US musician Burt Bacharach interviewed

About this music video from the USA:

The Windows of the World, a disc jockey favorite with its subtle anti-war sentiments, was released in July 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War. One of the most beautiful tunes Bacharach and David ever wrote, it remains Dionne [Warwick]’s favorite recording. Hal David’s poingnant and moving lyrics reference the unpopular war Americans were embroiled in. Serene Dominic suggests that Bacharach’s musical cues such as the pizzicato strings softly playing like an Asian koto and finger cymbals suggest both a Vietnamese rice paddy and a window covered with rain. The tune peaked at #32 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart in the USA and was a Top 20 Hit in Canada and remains one of the most fondly remembered of Dionne’s Bacharach/David catalog. This tune from 1967, with its potent and timely message, is even more poignant today.

From British daily The Guardian:

Slacks-sporting showbiz icon and writer of hits for everyone from Dusty Springfield to Dr Dre, Burt Bacharach is back in the UK for the Electric Proms. Johnny Dee asks him to share some magic moments …

Born to Jewish parents (Bert and Irma), young Burt preferred sport and wanted to be an American football player but his height (5ft 8in) and his mother’s eagerness for him to learn music led him in a different direction. After a period in the army (spent mainly playing piano at the officers’ club) and a spell as musical director for Marlene Dietrich, Bacharach’s work took off when he forged a partnership with songwriter Hal David in the Brill Building, the New York home to dozens of publishers and their contracted employees. In the 1960s – a decade of vast social upheaval, the assassination of JFK, and the Vietnam war – What The World Needs Now Is Love was as near as Bacharach and David got to a political statement. …

Politics

“I was never political, not until George W got in office and the way the election was stolen from Al Gore. I’ve got these two young kids and I’m worried about the world they’re growing up in. I’m scared to death now. I wish that England and France and Germany and Italy could vote. I want Obama to win so badly. I don’t understand what’s going on with Palin who is against abortion; against abortion on incest, against abortion on rape. I just can’t understand how you could feel that way.”

Anti Iraq war songs by Bacharach: here.

Unchallenged Lies and Unexamined Cliches — CNN Interview of Sarah Palin by Drew Griffin: here.