The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

2nd of November 78 a great orchestration took place

W O M A N

The first live session from BURT with totally different material.
All in a very classical way but with great arrangements and phrases.

From a great intro such as The Summer of `77 or signature change in New York Lady.
To me personal, Magdalena is the best from the entire live session.
But of course are the other songs great gems too!

BURT mentioned once - Quote "It was a failure and a very expensive one and it wasn`t a succes at all,my mistake.
I had nightmares about the hole proces, could it be done?
I dreamed from a lady.
But an album?"- end quote.

Hey Burt, lots of people liked it!
So don`t talk about a failure!
Every great songwriter had one or two mistakes!
But you gave us such a great catalog with youre songs so.....

Every time when i listen to the cd it`s again and again i explore new things in it.
So 30 years later it is still beautiful to hear it.
There are a lot of memories for me in the songs.

P.S.
When you listen "For The Children"
There are pieces from New York Lady and Lost Horizon in it!


Kind Regards
Marcel

I don't know...what's that one piece Burt does on the Canadian
concert DVD from the 70's? Is that Summer of 77?
It's got a thing where all the strings wind up and play these fast scales
and at the end it does that again...
That is a great piece, and I think it's from Woman...
Steveo

it 's Monterey Peninsula..and i remember through Cissy Houston he composed the track in few days, while recording the album"living together" in 1973..Cissy was stunned about that,the capacity of Burt to be so clever with music..bye GAbba

He also performed a stunnlng version of "Futures" from the same concert !

"blue"

Burt's Orchestrals pieces: PURE GENIUS


Bye

Rob

Marcel, I completely agree with you! For me, too, "WOMAN" is Burt's finest orchestral album. And like you, my favorite on that album is "Magdalena." I love the gradual build from something exotic and almost mysterious to the huge power at the end. The skittering oboes playing off the violin at the end of that piece is magic. I am saddened that Burt judges the work to be a mistake. Perhaps that's so financially, but since when has financial success been a guarantee of good artistry. The WOMAN album is marvellous and I wish we had more such work from Burt, along with his continual output of exceptional songs. Steve

Woman is an absolutely delightful album that may have failed commercially, but succeeded artistically. For me, it is Bacharach's most cohesive album. As has been mentioned before, each listen reveals a new facet or intricacy. I have a lot of fun listening to Burt's hits, but I get absolutely lost in the imaginative arrangements of Woman. It has more substance and heart than 99% of what is being made today.

Woman converted me from a Bacharach admirer to a Bacharach fanatic. Long live Woman!

-Noah

Thank you Steve, for sharing my opinion about Woman!
It`s a real treat to listen these Gems.
BURT doesn`t have to proof that he is a genius for making such great musial escapades.
I love all the instrumental versions of him.
Monterey Peninsula, Futures or Another Spring Will Rise are great too and even his suite for orcherstra And The People Were With Her.
With this suite for orcherstra he showed us that this was the start for, of his later very complex instrumental work.
It took for me personal a very long time before i understood the structure of the entire album Woman.
But now, each time i get lost in this beautiful musical project and still explore new things!
Close your eyes and let you flow on this musical carpet!
BURT you did a great job and gave us A brilliant piece of work!
Powerful! Powerful!
BURT chapeau!

Kind regards
Marcel

Dear Gabba,
No, it is not Monterey Peninsula,(I think that one is great as well) It must be the other one BLue mentioned in the posts up above.
Ciao,
Steveo

Woman is one of Burt's master pieces,despite his own opinions about what happened during it's production. Musically,it's30 years ahead of it's time. Just as for Futures,a couple of years later. The reason,Burt tends to overlook All that period is because he went through,in the same time, a series of legal and personal set backs that involved his entire life: Professionally and persoally. The break up with long time partner,Hal David,Both sued by Dionne.Shortly before the bitter divorce from Angie.

dear Steveo...you're right..i realized few mintes later...it is the one Blue is mention about...apologize!!!
anyway the trivia about "Peninsula" and Cissy is for real!!!bye Gabba