Burt`s book

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I read "Anyone Who Had A Heart" in its entirety -- the first half on Monday and the second half on Tuesday. I really am surprised to say that I loved the book and actually learned a lot more about Burt than I thought I would. His struggle coping with Nikki actually brought tears to my eyes -- particularly when Sue Main went to the hospital, where Burt was recovering from shoulder surgery, to tell Burt of Nikki's suicide.

It was great to learn that Burt really appreciated Hal at the end. He could admit to himself how much Hal had meant to him.

I was very surprised at B J Thomas's kind words about working with Burt. That doesn't jive with what I've read their working relationship had been.

And, of course, there's so much more.

If you haven't read the book, I think that, if you're a fan of Burt's, you'll like it very much.

[Martin Johnson]

I got the book last Friday and read it to a finish over the weekend. For my liking there’s far too much on his personal life and not nearly enough on his career, although I suppose that’s what the publishers wanted. Career related stories in the book that haven’t already been in the public domain for years are fairly thin on the ground but those that were new to me all made for fascinating reading, especially those involving Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra and Marlene Dietrich. It’s also good that thanks to the book we now have a better idea of the division of labour involved in a couple of those pesky songs from the Carole Bayer-Sager years with three and four-way writing credits. Considering what he’s prepared to own up to re his numerous marital infidelities and also his shoddy treatment of both Hal David and Dionne Warwick during and after the ‘Lost Horizon’ fiasco it’s perhaps a little strange that he appears to be in denial over his involvement with the movie ‘After the Fox’! This is one of many projects that don’t even merit a mention in the book and some of the others include Bacharach and David’s first attempt at a musical, the TV vehicle ‘On the Flip-Side’, the Stephanie Mills album he worked on with Hal in the mid-70s ‘For the First Time’, the film score ‘Isn’t She Great’, and all his studio albums from ‘Make it Easy Yourself’ up to and including ‘Futures’. Three of those albums not mentioned in the book feature songs written with Hal David after the ‘Lost Horizon’ split and is it any wonder some journalists have concluded that the pair never worked together again after 1972. Even when he refers to the eventual public reconciliation he had with Hal and Dionne in the early 90s he fails to mention the song and recording that came out of it, ‘Sunny Weather Lover’. As a composer who seems to need his songs to have been a chart hit or at least to have won a Grammy to retain any enthusiasm for them it’s no real surprise that he gives little or no attention to the many beautiful titles which remain largely unknown to the general public. I for one would have liked for him to have elaborated on gems like ‘Here I Am’, ‘Are You There’ and ‘The April Fools’ and the sense of frustration and no doubt bewilderment he must have felt when they didn’t achieve the success they undeniably deserved. That said, the book is good regarding his time as Marlene Dietrich’s MD, the early years of struggle in the Brill building, learning the recording studio with Lieber and Stoller, scoring ‘What’s New Pussycat’ and the crucial role Angie Dickinson played in the process, the blood, sweat, tears and pneumonia involved in the making of ‘Promises, Promises’, ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ and later on, the ‘Painted From Memory’ album. Elvis Costello’s contribution to the book re the latter is as candid and generous as you’d expect from him and in fact all the various contributors, including his three ex-wives, make very revealing observations about Bacharach, often very unflattering and it’s to his credit that he’s obviously happy for them to be included. Besides, without them, apart from giving a different perspective to matters both personal and professional, this would have been a very short book indeed. Just a word about the language used in this book, I’ve read the odd Rock autobiography or two in my time and I’ve accepted the casual use of profanity with a liberal sprinkling of the F word as going with the territory, but somehow I didn’t expect to see it in Bacharach’s book. I wonder if this is really the vocabulary in which he usually expresses himself or is it more to do with his collaborator Robert Greenfield trying to make Burt come across as edgy and hip to the younger readers.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I agree with all you wrote Martin. There was so much left out. But after reading the book, I realized that if he included all of those great things you mentioned, the book would be two thousand pages. For me, the best thing that I got out of the book is something I've always wondered: What is Burt like? I feel that the book did give some of that knowledge. I was always curious, for example, what his relationship was to Judaism, and I think the book made that very clear. Also, I had bad feelings about how Burt put Nikki away for 10 years, but the book put that horrible aspect in context, and I now understand why Burt did that. I also learned that Burt uses the "F" word just like most other musicians. I found that interesting,too, and I don't think it was Greenfield's attempt to make Burt more "hip." So many things gave me pause. One of the things in the book that surprised me was where Burt said that he was unhappy with his arrangement of "The Windows of the World." I say this because years ago, when Burt was asked to name his favorite songs that he wrote, he also mentioned Alfie, What The World Needs Now Is Love, and The Windows of the World. So why is he saying now that he was unhappy with it when before he would list it as one of his favorites. Did he forget that it was one of his favorites? As for me, it happens to be one of my favorites and I think his arrangement of it was brilliant. That song stands the test of time. When Burt was told how handsome he was and he replied with "You should have seen me 10 years ago" was very telling. He knew his effect on women and he played it for all it was worth. And, heck, why not? Another tidbit is that Burt really hated to go to parties, which he used to go to with Carole all time. Carole was very social and Burt just wanted to stay home. I wish Burt had talked of a million other things in the book, but I have to admit that I was pleased with what new information I got from it. Also, many parts of the book were exact transcriptions of things I saw online -- like when Carole was talking about how Burt wanted the word "and" to begin the song "That's What Friends Are For" -- as in "And I never felt this way before..." Carole wanted it to start "I never felt this way before..." but Burt demanded the word "and". She finally realized that Burt was right and that it made the song better. I also went on google maps and looked on street view on the streets mentioned in the book where they lived. Such wealth, such homes! My god! The one thing that we'll never learn, however, is how Burt came up with all that phenomenal music. He talks about how slowly he writes and he turns the music every which way. It seems to me that Burt composed fast not slow. How many songs did he write from '62 to '70, for example? If he wrote slowly, then how could he have written so many songs. My feeling is that he probably expected to write a song in a day or two and if it took him a week or two then he considered it slow. I guess I'd have to find out what he considers "slow." I also very much enjoyed the part about Burt and Dietrich. There's no question in my mind that she loved him -- either as a lover or just a human being. Burt obviously made an impression on everyone. How could he not? There's a video on youtube of the (supposedly) recording of "I Say A Little Prayer For You." I was going to post it here, but this place was shut down. Anyhow, Burt said to Dionne, "I don't like it" and Hal said a few words and Burt totally ignored Hal as if Hal wasn't even in the room. I believe that that video was very telling. Burt, with his enormous ego, was totally in charge of how that record was going to be made. That's why I was so happy to read Burt's tribute to Hal at the end of the book. As I said, I was surprised at how much I did enjoy what was in that book.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Well, if this is Burt`s account of his life and career, so be it.
The story of his revolutionising popular music (just when it seemed to have been superseded by rock) and the details of his relations with collaborators and singers await a future biographer/musicologist. My hope is fading that such an undertaking will be completed in my lifetime. Too many who were there have died or will die soon and the reconstruction process will be exponentially more difficult.
Yet, as I`ve stated before,being there trumps all analyses. Those of us of a certain age were around for the ride and know what an exhilarating experience it was; and we`re about to get a small frisson of that again with the overdue release of the `74 Burt and Dionne tapes.

