Question Me An Answer

[Keith]

It has been widely reported that one of the major factors in the break-up of the Bacharach/David team was the dismal failure of Lost Horizon. If that was the case it is interesting to me that so many of the songs from Lost Horizon were included on the Bacharach LP Living Together (I Come To You/Reflections/Lost Horizon/ Living Together/ I Might Frighten Her Away). Does anyone know if Bacharach was under some sort contractual obligation with A&M to record these songs? Did he feel the problem with the Lost Horizon score was with the lyrics? How does he feel about the merits of the score now? Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

[Steve S]

Well, for sure I don't know much here, but I have read a few things. What I understand is that Burt became a bit resentful that he had so much time that he was required to put into Lost Horizon, compared with Hal, whose work ended with the composition of the lyrics. But Burt then had to arrange everything, rehearse the singers (some of whom were awful), oversee the performance of the cast during the filming, and then oversee the recording of the sound track. It took months and months of work - at a time when he could have been making a mint on the road doing concerts. But the worst thing of all was that the film, after all his effort, was such a bomb. Poorly conceived, poorly cast, poorly written and poorly directed. His fabulouw work got lumped in with a project that was, overall, toast. Burt got burned by it... Add to this the fact that Hal may have had some of his own resentments, given that his contributions to their work are so often overlooked or minimized. People recognize the music right away; they don't always know the lyric... From everything I've heard or read, Burt was so frustrated, hurt and disgusted by that whole experience, I doubt he wants anything more to do with it. It is a shame, really, because I think some of that music is exquisite. But I guess it's just not meant to be. It may happen that some savvy artist in the future will dig out some of those songs and present them in a context where their beauty can be appreciated and not associated with the film. Steve S

[Guest]

Burt has said he is comfortable about the quality of the music he wrote for the movie. He's not fond of the movie itself though.
With the A&M album Burt probably liked the idea of giving the songs another opportunity with arangements that were entirely his own and professional, first-rate singers.

[Guest]

THe musical songs for Lost Horizon are great! Burt had some good material to put on his A&M albums...the revised arrangements were very cool!