I had always only known the Redding version until about 15 or so years ago. Stunned. Because of the starkly different renditions, they are, for me emotionally, two different songs. Both deeply moving.
As an aside, you lucky duck, having had tap lessons. I would have given my right arm to be able to tap-dance!
The dear sweetness of it! I teared up, just reading the lyrics. Works well with The Voice, too.😊
Also wringing the tears out today, The Blacksmith to St. Luke, in your husband's The Hundredfold. With each reading, I appreciate that book more and understand it better. What a gift he has given us all, helping us to know our Lord's love for us! ♥️
Making the tears and tenderness trifecta: Reading Hymn IX in The Hundredfold, while listening to a Welsh choir sing Cwm Rhondda...Oh my goodness. Those words, that melody, those voices!
Mrswu, you made our evening here! It does us both so much good to hear from anyone who actually understands that The Hundredfold is a masterpiece (this is Debra, of course; Tony won't say that, but it is true). It repays rereading, his big poem. I fear that most readers are not up to it now. And the hymns, too. I wish we had a wider audience for The Hundredfold, but those who get it really do get it. As Milton wished for, we have "fit audience but few." Thank you for being one of those few. And a blessed Holy Week to you.
God is good! Masterpiece is no hollow praise: that is what it is. Turns of phrase, cries of the heart; I commend your husband for his candor, his craft, his humility. That magnificent poet Gerard Manley Hopkins didn’t get much notice in his time, did he? Tony is in good company. And he is so dear to the Heart of our Savior, and His Blessed Mother.❤️
Again, you raise my spirits. Tony was a poet before I married him, but utterly unpublished. I set about sending out his work, and within a couple of years got 100 of his poems into print, and he received some small recognition. But poetry -- like all of the arts -- has been in the tank for a long time. Tony kept writing, but there were very few outlets for his work -- a poem here or there. Then he began work on The Hundredfold. For the past five years he has worked on a follow up sacred poem, The Twelve-Gated City. It is also a masterpiece, but there's the problem of "fit audience, but few" again. Who should publish it? That is our question. It's done. Just awaiting the right publisher, one (I hope) who will make the effort to market it instead of just keeping it in their catalogue. The Hundredfold has yet to be "discovered" except by the few who actually know what it is.
How heartbreaking! His work MATTERS, whether anyone sees it or not. It matters, because it is True. It can make a difference to one human soul, and it serves his Creator….nothing could be greater than that. Of course it is a crying shame that our culture is so estranged from reality. He’s a brave one!
He is. Tony doesn't write anything for acclaim. But in just about any era but this present one, he'd have an audience. And yes, you are right that God's work is not measured in book sales. Still, we do live in debased times, and much much beauty is despised -- or invisible to so many.
Debased is just the word for it: civilization, human society, is off-base. Any citizen of any time before ours would be amazed at how wrong we are, and how rich, yet impoverished in the things that matter. Saint Teresa of Calcutta remarked on the grave spiritual poverty of the West…And all our troubles, political and otherwise, are spiritual in origin.
I especially appreciate the introduction to The Hundredfold. English major though I was, my understanding of poetry is paltry. One good professor did make sure we knew about Hopkins, at any rate. Whom I did not appreciate at the time, but a seed was planted. Glory to God!
And I will say that reading your husband’s words on St. Peter was excellent preparation for the Palm Sunday readings! I am sinful; do not depart from me.
Chris, I am very fond of Otis. I hear you. No question, this little 30's song became a R&B standard. And I like that. Great tunes often admit of a lot of variations! I gave the nod to Sinatra finally because I loved the idea that he recorded the first "album" and also that he chose all old songs for it, and created the idea of the concept album and continued designing his albums along that line for his career. :)
Nan, he had so much vocal control that he made everything sound easy. I listened to his later recording, made in 1960, and you could hear that his voice was getting raspy. That was the cause of his "retirement," but fortunately for everyone, he worked with a singing coach and made a genuine comeback .. he relearned how to sing with his older voice. My mother always said she liked his older voice better. And I generally agree with her there. But he did work at it. Talent is often like that.
What a fascinating and provocative musical era, which you have wonderfully described and summarized - thank you! Would you say the advent of prerecorded radio programs around that time was an issue in the musicians' strikes?
