Speaker 1: In January two thousand nineteen, the St. Louis Blues hockey
Speaker 1: team was in last place, dead last. All the wheels
Speaker 1: seemed to have fallen off the wagon. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of concern around the St. Louis Blues. There's no jump,
Speaker 1: there's no grip, there's no excitement. The NHL season had
Speaker 1: started in October. This is unbelievable. A couple of months later,
Speaker 1: their own fans booed them during and after a game.
Speaker 1: By January there are chances of winning the Stanley Cup
Speaker 1: were point six percent, not six percent, which would be
Speaker 1: bad enough. Point six The team trudged into Philly to
Speaker 1: play the Philadelphia Flyers. We have a friend of ours
Speaker 1: from Philly. He invited us to this bar. That's St.
Speaker 1: Louis Blues player Robert Bortuzzo. He and four other players
Speaker 1: went out for some beers and cheese steaks the night
Speaker 1: before their game. I mean, why not, you know what?
Speaker 1: This place is papped characters. And then there's one guy
Speaker 1: who just kept wanting them to play Gloria, playing Gloria,
Speaker 1: play Gloria. So they kept playing it Gloria, you know
Speaker 1: hit song from Laura Brann again. So the DJ kept
Speaker 1: playing Gloria over and over, and the places going nuts.
Speaker 1: The guys wind up having a pretty good time. They
Speaker 1: go home, sleep off the booze. They go out the
Speaker 1: next day and they win three nothing, a shutout. Alexander Stein,
Speaker 1: another player, says they went back to the locker room
Speaker 1: that night and celebrated by playing Gloria. Throughout the course
Speaker 1: of the season, as a group, you try and find
Speaker 1: things that connect you more. They officially adopted Gloria as
Speaker 1: their wind song, and then the Boy you Love It.
Speaker 1: They won their next ten games playing Gloria. After everyone,
Speaker 1: it wasn't long before the song moved out of the
Speaker 1: locker room and into the arena, to the delight of
Speaker 1: thousands of screaming fans. We're no longer booing. A local
Speaker 1: radio station played Gloria for twenty four hours straight. Gloria
Speaker 1: continues down. I hope you're not tired of again, because
Speaker 1: we're not. Let's go Blues baby. Lifelong fan Jim Patton
Speaker 1: got to play Gloria Tattoo with the Blues and with Laura,
Speaker 1: and then naturally fans started asking for Laura Brannigan to
Speaker 1: come sing Gloria in person. I thought all that would
Speaker 1: be cool. They brought her in for one of the games.
Speaker 1: But there was one problem. So you say she died, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Laura Brannigan died in her sleep in two thousand four.
Speaker 1: But in two thousand nineteen, her chart topping hit took
Speaker 1: the Blues all the weight at the top the way
Speaker 1: it is over and the St. Louis Blues are the
Speaker 1: Stanley Cup tippets for the first time in franchise mystery.
Speaker 1: That's right. In five months they went from number thirty
Speaker 1: one to number one, worst to first go to my
Speaker 1: grave singing glorious? So who was Laura Branding in anyway?
Speaker 1: Even her neighbors didn't know who. She was really underrated
Speaker 1: singer ever since he was a little kid. She could sing.
Speaker 1: There was like a little mischievous secret to that smile.
Speaker 1: And while I'm at it, who's Gloria? She's a little cuckoo.
Speaker 1: I'm not positive, but I think it's about a mentally
Speaker 1: disturbed woman. Was she a prostitute? Gloria from CDAs Sunday
Speaker 1: Morning and Simon and Schuster, I'm Morocca and this see
Speaker 1: mobituaries This mobid Laura Brandigan August two thousand four, death
Speaker 1: of a singer life of a Song. Well, I wasn't
Speaker 1: a big Laura Brannigan fan back then, but I certainly
Speaker 1: am now, I certainly am. What did we listen to
Speaker 1: before Laura brand Again? Was there before Laura Brandon? This
Speaker 1: is my best friend, Mario. We grew up together listening
Speaker 1: to mostly show tunes. We both loved Cats. We had
Speaker 1: the record, and you pointed out that the LP was
Speaker 1: better because especially if We're is a double LP, because
Speaker 1: you could look at all the pictures of all the cats.
