The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Bacharach last played the UK in 2002, a handful of concerts up and down the country including a night at the Hammersmith Odeon which I attended. During his recent visit to promote 'At This Time' no mention was made of a possible tour in the dozens of interviews he gave for the media.

No, they didn't include 'You've got it all Wrong'. In fact the song list was the same as the original Broadway cast recording with subtle differences, for example part of the long chorus of 'Knowing when to Leave' gets a second outing.

I'm pleased to say that I've actually seen this new production and thoroughly enjoyed it. As far as the representation of the score is concerned, the only disappointment was the non-inclusion of 'Tick Tock Goes the clock' which had been incorporated into the London Fringe version from 1996 and with ...

The revival of the musical of the film? Bring it on ... Clare Brennan Sunday December 11, 2005 The Observer Promises, Promises Crucible, Sheffield When CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon) makes a date with Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) in The Apartment - the 1960 Oscar-winning film co-written by Billy Wilder ...

'At This Time' might not be what you hoped it would be but it certainly lives up to expectations as far as I'm concerned. As for the soundtrack to 'Isn't She Great', I thought it was the most uninspired, derivative and desultory score Bacharach has ever written for film. Coming on the back of 'Paint...

His first choice on the Monday of that week was actually 'After the Love is Gone' by EW&F and that's what he and the DJ discuss, but they played George Benson's 'On Broadway' instead by mistake. That's the BBC for you.

What's it all about ... Burt?
Singer Rufus Wainwright, who guests on Burt Bacharach's new CD, interviewed him for The Times

Burt Bacharach is a legend in terms of both musical ability and star essence. He really is from an era — from several eras — that to my generation seem so mythic. You’ve got to get as much of that as you can in your life while it’s still around.
I was brought up in a very anti-kitsch environment, therefore I can look at Burt’s stuff with a pretty critical eye. But it’s still flawless; musically it’s just so well built. My parents are really diehard folkies and they were very much anti-establishment when a lot of that late Fifties, Sixties, Seventies kitsch was around. And most of it was worth opposing because it was terrible, except if you were a gay man with a poodle. But needless to say, Burt’s music really weathered that storm. Even the most ardent, banjo-plucking, field-recording Nazi would acknowledge that Promises, Promises is a really amazing song.

Rufus I called you a modern Cole Porter today in an interview, Burt.

Burt Really? That’s a big one!

RW The thing I’ve always appreciated about your writing — and it’s something I’m not capable of doing — is you maintain a keen sense of sophistication as well as being populist and able to relate to a large audience.

BB Oh, there are some songs that you will never hear, or ever want to hear. There were some bad, bad songs too.

RW You’re better at being a star than I am.

BB I’ve been doing it a long time. Usually the role of the composer is not very glamorous. You sit in a room on your own and you write. Most people don’t know what you look like, they just know your songs. But I was out there, being married to Angie Dickinson, being on stage.

RW Let’s just say, judging by the way Burt looks and I look, beauty is still a big plus. Ha ha! I’d also say we’re probably both influenced by German music. I know you’re influenced by Kurt Weill, and you worked with Marlene Dietrich.

BB The first person to record Message to Michael, or Message to Martha, was Dietrich. I made a version of it for the German market with her — now that was a bad record. And there was a kind of Kurt Weill influence on What’s New Pussycat? But Ravel was the thing that turned my head around and made me care about music. Ravel, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.

RW You also studied music at McGill University in Montreal. I had no idea, my God! I went there for a year and a half, then dropped out.

BB But it was a good school when you went there. When I went, it was a terrible music school. I was there two years. Did you have fun there?

RW I hated it. Did you graduate?

BB No, I went into something called the US Army, ha ha ha!

RW Needless to say I was very nervous and in awe when you asked me to be on your album. I don’t know why you called me.


BB I know why I called. I was aware of your record at the time and I thought it was terrific.
RW You can be as critical as you want, I’d appreciate it. I have to say initially I was a little scared about what I would think of the track, because I’m such a fan of your work. I was thinking: “God, what if I hate it?â€￾ Because I would have lied, ha ha! But when I got it I was pleased, and I could definitely see what you were going for. I know there is a political aspect to the album but what I initially got out of it was almost like one person’s view of the world after living this incredible life, and a bit of remorse that these days aren’t particularly glorious.

BB Not glorious at all!

