Burt Bacharach - What Rock'n'Roll Has Taught Me

[vincent.cole]

By Burt Bacharach:

Posted on 10/23/09

You have to play the songs the fans want to hear.

We don’t really do ‘Baby It’s You’ [recorded by The Beatles] when I’m onstage. I think the last time I heard it was when I did three concerts with Elvis Costello when our joint album ‘Painted From Memory’ was out. He also started that show with ‘My Little Red Book’, so there are two we don’t often do.
I actually got Adele to do ‘Baby It’s You’ when I played the Electric Proms in London last year, which was good. And I’ve heard The Last Shadow Puppets have been covering ‘My Little Red Book’, so I’m going to see if I can find that on my computer. But to be honest I never thought I’d get paid to do this, let alone have The Beatles record one of my songs, so I’m usually happy to do whatever the audience want.

continued...

Jimmy Page wasn't always a hell-raiser

I recorded my first album [‘Hit Maker! Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits’] over here in the UK, in London. The band had such a great attitude and were really helpful and really good. I had a young Jimmy Page playing guitar. Good guys, good band, good attitude, everything!

You can never rest on your laurels.

The most important thing I’ve learned is never get too comfortable. You’ve got to constantly work and craft, you don’t want to get fat per se, you know what I’m saying? Even after all these years I know it’s as important as ever to keep in touch with your music. Rather than reliving past glories I’ll just sit down at my keyboard and keep improvising, see what happens.
I’m not even trying to write anything, I’m just staying in touch with my music. It’s no different than being a player on the tennis circuit. If you’re a competitive tennis player and you take two weeks off you go soft and you might lose something from your game in the process. You’re always looking for something new.
If you’re an artist you work on something for a particular time but then you have to let that go and move on. A couple of years ago I started doing something with drum loops which was a really different kind of record for me. That’s called moving on and challenging yourself.

Learn the rules...

When you’re young and starting out the best advice I could give is: learn the rules! Learn the principles so that when you come up with your tunes you are able to write it down musically instead of dumping it on to a tape machine or whatever. And just listen to what other people are doing, listen to Brazilian music. Listen to the music and learn what works and more importantly why it works.

...then break the rules.

I wouldn’t change anything about my musical education. I learned the way I did and I learned the principles. But once you’ve learned the rules, then you break the rules. You do what comes naturally. I never knew anything about time signatures, I wasn’t really sure what it was when was I was writing ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ in 7/8, but then I started to write down things. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s something new.’

Melody is king.

No matter what you put on a record, what effects you use, when you play it back you’d better have a melody. You’ve heard records, I’ve heard records you tire of after three days, they’re worn out. You need melody to keep people coming back.

Don't listen to the men in suits.

When I was first writing songs the A&R wouldn’t sign them. He’d say, ‘I like them, but you’ve got to change it because they’re three-bar phrases not four-bar phrases, and that won’t work commercially.’ I fought really hard to get them out there, which was great. It’s important if you believe in what you’re doing. If you win you win, if you lose you lose, but whatever, you can’t blame the A&R. It’s all you.

I rehearse the songs and nothing else.

I always ad lib it when I’m being asked about my music. I was recently in Britain and I spoke at the Oxford Union, but I didn’t prepare a speech or notes or anything like that. I always ad lib. It makes it more comfortable. When I do television shows or a talk show and someone says, ‘I’m going to ask you these questions…’ and I’m stunned or something, I just jabber. I always want to be spontaneous.

[Susan Vincent]

Like it Vincent!!!!
Susan

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Thanks for posting that, Vincent. Where did you get it?

It comes as no surprise that Burt would say, "You can never rest on your laurels." In his case, that's so obvious. Burt (thank God) seems to be driven to continuously compose new and exciting music -- even into his 80's. How many of his contemporaries can that be said of?

"Melody is king." Who understands that wonderful rule more than Burt, and who has produced the most wonderful melodies of all time? Burt's genius for original melodies has always astounded me.

"The Men in Suits"

Would a "suit" be musically astute enough to know that there was a "2-bar" or "3-bar" phrase in a 4/4 tune? It's hard for me to believe that they could listen to a tune and realize this. And why would a song with a 2-bar phrase be any less commercial than songs without it? In point of fact, Burt was the MOST commercial of writers WITH those various time meters. It makes no sense to me. I happen to believe that too much has been made of Burt's time signature changes. If you weren't told about it, you'd never know. They aren't jarring and they fit beautifully in the songs. The beginning 4 bars of "Anyone Who Had A Heart" go from 5/4 to 4/4 to 5/4 to 4/4, but no listener says, "Gee, those bars do change meter a lot!!" No one says that. They simply listen and love it and don't realize nor care! And, to get back to my main point: What "suit" would listen to it and say to Burt, "Nope. Sorry. You can't do that." I find it hard to believe.

steveo_1965, do you agree? Anyone else?

[BachtoBacharach]

