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It was Sunday, September 16, 2012 when the song started resonating in me like a tuning fork from some heavenly chorus. From that morning, all through the day at the SFO Airport, on the 3 hour flight back to Austin until arriving at home – I couldn’t get this song out of my mind. The innermost part of my writing brain was whistling off lines of narrative and dialogue with the universe and mankind. I haven’t been moved to write for several weeks now because of this production and the import of it and other life issues hounding me. Now, I am compelled to try to distill the essence of what the performing arts – and all arts – can achieve when all the elements line up, either on purpose or by luck but mostly both.

The night before, I had produced Burt Bacharach for a Canadian client’s event in San Francisco. The client’s guests experienced something that they had never seen before nor had any foreknowledge of other than that Burt Bacharach was going to perform for them – all 60 of them.

But first, a little about Burt! I was contracted to book and produce Burt 15 months earlier. I certainly knew of many of his hits most closely associated with Dionne Warwick. “Do You Know The Way To San Jose”, “I’ll Say A Little Prayer For You”, “This Guy’s In Love With You”, “What The World Needs Now Is Love” “What’s New Pussycat” and so many more. It was not until I did a quick Wiki search that I began to fully grasp the enormity of Burt’s legacy – any one year of which could have represented a successful career for some. I was in high school and college when the stream of Bacharach hits arrived on the scene giving me a touchstone to my youth inseparable from his music and Hal David’s lyrics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Bacharach

These weren’t just songs. Burt had broken new ground in a way not dissimilar to what Scott Joplin did in the 1920’s with ragtime. He had a brand new “voice” that immediately resonated with the world. The effect these songs had on people in my generation during those tumultuous years of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights was like going to a musical version of Lourdes. Thinking back, I believe his songs and other music of that era saved many of us from crushing despair and confusion over events that were threatening to rip apart our country and our universe.

Even though I have been booking and producing entertainment of the highest order since 1975, I still have a hard time grasping that I produced almost 500 major stars – many of which were heroes of my youth. Burt Bacharach was in the top 10 of that list.

By the date of my show for my Canadian client, Burt was 84. I had not seen him on television in forever. He did 3 cameos for the three Austin Powers films which were tongue in cheek send ups of that retro area, so called, by those not lucky enough to have lived it.

He had just performed several concerts in Tokyo directly prior to our September 15, 2012 date. Thankfully, his schedule was such that he was able to arrive in San Francisco on September 12 to get some much needed rest and to overcome the jet lag of a 14 hour time change.

Finally, day of show, Burt arrived about 4pm for the sound check. I saw a man walking slowly and a little hunched over from stage right. He was so diminutive it didn’t hit me that I was watching Burt take the stage. And, he looked a bit frail. I admit I was more than a little concerned over what kind of “mojo” he still had (per Mike Myers).

During the booking process I had been told that Burt does not sing. He is, decidedly, not a singer. However, they said he would sing a few bars of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” wherein he asks the audience to join him. In that way, his lack of vocal skill would be minimalized amongst the din of many other amateur voices.

The sound check was even less of a semi performance than most I’ve witnessed in my over 35 years in the business. Burt was incredibly discerning in the nuance of the instrumentation and voices in every song that they rehearsed. He stopped the musicians and the A1 FOH sound engineer more than a few times because the balance of sound was off. Too much violin in the monitor; voices overwhelmed by too much volume and so on. At first, I thought he might actually get pissed at his sound engineer. Then I realized that Burt was working to tighten up the orchestra and singers and sound in minute ways. With each adjustment, it got cleaner and tighter.

He didn’t seem to remember that we only had 60 “guests” in a 315 seat theatre. He said, “Can’t we rent out the other seats”? Burt has a dry wit and it can slip by you before you get it – so casual, soft and conversational is his manner of speaking and communicating with others. Then, he started a new effort to hone the overall sound of 3 backup singers and 8 musicians (plus Burt on grand piano) to a level that would fit the intimacy of the group.
It wasn’t until the second or third song during the actual performance that I realized he had absolutely nailed the dynamic to fit the Canadian audience – size and temperament. We might as all been sitting in someone’s living room over drinks and appetizers.

