(Should be a national holiday henceforth.)
― clemenza, Thursday, 9 February 2023 18:20 (one year ago) link
He had an amazingly long life but I'm still very emotional about this.
I had dinner with him once. He was around-enough and old-enough and Hollywood-enough to have been hanging out with Stravinsky. Told a lot of amazing stories about Bernard Herrmann. Was excited about his granddaughter's horsebackriding pursuits. He did an amazing tour ten years ago, with three touring vocal interpreters (Burt did sing two songs himself, which was always my favourite thing). He was so wonderfully gracious in everything he did and this is very sad.
― Blessed Bloated Burdened (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 9 February 2023 18:20 (one year ago) link
labelle & mcdonald's "on my own" has always been a guilty pleasure for me, but i never had any idea that it was a bacharach/sager composition!
― sault bae (voodoo chili), Thursday, 9 February 2023 18:52 (one year ago) link
Nothing guilty about that pleasure!
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Thursday, 9 February 2023 18:54 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3RlIjj8l-Q
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 9 February 2023 18:56 (one year ago) link
sybil "don't make me over"
r.i.p.
― dyl, Thursday, 9 February 2023 18:58 (one year ago) link
Sad news. The Dionne Warwick Collection is usually my go-to album when I want to hear Bacharach. So many great songs.
― o. nate, Thursday, 9 February 2023 23:34 (one year ago) link
A song I haven't seen mentioned is "Through the Eye of a Needle" by Cliff Richard. It's an obscurity but it's one of my favourite Bacharach/David songs. Beautifully chilly.It was written for Cliff, one of three Bacharach/David songs he recorded in New York in 1964.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3xpvLppihs
― houdini said, Friday, 10 February 2023 00:09 (one year ago) link
Dionne Warwick - Check Out Time
Part of me agrees with Alfred re OPO. But here's an alternate one that I've been foisting on people since about the time of the big BB poll. The Youtube commenters are still almost the only evidence I've seen that anyone else digs it much, however!
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 10 February 2023 00:33 (one year ago) link
love love love “check out time”
― sault bae (voodoo chili), Friday, 10 February 2023 02:19 (one year ago) link
Agreed, I discovered “Check Out Time” on The Look of Love box. It’s one of biggest orchestras he scored for IIRC. That rehearsal session for “Loneliness Remebers What Happiness Forgets” is absolutely incredible. Ninety-four is great. But I’m really going to miss him.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 10 February 2023 02:25 (one year ago) link
discovered “check out time” thanks to one tupac shakur
― sault bae (voodoo chili), Friday, 10 February 2023 02:26 (one year ago) link
jk that’s a different song
― sault bae (voodoo chili), Friday, 10 February 2023 02:27 (one year ago) link
Beach Boys covered "Walk On By". I think it's fair to say Brian was a big fan.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 10 February 2023 02:49 (one year ago) link
This is not a knock on Burt Bacharach, believe me, just an observation connected to something I'm always interested in. I had a period of music today with some Grade 6s, so I played parts of a few Bacharach songs. Pulled out all the stops: "Walk on By," Aretha's "Say a Little Prayer," "What the World Needs Now," "Close To You," "Raindrops," "This Guy's in Love with You." Except for the Aretha (a TV performance from '74), they just went about their work and didn't seem to react. Often students do engage with older music I play for them, but maybe those songs really are locked away in some other world. Which is fine by me.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 February 2023 02:57 (one year ago) link
There was an FB post from Brian (and his people but still probably really Brian) about what a fan he was.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 03:41 (one year ago) link
Burt’s transition is like losing a family member. These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner. On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run ins, but— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) February 9, 2023
always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) February 9, 2023
pic.twitter.com/oJ3xmbcvDY— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) February 9, 2023
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 February 2023 03:56 (one year ago) link
Elvis Costello started his ten-show residency tonight at the Gramercy Theatre ("100 songs across 100 nights"), and the evening's setlist was planned around the beginning of his career, but he made time to pay a beautiful tribute to Bacharach. Given Bacharach's age and accomplishments and how well he had lived, Costello mentioned that he saw quite a few people say it was a great time to go, but disagreed saying, "it's never a great time to say goodbye when you love someone, and I'm not afraid to say that I loved that man." He then performed "Baby It's You" on acoustic guitar (which he covered on record with Nick Lowe in the '80s), then later performed "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and then during the encore, sat behind the piano and played a gorgeous arrangement of "Please Stay." When the show finished, he led the audience into singing along to the first few lines of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" as they played Jackie DeShannon's recording. (Earlier, he took the New York Times to task for publishing an obituary that had numerous sloppy errors. The most egregious was calling Bacharach an "apolitical" songwriter when had written a song like "What the World Needs Now Is Love." I'll also add the obituary incorrectly claimed that Bacharach appeared in Austin Powers to perform that song - they played an excerpt of the record in the first movie when Myers is catching up on world events via archival news footage, but Bacharach didn't actually appear until the second movie when he played a completely different song, accompanying Costello.)
― birdistheword, Friday, 10 February 2023 04:33 (one year ago) link
typo: "100 songs across 10 nights"
― birdistheword, Friday, 10 February 2023 04:34 (one year ago) link
He's in the first one--played it today for the same class.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 February 2023 04:40 (one year ago) link
Alec Cumming of the Rhino Box Set is doing a tribute right now on WPKN.
