THURSDAY 11th & FRIDAY 12th
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Photograph by Donna Marie
Bergeniao 11/11/2003
A Thought for Today
A friend is forever.
ARTHUR GREENSLADE (1923-2003). . . An
Appreciation
My friend Arthur Greenslade passed away on Thanksgiving Day in Australia.
I always assumed that Arthur would live forever. Why not? In a musical
world that is increasingly populated by non-musical dwarfs, Arthur
remained a giant among instrumentalists, arrangers, conductors and
performers.
With all due respect to the one of a kind performer Shirley Bassey and the
ubiquitous Englebert Humperdink, both of whom I was forced (much against
my will) to share Maestro Greenslade with, I like to feel that outside of
his immediate family and even over the talented musicians / sidemen he
made magical music with, I knew and loved Arthur more than any other human
being on the planet.
He was my father, brother, collaborator and most of all my friend for
forty years – give or take a full moon or so. We were in turns pupil and
teacher. I learned much about music-making from Arthur and I know I
broadened his horizons by dragging him into the classical field and
inducing him to become the top flight arranger he turned out to be in the
motion picture industry.
He did more pop charts for me (nearly 500) than he did for all the other
artists he wrote for combined. His arrangements for my score for The Prime
of Miss Jean Brodie helped propel me to an Academy Award nomination. No
less important were our collaborations on Joanna and Scandelous John. It
was Arthur who scored my first classical compositions and when I wrote the
“A Man Alone” album for Frank Sinatra, Don Costa used Arthur’s original
charts for all the songs as a template for his contributions to the album.
I will always regret that because we were separated by such distance that
I didn’t get the chance to see Arthur more often in his favorite role,
that of grandfather. Based on the equal and impartial love he lavished on
his beloved daughters young ‘Rene and Tina and how every conversation over
the years always included references to Dawn, Zoe, Nigel and Ben I can
only imagine how he must have felt about being a great grandfather five
times over.
Great Grandfather, my goodness, but the adjective GREAT applies to Arthur
in every way.
Despite that twinkle in his eye, his broad handsome smile and a cockney
laugh that made every woman – or man for that matter – feel that he was
flirting with them and had their complete attention, he was an honest and
faithful husband. His devotion as a family man made him legendary in a
world where many musicians exist to play musical chairs or (pardon the
expression) musical beds..
And God bless his wife Irene, no matter how strong the bond of love
between two people, it can’t have been easy to have had to share him with
so many artists who really needed him to help advance our careers.
Edward and I have always considered Irene, Arthur and their family to be
part of our own. . . . and certainly never more than now. Neither of us
can wait to meet our great grand nephews and nieces and (God willing) our
great, great new inter-dependents.
It’s true, I expected Arthur to live forever. And he will. His
arrangements are the cornerstones of world-class acts and his inspiration
will continue to move all of us forward. In my own case it is always
Arthur’s charts of Jean, Loves Been Good to Me, Seasons in the Sun and
Everybody’s Rich But Us that audiences want to hear. Hey, I’m only the
writer-performer and trust me, without Arthur the so-called Emperor would
have no clothes.
My friend Arthur Greenslade always made silk and satin out of my cotton
and burlap songs. What more could any writer ask for?
But Arthur went far beyond that. His friendship will always mean more to
me than any finery he provided for my tunes. I join all of you in OZ,
England and around the world in celebrating this extra ordinary man’s
extraordinary life and contribution to our otherwise very ordinary
existence.
Sail on Arthur and we all know you will, and always with our love.
RM 12/8/2003 1:19 AM PST
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Thursday 11 December
Bess Armstrong o
Hector Berlioz o
Ron Carey o
Teri Garr o
David Gates o
Lynda Day George o
Tom Hayden o
Jermaine Jackson o
Fiorello LaGuardia o
Brenda Lee o
Jean Marias o
Victor McLaglen o
Donna Mills o
Rita Moreno o
Carlo Ponti o
Alexander Solzhenitsyn o
Rider Strong o
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Friday
12 December
VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE (MEXICO)
Madchen Amick o
Tracy Austin o
Bob Barker o
Mayim Bialik o
Sheila E. o
Emerson Fittipaldi o
Gustave Flaubert o
Connie Francis o
Bridget Hall o
Wings Hauser o Ed
Koch o
Liesbeth List o
John Osborne o
Cathy Rigby o
Edward G. Robinson o
Frank Sinatra o
Harry Warner o
Dionne Warwick o
Grover Washington, Jr. o
Joe Williams |
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Joy
is contagious, spread a little of it every chance you get.
Love is such an unusual and complete gift no
one can write a proper thank you note for receiving it or praise it
enough for what it really is.
Without the cold for reference we wouldn’t
recognize the comfort of warmth.
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THE CHRISTMAS CACTUS
December 17 |
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The Christmas
cactus
blooms against the wall -
its crimson vulva opening at night
and staying through the season,
the blossoms heavy
at the end of slender stems
of plants like octopi
sans evil eye and middles.
Pink and crimson
in the bath or after bath
hands dabbing at your arms
you were Christmas every silent night.
Today a woman in the East-end market
looked up from celery and salad greens.
For one slow moment, it was you -
Christmas in a black print dress.
I am hounded by the holidays
that come in bunches now.
Bright poinsettias and red ribbons
tied to cedar branch and pine,
great armfuls of you signal to me
question me at every corner.
Heavy-headed, staring down
avoiding Yuletide smiles
and New Year promises,
I stay as calm as crystal,
but I am still afraid
of looking up.-
from "The Sound of Solitude", 1983 |
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