** Maureen McGovern at Centre East, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, (847) 673-6300, on Jan. 24,
2004.
Maureen McGovern was extremely busy during 2003. Two of her CDs, Out of This
World: Maureen McGovern Sings Harold Arlen (from 1996) and The Music Never Ends: The Lyrics of Alan &
Marilyn Bergman (from 1997), were rescued from obscurity when they were reissued, in expanded editions by
the Fynsworth Alley label. In addition to that McGovern has been very involved with The American Music Therapy
Association and released a CD titled Works Of Heart (www. maureenmcgovern. com). Subtitled 'songs of
hope,' Works Of Heart includes McGovern's trademark tune 'The Morning After.' I recently spoke with the
acclaimed singer about her many projects.
Gregg Shapiro: I want to begin by acknowledging that you
marked your 30th anniversary in show business during 2003. How does one celebrate such an auspicious
occasion?
Maureen McGovern: (Laughs) It's been a very reflective and exciting year for me. What I'm
doing this year is really getting my Works of Heart project for music and healing up and running in full force. I
recorded an album called Works of Heart that's all life affirming and positive music for patients and caregivers.
I'm most grateful to be doing, as my life's work, something that I absolutely love; singing and acting, traveling
all over the world. I feel very fortunate, and most entertainers want to give back in some way. The Works of
Heart project for music and healing is a permanent way of saying 'thank you' and giving back. I'm working with
the American Music Therapy Association as one of their national spokespersons. Music therapists are the
unsung heroes out there in the hospitals and clinics because they work one on one with patients. Music has a
profound effect on people physically, emotionally and spiritually.
GS: In the liner notes for Works of
Heart, which is a benefit disc for the American Music Therapy Association, you wrote about the letters you
received from people who have found comfort, strength and healing in your music. Can you please describe
what that means to you?
MM: People have written to me for years about how 'The Morning After' has
gotten them through horrible times in their life of depression, loss, grieving, or confusion and how it was a
beacon of light to them. Literally countless letters through the years. I thought, 'If I have that gift, then that's what
I've been put here for.' I should focus that and use that for a greater good. That's really why I started the Works
of Heart project. We all respond to music. I'll give you a couple of examples. A friend of mine's mother was in a
coma, and he flew to her side. He read to her and talked to her, and sang hymns to her that she had sung with
him while he was a child. For about three weeks there was no response. She did briefly come out of the coma
before she died, and she didn't remember anything he had said but she corrected him on the wrong lyrics. As
only a mother could do (laughs). The point being music reaches inside in a very profound way; we're all water,
vibrations and energy basically. Music is a powerful energy vibration that really reaches inside. You couple the
sound of music with an inspiring lyric and it's a very powerful tool. Obviously it's not the cure to cancer, but it
enhances the body's ability to heal.
GS: In addition to the American Music Therapy Association, you are
also known for your generosity to charitable organizations such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Best
Friends Animal Sanctuary and AIDS organizations including Project Angel Food, Desert AIDS Project, The AIDS
Memorial Quilt. Do you find yourself bombarded by requests from charities, and if so, how do you select the
ones with which you want to be associated?
MM: I actually have only done a couple things for Project
Angel Food, but I think they're an incredible organization. The AIDS Quilt, I've done many things through the
years for them and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. (AIDS) should still be at the forefront of everyone's
mind. We've been doing this for 20 years now. We've been hoping for a cure and certainly the quality of lives for
those living with AIDS or HIV have drastically improved, but there is still so much more that needs to be done.
With the AIDS epidemic worldwide that is decimating whole countries. It should always be in the forefront of our
minds to keep looking for cures and better ways of helping people. I personally feel I don't do enough. That's
always in my mind, I must do more.
To give you another example of the power of music to heal; 'And I'll Be
There' is the beautiful song by Marilyn and Alan Bergman and Dave Grusin that closes the Works of Heart CD
and I gave the CD to a woman in Boston who was working on a show I was doing.
She volunteered at a
hospice and I thought some of the songs would benefit some folks there. There was a young woman, with a
four-year-old and a seven-year-old, in the end stages of breast cancer. She was sitting on the edge of her bed
really despondent, she was going to have the last talk with her kids. She didn't know where to begin or what to
say, obviously profoundly distressed. So this woman said, 'I've just been given this CD, perhaps 'And I'll Be
There' might give you some comfort and also give you some idea of what you want to say.' So she left her,
came back a couple hours later and the woman was sitting on the edge of her bed, swinging her feet, radiant.
She said, 'Not only do I know what to say to my kids, but I want to leave them this record so they will always
have this song to listen to.' (Quoting from song) 'Though you may not always see me, I'm right there by your
side.' It's just a gorgeous song, really for anyone you care about, but certainly in her circumstance to leave that
as her legacy to her children.