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 04:45 (one year ago) link
https://wpkn.org/listen-live/
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 04:46 (one year ago) link
xxp Thanks clemenza - now *I* stand corrected!
― birdistheword, Friday, 10 February 2023 04:49 (one year ago) link
Now we have to fact check your EC report; in fact you were at home scrounging the dark web and had to make an excuse.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 February 2023 04:58 (one year ago) link
Ah you got me. I was eating mustard packets at home while fabricating details around what I gathered from setlist.fm.
― birdistheword, Friday, 10 February 2023 05:10 (one year ago) link
Video (not mine obviously)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YyqUAZG3k
― birdistheword, Friday, 10 February 2023 05:12 (one year ago) link
I love the person nearby who hadn't realized he died!
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 February 2023 05:16 (one year ago) link
Haven’t clicked on the video, is it from tonight?
― And Your Borad Can Zing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 05:19 (one year ago) link
It is indeed.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 February 2023 05:19 (one year ago) link
FWIW, I've been going to his shows since 2011 and it's too bad I didn't go this time because then I could say it might have the best one I've ever seen, so much that I would've bought tickets to more shows had I been more confident that it was going to be this good.
― birdistheword, Friday, 10 February 2023 05:31 (one year ago) link
I trust you mean Elvis. Burt had to cancel all his dates.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 10 February 2023 05:40 (one year ago) link
Who else would he mean?
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 05:53 (one year ago) link
Sorry to bust in here like Bruce Thomas at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and make trouble.
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 06:13 (one year ago) link
Bless Costello for keeping him busy in his later years, God Give Me Strength is just tremendous, for anyone, nevermind pushing 70, does anyone know what he got up to post Painted from Memory?
Also had no idea he co-wrote On My Own, unbelievable, what a treasure, songwriting MVP fuck off to beautiful music heaven Burt Bacharach
― Florin Cuchares, Friday, 10 February 2023 06:23 (one year ago) link
He’s up there in the green room right now being stared out from behind a potted plant à la Laugh-In’s Arte Johnson by Tom Verlaine.
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 06:28 (one year ago) link
I'm confused - did poster 'birdistheword' go to see EC?
I'm very touched to hear of EC's tribute to BB.
Bacharach & Verlaine would have been a good collaboration.
― the pinefox, Friday, 10 February 2023 10:31 (one year ago) link
Watched EC's video. His spirit when talking is classic EC, but his singing is possibly the worst I have ever heard from EC.
― the pinefox, Friday, 10 February 2023 10:36 (one year ago) link
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 11:46 (one year ago) link
What do you get when you fallWhen you fallInto the arms of the Venus de Milo
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 12:11 (one year ago) link
Take a message to Richard
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 13:01 (one year ago) link
birdistheword is actually Elvis Costello
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 February 2023 13:07 (one year ago) link
No way, his posting style is way too concise.
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 13:11 (one year ago) link
Where's all the "clever" wordplay from birdistheword?
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Friday, 10 February 2023 13:16 (one year ago) link
Yes, exactly.
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 13:18 (one year ago) link
Bless Costello for keeping him busy in his later years, God Give Me Strength is just tremendous, for anyone, nevermind pushing 70, does anyone know what he got up to post Painted from Memory? Also had no idea he co-wrote On My Own, unbelievable, what a treasure, songwriting MVP fuck off to beautiful music heaven Burt Bacharach
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 10 February 2023 13:52 (one year ago) link
I don't really share the view that the first track towers over the rest of PAINTED FROM MEMORY. I think the best song may be 'the sweetest punch'. Extraordinary. But I think the whole LP is pretty even in quality.
re: what BB did later, he released AT THIS TIME, which I looked at in a record shop but never bought. My recollection is that it included attacks on the (very bad) US government of the time; one or two collaborations with Costello; a song with the promising title 'Go Ask Shakespeare'. I rather wish I'd bought it now and got to know it.
― the pinefox, Friday, 10 February 2023 14:29 (one year ago) link
“Go Ask Shakespeare”? Sung by Rufus Wainwright? Heard it for the first time last night on the radio tribute by Alec Cumming. Pretty good!
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 14:34 (one year ago) link
The Look of Love box is still probably the best way to listen to Burt and one of the greatest boxed sets ever produced.
^^This. In the foreword, the producer mentions that the project started out as a 1-disc hits package that grew into a double-disc anthology and finally the three-disc set we know and love simply because they keep finding more and more songs to include. It's a fine capper to the whole Bacharach renaissance of the time, formed through Loungecore and up through films like Austin Powers, Grace of My Heart (which is where "God Give Me Strength" came from), and My Best Friend's Wedding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c74BSImG4xM
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 10 February 2023 14:50 (one year ago) link
Here I am - Isley meets Bacharach from 2003 sounds good . Ron Isley, Burt, and an orchestra take on Bacharach/ David classics
― curmudgeon, Friday, 10 February 2023 15:15 (one year ago) link
Absolutely love the Isley record.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 10 February 2023 15:18 (one year ago) link