I am a huge fan of Dionne Warwick: her Bacharach-David hits from the '60s are among the classiest pop of the last 50 years. I also like her just fine personally, having DJ'd a children's party at her house in Beverly Hills in the '80s.
It doesn't change my opinion of her one bit to hear that she had a little trouble at the Miami airport with a few doobs in her lipstick case. But it does bug me to hear her say she was framed:
- "Apparently, somebody that didn't want to get caught thought it would be better off in somebody else's bag," the pop singer recently told The Associated Press.
The 62-year-old was arrested in May and charged with a misdemeanor after baggage screeners at Miami International Airport said they found marijuana joints inside an empty lipstick container in her bag. Charges were dropped after Warwick agreed to a plea bargain deal, which included a drug treatment program.
Warwick says she's not a drug user. "Drugs of every sort, including aspirin, are not anything I even think about," she said. [AP]
Hmm, someone rolled a few joints and somehow slipped them into HER LIPSTICK CASE, inside her purse, between her car and the baggage screener?? And they did this why? And how? Unless she was in a drug-induced daze, this seems highly unlikely.
More likely, a "classy" woman in her sixties just can't publicly own up to the fact that she takes a toke now and then - understandable but still sad. It's okay Dionne, we still like you either way.
In an interview for The Encyclopedia of Record Producers, Burt Bacharach said this about Dionne:
- In '62 Bacharach wrote songs for the Drifters ("Mexican Divorce"), and at a Drifters session he met a young backup singer ("in pigtails and sneakers") named Dionne Warwick, who on the strength of Bacharach/David compositions and productions was to rival Aretha Franklin as the most important female singer of the '60s.
The trio produced twenty Top 40 singles between 1962 and 1970, including seven Top 10's: "Anyone Who Had a Heart," "Walk On By," "Message to Michael," "I Say a Little Prayer," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose," "This Girl's In Love With You" and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again."
"If I had to pick a favorite singer, it would be Dionne," states Bacharach. "She was a dream vehicle for those years. She has such wide emotional range. She can be very understated and delicate, plus she is capable of going for the jugular. A marvelous voice."
Absolutely.
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