Rod McKuen and Anita Kerr - The Sea
*albums in response to the death of George Floyd*
Tonight's album is a chance to explain one of those completely hidden behind the scenes things that happen all over my nightly album reviews. You probably didn't even notice.
In my review of Feliciano!, i said "Anita Kerr's The Sea with Rod McKuen using wordy things."
Why? Well, Rod McKuen wanted to work with her, so they talked for a while and whatever, and when she played some of the drafts she had written he threw his words in the dumpster and started all over because this album was her piece now and he was the contributor. No power play, no chauvinism, no ego, just Rod McKuen saying lady, this is fantastic and i need to start over. He says so right on the jacket. Bottle (that cartoon of a skeptic in my brain) says that sounds like something my enemy would say (my copy of The Impossible Kid really did arrive today, and i hope you see by now that i'm using the actual content of these albums as the overall rhetoric of my discourse). That's just what they want you to think. That's how they getcha.
So? Who cares? Let's pretend it's true. Conspiracy theories are way more work than actual research, and i repeat my initial question: what the hell is a Rod McKuen? What reason would he possibly have for lying? Exaggerating a little, maybe, but you'd have to live in a strange parallel universe to say "i hired some chick to write the music and they made me include her photo." The Sandpipers had to sneak their female members into the photo shoot through the back door, cue them to do the photo bomb, and their producers were still like "i don't think so." You have to read that in the voice of LL Cool J 'cause I straight up talked about it in the 3rd Bass showcase showdown (which reminds me, i eventually have to talk about Beastie Boys' Check Your Head at some point). Why did i do that? Because i mentioned Less Than Jake's Never Going Back to New Jersey last night and the "i don't think so" is his response to the rhetorical question "are you going back to california?" Nobody likes LA. They go out of their way to include it at every opportunity. There's a Tool album for that (remind me to do the Jack Nicholson Joker joke for that album, and there's The Shining connection).
Man, that's a lot of preliminary work for an album i literally have not yet placed upon the lazy susan. What do i do if it sucks? Same thing we do every night, Pinkie: try to say something absurd.
Zoinks! Jinkies! There's a whole lot of light jazz style borrowing going on. Snippets of famous melodies twisted and squirrely but totally enjoyable. Rod is much more James Garner than Clint Eastwood on this one. He's deeper, more growly. He's reading love poems, i'm more interested in her trumpet solos. Yeah, sure he's rugged and sensitively masculine. If i were sexually attracted to men, i'd fan myself (it just so happens that i'm not, but he's definitely dreamy). Ooh. No, i don't think about the rain much at all, but i really wish he sang more, not just some tra la las. I called it charming on the other album, but he just said "these are the days of dancing six feet apart" and she's totally riffing on Bacharach's Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. It's not fair! 1 - it's awesome, 2 - it's ridiculously pertinent because yes the numbers of Covid-19 cases are high enough here that i wore my mask into the liquor store today, 3 - it's 1967 and Nostradamus he ain't!
Never mind the world indeed! I'm tired of dancing too.
Oh man, she's good. No, the music is just gorgeous. I've joked about karaoke versions of records before, but i'd pay actual money for a version of this without Rod McKuen. He's not bad, but i totally believe the story of going back to the drawing board. Phenomenal. Seriously phenomenal. More Anita Kerr please, i'll be doing some youtube exploring for sure. Any leads are most appreciated. Definitely check her out when you get a chance.
Next
In my review of Feliciano!, i said "Anita Kerr's The Sea with Rod McKuen using wordy things."
Why? Well, Rod McKuen wanted to work with her, so they talked for a while and whatever, and when she played some of the drafts she had written he threw his words in the dumpster and started all over because this album was her piece now and he was the contributor. No power play, no chauvinism, no ego, just Rod McKuen saying lady, this is fantastic and i need to start over. He says so right on the jacket. Bottle (that cartoon of a skeptic in my brain) says that sounds like something my enemy would say (my copy of The Impossible Kid really did arrive today, and i hope you see by now that i'm using the actual content of these albums as the overall rhetoric of my discourse). That's just what they want you to think. That's how they getcha.
So? Who cares? Let's pretend it's true. Conspiracy theories are way more work than actual research, and i repeat my initial question: what the hell is a Rod McKuen? What reason would he possibly have for lying? Exaggerating a little, maybe, but you'd have to live in a strange parallel universe to say "i hired some chick to write the music and they made me include her photo." The Sandpipers had to sneak their female members into the photo shoot through the back door, cue them to do the photo bomb, and their producers were still like "i don't think so." You have to read that in the voice of LL Cool J 'cause I straight up talked about it in the 3rd Bass showcase showdown (which reminds me, i eventually have to talk about Beastie Boys' Check Your Head at some point). Why did i do that? Because i mentioned Less Than Jake's Never Going Back to New Jersey last night and the "i don't think so" is his response to the rhetorical question "are you going back to california?" Nobody likes LA. They go out of their way to include it at every opportunity. There's a Tool album for that (remind me to do the Jack Nicholson Joker joke for that album, and there's The Shining connection).
Man, that's a lot of preliminary work for an album i literally have not yet placed upon the lazy susan. What do i do if it sucks? Same thing we do every night, Pinkie: try to say something absurd.
Zoinks! Jinkies! There's a whole lot of light jazz style borrowing going on. Snippets of famous melodies twisted and squirrely but totally enjoyable. Rod is much more James Garner than Clint Eastwood on this one. He's deeper, more growly. He's reading love poems, i'm more interested in her trumpet solos. Yeah, sure he's rugged and sensitively masculine. If i were sexually attracted to men, i'd fan myself (it just so happens that i'm not, but he's definitely dreamy). Ooh. No, i don't think about the rain much at all, but i really wish he sang more, not just some tra la las. I called it charming on the other album, but he just said "these are the days of dancing six feet apart" and she's totally riffing on Bacharach's Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. It's not fair! 1 - it's awesome, 2 - it's ridiculously pertinent because yes the numbers of Covid-19 cases are high enough here that i wore my mask into the liquor store today, 3 - it's 1967 and Nostradamus he ain't!
Never mind the world indeed! I'm tired of dancing too.
Oh man, she's good. No, the music is just gorgeous. I've joked about karaoke versions of records before, but i'd pay actual money for a version of this without Rod McKuen. He's not bad, but i totally believe the story of going back to the drawing board. Phenomenal. Seriously phenomenal. More Anita Kerr please, i'll be doing some youtube exploring for sure. Any leads are most appreciated. Definitely check her out when you get a chance.
Next
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