🎵 AotW Burt Bacharach: Futures (A&M SP-4622)

1675996139166.pngBurt Bacharach
Futures


A&M SP-4622
Released 1977


CD reissue (Japan): POCM-2055.


SIDE ONE

I Took My Strength From You (I Had None) 3:50 ***
Futures 4:13
Us 3:18 ***
Where Are You? 5:01 ***
We Should Have Met Sooner 3:51*

SIDE TWO

No One Remembers My Name 3:24 ****
The Young Grow Younger Every Day 2:45 **
Another Spring Will Rise 5:41
Seconds 2:55 ***
When You Bring Your Sweet Love To Me 2:55 *
Time and Tenderness 3:40

VOCALS: *Jamie Anders/ ** Peter Yarrow/ *** Joshie Armstead/ **** Melissa Mackay, Sally Stevens and Marti McCall

FEATURED SOLOISTS: Warren Luening and Marvin Stamm, trumpet; George Young and David Sanborn, sax

BACKGROUND VOCALS: Patti Austin, Lani Groves, Raymond Simpson, Vivian Cherry, Zachary Sanders and Frank Floyd

KEYBOARDS: Burt Bacharach, Richard Tee, Leon Pendarvis and Paul Schaeffer

GUITARS: Joe Beck, Jay Berliner, Charles Chiarenza David Spinozza, Hiram Bullock, William Pitman, Stuart Schaff and Eric Weissberg

BASS: Tony Levin, Donald Bagley, Herb Bushler and William Lee

PERCUSSION: Ralph McDonald / DRUMS: Grady Tate and Clyde Duell

PHILADELPHIA STRINGS: Joseph D'Onofrio (concert master and conductor); Margaret Ross, Lois MacDonald, Kathleen Carroll, Peter Nocella, Emma Kummorow, Pamela Porta, Thomas Sarla, Rebekah Johnson, Helen Janov, Lance Elbeck, Hitai Lee, Richard Amaroso, Sarah Jane Johnson, Victoria Noyes, Craig Weaver, Charles Parker.

Produced by Phil Ramone (Engineer) and Burt Bacharach (Arranger)

Jim Boyer, assistant engineer
Recorded at A&R Recording Studio, New York
Mastering Engineer: Bernie Grundman at A&M Recording Studios, Hollywood CA.

Art Direction: Roland Young
Disign: Phil Shima
Photography: Kathie McGinty

Richard Tee and David Sanborn appear courtesy of Warner Brothers Records
Ralph MacDonald, courtesy of Marlin Records, a division of T.K. Productions, Inc.

Joe Beck, courtesy of Polydor Inc.
Patti Austin, courtesy of CTI Records.





Complete album:





JB
 
Since LIVING TOGETHER was one of my favorite Burt Bacharach albums, I tore the plastic off this next one with great anticipation.

This album has a much stronger soul and jazz influence than any of his other albums. As such, it is not as great as LIVING TOGETHER, and is wildly uneven due to the proliferation of different vocalists, but even so it definitely has its moments.

Even though vocals dominate this album more than any other Bacharach release, the instrumental tracks are the best, in my opinion. "Futures" and "Another Spring Will Rise" (which apparently gets its title from the lyrics of "The Young Grow Younger Every Day") are great pop-orchestra arrangements.

One oddity is, even though there is a LOT of singing on this album, there are no Bacharach lead vocals...a first on his A&M albums.* Jamie Anders replicates Burt's "rumpled baritone" quite nicely on the song "When You Bring Your Sweet Love to Me."

Of the songs with words, my favorite is "No One Remembers My Name." It has a "home is where you are" message that has a ring of truth to it...a lot of people from here leave for a few years, and then come back and say they don't know anyone.

Overall a good album, but for the Bacharach beginner, there are better choices that explore more of the Bacharach "palette."

* - Not counting the BUTCH CASSIDY soundtrack
 
Well, for me this IS the album for the Bacharach Beginner...

