At left, a photo of Kenneth Mars in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He wears a sharp brown suit complete with vest and white shirt, a sheriff’s star shaped badge on the lapel, and a neatly trimmed handlebar mustache. His hair comes out a bit from his open brimmed brown felt hat. At right, a young Burt Bacharach sits at a piano and smiles broadly. He wears a gray suit with a blue shirt and patterned tie. His bright smile is even more so in contrast to his tanned face.
Kenneth Mars in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | Burt Bacharach smiles from his piano

April showers bring

My sweet dad’s heavenly birthday was on April 4th. He would have been ninety years old. Oh, my goodness, how I would have loved to have had him in this world longer. Aging looked good on him, in both heart and mind.

A prayer for peace

This month I’m researching a show I’m doing with the brilliant Lo Steele at Concerts at the Barn in August. My ForScore Library is being updated with many songs by Burt Bacharach. While I was poking around, I came across this song: So Pretty, a song Leonard Bernstein had composed with Betty Comden and Adolph Green in 1968, for “Broadway for Peace,” a fundraiser at Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall. Harry Belafonte opened the star-studded program featuring Joanne Woodward, Carl Reiner, Tommy Smothers, Diahann Carroll, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. Accompanied by Bernstein himself, Barbra Streisand sang So Pretty, a song Bernstein had composed for the occasion, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

“We were learning in school today
All about a country far away
Full of lovely temples painted gold,
Modern cities, jungles ages old.
And the people are so pretty there
Shining smiles, and shiny eyes and hair…
Then I had to ask my teacher why
War was making all those people die.
They’re so pretty, so pretty.
Then my teacher said, and took my hand,
“They must die for peace, you understand.”
But they’re so pretty, so pretty.
I don’t understand.”

There is so much I don’t understand. Tennessee William’s quote, which I came across a few weeks ago, makes beautiful sense to me:

“The world is violent and mercurial — it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love — love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent, being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”

Love, what the world needs

Which brings me back to Burt. The Concert at the Barn, at The Butler Barn at Hoffman Farms, will be titled “What the World Needs Now, Music by Burt Bacharach and Friends.” We’ll do a set of his movie themes, including Arthur’s Theme. Remember that wonderful film with Dudley Moore? There are so many connections to my dear dad in this post, and we’ll also sing one of Bacharach’s greatest hits: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, which is also connected to my dad, he played the sheriff in that film. The tune from the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Come to the show and sing along!