[blueonblue]

Sometime in 2096 the ultimate Bacharach book will emerge.
We will all have fallen off our perches by then......apart from Burt, he'll still be going strong. lol

"blue"

[BachtoBacharach]

I can tell you that there are still many around who were there either on the periphery, or working or contracting in some capacity with these good folks (many of the good folks at Scepter who worked closely with Dionne such as Paul Cantor survive). However, only Burt and Dionne can specifically speak about the creative process of how each of these songs came about and if Dionne doesn't do it, then that's an insight that we will probably never have although Paul Cantor knows a great deal about how many of these tunes came about because he was one of the few who was in the inner sanctum with Burt, Hal and Dionne. Dionne was an active participant in Burt and Hal's process in the early years but as time went on and Dionne became a household name in early 1967 and was touring and making television appearances, they spent little time together except rehearsing and in the studio. They rarely, rarely socialized. Burt was an infrequent visitor to the Scepter offices and when he was there it was always a big deal. Florence Greenberg rolled out the red carpet for him and was very deferential. Dionne, by this time, was on a level of stardom that few in her era attained (neck and neck with Aretha Franklin) and she began to communicate professionally with Burt when they weren't in the studio together primarily through Paul Cantor. It was through Paul Cantor that Dionne initially delivered the message to Burt and Hal that she didn't really want to record San Jose but her dislike of the song has been GREATLY exaggerated. As for Dionne's version of these stories, I have always admired her recall but in the past 20 years, she's dramatized and embellished these stories of for example, Don't Make Me Over and others so much that I think she believes them now. Great drama these stories make in concert, but as time has gone on, these stories are not reliable as the embellishment has grown and grown. Many can tell you about the mood in the studio when several of Dionne's tunes with Burt were committed to tape, what was said and who said it, how Burt, Dionne and Hal interacted as well as some of the "office" gossip about them but only Dionne, Burt and Paul know what happened at Burt's apartment when they were rehearsing and working through the tunes. As for Burt, you already know that he was a perfectionist, that he was narcissistic and could be manipulative, and liked to play mind games with folks as a way of control. Burt was never direct in his confrontation of anything or anyone...always indirect and he was passive-aggressive. On the surface always professional, but it's no secret how dismissive of Hal (and at times Dionne, as well) he could be. They almost seemed like objects to him at times especially as his own stardom began to explode. And Hal knew it as did Dionne. Dionne and Burt were professionally close but not real, true friends (I don't think Burt has ever had any real true close friends...I would call Burt's closest friends more close acquaintances). Hal and Dionne were true friends and Dionne could always count on Hal when she, many times, couldn't count on Burt. Angie Dickinson pegged Burt as he truly is but even she held back, I feel. I for one, just love the music these flawed human beings created even more knowing despite all the drama that went on around them they created beautiful art together.

[ron hertel]

Blair, Blue and BtoB:

As always - your opinions, humor and factual contributions to this forum are greatly appreciated by me and - I'm sure - many of the other participants in these discussions which focus primarily on the artistry of the BB/HD/DW "triangle marriage". ...... I can't fault any of them for not remembering a lot of the details regarding their day to day working relationships. Looking back at all the people I've worked with over the years - I do not recall the details of our interactions; however, I do recall what we accomplished and clearly remember those that were involved. I intend to read Burt's book and accept the fact that "IT IS - WHAT IT IS" .......... Looking back at Dionne's book "My Life As I See It" - I observed that there were "5 glaring omissions". .... There were 5 individuals (that I could think of) who were an integral part of her career whose names were not even mentioned - namely: Paul Cantor (personal manager for many years); Joe Mele and Joe Kloess (conductors and arrangers for a total of 40 years years); Harry Langdon (photographer responsible for so many flattering album cover art and promotional photos of Dionne) and Lee Valentine (her guitarist for 40 years). They were probably included in the following statement contained in the Acknowledgments: "I also have to thank all the wonderful people who have worked with me over the years. You know who you are." ........ This in contrast to the hundreds of names of individuals dropped throughout the book who had little or no relevance to her life story. ......... Once again "IT IS - WHAT IT IS"