I remember quite clearly first coming across this concert film. It was the summer of 1989 and one Saturday night BBC1 broadcast this just after midnight. I wasn't looking out for it, I just saw it by pure chance. At the time I was in a bit of a dead end from a musical taste perspective, I liked the Canadian progressive rock band Rush and not much else. I had kind of forgotten the pure joy of pop music. That was until I saw this film. I mean I knew who Cyndi Lauper was. I remembered her from 1984 when various songs from her debut album 'She's So Unusual' were released and I also recalled her subsequent hit 'True Colors'. I liked those songs well enough but I was quite a passive chart music fan back in those days of my childhood, so that was as far as it went. So I pretty much had little expectation when Cyndi Lauper in Paris began to play on the television. I started watching it fairly ambivalently but as it progressed I became more surprised and impressed. By the end I realised I had seen something truly special. I immediately went out and bought the video plus her first three albums. It was the start of a love of Lauper that has never really gone away.
I guess one of the key reasons I adored this concert so much was that it is a true amalgamation of pop and rock. While no one could argue about Cyndi being a pop star, it wasn't as much common knowledge that she brought a rock energy and attitude to her music which came out most prominently in a live context. This concert perfectly illustrates this, with Lauper giving a fully committed performance at all times. I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that she is one of the most supreme live performers out there, with an incredible stage presence. Most in the public knew her as an eccentric character, with a colourful personality; if you saw any of her multitude of chat-show appearances you would be left in no doubt that this was a girl with an abundance of charisma and humour, so much so that she could easily have had a second career as a comedienne. I think though that this very image was one of the reasons that many people underestimated her, they thought she was funny and cute so assumed she must be light-weight when the truth is that she was in possession of one of the best voices of the rock era, she effortlessly moved between rockers, new wave pop and ballads. Unlike many, she delivered these with genuine convincing emotion, as well as attitude. Aside from this, she truly did things her way and skipped exclusively to her own beat both in terms of her music and also her quirky fashion sense.
Which brings me back to Live in Paris. I think looking back on it, this is probably the single best place to experience Cyndi for a new-comer. The 'True Colors Tour' was ideal in the sense that the concentration was on her two first (and best) albums, so we get a set-list of really great songs. And for an artist with a very flamboyant image, it's interesting to note that this is a show with no gimmicks, it's just Cyndi and her excellent backing group. Which of course is all that is needed. Lauper is a genuinely mesmerising singer and she delivers these songs extraordinarily well, which is especially impressive given her energetic physical performance. It really is all or nothing stuff and the band are tight, exciting and very much on the money; their contribution should never be underestimated. The set-list is impeccable, we have the excellent passionate 'Change of Heart' open the show perfectly, pop gems like the infectious non album track 'Good Enough' from The Goonies (1985), a mind-blowingly powerful rendition of the deeply under-rated 'Boy Blue' (a song about Cyndi's friend Gregory Natal who died a couple of years earlier aged 27 after a tragic life) where Lauper literally pours her heart and soul out for the audience, there are all the hits from the seminal 'She's So Unusual' album including a particularly great 12" version of 'She Bop', the gorgeous 'All Through the Night' and a truly blistering version of the anthemic new wave rocker 'Money Changes Everything' in which Cyndi puts most hard rock singers to shame with her forceful charismatic delivery, there's beautiful versions of the gorgeous ballads 'Time After Time' and 'True Colors' both of which showcase Lauper's uncannily convincing emotional delivery of such material, the 'True Colors' album is unsurprisingly well represented with lots of rarely heard album tracks such as the energetic pop-rocker '911' and the excellent moody synth-driven 'One Track Mind' and, then of course there is a joyous extended version of the thoroughly iconic 'Girls Just Want to have Fun' etc etc etc. I could go on about these songs but, hey, I realise there's a word limit here! What I must also add though is that what hugely helps make this such a wonderful concert film is the way it's shot and edited. Director Andrew Morahan must be given enormous credit for doing this show justice and capturing the excitement so well in such an unobtrusive manner. Oh, to have been there.
