raymac46 Posted June 4, 2023 Share Posted June 4, 2023 Cynthia Weil passed away on June 1. She and her co-writer Barry Mann had close to 100 hit songs. This one was one of their most famous. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted June 16, 2023 Share Posted June 16, 2023 (edited) What a prolific writing career! Thank you, Cynthia... A great old song. Triggers other memories for me. Probably everyone remembers "House of the Rising Sun". But I also remember Burden for "Sandoz". When we were young... Which brought me unexpectedly to this mostly unrelated piece from the same era: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Ep5x-DETc Extended version here (nicely done): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuJPKKwiwpM Ahhh, yes- there were good parts in those good old days. Haunting melody written by Michael Brown. They got a standing ovation for a performance of this piece at a reunion concert in NY in 2012. Music is like a bookmark, it opens forgotten pages... Clutter Edited June 16, 2023 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted June 16, 2023 Author Share Posted June 16, 2023 (edited) The Left Banke's version of Walk Away Renee is my personal favorite although the Four Tops covered it about the same time. Vonda Shepard reprised it in the 1990s for Ally McBeal. Pretty Ballerina is also a great song but relatively obscure.. Both songs written about Renee Fladen - singer and vocal coach. Edited June 16, 2023 by raymac46 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 16, 2023 Share Posted June 16, 2023 7 hours ago, Cluttermagnet said: Music is like a bookmark, it opens forgotten pages... Music for me has always meant memories. There's rarely a tune that I hear that doesn't have some memory associated with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 (edited) Interesting how, if a song is memorable and keeps bouncing around in one's head, other variations soon suggest themselves. After 'sitting' with The Left Banke's "Pretty Ballerina" for several days, it morphed into "Auntie Grizelda" by the Monkees. It's as if the Left Banke and the Monkees were given exactly the same collection of 5 or 6 notes and told to write a song with them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3DBFFTsn40 At some point I realized that, despite the Left Banke being described as having a 'baroque rock' sound, what I was hearing in "Ballerina" was more of a middle eastern sort of melody to my ears. A few days later, The Hollies popped into my head with "Stop Stop Stop". Admittedly not the exact same group of notes, but related- and with that strong middle eastern imagery of a belly dancer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to2cze58R5E FWIW when I think of what I'd call 'baroque rock', I think of Jethro Tull- But for some reason I couldn't stand his sound. I'm sure lots of folks liked him fine, though. Clutter Edited June 21, 2023 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted June 21, 2023 Author Share Posted June 21, 2023 I have heard the Left Banke sound described as "progressive rock" and the primary producer of that sound in the 60s was Bones Howe. Notable Prog Rock Groups were Procol Harem, the Moody Blues, even the Association. The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" and some of the later Beatles stuff had elements of Prog Rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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