The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

I had a quick scan back through through the board and couldn't see this article from May 2019. Anyway, I thought it might be of interest.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/burt ... -1.3887586

I know I`m a minority of one in disliking "With a Voice" and "Live to See..." but I think "...St Augustine" and particularly "Blue Umbrella" are as good as his best with "Elvis Costello."

Although frustratingly we still only have the amateur video of the concert performance by Bacharach featuring John Pagano to go on, I think 'With A Voice' is classic Bacharach and having learned to play it on the piano I know that harmonically it has his stamp as a composer all over it. As for 'Live To See Another Day', I remain as indifferent towards it as I was the first time I heard the song and I don't recall there being anything like the same level of enthusiasm for it on the forum as there was for 'With A Voice'. That Bacharach is still composing at all in his nineties is noteworthy enough, that he's composed songs of the quality of 'With A Voice', 'Bells Of St. Augustine' and 'Blue Umbrella' in the last two years I'd say is nothing short of remarkable.

I agree, especially considering that JW called it a day (apparently, a career) in his mid-forties.
It has been privately murmured that JW`s coke habit and PCP overdose destroyed his ability to compose. If so, wouldn`t it be interesting to hear from Webb, himself, on the subject rather than the worthless revisions of his life that constituted the first half of his "memoir"?
(Apparently, sales of that volume were an insufficient stimulus to publish the second half, but I doubt that we`re missing anything of significance).

pljms wrote: ↑Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:34 am That Bacharach is still composing at all in his nineties is noteworthy enough, that he's composed songs of the quality of 'With A Voice', 'Bells Of St. Augustine' and 'Blue Umbrella' in the last two years I'd say is nothing short of remarkable.

Re Bacharach's impressive longevity, I've done some checking up and I've discovered that all the famous popular composers of the Great American Songbook had either died prematurely (Gershwin and Kern) or had effectively retired from songwriting by the time they had reached their late 60s or mid-70s (Porter, Berlin and Rodgers) so in comparison the fact that Bacharach continues to compose well into his 90s is positively freakish.

While we're on the subject of age, Happy 74th birthday today to Jimmy Webb!

Actually, this article was originally published in The Guardian with different pictures and 500 comments..........

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/ ... -128892140