Most Heartfelt & Appreciative Salute to one of THE Greatest Songsmiths that time has ever known. And whose influence none of us escaped. The vortex of mastery he created was as unavoidable as it was delectable & seductive.
I had occasion to meet him twice, the first in the company of his former wife & partner Carol Bayer Sager, at a party where there was too much going on to pay my respects as I felt it appropriate in accordance with his huge impact on my development of song & my love of music & art, & the second time where, spotting him coming out of an Ice Cream Parlor in Hollywood with 2 of his grandchildren in tow, I went up to him & without saying nary an utterance, kissed him right in the middle of his forehead. Which, fortunately for me, he took in stride as if to suggest that nothing more NEEDED to be said.
And in such a small measure, by way of this easy universal gesture of love, I felt a lightly held sense of satisfaction at having discharged at least a tiny bit of the debt that ALL OF US EXTREMELY LUCKY BITCHES who are privileged by Grace to be the Pens & Quills of Quiet disturbed by the Lightning Strikes of Inspiration, owe to this literal Giant, this veritable Titan of Tunes & Tinsel Arranged in the various forms that Beguile & ‘Begin the Beguine’.
No need to mourn a man who lived long enough to feel the earth shift beneath his feet & the adjustments required to accomodate the fullness of his craft & the tremendous generosity of his spirit. As well as the honors bestowed upon him that his genius created the need for.
His music provided the lubricant that could take us from Gravel to Grandeur & for which we shall all be forever grateful.
Sananda Maitreya !
Friday 10 February ‘23
Milano, Italia.
Ps ‘And what could we NOT expect from a man who has the name BACH right there in the very front of his name’ ?
#SanandaMaitreya #BurtBacharach
© TreeHouse Publishing, 10th Feb 2023
Pix Courtesy of Flickr.