World
Burt Bacharach, legendary composer of pop songs, dies at 94
NEW YORK (AP) — Burt Bacharach, the singularly gifted and fashionable composer who delighted tens of millions with the quirky preparations and unforgettable melodies of “Stroll on By,” “Do You Know the Technique to San Jose” and dozens of different hits, has died at 94.
The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning Bacharach died Wednesday at residence in Los Angeles of pure causes, publicist Tina Brausam mentioned Thursday.
Over the previous 70 years, solely Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others rivaled his genius for immediately catchy songs that remained carried out, performed and hummed lengthy after they have been written. He had a run of prime 10 hits from the Fifties into the twenty first century, and his music was heard in every single place from film soundtracks and radios to residence stereo programs and iPods, whether or not “Alfie” and “I Say a Little Prayer” or “I’ll By no means Fall in Love Once more” and “This Man’s in Love with You.”
Dionne Warwick was his favourite interpreter, however Bacharach, normally in tandem with lyricist Hal David, additionally created prime materials for Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and plenty of others. Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra have been among the many numerous artists who coated his songs, with more moderen performers who sung or sampled him together with White Stripes, Twista and Ashanti. “Stroll On By” alone was coated by everybody from Warwick and Isaac Hayes to the British punk band the Stranglers and Cyndi Lauper.
Bacharach was each an innovator and reversion, and his profession appeared to run parallel to the rock period. He grew up on jazz and classical music and had little style for rock when he was breaking into the enterprise within the Fifties. His sensibility typically appeared extra aligned with Tin Pan Alley than with Bob Dylan, John Lennon and different writers who later emerged, however rock composers appreciated the depth of his seemingly old style sensibility.
“The shorthand model of him is that he’s one thing to do with simple listening,” Elvis Costello, who wrote the 1998 album “Painted from Reminiscence” with Bacharach, mentioned in a 2018 interview with The Related Press. “It could be agreeable to hear to those songs, however there’s nothing simple about them. Attempt enjoying them. Attempt singing them.”
A field set, “The Songs of Bacharach & Costello,” is because of come out March 3.
He triumphed in lots of artforms. He was an eight-time Grammy winner, a prize-winning Broadway composer for “Guarantees, Guarantees” and a three-time Oscar winner. He obtained two Academy Awards in 1970, for the rating of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child” and for the tune “Raindrops Hold Fallin’ on My Head” (shared with David). In 1982, he and his then-wife, lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, received for “Finest That You Can Do,” the theme from “Arthur. His different film soundtracks included “What’s New, Pussycat?”, “Alfie” and the 1967 James Bond spoof “On line casino Royale.”
Bacharach was effectively rewarded, and effectively linked. He was a frequent visitor on the White Home, whether or not the president was Republican or Democrat. And in 2012, he was introduced the Gershwin Prize by Barack Obama, who had sung a number of seconds of “Stroll on By” throughout a marketing campaign look.
In his life, and in his music, he stood aside. Fellow songwriter Sammy Cahn favored to joke that the smiling, wavy-haired Bacharach was the primary composer he ever knew who didn’t appear like a dentist. Bacharach was a “swinger,” as they known as such males in his time, whose many romances included actor Angie Dickinson, to whom he was married from 1965-80, and Sager, his spouse from 1982-1991.
Married 4 occasions, he shaped his most lasting ties to work. He was a perfectionist who took three weeks to jot down “Alfie” and may spend hours tweaking a single chord. Sager as soon as noticed that Bacharach’s life routines basically stayed the identical — solely the wives modified.
It started with the melodies — robust but interspersed with altering rhythms and shocking harmonics. He credited a lot of his type to his love of bebop and to his classical schooling, particularly beneath the tutelage of Darius Milhaud, the famed composer. He as soon as performed a chunk for piano, violin and oboe for Milhaud that contained a melody he was ashamed to have written, as 12-point atonal music was in vogue on the time. Milhaud, who favored the piece, suggested the younger man, “By no means be afraid of the melody.”
“That was an important affirmation for me,” Bacharach recalled in 2004.
Bacharach was basically a pop composer, however his songs turned hits for nation artists (Marty Robbins), rhythm and blues performers (Chuck Jackson), soul (Franklin, Luther Vandross) and synth-pop (Bare Eyes). He reached a brand new technology of listeners within the Nineteen Nineties with the assistance of Costello and others.
Mike Myers would recall listening to the sultry “The Look of Love” on the radio and discovering quick inspiration for his “Austin Powers” retro spy comedies, wherein Bacharach made cameos.
Within the twenty first century, he was nonetheless testing new floor, writing his personal lyrics and recording with rapper Dr. Dre.