Speaker 1: Broadway cast albums were an important part of our lives
Speaker 1: and our friendship. Don't cry for Men't for Avida. You
Speaker 1: didn't have the broadway cast album you had. I had
Speaker 1: the original pelopone original Broadway cast album. I thought you
Speaker 1: had Elaine Page. I had pre Elaine Page. Julie Couvington
Speaker 1: was the concert version. But while she wasn't a Broadway person,
Speaker 1: Laura Brannigan captivated us. Whisper in her voice is great. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's an amazing voice. And in fact, that's how I
Speaker 1: learned what four octave means. She came along and I've
Speaker 1: read some article about her four octave range. I mean,
Speaker 1: she's obviously an attractive, pretty woman, but they never sort
Speaker 1: of marketed her effectively that way. Be factly, all she
Speaker 1: was selling really was the boys. But also she was
Speaker 1: as talented as she was and with her voice being
Speaker 1: so amazing, she was like a really average seeming person,
Speaker 1: like an accessible seeming right, but you could image and
Speaker 1: sort of being friends with this woman. I could have
Speaker 1: imagined her going to Pile Junior High seriously totally, and
Speaker 1: even though she didn't go to junior high with us,
Speaker 1: it turns out our feelings on Laura or Laurie as
Speaker 1: she was known growing up, we're pretty right on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she would sign anybody's autograph. She's just the same sweet
Speaker 1: kid we knew with fame. Mark brand Again is Laura's
Speaker 1: older brother. He hasn't spoken publicly about his sister since
Speaker 1: she died in two thousand four. So was she known
Speaker 1: around the neighborhood as a kid with the pipes? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Oh my god? Could she sing? As a family, we
Speaker 1: used to sing in church together sometimes, is that right? Yeah? Christmas,
Speaker 1: we'd we'd go around and sing Christmas carols in front
Speaker 1: of our neighbor's house, the whole family. Yeah. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: if you couldn't sing in the Brannigan House, which I
Speaker 1: can't really you were the off key one. Laura was
Speaker 1: born in nine, the fourth of five kids to Jimmy
Speaker 1: and Kathleen Brannigan, and this musical Irish Catholic family lived
Speaker 1: in the small town of Armand, New York. When she
Speaker 1: was little, did she say I want to be a
Speaker 1: big recording star. No, she was very shy. It was
Speaker 1: never she never tried to get attention to herself. She
Speaker 1: just liked to sing, and oh, okay, great, And then
Speaker 1: I heard her sing seriously. I just was like, you know,
Speaker 1: and were your parents supportive of her aspiration? Yes, they
Speaker 1: really were, especially my mother. No surprise there, Mark says.
Speaker 1: Their mom performed on a radio talent show as a
Speaker 1: kid and always sang around the house. All the neighbor
Speaker 1: kids used to come around outside the window where my
Speaker 1: mother would wash the dishes, and they'd sit there. She
Speaker 1: wouldn't know we were out there, and she would sing
Speaker 1: and all the little kids would clap. What would she
Speaker 1: sing when she was washing dishes? Contemporary music from her background,
Speaker 1: and I don't remember exactly, And yeah, she sang that
Speaker 1: all the time. She put all the kids to bed,
Speaker 1: and we make her sing to us. It was great.
Speaker 1: There she here, she is? She looks at Ali Ryerson
Speaker 1: was one of Laura's best friends at Byram Hills High.
Speaker 1: We're looking at their high school year both that's me,
Speaker 1: look at you there. Ali is a professional floutist, so
Speaker 1: I couldn't resist making a request. That's great to remember
Speaker 1: it that. What was our Monk like as a place
Speaker 1: to grow up? It was great? You know, I guess
Speaker 1: what they call a New York bedroom community? Do they
Speaker 1: have a nice house? They were middle class where they lived.
Speaker 1: It was not like the ritzy part of our Monk.
Speaker 1: What was her style in high school? Like? When she
Speaker 1: walked down the hall, was it like, there's Laurie. She
Speaker 1: had long, dark, flowing hair. It was always the perfect
Speaker 1: messy look. And I don't think on purpose at all.
Speaker 1: It was that was the way that Laurie looked. She
Speaker 1: was very striking, but in a very natural way. Laura
Speaker 1: starred in the high school musical senior year. I think
Speaker 1: it was Pajama Game. So she played babe. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a big belt role. You don't have
Speaker 1: a big voice to that. The kind of voice she had.
Speaker 1: One of the things I remember about her was her ability,
Speaker 1: her natural ability to harmonize, which is hard. It's really hard.
Speaker 1: It's really hard. She just had a great ear. Now,
Speaker 1: Ali doesn't remember Mrs brand Again as exactly happy, go lucky.
