I find myself inexplicably in the company of Elvis Costello cultists - you know who you are. Now please don't get me wrong (a nice Pretenders song, by the way), Elvis is a major talent in every category, belongs absolutely in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and will be long and well remembered. BUT ...
As I have shouted myself hoarse into the gaping void, he isn't a transcendent popular songwriter in the classic mode: the farther he drifts from his new wavy pop-rock foundations, the less appealing and important he is. His art does not transcend rock - he is not part of the grand tradition of popular song. (I must break now as I duck beneath the desk to avoid the produce and slings and arrows). HE IS NOT BURT BACHARACH, not close.
Champion of an elegant but inviting pop sophistication, Burt Bacharach (winner of three Academy Awards and four Grammys) is among the best and most popular songwriters of this half-century. Ira Gershwin once signed a piece of sheet music to him: "For Burt, the 5th 'B in no particular order - Beethoven, Brahms, Berlin, Bach and Bacharach."
His outstanding productions of his own hit compositions for Dionne Warwick, B.J. Thomas, Neil Diamond, Roberta Flack, Patti Labelle, and others - coupled with his track record as a recording artist, with five charting solo albums, including his 1971 eponymous album, Bacharach an especially important and enduring figure.
Burt Bacharach was born in Kansas City in 1928. His father, a former professional football player, was a syndicated columnist whose work brought the family to Forest Hills, New York, when Burt was a child. A somewhat reluctant musical youth, Burt practiced piano, drums and cello when he would rather have been playing football or chatting up girls.
"I didn't much like my lessons or what I was playing, but then I heard Ravel and I felt an excitement," he says. "I was also influenced when I was a kid by people like Dizzy Gillespie and Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker. I studied classical music with people like Henry Cowell and Darius Milhaud [at the New School for Social Research, the David Mannes School in New York, Berkshire Music Center, Montreal's McGill University, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Ca.]. I was influenced by a lot of Brazilian music. I guess that's why I don't much go for vanilla major chords. I much prefer a major or a minor 7th to a straight C."
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
Eric, you will be allowed to live despite your comments comparing Elvis unfavorably to Bacharach. Consider this a measure of my extreme generosity.
I will graciously choose to take your comments as high praise of BB rather than as a death-penalty-invoking knock on Elvis.
You may perhaps have a reasonable narrow point. Maybe Bacharach would be reasonably considered more accomplished than Elvis as a writer of Tin Pan Alley style songs- thus comparing Bacharach's whole career to maybe 10-15% of the Elvis catalogue.
Even there, however, note that Elvis was not just the singer but co-author of perhaps Bacharach's greatest song, "God Give Me Strength" as well as the whole excellent album it was on.
2 - Eric Olsen
Thank you for the special dispensation.
3 - TDavid
Elvis wasn't on American Idol, yet Burt had his music profiled on season two. For me to call him a great songwriter is almost an understatement.
4 - Eric Olsen
Yes, we saw what Ira Gershwin, who knew a songwriter or two in his day, had to say about him. He has also always been hip in a knows-his-place-in-history sense.
5 - Mark Saleski
i'd have to give bacharach the nod just for being more influential in the long run.
on the other hand, i do have to put costello right up there in my top ten favorite pop songwriters. right alongside joe jackson (hey eric, ever give Blaze Of Glory a listen?)
6 - Eric Olsen
M, still have Blaze of Glory at the top of my list. I don't get to actually go and pick things out very often, but I am planning a trip soon.
My point isn't to put Elvis down, but to give some perspective: he is a great rocker but hasn't had much impact outside of rock. Nothing wrong with that, though. It's the most important music of the second half of the 20th century.
7 - Citizen Keith
I'm confused. Can't Elvis be influenced by one of the great songwriters of our time (Burt)? Can't Elvis work with Burt on an album that will endure as one of Burt's (or Elvis', for that matter) best recorded works? Can't he take what he learned from that experience and record an album of ballads (not that Burt is his ONLY influence)?
Your praise of Burt Bacharach is justified. Praise of Burt Bacharach at the expense of Elvis Costello is pointless.
8 - Eric Olsen
Keith, the intro to this story is something of an inside joke: we have been arguing about the relative merits of Elvis Costello for some time now. I was not putting Elvis down in any way, just saying his best work has been in the rock tradition.
9 - James
A few years ago, McCoy Tyner did album of Burt Bacharach's music and it is one of my favorites of his recordings.
10 - Eric Olsen
Thanks James, love them both - will track that one down.