He was married to his first spouse, Paula Stewart, from 1953-58, and married for a fourth time, to Jane Hansen, in 1993. He’s survived by Hansen, in addition to his kids Oliver, Raleigh and Cristopher, Brausam mentioned. He was preceded in demise by his daughter with Dickinson, Nikki Bacharach.
Bacharach knew the very heights of acclaim, however he remembered himself as a loner rising up, a brief and self-conscious boy so uncomfortable with being Jewish he even taunted different Jews. His favourite e book as a child was Ernest Hemingway’s “The Solar Additionally Rises”; he associated to the sexually impotent Jake Barnes, concerning himself as “socially impotent.”
He was born in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, however quickly moved to New York Metropolis. His father was a syndicated columnist, his mom a pianist who inspired the boy to check music. Though he was extra fascinated about sports activities, he practiced piano day-after-day after college, not eager to disappoint his mom. Whereas nonetheless a minor, he would sneak into jazz golf equipment, bearing a faux ID, and listen to such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Rely Basie.
“They have been simply so extremely thrilling that unexpectedly, I acquired into music in a means I by no means had earlier than,” he recalled within the memoir “Anybody Who Had a Coronary heart,” printed in 2013. “What I heard in these golf equipment turned my head round.”
He was a poor scholar, however managed to realize a spot on the music conservatory at McGill College in Montreal. He wrote his first tune at McGill and listened for months to Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Music.” Music additionally might have saved Bacharach’s life. He was drafted into the Military within the late Forties and was nonetheless on lively responsibility throughout the Korean Struggle. However officers stateside quickly discovered of his items and needed him round. When he did go abroad, it was to Germany, the place he wrote orchestrations for a recreation heart on the native navy base.
After his discharge, he returned to New York and tried to interrupt into the music enterprise. He had little success at first as a songwriter, however he turned a well-liked arranger and accompanist, touring with Vic Damone, the Ames Brothers and Stewart, his eventual first spouse. When a pal who had been touring with Marlene Dietrich was unable to make a present in Las Vegas, he requested Bacharach to step in.
The younger musician and ageless singer shortly clicked and Bacharach traveled the world along with her within the late Fifties and early ’60s. Throughout every efficiency, she would introduce him in grand type: “I would love you to satisfy the person, he’s my arranger, he’s my accompanist, he’s my conductor, and I want I might say he’s my composer. However that isn’t true. He’s everyone’s composer … Burt Bacharach!”
In the meantime, he had met his splendid songwriter companion — David, as businesslike as Bacharach was mercurial, so domesticated that he would depart every evening at 5 to catch the practice again to his household on Lengthy Island. Working in a tiny workplace in Broadway’s celebrated Brill Constructing, they produced their first million-seller, “Magic Moments,” sung in 1958 by Perry Como. In 1962, they noticed a backup singer for the Drifters, Warwick, who had a “very particular sort of grace and class,” Bacharach recalled.
The trio produced hit after hit. The songs have been as difficult to report as they have been simple to listen to. Bacharach favored to experiment with time signatures and preparations, equivalent to having two pianists play on “Stroll on By,” their performances simply barely out of sync to provide the tune “a jagged sort of feeling,” he wrote in his memoir.
The Bacharach-David partnership ended with the dismal failure of a 1973 musical remake of “Misplaced Horizon.” Bacharach turned so depressed he remoted himself in his Del Mar trip residence and refused to work.
“I didn’t need to write with Hal or anyone,” he informed the AP in 2004. Nor did he need to fulfill a dedication to report Warwick. She and David each sued him.
Bacharach and David finally reconciled. When David died in 2012, Bacharach praised him for writing lyrics “like a miniature film.”
In the meantime, Bacharach stored working, vowing by no means to retire, at all times believing {that a} good tune might make a distinction.
“Music softens the guts, makes you’re feeling one thing if it’s good, brings in emotion that you simply may not have felt earlier than,” he informed the AP in 2018. “It’s a really highly effective factor in case you’re in a position to do to it, when you have it in your coronary heart to do one thing like that.”
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The late Related Press author Bob Thomas was a contributor to this report from Los Angeles.
The 7 October Hamas incursion into southern Israel left more than 1,000 people dead and sparked a year of war which has devastated much of the Gaza Strip.
There has been some early reaction from European leaders on the first anniversary of the Hamas incursion into Israel which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Hamas attacks, which saw 1,200 Israelis killed and 250 others taken hostage, were an example of “unspeakable savagery” which could not be justified.
“The European Union stands with all the innocent people whose lives have been shattered to the core since that fateful day,” she said in a statement.
She reiterated her call for a ceasefire in the Strip and the unconditional release of the Israelis still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli authorities say almost 100 hostages remain in Gaza, but fewer than 70 are believed to still be alive.
