Irish Times Article

The Burt Bacharach Forum is a board to discuss the music and career of composer Burt Bacharach and performers associated with his songs.

Moderator: mark

Post Reply
Peter Greenhill
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:04 am
Location: London, UK

Irish Times Article

Post by Peter Greenhill »

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
Blair N. Cummings
Posts: 1123
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:14 pm

Re: Irish Times Article

Post by Blair N. Cummings »

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."
pljms
Posts: 865
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:43 am
Location: London

Re: Irish Times Article

Post by pljms »

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.
Paul
Blair N. Cummings
Posts: 1123
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:14 pm

Re: Irish Times Article

Post by Blair N. Cummings »

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).
Martin Johnson
Posts: 462
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 7:41 am

Re: Irish Times Article

Post by Martin Johnson »

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!
Peter Greenhill
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:04 am
Location: London, UK

Re: Irish Times Article

Post by Peter Greenhill »

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

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