Speaker 1: She was stern. That's what I remember, as Ali recalls,
Speaker 1: Laura's mom was working in a dress shop and one
Speaker 1: time the two teenage girls were gathering in the ladies
Speaker 1: room and I don't remember sitting on it, but for
Speaker 1: some reason, the sink came out of the wall. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, you sat on the sink in the ladies
Speaker 1: root and it came out. We denied that we sat
Speaker 1: on it, but we might have hit it. And her
Speaker 1: mother was like kind of furious, Well, okay, you did
Speaker 1: rip the sink out of the wall. Well okay, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of on Mrs Brannigan's side on this one. And
Speaker 1: when I think that to it, I think you might
Speaker 1: be right. Laura wasn't the only brand Again trying to
Speaker 1: pull one over on her mother. My kid brother, Billy Billy,
Speaker 1: he put marijuana plants on the roof. You had a
Speaker 1: rooftop marijuana garden. My mother fertilized. Your mother didn't realize
Speaker 1: along with her roses and she's sit probably watering there
Speaker 1: going it's a great day for the Irish. I've heard
Speaker 1: about your your sister pulling pranks. The best thing she did.
Speaker 1: She had a friend named Ethan who was going over
Speaker 1: to prep school and taking the s s France. Laura
Speaker 1: and Ali and their friend Lisa went to see this
Speaker 1: friend off on a cruise ship. One thing led to another.
Speaker 1: We're giggling and a little tipsy, and I said, why
Speaker 1: don't we just stay on the ship. So we did. Yep.
Speaker 1: The three girls stowed away and once they were found own,
Speaker 1: it was too late to turn back. We're on our own.
Speaker 1: It's a five day crossing. Their parents are cold, but
Speaker 1: the punishment will have to wait. The girls are giving
Speaker 1: cabins and waila. They're on vacation. We have five French
Speaker 1: waiters for the three of us. I know they gave
Speaker 1: us a bottle of wine. I'm pretty sure I've seen
Speaker 1: these movies starring Marilyn Monroe, Ravel or something like you.
Speaker 1: Was there any romance on the ship. Well, one of
Speaker 1: our waiters, Mario, I knew it was going to be
Speaker 1: a waiter, and you mentioned the five waiters. I had
Speaker 1: a little flirtation with him. I don't know about Lori,
Speaker 1: but Ali does have a distinct memory from that trip
Speaker 1: of Laura doing what she loved most a few times.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's like a ballroom or a
Speaker 1: lounge or something like that, an empty room with a
Speaker 1: grand piano. I would find Lori in there at the piano,
Speaker 1: playing and singing. That's a wonderful memory. I remember the
Speaker 1: time that you gave me the votes. Now they prest
Speaker 1: in the pages of Vault. And after high school, Laura
Speaker 1: moved to New York City to study drama. She joined
Speaker 1: the folk rock band Meadow. I'm getting a strong Godspell
Speaker 1: vibe here. I mean, this was the early seventies after all,
Speaker 1: And a few years later she hit the road as
Speaker 1: a backup singer for Leonard Cohen. Then she landed a
Speaker 1: big time manager, Sid Bernstein, the man who brought the
Speaker 1: Beatles to America. He called Laura the next Judy Garland.
Speaker 1: Soon she booked a TV commercial for three m It
Speaker 1: was the first time a lot of people saw and
Speaker 1: heard her and said got her in her room with
Speaker 1: legendary Atlantic Records head A'm it aired again. I got
Speaker 1: up and I said, Laura you're going to be an
Speaker 1: Atlantic artist, and I think you're going to be a star.
Speaker 1: But for a couple of years it was a touch
Speaker 1: and go. They knew Laura was great, but they couldn't
Speaker 1: figure out exactly what to do with her. She recorded
Speaker 1: a bunch of materials, but her first Album's got shelved
Speaker 1: until finally something clicked. It has an amazing beginning because
Speaker 1: instead of yeah, instead of like sort of like slowly
Speaker 1: building up, it just like a now and says it's coming.
Speaker 1: The song it was like jumper cables. It is a
Speaker 1: song with velocity, right velocity. It has its own velocity
Speaker 1: and you are not going to get in a way.
Speaker 1: It is gonna pummel you down. It's what I Have.
Speaker 1: The Tiger tried to do right. I Have The Tiger
Speaker 1: was a perfectly fine pop song in its day, but
Speaker 1: it was like saying, boom, boom boom, we are doing this,
Speaker 1: and Gloria doesn't try to do that. It just doesn't.
Speaker 1: Gloria was Laura Brannigan's breakout hit, a certified platinum single
Speaker 1: that earned her a Grammy nomination and a spot on
Speaker 1: the TV police drama A Chip Audition for You, With
Speaker 1: the kind of like foxes, um, why don't you listen
Speaker 1: to our tape? Here? While it hovered a number two
Speaker 1: on the charts and never quite made it to the
Speaker 1: tippy top, Gloria stayed on the Billboard Hot one hundred
Speaker 1: for thirty six weeks. If you don't like doing the math,
Speaker 1: that's eight and a half months. If I were doing
Speaker 1: a soundtrack for my day, I wouldn't know where to
Speaker 1: put it. Because it works well getting out of bed,
Speaker 1: the alarm goes off, walking to work. It works for
Speaker 1: like striding down the hallway and delivering some paper that's
Speaker 1: that the boss is going to rave about. Isn't it
Speaker 1: odd there have not been covers. I can't think of
Speaker 1: any mainstream hit that has either successfully sampled or covered.
