Carole King article and other tributes to Bacharach

[pljms]

This article appeared in The Washington Post last weekend. I can't recall Carole King ever having commented publicly on Bacharach's music before, so it makes for an interesting read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... ngwriting/

[Blair N. Cummings]

I seem to recall that Carole posted once or twice here under a pseudonym before being thoughtlessly outed by someone.

[David_Noble]

And this came up on my Facebook feed - by Jimmy Webb -

Jimmy on the loss of Burt Bacharach who passed on Feb 8, 2023:

“Baby It’s You” by The Shirelles is one of the first songs I remember that Burt Bacharach composed. His music deeply affected me. I could hear his classical training in the cadences, polyrhythms, and arrangements. I was 15 and I was hooked on Burt. He was my school. Bacharach and David were the pinnacle I aspired to.
I studied him and them. I learned about chords from listening to Burt’s songs on the radio. I tried to write like him (listen to my song “The Girl’s Song” by The Fifth Dimension). He was integral to my informal songwriting education.
When I was 22 years old and had several hits under my belt, I sent Burt a letter and told him that my songwriting success was born from listening to him. I told in that letter how much I respected him and owed him.
Years later, an acquaintance of mine visited Burt in his NYC apartment; he shared that my letter was hanging by the fireplace in the living room! My hero, my teacher had my letter framed!
Not too long ago, in LA at a George Martin tribute, I was backstage along with Burt as we waited to go on. I asked, “Is it true you have my letter over your fireplace?” He answered, “I sure do”. I put my arm around him, and we sat quietly in our world of song. We were kindred souls that traveled the same road. It was a moment of peaceful silent sharing.
As life model, a fellow traveler in this creative world, he was something stable and important that I could hold onto. I am bereft at the thought that he isn’t with us anymore. But in the same breath, what a mark he--and Hal and Dionne--made on the world!
JLW

[blueonblue]

Beautiful tribute from jimmy Webb and thank you for posting.

The song Jimmy mentioned....



''blue'

[pljms]

Of all the tributes to Bacharach from fellow songwriters that I've read Jimmy Webb's is by far the most in-depth and personal.

I don't know about everybody else on here but I think I must have read more on the net about Bacharach in the last ten days than I have in the past twenty-five years, the sheer scale of the amount of tributes, appraisals and evaluations that have appeared has been overwhelming. In fact I've discovered that you can read too much of this stuff and so I've carefully avoided the articles that have included in the headings the word 'singer', the term 'easy listening' and the title 'Austin Powers'. The heading "It will never cease to amaze me that I was able to call Burt Bacharach my friend" is for an interview with Elvis Costello that has just been published in The Times and with the imminent release of the Bacharach & Costello box set we're going to be seeing and hearing a lot more from him.

[David_Noble]

More from my facebook feed -

Jimmy Buffett Pays Tribute to Burt Bacharach
I have studied and listened to Burt Bacharach songs since I first decided to try and write songs and perform as a teenager. So, a year or so ago, when Jane told me Burt was coming to dinner at our house, it left me a bit speechless, nervous, and quite excited. The fact that Burt Bacharach even knew who I was, and liked my songs, took a while to sink in.
I first saw his name on a movie screen, as co-writer with Hal David of the theme song from one of my favorite movies, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, sung by Gene Pitney. One of the first songs I learned on the guitar was “Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa,” also sung by Gene. The list of my favorite songs of his is still quite long.
That dinner, sitting and talking with Burt and Paul, was a cherished evening for a kid who admired them both. My sincere thoughts and appreciation go out to his wife Jane. To make it to 94 is no easy feat to be sure, and Burt did it with style and never let the old man in till the very end. He inspires me to try and do the same. And, for sure, what the world needs now, is LOVE.
Sail on Burt

The "Paul" mentioned is Paul McCartney, and there is a nice photo of the three of them.

