Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

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Panicgrass
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Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2023 11:25 pm

Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

Post by Panicgrass »

Hello,

I come with a request for help, but I should give some background information first.

In 1998 a tribute album to Hal David and Burt Bacharach was released in Australia entitled "To Hal and Bacharach." I don't know if it can be streamed in full anywhere online but you can find bits and pieces of it. (https://www.discogs.com/release/1021892 ... -Bacharach) The cover of "Do You Know the Way To San Jose" on the album is by Australian electronic group The Avalanches, and in the cover they sample two different vocal clips of Burt Bacharach.



One of these samples appears at 3:59 in the cover and is from Great Performances S25 E18 "Burt Bacharach... This is Now" at 48:44

The second vocal sample appears at 1:32 in which he says "(Unintelligible)...It's so easy. There's nothing to it." I've watched the Great Performances documentary a few times and don't believe it is in there. My request is this, do you all know of what documentaries, interviews, tv specials, etc. before April 1998 would be most likely to contain this audio of Burt Bacharach and where I would be able to view them?

Much appreciated
pljms
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:43 am
Location: London

Re: Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

Post by pljms »

I recall hearing Bacharach utter the words, "It's so easy..... there's nothing to it", to explain his optimistic outlook at the start of his career about writing songs in order to become hits, only to be disillusioned very quickly as he discovered how tough it was. I thought he said it in the 'Burt Bacharach...This Is Now' documentary but watching it again on my DVD copy I see that he didn't. He's been interviewed a lot over the years about his early career and to be honest I might have heard him say it or something very similar more than a few times.
Paul
Panicgrass
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Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2023 11:25 pm

Re: Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

Post by Panicgrass »

Does anyone know anything about this documentary? What year it was produced, where I could possibly listen to it, if anyone has a copy of it?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/do ... rach.shtml

Much appreciated
Sara D
Posts: 391
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:32 am

Re: Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

Post by Sara D »

I remember listening to both editions of this very well made documentary and I believe it was broadcast in February 2004. It was presented by singer Michael Ball who was soon to release an album of Bacharach songs and featured contributions from Angie Dickinson, Hal David, Carole Bayer Sager and longtime fan Corinne Drewery from Swing Out Sister, plus some people that you wouldn't normally associate with Burt like Tony Banks from Genesis and the record producer Pete Waterman. I didn't record the documentary so sadly won't be able to help regarding forwarding a copy.
pljms
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:43 am
Location: London

Re: Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

Post by pljms »

After Bacharach's music became fashionable again in the mid-90s the BBC broadcast several radio profiles or documentaries over the following ten to twelve years of which I recall 'The Look Of Love - The Burt Bacharach Story' from February 2004 as probably being the best. Outside of Tony Banks stating that before forming Genesis his ambition was to be a Burt Bacharach-type figure who remained largely in the background while composing and producing for others, what I remember most was Corinne Drewery talking about how Swing Out Sister were prepared to go through the logistical nightmare of interrupting a Japanese tour for a couple of days so that they could fly back to London to support Bacharach at the Royal Albert Hall. Being someone who once frequented the clubs on Northern Soul nights she'd planned to tell Burt just how much Jimmy Radcliffe's recording of 'Long After Tonight Is All Over' meant to her only to be too caught up in the moment to remember to do so when they eventually met. My memory might be playing tricks but I believe it was on this documentary that Carole Bayer Sager commended Elvis Costello for succeeding in getting Bacharach to compose and orchestrate in his old classic style for at least some of the Painted From Memory album, something she admitted she was rarely able to do over the course of their songwriting partnership.
Paul
Blair N. Cummings
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Re: Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

Post by Blair N. Cummings »

Paul,
My recollection is that it was at Carole`s insistence that Burt rid his melodies of the eccentricities that actually defined them in order to re- appear on the charts in a less adventurous musical era. Again, my memories may be faulty but I recall her appraisal of PFM as less laudatory and more an acknowledgement of an inevitability - that he would return to his `60s style, being - in her words - "the core essence of what he does."
Maybe it`s a matter of interpretation.
pljms
Posts: 865
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:43 am
Location: London

Re: Do You Know the Way to San Jose Cover Search

Post by pljms »

Blair, admittedly it's now quite a long time ago and I don't know whether she's spoken publicly on the subject at any other time but I remember Carole Bayer Sager's comments for BBC radio regarding Bacharach's work with Elvis Costello as being very much pro rather than con. In fact the general tone of all the documentaries and profiles of Bacharach produced by the BBC was celebratory, dominated as they were by contributions from artists and musicians known to be fans and admirers of Burt's. If there was ever a critical voice it was Bacharach's own because by this time he had started to publicly take responsibility for the split with Hal David.
Paul
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