RW But that there is also hope.

BB I’m glad you got that because when you sing “love is the answerâ€￾, that matters now even more than before. Does love solve it all? No, but let’s not look at it as a totally dark album. I have no idea where you stand politically, I know where I stand.

RW I believe we are on the edge of a possible Dark Age in the United States, so hope for the sun to shine again is pretty slim right now. There are really good things happening in terms of people just realising how down to the wire we are. In the end America will rise to the occasion. But yeah, it’s pretty scary right now.

BB I’m not so sure it will get turned around. We’ve got three more years of Bush. How long has it been, or did we ever even have a President say: “I f***ed up, I made a mistakeâ€￾? I’d like to be as optimistic as you.

But I’ve got a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old, and I can equate the times of my growing up in New York with theirs. That’s a very powerful thought for me. It’s a dangerous world we’re living in and I don’t know how it’s going to change. I wish I could feel some empathy from our President. I’d like to hear he even reads the newspaper and watches the news!

RW You also work with Doctor Dre on the album. I hate rap music but Dre is indisputably a genius.

BB Dre’s drum loops are just extraordinary, he places the backbeat just a little bit off from bar to bar, so it’s not perfect. For me it’s a tremendous thing to find that young musicians and rock people are into my music — like Oasis.

It’s not like they rediscovered my music, they are discovering it! They weren’t even born when This Guy’s in Love with You came out! Why has it lasted? I don’t know, maybe because it was sophisticated at the time. I was taking chances then. And this is a very satisfying album, because it’s about taking risks again.

RW It’s the same for me, with Elton John and other people liking my music. I’m very flattered, but, on the other hand, I think they recognise the situation I am in is unusual. It’s kind of tough to be weird right now if you’re starting out as a songwriter. I think Elton is an earnest fan of mine, but I also think he realises it’s important that people like me survive, people who are a bit left of centre. Because music has become quite homogenous right now, especially in the United States.

BB Listen, the album I did with Elvis Costello, Painted from Memory, never even got played on the radio over there. Will working with Dre help this album? I’m sure it will, but that’s not why you work with Dre. His drum loops served as an inspirational springboard. I’m very passionate about this album, and I’m so glad we’ve got you on the album, Rufus, because people gravitate to your particular track, Go Ask Shakespeare. I wish you were on another track.

RW Well, any time. I’d love to record Kentucky Bluebird, or anything else. I’ll do it in German, hahaha!

Burt Bacharach’s At this Time is released by BMG on Monday

When Bacharach met Dr Dre (Filed: 20/10/2005) The man who wrote some of the best pop songs ever tells Neil McCormick how he hooked up with the hip hop super-producer to make one of the most thrilling albums of his 50-year career How can I put this delicately? Burt Bacharach doesn't look particularly...

One thing that emerged from the rather desultory interview with Richard and Judy and has been confirmed in some of the UK's listing mags is that the release of 'At This Time' has been brought forward a week to October 24th. Incidentally, there's an interview with Bacharach in this week's Time Out (L...

When an album of Bacharach material is reissued by an artist of the stature of Connie Francis you have to be interested, despite her alleged snub of the great man early in his career. I've heard a couple of the tracks on the radio over the years and I have to say she does a good job and they're both...

Most Jimmy Webb fans will want this collection for the cd of demos and out-takes, mostly of previously unrecorded material, and the disc of an unreleased live album, recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1972. In a similar way to Laura Nyro, Webb's interpretations of his own songs are definitely...

Top 20 in the UK, top 40 in the US and yet it's never featured on any of BB's 'Greatest Hits' or 'Best of' compilations, even when the listing goes to 72 tracks like on the 'The look of Love' box set! Totally inexplicable.
Paul

Yes, it's that old major to major 7th harmonic sequence which the two songs have in common. George Harrison's 'Something' is another song which features that sequence at the beginning of the famous refrain.

If you're wondering where Ron Isley may have got the idea to slow down 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head' to something resembling a soulful smooch, look no further than Nancy Wilson's version from her 1970 album 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You'. I found the LP in a London market stall going for £6. It...

Dancer and singer Donna Mckechnie, who featured in both the Broadway and London productions of 'Promises, Promises', was interviewed yesterday (Sunday 16th May) on BBC Radio 2's Russell Davies Show. The interview lasted about forty-five minutes during which the original Broadway cast recording of 'T...