![]() ![]() ![]() I make the music, you re supposed to sell it'. And Duke said 'I think you've got it the wrong way around, Clive. And Duke said 'why?' And he said 'Well, your music isn t selling'. Ellington, we're going to have to drop you'. "But what happened was that Clive actually called for Duke Ellington to come visit him. ![]() Because the back catalogue is what leads to the survival of a record company, building up that great library of recordings. But anything that didn't sell, it was 'let's get rid of it'. It became a (clicks fingers) bottom-line thing. "You see Clive did just want to go with – possibly he refutes this, but it's true – getting rid of, say, the whole classical department. "Not just that, it was the whole thing at CBS at the time," he responds. Even (laughs) 'MacArthur Park' I got through by leaving the chorus out! I just did the verse and stopped there! The cake melting in the rain and all that, I just thought wait a minute here, this is too much! And years later Sinatra did it that way too! Cut out the chorus!"īut was it the suggestion that he do a Janis tune which finally broke Tony? But I didn't object to all those songs! Actually, 'My Cherie Amour' was okay. "Whereas now, Danny (Tony's son and manager) sees to it that everything at a session is natural and relaxed, which is the best way to make music. "I did get physically ill, for an entire record date, fighting with them through the whole session," he recalls, this time sans business associate in his room in Dublin's Westbury Hotel. But, as the man himself reveals, there was far more to it than that: At least that's the tale as told in Clive Davis biography. For example, in his book The Good Life, Tony claims that back in 1970 part of the reason he finally broke away from his nearly 20-year contract with CBS was because the rock-culture-obsessed Clive Davis asked him to record a song that was previously recorded by his label-mate Janis Joplin.This piled on top of what pop-classicist Tony would no doubt call a lot of contemporary crap he was being forced to record such as 'My Cherie Amour' and 'MacArthur Park' made him literally ill: the man threw up in the studio. In the meantime, the even-cooler-than-ever Tony Bennett singer, much-acclaimed painter and maybe even sole successor to Sinatra in the post-crooning stakes has published his autobiography wherein he delves a little deeper into more contentious issues.īut in conversation he goes even deeper. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |