Hal David - The country years?

[Pablo]

I am interested in post-Bacharach lyrics by Hal David. I read everywhere that he worked for a number of country music artists in the 70s but, apart from Ronald Milsap's "It was almost like a song" and Willie Nelson/Julio Iglesias "To all the girls I've loved before", I find it hard to find other lyrics written by HD in that period (apart from online complete alphabetical songlists that make it hard to do any research, as no artists or dates are mentioned). Could anybody help and provide me with some "essential" H.D. songs of that period?

[vincent.cole]

Hal;

Wrote the lyrics to the James Bond song, 'Moonraker' during the 70's.

[steveo_1965]

Hello,
I think the movie Oklahoma Crude may have had some HAl David lyrics..the composer was
Henry Mancini.
Also Morris Albert...the tune was 99 Miles from L.a.!

Steveo


Hi Vincent!

[vincent.cole]

Bonjour Steveo;

In those famous lyrics of Marvin Gaye, "What' Going On?"

Take care mon ami.

Vincent

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I have a feeling -- and please correct me if I'm wrong -- that Burt thinks to himself, "Hal was very lucky to team up with me and write words to my music", and Hal thinks to himself, "Wow was I lucky to hook up with Burt!"

For me, music is primary. If even "Alfie" had horrible music set to it, it would mean nothing to me. Yet a horrible line, such as, "A chair is still a chair even when there's no one sitting there" is made beautiful by Burt's music. Nonetheless, I do recognize the fact that Hal is a lyric-writing genius, and Burt was lucky to team up with the great Hal David. No doubt about it.

After the split, I don't think Hal's songwriting career went the way it should have. And I think there's one reason: music is primary. And no matter how great a lyric writer you are, your lyric needs great music attached to it.

Your comments are welcomed.

[nymusicalsguy]

Hal wrote quite a number of songs with Albert Hammond in the 1970s, my favorite of which is "99 Miles from LA"...just a beautiful song in every way. He also wrote lyrics for the musical BRAINCHILD to Michel Legrand's music. Unfortunately, BRAINCHILD closed out-of-town and its score was never commercially preserved, though a demo does exist.

[blueonblue]

Sheer poetry............


"blue"

[JR]

Who else could spawn lines like “I just did me some talkin to the sun...”? Priceless Americana. They should put this stuff in the Smithsonian right next to the Lunar Excursion Module.

[BachtoBacharach]

Enormous, must comment on your post re: Hal David...Burt was a commercial pop songwriter. Key to his success were a lyricist of the caliber of Hal and a vocalist the caliber of Dionne. You seem to be damning Hal with faint praise, or that's what comes across to me or somehow diminishing his contribution. To me and to many it's not only about Burt's music. In my humble opinion, I don't think any of the three would have found the level of success each did without the others. Of course the music usually but not always comes first but that's not what it's ALL about (Alfie!!!). Burt has admitted in public and private that he would not be what he is today without Hal and Dionne. It was Dionne who put many of his tunes on the charts which would have found less success with other, less talented vocalists. Alfie would likely not have been an instrumental hit, nor would it be likely that many of Burt's other tunes would have either...Burt NEVER wrote these tunes to stand alone sans lyrics...without lyrics there would be no vocals and probably little chart success. Burt was all about commercial success and revelled in the adulation from his fans and from Dionne's fans too. You seem to be elevating the music above the total package of music, lyric and vocalist that Burt envisioned and I bet Burt would disagree with that. He full well knew how much Hal and Dionne were key to his success and they can not be undervalued and diminished as muses for Burt. Burt acknowledges that; why many of his fans overlook that is beyond me. Look what happened after they all split...some great tunes but nothing nearly as pioneering and unique compared to what they were doing together in the 60s and 70s. And I am one of the many who believe the lyric to "AHINAH" are totally fitting to the tune...in the context of the tune, the lyric is brilliant. So existentially Hal. You asked for comments and that's mine!!! This all is the phony chicken before the egg stuff that is so tiresome. The three of them were brilliant and their brilliance was made exponetial by each other in a way that none of them were by themselves. They creatively fed on each other and each inspired the other. Ok, I'll shut up now.

[Pablo]

"..Burt NEVER wrote these tunes to stand alone sans lyrics..."

and viceversa, pop song lyrics can't be read sans music, as if they were poetry.

Thanks for all your comments, didn't know some of the things you mention. Any of you know if apart from Ronnie Milsap and Wille Nelson, he worked with any other country artist?