(And at one time all I needed to hear until I bought the rest of his catalog, up to WOMAN, the follow-up after this one, as well as his collaboration with Carole Bayer-Sager, whom he later married...)

I appreciate the list of musician credits--COMPLETE List, I should say! (Thanks, Jim...)

And that is what I've been sold on and what prompted my purchase of this album... I also appreciate the compositions and the delivery and that the album rocks out and contains a lot of Jazz moves, such as the Title Track and the jam at the end of "Where Are You"...

And when I saw Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary in concert, I really regret not bringing this for him to sign... Who can resist his vocal on "The Young Grow Younger Everyday", which later evolved in the group's REUNION album...

There is much more for me to say about this album, so I'll just keep it short by just saying that "It's my Favorite!"



Dave

(And sadly, the flood of 2003 in the Winer home, unfortunately claimed the front half of this as well as the front half of LIVING TOGETHER, GROWING TOGETHER, my two only Bacharach albums in my possesion at the time, while the backs of each were intact, though both rendered a bit un-presentable for Burt to sign...)
 
I appreciate the list of musician credits--COMPLETE List, I should say! (Thanks, Jim...)
It is more a sign of the times than anything else...this was the first Bacharach album to feature musician credits, except for "lead" vocal credits on the last two albums.
 
I've never heard a note of any of Mr. Bacharach's albums. I first heard his name, as did probably most of my generation (don't laugh) from the "Austin Powers" movies. I think he's got a good voice, and honestly don't know why he gave a lot of his material to other artists. (I'm fully aware that he has recorded his own versions of his own songs).
 
honestly don't know why he gave a lot of his material to other artists.
If you heard him sing, you would know why. His talent is as a composer/arranger/conductor, not as a performer.

His albums are mostly instrumental (except for the one under discussion here) and when vocals are used, Burt only sings on one or two songs per album.
 
Mike Blakesley said:
honestly don't know why he gave a lot of his material to other artists.
If you heard him sing, you would know why. His talent is as a composer/arranger/conductor, not as a performer.

His albums are mostly instrumental (except for the one under discussion here) and when vocals are used, Burt only sings on one or two songs per album.

Mega dittos on that!

Mike
 
This is not an album I've visited very often. I never owned it until around 2000 when I found one in pristine condition in a used record shop for a couple of bucks. I think I listend to it once and filed it away.

Now that I have the SOMETHING BIG box set from Hip-O, I guess I should give this a spin one of these days.

Harry
 
I did indeed give this a listen this morning in the car. I threw the whole Hip-O box set onto one Windows Media Audio CD and listened to the relevant portion.

Now I remember why I wasn't crazy about this album - and there's two parts to it.

[1]. The album itself is a bit of a departure for Bacharach at this point in his career. Prior to this, his albums were largely filled with songs that we were already familiar with from other artists or from his movie scores, and given the Bacharach arrangement treatment.

This one is (at least to me) comprised of totally unfamiliar material that takes a bit of warming up to to appreciate. There aren't many pop "hooks" on which to hang one's proverbial hat as Mr. Bacharach explores different orchestral sounds and moods with lots of discordant elements. Not that that's a bad thing entirely, but it made me long for the simpler, bouncy, pop goodies that he'd given us over the years.

[2]. The majority vocalist on the album is one Joshie Armstead, if I'm reading my credits correctly. I flat-out don't like her vocals, and that takes a great deal of enjoyment away from the album for me, given that she did more than one-third of the album's songs.

Harry
...filing FUTURES away for another "future" date, onlline...
 
Agreed on all counts. I kind of liked the vocals on the first track but after that, hearing that same voice on three other songs got tiresome.

My favorite "vocal" song on this album ("No One Remembers My Name") features Sally Stevens who would do a nice vocal on "There is Time" from the upcoming WOMAN album.
 
