Re: Bacharach (was: What Is Jewish Music?)

[elkahn <elkahn...>]

This reminds me of that wonderful Ben Stiller movie with Mary Tyler Moore
and George Segal as his adoptive parents. (For the life of me I can't
remeber the title.)

Anyhow, he goes off in search of his biological family, which he at first
believes is this California mom and her blonde twin "Valley Girl"
daughters. He accidentally breaks some of their furniture and belongings
and they forgive him, since he's "family." When it turns out that he's not
"family," they ask him for the money to replace the items. The blondes
aren't so cuddly anymore either.

I'm sure if we listened to Wagner we would consider it "Jewish music."
After all, wasn't his real father supposed to have been Jewish? All those
Norse Gods and Goddesses...just symbolism for his belief in "Hashem
Echad."

C'mon folks, Steely Dan? Perhaps Bob Dylan because of his early Civil
Rights consciousness, but Burt Bacharach? Although he did study with
Darius Milhaud and his father, I believe, was a notable Jewish educator,
Bacharach's music is about as Jewish as Dionne Warwick or the Shirelles.

Why don't we applaud the people who really work with Jewish musical
idioms, themes and ideas (several people on this list) and just accept the
fact that someone may be of a particular ethnic background but unless
they're exposed to, nurtured, or even vaguely interested in it, they won't
necessarrily express themselves in that fashion.

This reminds me of the 19th and 20th century German Jews who thought of
Felix Mendelsohn as a "Jewish composer" because his grandfather was Moses
Mendelsohn. F. Mendelsohn didn't have the slightest interest in Jewish
music. That doesn't make him any less of a great composer, but I certainly
wouldn't call him a "Jewish composer."

I'll shut up now,

Eliott Kahn


On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, robert wiener wrote:

> Just when I thought that I had a pretty good collection of Jewish
> music, I find that I have to go out and buy some Beastie Boys and
> Steely Dan.  (I'm pretty well covered on the others, though, quite
> honestly, not for that reason -- except for Bob Dylan.  I wonder what
> my wife will think.)
> 
> Bob
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Seth Rogovoy <rogovoy (at) berkshire(dot)net>
> To: robert wiener <wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com>; jewish music list
> <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 3:26 PM
> Subject: RE: Bacharach (was: What Is Jewish Music?)
> 
> 
> >> Is the litmus test of "American Jewish popular music" "a cultural
> >> critique of pop styles, and one could make the case that this
> critique
> >> is from the point of view of the outsider/Jew" (Seth)?  If so, how
> >> does the work of other Jewish composers of the genre (e.g., Arlen,
> >> Berlin, the Gershwin brothers, Sondheim, and on and on) fare?
> >
> >I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately. I would argue
> that,
> >while it doesn't serve as a definition of ALL "Jewish music," there
> is,
> >however, SOME music which could ONLY have been made by a Jew (for
> various
> >reasons, some musical, some more in terms of sociology or
> >"ethnomusicological" reasons), and therefore THAT music at the very
> least is
> >by definition Jewish music.
> >
> >For example, I would argue (although not here, at least not now, it
> would
> >take a lengthy essay)that the music that Bob Dylan has made over the
> course
> >of the last 40 years could ONLY have been made by an American Jew,
> and that
> >therefore there is something quintessentially Jewish about Bob
> Dylan's
> >music.
> >
> >Same for Lou Reed, the Ramones, the Beastie Boys, Beck, Steely Dan,
> Carole
> >King, and Burt Bacharach.
> >
> >One thing you can say about ALL these artists: their music or sound
> is
> >extremely distinctive -- can never be confused with any others. While
> that
> >in itself doesn't mean it's Jewish (Willie Nelson, after all, could
> never be
> >mistaken for anyone else, but to my knowledge he isn't Jewish, nor is
> his
> >music), it does suggest something unique about it. Again, I'd suggest
> it has
> >something to do with a particular perspective of an outsider looking
> in,
> >commenting on AND becoming in some way the ultimate stylist within a
> >particular genre. I think there is something inherently Jewish about
> such a
> >dynamic.
> >
> >Go ahead, flame away....
> >
> >p.s. There is a wonderful moment in the documentary "A Jumpin' Night
> in the
> >Garden of Eden" where Hankus Netsky sort of hums what is supposed to
> be the
> >essential Jewish or Yiddish/klezmer "sound" (forgive me if I am
> >misrepresenting just what it is he is supposed to be demonstrating).
> I swear
> >you could not have asked Hankus for a better imitation of Bob Dylan!
> check
> >it out for yourselves.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 

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