GS: That's very fitting.
MM: There's nothing that can compare to
something like that. That's what I'm setting out to do with music and I think that's the gift and the power of
music. I'm setting out to do a whole series of CDs that have quality lyrics and a strong positive message. I'm
completely for freedom of speech and freedom of expression, so I don't think there should be change or
restriction, but I do think there should be a balance, and I don't see a balance in today's music. That's one of
things I want to do is provide that. What's happening is the American Music Therapy Association is talking
about doing a booklet that will go along with the Works of Heart CD or a CD for children with cancer and
chronic illnesses. Also an album for Alzheimer's caregivers; to me the caregivers are, certainly in the AIDS
epidemic, incredible people. It's really important to restore the caregiver to help the patient. There are many
areas and avenues that this project will take. I mentioned the booklet along with the CD that will show the
Music Therapy application for these particular songs. I can't replace what a Musical Therapist does. That's a
one-on-one, concentrated hour of the day that a therapist spends with a patient for their specific needs. I want
to be the cheerleader for the rest of the day, which gives them a library of music that they can say, 'When I'm
not here listen to this for this particular application.'
GS: You are providing the soundtrack. Long before
you became involved in AIDS activism, you had established a considerable gay following. What do you think it
is that sets your gay fans apart from your other fans?
MM: I think they're very discerning listeners
(laughs). People ask me that often times. I don't know. I think gay listeners particularly love great music and
great singers and I love and embrace you all.
GS: For some people, your name is often associated with
movie theme songs—from 'The Morning After,' 'We May Never Love Like This Again' and 'Can You Read My
Mind?' through the songs of Marilyn & Alan Bergman. What is it about these songs that make them appealing
to you?
MM: I was very fortunate in the beginning of my career to have the generic hope song. 'The
Morning After' was offered to me sight unseen by a record company who had signed me as the first thing to
record because I was an unknown artist and they believed the movie would be huge and felt it would be the
perfect vehicle for me to be attached to. But the song was dropped when it was released, but the movie took off.
When the movie was nominated for an Oscar the following Spring, all of a sudden radio stations started
playing it and huge phone requests came in and the record company was forced to re-release it. By August of
1973 it was a gold record. I became known as 'the disaster theme queen.' I followed that up with The Towering
Inferno, which won the Oscar as well. 'Can You Read My Mind?'—I had been dropped by record companies
from 1976 until 1979 when I recorded 'Can You Read My Mind' from Superman. They said, 'We have another
movie theme for you.' I thought, Oh God, not another movie theme. I want to show the world I can do something
else. But I loved the song, John Williams and Leslie Bricusse. Although it was not actually sung in the movie,
Margot Kidder spoke the words in that lovely flying scene the first time she flies with Superman. Due to that
technicality, it was not eligible to be nominated for an Oscar, which was a shame. So, I became the disaster
theme queen, but I think some of the most enduring and endearing music has been from film.
GS: The
Music Never Ends, your album of Marilyn & Alan Bergman covers, has been reissued in an expanded version
which includes three newly recorded songs. What attracts you to a Bergman song?
MM: There is
somewhat of a poverty in today's music. It's hard to find prolific writers like the Bergmans who write in all
genres with all different kinds of composers from great jazz (Dave Grusin and Dory Caymmi and Ivan Linz) to
Marvin Hamlisch and of course the body of work with Michel LeGrand. They've written with the creme-de-la
creme of composers for the last 50 years. I just scratched the surface the first go round with this CD. Fynswoth
Alley graciously agreed to re-release it, because three of my most beloved albums were in limbo after Sept. 11
(when) the (original) record company and their distributors went belly up. I (also) just finished two cuts for my
Harold Arlen CD, Out of This World, so we have two new bonus cuts for that as well.
GS: With such a
wealth of material from which to choose, what can a person expect to hear at a Maureen McGovern concert?
MM: I'm sort of an odd duck in today's world (laughs). My audience comes because they know they're
going to be taken on a journey. They're going to laugh, they're going to cry, and they're going to hear some
classical music, some jazz, some theater and pop. I was the disaster theme queen in the '70s and a
schizophrenic singer in the '80s because of all the genres I love to explore. I'm not a jazz singer per se, but I
inhabit the world of jazz. I love theater. I love light classical music, and certainly the great American songbook
standards. I did an album of baby boomer favorites called Baby I'm Yours. I'm putting a show together of baby
boomer classics. I'm going to be doing a jazz album with another artist that I'm a big fan of, which will be a thrill
for me. A straight-ahead jazz album is what I've always wanted to do. Whatever interests me at the moment,
and challenges me, is what I tend to dive head first into.