“One year on, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is appalling. The European Union will keep doing its utmost to mobilise financial assistance and facilitate deliveries and distribution of humanitarian aid, to the Palestinian people, and now also in Lebanon,” she said.
“Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel ignited a spiral of violence which has brought the entire region to a state of extreme tension and volatility.”
In a year of fighting, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza but the Hamas-run health ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
In a video posted on X, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz regretted that “so much suffering, so many deaths” had taken place on both sides of the conflict.
“With their disgusting attack on Israel, Hamas triggered a catastrophe for the Palestinian people. The Federal Government therefore continues to persistently advocate for a ceasefire, which must finally come about so that the civilian population in the Gaza Strip can be better protected and, of course, better cared for,” he said.
And in prayers at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome, Pope Francis appealed to the Virgin Mary for help “in these times oppressed by injustice and devastated by wars.”
“You who are the queen of peace, convert the minds of those who fuel hatred, silence the noise of weapons that generate death, extinguish the violence that smoulders in the heart of man and inspire peace projects in the actions of those who govern the Nations,” he said.
More reaction from Europe is expected throughout Monday.
Strikes on Gaza continue
On Sunday, the Israeli military announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, the site of a refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
Israel reiterated its call, from the early weeks of the war, for the complete evacuation of northern Gaza.
ADVERTISEMENTUp to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north while around a million fled to the south.
Those fresh orders have prompted thousands to flee the area, many leaving on foot, some using donkeys and carts.
“We did not do anything and they attacked us without warning, without notifying us of maps or anything else. They surprised us this time and we fled. We left with our families and children without anything, just some clothes,” said camp resident Moe’n Khader.
Palestinian authorities reported heavy Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday, with at least 19 people killed in an attack on a central mosque.
ADVERTISEMENTMeanwhile, Israeli authorities have said they have put the country on high alert for potential attacks as they prepare to hold their own memorials for the victims of the 7 October Hamas attacks.
Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, is “concluding” his diplomatic mission, Russian agencies reported late on Saturday.
“Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov is concluding his Washington assignment and heading to Moscow,” Interfax agency cited a representative of the Foreign Ministry as saying.
The envoy will be returning to Moscow within hours, Vedomosti newspaper reported. There was no further detail provided.
Antonov has been Russia’s ambassador in Washington since 2017.
As rockets continue to rain down on Israel, Tuesday marked an unprecedented attack from Iran, which fired 181 ballistic missiles toward the country. For an hour, the entire nation took shelter; fortunately, there were no casualties or injuries, thanks to Israel’s air defense system.
This system has been crucial in protecting Israeli civilians, intercepting thousands of missiles aimed at population centers. However, some missiles did land at several air force bases and near the Mossad headquarters, although they did not cause “significant damage,” according to the IDF chief of staff.
Israel’s air defense strategy extends beyond Iron Dome. Systems like David’s Sling and Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 provide defense against medium- and long-range missiles, and these systems have also been crucial in the current conflict. Israel Air Force Reserve Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish explains that the multi-layered defense structure was designed to handle a wide range of threats. “We’ve used David’s Sling to intercept rockets from Lebanon, and Arrow 3 to counter ballistic missiles from Iran. It’s not just Iron Dome – it’s a network of systems working together.”
HEZBOLLAH’S NEIGHBORS: ISRAELI BORDER COMMUNITY UNDER CONSTANT ATTACK FROM TERROR GROUP
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, Oct. 1, 2024. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
While the Iron Dome wasn’t extensively utilized against Iran, its operators have kept busy keeping Israel safe since the start of the war on Oct. 7 last year.
“The Iron Dome has done incredible work, but, like any defensive system, the extended, high-intensity fighting has taken its toll on it – it wasn’t built for a conflict of this length and intensity,” Hilla Haddad Chmelnik, an aerospace engineer who played a key role in developing Iron Dome, and who acknowledges that the system is being tested in ways it was not originally designed for.
Haddad Chmelnik, who also served as director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, emphasizes the need for ongoing innovation to keep up with evolving threats.
And with Lebanon and Israel’s escalating fight with Hezbollah, the need for the system is greater than ever, she says. Just this last week alone, hundreds of rockets, missiles and UAVs were launched against Israel from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza City are intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense missile system in the early hours of Oct. 8, 2023. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
While Hamas’s rocket supply in Gaza has been largely depleted, the situation in Lebanon is very different. “In Gaza, we have significantly reduced the number of rockets left in Hamas’ arsenal. But in Lebanon, the numbers have not dropped enough,” she says. Hezbollah is believed to have perhaps 140,000 rockets, and they are much more sophisticated than those used by Hamas and can penetrate much deeper into Israel.