I would agree with this but then again when Anyone Who Had A Heart hit the Top 10 in the US, Dionne was appearing at the Apollo Theater...she had no trouble navigating the tune. But the musicians were not too happy about how difficult the tune was to navigate and were grumbling and grousing about the complexity of the tune...one of the most complex hits ever to hit the Top 10. Bacharach actually coached the musicians there. I believe most A & R men then were looking out for their artists and wanted to present them in the best light possible and it's a given that many singers can't sing Bacharach well and the suits wanted to have the music composed and arranged at the competency level of the singer, not well above it. Sinatra and Presley are two who come to mind...brilliant singers, yes, but Sinatra's 'Wives and Lovers" and Presley's "Any Day Now" are rather stilted sounding to my ear...something about those tunes that they were not innately comfortable with and they did not sound comfortable singing them...none of the natural grace and effortless phrasing Dionne brought to Bacharach. Has anyone ever covered Dionne's 1965 "Looking With My Eyes" and are there many versions of "Promises, Promises" out there? Burt's music sounds deceptively simple to those of us who listen and listened to all those Dionne hits in the 1960s...but it is difficult to sing and play. Even Aretha simplified "I Say A Little Prayer" with her wonderful cover and it succeeded...Aretha used some of her gospel training on her recording to trick those explosive high notes. I would love to hear Aretha sing the arrangement Burt had Dionne sing on the original recording just to see how she would have navigated it. Wonder what it would sound like. Aretha's vocals work great on her material and her covers and her tendency to run around the melody and play with it was so very well suited to her material but with Burt's perfectionism and his intricate melodies, could anyone have done better with that original arrangement than Dionne? Probably not. Heard many cover versions close to the original arrangement and they all fall short; Aretha was wise to simplify and noodle with the arrangement as her cover fits her perfectly as Burt's original recording with Dionne fits her perfectly.

[vincent.cole]

Bonjour An Enormous BB Fan;

Someone very close to Dionne Warwick sent it to me!

BachtoBacharach always enjoy your comments!

[steveo_1965]

In Reply about time meters and "The Suits"
Back in the day,(the late 50s and early 60's)most people wore suits...including Burt! So , it is conceivable that in the 50's the A&R guy would know
a 5/4 bar from a 4/4 bar....
Burt calls these guys the "Suits", but I think he meant those in control over him at that time.
And yes, I believe The "Suits"- people like Mitch Miller at Columbia would havedefinietly known 5/4 from 4/4 or Joe Reisman at RCA.
These guys were ex-big band guys. I believe it was a time when most songs were straightforward, and mostly in 4/4, and so anything that was unusual, meter wise probably was thought of as something the public wouldnt go for.
But Burt proved them wrong, including the fabulous song done in waltz time that TOm JOnes
didn't want to record (What's NEw Pussycat) and of course all of the Promises Promises stuff.

[burtchifan]

Listening to ´At The Sydney Opera House', it is quite obvious that the man does not rest! Who else is as relevant in his 80's as he was in his 30's? I can't think of anyone. The music on the CD is just great, by the way. If you haven't purchased it yet, GO AND GET IT!!!!!

OD

[Rio]

In case someone is writing a trivia book entirely based on Burt Bacharach. (And since we're talking about what Burt learned.) So... In what year was McGill University ranked...

According to a recent ranking, McGill University (all departments) is in the top 50 of the Americas. (44th, actually; 3rd in Canada.)

What were the other ones? Mannes School (Mannes College, today)? (Santa Barbara) Music Academy of the West? It would be nice to see a good, meaningful ranking for music schools. I saw a page that apparently intends to help you find a music school ranking after you select your priorities.

By reading what I could from Copland's What to Listen For in Music I found out that for decades I had been doing what he recommends. I wish I could discuss what I listen with someone good at music appreciation. I wish I could listen to Burt with some of the forum participants pointing out what they are listening, what calls their atention...

In any event, "This Is Now":

New ranking:
Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2009
http://www.arwu.org/Americas2009.jsp

[Rio]

Link to the Bacharach statements posted here by Vincent.

http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog= ... 1#comments

[Rio]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Union
"Notable speakers" as amended by yours truly.

Second paragraph for additional reference and approximate date of speech:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/musi ... ow-on.html

[steveo_1965]

What Rock and roll has taught me...is I dont need to hear a symphony without a rock beat...
and I dont need to hear rock and roll without some strings and horns
Steveo

[Blair N. Cummings]

Steveo,
Do I read your above post correctly as a ringing endorsement of "fusion"? Or do you mean you DON`T need classical music with a rock beat nor rock with classical or pop trimmings?
I`ve become something of an aesthetic conservative in my dotage (57 this year) and prefer genres uncontaminated with one another as a general (although not absolutely inviolable) rule.

[steveo_1965]

Blair, I was punning a bit, but seriously, symphonic pieces like Burt's Monterey Penninsula
which have elements of the rock beat fused with strings and horns, I enjoy...
and I also like pop pieces like Dean MArtin's Everybody Loves Somebody, which has a rock beat, but utilizes strings, etc. This mostly in pop music....

Movie themes like Enter The Dragon or tv themes like Mission: Impossible are somewhat symphonic, but have a rock beat underneath...I like that as well...I very much enjoy older movie scores as well, like 1953's House of Wax, which has no rock elements. It's one hell of a good job! If you are talking about
tampering with the classics from classical music, well, thats something else....Although I do admit to taking a liking to the "orchestrated version" of Toccata and Fugue in D minor,
as orchestrated by Stokoswki from Fantasia...the piece origanlly being written for organ..
but it is my understanding that Bach wrote that way, so that the music could be adapted
to whatever. Most of the music I like is dated stuff...I think some of todays stuff may
be a bit too modern or advanced for me "fusionwise..."A lot of the writing is just not very good.

Steveo

[Blair N. Cummings]

I can see I`m also becoming a bit dense in my old age as well, having blithely ignored your smiley graphic.
Burt has always seemed to me to be his own sub-genre of pop regardless of what other influences he employs.
Fusion I take to be the hybrids of rock and jazz or classical and rock that enjoyed some commercial success in the early `70s and a bit beyond.They struck me as having the worst of both worlds in each instance, being neither fish nor fowl (to coin a phrase).
I`m a purist bastard when it comes to,say, Baroque keyboard compositions played on piano. (Virginals or harpsichords, please).
But I`ve heard Bach partitas beautifully transcribed for solo violins.
I`m glad I never became this reactionary politically

[steveo_1965]

hehehe. well said, Blair!
Best,
Steveo

P.S. So I guess the 5th of Bethoveen by Walter Murphy(disco version) is not in your collection?