Wednesday 2nd November, 2005
Rod in Concert
Holland, December 2005!
San Sebastian Strings
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A Thought for Today
The threshold of knowledge is need.
This
One Does It For Me!
Ken,
I can't believe I am soon having the chance to see Mr. McKuen again in
Holland.
I saw him a long time ago - in Amsterdam I think - and "Soldiers" is my
favorite. It was a big hit here years ago.
Pieter.
If you saw Rod in Amsterdam,
Pieter, chances are you were at the concert that eventually resulted in
the double album "The Amsterdam Concert."
Here are the liner notes to
that album, written by Edward, and as usual they make for fascinating
reading.
You'll also be able to read
what Rod had to say at the end of the show and the lyrics you'll find at
the foot of the page.
Rod McKuen - Some Statistics
Somewhere in print I’ve said that Rod McKuen is difficult to know, no
matter how close you come to the man himself. That continues to be true.
The reason for his elusiveness in his personal relationships are as
numerous as his accomplishments. Yet, the difficulty in coming to know
Rod McKuen, the man, can undoubtedly be reduced to one simple truth. No
artist anywhere in the world gives more to his audience or continues to
be more concerned about them than McKuen does. The empathy has been long
returned in America, where he was recently named one of only three
performers in the world who can guarantee a full house just by
announcing a concert. The other two being, Sinatra, now in retirement,
and Barbra Streisand.
He outdraws rock acts, on occasion, even the Beatles. He appears with
the world’s major symphony orchestras and is equally at home backed by a
quartet of select musicians, performing more than a hundred concerts a
year. Alone in the center of the stage, without opening or supporting
acts, singing thirty to fifty songs in a single two or three hour
concert - then coming back on stage for an additional hour ‘rap
session’, where he fields machine gun fire questions thrown from an
audience that spans every age, race and ethnic group, McKuen is indeed
one of the most unique performers of our time. Charles Schultz has said:
“No one gives more to his fans and cares as much about them as Rod
McKuen does”.
He finds the time, and takes it, to write two major books of poetry a
year and ghost writes perhaps a dozen books of every variety for his own
successful book company that includes five different publishing lines.
His eight million plus book sales have made him not only the best
selling poet of all time but the biggest selling author in hard cover
writing today in any form.
He writes songs and has personally produced albums for Sinatra, Glenn
Yarbrough, Chris Connor, Sylvia Syms, Hildegarde Knef, Liesbeth List,
Rock Hudson, Greta Keller, Eartha Kitt, Claudette Colbert and himself,
among others. He has written more than one thousand songs, that have
sold in excess of one hundred million records. His list of popular
standards in seemingly endless; more than enough for four or five
“greatest hits” albums. For the past three years he has been
consistently the number one selling artist for Warner Bros. Records in
America.
His classical compositions include symphonies, concertos, sonatas, art
songs and an adagio or two. He has conducted at the Hollywood Bowl,
Carnegie Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall. He has commissions for new
classical works from the Edmonton Symphony in Canada, the Louisville
Symphony Orchestra and the American National Ballet Theater. In addition
he is one of half a dozen international artists that have been chosen to
open Australia’s new $100 million Opera House this season.
He appears on television as often as he wants.
He owns his own recording company and records and releases many of the
world’s leading artists’ works.
He writes motion pictures scores such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
and A Boy Named Charlie Brown, both of which earned him Academy Award
nominations.
He writes screenplays.
He is on the Board of Directors of half a dozen foundations, including
his own Animal Concern and McKuen Foundation, as well as Cleveland
Armory’s Fund For Animals.
He is on the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording
Arts and Sciences.
He lectures at some of the 3500 schools, colleges, universities and
seminaries that teach his poetry and music.
He lobbies in Washington for fair treatment of animals, conversation of
natural resources and laws that would protect the consumers and the
recording artists from the unscrupulous practices of some recording
companies.
Last year he sold out concerts not only throughout America but in
England, Austria, Australia and ten other countries. Until the Fall of
1971 he was unheard of in the Netherlands, yet in the final three months
of that year he became the most successful American artist ever to
appear there and the only performer from the days of the early Beatles
to have two recordings in the top ten charts at the same time - both of
which went on to become number one. As of this writing, he has the
number one selling album there as well. The album and each of the
singles earned him gold records in the Netherlands alone. This double
album was certified for a gold record almost before it was released.
McKuen’s book Listen to the Warm has been a best seller in Spain and
Mexico for two years. The first edition of that same book sold out in
one day in Holland and Listen to the Warm has passed the two million
mark in America - a feat not equalled by any other hardcover author, let
alone one writing poetry. Several of his books translated illegally
behind the Iron Curtain now outsell the works of Yevtushenko and other
Russian authors.
The above statistics are incredible for a man still in his thirties.
It would be enough for one man to have Rod McKuen’s incredible output,
but the best thing about the man and his work is that in each of the
areas he’s involved in, his way with words, his incredible gift for
melody, the ability to live a song while he is performing it and move
and involve all of us who are mere speculators is a genius that few men
have. Rod McKuen speaks quality.
As Toon Hermans, the Netherlands’ top entertainer, has so eloquently put
it: “Not just the persons in his chanson are alive - but also the trees,
the hills, the grass, the animals. I have never better tasted the smell
of grass in any chanson. He is a kind of apostle of our present times. I
love listening to him - one not only hears his chansons - but one also
sees them.”
This recording of his first concert in Amsterdam is electric. It proves
what Toon Hermans, and the rest of us have found in McKuen and, it is
certainly one of the two or three best ‘in performance’ albums made by
anybody.
If Rod McKuen were never to do another concert or sing another song his
reputation for excellence could stand on this album alone. He is singing
better than ever and the audience response is like a wave of love
rolling up to the Concertgebouw stage. Listening here is almost
like being there. Almost.
McKuen remains elusive at times, and he always will be. But more than a
little of what he has to offer to the world has been captured in this
collection... and we are richer for it. This is, of course, the
definitive Rod McKuen concert album until his next one comes along.
- Edward Habib
And here's what Rod himself
had to say at the end of The Amsterdam Concert.
Thank you very much...
what can I say. You know... I’ve been coming to Holland now for a number
of years. I came here eight years ago and fell in love and then fell in
love with the city as well. And I... and so it’s always had a great
attraction for me and I’ve always been able to sneak back here as a... a
kind of a... an anonymous bum. I guess that’s not possible anymore.
Thanks to you.
I don’t know if all of you know the story about... hey... first of
all... you must sit down... let’s get comfortable.
I... don’t know if all of you know the story behind Soldiers Who Want to
Be Heroes but a... it was written about ten years ago and I recorded it
in America and the record came out and it promptly went into oblivion. I
had a call... I guess it was about six weeks ago from Hans Kellerman at
Negram and he said that “You must come to Holland because your record is
on the charts.” So I thought I would be very conservative... I waited
until it got to be number thirty-nine. Then I got over here in a hurry.
And I thank you all for making me Number One.
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