It was rugged, for sure. First the war hit, which was bad enough -- and so many men called up for service. And all of this just as the nation was finally beginning to recover from the worst of the depression. ASCAP wanted to raise their licensing fees -- a lot -- because the broadcasting companies were making big $$ from advertising, and the writers and arrangers were getting very little from their work. So at the worst possible time, the big broadcasters boycotted ASCAP writers. BANG! In the head to everyone. The broadcasting companies filled up their air time with music from other sources, and that opened the door to a rise in audiences for C&W ("hillbilly music," as it was sometimes called) and in R&B. A rival to ASCAP was formed, BMI, and so some work came from there. But the musician shortage was serious. And the business with Frank Sinatra having to cut such a bad deal to extricate himself from Dorsey -- wow. Something had to give. As for the musicians, yes. Unless they were playing live on the air, they were paid only for their actual recording time. After that, the royalties went to the big boys running the show. Publishing and sales is still a big racket, better in music, I think, than in literary writing. Self-promoting has always been an option, but it's hard to win against the big monoliths who have control of the presses and the airwaves.
It was guite a brutal deal, and yes, the contract was "for life." Even Dorsey at that time had no idea just how long and successful that "life" would be. But once word of the contract got around, Sinatra was able to fight for his release. The composer, Jule Stein (who wrote so many songs for Frank that he came to be referred to as "Sinatra's private composer) actually brokered a "deal" with Dorsey, who "settled" for a one-time payment of $75,000 to end the contract. That would have been like $1,500,000 in today's money -- and Frank was not wealthy then. The suit severed all relations between Dorsey and Sinatra, you can bet. And Sinatra had worked H.A.R.D. for Dorsey, too.
Amy, yes, I also recalled that Otis Redding had recorded the song. I wrote about his fine "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" here some time ago, and it's a favorite song of mine. But like you, I didn't actually like Redding's version of the song when I listened to it yesterday. I had been thinking of throwing it in for an extra, but changed my mind. The song, it seems, took on a little life of its own in R&B, but I also didn't like the versions I heard of it by Shirley Bassey or Aretha Franklin. I didn't get a chance to listen to Rod Stewart's version, which I think might be good, because of his love of the standards AS standards. But ultimately, I like Frank's the best. Bing recorded it in the 30's, but I like Sinatra's best.
I had always only known the Redding version until about 15 or so years ago. Stunned. Because of the starkly different renditions, they are, for me emotionally, two different songs. Both deeply moving.
As an aside, you lucky duck, having had tap lessons. I would have given my right arm to be able to tap-dance!
The dear sweetness of it! I teared up, just reading the lyrics. Works well with The Voice, too.😊
Also wringing the tears out today, The Blacksmith to St. Luke, in your husband's The Hundredfold. With each reading, I appreciate that book more and understand it better. What a gift he has given us all, helping us to know our Lord's love for us! ♥️
Making the tears and tenderness trifecta: Reading Hymn IX in The Hundredfold, while listening to a Welsh choir sing Cwm Rhondda...Oh my goodness. Those words, that melody, those voices!
https://youtu.be/R2IUbRdswAE
Glory to God .
Mrswu, you made our evening here! It does us both so much good to hear from anyone who actually understands that The Hundredfold is a masterpiece (this is Debra, of course; Tony won't say that, but it is true). It repays rereading, his big poem. I fear that most readers are not up to it now. And the hymns, too. I wish we had a wider audience for The Hundredfold, but those who get it really do get it. As Milton wished for, we have "fit audience but few." Thank you for being one of those few. And a blessed Holy Week to you.
God is good! Masterpiece is no hollow praise: that is what it is. Turns of phrase, cries of the heart; I commend your husband for his candor, his craft, his humility. That magnificent poet Gerard Manley Hopkins didn’t get much notice in his time, did he? Tony is in good company. And he is so dear to the Heart of our Savior, and His Blessed Mother.❤️
Again, you raise my spirits. Tony was a poet before I married him, but utterly unpublished. I set about sending out his work, and within a couple of years got 100 of his poems into print, and he received some small recognition. But poetry -- like all of the arts -- has been in the tank for a long time. Tony kept writing, but there were very few outlets for his work -- a poem here or there. Then he began work on The Hundredfold. For the past five years he has worked on a follow up sacred poem, The Twelve-Gated City. It is also a masterpiece, but there's the problem of "fit audience, but few" again. Who should publish it? That is our question. It's done. Just awaiting the right publisher, one (I hope) who will make the effort to market it instead of just keeping it in their catalogue. The Hundredfold has yet to be "discovered" except by the few who actually know what it is.
How heartbreaking! His work MATTERS, whether anyone sees it or not. It matters, because it is True. It can make a difference to one human soul, and it serves his Creator….nothing could be greater than that. Of course it is a crying shame that our culture is so estranged from reality. He’s a brave one!
