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12th & 13th December, 2005
San Sebastian Strings
albums now available on CD! Order
now!
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Rod at BB Kings 5/17/02 Photo by Jay Hagan
A Thought for Today
One life will always
make a difference.
UTRECHT FEEDBACK
As mentioned yesterday Joke
Vervelde has done a terrific job of
keeping us informed about the Utrecht concerts last weekend.
Here's the latest report
together with some more pics.
Hey
Ken,
This afternoon the concert was huge too, again 7500 people, like
yesterday!!!
It was a program from a new 50+ broadcasting station (MAX) and the other
guests where The New London Chorale, The 12 Irish Tenors, two Dutch
singers: Rob de Nijs and Lee Towers and our Rod!
It was really a nice concert, but of course the greatest was Rod!!! Rod
sang the same songs as yesterday, and extra The Complete Madame
Butterfly... and the same like yesterday lots of people did sing the
songs with Rod together!
I've seen that Rod enjoyed the show very much, it was good for him to
see so many Dutch friends again. He was surprised! I really do hope that
he will write some words by himself for his friends all over the world
who visit (t)his website!
After the show many people bought his new CD and he wrote many messages
on it!
Then we kissed Rod (and Jerry Lonn) goodbye and say thanks for all etc.
and then he leave...Tuesday he's going home...
Bye Rod, thanks again and see you soon!!! (Don't know when and where...)
Bye bye,
Joke.
A fellow South African now
living in London, Gael Nicholls made the trip for her very first McKuen
concert.
Ken,
Hi – Gael here.
The concert was fantastic!!! And what a thrill to meet Rod after the
show with my husband Michael.
He was everything I thought he would be and more. What a privilege and
such a huge highlight of my life.
I will send photos as soon as I can.
Lots of love,
Gael Nicholls
Look forward to seeing the
pics, Gael.
I'll post more reports and
more pics as and when they arrive.
-Ken, Johannesburg, South
Africa, December 13
Click
on the Stanyan House logo to buy Rod McKuen books, CD's and lots more
Click on the heart logo to
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Catch Rod McKuen live!
Click on the links below for details of
concerts and appearances.
ROD McKUEN
CONCERTS
ROD
McKUEN APPEARANCES
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Monday
12 December
Virgin of Guadalupe (Mexico)
Madchen Amick o Tracy Austin o Bob Barker o Mayim Bialik o Sheila E. o Gustave Flaubert o Connie Francis o Bridget Hall o Wings Hauser o Ed Koch o Liesbeth List o John Osborne o Cathy Rigby o Edward G. Robinson o Frank Sinatra o Harry Warner o Dionne Warwick o Grover Washington, Jr. o Joe Williams
Tuesday
13 December
Steve Buscemi o Christie Clark o Marc Connelly o John Davidson o Tom DeLonge o Jamie Foxx o Michael James o Mary Todd Lincoln o Ross MacDonald o Clark Mills o Edwin G. Monk o Archie Moore o Ted Nugent o Larry Parks o Nicolas Petrov o Christopher Plummer o Lillian Roth o Dick Van Dyke o Richard Zanuck |
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‘One of a kind’ is a phrase overused, but not in the
case of Sinatra.
Is it possible to do a better service to the world than to
fill it with song?
In choosing a path, always choose the most challenging. The
easy road is crowded and boring in the bargain.
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FOUR SETS OF WORDS &
A POEM/SONG FOR SINATRA |
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This is not poetry or exactly
prose. When I was writing "A Man Alone" for Sinatra I wanted there to be some
connecting words between the songs that helped advance the story line. This was to be a
personal album for me and for him, so it was important to try and get inside this
seemingly inscrutable man who turned out to be a lot less complicated than some
biographers have intimated.
Frank was honest, romantic, only impatient with delay and incompetence. Some people forget
what an intuitive and intelligent actor he was capable of being. He didn’t change a
word I wrote for him to speak. I confess that I made changes later when some of these
words were reprinted in "In Someone’s Shadow." On the album, they are
perfect, because Sinatra, like any great actor, made them his own. I’d love to say
that I directed him in these performances, but I can’t. With the exception of one
paragraph, I made no suggestions at all.
Other than a couple of hundred books I made up for Frank to give away to friends, this is
the first time these words have appeared as they were originally spoken and written.
- RM 12/11/98.
Out Beyond the Window
My window looks out over the park.
Every year I’ve move another story up,
‘Till now
I’m almost close enough
To the roof of the sky
To touch it.
I could even move the clouds aside,
But no clouds come.
If they did,
I’d welcome them,
For I have few visitors here anymore.
There must be highways somewhere,
Roads I’ve missed.
Something more than sky
Out beyond the window.
Night
I can just about
get through the day
but the night makes me nervous.
Not for any reason
except maybe that it catches you
unaware.
and follows you
the way a woman follows
when she wants something.
I’ve been in every kind of night
so I shouldn’t be afraid
of darkness.
But for some reason
the night makes me nervous.
Some Traveling Music
How can you say something new about being alone ? Tell someone you’re a loner and
right away they think you’re lonely. It’s not the same thing, you know.
It’s not wanting to put all your marbles in one pocket. It’s caring enough not
to care too much.. Mostly it’s letting yourself come first for a while.
One day I’ll find an island, a think place. Go there with a mess of records
and a ukulele and just sit strummin’. I might even do some thinkin’. About the
women, and the towns I’ve left behind.
From Promise To Promise
I sometimes wonder why people make promises they never intend to keep. Not in big things
like love or elections, but the things that count. The newspaper boy who says he’ll
save an extra paper and doesn’t, the laundry that tells you your suit will be ready
on Thursday. . . and it isn’t.
Love? Well, yes.. But like everything else as we go from day to day we move from promise
to promise.. I’ve had a good many promises now so I can wait for the harvest and some
of them to come about.
Empty Is
To catalog empty,
You need a big book.
Empty is
the sky before the sun wakes up
in morning..
The eyes of animals in cages.
Empty. The faces of women
In mourning.
Me ?
Don’t ask me about empty.
Empty is a string of dirty days
held together by some rain
and the cold wind drumming
at the trees again.
Empty is the color of the fields
along about September
when the days go marching
in a line toward November.
Empty is the hour before sleep
kills you every night
then pushes you to safety
away from every kind of light.
Empty is me.
Empty is me.
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From the album and the privately issued book, " A Man Alone", 1969. Revisions for "In Someone’s Shadow", 1969. In addition to the above spoken word selections, the songs
for "A Man Alone" consisted of the title song and a reprise of it written on the
recording date, "The Beautiful Strangers", "The Single Man",
"I’ve Been To Town", "Lonesome Cites" and "Love’s Been
Good To Me". |
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