Speaker 1: Gloria and Laura kept it up five a new album
Speaker 1: every year, with more top ten hits. One of the
Speaker 1: things that really kind of gets my cross is and
Speaker 1: people think she's a one hit wonder. She's not a
Speaker 1: one hit wonder. Oh oh, arm Alright, let's talk about
Speaker 1: these other songs a little bit. Self control is a
Speaker 1: whole topic. It's entire podcast. It's a great song, it's
Speaker 1: sort of a complex song. The night I remember the
Speaker 1: video being so weird like she was. She was kind
Speaker 1: of like in this House of Horror type thing. Everyone
Speaker 1: had these creepy masks. It was a little sort of
Speaker 1: eyes wide shot. The director of the Self Control video
Speaker 1: music video is William friedkin oh right, Yes, in The Exorcist,
Speaker 1: the French Connection, the Boys in the Band, and Self
Speaker 1: Control the video. Yes, but she had three really big
Speaker 1: hits she had Gloria self Control Solitaire. I mean I
Speaker 1: throw in there, how am I supposed to live without?
Speaker 1: That was a big hid that's right. Laura was the
Speaker 1: first to sing this song, written by a then unknown
Speaker 1: Michael Bolton. She gave his career a huge boost. Another
Speaker 1: songwriter who hit it big with Laura Diane Warren. Even
Speaker 1: if you don't know her name, you definitely know her songs.
Speaker 1: Diane's work includes songs for Share, Aerosmith, Selene Dion, Lady Gaga,
Speaker 1: and a lot more. But before all of them, there
Speaker 1: was Laura Brandagan. Was that a breakthrough for you when
Speaker 1: she sang Solitaire? I mean it was the first time
Speaker 1: anything with my name on it went top ken, So
Speaker 1: it was pretty cool. Diane was just starting out when
Speaker 1: she wrote new English lyrics to a French song on
Speaker 1: called Solitaire. Laura sang it and the song went to
Speaker 1: number seven. How would you describe her voice? It was ballsy,
Speaker 1: and it had power, and it had passion. It's just
Speaker 1: one of those just larger than life voices. I mean,
Speaker 1: I love those kind of voices. And when Diane Warren
Speaker 1: says a voice has power, I mean, you're the authority
Speaker 1: on that. To me, she's one of the best singers
Speaker 1: I ever worked with. Like Solitaire, several of Laura's early
Speaker 1: hits were English language covers of European songs. It might
Speaker 1: surprise you that Gloria was originally an Italian love song
Speaker 1: by the singer Umbert Totosi. Okay, they changed the lyrics and,
Speaker 1: as Laura put it, gave it an American cap and
Speaker 1: with that kick, it's sore. It's been featured every place,
Speaker 1: from Flashdance to South Park, Grand Theft Auto to the
Speaker 1: assassination of Gianni Versacci. Let's face it, the St. Louis
Speaker 1: Blues needed Gloria, not the other way around. What is
Speaker 1: it about a song like Gloria that it just keeps
Speaker 1: coming back? I mean, it's a great melody A and
Speaker 1: then what that lyric is singing about this character like
Speaker 1: this happy music, edulent melody with this kind of tragic character.
Speaker 1: The lyrics certainly don't describe a happy character. I think
Speaker 1: you've got to slow down before you start to blow it.
Speaker 1: I think you're headed for a breakdown, so be careful
Speaker 1: not to show it what happens. I think there's so
Speaker 1: many people they get in the fast name and they
Speaker 1: lose the essence of themselves and they're so concerned with
Speaker 1: keeping up. That's Laura herself weighing in on the meaning
Speaker 1: of the song. And so what I'm doing in the
Speaker 1: song glory is telling it glory. But I slow down.
Speaker 1: That was and just a few years later, Laura's career
Speaker 1: did slow down, much sooner than she probably wanted. She
Speaker 1: had her last top twenty hit, the Lucky One. What happened.
Speaker 1: Laura's relatable, she's beautiful, and she's got that voice. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, when I first got into this business, I
Speaker 1: knew nothing about it, and um I got involved with
Speaker 1: the wrong people. They could have gone the next step
Speaker 1: and really developed her as an artist. This is Diane
Speaker 1: Warren again. She should have had a long career. Turns
Speaker 1: out the cracks were starting to show early. She fired
Speaker 1: her manager, Sid Bernstein, just as Gloria was climbing the charts.
