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Post by erik on Sept 1, 2012 20:05:29 GMT -5
Unfortunately, we have to add one more to the entertainment obituary list today. This time, it's Hal David, who, along with Burt Bacharach, was responsible for tons of hits during the 60s and 70s, including "Anyone Who Had A Heart", "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", and many more. David was 91. More details here: news.yahoo.com/legendary-songwriter-hal-david-dies-la-91-205354931.html |
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Post by fabtastique on Sept 2, 2012 1:24:56 GMT -5
another talented person gone, at least he was a good age but still very sad
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 2, 2012 2:14:25 GMT -5
Very sad, but I guess we shouldn't really be all that surprised when someone in their 80s and 90s pass away. Hal David lived a good, long life and contributed the lyrics to many a good song the world will still be listening to, humming or singing for a long time. He wasn't considered rock and roll but he and songwriting partner Burt Bacharach fit right in with the rock and roll times though one could've imagined their music being more at home with the songs of the 1930s and 1940s and the best songwriters of those eras. Hal David and Burt Bacharach, I think, were the last of the big time (mostly) non-performing songwriters, an era that is gone because so many of the recording artists from the 60s onward relied on their own talents as songwriters. Of course, there are still quite a few non-performing songwriters around although not many have the giant stature of a Hal David. RIP Hal, and thank you for all the great songs you contributed in your lifetime.
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Post by erik on Sept 2, 2012 12:19:47 GMT -5
Well he and Bacharach did write stuff that still holds up rather well under scrutiny, and artists recorded those songs a lot. Dionne Warwick, of course, was the one who absconded with the most hits to come from the Bacharach/David staple (just about every Top 10 hit she had between 1963 and 1970 was written by them).
The loss of all these great people, including David, makes one realize just how much they gave to us; and while I don't mean to sound stodgy and old, I don't think a lot of the youth of today realize (or even seem to care) about such huge contributions to American popular music made by those from the 50s through the 70s.
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Post by rick on Sept 2, 2012 14:24:49 GMT -5
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Post by sliderocker on Sept 3, 2012 12:41:29 GMT -5
Well he and Bacharach did write stuff that still holds up rather well under scrutiny, and artists recorded those songs a lot. Dionne Warwick, of course, was the one who absconded with the most hits to come from the Bacharach/David staple (just about every Top 10 hit she had between 1963 and 1970 was written by them).
I sometimes think that without Bacharach and David, Warwick would not have had a career or maybe as much of a successful career as she had. They supplied her with several good songs although the funny thing is, she rejected one song by them that she just did not think had the potential to be a hit. And then she had to play catch up when the song was a hit for another artist by recording her "official" version of the song. That song was "What the World Needs Now" by Jackie DeShannon. I read somewhere that Warwick was ticked that she had the first option on the song and had rejected it and then ticked that B&D then took the song to another artist, even though she had already turned down the song. Did she think B&D were supposed to keep the song to themselves and not offer it to someone else???
That song was of course used in the movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" with another bizarre twist to it: Jackie's hit version was used in the movie but the soundtrack album featured a version by Merilee Rush, of "Angel of the Morning" fame! Merilee's version was a pretty good version even though Jackie's version remained (and remains) the keeper.
The loss of all these great people, including David, makes one realize just how much they gave to us; and while I don't mean to sound stodgy and old, I don't think a lot of the youth of today realize (or even seem to care) about such huge contributions to American popular music made by those from the 50s through the 70s.
I have to wonder how many of us were just like the kids of today back when it was our time to be the kids of the day? How many of us lthought about the contributions to American popular music from times earlier than the 1950s or even cared about them? Or other musical genres? If it hadn't been for Linda and Elvis and Johnny Cash and some other artists, I would never have listened to country. Linda hooked me into liking country far more than what the old Nashville guard ever would've had a chance of doing because I thought most of them were just big, big overrated phonies.
Still, each generation will have its own musical heroes and likes and dislikes, and there is no rule that says they must like or appreciate what had come before. Then again, the youth of today often aren't given the chance to appreciate the artists they do like because all too often, the artists they do like are this year's flavor of the year and next year's has beens. The record companies aren't concerned with building an artist's career as a long term proposition, just what they can get out of them here and now and then dispose of them in favor of. finding the next big thing.
Artists of the present would do well to listen to one of Melanie's mid-70s recordings, the wistfully sad "Someday I'll Be An Old Record," which she wrote and which was about no longer being on top and mostly being a memory, a picture of what once had been. That's what happens with most of the artists of any era. We remember the giants of the eras but mostly forget those who didn't make quite as big of an impression. Sadly, since the late 80s, most of the music has been of the instantly disposable kind and the record companies bear most of the blame for that.
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