Saturday, February 11, 2023

Obituary City (Bye Bye Burt B)

 



Well, this is getting a bit tedious - colossi collapsing left right and centre. One a week at least, and at one point back there it was one a day more or less (more o' loss).

Still, on the sunny side, supplies are nowhere near running out. Still a lotta icons, music giants, legends, in the stockpile of the living. 

In his later years, my dad was an obituarist - the main thing he was writing was pieces about deceased notables.  I wonder if this fate will befall me? Elegies and eulogies are bound to increase as a  proportion of the output. Not such a dire fate really - in fact it's a rather satisfying line of work, if usually gruelling (done overnight, mostly). People appreciate them. 

(Here's a piece I wrote about the art of the posthumous paean , tethered to the passing of David Bowie,  a few years ago.)

Burt Bacharach! What can you say?  Such tunes, such arrangements, such wit and elegance. 

I appreciate the look of the man almost as much as the music - the sweaters, the hair, the smile, the twinkle. 







wonder what Burt thought of the Stranglers' version?






Burt disliked Love's version, said they'd got the rhythm wrong. 




















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