Speaker 1: Her relationship with her next manager ended up in a
Speaker 1: legal dispute. Then someone new took the helm. I know
Speaker 1: you're married to your manager. That's right. He's in a
Speaker 1: supporting role. You can trust him. Yes, Laura had married
Speaker 1: attorney Larry crew Tech nine months after meeting him in
Speaker 1: crew Tech was closely involved with her career from the
Speaker 1: very beginning. I wasn't able to gather much insight into him.
Speaker 1: Wore their relationship though. Diane Warren only remembers one thing
Speaker 1: about him. Remember we're in really tight leather pants, that's remember.
Speaker 1: And I don't sense a lot of love lost between
Speaker 1: Laura's brother Mark and his brother in law. We didn't
Speaker 1: fight with him, but there was no simpatico between us.
Speaker 1: Give him a holiday card, you know, Happy Thanksgiving, and
Speaker 1: you know, and Laura's high school friend Ali never even
Speaker 1: met him. You know, Laurie kind of drifted off. And
Speaker 1: how did you feel about that? Sad and a little
Speaker 1: bit disappointed. In those days, you would print postcards and
Speaker 1: mail them out. Laurie was on my mailing list, and
Speaker 1: I would always write a note to her. Did you
Speaker 1: see each other or speak at all during the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies that whole decade? I don't think we did. You
Speaker 1: never got any response, nothing, nothing. Laura also fell out
Speaker 1: of touch with her former bandmates from Meadow. One explanation
Speaker 1: maybe that she basically needed to erase five years from
Speaker 1: her life. You see, fans thought Laura was born in
Speaker 1: The truth is she was born in ninety two. The
Speaker 1: record company made her do it, and the only way
Speaker 1: we even found out about it was because many years
Speaker 1: after her death, the AP issued a correction. I remember
Speaker 1: reading on my computer and being kind of stunned. Mario's right.
Speaker 1: The Associated Press issued a correction to her obituary almost
Speaker 1: thirteen years after Laura died. But how did the APE
Speaker 1: even find out? It all started in spring two thousand
Speaker 1: and fourteen. This is Swedish Laura Brannigan, superman steeg Akia
Speaker 1: person many people just call Misstigue. A retiree living in
Speaker 1: a Swedish seaside village. Steve spent hundreds of hours on
Speaker 1: his computer doing research. I love it. People are collecting
Speaker 1: stamps or whatever. I am collecting all stuff I can
Speaker 1: found of Laura Brannigan. One thing. This Swedish sleuth uncovered
Speaker 1: a great photo of the Brannigan family in their kitchen
Speaker 1: together in nineteen fifty four. There's a baby Laura right
Speaker 1: in the middle. It was a gold mine. I think
Speaker 1: the real significance in this news coming to light when
Speaker 1: Laura finally broke out with Gloria. She was thirty years old,
Speaker 1: not old in normal people terms, but certainly not young
Speaker 1: in the pop music world. When you first heard the
Speaker 1: age she was putting out there, did you kind of
Speaker 1: roll your eyes and go, come on? It didn't bother
Speaker 1: me as far as Laurie was concerned. I knew that
Speaker 1: that wasn't her choice. She would follow her team, and
Speaker 1: I think she was right too. It's hard, yeah, navigating
Speaker 1: the music business, pop stardom, trying to stay on top
Speaker 1: while doing what's right for you for your career. It's
Speaker 1: a lot. Heading into the nine nineties, she was still
Speaker 1: putting out albums, but there were fewer and farther in between.
Speaker 1: So why such a long time. There are lots of
Speaker 1: obsessive Laura Brannigan fans out there that are wondering, where
Speaker 1: have you been? Everybody says that that's TV and radio
Speaker 1: host Ernie Manoose talking to Laura about her album Over
Speaker 1: My Heart. Does your management ever say to you, Laura,
Speaker 1: don't do this again. Do not take three years. We
Speaker 1: need you out there. No, no, I have a new manager,
Speaker 1: frank Le, so take care of the old one. Yep.
Speaker 1: She'd taken on yet another manager, but the hits had
Speaker 1: dried up. How frustrating it must have been to be
Speaker 1: Laura in the nineties when she knew she could still
Speaker 1: sing the hell out of a song, but the songs
Speaker 1: weren't going to her. Laura believed that this one would
Speaker 1: have put her back on top Celine Dion's hit from Titanic,
Speaker 1: My Heart Will Go On. I know perfect. You can
Speaker 1: hear the frustration in her voice on this phone call.
