{"id":1628,"date":"2023-02-11T16:57:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T16:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/02\/11\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-sweet-and-wholesome\/"},"modified":"2023-02-11T16:57:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-11T16:57:49","slug":"saturday-night-at-the-oldies-sweet-and-wholesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/02\/11\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-sweet-and-wholesome\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Night at the Oldies: Sweet and Wholesome"},"content":{"rendered":"

I once asked a guy what he wanted in a woman. He replied, "A whore in bed, Simone de Beauvoir in the parlor, and the Virgin Mary on a pedestal."  An impossible trinity. Some just want the girl next door.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bobby Darin, Dream Lover.<\/a> With pix of Sandra Dee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Audrey Hepburn, Moon River<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Gogi Grant, The Wayward Wind<\/a>, 1956. I'll take Lady Gogi over Lady Gaga any day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doris Day, Que Sera, Sera<\/a>, 1956.  What did she mean? The tautological, Necessarily, what will be, will be?<\/em> Or the non-tautologically fatalistic, What will be, necessarily will be?<\/em> Either way, she died in May<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

……………………….<\/span><\/p>\n

Mendocino Joe writes to recommend Joan Baez, Fare Thee Well<\/a>. Great song, great rendition, great video.  I seem to recall Dylan once opining that Joanie's voice is too good, too pure.  To my ear it is sometimes annoyingly shrill in the upper registers. But not in this wonderful version<\/a> of Dylan's Farewell Angelina<\/em>. Though not particularly sweet and wholesome, this eldritch version<\/a> by the man himself better captures the magic of the  '60s for those of us who, open to the Zeitgeist,<\/em> lived though them in their impressionable years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of eldritch, this version<\/a> of Blue Velvet<\/em> by Lana del Rey suggests itself. I wouldn't bracket her with Sandra Dee or Doris Day.  <\/span><\/p>\n

London Ed writes to express sadness that I did not mention "the passing of the great old man of pop," Burt Bacharach.  "Many choices of songs and arrangements but I will go for this<\/a>.  Fine lush orchestral arrangement and lovely contralto from Diana Krall, who also plays a mean piano."<\/span><\/p>\n

Ed has good taste. One of my Hal David-Burt Bacharach favorites is this number<\/a> performed by Jackie de Shannon, mid-'sixties. Back to sweet and wholesome. Back story:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Co-songwriter Burt Bacharach revealed in his 2014 autobiography that this song had among the most difficult lyrics Hal David ever wrote, despite being deceptively simple as a pop hit. He explained that they had the main melody and chorus written back in 1962, centering on a waltz<\/a> tempo, but it took another two years for David to finally come up with the lyric, "Lord, we don't need another mountain." Once David worked out the verses, Bacharach said the song essentially "wrote itself" and they finished it in a day or two.[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

The song's success caught the two songwriters completely by surprise, since they were very aware of the controversy and disagreements among Americans about the Vietnam War<\/a>, which was the subtext for David's lyrics. Bacharach has continuously used the song as the intro and finale for most of his live concert appearances well into the 2000s. (Wikipedia)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once asked a guy what he wanted in a woman. He replied, "A whore in bed, Simone de Beauvoir in the parlor, and the Virgin Mary on a pedestal."  An impossible trinity. Some just want the girl next door. Bobby Darin, Dream Lover. With pix of Sandra Dee. Audrey Hepburn, Moon River Gogi Grant, The Wayward Wind, 1956. … Continue reading “Saturday Night at the Oldies: Sweet and Wholesome”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}