Thanks to all for your interest in my feature "Back Tracks: Burt Bacharach" at The Second Disc, and most especially for your kind words. I've posted here about The Second Disc before, but for those of you who missed it: founder/editor Mike Duquette and I are committed to full coverage of the reissue/catalogue music world, and I'm always happy to cover Burt Bacharach's extraordinary career as much as is appropriate and/or possible. (If you liked the reviews, please search for Burt on the site, and you'll find a number of other articles and reviews pertaining to the Maestro - by both Mike and yours truly - which I think you'll enjoy, too!)
To answer some of the specific comments made...Blair, rather than the word "ecology," I perhaps should have chosen "pastoral." I was merely referring to the imagery in the song's central metaphor. As for describing WOMAN as "difficult," I stand by my assertion, but I think it's more clear in context. I had a tremendous amount of fun listening to every one of Burt's recordings when prepping the reviews, and WOMAN is indeed a somewhat challenging record (to me, at least!), but one I also feel is "ambitious," "rewarding," "lush" and "sophisticated." Thanks so much for your comments; I do appreciate them.
I'm fascinated by everybody's thoughts about Burt's more recent work. If I can make one observation, it seems to be that we all fell in love with Burt's work based on a very specific style he perfected in the mid-1960s and is epitomized by his staggering body of work performed by Dionne Warwick. He's been reticent in recent years to return to that style, going so far as to say that he simply couldn't, even if he tried. Of course, Elvis Costello proved him wrong in compelling him to create an album that I think stands among both men's best work, and central to that album's success is Burt channeling his past style, set to lyrics that could only have come from Costello and were surprisingly sympathetic. I don't know that his current stuff with Sater sounds like his Bayer Sayer period (which in itself was influenced by then-current 1980s sounds), but no, it doesn't sound much like his 1960s work. (Brian Wilson, on the other hand, has experienced a career revitalization recapturing the PET SOUNDS style in each and every new composition.) I'm not a musicologist, so I can't say whether the pure melodies - devoid of orchestration and/or arrangement - are as challenging and unique as they were in the '60s. But I can say that I still wait to listen to each new Bacharach composition like a kid at a candy store, hoping that I'll hear the next song that will stick with me or affect me emotionally, as so much of Burt's past canon has. I don't think he's lost his sophistication, or even his inspiration, and I can't wait for GIFT OF THE MAGI. Is it an impossibility to rekindle that 1960s magic? Maybe. But as long as the possibility is there, I'll keep awaiting each new song, even if he continues writing in his more modern style, with fewer distinctive flugelhorn parts or changing time signatures. I still hear his "voice," though! It's wonderful to see so many people here, including all of you who posted, who care as much about Bacharach's work as I do, and can view it objectively, critically and with a keen eye.
Thanks again, and it's always a pleasure partcipating here at the forum!!
Joe
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