He is. Tony doesn't write anything for acclaim. But in just about any era but this present one, he'd have an audience. And yes, you are right that God's work is not measured in book sales. Still, we do live in debased times, and much much beauty is despised -- or invisible to so many.
Debased is just the word for it: civilization, human society, is off-base. Any citizen of any time before ours would be amazed at how wrong we are, and how rich, yet impoverished in the things that matter. Saint Teresa of Calcutta remarked on the grave spiritual poverty of the West…And all our troubles, political and otherwise, are spiritual in origin.
I especially appreciate the introduction to The Hundredfold. English major though I was, my understanding of poetry is paltry. One good professor did make sure we knew about Hopkins, at any rate. Whom I did not appreciate at the time, but a seed was planted. Glory to God!
And I will say that reading your husband’s words on St. Peter was excellent preparation for the Palm Sunday readings! I am sinful; do not depart from me.
Cool story and song. Gotto go with Otis in the end, tho!
Chris, I am very fond of Otis. I hear you. No question, this little 30's song became a R&B standard. And I like that. Great tunes often admit of a lot of variations! I gave the nod to Sinatra finally because I loved the idea that he recorded the first "album" and also that he chose all old songs for it, and created the idea of the concept album and continued designing his albums along that line for his career. :)
Ah, the mellow, fluid tones of the younger Sinatra! Lovely song sung so tenderly (pun intended!). Thanks for sharing, Debra!
Nan, he had so much vocal control that he made everything sound easy. I listened to his later recording, made in 1960, and you could hear that his voice was getting raspy. That was the cause of his "retirement," but fortunately for everyone, he worked with a singing coach and made a genuine comeback .. he relearned how to sing with his older voice. My mother always said she liked his older voice better. And I generally agree with her there. But he did work at it. Talent is often like that.
I know what you mean about his older voice; in a way, it had more character & he did use it to great effect emotively.
What a fascinating and provocative musical era, which you have wonderfully described and summarized - thank you! Would you say the advent of prerecorded radio programs around that time was an issue in the musicians' strikes?
It was rugged, for sure. First the war hit, which was bad enough -- and so many men called up for service. And all of this just as the nation was finally beginning to recover from the worst of the depression. ASCAP wanted to raise their licensing fees -- a lot -- because the broadcasting companies were making big $$ from advertising, and the writers and arrangers were getting very little from their work. So at the worst possible time, the big broadcasters boycotted ASCAP writers. BANG! In the head to everyone. The broadcasting companies filled up their air time with music from other sources, and that opened the door to a rise in audiences for C&W ("hillbilly music," as it was sometimes called) and in R&B. A rival to ASCAP was formed, BMI, and so some work came from there. But the musician shortage was serious. And the business with Frank Sinatra having to cut such a bad deal to extricate himself from Dorsey -- wow. Something had to give. As for the musicians, yes. Unless they were playing live on the air, they were paid only for their actual recording time. After that, the royalties went to the big boys running the show. Publishing and sales is still a big racket, better in music, I think, than in literary writing. Self-promoting has always been an option, but it's hard to win against the big monoliths who have control of the presses and the airwaves.
So, Dorsey got 43% of Sinatra’s “future earnings”…for his life? That sounds like the deal of the century!
It was guite a brutal deal, and yes, the contract was "for life." Even Dorsey at that time had no idea just how long and successful that "life" would be. But once word of the contract got around, Sinatra was able to fight for his release. The composer, Jule Stein (who wrote so many songs for Frank that he came to be referred to as "Sinatra's private composer) actually brokered a "deal" with Dorsey, who "settled" for a one-time payment of $75,000 to end the contract. That would have been like $1,500,000 in today's money -- and Frank was not wealthy then. The suit severed all relations between Dorsey and Sinatra, you can bet. And Sinatra had worked H.A.R.D. for Dorsey, too.
Otis Redding sang this song which is how I know it. Truthfully, Sinatra’s version is far better.
Amy, yes, I also recalled that Otis Redding had recorded the song. I wrote about his fine "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" here some time ago, and it's a favorite song of mine. But like you, I didn't actually like Redding's version of the song when I listened to it yesterday. I had been thinking of throwing it in for an extra, but changed my mind. The song, it seems, took on a little life of its own in R&B, but I also didn't like the versions I heard of it by Shirley Bassey or Aretha Franklin. I didn't get a chance to listen to Rod Stewart's version, which I think might be good, because of his love of the standards AS standards. But ultimately, I like Frank's the best. Bing recorded it in the 30's, but I like Sinatra's best.