Burt Bacharach, RIP
I vividly remember the first time I heard a Burt Bacharach song (at least consciously – I’d heard, and loved, some 80s and 90s covers of his classic songs as a kid without knowing that’s what they were). It was 1997, and Stacey and I were on holiday in LA. We were driving somewhere and listening to the music show Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW. I don’t know what song it was — one of his orchestral 60s numbers — but I just remember a feeling like a portal opening up. Those are the moments of musical discovery I love the most — when a new sense of possibility reveals itself, when I find myself thinking “You can do this?!?”
It was almost as mind-blowing as discovering the Ramones a decade earlier, and maybe even an opposite reaction: where they showed how a pop song could be distilled to its purest elements and made primitive and tough, Bacharach did the opposite, taking the simple pop form and making it classy and complex. I immediately started collecting his records and diving into this era of smooth, light, breezy pop, the polar opposite of the punk and indie aesthetic I’d embraced for years.
Another decade later, we had the pleasure of seeing Bacharach live when he played in the grandiose, ornate Église St-Jean-Baptiste as part of Pop Montreal in 2008. Accompanied by a huge band, he went through a long set with all his hits (sometimes in medley form), weird deep cuts like the theme from The Blob (“by The Five Blobs, who for some reason never had another hit,” he quipped), and songs from his newest record. Music writer Stuart Berman put it beautifully when he described the show as “a master craftsman liberated from the casino circuit to hold court in a majestic temple befitting his legend.”
At that show, Bacharach reminisced about his previous time visiting Montreal: “I haven’t been here since I was conducting for Marlene Dietrich!” At a quick calculation, even if that had happened when she was really old and he really young, that was a long, long time ago. We were witnessing a connection to a vanished time.
It is not tragic when a highly accomplished and beloved person dies at 94. But it does represent the end of an era. In Bacharach’s case, that era – of sophisticated, sentimental pop music in the mainstream – is long gone.
I’ll be playing a big set of Bacharach – with hits, deep cuts, unexpected covers, songs you may not have known were his, and at least one rendition I guarantee you haven’t heard – on my radio show this Sunday, February 26, at 11am. Which brings me to my next announcement…
On the radio
For the past almost three years, on the last Sunday of every month, I’ve been doing a guest DJ spot on the Free Kick Radio Show on CKUT in Montreal. Starting this Sunday, February 26, I’m going to be continuing the tradition, but a) doing the whole two-hour show, and b) broadcasting live from the CKUT studio. Being in the studio with all its equipment, and having the longer slot, will allow me to dip into my collection of LPs and CDs and expand the mandate a bit – still playing a lot of local and recent music, but also branching out into weirder musical corners. Being on the radio is always a thrill, and I look forward to this very much. Tune in on Sunday at 11am EST at 90.3 FM in Montreal or ckut.ca wherever in the world you are…
In other news
I’ve been on a long hiatus from my podcast, What Is This Music?!, but I’m recording some new episodes soon as I prepare to dive into the next phase of writing the What Is This Music?! book.
And in WP news proper, I have another studio session booked for the spring. I have somewhere between a hope and a plan to release a single this spring or summer. All I can say is that I have some dynamite special guests, I’m very happy with how the recording has been going so far, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.
Stay well out there,
xo WP.