The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

I can't think of two more contrasting 60's recordings of Bacharach songs than the New Christie Minstels' weird and wacky 'Three Wheels on my Wagon' and the Walker Brothers' dark and brooding 'Another Tear Falls', and they both featured on BBC Radio 2's 'Sounds of the 60s' this morning. I don't think the show plays enough Bacharach material but in its defence when it does it tends to be the rarer songs and recordings and not the obvious 'hits'.

Yes, I heard the show as I always do. Brian Matthew is normally good when it comes to crediting the songwriters so it's a shame he failed to do so for 'Three Wheels on my Wagon'. While 'Another Tear Falls' has Bacharach's imprint all over it 'Three Wheels' doesn't and it always shocks people when they find out it's one of his, me included. I'd been a BB fanatic for about 20 years before I found out. If nothing else it proves just how versatile he was in the 60s.

I couldn't agree more, and also because Bob Hilliard wrote the lyrics.

How long before this thread, along with all the other genuine Bacharach orientated threads, is shunted down the forum list by all the spam? Where on earth is the moderator to this site?

I suppose even moderators have to take vacations but he could at least have someone dep for him while he's away. It really is about time the site was updated with new software to filter out all the spam. I visit scores of music and literature sites and this is the only one that has this problem.

For a moderator to leave a site at the mercy of spammers like this is frankly ludicrous.

Oh, come on, stop it!!! Mark isn't anyone's serviceperson here, he built this board and for more than six years now, we have been his grateful guests.

I hope he is well and taking a vacation or just busy otherwise. At points he has shared some informations about his life with us but mostly he has been an enigma to me, which I think is great. I truly appreciate his unimposing and relaxed approach to running this board. He'll be back and fix things. He has always made it clear that he has a busy life outside of this and I salute him for that.

No, I can't imagine there'll ever be an official Bacharach website, one authorised by the great man himself, so this site has been a Godsend. Still, I'm a great believer in the old maxim that if something is worth doing it's worth doing properly and the level of spam on this site, especially the pornographic stuff, is something that we really should not be confronted with.

Lady, nobody forces you and your alter ego to come here and read spam mails. Mark has been putting up his own money, time and creative energy to create this brilliant and brilliant looking site that has been working terrifically for us for years. That someone might be sick, might be on vacation - who knows.

pljms wrote:For a moderator to leave a site at the mercy of spammers like this is frankly ludicrous.

Sara D wrote:Still, I'm a great believer in the old maxim that if something is worth doing it's worth doing properly and the level of spam on this site, especially the pornographic stuff, is something that we really should not be confronted with.

Really? Having been a dedicated reader and occasional contributor to this site for roughly a dozen years and observed its evolution from its very modest origins in the early days of the web, I can attest to the time, expense and energy Mark has invested in this unprofitable, often thankless, little hobby. With limited support, Mark has done a superb job of collecting new items of interest, collating relevant historical content and data, providing a forum in which members, informed and uninformed, courteous and rude alike, may share opinions and establishing a pleasant ongoing environment usually free of advertising traffic.

Frankly, I find your condescending posts even more offensive than the spam that has the overrun the site because they belie a lack of appreciation and compassion on the part of two regular contributors. As a reminder, we represent a loose community of enthusiasts, not a commercial consumer base for which Mark is under any obligation to provide a perfect product experience. In fact, Mark has previously indicated when pressured by overzealous members for greater moderator engagement that it may be necessary for him to choose between life priorities and close or abandon 'A House is not a Homepage' at some point. Obviously, no one is happy with the onslaught of spam, but those of us who have valued this site over the years trust that Mark will address the issue at his earliest opportunity, as he has consistently over time. Perhaps your own time might be better spent drafting a correspondence to Mark regarding your expert ideas for potential site and security improvements or developing your own Bacharach fan sites rather than spinning these useless, petty complaints into the ether.

Well said...Mark is under no obligation to clean up this site and if the board becomes too difficult to navigate due to the spam (and it's close), any poster here can vote with their feet...and walk away. Having said that, the spam is very annoying to say the least and I hope Mark will address the issue as he has in the past. I personally will choose at some point the longer this goes on to simply walk away for a while and check back later...so many that do post here have legitimate things to add to the forum and we all, Mark included, are richer for it. Let's not forget, we all choose to spend our time here...it's not totally one sided. A forum with no readers is not beneficial for Mark or any of us. I, for one, think opinions are worth sharing regardless of the fact that we might disagree with them.

I just wanted to jump in here to defend Mark as well.
As nice a publicity venue as it is for Burt`s music, I really think of it as a service for the (no more than) dozen or so of us who post here regularly (or irregularly). What most of us have learned and shared over the years certainly outweighs the nuisance of the annual spam-fest which, as mentioned above, will surely be cleaned up soon.

THANK YOU - scotsgreg - for so eloquently stating what I think most of us are feeling about this! .......... and .......... once again - THANK YOU - Mark for keeping this great site going despite these occasional glitches. ......... your efforts are GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Mark does a fine job with this forum and I have been visiting and contributing for many, many years, spam and all. Don't plan to stop and it's always better once Mark cleans the board up and he always does sooner or later. To those of you who can't stand the spam, disappear for a while like I do occasionally when I get pissed about the spam...do everyone a favor! But, come back when it's cleaned up...and LIGHTEN UP for heaven's sake! And, to put this in perspective, does anyone remember the ORIGINAL board? Now you want to talk about some of the crackpots that came out of the woodwork on that old board? It is a lot of work to keep a board going and most of the "offical" boards have a staff to keep the spam at bay and some are heavily edited as well. Not so with this one...Mark's a one man band and this is a labor of love on his part. You all get the unvarnished truth from most of the folks here along with their feelings and opinions...goes with the territory. I'll bet Mark takes this all in stride and I am glad he doesn't let these "indignant" discussions get under his skin...he knows how much we all appreciate him offering this forum...I show my appreciation every time I post something...I have to offer something back since this is such a great place to not only find out the latest with Burt, Hal and Dionne but to offer honest discussion, warts and all. Reminds me of that wonderful flight attendant character the great Catherine Tate embodies so perfectly! "How very dare you!" It's ok, I bet Mark can take this exchange far better than some of the posters here! Keep up the good work, Mark.