ASK ROD |
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Several topics dear to my heart
today, among them Glenn Yarbrough. Of course, it wouldn’t be an ordinary day without
a letter or two inquiring about my soul mate in music Anita Kerr and our kinfolk The San
Sebastian Strings. So, on with the mail.
WECLOME TO SPEARFISH SOUTH DAKOTAGood evening...we're having a Glenn Yarbrough concert in Spearfish, South
Dakota December 10, as a part of "live" radio network broadcast across South
Dakota and neighboring states...I would love to have Rod McKuen come for that show
sometime.Does he still tour and do media appearances? And under what circumstances might
he come to the beautiful Northern Black Hills? Jim Thompson / creative broadcast services
/ Spearfish, South Dakota
Dear Jim, Brrrr. South Dakota in December? You must be kidding. My teeth [and they are all
mine] started chattering the moment I downloaded your letter. I’d love to come to
South Dakota sometime, though anytime but approaching winter would be most desirable. You
bet I still do appearances, if only someone would ask me. Get lots of letters from folks
around the world asking when I’m coming to their town, alas not a single concert
promoter among them. One day. And I’d love it if Spearfish popped up on the schedule
one SUMMER night. Meanwhile, give my love to Glenn and for God’s sake tell him to
wear his woolies. Rod
MORE ABOUT GLENN
Dear Rod, Am I wrong or did you and Glenn Yarbrough
start out together? It seems that you and he have many parallels. I remember seeing you
together once or twice at the Troubadour in Hollywood. Now that I’ve found you, where
is he and what is he up to? Alma, Long Beach, Ca.
Where can I get a copy of "The Lonely Things", the album you wrote for Glenn
Yarbrough and will Stanyan be releasing anything by Glenn soon? Was that you or Glenn
whistling on the Kingston Trio’s recording of your song "Seasons In The
Sun?" Bob van Dern, Amsterdam. Holland
Many years ago I had an album with much by you and it was sung by Glenn Yarbrough. One
of the songs was Lonesome. I have always loved that description of true loneliness and
wonder where I could find it. Would that album now be available in CD form?
I would also like to say that beginning in college in 1968 I found your Earth, Sea and
Sky series very beautiful and have read your works off and on through the years. I
continue to find that at certain times in my life they have a lot to say to me. Thank you
for all your work, Yvonne Burrell
Dear Rod. I have enjoyed your books and music since I first heard and read them in the
60's. For 21 years I have been looking for a copy of the album "Stanyan Street and
Other Sorrows" with Glenn Yarbrough doing the vocals. I have checked with all the
dealers I could find on the net and have had no success. Can you help me? Thanks. Steve,
Wyoming
Rod, Is Glenn Yarbrough’s album "Stanyan Street " available and what
record company has released it on CD? Alan and Kay, London
Dear Alma, Bob, Yvonne, Steve, Alan & Kay - Glenn is alive and well and as you may
have read above, about to freeze his butt off in Spearfish, South Dakota. Glenn & I
didn’t start out together. He was a success long before I made it in the
entertainment world. First on his own with a string of albums for Elektra Records [Hey,
WEA, isn’t it long past due to release those albums on CD?] & a couple of very
beautiful discs with Marilyn Child. Later he was the high, clear vocal power behind the
much-imitated "Limeliters." I met him when he left the group to strike out on
his own as a solo artist. We were both under contract to RCA and had the same producer,
Neely Plumb.
I once said that if there were no Glenn Yarbrough there might not be a Rod McKuen. I
can’t make that point enough. I had the luck to have my songs recorded by Jimmie
Rodgers [boy, has he been neglected by current producers & record companies. Hike down
and see him in Branson, where he’s singing better than ever] and The Kingston Trio
[The wonderful songwriter John Stewart first took my songs to the group]. There is little
doubt that Frank Sinatra gave me the push that started making my songs standards. Can you
imagine the cache of having the world’s greatest singer choose you to write the first
album of songs he would do by a single composer? But Glenn, he was there almost from the
beginning.
Glenn was the steadiest and most steadfast champion of my songs. He recorded more than 40
for RCA & another 30 or so for Warner Bros. He was the first singer I wrote an entire
album for, [The Lonely Things.] Later we became partners in publishing when Glenn bought
half of Stanyan Music from me and Edward and reluctantly sold it back to us when we were
being pressured by a company that promised they could really take care of the songs and
get them recorded by a wider variety of artists. PS, they did not.