Oftentimes, he would take the mic and talk to the audience in his ever so soft manner. I’m glad they were close to the front of the stage. Normally, these time gaps between music can be energy killers, sapping the juice from the audience and thereby putting people in to a balmy state particularly with pre show cocktails, followed by a beautifully catered dinner and wine. It didn’t happen. Burt had them in the palm of his hands, literally – both as a legendary composer and gifted musician. It was coincidental that Burt had once studied at the esteemed McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Therein was another connection to the audience.

One by one, the backup singers each took a song that they had made their own for this configuration. They were outstanding and classy all the way. Burt would go over and hug one of the girls who had just completed her song.

My God – the songs that wafted off that stage that night were like little emotional wake up calls for the youth, mind and soul. Each song carried its own history and musical magic, one building upon the other – the only crescendo bursting inside my heart. My friend of 40 years, Gail Moriaty, was seated next to me. She had been a critically important part of the restoration of the Paramount Theatre in Austin. She was and is a treasured soul in my life. So lucky!

And then, Burt started to “sing” one of his hits. Between his quiet nature, his humility and grace, 84 years of life and a voice that probably never sang out, melodically, his effort to give these songs life was strained – or so it seemed during the first tune. I was actually putting my entire body in to an effort to “will him” to finish the song and then to hand off to one of the professionals. I didn’t get it. And now here comes another song with Burt at the mic solo – the vocalists barely audible behind him. And a third! Some part of me was sweating it out but a more defiant inner voice was telling me that there was something extraordinary occurring right in front of us – as subtle as to be invisible to the intellect yet known by the spirit in all of us. I am not sure the other musicians were even playing at this point in the show.

“What’s it all about, Alfie”? I just got a chill up my neck typing that lyric. There he was – Burt Bacharach – voicing the lyrics to a song known to millions in a voice that was so soft – so very soft. He was only “playing” simple chords on the piano with the knowing touch of the father of this music. Music that was and is his children of which he embraces to his chest, nuzzling their heads under his chin.

I have seen hundreds of performances by every kind of actor, musician, vocalist, composer and more but I have never seen something this unfathomable. Burt, using his small frame and every muscle in his face, gave life to a song I had heard countless times and yet never heard at all until that night. It didn’t need a Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughan, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald or Lena Horne to bring it home.

Every word and every note he sang came forth from a life force that was profound beyond my ability to put words to it – so empty would they be in comparison. He conveyed the inner most soul of his persona through Alfie, showing me for the first time the incredible fragility of the song’s main character. It was heart breaking to hear those lyrics and that melody – all searching out the heart of everyone sitting in the theatre. Absolutely heart breaking but at the same instant exhilarating with the next breath – back and forth the emotions swam through that young boy in his teens being truly reborn in that instant. Gail felt something very close to that same thing.

The tragic nature of the song which had escaped me over four decades since its’ release, coupled with the radiant transcendence of hope that shined from that small figure on stage hunched over a grand piano struck me to the core of my true self. It hit me that embracing tragedy in our lives was essential to having a chance of having real joy and happiness throughout our lives. I had fixated on the tragic aspect of my personal life without making this simple connection that Burt made with me that night.

James Brown ripped the soul out of his body to musically bleed in front of his audiences with “Please, Please, Please”, raising them to the heights with his guts, sinew and charisma. Judy Garland’s “The Man That Got Away” from the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, moves from that sad reality to glorious flight in a way only she could ever reach. There are dozens of the greatest vocalists that ever performed spanning the last 70 years who could lift the roof off any theatre, belting, cajoling and devouring a song in immeasurable ways while making love to their audiences.

Burt was just as powerful, and even more so because every atom in his body was resonating as one for all the Alfie’s everywhere who need to be reminded that the moon, the stars and the sun all await us on the darkest of nights to remind us that life springs eternal through his music – now and forever more.
Burt Bacharach Alfie Lyrics

What’s it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about when you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give
or are we meant to be kind?
And if only fools are kind, Alfie,
Then I guess it’s wise to be cruel.
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie,
What will you lend on an old golden rule?
As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above, Alfie,
I know there’s something much more,
something even non-believers can believe in.
I believe in love, Alfie.
Without true love we just exist, Alfie.
Until you find the love you’ve missed you’re nothing, Alfie.
When you walk let your heart lead the way
and you’ll find love any day, Alfie, Alfie.