Blue Umbrella with 2 bonus tracks

[Davide Bonori]

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICX- ... 99aed3d644

The Japanese cd version of Blue Umbrella contains 2 bonus tracks: "21st century man" and "Quiet place".

[blueonblue]

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICX- ... 99aed3d644

The Japanese cd version of Blue Umbrella contains 2 bonus tracks: "21st century man" and "Quiet place".

Thanks David, let's hope the "bonus tracks" soon appear on 'youtube'.

'blue'

[Blair N. Cummings]

No, I couldn`t afford this exorbitantly priced thing either - but I ordered it anyway. Given the scathing review of the American product (NOT the music) on Amazon, I`m glad I did. This is a genuine CD on a Sony imprint (Yellow Dog) and contains printed lyrics, full production and musician credits and what I believe is a transcript of an interview (and mutual ass-kissing) I saw somewhere on line.
The new songs are fully of a piece with the original five, although seem to have been recorded a bit later.
If you can bite the bullet, it`s worth the expense.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Just to dispel some of the mystery, the female singers throughout are Sarah Buxton and Jessie Baylin. If anyone knows who either of them is, please let us know.

[pljms]

Blair, I've Googled their names and discovered that Sarah Buxton is a country singer in her early 40s who had several minor hits on the country charts between 2006 and 2010, while Jessie Baylin is a singer-songwriter in her mid-30s who's released three or four albums of what's described as an amalgam of different 'rootsy' styles. I listened to a couple of tracks by each artist on YouTube and discovered that Sarah Buxton in particular has the kind of generic high-pitched voice we've come to expect from country female singers in recent times and that musically the songs were pretty formulaic with simple chord progressions, not the sort of thing to get your average Bacharach fan's pulse racing.

[blueonblue]

The bonus tracks.....
'A Quiet Place'


'21st Century Man'


'blue'

[Sara D]

I think '21st Century Man' is a beguiling gem and the old Bacharach trait of the repeated motif fade ending featuring the flugelhorn and strings wouldn't have sounded out of place on one of his A&M albums from the late 60s and early 70s. As for 'A Quiet Place', although it's an enjoyable listen with the flugelhorn centre stage once again the words and music just don't sound like a natural fit to me.

[blueonblue]

I think '21st Century Man' is a beguiling gem and the old Bacharach trait of the repeated motif fade ending featuring the flugelhorn and strings wouldn't have sounded out of place on one of his A&M albums from the late 60s and early 70s. As for 'A Quiet Place', although it's an enjoyable listen with the flugelhorn centre stage once again the words and music just don't sound like a natural fit to me.

Sara, I agree with you about '21st Century Man' sounding like an A&M Bacharach album track.
It strangely reminds me of the ending of this track at 4:02.




'blue'

[pljms]

I think '21st Century Man' is a beguiling gem and the old Bacharach trait of the repeated motif fade ending featuring the flugelhorn and strings wouldn't have sounded out of place on one of his A&M albums from the late 60s and early 70s.

Several tracks from Bacharach's A&M albums have a repeated instrumental motif fade-out and the first ones that spring to mind after the version of Lost Horizon on the Living Together album posted here by Blue are Knowing When To Leave, Whoever You Are I Love You, Close To You and on both the vocal and instrumental versions of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid album.

Of the two new songs it was 21st Century Man that immediately appealed the most with its haunting melody and chord sequence that's been lodged in my head since I first heard it. However, both tracks feature reassuringly characteristic Bacharach arrangements.

[Martin Johnson]

Despite its status as a bonus track 21st Century Man is probably my favourite song on the EP alongside Bells Of St Augustine. However, until the ending gave it away, I don't think I would have guessed it was a Bacharach composition had I not known because of its relative simplicity.

[Blair N. Cummings]

According to the interview transcript, Tashian dabbled in the music (as did "Elvis") during their collaboration. This, no doubt, explains some of the non-Bacharachian bars here and there.

[pljms]

I might be 'whistling in the dark' here, to quote one of the EP's song titles, but while A Quiet Place sounds like Daniel Tashian merely added lyrics to an already fully composed piece by Bacharach, the more concise structure of 21st Century Man and the naturalness in which the words scan with the music suggests to me that Tashian's contribution to the writing of the song wasn't solely as a lyricist. The instrumental coda, however, couldn't have been composed by anyone other than Bacharach.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Also in the interview transcript was Tashian`s expressed wish that "...when we get '20th Century Man' up and running..." that Burt sing the vocal. I can`t imagine that at all; but it was also what tipped me to the fact that the two additional tracks were recorded at a later session than that (those?) that produced the first five.

[Peter Greenhill]

21st Century Man is a gorgeous track. Love it.

Blue Umbella and Midnight Watch are also my favourites.

Wonderful to be hearing new Bacharach material.