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A great melody first, then lyrics,(only) THEN 'vocals'


Mark Blackburn

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Quote Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn View Post
Just got done listening to his "Blue Skies" from the Stardust standards album. It's pure Willie.
Hearing "Blue Skies" reminded my of another song, "Beyond the Blue Horizon."

After the Monkees broke up, Texan Michael Nesmith recorded 3 LPs for RCA in the early 1970s with a Nashville back up group, The First National Band: Magnetic South -- including the Top 40 hit, "Joanne" (it went to # 6 on the Adult Contemporary charts) -- Loose Salute, and Nevada Fighter.

Magnetic South, has been called a "minor masterpiece of country rock."

On it Nesmith recorded a song first introduced by operetta singer Jeannette MacDonald in a 1930 film titled Monte Carlo. That song? "Beyond the Blue Horizon," with very memorable tune written by Richard Whiting and a simple, homespun lyric written by Leo Robin. (Robin, you may remember, also wrote the very sophisticated lyric to "Thanks for the Memory," which I posted a few days ago.)

Here's Mike Nesmith's country-and-western version of this classic tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_e1yMZLkII

LCK
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A couple or three years ago we celebrated BABY MINE -- the Oscar-nominated song from the Disney animated classic "Dumbo." I think I'd mentioned the lyricist, one of Hollywood's greatest 'hired guns' Ned Washington who penned the straight-for-the-heart words; a page or two ago I mentioned my two "favorite recent versions" -- by Bluegrass Queen Alison Krauss and producer/singer Steve Tyrell.

As if to say to me personally, "You haven't forgotten this version, surely - it once was your all-time favorite!" satellite radio is playing Bette Midler's take -- to solo piano accompaniment, uploaded by someone with a "Baby Mine" or two of their own. In case your heart needs softening this day.

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Old man: That carriage ride!
Old woman: You walked me home.
HE: You lost a . . . glove?
SHE: I lost a comb.
HE: Ah yes . . . I remember it well!


If you're young and still enjoying 'perfect' memory, I doubt that a 54-year-old song I'm about to share would mean very much: I REMEMBER IT WELL was my favorite song from the 1958 movie musical "Gigi." But if you're closer to my age . . . or know some old folks whose overheard conversations actually sound a lot like this, you may find it both funny and heartwarming -- a rare combination these days!

Lyricist Alan Jay (My Fair Lady) Lerner working to music by Andre Previn (still with us, thank goodness, in his 80s) crafted perfect words for an elderly couple -- played by Hermione Gingold and Maurice Chevalier.

[Just as an aside, Hermione Gingold, a London-born actress was married for 20 years to a great British lyricist, Eric Maschwitz (who wrote the words to

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Carry her books, that's how it starts

14 or 40, they're kids in their hearts . . .

 

Indulge me please in a between-weddings-and-funerals reverie. (It's my thread, right?)

 

Satellite radio is playing LOLLIPOPS AND ROSES (Natalie Cole's recent version) a sweet old tune from the 60s that won Jack Jones a Grammy.

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I've been (re)reading Tony's autobiography The Good Life looking to confirm my recollection that Tony was the first white singer to 'front' the Count Basie orchestra.

This after someone in England uploaded a television recording of Tony and the Basie Band circa 1969. Besides the splendid (almost perfect) video quality, we're reminded that -- then as now -- Mr. Bennett has forever introduced audiences to songs they would otherwise never hear.

For this English television show (a BBC special labelled

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The very next offering at YouTube this day is James Taylor's recent recording; it's not the first time he's covered a tune by Richard Rodgers. Mr. Taylor changes up the lyric slightly for younger listeners, and with his distinctive solo guitar opening accompaniment (chords only he could find and finger-pick on six strings) James Taylor makes it sound like one he wrote!

Uploaded a year ago to a fixed-camera view of a busy street corner in NYC (I'm guessing from those yellow cabs). Seen by next-to-nobody, and with only one "comment" from someone much younger. In the key of C altogether now . . .


This vid reminds me a Wayne Wang and Paul Auster's movie called "Smoke". Wonderful? movie. Was it a tribute? I'd like to think so.
Pappahobo 7 months ago


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Like trying to eat "just one peanut" quitting YouTube is next-to-impossible. As if to say to me, "You haven't forgotten your favorite female singer's version of this one?" the very next offering after James Taylor's is the very first popular recording ("April 1952") by Peggy Lee -- predating Ray Charles' rendition by more than a decade. Perhaps she even influenced him? When you can handle a third version of "Beautiful Morning" -- make it this one, please!

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So I'm flying over London England tonight in my F-18 fighter jet (Microsoft Flight Simulator) and I spot what looks like a big, elliptical, indoor stadium. Turns out it's "The Royal Albert Hall" we hear so much about. It's been around since 1871 and since the end of World War II has been the summer home of "The Proms."


That's short for

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Synchronicity: At this moment satellite radio is playing Rosemary Clooney's late-in-life recording of one of my favorite Johnny Mercer songs, P.S. I LOVE YOU from an album our Lee Knight cited a few pages ago which has "yet to be uploaded to YouTube." Coincidentally (or not) I'd just finished composing a note about this song and my

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Quote Originally Posted by Mark Blackburn View Post
In his uncompleted memoirs, Mercer recalled that when he was three or four, his father who was "musical," would hold him in his arms, in a rocking chair, in front of the fireplace and sing old songs:

Secure and warm, I would drift off to dreams; just as later on, out on the starlit veranda, I would lie on the hammock and, lulled by the night sounds, the cricket sounds, safe in the buzz of grown-up talk and laughter, or the sounds of far-off singing, my eyelids would grow heavy; the 'sandman' was not someone to steal you away but a friend to take you to the land of dreams and another day, there to find another glorious adventure to be lived, experienced, cherished and -- maybe someday -- put into song.
Beautiful, Mark. Thanks for that. All of it...

LCK
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Thanks for that Mark. I've mentioned before that Madeleine gets played a lot in our house.
I know you're are a great Diane Krall fan. I love her to, but she's too far above me (if you understand what I'm trying to say).
Madeleine always feels like she's speaking to me at my level. I still feel the humble beginnings of the Paris street musician in her.

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