During a career that touched the ground in eight decades, composer Burt Bacharach has created songs with a multitude of stellar creative partners.
First and foremost, his long and fruitful association with lyricist Hal David, which spanned from the late 1950s to the early 1970s and worked back to back, including “I Say a Little Prayer ”,“ Raindrops Keep Fallin ‘on My Head ”. “,” The look of love “,” What the world needs now is love “,” Do you know the way to San Jose “,” Alfie “and” (There is) always something there to remind me of it. “
After David and he split up, Bacharach teamed up with songwriter Carole Bayer Sager (whom he married and then divorced), as well as R & B veteran Ronald Isley, Paul Anka, Ray Parker Jr. and even the angry young man from England, Elvis Costello (Bacharach calls their song “Painted From Memory” “one of the best things I have ever done”).
What unproven collaboration could therefore pique his interest today, at 91? How about a Bacharach-Eilish team?
“I would like love that, “said Bacharach of Pacific Palisades, which he shares with his 27-year-old wife, former Jane Hansen, expressing admiration for the work of the hippest and most Grammy-winning 18-year-old. Pop Music Awards: Billie Eilish, and its producer, co-author and brother Finneas O’Connell.
At this point, the notion is just a tantalizing fantasy. But his enthusiasm for suggestion telegraphs Bacharach’s unabated desire to seek collaborators who can bring not only new ideas, but ideas with a certain essence of the eternal about them.
“The way I always wrote was not normal,” he said. “It was maybe a little sophisticated, maybe a little urban. Maybe he had more endurance, more lasting value. But having a song 40 years later still sounds appealing and relevant, I’m very thankful for that. How it went like this, I don’t know if I can say. “
This career self-assessment is triggered, in part, by a new contract that Bacharach concludes with Primary Wave Publishing, a relatively new Los Angeles-based music publishing company, which nevertheless uses dizzying sums to invest in catalogs of prestigious songs. , Bacharach is something of a diamond of hope in music publishing circles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtBbyglq37E
“If you’re in the publishing business, Burt Bacharach has to be up there with some of the best ever,” said Primary Wave founder and CEO Larry Mestel, speaking of his new partnership 50- 50 with Bacharach, citing the new agreement as one of the company’s flagship partnerships.
A source familiar with the deal says it is valued in “the highest eight digits.”
With a consortium of what he described as “very large institutional investors and a few wealthy individuals,” Mestel said that Primary Wave, which is a private company, has consolidated a fund “of about $ 1 billion in Assets and Liquidity Under Management ‘to invest in song catalogs, which include those of Smokey Robinson, Aerosmith, Boston and Paul Anka, as well as the domains of Whitney Houston, reggae superstar Bob Marley, Leon Russell and Donny Hathaway.
“It’s a big business,” he said. “We think the value is extraordinary. Most people in the record breaking end of the business do not understand the value of the publication. “
However, certain recent developments in technology and consumption have led more and more investors and companies to focus on this end of the music sector.
Music streaming, led by Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, has extended and amplified the financial lives of older songs, known as catalogs in the music industry. Today’s songs are easily accessible, and songwriters and their publishers are paid for each click. Each time you play your favorite “dinner music” playlist with “Do you know the way to San Jose”, Bacharach is compensated.
In 2018, streaming music publishing revenues exceeded royalties from all physical media and sales of downloads. In the same year, the United States Copyright Board approved a nearly 50% increase in payment rates to songwriters for streaming, officially recognizing the dominance of streaming in the world of music. Streaming platforms such as Spotify and YouTube have also increased the publication rates paid to songwriters in part due to the pressure from superstar acts that are made public on social media over paltry payments by flow of these services.
It also sparked high-profile, albeit confidential, publishing deals for superstar artists such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, both of whom have negotiated new deals this year with Sony / ATV Music Publishing, the world’s largest publisher.
“I always thought that the music publishing business was similar to the alcohol business,” Sony / ATV Publishing president Martin Bandier told The Times in 2018. ” In bad times, you drink and in good times, you drink; and in bad times, you play music – you could play a different kind of music – and in good times, you play music.
“Our business is growing, the competition is incredibly fierce and there is so much money floating around that wants to own content,” said Bandier. “And what better content can there be than songs?”
For Bacharach, songwriting is an endless process. Most recently, he worked with songwriter-producer Daniel Tashian, two-time Grammy winner for his production work on Kacey Musgraves’ 2018 album “Golden Hour”, and songwriter – Texas indie-pop performer Melody Federer. He has just recorded a new song he wrote with Federer, “The Great Divide”, which has extended his penchant over the past two decades for songs more overtly political than those that characterize his classic work with David.
He continues to play his own music live, and is currently considering whether to cancel a planned Japan tour in April due to the coronavirus epidemic.
“I cannot imagine how it could be,” he said. “You don’t want to have an audience sitting there and everyone wearing masks.”
Bacharach said the coronavirus crisis had not impressed him with the messages sent to the White House. “We need someone very strong to guide us through the fire here, man. We had it with this guy who said “Everything’s fine – buy stocks.”
In addition to writing and playing, another scenario that interests Bacharach is a theatrical production built on his songs, something that alignment with Primary Wave can help achieve.
“It’s a separate possibility,” he replied. “But there should be a real story behind. If it deviates from the jukebox music formula of just chained songs, that might be interesting. I have experienced this kind of thing maybe twice, from someone trying in New York.
“I remember sitting in a theater years ago for one that was just a series of songs without much intrigue,” he said. “On the one hand, I was Elvis Costello and on the other, [actor-comedian] Mike Myers. They are my friends and they suffered like me, they gave me elbows.
“But a show with a good story could be created around him,” he said of his extensive catalog of songs. “I’m excited about it.”
When it comes to Bacharach’s work, Primary Wave’s Mestel puts it in the clearest terms. “I think he is perhaps the greatest composer of all time.”