[David_Noble]

And checking the offical Paul McCartney Facebook page -

Dear Burt Bacharach has passed away. His songs were an inspiration to people like me. I met him on a couple of occasions and he was a very kind and talented man who will be missed by us all. His songs were distinctive and different from many others in the '60s and '70s and when we met not too long ago he reminded me that he had been the musical director for Marlene Dietrich when The Beatles shared the bill with her at the London Palladium. He was a lovely man. Nancy and I send lots of love to his family.
Paul

and with the same photo

[Jim]

Thank you to post these lines from Paul McCartney. Very emotional.
Sincerely. Jim.

[geoff85]

And this came up on my Facebook feed - by Jimmy Webb -

Jimmy on the loss of Burt Bacharach who passed on Feb 8, 2023:

“Baby It’s You” by The Shirelles is one of the first songs I remember that Burt Bacharach composed. His music deeply affected me. I could hear his classical training in the cadences, polyrhythms, and arrangements. I was 15 and I was hooked on Burt. He was my school. Bacharach and David were the pinnacle I aspired to.
I studied him and them. I learned about chords from listening to Burt’s songs on the radio. I tried to write like him (listen to my song “The Girl’s Song” by The Fifth Dimension). He was integral to my informal songwriting education.
When I was 22 years old and had several hits under my belt, I sent Burt a letter and told him that my songwriting success was born from listening to him. I told in that letter how much I respected him and owed him.
Years later, an acquaintance of mine visited Burt in his NYC apartment; he shared that my letter was hanging by the fireplace in the living room! My hero, my teacher had my letter framed!
Not too long ago, in LA at a George Martin tribute, I was backstage along with Burt as we waited to go on. I asked, “Is it true you have my letter over your fireplace?” He answered, “I sure do”. I put my arm around him, and we sat quietly in our world of song. We were kindred souls that traveled the same road. It was a moment of peaceful silent sharing.
As life model, a fellow traveler in this creative world, he was something stable and important that I could hold onto. I am bereft at the thought that he isn’t with us anymore. But in the same breath, what a mark he--and Hal and Dionne--made on the world!
JLW

This was beautifully said!!!!

[pljms]

Given how melodic and harmonically rich the songs of The Bee Gees often are, it comes as no surprise to me that Barry Gibb is a huge Bacharach fan, and this tribute is taken from the latest edition of Mojo.

"He was the reason I started writing songs"
Barry Gibb on his lifelong love of Burt Bacharach, as told to Bill DeMain:

"Before The Beatles, and before we all popped up and stuck our heads out there, it was Burt Bacharach. He was the reason I started writing songs. The Story Of My Life which he wrote for Marty Robbins, shocked me to my roots. How simple yet sophisticated. I've sung that song a million times.

I realised early on that Burt had a rare genius. He had so much knowledge, but he understood the heart. He would change keys without you knowing it, slip in extra bars, change time - it was all subliminal and brilliant. He dominated what you thought as you went through a song and I just couldn't help but be inspired.

For me, if I have an idea for a song, it has to ferment. If you wait long enough, the song will be completed in your head or your heart. And that sounds like what Burt and Hal were doing. They would take their time. I understand Burt's preference for getting away from the instrument. I do it too. It gives you total freedom. Emotional freedom, mental freedom, the freedom to bring the melody wherever you want it to go in your head without having a guitar or a piano to establish chords. You want to go somewhere you'd never imagine you would go melodically, and that was Burt's gift.

One day in 1979, there's a knock on my front door. We were going through the Saturday Night Fever thing at the time. I open the door, and there's Burt Bacharach. I nearly fainted. I was ranting about his songs. He said, "Will you call my daughter for me? She's a fan and would like to speak to you." And so I did that. But what a thrill. Later on, he asked me to collaborate on a song, but I was in a session with Maurice and Robin and they wouldn't have liked that (laughs).

