It’s not often you’ll find me writing about someone who doesn’t like to be written about. Bobby Darin is that someone – quite an argumentative point, but Bobby is quite justified, generally speaking!Your reviewer, for one, has seen some hopelessly misguided approaches to Bobby’s attitudes and personality in print. You won’t find me stretching things or distorting them. Aside from accompanying and arranging for Bobby on occasion, I consider him a friend.
He has his edges. There are things that bother the mildest of us, and Bobby is no exception. Unfortunately, a performer’s private life is public record. This easily becomes a thorn to many performers, who can hardly put a hankie to their noses without someone starting a rumor that they are “down with pneumonia”!
Bobby works as hard to please his audience as any performer I’ve heard or played for. His source of energy is his desire to be as good as he can – to develop every area he feels is native to his diverse talents.
In this business, Bobby is what you call “heart”: If you cut his throat, he’d figure a way to sing through the opening. The great misconception about Bobby is that he’s a “toughie” with little or no humility. But here I think the surface isn’t up to telling the story.
The enigma is the product and the process. Having spent more than half my own life in the entertainment business, I can assure you there are easier axes to grind. (Contrary to what some journals would have you believe.) To push, to drive, to open your heart – and in general, expose yourself to the public – is not the easiest thing to do in life.
The process is a difficult one to live. An awful lot of work goes into every recording, every night-club engagement, to say nothing of the time spent laying things out for a television show. It’s incredibly time-consuming. (Some performers turn around one day and find that the whole of life has got away from them during the process.)
The rub is the “double standard” forced upon performers. They must beam, no matter how bad dinner was, how long the band rehearsal dragged on, or whether their child – who catches a cold like everyone else – kept them up all night with nursing.
There are no exceptions to the rule that the lid has to blow off periodically. Bobby, contrary to what is said about him in a great many cases, seems to have a good grasp of the problems the entertainment business has dropped in his lap. He has the happy faculty of enjoying other performers – I hasten to add, “who are talented.” Make no mistake that anyone who is as critical about himself, as Bobby is, could be easy with his peers!
He’s a wealth of information and advice. Very strongly does he hold his opinions. Believes emphatically in his own talent. That is the reason he is where he is today. A sage once said: Ten percent talent, ninety percent sweat. Work, hard work, never frightens those ready for it. Bobby has always “paid his dues” to cite a colloquialism. He’s beat the process, he has his product.
The question that always remains is: Do we enjoy the product, or is picking the process apart the answer? There are many gifts performers give heartily and lovingly. Do we take them in, enjoy them and reflect upon being enriched? Or do we want what we shouldn’t expect and what can never be given – even by those people whose lives are at least partially an open book?
Entertainers are to be enjoyed. They are not running for public office. The height of serving is giving your best. I’ve known hardly any performers who do not hold to this. Bobby is no exception. I enjoy him immensely and you, no doubt, enjoy him immensely. But what you may not know is: He keeps faith with your trust. He gives his best. And, most important, he enjoys you too!
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