Speaker 1: I can hear you, and I can hear her singing it.
Speaker 1: Why is it you have that magic? When Laura started out,
Speaker 1: her motivation seemed so pure. After Gloria hit, she went
Speaker 1: on American Bandstand and Dick Clark asked her about her future.
Speaker 1: What do you hope for the next ten years. I
Speaker 1: just always want to sing. I just always want to sing. Now.
Speaker 1: Contrast that with Madonna, who was on just over a
Speaker 1: year later, What are your dreams? What's like to rule
Speaker 1: the world, Ladies and gentlemen, this is Madonna. I don't
Speaker 1: think Laura wanted to rule the world, but I don't
Speaker 1: think she wanted to fade away either. In any case,
Speaker 1: Over My Heart turned out to be Laura's last album.
Speaker 1: Not long after its release, her husband was diagnosed with
Speaker 1: colon cancer. Laura put her career on hold to take
Speaker 1: care of him. He died two years later, around the
Speaker 1: same time her older brother Jimmy died. Then a few
Speaker 1: years later, she fell from a ladder and broke both
Speaker 1: her legs. The grueling recovery meant more time away from
Speaker 1: her music. Here's her brother Mark again. That was a
Speaker 1: lot too for her to deal at that time, really
Speaker 1: really tough. The rehab of that monsters monsters, and you know,
Speaker 1: the public they want to hear you. And if they
Speaker 1: don't hear you and see you, it's not that they
Speaker 1: forget about you. It's just that you're not on their mind.
Speaker 1: But for a group of die hard fans, Laura was
Speaker 1: and still is on their mind. Tell me where the
Speaker 1: Spirit of love event is? Remember that woman on the
Speaker 1: phone with Laura High There that's Kathy golic A mo Yes.
Speaker 1: I met her at a Hilton Garden Inn on Long Island,
Speaker 1: New York, where she was holding this year's Spirit of
Speaker 1: Love memorial gathering, in annual meeting of Laura Brannigan fans.
Speaker 1: When we come back to the hotel, it's like saying
Speaker 1: family there. Kathy started as a fan, became a friend,
Speaker 1: and now keeps Laura alive online. If you follow Laura
Speaker 1: brand Again on Twitter, you're reading Kathy's posts. She was
Speaker 1: even in St. Louis when the Blues won the Stanley
Speaker 1: Gloria's played and they would play a three or four times,
Speaker 1: so we were one of the last ones to leave
Speaker 1: the arena. Tell me the trip. Did you know anything
Speaker 1: about pro ice hockey before this? Casually? Casually she's filled
Speaker 1: one of the hotel conference rooms with memorabilia. I spotted
Speaker 1: a German movie poster and again and Ruth Gordon, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's Laura dubbed into German in the movie Muggsy's Girls.
Speaker 1: It's sort of like a female animal house. In case
Speaker 1: you haven't seen Muggsy's Girls, it's about a sorority that
Speaker 1: enters a mud wrestling competition in Las Vegas in order
Speaker 1: to save their house. It's not Shakespeare, but hey, Ruth
Speaker 1: Gordon was on board. Legend a great actress. Even years
Speaker 1: after they had made this movie together, she used to
Speaker 1: get together with Laura the Russian tabroom. Laura had a
Speaker 1: grander ambitions as an actress. I think she did. I
Speaker 1: think she did. Yeah. Cathy plans activities for the whole weekend,
Speaker 1: no matter what the turnout, and this year the turnout
Speaker 1: was modest, with just four fans. One of those die
Speaker 1: hards is Colin Strong. This is my fourth year, fourth
Speaker 1: year in a row. I'm a merchant mariner, so I
Speaker 1: go different places around the world South Korea, Japan, Dubai,
Speaker 1: and Long Island. This past year, Colin brought something special
Speaker 1: to the event, a trophy that Laura won in Tokyo
Speaker 1: and this is the grand prize. Happy. I'm not thinking
Speaker 1: that this thing is a big Colin found it on
Speaker 1: eBay asked was it expensive A little bit? I'll take
Speaker 1: that as a yes. Supervan. Scott Thomas came up from Virginia.
Speaker 1: Last night at the beach. Were just sitting around having
Speaker 1: a little reflection. You know, everybody got two roses and
Speaker 1: we tossed him in the ocean for do you feel
Speaker 1: a bond with the other fans? Definitely. Scott met Laura
Speaker 1: after seven show in Virginia Beach, where he says she
Speaker 1: invited him to take a ride in her limo, but
Speaker 1: nothing happened. So I mean Huggan's kissing and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: as Betty it now, Scott was already dating the woman
Speaker 1: he's now married to. And how does she feel about
Speaker 1: his trip to New York this weekend? Didn't like it.
