Barry White, R.I.P.

[W.B.]

Traveling through the wires, this item: Barry White, "The Maestro" who seduced audiences with his lush music from the 1970's right up through the '90's, has died of kidney failure at the age of 58. He had been hospitalized since last September undergoing dialysis.

May I offer my condolences to his family and fans for all the joy he has brought to many over the decades.

 

[LPJim]

Many of you will recall Barry White recorded for A&M beginning in 1987 with THE RIGHT NIGHT & BARRY WHITE (5154), THE MAN IS BACK! (5256 - rel. 1990), PUT ME IN YOUR MIX (5377, rel. 1991) and THE ICON IS LOVE (0115 - rel. 1994).
Yet another of too many losses in the music world of late.
JB

 

[Kathy]

My Gosh! He was almost as old as I am! I'll never forget having "Love's Theme" on the 8-Track tape our car came with back when it came out.

Looks like The Music World is losing a lot of its legends.

Kat

 

[Joe]

This is truly a terrible loss. Barry White was such a talented artist and it shows on all of his songs. Favorite hits: "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "You're the First, the Last, My Everything".

Joe, NP: "You're the First, the Last, My Everything"

 

[Brasil_Nut]

Oh, this is terrible news. Barry was one of the nicest people I had the pleasure to meet as a VIP Host with Walt Disney World. My condolences to his family and loved ones in this time of sadness and loss.

Jon

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I had a feeling this was going to happen. I heard that Barry had a stroke recently and wasn't doing well. Another huge loss for the music world.

I owe quite a few intimate moments to Barry. I used to date a woman who just melted anytime she heard Barry's music, especially the album The Icon Is Love (an excellent album, BTW). I would try to sing "Practice What You Preach" to her to get her going. Anytime I had a cold or would get up really early in the morning I could get my voice down into Barry's range.

There was a "Behind The Music" segment that VH-1 did on Barry a few months ago, and I suspect it will be aired again soon. It was pretty good. He told the story of how all of a sudden his voice changed when he was 13. He walked into the kitchen one morning where his mother was making breakfast and said "Good morning, Mom" when he realized his voice changed. He said his mom freaked out and dropped a frying pan when he said it, saying it scared the hell out of her.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

I often poked gentle fun at Barry White, but it was probably more out of admiration and respect for what he did more than anything else. He was beyond a musician--he was a cultural icon in a sense, a purveyor of all that was about love and happiness, smooth and comforting. Beyond that the music spoke for itself, a sound big, lush and warm just like The Man himself. We were fortunate he spent his short time on earth sharing his gift with all of us.

 

[rockdoctor]

I just came across this thread but I did like to hear some of the songs that Barry White did, especially Love's Theme.
One thing that he had a grudge about was that he lost the Best New Artist Grammy to Bette Midler. He had that grudge for many years.

 

[GDBY2LV]

In the late 80’s the One Stop where we bought the music and games for the shop I was running then, always celebrated Black Music Month by having an open house with food, and beverages, plus many surprise music artists, and some Los Angeles Angels ball players would drop by too. Bags of free promos, posters, and swag just for showing up.
One of the 5 owners, was very good friends with Barry White, and they had large white sheets with his song lyrics printed on them, serving as borders between vendor booths. I sat down to play the Intellevision console they had set up for a few minutes, when this super deep voice said, what’s that you’re playing? I turned around, and to my great surprise, it was Mr.Barry White himself. The owner was right behind him, introduced Barry to me, and then asked me to show him how the game worked. It was my great pleasure to play a video game with Barry for about a half hour. Crazy afternoon. After that it was the Pointer Sisters in another room, and Sam Harris as I was leaving. He had just released his 1st album, after winning Star Search. Great day.

 

[Rudy]

My favorite album is The Man, which (with the prior album) was like a little rebound in his career. On The Man, White changed it up where side one was the upbeat dance side, where the other slows down the pace a little with some songs of reminiscence ("September, When I First Met You," ; and "Early Years"), a cover of "Just The Way you Are," and his only "put your woman in the mood" song "It's Only Love Doing Its Thing." I usually didn't pay too much attention to side two of this album, but it grew on me in later years. What surprised me is that I had become familiar with Simply Red's "It's Only Love" which leads off their album A New Flame, which is a cover of White's version from The Man...and I more or less rediscovered White's track on the album.

The album Barry White Sings for Someone You Love preceded The Man and while it's a discovery of mine from the past ten years, it's a solid record, the first of his minor rebound on 20th Century. The one song pulled from this record for anthologies is "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me." But the track that is my absolute favorite, and one of my favorites of White's overall, is "Playing Your Game, Baby." It is a master class in lush arranging, with lush strings, sultry horns, a pulsating beat, and little parts sprinkled throughout the arrangement that emerge after a few listens. And White's growl over all this lushness just puts it over the top.

Have to say I've never warmed to his A&M output, though. Got a little too "modern" for my taste.

White was originally a composer and producer, and was coaxed into singing and releasing his own records after someone overheard a demo he sang on. Another "accidental" career.

 

[Rudy]

It was my great pleasure to play a video game with Barry for about a half hour.

He always seemed like a teddy bear of a man. 👍 Pretty cool you got to meet him!

 

[GDBY2LV]

He was easily about 3 of me back then. Towering man with that unmistakable deep voice. I liked his 20th Century recordings best as well. I have the box set from the 90’s.

 

[Rudy]

I remember David Letterman having a Top 10 list, something like, "Phrases best spoken by Barry White." And to present the list, none other than the man himself. The one that cracked me up was "Big-ass ham." 😁