In 1982, we made an album, Heartbreaker, with Dionne Warwick. She was a very strong-minded woman, so you have to let her fly, and come up with the ideas that might inspire her to fly. What an honour to work with the instrument of Bacharach and David.

After Burt passed, and I read he was still writing into his nineties, I thought, incredible. I don't think I could do it. I'm 76, and pretty well retired now. I'll quote Bob Dylan: "If you want to be a performer, you've got to have a purpose." That has always stuck with me. Once my brothers were gone, those moments and those feelings weren't around me any more. So I'm happy to be retired.

My songwriting became what it did because of Burt Bacharach. There was only one of him, only one Hal David, and what they did together was timeless and beautiful. We will never stop hearing their songs."

[blueonblue]

Paul,
That was a lovely tribute from Barry Gibb...thanks for posting.

'blue'

[pljms]

Jackie DeShannon talking about Burt in the latest edition of Mojo:

"Burt had all these sophisticated melodies, then he'd insert these chord changes with a rootsy, gospel feel. Think of Message To Martha or Reach Out For Me. Burt was in touch with the soul, and that brought listeners in. He toured everywhere with Marlene Dietrich and that really influenced his musical education. He soaked up all these musical flavours and styles - cabaret, folk, everything - and it came out in one big wonderful melodic trip. What The World Needs Now is a pretty waltz, a country song with gospel changes, put together with Michelangelo-level craftsmanship. Burt would combine different genres in such a way that you didn't even notice it. There'd be something for everybody in each song. His melodic sense was universal and inclusive. I Say A Little Prayer is a film and Burt was very much the director. He had his vision of the picture and the story and how the performance should match that. It's fun hearing how heavily involved Burt was with Dionne's performance too. You feel it in the arrangement. It's how he was with me. He liked to be in the room when you were doing a vocal. Burt was a true believer in the music. He was one of a kind. There won't be another. He was a musical educator too, because of how he exposed different genres within the same melody. That required pure genius."

[Blair N. Cummings]

I have always thought that Jackie was equal to Dionne as an interpreter of Burt`s work and have bored innumerable people expressing frustration that they never worked more together.

[pljms]

Also taken from the latest edition of Mojo, here's Jimmy Webb once again talking brilliantly about Burt:

"When I heard Walk On By the first time, it was probably an 8.5 or 9 on the tectonic scale. In the songwriting world, everybody's ears perked up at the same time. It was like, 'Holy moly, who and what are we dealing with here?!' And then, it was song after song. Anyone Who Had A Heart was unlike anything on the radio. It had classical cadences in the chord structure and a full orchestra score and polyrhythms - in other words changing time signatures - which you just didn't hear in pop music back then. Burt just brought all his classical training right into the pop milieu. It was alchemy. It was off the map. And he wasn't just mildly successful with it. He made it into a dynasty.

The expected output of the 60s was aimed at sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll. Then imagine, right in the middle, there's this island where there's an orchestra being led by Burt, and there's this warrior poet Hal turning out these fantastic lyrics and then there's this kind of almost girl-next-door prodigy Dionne translating these older, adult concepts into language kids could understand. I Say A Little Prayer is very deep. Just the way the opening melodic phrases conjure up the morning ritual of a young working woman. It's remarkable. Hal was one of the finest lyricists of all time, because Burt's melodies weren't the easiest to cop onto. Think of the melody to Do You Know The Way To San Jose: it's almost impossible to imagine what those words would be, or where they would come from.

Burt's passing is the end of an era. He was something stable and important that I held onto, and I still hold onto. What a mark he left on the world."

[mark]

I seem to recall that Carole posted once or twice here under a pseudonym before being thoughtlessly outed by someone.

Is that right, Blair? I remember talking with Alec Cumming years ago about a poster who seemed to have a ton of inside information about recording sessions. Was it Madeline? I can't remember. Anyway, I wonder if that's the poster you're referring to. If so, I guess I missed her being outed as Carole.