Bacharach's Canadian Concerts-News Article

[BachtoBacharach]

Burt Bacharach's back
Epic composer makes two Canadian stops on his new tour

Bernard Perusse
Canwest News Service


Tuesday, October 14, 2008



CREDIT: Vince Bucci, Getty Images
Composer Burt Bacharach performs at the Grammy Foundation's "Starry Night" Gala honouring Sir George Martin on July 12 in Los Angeles.

Burt Bacharach's official press biography is effusive, impressive, overwhelming - and almost beside the point.

The 14-page document dutifully lists the tangible signs of recognition given to the 80-year-old composer. There are chart-toppers and megahits, Grammys, Oscars and other awards, tributes from fellow legends - and even a spot on People Magazine's Sexiest Men Alive list as recently as 2000.

But Bacharach's importance can't possibly be measured in statues, statistics and statements. What matters, in the end, is the groundbreaking level of sophistication he brought to pop music.

Bacharach's true legacy includes tricky, barely perceptible tempo shifts, complex melodies that sounded accessible enough to be mistaken for easy listening, lush chords that seemed to come from somewhere else and the masterful tension-and-release dynamics of deceptively simple-sounding hits by the imposing likes of Dusty Springfield, Gene Pitney, the Walker Brothers and Tom Jones - great singers all.

But towering above everyone as Bacharach's voice was Dionne Warwick. The velvet-piped singer helped give life to the composer's music and collaborator Hal David's lyrics in sparkling three-minute suburban dramas like I Say a Little Prayer, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and I'll Never Fall In Love Again.

"She was our artist," Bacharach said of Warwick during a recent telephone interview. "The more I could go into the studio and record her with Hal, the more I could see what she could do."

"And then Dionne had this capacity to explode. It's very energized, very strong, and (she could) sing loudly, with a lot of emotion," he said. "So the more I could see what she could do, the more chances I could take and the wider the scope on what we could do with her."

In fact, when asked to identify three essential Bacharach songs for the - presumably extraterrestrial - listener who is completely unfamiliar with his work, the composer went with three recorded by Warwick: Anyone Who Had a Heart, Alfie and Walk On By.

Bacharach was less enthusiastic about the group Love's 1966 take-no-prisoners remake of My Little Red Book, which has become a garage-band staple. Bacharach supervised the original recording by British rockers Manfred Mann, and that's the version he stands by.

"I'm glad (Love's version) became a cult favourite - even with the wrong chords," he said. "But it's not as good as the one I did with Manfred Mann, which was a very difficult record to make. They hadn't seen cords like that," he said, laughing.

The song was written for the 1965 film What's New Pussycat, which also featured Bacharach and David's hit title song by Tom Jones. Bacharach's output and success rate were prodigious in those days. "My memory is like a blur," he said. "There was so much music to write and so much music to record, and it was on to the next thing in a three-week period of time."

The business has changed since those halcyon days, "mostly for worse," Bacharach said. "It's harder to establish a good song now. The record companies are in a state nobody ever thought they'd be in. It's very tough. How many record companies are left? Four? Five? And they're just kind of hanging on."

Radio has devolved in a similar way, the composer suggested. "So many of my songs started with an R&B base, an urban base, and crossed over into the pop market," he said. "But that's when radio had some independence, (before) chains where 150 stations were controlled by one programmer, who programs a very small playlist.

"A DJ in Montreal, say, could break a record, which would then carry over into Buffalo. And then Detroit would pick it up. But there was an independence with program directors - and that's been closed off," he said.

"Aretha (Franklin), Dionne, Gladys Knight or Patti Labelle could establish a good song and it would spread over to the pop market," he said. "Now none of us artists are a guarantee anymore. I don't know the last time Aretha had a big record.

"So much is driven by a youth market. If you're in your 40s . . .," he said, leaving the thought unfinished.

Bacharach said such changes in the business have him getting acquainted with other options, like promoting his upcoming live album with the Sydney Orchestra on the QVC home-shopping network. "That way is a very palpable way to do it," he said. "But did I ever think it would come to that? No."

Still, Bacharach said he is looking forward to being back for the show, during which he will play piano and conduct a group with horns, drums, bass, synthesizers and three singers - a plan to feature local vocalists had to be scrapped because there wasn't enough rehearsal time. The repertoire, he said, will feature music from his entire catalogue, including songs from his most recent album, At This Time.

That disc, which featured Dr. Dre, Rufus Wainwright and sometime writing partner Elvis Costello, among others, was released only three years ago. And there's still music to write.

"I don't think the writing has ever been an easy process for me. It is hard work," he said. "I'm very hard on myself. I think you (need to) stay in touch with your music - try to get to that piano and just improvise, just play, be in contact. I've always equated it to a tennis player on the circuit. If they take off two weeks, they're not going to be so competitive. It's about a discipline."