Wednesday 15th November, 2006
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A Thought for Today
God rewards the dreamer with continued dreams.
This
One Does It For Me!
Ken,
Please can you tell me where I can get hold of a copy of one of my
favorite McKuen albums, After Midnight.
I loaned my copy to a "friend" and that was the last I saw of it!
Any help would be appreciated.
Chantal
At one time a CD version of
this album was available from Stanyan House, Chantal, but I'm not up to
date with current stock levels so I'd suggest you check it out at
www.stanyanhouse.com
Failing that a surprising number of Rod's albums and books are available
on eBay, some at very reasonable prices.
To keep you going here's some info on the album along with the lyrics to
one of the great numbers from it.
After
Midnight - Liner Notes
“Rod McKuen is the Bogart and Bacall in all of us.” - Ron
Issley, The Columbus Post Dispatch
Rod McKuen started his vocal career at seventeen by winning an audition
to sing with Lionel Hampton’s band. By his mid-twenties he had worked in
varying capacities with musicians that included Lester Young, Joe
Bushkin, Ralph Burns, Neil Hefti, Earl Bostic, Ellis Larkins, Chet Baker
and Quincy Jones. In the late fifties jazz guitarist Barney Kessel
arranged and produced Rod’s first album, Lazy Afternoon, and Benny
Carter did the charts for the Greatest Hits Medley he sings in his
current concerts. Over the years the singer - songwriter has always
seemed more comfortable with jazz oriented musicians, including his long
time conductors Arthur Greenslade and Billy Byers, and producers Sonny
Burke and Milt Gabler who helmed his Decca sessions.
Ralph J. Gleason said of McKuen “He phrases songs, his own and
everybody’s better than just about anybody. He avoids clichés and is on
the way to becoming the teacher for generations of singers yet to come.”
That pronouncement by one of Americas most respected jazz critics has
echoed down the years. And it has been added to and amplified upon by
writers and critics throughout the world. The instrument as voice jazz
like quality of the husky voiced singer is more apparent on the album
than any previous McKuen set I can think of.
After Midnight presents McKuen, the singer, in the best possible form.
The phrasing here is intelligent and wise, with nothing done for effect.
His enunciation is more impeccable than ever with no words smothered or
lost. At times he will say a word or let a sentence fall in such a way
as to make you wonder how he’s known about this for so long without us
finding out.
And what songs.
These are songs of innocence and experience, of growing up and older and
wise, while staying young and open. Whether they speak of friends,
children, animals or that sought after one, they are about change. All
of them are love songs, written and performed by a man who while not
inventing “love” has devoted a good part of his life and talents to
examining and advancing it. No wonder they call this guy “the poet of
the heart”.
And the poets hand is everywhere evident in the lyrics to these mostly
little known McKuen songs:
about the time you’ve decided you know all that there is
along comes some teacher with a new kind of quiz
a new kind of wanting and you’ve nothing to give but your time.
Or:
lying down some place shady and flat
him with his whiskers, me with my memories
me and the cat.
The oldest songs here, April People and When the Bars Close date from
1951 and were written in New York City. The newest, My Brother Edward,
was composed in Sydney in March, 1982, a few weeks before these sessions
started. And yet, After Midnight is blessed with that elusive quality
many albums of popular music search for but seldom find; unity. Despite
the collective years it took to write these songs, they might be from a
single film or theater score. While all but two have been recorded by
McKuen before - some more than once - it is doubtful they have ever been
sung with this intensity or meaning. The more you here this disc the
more it becomes evident that every song the singer performs on it is a
personal favorite.
The musical backing is spare and just right. It is provided by some of
Australia’s most gifted and “in demand” musicians. Dave Ellis’ bass line
as the only accompaniment to Rod on Empty Is shows what collaboration
really is and I especially liked Nathan Wax’s turnarounds on Me and The
Cat.
If a single track captures the mood of this extraordinary dark and
moving album it would have to be the seven minute long take on
Solitude’s My Home, the fine McKuen / Leo Ferre tune that deserves to be
a standard; in this song McKuen’s easy vocal manages to suggest hope out
of nothing. It says, in effect, ‘I wrestled solitude to the ground and
won and so can you.’
The five songs added to this compact disc ( #s 14 through 18 ) are
presented in their demo versions. You and Thank You are performed twice
on this program, the recordings being made roughly seventeen years
apart. I’m Strong But I Like Roses & Only Love were written in France in
the late 1950's. Blue has words by Rod and music by Gloria Regney.
The acclaimed young archivist and producer - engineer Steve Hoffman is
responsible for the excellent and nearly always uniform sound on these
recordings (in the case of the demos from truly vintage tape.)
From notes by Bill Hawn
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