I think I have mixed feelings over the vocals, myself...

For one thing, the male vocalist that sings on "We Should Have Met Sooner" and "When You Bring Your Sweet Love To Me", Jamie Anders, sounds like a less-gruffy-voiced Barry White imitator...

The female vocals especially on my favorite vocal tracks (next to the Peter Yarrow appearance on "The Young Grow Younger...") are "I Took My Strength From You (I Had None)" and "Where Are You?" by Joshie Armstead...

Ah, but you need vocals for this album; without 'em all you get, aside from the Jazz and Classy Pop motifs added to a couple songs, is just what almost borders on "muzak"...



Dave
 
Mike Blakesley said:
Oh come on. The instrumentals are FAR better music than that Muzak crap!



OK, OK... I really didn't mean it in any derogatory sense... (And I refused to use any "Just Kidding device in the form of Smileys" due to the risk of cluttering up my post...)

Though at the same time, I think this is what the Main Office Administrator in one of my elementary schools was listening to when I got sent down (probably SEVERAL times!) to the Principals Office! :laugh:



Dave

(--There...!) :wink:
 
Back on track with a few thoughts...

When I received the "Something Big" box set, I finally got a good chance to listen to "Futures". I initially didn't care for this album when I first got it back in the late 70s on cassette--the sound quality was not good, and it made an already "dark" album that much more of a downer.

I'm going to provide a full review here in a day or so, once I get a chance to paste it in from another site.

One comment: above, alpertfan wonders why Bacharach "gave away" so much of his material. His A&M albums were actually after the fact: he was more prolific as a songwriter and arranger for other artists before he even set foot on A&M's doorstep. In fact, he and Hal David were arguably the best songwriting team to create material for Dionne Warwick. Her versions of most songs are the definitive ones. During their partnership, they evolved from pop songs to sophisticated productions. Any of her work with them is worth seeking out, IMHO...and I'm still trying to collect everything she recorded of theirs.

In fact, I was the same way when I was younger: my mother bought only the A&M albums, and that's all I knew. She told me a few years later that Dionne Warwick had recorded a lot of Burt's songs. Only when I got the Rhino "Look Of Love" box set that I realized what an impact he had on so many different artists, both as songwriter and arranger (a job that he was a perfectionist at).

With his A&M albums, he cast his popular songs into new settings, mainly instrumental versions with occasional guest vocalists. Some like (and often prefer) these to the originals, where I'm more split on the idea. I've heard the originals, and now I don't often turn to the A&M albums to hear these songs the way I used to. Still, there are some new versions of his songs on A&M that give it a whole new light: witness the soulful "A House Is Not A Home", or the energetic orchestral workout of "Wives and Lovers".

There's enough Bacharach to explore over the course of a few years, which is what I've done. Go out, find it and enjoy it!

Again, "Futures" to follow...
 
Probably will be a while longer--I have months of work backlog.
 
I can't even get a simple 1,500 word article to my editor on time lately... 😐 Deadline was last Monday, and I finally fired it off to him very late last night. (He doesn't mind, since mine require very little in the way of corrections--mainly slighty changes to fit the publication's writing style. Still bothers me, though.)

Not to mention being behind on invoicing for them...which I also took care of around 1am last night.
 
Hey, after thirteen years, I'm sure it will be worth the wait...
 
I can't even get a simple 1,500 word article to my editor on time lately... 😐 Deadline was last Monday, and I finally fired it off to him very late last night. (He doesn't mind, since mine require very little in the way of corrections--mainly slighty changes to fit the publication's writing style. Still bothers me, though.)

Not to mention being behind on invoicing for them...which I also took care of around 1am last night.
Geez, we do live parallel lives—Utah vacations and freelance.
 
I heard some of these track on YouTube I have "No one remembers my name " from his 1987 classics CD which I enjoyed I anticipate some great instrumental tracks in the Futures Album hopefully I can find it digitally
 
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