered in the midst of the British Invasion.
Opinion: In tribute to Lesley
Gore, singular chronicler of
teenage angst
FEBRUARY 22, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015, 1:21 AMIf it is true for us all, as Kurt Vonnegut wrote for himself in 1970, that "high school is closer to the core of the American experience than anything else I can think of," then the Lesley Gore songbook offered a definitive chronicle of the American experience.
TEENAGE life as a crucible of romantic passion and emotional anguish. Parties as theaters of betrayal and jealousy. Rings worn by unworthy others. Boyfriends stolen, infidelities exposed; reputations destroyed, identities concealed.
Such was the tormented portrait of everyday life for affluent white schoolgirls in mid-20th-century America that was sketched in song by Lesley Gore, with the aid of her brilliant (and African-American) producer, Quincy Jones, in the pre-Beatles AM-radio heyday of the early 1960s. If it is true for us all, as Kurt Vonnegut wrote for himself in 1970, that "high school is closer to the core of the American experience than anything else I can think of," then the Lesley Gore songbook offered a definitive chronicle of the American experience – and the unexpected announcement of Gore's death last week, from lung cancer at the age of 68, should have occasioned a greater sense of loss, a wider tribute, from the public at large. CONTINUED
Leslie Gore Survived, Became a Star In A World Outside Her Own
Leslie Gore didn't write any of her many hits. She was handed songs and lyrics to sing, which as a 'good girl' in an innocent era went along with it. In fact, Leslie , herself , didn't even know she was gay until later, in her mid twenties, according to an 2011 NPR interview with her. Yet, she would somehow cope with the conflict and even continue to sing those early songs despite the contradiction during her later-discovered lifestyle. Though she would later become an advocate for women's issues, Gore did it in a low key way. She said she preferred things 'natural'and when confronted by some that she had never 'come out' she said she never DIDN'T come out. By participating in programs like 'In this Life' she openly embraced the lesbian /gay lifestyle. She said that most people in the industry knew she was gay. She never thought it necessary to make a big issue of her gayness. She didn't seem the type to NOT do it as a career move - her biggest days were already behind her - but she simply 'lived her life the way I want' (per the lyrics of 'You don't own me' )which was a more low-key, natural existence.
Gore was well-liked by fellow performers, male and female alike. 'Lightning' Lou Christie, was a close friend of Gore's and sang with and recorded a duet with her (see list tribute statement below) and there were many others like Dion, Ronnie Spector, etc (whose comments you can see @ https://www.facebook.com/OldiesCountry) . As noted in Rosen's article, Gore was a frequent guest of popular DJ 'Cousin' Brucie on his Sirius XM oldies show. Though looking back her life was , no doubt, not always easy , going through formative years 'miscast,'as it were. Yet, things worked out, and at least one of those hit songs, 'You Don't Own Me' Gore could later look back at with pride as the lyrics were anything but offensive to her later beliefs. Who knows? Maybe even early in her career she gave voice to help choose that record with latent feelings inside. Glad she did. But even without the , perhaps, biographical song, Gore should be proud with her career, during which she stayed on the charts as long as the Beatles, with 10 Top 40 hits spanning 1963-1967.
I wouldn't know that other early hits 'imprisoned'Gore, as Rosen states. It no doubt was an ironic aspect to Gore's career, but I think Gore just went along with it, accepting that was the way that was, just like when a singer 'covers' a song with lyrics that apply to the opposite gender, i.e. the Beatles singing 'Boys.' So what if Rosen missed a point or two. Sometimes one can only guess what another was feeling. His was an excellent tribute, again, from someone 'out of the era' but probably comes very close to understanding, if not all the way.