It nearly killed our friendship, but it didn’t. We had
a major falling out for awhile thanks to our old friend/nemesis RCA, but that’s
another story for another time.
Glenn is singing great these days and making new recordings, including at least two with
his talented daughter Holly [this apple stayed on the tree] including a wise and
interesting version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s "Annie Get Your Gun." He
has his own solo appearances and I sneaked in and had a delightful time at a
Limeliters/Kingston Trio Reunion show recently. Glad they didn’t know I was in the
audience because my ears were already buzzed to the breaking point. Now to specifics:
FolkEra has re-released "The Lonely Things" and "Baby The Rain Must
Fall," which contains 5 of my songs. It also includes "Lonesome", which I
didn’t write but wish I had. It was written by the legendary country songwriter, Ed
Bruce. There never was an album by Glenn entitled "Stanyan Street." He recorded
"Stanyan Street" & two other songs of mine ["The Warm & Gentle
Girls" and "When Summer Ends"] for his 1965 RCA album "Come Share My
Life." Glenn’s Stanyan CD, taken from his double LP, "Kaleidoscope" is
entitled "I Think of You" and available from Stanyan Mail Order.
Glenn has a trademark ‘whistle’ and used it on many of his own records . . . ah,
but I am ‘the phantom whistler’ on The Trios "Seasons In The Sun." As
to our respective ages; I am only too thrilled to point out that Glenn is three [count
them, 3] years older than me. Make that three and a quarter, he was born January 12th,
1930. Glenn has his own website,
Folk Era Records: The Glen
Yarbrough Home Page
Finally, I don’t have to tell you that Glenn has one of the most thrilling voices God
gave anyone, including Sarah Vaughan. Both of them abused their voices miserably yet each
could get up and make flawless recordings in the morning [!]. It really used to piss me
off. I once asked Sarah if she had any tips for Glenn on how to conserve his voice [yes,
she was a big fan of Glenn’s recordings,] "Darlin’, she said, "We both
got it! We don’t need to conserve." Indeed. Rod
Never intended to get so long winded today [make that 1:50
AM: 12/1/98 & two Scotches as, flop, the NY Times early edition lands in my driveway].
Too late and too many parenthesis to continue, so I’ll have to get to "The
Sea" and the batch of new releases on Stanyan on the morrow. I leave you with this,
though, Dwight now tells me he has LP’s & Cassettes [raided another storeroom,
did you?] as well as CD’s of "The Sea". I wasn’t kidding about going
to Spearfish and The Black Hills of Dakota, have a feeling it’s like Mecca . . .
every true believer has to see it at least once.
Sleep Warm, I will. Sunny & KubbyKat wait.
- RM 12/1/98 |
ENT’RE ACT |
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We were in love that summer
and birds about the sky
were singing with themselves,
carols I cannot remember,
though I do recall
the
color of the trees
and the things I thought
but never said to you.
I thought of San Francisco
and the bridge being painted
even when it wasn’t spring.
I thought about
the loneliness of oceans,
of Colorado snow
and writing a book called
Where Can I Go.
Everything but us.
We were a fact
and not to be embellished on,
or thought about.
Now I remember
you liked brandy
and Bruckner
and beer,
and painting Mt. Baker
as it sank into the fog.
You liked little boys
and skipping breakfast
(unless we made it for ourselves).
In that whole season
as warm day followed warm day
I never thought about
tomorrow or next year.
Of course you never do
when it’s happening for you,
and it was happening
for both of us.
When did we stumble,
where did we turn
when did we stop
as though we’d never started ?
It was, I think,
somewhere near
September’s end.
Other people started
getting in between us,
almost as though
we hadn’t locked the gate.
Thinking back now
I may have even come upon
an answer to the why.
Sometimes being happy
seems a self-indulgence.
When on every side of you
the world seems wrapped in wrong,
it becomes a bending burden
to go on smiling
or to smile at all
even for the one you love.
We had friends
who never laughed,
not because there was a war -
there was,
but then there always is.
But fun had lost
a button off its pants,
the first one,
and none of us were making any effort
to sew it on again. -
from "And To Each Season,"1972 & "Looking For A Friend,"1980 |
