THIS ONE DOES IT
FOR ME! Click
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A Thought for Today
We can always use reminders on how to better treat each
other.
Hi Ken,
Rod's song that does it for me has to be "Jean". Not only because it is my
name, but also because I was a teacher for 35 years.
In the movie, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," she was a teacher who
became too influential in her students' decisions about their futures --
often with disastrous results. This served as a red flag for me. We are
often unaware of the influences we have on others.
Also, the song was nominated for an academy award, but lost to Burt
Bachrach's "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" -- I haven't liked him
since then!! Don't get me wrong -- Burt is good, but Rod is GREAT!!
Jean Clark
Great choice, Jean, thank you!
"Jean" appears on a number of
albums including the Greatest Hits collection. As usual, I found the liner
notes fascinating.
LINER NOTES
- ROD McKUEN'S GREATEST HITS VOL. 2 (CD)
I’ve never made any cylinders
or 78 RPM singles, but my first albums were recorded in glorious mono. I
saw the salad days of 2, 4, 6, 8, 16 and 32 track tape and my work has
been issued on reel to reel stereo, 4 track cartridges for cars - and even
several different kinds of quadraphonic disc. This is a long way of saying
that I’ve been recording for quite a while now, forty years - give or take
a decade - and in that time had my fair share of hits, semi hits, also
rans and downright flops.
In the main, this second album of purported hits is from a happy and busy
period at Warner Brothers Records. In addition to the chart busters it has
a couple of sides that made the charts but didn’t make a buck and one or
two that drove the people in places like Tonga and Timaru bananas while
remaining estranged from the American hit parade.
For this digital edition I’ve included 2 tracks from my Decca days, Two
Brothers and The Beat Generation ( if you made a record with Bob McFadden
and Bill Haley & his Comets, wouldn’t you include it?) There’s a one shot
for A&M with Herb Alpert, Hi Lonesome and Bring Her a Rose, my first RCA
single.
The other two, new to this package, are The Time It Takes to Love You (
1969 ) and Guess I’d Rather Be in Colorado ( 1972 ) both released on
Warner Brothers.
I love making records, even more than I like writing books or having sex.
With not much of the latter two in evidence these days I’m in the studio a
lot; cleaning up the old tracks and laying down some new ones. Ah,
sublimation and making music - what lovely bed fellows.
R.M., April, 1996
If you have a favorite McKuen
song or poem you'd like to share, the address for your contribution is
ken@mckuen.com
Look forward to hearing from
you.
- Ken, Johannesburg,
September 26
Details of Rod's next
appearance can be obtained by following the link below.
"Tap
Your Troubles Away" - the music of Jerry Herman
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