And then there is the question of Iran, and the possibility of the war widening to include direct conflict with that country. “Compared to Lebanon, the threat from Iran is more manageable,” she says. Staging a large-scale missile attack from Iran is a complex undertaking, which can be detected and preemptively targeted,” Haddad Chmelnik says. “Launching a ballistic missile 1,500 kilometers requires preparation, and that’s visible. It’s very hard to hide from satellites, and that gives us the opportunity to strike preemptively, in addition to preparing to defend ourselves.”
Haddad Chmelnik emphasizes that Israel’s missile-defense systems, which were built in coordination with the U.S., are capable of withstanding Iranian attacks. “The Iranian missile threat can be countered, and our second-strike capability is very significant. Israel has the upper hand in that respect,” she says. “That’s why Iran is cautious – it has more to lose than to gain.”
IRAN WARNS OF ‘DECISIVE RESPONSE’ IF ISRAEL CROSSES ‘RED LINES’
Iron Dome was first deployed in 2011, following years of development in response to the growing threat of rocket fire from Gaza. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit.)
Iron Dome was first deployed in 2011, following years of development in response to the growing threat of rocket fire from Gaza. What sets the system apart, Haddad Chmelnik says, is its innovation and simplicity. “It’s a brilliant technology that no other country has. Iron Dome was developed with the support of the U.S., and now we’re seeing other nations buying it for their own defense.”
Indeed, the success of Iron Dome has attracted international attention. Countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Finland have purchased Iron Dome components or batteries. “Israel is the most protected country in the world when it comes to air defense,” Haddad Chmelnik explains. “Now, we are seeing countries across the globe investing in it.”
Israel Air Force Reserve Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, former commander of Israel’s Air Defense Corps, recalls the initial skepticism surrounding the project. “Before Iron Dome, we had no real answer to these types of rockets,” he says. “People doubted we could create an effective, cost-efficient interceptor. But the system has proven itself over the years. Iron Dome has intercepted thousands of rockets.”
An Israeli man works next to a destroyed home after rockets fired by Hezbollah terrorists struck in Katzrin, in the Golan Heights, Aug. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Each Iron Dome interceptor missile costs around $50,000, while some of the rockets it is designed to destroy, such as those made by Hamas, can cost just a few hundred dollars. The cost of maintaining one Iron Dome battery, which requires dozens of soldiers to operate, is about $100 million. Currently, there are approximately 12 Iron Dome batteries spread out across the country, each capable of defending up to 60 square miles, providing vital coverage in strategic areas.
WHAT IS ISRAEL’S FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE, THE IRON DOME?
Half of Iron Dome operators are women, who agree to extend their service to three years – the same as is mandatory for men – to accommodate the long period of training. “The experience these soldiers have gained under fire is invaluable. But the pressure is enormous,” Brig. Gen. Gavish says. “It’s not like a video game. You’re making real-time decisions on which rockets to intercept. These soldiers know they’re protecting their families, their cities – sometimes even their own homes.”
But the current conflict, which has seen more than 20,000 rockets fired from Gaza and Lebanon since October 2023, has pushed the system, and its operators, to their limits. “When we designed Iron Dome, we never imagined it would have to function under such continuous strain,” Haddad Chmelnik says. “The system was built for short, intense bursts of fighting – not for a war that lasts nearly a year.”
Iran presents its first hypersonic ballistic missile in Tehran on June 6, 2023. (Sepah News/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In recent months, some enemy rockets have slipped past the defenses, causing destruction in northern Israel. “No system is hermetic,” Gavish says. “There is no perfect defense. The reality is, the longer the war continues, the more pressure the system is put under.”
Meanwhile, the enemy is learning. “Every time Iron Dome successfully intercepts a rocket, our enemies are watching, learning and adapting,” Haddad Chmelnik says. “That’s why we see more complex threats emerging, like UAVs, and drones, which are harder to intercept.”
While Iron Dome remains effective, the future is uncertain. “The system is saving lives every day,” Brig. Gen. Gavish says. “But as the war goes on, it becomes harder and harder to maintain the same level of defense.”
A member of Israel’s Air Force technical corps stands by an Iron Dome battery.
Despite these successes, Haddad Chmelnik points out that no defense system is foolproof. “The way Iron Dome is built, it’s about more than just about identifying individual threats; it’s about adapting quickly as those threats evolve.” She emphasizes that while Iron Dome continues to play a crucial role, Israel’s long-term security will depend on continued technological advancements.
Despite the challenges they face in the current situation, those operating Iron Dome continue their mission. “The soldiers – men and women – are making complex decisions in real-time, protecting cities and families,” Brig. Gen. Gavish says, “They are the key to Iron Dome’s success.”
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