Burt bacharach

[Kamasu_Jr]

BURT BACHARACH celebrates his 85th Birthday this year [May 12th ] . He has a biography out, Anyone Who Had A Heart - The Art of the Songwriter, but I haven't seen any publicity that he's done to promote it. Hip O is releasing yet another various artist compilation of his work. On a related note, a company is reissuing all of DIONNE WARWICK'S output for Scepter and Warner's. THE albums will be pricey imports. Maybe Dionne will get some money. I hope so!

[reese]

I'm reading Burt's book now. It just came out this week, I believe. I gather he has done some book signings, but I haven't seen any interviews as of yet. Next month, PBS is going to be airing a special with various archival clips of his compositions.

It will be interesting to see what extras [[if any) will be on the upcoming reissues that Kamasu mentioned. All of Dionne's albums have now made it to cd, with the exception of THE DIONNE WARWICKE STORY and FROM WITHIN. Fairly recently, Collectors Choice released a bunch of her Scepter albums. So I won't be running to get these. I don't think they will help Dionne financially all that much, except for her regular royalty. Supposedly, she, Bacharach, and David sold the masters to Warners a while back.

[daviddesper]

I would have to agree that these re-issues would not be in especially high demand. Dionne is probably about the most "re-issued" artist I can think of, not only in terms of studio albums, but there are compilations by the dozens out there of her work. I am not complaining mind you and I own plenty of them, but I just can't see how there could be any real demand for repeat releases. For example, hasn't the 1979 "Dionne" album been re-issued at least half a dozen times already?

[reese]

I would have to agree that these re-issues would not be in especially high demand. Dionne is probably about the most "re-issued" artist I can think of, not only in terms of studio albums, but there are compilations by the dozens out there of her work. I am not complaining mind you and I own plenty of them, but I just can't see how there could be any real demand for repeat releases. For example, hasn't the 1979 "Dionne" album been re-issued at least half a dozen times already?

I think her most reissued album is the one recorded at the Syracuse Jazz Festival a while back. I've seen it at least five or six different forms.

In one of her Rhino reissues, David Nathan mentioned the possibility of some unreleased live performances from her Scepter years being reissued. Now that I would love to see.

[Kamasu_Jr]

From Within and the DIONNE WARWICKE Srory are scheduled for reissue.

[reese]

From Within and the DIONNE WARWICKE Srory are scheduled for reissue.

I see they are going to cost almost $60 each. That's ridiculous.

[jack020]

David Nathan!!!!!

[Kamasu_Jr]

Tough book to read. Bacharach is hard on himself, but honest. He was an adulterer, obsessed with his music, emotionally distant to a mentally disturbed daughter and egotistical to the point that he allowed his songwriting partner to be overshadowed by his pursuit of stardom. He doesn't ridicule or point fingers at others, which is admirable and he allows his ex-wives and friends to have their say. Dionne Warwick comes off as grumpy like she was on Celebrity Apprentice and not very honest about several aspects of her career. Bacharach credits Calvin Carter with giving him his break as a producer. But I don't want to spoil it for those who want to read it for themselves.

[midnightman]

^ Interesting...

[Nothing But Soul]

Amazon.com is showing a couple of interesting titles from WEA Japan scheduled to be released August 6, 2013: Atlantic Sounds of Burt Bacharach and Warner Brothers Sounds of Burt Bacharach. Currently, Amazon is showing $57.47 as the price for each of these 2-disc various artists compilations. That sounds pricey, but based on other releases from WEA Japan in 2012 and 2013 [[including a huge portion of the Atlantic Records catalog), I would expect that these will be available from Amazon Marketplace sellers at a significant discount after they are released.

[Kamasu_Jr]

FYI: Burt Bacharach's Best is airing on PBS stations around the country this week/month.

[reese]

FYI: Burt Bacharach's Best is airing on PBS stations around the country this week/month.

My local station was showing both this and the 70s and 80s SOUL REWIND simultaneously, so I had to choose. I went with the former, assuming that Burt's will air again. What I saw of his was really good. They utilized clips that I had never seen before.

In particular, it was nice to see the brief clip from the I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER recording session, with Cissy Houston, Ann Moss, and Myrna Smith on backgrounds. It was also nice to see the clip of Dionne performing WALK ON BY on Red Skelton. I had seen it before, but never in color.

[Kamasu_Jr]

Since the Bacharach special is being shown in my ara, I opted for the Dionne Warwick disc as a gift.

[reese]

I'm seriously thinking of contributing to get the dvd of Burt's show, as it has fifteen minutes of additional material.

[Kamasu_Jr]

I figured there would be additional footage. Maybe I will get the Bacharach DVD next month.