Flight Plan

 

    8th & 9th February, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Eric Yeager ©2009 All Rights Reserved

A Thought for Today

Remember the compliments and remember to return them. Forget the insults and don’t show your backside by responding in kind.

 

TO BEGIN WITH

This edition of Ask Rod was meant to run over the past weekend but alas after pulling two all nighters in a row I crashed and fell asleep for 14 hours missing my deadline to get this off to Webmaster Ken in time for posting. I needed and enjoyed the sleep but my apologies for being a couple of days late.

.ASK ROD

TWO DIFFICULT TO ANSWER QUESTIONS

Rod, Here are a couple of questions. 1. For the last 30 years, the single most difficult thing being a Rod McKuen fan is that there have been NO new songbooks. Through the years I've bought every one I could get my hands on, but the last one you put out was in December 1975, which you must admit was definitely a few weeks ago! Plus, in re-reading your 1998 interview with Ken Blackie, on page 13 you're quoted as saying, "When I work out a new publishing agreement there will be songbooks aplenty." Unfortunately, that's turned out to be somewhat of an understatement.

I'm not even asking for the complete musical arrangement; I'd be more than happy with just the words and guitar chords! I LOVE this stuff! And if I were to name the 12 I want most, it would be these: Many Summers Ago, Each Of Us Alone, Home To the Sea, Somerset, Thank You, Sleep Warm, Isn't It Something, I Never Go There Anymore, The Girls Of the Summer, The Green Hills Of England, Who Has Touched the Sky, Sea Without Sun (La Mer, Sans Soliel).

What would it take to create an Internet songbook download? That way we could send the money and you could send the song sheets electronically. I can't be the ONLY fan who asks about this stuff, can I?

2. Tell me the truth: Has the Warner Brothers/Bear Family Box Set hit a snag again, like the RCA box did for so long? You don't have to explain, just yes or no, so I can stop looking forward to it. Thanks for all the tough times you got me through. 53 years on, Glen Johnson Vancouver, B.C.


Dear Glen, Your letter hasn’t been collecting dust but it has been sitting here for awhile because at the time I received it I too was still groping for the answers to both questions. I’m pretty sure you won’t be totally satisfied with my attempt to satisfy your queries but here goes. This is what I know at the moment.

Regarding Question #1: I’m as frustrated with the fact that there have been no recent songbooks and I sent an earlier letter you wrote to me to the company that administers the copyrights for The Stanyan Music Group. I haven’t heard anything back recently but I assume that’s because there is no news to report. I hope that will change soon because we get several letters a month from music stores asking when new sheet music and/or song books will become available.

As for downloading sheet music, when this site was first going up I discussed the idea of having a song every month or so that could be downloaded with our Webmaster Ken Blackie. After discussing it with The Site Designer Ken Blackie was informed that it wouldn’t be possible at that time. That was nearly a dozen years ago so I’m sending a copy of this letter to Ken and another to our sound guru Eric Yeager to see if they have any new ideas on the subject.

Note: I passed along your note to both Ken and Eric who seem to feel that sheet music downloads would be too costly and impractical. I feel they are right otherwise some other songwriter would have started doing it by now. Thanks for the suggestion all the same.

Regarding Question #2: A year ago I started mastering albums for two more Bear Family Boxed sets of 8 CD’s each. I worked on 32 albums including such titles not previously released on CD as Alone, Sleep Warm, The Beautiful Strangers, Goodtime Music, McKuen Country, New Ballads, Odyssey, Grand Tour, Back To Carnegie Hall, Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows and Moment to Moment from the 3 Record “Essential McKuen” set. I was even mastering the original demos I did for The Sea and Frank Sinatra’s A Man Alone. The 32 albums included the complete Sold Out at Carnegie Hall with unreleased tracks and the score and songs from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Nearly every LP was a gold or multi-platinum seller and all have been among the most requested over the years for compact disc release.

I compiled hundreds of unpublished photographs for the books that would accompany the sets and was at work on two separate track by track essays of 30,000 words each to be included with the boxes. This nearly year-long project was a lot of hard but mostly pleasant work. Alas there have been a couple of hitches and the project has been delayed for release until at least the fall of this year. To be honest with you I’m not sure if it will come to pass even then, if ever.

Because the work I’ve completed so far is still tied up and the hard drives that contain it are being held hostage all of the digital mastering will have to be redone if is not released on Bear. Worse things have happened in my life and I have no intention of letting this setback stop me from releasing the albums one way or another. Should I elect not to go through with the Bear Project one plan is to start releasing a series of ‘Double-Up’ CD’s each one containing 2 LP’s on a single CD. That would of course mean the deluxe Bear treatment would not be included. Still, getting the music out is far more important than the extra packaging frills

I’m not at liberty to go into all the details just now but I have to make a decision as to what direction to take within the next few days because whatever I decide on I’ll have to go back into the studio within the next few days in order to meet any deadlines. My disappointment at having done so much work –– perhaps much of it for nothing –– makes me somewhat reluctant to jump in front of the buzz-saw again but one way or the other there will be back catalog CD’s released by me in the coming months.

