Brooks, best known for composing the Oscar winning song “You Light Up My Life” was facing a slew of sex crime charges. In related news, his son is going on trial for murdering his girlfriend.
I, I took my own life.
I had not hope, couldn’t carry on.
I took my life with helium
And now I sing
THIS HIGH PITCHED SONG.
Will I go to hell for thinking if he’d changed his mind at the last minute it would have been the most hilarious 911 call ever?
Given everything he is accused of - and all of the evidence against him - it seems like “songwriter” is the lesser of descriptors that should be used…perhaps in favor of “loser slimeball sexual abuser”…
I wish no ill will on anyone - this just seems like he streamlined the bureaucracy.
Prison at his age would be a death sentence anyway.
Glad he saved the taxpayers money for a trial and incarceration.
Hey, at least he went out on a high note!
Brooks was awaiting trial and sentencing for at least a dozen rapes. Sounds like a swell sort all around.
But, if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have had this moment.
Holy crap! And wasn’t You Light Up My Life about God? Or rumored to be about God?
I believe that’s what Debbie Boone thought the song was about.
In any case, that sappy ditty set a record by spending 10 weeks at the top of the American charts in late 1977. (It’s since been topped.) However, it was one of those hugely popular songs that quickly disappeared from the airwaves once it fell off the charts and were rarely heard ever again. I don’t even hear it played on oldies stations.
So writing that song wasn’t his worst crime? He really had to be a villain to top that.
That is the winningest win that ever won.
According to the singer/songwriter of this song the unidentified actress lip-synching the female portions of the song was married to Brooks at the time (@1979). ETA: Other than that, I got nuthin’.
YLUML was a slamdunk for the Best Song Oscar in 1977 (the year all the Saturday Night Live songs were snubbed), and was performed famously by Boone, accompanied by a group of deaf children who were signing the lyrics, during the Oscar ceremony.
Except the kids weren’t actually deaf and it turns out the “signing” was a bunch of mumbo jumbo.
For some sicko reason, this may be the single funniest thing I have read all week long.
Did they actually think that no one would notice that the “signing” was rot?
They probably just wrote it off as “choreography” and back then? The ceremonies weren’t under anywhere the same kind of scrutiny, and it probably wouldn’t have occurred to most media outlets to check.
It may have been a sappy ditty when Debbie Boone sang it, but when
Patti Smith sang it on a kid’s show
it turned into a very emotional anthem even when she forgets the words (as a bonus, accompanied by none other than Joe Brooks himself).
Edit to add there’s an intro with kids asking questions. The song itself is introduced just past the 3 minute mark.
don’t you mean ‘Saturday Night Fever’ songs?
I was in fifth grade when this song was a big hit. I remember there was a truly maudlin, sappy movie made about it starring Didi Conn.
Actually what I remember most about the song was the take-off of the song that we (meaning juvenile, pre-adolescent punks) sang on the playground:
"So many nights, I sat on my toilet
Trying so hard to take a shit.
So long I sat there, until you unblocked me
By ramming my ass with your big fat dick
Now IIIII, I took a big dump…"
That’s all I remember.
I heard YLUML at the dentist’s office two weeks ago. Score another one for the cosmic unconsciousness.
:smack: Yes, of course.