Speaker 1: I don't like it one bit. And finally, I'm a
Speaker 1: light housekeeper with the Canadian Coast card Stanley West table
Speaker 1: and you're holding a candle as it were for Laura.
Speaker 1: Stanley came by himself. He didn't know anyone here. He
Speaker 1: traveled three thousand miles from British Columbia, Canada because of
Speaker 1: Laura Brannigan. I could possibly say I'm here today because
Speaker 1: of her. In a more literal sense, I had a
Speaker 1: very bad personal break up in and it was her
Speaker 1: voice that called me back from the edge, Stanley sense
Speaker 1: is something deeply empathetic in Laura's voice. It's almost as
Speaker 1: though she's speaking to you in a way saying I've
Speaker 1: been there even now. This heartrending sound isn't something that
Speaker 1: just superbands here. It's something people noticed about Laura from
Speaker 1: the beginnings. And you have a soulful quality in your
Speaker 1: in your voice, almost a sadness. That's Johnny Carson interviewing
Speaker 1: Laura back Edith Off at all. That's interesting. I was
Speaker 1: thinking of Edith Poff when I was listening to you sing.
Speaker 1: Edith Poff was the iconic French shantouse known for her
Speaker 1: torch songs and a life beset by tragedy. Oh that
Speaker 1: was her favorite singer of all the time. She turned
Speaker 1: me onto you off. I mean, she just loved it.
Speaker 1: Mark Brannigan also hears the pain in his sister's voice.
Speaker 1: She could break your heart with a song, you know,
Speaker 1: and you'd see she was crying so and songwriter Diane
Speaker 1: Warren says, you can't teach that kind of passion. You
Speaker 1: either have soul and feeling or you know. And she
Speaker 1: did this extra layer, this depth to Laura's voice. She
Speaker 1: alluded to its roots during a conversation with Joan Rivers,
Speaker 1: you do a lot of sad song. Now what are
Speaker 1: you drawing is your life? And say it or I
Speaker 1: had not well, it has been you know, I had
Speaker 1: had a rough time growing up, and um, I think
Speaker 1: I don't do a lot of that, okay, and it's okay.
Speaker 1: I can't know for sure what Laura is referring to there,
Speaker 1: but one person we haven't talked about is Laura's father.
Speaker 1: My father was to say he had been very successful
Speaker 1: on Wall Street, very successful after World War Two. I
Speaker 1: don't know by the time we all got to be
Speaker 1: in the teens he was. He was not not in
Speaker 1: good shape. Her childhood was not Oh Roses. This is
Speaker 1: her high school friend Ali Ryerson. Again, her father, who
Speaker 1: was a wonderful man, would be gone for a few
Speaker 1: days and then come back. He would have been better
Speaker 1: off had he never had a drink in his life.
Speaker 1: Let's just put it that way, you know. In the
Speaker 1: liner notes to Self Control and al Them, which came
Speaker 1: out the year after Laura's father died, Laura writes, for Dad,
Speaker 1: now I know you're listening, let me read you something.
Speaker 1: Her unhappy personal life in unadorned though dramatic style underlined
Speaker 1: her expressive voice, and she was able to move audiences
Speaker 1: with her passionate renditions of songs that were often about
Speaker 1: love and Loss. That's not about Laura Brown again. It's
Speaker 1: from an Encyclopedia entry on Edith Poff. I'm going to
Speaker 1: see Laura Brannagan tomorrow night of Madison Square Garden, and
Speaker 1: I have some advice for her. Open and clothes with Gloria,
Speaker 1: do it a couple of times in between. That's David
Speaker 1: Spade from an old Saturday Night Live. It's a funny bit.
Speaker 1: While there's so much more to Laura Brandigan, she will
Speaker 1: always be remembered for Gloria, and I don't think that's
Speaker 1: a bad thing. In one interview, she said, look, I
Speaker 1: end every concert with Gloria and people just go crazy.
Speaker 1: And I bet I'd like to think that she never
Speaker 1: resented that. I think she was grateful to sing that
Speaker 1: song because that's the song that really made our star.
Speaker 1: This is Tommy Biokos. At the end of our set list,
Speaker 1: we would do self Control set Gloria. In the early
Speaker 1: two thousands, Laura, after recovering from her injuries, was attempting
Speaker 1: to come back twenty years after the release of Gloria.
Speaker 1: Tommy was in her band while on tour together, he
Speaker 1: and Laura started dating. She also started recording a new
Speaker 1: album and writing a cookbook. The idea towards the end
Speaker 1: was to have her cookbook, the new CD and a
Speaker 1: world tour and hit the world that once was she
Speaker 1: a great cook exceptional. At the time, Laura was living
Speaker 1: on Long Island with her mother, who had developed Alzheimer's.