Now you know as much as I do concerning both of the questions you posed Glenn. All The Best, Rod

SINATRA & A MAN ALONE

Dear Mr. McKuen, My name is Max Hudson and I am a 20 year old Psychology undergraduate at a London University. I am a self proclaimed Sinatraholic! with music and singing being a very large part of my life. Perhaps 12 months ago during my attempts to secure copies of every one of Sinatra’s out of print albums, I came across “A Man Alone”. An album I had been wanting for a good, while and finally acquired at some searching and financial cost. Needless to say the album was nothing of what I expected, and it blew me away.

For me, concept albums are the kings of albums and something very hard to produce, an album around a single theme is a true challenge to an artist. Many concept albums throughout the years have only ever concentrated on what I feel, relatively speaking, are very simple emotions to portray; those of loss, sadness, happiness and so on, but I have never encountered one that deals with loneliness.

The songs and soliloquies in that album are to my mind truly majestic. They surmised exactly how I felt, and still do feel, at that period of my life. The phrases and songs within that work projected and explained the notion of the drifter and loner with very profound effect. People who are that way inclined e.g. yourself and myself, and dare I include Sinatra in that list! Are cursed in having to feel an emotion and way of being that is ineffably hard to express or portray to others. I am pleased to say that within your work on that album, you lifted that curse, and forty odd years on your work is still deeply touching new generations of people.

It is truly the best summation of who I am as a person I have ever encountered, and it was done by yourself, a complete stranger to me. That frankly amazes me, so thank you. With gratitude. Max John Hudson

Dear Max, Thanks for writing and for the compliments. When 20 year olds write me and say they are fans of Sinatra (or in your case an out and out ‘Sinatraholic’) it gives me great hope for the standards of Mercer, Porter, Berlin and all the great writers I learned my craft from. It’s been my own cliché that ‘any day when I’ve turned someone on to Johnny Mercer or Jo Stafford I know I’ll sleep a little better that night.’

And, you might be very surprised to know how many of you are out there. Sinatra, Clooney, Crosby, Ella, Dinah Shore and lesser known performers (at least to the younger generation) like Jeri Southern, Anita O’Day, Mildred Bailey, Billy Eckstine, Mable Mercer, Sylvia Syms and so many other greats who set and improved the standard of singing during the 20th Century are being newly discovered by people like yourself.

As a Sinatra fan ever since I can remember you can only imagine what a thrill it was to be asked to write the first album of original songs by the man himself. The sessions were a wonder and of course I love the result. And, yes there is a lot of me in the album and that you can relate to those moods is very gratifying.

I too prefer concept albums whether they are vocal or instrumental. I’ve been working on digitizing many of my own such albums recorded over the years for release on CD. You mention in your note that singing is a major part of your life, I’d love to hear what you sound like. Considering the kind of music you like it won’t be the easiest thing in the world to pursue a career as a soloist but if you’ve got the goods I guarantee that with persistence you’ll make it. That’s just the way it works, Max, if you want something bad enough it will happen. Thanks again for taking the time to write me and for your kind words. Warmly, Rod

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Dear Rod, I know this will sound strange but I just came across your website and I am so happy to find you are alive and well! A majority of the poets I enjoy are no longer with us, hence the excitement of fresh poems from someone I really appreciate.

There have been times in my life when a line of your poetry would come into my head and be perfect in expressing that moment or feeling. For the past few years, I've somewhat forgotten how important, or more so, how happy poetry makes me. Your words, both old and new, still hold the same magic as they did then. I like to think some souls are parallel, tend to cross and connect.

I fall under the category of one who has written for years (I started my first diary at age 6) with composition books filled to the brim and folders of paper and napkins and coasters. I know only a handful are worth putting together and publishing, which I am fortunate I could do if I so choose.

So here is my question: As one who does not speak well in front of people, is there any hope for me? I know that if one wants to be a poet, one needs to sell themselves and doing readings is a big part of the position. Any suggestions?

Again, thank you so much. I look forward to reading more of your work and hopefully, if you make it to the Bay Area, get to see you perform. Sincerely, Julianne Premo "Juge"


Dear Juge, Yep I’m still here and not too anxious to go to that other place any time soon. Thanks for noticing and for writing me.

Good for you for starting a diary so early in your life and continuing to keep up with it. You remind me of Jay Hagan, my friend and the big cheese as far as knowing where my poems and thoughts are buried on my website and elsewhere. He continues to keep a daily diary and manages to recount all the events of the day for posterity and his bookshelf. I’m pretty steady with my journal but there are a far too many gaps in it.

One of these days I hope to make it back to The Bay Area (my spiritual home) for a concert or two and if and when that happens I hope you’ll hang around after the performance to say hello.

