The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Blair N. Cummings wrote:Well, that might require more than three singers to pull off. I`d like to hear three or four from way off the beaten track. Anyone here could make a list, but "Joanie`s Forever" would be a real startler. "Come and Get Me" would be great to hear. Even forgotten minor hits like "Saturday Sunshine" would be welcome.
I just think it`s time to retire "Raindrops..." and some other over-exposed material. Everyone and his dog is sick of them by now.

Burt could try this arrangement....


"blue"
PS
My dog loves "Raindrops..." from bark to Bacharach....... woof, woof !

Blair,
I remember Burt playing "New York Lady" from his wonderful "Woman" album at the Royal Festival Hall London in 1996 which was a pleasant surprise.



"blue"

I envy the experience of anyone who saw him perform anything from that album, but since it was a commercial flop Burt considered it a creative failure and - for the most part - buried it.

Here is a Youtube link to the complete Glastonbury set, not what the BBC edited for their 1 hour broadcast, so it includes not only Josie James's 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' but also 'Trains and Boats and Planes', cut from the first medley:



My idea of a great set-list of numbers BB has either never performed live or has long since ceased playing would pretty much resemble the list below. No medleys, all stand-alone songs/instrumentals:

Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa
Please Stay
Message to Michael
You’ll never get to Heaven (If You Break my Heart)
Reach Out for Me
Here I Am
Are You There (With another girl)
Nikki
Casino Royale
Promises, Promises
Knowing when to Leave
Whoever you are, I Love You
Paper Mache
Check-Out Time
Something Big
I just have to Breathe
If I Could go Back
Monterey Peninsula
Seconds
Another Spring Will Rise

That's an amazing set-lst, pljms, and I personally would pay good money to see/hear BB and the band perform it. I've often wondered why Bacharach goes on ignoring truly great numbers like Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa, Please Stay, Message to Michael, You’ll never get to Heaven, Reach out for Me, Here I Am and Are You There (With another girl) without giving them at least the occasional airing.

I'd not only pay good money, Martin, I'd walk 20 miles in tight shoes to hear that set. I've long thought that the medleys have sounded tired and besides can never really do justice to such great material, no matter how generously proportioned.

Each of us here could dream up an ideal set list, but as "Elvis Costello" reminded us years ago: "The man`s all about hits." If it didn`t sell, it wasn`t any good and no-one wants to be surprised. It`s like turning on the radio. You`ll hear nothing you haven`t been subjected to for over forty years.
Jimmy Webb exhibits the same mind-set, only with an even more constricted play-list. Only the hits all the time.
No one and nothing seemingly can convince either of them that there is any openness to new material. Their conservatism does not serve them - or their audience - well.

[quote="pljms"]Here is a Youtube link to the complete Glastonbury set, not what the BBC edited for their 1 hour broadcast, so it includes not only Josie James's 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' but also 'Trains and Boats and Planes', cut from the first medley:

Thanks for that, Paul. I hope the BBC get around to showing the complete set one day, although it comes in at an awkward 64 minutes. How strange that they decided to cut 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' rather than either 'Any Day Now' or 'My Little Red Book' from the original broadcast. I don't know how many countries got to see the Glastonbury Festival on television but it still must amount to the biggest exposure for Bacharach and his band for many a year.

Here's evidence from last year that BB was varying the set-list a bit. However, as far as I know both 'Baby it's You' and 'Message to Michael' failed to feature at all during the recent UK tour: