David Kirkpatrick
New Member
Some miscellaneous notes on Lost Treasures:
1. There are a remarkable number of songs on LT which are literally elegies of things lost: I can’t go on living without you baby; Promises, Promises (lost innocence); I might frighten her away (from Lost Horizon); Alone again, naturally; Raindrops keep falling on my head (determinedly optimistic response to something presumably lost); I’ll never fall in love again; Killing me softly (which is indirectly about losing Buddy Holly); Tennessee Waltz. (Don’t know the lyrics to Fire and Rain, Flowers on the Wall or Wailing of the Willow, so I won’t comment on them.) Julius and Me is arguably about a “lost treasure” too! What is interesting here beyond the aptness of the album title is that there is a whole range of emotional reactions to things lost displayed here, sometimes paying more attention to how lost something is, but more often paying attention to how treasured it is.
2. The strangest thing about the album is the inclusion of so many songs from You Smile—The Song Begins. (It is really the only album mined for outtakes; the other songs were either entirely unreleased or available only as singles.) They are all great tracks, in my opinion, although only three of the five are interestingly (or in my case, noticeably) different as outtakes. But it doesn’t make sense to me that this is a way to salvage the best tracks of an album not intended to be re-released, simply because I don’t see how these tracks stand out above the rest. My guess is that this album was mined primarily for its two Burt Bacharach songs and that other songs from it were included to help the flow and balance of the album. It really does flow from track to track, even if the songs are from a fairly wide range of periods. And by including five YSTSB songs, the album producer creates a sense of most of the unfamiliar songs falling midway between the greatly familiar early TJB sound and the most mature sound that falls short of the more radical break between YSTSB and Coney Island.
3. The TJB version of “And I Love Her” is the most melancholy take on it that I’ve ever heard – or is that just because it’s hard to instrumentally differentiate between tenderness and melancholy?
4. The TJB version of “Tennessee Waltz” has got to be the blithest, most upbeat version ever.
5. “Popcorn” is surprisingly serious-sounding, as if Herb is saying, “what’s so corny about pop?”
6. If there is an “interesting failure” it is probably “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”. As Tennessee waltz is made into a happier tune than usual, the take on “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” is less blithe than usual, minimizing the humor of the song. This and the rather bizarre high-pitched vocal register chosen make it easy to see why it never made the cut before, but it is an interesting risk taken and worthy for a Lost Treasures type album.
David
1. There are a remarkable number of songs on LT which are literally elegies of things lost: I can’t go on living without you baby; Promises, Promises (lost innocence); I might frighten her away (from Lost Horizon); Alone again, naturally; Raindrops keep falling on my head (determinedly optimistic response to something presumably lost); I’ll never fall in love again; Killing me softly (which is indirectly about losing Buddy Holly); Tennessee Waltz. (Don’t know the lyrics to Fire and Rain, Flowers on the Wall or Wailing of the Willow, so I won’t comment on them.) Julius and Me is arguably about a “lost treasure” too! What is interesting here beyond the aptness of the album title is that there is a whole range of emotional reactions to things lost displayed here, sometimes paying more attention to how lost something is, but more often paying attention to how treasured it is.
2. The strangest thing about the album is the inclusion of so many songs from You Smile—The Song Begins. (It is really the only album mined for outtakes; the other songs were either entirely unreleased or available only as singles.) They are all great tracks, in my opinion, although only three of the five are interestingly (or in my case, noticeably) different as outtakes. But it doesn’t make sense to me that this is a way to salvage the best tracks of an album not intended to be re-released, simply because I don’t see how these tracks stand out above the rest. My guess is that this album was mined primarily for its two Burt Bacharach songs and that other songs from it were included to help the flow and balance of the album. It really does flow from track to track, even if the songs are from a fairly wide range of periods. And by including five YSTSB songs, the album producer creates a sense of most of the unfamiliar songs falling midway between the greatly familiar early TJB sound and the most mature sound that falls short of the more radical break between YSTSB and Coney Island.
3. The TJB version of “And I Love Her” is the most melancholy take on it that I’ve ever heard – or is that just because it’s hard to instrumentally differentiate between tenderness and melancholy?
4. The TJB version of “Tennessee Waltz” has got to be the blithest, most upbeat version ever.
5. “Popcorn” is surprisingly serious-sounding, as if Herb is saying, “what’s so corny about pop?”
6. If there is an “interesting failure” it is probably “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”. As Tennessee waltz is made into a happier tune than usual, the take on “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” is less blithe than usual, minimizing the humor of the song. This and the rather bizarre high-pitched vocal register chosen make it easy to see why it never made the cut before, but it is an interesting risk taken and worthy for a Lost Treasures type album.
David
