Hello from a long fan and a forum newbie

[DonO]

Good Hello,

My name is Don Fields and I'm a Burt fan.

"Hi, Don!"

Anyways, I've been to the 'House' web site many times before, but this is the first time I'm taking advantage of this board by sticking my neck out on the chomping block of fandom.

One of the many things I'm involved in is a seni-blog site called 'Don-O's Dump', where I unload my articles of blind interest and what not. Currently, I'm in the middle of an scribe on Burt for the Dump. So, for my first post, the following is what I've written so far. Warts and all

Thanks and enjoy,
Don-O

SPACE AGE ASH TRAY #2:
In The Land Of Burt Pt. 1 of too many

If you've a chronic packrat with a credit card in one hand and a finger on a mouse hooked up to Ebay auction, nostalgia can be just one more layer of dirt on your grave....much less another pile of papers at your bankruptcy trial.

I've leaned that hard-ass lesson in the early eighties with issues of Goldmine Magazine. Sure, I had no credit card and lived on a limited allowance at the time due to high school, but thanks to immaturity and impulsive reaction that leads to packratism, I've left a hefty paper trail of unanswered auction wins; I'd bid, I'd win and then I realized that I don't have the doe to follow-up. In spite of the fact that a return address was required in these old-fashion pre-internet auctions, there wasn't a line of these stranded auctioneers lined up at the front door to spank my wallet.

Nowadays, I stick to CD's and the occasional books by Alan Hess and from Tachen to take care of those Space Age impulses. Bonus points if these are used and I've been lucky enough to score them though the ways of the used CD's.

Yup, those evil used CD's that the recording industry was campaigning against before the digital pirates showed the REAL threat to their pacifiers these days. I can still remember seeing Garth Brooks being pushed in front of the press by his label and did his Count Floyd impersonation: "Remember, kids! Used CD's are evil...I mean it, reeeealy reeealy evil! You're scared! ADMIT IT!!!" Then came Brooks' split personality thing with the "Chris Gains" crap and laughing AT egotistical bum became too strenuous to deal with anymore.

As mentioned before, the 90's brought on a treasure trove of Space Age/Bachelor Pad reissues that made your head spin, caused earache and wallets bent out of shape. Fortunately, I discovered the zin of used CD's before this invasion and gotten lucky since. Sure, this mantra took a lot of time; like the wait until a new release hits the used circuit, but patients is par of the course for the smart and cheap. Which is then followed by the sporadic fits like grabbing it before the other used CD freak in the store sees it, too. If not successful, this leads to public acts of war and blood shed. Okay, no system is perfect, but it beats being broke, and repeating Jim McKay's famous lines from 'Wide World Of Sports' in your head doesn't hurt either.

Combing through publications like 'Cool & Strange Music' and living in the clogged heart of the entertainment industry that is LA helped quite a bit, too. Then came Abeoma Records opening up in Hollywood, but I'm getting ahead of my own greed here.

So far, I scored large vats of re-issued grub by Esquivel, Sergio Mendez & Brazil 66, Julie London and, quite possibly on top of any Space Age fanboys list, Burt Bacharach.

There's something that should be said about a man who's work first dazzled millions in the 60's and early 70's, than burnt out the welcome wagon by the late 70's and the 80's and only to come back with reverence in the 90's. But that's a freelance critics job, so I'll leave the gushing in more professional and equally desperate hands.

However, I will droll on how this mad genius crept into my sub consouse without knowing it. Being born in 1964, I was way too young to get fully assaulted by Burt's music like everyone else around me. Though there were signs of close calls; my mom and aunt had more than a couple of Dionne Warwick albums and my grandpa making a big-ass racket about having "that music" in his house (gramps was French and Jewish, which explains a whole lot more than I can ever tell you).

And there's the usual story of hearing his music everywhere and my little Burt story is no different; hearing versions of Burt in dentist offices, supermarkets, police departments (from what I've heard from my troublesome cousins), amusement parks, TV, radio, good and (largely) bad Vegas lounge acts and so on.

I'm pretty sure that the bulk of these visions of Burt were NOT arranged and/or produced under the watchful ears of the big guy himself, I'm sure he can't be in every Muzak recording session. Which, I guess, lead to the backlash and the eventual late 70's burn out.

You can say that about any "fad" from any era, but old Burt is too smart and individualistic to be placed to the cheap recycled pop colure cubby holes like a I Love The 70's episode, 70's Preservation Society commercial and a cheap joke on 'That 70's Show'. There's that 'Austin Powers' deal, but Burt wasn't forced to trade lines with Mike damned Meyers, so he dodged the bullet on that one.

[Dennis Webb]

The proliferation of Bacharach music in Muzak venues had nothing to do with his fall in popularity in the pop music business after the mid 1970s. Muzak creates dessicated clones of all sorts of music, which doesn't bring any backlash from music lovers. The decline in commercial success of Burt's songwriting is more complex than that, and I can't claim to offer a complete explanation. But I think it is generally agreed that the following were factors: (1) the breakup of the David/Bacharach/Warwick team, which had worked together so successfull for many years, (2) changes in the music business resulting in the fragmentation of the radio audience into isolated niches, none of which Burt's unique style of music quite fit into, (3) possibly Burt's desire to explore new stylistic techniques that were just not as successful with audiences (even his longstanding loyal fans) as his 1960's musical language was, and (4) the consolidation of the pop music industry, which came to rigorously control the "gateway" into our radios by vigorously promoting performers whose record labels provided regular incentives to the gatekeepers (let's not mince words here: "incentives" = drugs and prostitutes, in addition to cash payment).

I will add my own fifth item to this list, which you may accept or reject as you please: The demise of general audience pop radio fare was accompanied by a general impoverishment in the music that began to be promoted. Many of the top performers (who usually have had brief careers) now have limited musical training or abilities. Their stardom rests on their sex appeal, marketing to young musically naive fans, and the ability to become part of a light and dance show onstage. There is very little musical content in what they do, and most of them are replaced every few years by the next marketable act that can be taught the same set of skills. The performers have become little more than commodities for the music industry's major players.

There is still a lot of great pop music being created, but you have to look out the mainstream music business to find it.

[Alvina]

I am at a loss for words lol.