[BachtoBacharach]

Excellent point Pablo! Alfie has the most awsome lyrics anyone has ever written and Hal wrote the lyric for that tune before Burt composed the music...the music was tailored to fit the lyric and Alfie is probably the best example of how brilliant these two men were together. I doubt the music to Alfie would even exist in its curent form if Burt had written the music before Hal wrote the lyric...we would have a totally different tune. They worked together that way sometimes the music came first and sometimes the lyrics. Even Dionne had a hand in things from time to time and Burt and Hal both said they wrote with Dionne's voice in their head. Although Burt has some beautiful instrumental pieces, most of what we are so familiar with was written with a singer in mind and 9 times out of 10 that was Dionne. Burt was so brilliant in using the voice as an instrument. And with Dionne interpreting, it was always about the song-music and lyrics-she guilded the tune, not herself. That's why so few do Bacharach as well as she. So many female vocalists today so overvocalize and it becomes about them and not the song and so many sound so much alike it's hard to tell them apart...such narcissistic singers these days!

[BachtoBacharach]

And Pablo, Burt worked with Marty Robbins for The Story of My Life and although Gene Pitney was a pop-rock artist, he did a lot of C & W and had a big C & W following...24 Hours from Tulsa is one of the best Western flavored pop songs ever composed as is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance...both definitely what I would call a country western pop. There have been some others as well. And Do You Know the Way to San Jose was a western flavored Brazilian hybrid...that bass drum intro is iconic and sounds so western. It's one of the best road tunes of all time. The great Dave Marsh formerly of Rolling Stone, the brilliant music critic and now a fixture on Liberal Talk Radio (Sirius-XM Channel 167) says it is probably the best pure pop tune of the 20th century bar none and I agree. And what great lyrics by Hal! San Jose is also probably one of the wittiest and most accurate descriptions of life in LA in a three minute pop song you will ever hear! Dionne Warwick certainly deserved the Grammy she won for her performance on that great one. And that one was a big hit all over the world in 1968.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I appreciate your comments. That's why I posted that. And I knew it would cause a bit of stir, too.

Anyone who knows me knows how highly I think of Hal David as a person and as a lyricist. But, as I said, for me, when I consider a song's greatness, the music comes first -- I feel it's the primary reason a song becomes a hit. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate a great lyric. Hal is a genius lyricist, no question! But as great as Hal is and was, after the split, I was wondering why his career as a songwriter didn't flourish the way that I felt it should have. So that was the reason I came up with -- i.e., that music is primary.

[Pablo]

"So many female vocalists today so overvocalize and it becomes about them and not the song and so many sound so much alike it's hard to tell them apart...such narcissistic singers these days!"

Mmmh, absolutely. In fact I like singers that give importance to the song's lyric and just sing it (ie Dionne, Diana Ross, Dusty Springfield...) and I don't see that in today's "singers" (I blame it to the Mariah Carey/Whitney, or worse, Christina Aguilera tradition... you all know who they are).

I am a total illiterate in Country music and I don't know if it's interesting, but, again, maybe traditional songwriting/singers are in that field. What do you think?

Thanks again for your comments.

[BachtoBacharach]

Enormous, I hear where you are coming from but there are some pretty lame tunes out there musically that have become HUGE hits...in fact there are many more than I could count...Madonna's catalog for the most part...Whitney Houston had big hits with, frankly, few great songs. Aretha is another that comes to mind...she had some big hits because she was Aretha but her catalog is very inconsistent.. some great tunes, some not so great. In 10 years will anyone remember Mariah Carey AND what she sang or Celine Dion and what she sang? Barbra Streisand is a great singer who has made some pretty poor choices musically...some brilliant and some totally lame..as a singer she is awesome...but I have never felt any emotional attachment to any song she sang except " The Way We Were"...she is not a warm singer. I believe that is why Bacharach chose not to work with her and write for her except for "Be Aware" (she passed on recording a studio version much to Burt's chagrin, after she sang it on the Bacharch Singer Special in 71) because she could not sublimate herself into his music the way Dionne did. Barbara, as great a vocalist as she is, is pretty narcissistic and probably would have clashed with Burt if they had worked together. Dusty was a perfectionist and second guessed Burt on "The Look of Love" and did her own version which became a minor hit (Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 had the top 10 USA hit with that one, but most folks forget that) and Burt liked his version with Dusty in the movie better and frankly it was better than Dusty's self-produced version which she did after the movie without Bacharach's blessing or input. Dusty could be very difficult to work with due to her extreme perfectionism and at times self-hatred... a wonderfully talented vocalist who never thought she was good enough. Dionne trusted Burt and Burt trusted Dionne and it was always about the song, not the singer nor the lyricist nor the writer. Dionne has an awesome catalog that is probably as significant as the Beatles, etc. and the majority of it consists of those incredible tunes Bacharach and David wrote for her or with her in mind. Would those songs been hits or even have come into existance if not for Dionne and Hal? It is very difficult to separate those three from their part in the music...it's such a cohesive whole.