THIS ONE DOES IT
FOR ME!
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A Thought for Today
To dream is to remain always open.
Ken,
Just found a new site to download music.. of course my first search word
was McKuen.
I downloaded a song and as I listened Rod sang "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley
Square". Can't find this one in any of the works I have, but it was so
lovely. Can you share the "insider's" story of the song?
Thanks,
Laura
Thanks for writing, Laura, and
apologies for taking so long to get to your letter.
Here's what Rod had to say
about this particular song:
My love affair with Great Britain goes way back to before I ever started
going there to entertain. A long time ago I started working on an album
titled Great Songs from Great Britain. For the project I recorded A
Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Streets of London, Salt of the Earth,
Let It Be, We Will, Sail Away, Across the Universe, a medley from Jesus
Christ Superstar and several songs written by Petula Clark. There were
others that escape a Sunday morning memory.
I set original music to Robert Burns My Love is Like A Red. Red Rose, the
poem Oh to Be in England, a lyric Noel Coward gave me "The Peace of the
Changing Sea" and I planned to score at least one Shakespeare sonnet.
I even thought I might include a few of my own compositions that the
people of G. B. helped inspire: Everybody's Rich But Us, London, Edinburgh
Morning, Saturday Night in Knightsbridge, When am I Ever Going Home?, The
Green Hills of England and Jean.
Although this project was much further along than most (only Mr.
Shakespeare's words have yet to get their musical setting) – in fact there
were too many complete recordings to choose from – like lots of other
albums that go in and out of my head before making it to in and out of the
shops, this one was derailed for one reason or another.
Many of the tracks made their way into other albums, including the
Superstar Medley, Let it Be, We Will, London, Salt of the Earth and
several of Petula's great songs.
But back to A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. It's always been one of
my favorite songs and I would have recorded it just for the pleasure of
doing so. Arthur Greenslade did a great arrangement of it and I
particularly love Don Lusher's beautiful trombone solo.
I wasn't able to find the
album which contained this song, Laura, so instead I've chosen the lyrics
to one of my favorite songs from the album "Live in London".
If you have a favorite McKuen
song, poem or story you'd like to share, drop me a line at
kenb@mckuen.com and I'll make sure
your story appears right here one Wednesday.
- Ken, Johannesburg,
November 13
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(posted 09/28/2002).
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