This remains my all-time favourite live concert film and I can't see that changing. Pop perfection, rock energy, a once in a generation singer and a moment in time that captures her wonderful persona to perfection. It's beautiful, quite brilliant and should not be forgotten. Until a couple of years ago it didn't even have an entry on this database; I duly went ahead and added the page myself, it really was the least I could do.
I guess one of the key reasons I adored this concert so much was that it is a true amalgamation of pop and rock. While no one could argue about Cyndi being a pop star, it wasn't as much common knowledge that she brought a rock energy and attitude to her music which came out most prominently in a live context. This concert perfectly illustrates this, with Lauper giving a fully committed performance at all times. I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that she is one of the most supreme live performers out there, with an incredible stage presence. Most in the public knew her as an eccentric character, with a colourful personality; if you saw any of her multitude of chat-show appearances you would be left in no doubt that this was a girl with an abundance of charisma and humour, so much so that she could easily have had a second career as a comedienne. I think though that this very image was one of the reasons that many people underestimated her, they thought she was funny and cute so assumed she must be light-weight when the truth is that she was in possession of one of the best voices of the rock era, she effortlessly moved between rockers, new wave pop and ballads. Unlike many, she delivered these with genuine convincing emotion, as well as attitude. Aside from this, she truly did things her way and skipped exclusively to her own beat both in terms of her music and also her quirky fashion sense.
Which brings me back to Live in Paris. I think looking back on it, this is probably the single best place to experience Cyndi for a new-comer. The 'True Colors Tour' was ideal in the sense that the concentration was on her two first (and best) albums, so we get a set-list of really great songs. And for an artist with a very flamboyant image, it's interesting to note that this is a show with no gimmicks, it's just Cyndi and her excellent backing group. Which of course is all that is needed. Lauper is a genuinely mesmerising singer and she delivers these songs extraordinarily well, which is especially impressive given her energetic physical performance. It really is all or nothing stuff and the band are tight, exciting and very much on the money; their contribution should never be underestimated. The set-list is impeccable, we have the excellent passionate 'Change of Heart' open the show perfectly, pop gems like the infectious non album track 'Good Enough' from The Goonies (1985), a mind-blowingly powerful rendition of the deeply under-rated 'Boy Blue' (a song about Cyndi's friend Gregory Natal who died a couple of years earlier aged 27 after a tragic life) where Lauper literally pours her heart and soul out for the audience, there are all the hits from the seminal 'She's So Unusual' album including a particularly great 12" version of 'She Bop', the gorgeous 'All Through the Night' and a truly blistering version of the anthemic new wave rocker 'Money Changes Everything' in which Cyndi puts most hard rock singers to shame with her forceful charismatic delivery, there's beautiful versions of the gorgeous ballads 'Time After Time' and 'True Colors' both of which showcase Lauper's uncannily convincing emotional delivery of such material, the 'True Colors' album is unsurprisingly well represented with lots of rarely heard album tracks such as the energetic pop-rocker '911' and the excellent moody synth-driven 'One Track Mind' and, then of course there is a joyous extended version of the thoroughly iconic 'Girls Just Want to have Fun' etc etc etc. I could go on about these songs but, hey, I realise there's a word limit here! What I must also add though is that what hugely helps make this such a wonderful concert film is the way it's shot and edited. Director Andrew Morahan must be given enormous credit for doing this show justice and capturing the excitement so well in such an unobtrusive manner. Oh, to have been there.
This remains my all-time favourite live concert film and I can't see that changing. Pop perfection, rock energy, a once in a generation singer and a moment in time that captures her wonderful persona to perfection. It's beautiful, quite brilliant and should not be forgotten. Until a couple of years ago it didn't even have an entry on this database; I duly went ahead and added the page myself, it really was the least I could do.
