My contribution to WEEK OF BACHARACH by THE FUTURIST!
Jerry Orbach performs at the 1969 Tony Awards my favourite basketball song pre and post Space Jam. ”She Likes Basketball” from Promises, Promises.
Nice Country Air
A 1994 Bacharach cover performed by British-Indian singer Amar.
Make It Easy On Yourself / Amar
Burt Bacharach
This is part of another man’s story.
* * *
He was laid off from work and he greeted the freedom with ambition.
——I’m free to do all those things I’ve been meaning to do! This is the life for me.
He was positively beaming.
It turns out that his ambition had a one-to-one relationship with his bank funds. As money went by, it became time to search for work.
In the time of searching for work and subsequently failing to find work, he came to develop a very healthy appreciation for work.
——Work is good.
The world needs work.
I want to work in the world!
He said.
When he finally did get a new job he put on his miner’s hat, grabbed his coal-bustin pick and whistled to work every day.
——Oh wondrous fortune, for what caused you to turn on me this day!
He proclaimed skyward—not understanding the reason for his sudden change of fate. During the many moons prior to that day, he had been passed over by a dozen other employers.
——But I am the same man as I have always been…
He claimed inward.
But after a couple of months, well, he started to understand that coal was not a renewable, clean energy source, and frankly, the ethics of the situation were covered in soot—it was getting hard to breathe.
The ambition to make a difference and discontent with his circumstance still lingered. In order to make a difference, the kind of difference that mattered, he would need to be free. So while he whistled to work, it was a pirate’s life for him.
The sooner he figures that out, I reckon, the better off he’ll be.
- Artist: Brian Wilson
- Song: Heigh-Ho / Whistle While You Work
- Album: In The Key Of Disney
- Year: 2011
I have a playlist into which songs go and rarely come out. I call it *Playlist so that it floats to the top of my iTunes. It is into this list that I put songs that stand out to me, and it is from this list that I pick songs to share with you: everyone and no one.
I have posted Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) before and I will likely post them again in the future; however, this is Not YMO (written as YMO). They lost the right to use their original name because it was owned by their original publisher. What did the publisher hope to gain, I wonder. Release an album by “Yellow Magic Orchestra” with none of the original members/writers? That trick only works in the game industry.
- Artist:
YMO(Yukihiro Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Haruomi Hosono) - Song: Silence of Time
- Album: Technodon
- Year: 1993
[My Little Red Book]
Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach
Sessions at West 54th
My wife and I had our wedding party in Hachioji, December 25th 1895. This photo was taken by a Dutch sailor whom we paid with plum liqueur.
Kermit the Frog presents the best analysis of rainbows I have ever heard, and it is this song that prompted me to reflect about my favourite rainbow songs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
#1 The Rainbow Connection performed by Kermit the Frog (by Paul Williams & Kenneth Ascher)
(video posted by jasmalz)
This particular rainbow song encourages literacy in children—and that’s a story arc I can really get in front of.
#2 Reading Rainbow Theme by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman & Janet Weir
(video posted by everlong1039)
Coming in at number 2.5 is Elvis Presley performing Elvis Presely’s Pocketful of Rainbows in the movie G.I. Blues.
#2.5 Pocketful of Rainbows by Elvis Presley
Did I mention this was a three-part series in four parts?
(video posted by DanJL76)
In this three part series I will present to you my favourite songs about rainbows. Coming in at number 3 is an Elvis Presley cover by Japan’s Yellow Magic Orchestra.
#3 Pocketful of Rainbows performed by YMO
The video, as far as I’m concerned, is total nonsense. I have no knowledge of the subject matter, but it does have the highest quality recording I could find without explicitly violating Tumblr’s terms of use myself.
(video by sadatora1)
My wife had kindly pointed out to me that my piano playing lacked finesse, grace and in fact sounded like I was just mashing the keys. —Like a six-year-old. The emotions were lost, the passion dead. —I mean, it’s amazing that you made it, but it sounds bad. Why didn’t you tell me this before I posted it?! —I didn’t think you were finished. At her I store steely-eyed as I cried secretly. She was right, however, and after I stepped down from pride rock I got to work. I have taken the revisionist approach to history and removed all instances of the old recordings. If you are so inclined, I invite you to listen one more time to Thursday May 19.
Captain Kirk fights a Gorn. Its attacks are methodical—its strength, avoidable.