If I were you I wouldn’t be all that concerned about your skills as a public speaker. Not every poet performs their work in public and speaking aloud is by no means a requirement for being a successful writer –– putting it down on paper is. You are right about promotion however because to be an author who is able to market and sell their work, drive is even more important than talent. Talent and the ability to make sense on paper is certainly the starting point but beyond that you have to desire success more than anything else in the world. That often means sacrificing any kind of normal personal life.

In the old days the “if you build it they will come” syndrome seemed to work just fine. As an illustration I offer one of America’s finest literary talents –– a man who published only three books in his lifetime and despite being a near recluse for most of his life died last week as an authentic American legend. Of course I refer to J. D. Salinger, but then again not everyone is capable of writing a “Catcher In The Rye” the first time out. On the other hand with the advent of The Internet there are many opportunities for self-promotion and drumming up some sort of notoriety.

Actually I find shyness in anyone attractive. That may be because I have always been a bit of an introvert and became an extrovert out of the necessity to leave the nerdiness of my youth behind. And by the way that old axiom of imagining your audience nude while you are addressing them seems to have worked for lots of public and not so public figures.

Keep writing Juge and if you want to be published more than you want anything else in life you will be. Sounds simplistic but trust me it works. So Long and Stay Well, Rod

OF CATS AND PARROTS

Rod: I am looking for a particular line which you used in one of your published poems, about how a cat’s purr always calms you (paraphrased). Although not the correct quote, the thought has always stayed with me. The reason I am looking for this is that I am now writing a post for my blog … I have received two parrot bites in the last 24 hours (ouch). This always means that I am moving too fast around them. And the bite(s) remind me that I need to slow down. Which is where I’d like to use your sentence correctly. Thank you, Beverly Taylor

Dear Beverly, The line is from what I call my "Maxims & Minimums". It comes from an unfinished book "Rod McKuen's Book of Cats."

Here it is: "I've never known a cat who couldn't calm me down just by walking slowly past my chair.” Watch those Parrots Beverly. Cheers, Rod

ROGER RAMJET WHERE ARE YOU?

In 1969 I served in the army and met a soldier from I believe Virginia or North Carolina. He wrote poetry like you, and was a fan of yours. I wonder if he reads your web site, his name was Roger “Ramjet” Weiss or Weist. He signed all of his poems Roger Ramjet. I was sent overseas and I lost track of him, and I often think about him. I was wondering if something could be posted? Robert Price, Actively Caring

Dear Robert, Lets see if this works. Cheers, Rod

2/5/2010 Previously Unpublished

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ROD McKUEN CONCERTS

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notable birthdays

Monday 8 February

Elly Ameling o Arthur Balsam o Elizabeth Bishop o Martin Buber o Gary Coleman o James Dean o Brian Donleavy o Dame Edith Evans o Betty Field o Seth Green o Gundula Janowitz o Josh Keaton o Robert Klein o Ted Koppel o Jack Lemmon o Audrey Meadows o Burt Mustin o Nick Nolte o Claudette Pace o Alejandro Rey o Charles Ruggles o John Ruskin o William Tecumseh Sherman o Lyle Talbot o Lana Turner o Jules Verne o King Vidor o John Williams

Tuesday 9 February

Heather Angel o Brendan Behan o Ronald Colman o Mia Farrow o Kathryn Grayson o William H. Harrison o Carole King o Gypsy Rose Lee o Amy Lowell o Carmen Miranda o Roger Mudd o Joe Pesci o Dean Rusk o Charles Shaughnessy o Mena Suvari o Janet Suzman o Ernest Tubb o Bill Veeck o Alice Walker o Peggy Wood o Ziyi Zhang

Rod's random thoughts More of your future is in your power than you think.

Don’t hurry love. The end comes soon enough.

We will always owe each other better things than food and fuel.

A PROMISE

When all the trees have been dismantled
the decorations of their leaves set by
                                 birch to brown, maple to black
roots pulled up and tumbled in a pile
and when the sun has scurried
up from darkness and back to darkness
                                 for the final time,
with every ocean gone
leaving only traces, a ring around its rim,
then I will love you more than now.

We will have gone beyond impossibles
                   with no restraining rein
and we will both come back again
to this same place.
I will love you better then and more.
I will have learned from loving
                                   how to love.

- from “Suspension Bridge,” 1983

 
    AND FINALLY

A birthday shout out to Ted Koppel and Mia Farrow. Melinda Smith and RJ Wagner will both celebrate the passing of another year on Wednesday as Webmaster Ken arrives with his weekly “This One Does It For Me.” Sleep warm and I’ll see you again on Thursday.

RM Holmby Hills CA / 12:59PM PST 7 February, 2010

Happy Landings - see you tomorrow
© 1970,1977, 1983, 2001, 2010 by Stanyan Music Group & Rod McKuen. All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Ken Blackie • Birthday Research by Wade Alexander • Poems from the collection of Jay Hagan •
Sound & Fury Dr. Eric Yeager • Editor at Large: Bruce Bellingham • Emeritus: Melinda Smith
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