Speaker 1: She would take her into the recording sessions my mother,
Speaker 1: but my sister took her everywhere, took her everywhere, and
Speaker 1: in her world it was Laura and everybody was happy,
Speaker 1: and it's so sweet. She she was a sweet person. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In the summer of two thousand four, Laura started getting
Speaker 1: headaches and then on the morning of August, Mark got
Speaker 1: a call from the caretaker at the house nine in
Speaker 1: the morning. I thought, she said, my mother died, and
Speaker 1: I said, okay, well let me speak to Mary, and
Speaker 1: she goes, no, Mori's dead. Laura died of a brain
Speaker 1: aneurism after going to sleep the night before. She was
Speaker 1: fifty two. I was driving on and I heard the
Speaker 1: news that Laura Brannigan had had died. I pulled off
Speaker 1: and I called my brother John and we cried together.
Speaker 1: You called me that morning when you heard the news.
Speaker 1: He said, you know, I'm genuinely sad about this. She
Speaker 1: was the big star, but she was also hours. It
Speaker 1: was a personal thing, that's exactly right, And it was
Speaker 1: a lesson in mortality and maybe like the end of
Speaker 1: our youth in some respect, because I know you. But
Speaker 1: it was the most beautiful voice. It was the most
Speaker 1: beautiful voice. And I remember her brother Mark was so angry.
Speaker 1: He was so angry to have lost her. There was
Speaker 1: a private funeral service for Laura, but her mother wasn't there.
Speaker 1: You know, I never told my mother she died. I um.
Speaker 1: I told her she was in Europe. She was doing
Speaker 1: a tour in California, and we would send our friends
Speaker 1: envelopes that they would put from different parts of the
Speaker 1: world to my mother from Mauri. Why what I was
Speaker 1: going to tell her that her daughter died after losing
Speaker 1: my older brother. I mean, that was the compassionate thing
Speaker 1: to do. Oh sure, And she never knew. You know,
Speaker 1: some people think it was a new Goaldie that brought
Speaker 1: the St. Louis Blue to victory, but I think it
Speaker 1: was Laura. When I heard that that hockey team was
Speaker 1: doing it, I don't follow hobby. I said to myself,
Speaker 1: they're they're going to have a run because that song,
Speaker 1: it's got a lot of kara behind it, you know.
Speaker 1: So did they end up winning anything? Mark? They won
Speaker 1: the whole thing. They won the Stanley Cup. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: And they were in the last place, they were down
Speaker 1: in the dumps. They heard that song and they said
Speaker 1: that's going to be the anthem and it went right.
Speaker 1: That's unbot You've done good for me. She wasn't a
Speaker 1: one hit wonder. She hasn't been forgotten. There was something
Speaker 1: compelling behind that big sound. She's saying with power and substance,
Speaker 1: sadness and warmth and that voice. It's still here. Next
Speaker 1: time on Mobituaries, the Orphan Train and the largest mass
Speaker 1: migration of children in American history. Well a quarter million
Speaker 1: children were moved to west from fifty four A quarter
Speaker 1: million people. That's like the population of Cleveland. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of people. I certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.
Speaker 1: Ask you to please rate and review our podcast. You
Speaker 1: can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you
Speaker 1: can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. You can subscribe
Speaker 1: to Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of
Speaker 1: Mobituaries was produced and edited by Alison Byrne. Our team
Speaker 1: of producers also includes Megan Marcus, Harry Wood and me Morocca.
Speaker 1: It was engineered by Bart Warshaw. Special thanks to Chris
Speaker 1: Van Cleeve at Sumy Foreman, Amanda Creek, Thomas, Alberto Robina,
Speaker 1: Nathan Miller, Matt Sello, Joe Causey, Kathy Golick, Triumph Brewing
Speaker 1: Company of New Hope, and the Stanley Cup winning St.
Speaker 1: Louis Blues. Indispensable support from Genius Staneski, Richard Rohr and
Speaker 1: everyone at CBS News Radio. Our theme music is written
Speaker 1: by Daniel Hart and as always, undying thanks to Rand
Speaker 1: Morrison and John carp without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi,
Speaker 1: It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituary the podcast, may I
Speaker 1: invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's chock
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Speaker 1: their butts on the line, sports teams that threw in
Speaker 1: the towel for good, forgotten fashions, defunct diagnoses, presidential candidacies
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Speaker 1: you see, people used to believe that dragons will real
Speaker 1: until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the
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Speaker 1: Tour information and lots more at mobituaries dot com