{"id":1431,"date":"2020-04-21T16:30:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2020-04-21T16:37:03","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:37:03","slug":"locked-up-in-the-lockdown-blues-a-conversation-between-steve-bewick-norman-warwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2020\/04\/21\/locked-up-in-the-lockdown-blues-a-conversation-between-steve-bewick-norman-warwick\/","title":{"rendered":"LOCKED UP IN THE LOCKDOWN BLUES a conversation between Steve Bewick & Norman Warwick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOCKED UP IN THE LOCKDOWN BLUES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a conversation between Steve Bewick & Norman Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norm:        \u00b4As the song says, \u00b4Morning Has Broken\u00b4. You can\u00b4t beat Cat Stevens even if that isn\u00b4t his name anymore. He used to write some fantastic songs, but he didn\u00b4t write that song, I know. It just said \u00b4traditional\u00b4 on the label, I think, so maybe nobody knows who wrote it.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEVE<\/strong>:    \u00b4Morning has broken; the day has begun, anew. But with Captain Virus and his lock down cloak of repeatability in control it\u2019s all a bit like groundhog day.\u00b4        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, mate, here\u00b4s a challenge; let\u2019s be optimistic, let\u2019s be bold let\u2019s start the day on a high note of \u00b4something\u2019s coming, something good.\u00b4 I reckon the best starter for a high five, virus day lockdown of blues\/jazz hits might be Stan Kenton\u2019s\u2019 Orchestral arrangement of the prologue to West Side Story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could tap into, https:\/\/youtube\/MCFVgqOqvVQ<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and play you some of the legendary Stan Kenton Jazz Orchestra between 1960 & 1963. He knew what life was all about I reckon, He played for the fans not for the critics. He used to say that \u00b4Some of the wise boys who say my music is loud, blatant and that’s all should see the faces of the kids who have driven a hundred miles through the snow to see the band… to stand in front of the bandstand in an ecstasy all their own.\u00b4  The critics these days, though, seem to be able to see and hear what the critics then couldn\u00b4t, and now they all rave over the longevity of Kenton\u00b4s orchestra and the quality of musicians who played in from the nineteen forties until he died in the nineteen seventies. He was a big influence on progressive jazz, and this is a great performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenton’s West Side Story, it was called, and it was recorded by him and his orchestra recorded in 1961 and released by Capitol Records. It won the Grammy Award in 1962 for Best Jazz Performance \u2013 Large Group. It was recorded and released quickly to take advantage of the movie premiere of the musical West Side Story. and Kenton won his first Grammy Award. He won again the next year in the same category. Kenton’s West Side Story peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard magazine album chart, and that was pretty high \u2013 cotton for a jazz album in the mainstream. So, let\u00b4s have a listen.\u00b4                <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Norm:                  \u00b4That\u00b4s pretty good. I love the percussion and brass intro, and it\u00b4s got that strangely threatening exuberance that the play was all about. Some of our readers might now want something a little more restful, though, so let\u00b4s go back to Morning Has Broken. Surely, all our generation know this song because we nearly all bought that Teaser And The Firecat album it was included on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dee and I got married at round about that time and so chose Morning Has Broken as a hymn at our wedding. Listening to my dad, who was a bit of a singer, and my god father, Billy Hare belting out a Cat Stevens\u00b4 pop song from the pew behind was real fun. It was pretty old to be called a pop song, perhaps and although most people assumed Cat Stevens had written it, and that the lyrics were his, that wasn\u00b4t the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The truth was that this song was written by Eleanor Farjeon, a prominent author who was actually born in the 19th<\/sup> century (1881-1965). She pretty much set the words to a traditional Scottish folk tune called Bunessan. As such \u201cMorning Has Broken\u201d is actually quite old, having first been published in 1931<\/a>. In fact as the story goes, Cat Stevens discovered this piece in a hymn book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cat\u2019s cover came out on 1 October 1971 as part of his album, \u201cTeaser and the Firecat\u201d. And the following year, Island Records also released it as the third single from that undertaking. Cat Stevens\u2019 version was produced by his regular collaborator, Paul Samwell-Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A musician by the name of Rick Wakeman played the piano, as well as reportedly worked on the song\u2019s composition, although the song was released attributed to Eleanor Farjeon and Yusuf Islam which is Cat\u00b4s real name and the one he works under these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact in the year 2000 Wakeman released his own instrumental version of \u201cMorning Has Broken\u201d (as well as naming one of his entire albums after it). And apparently one of the reasons he did so is that he was under the impression that Cat never properly credited from for his contributions to the original. However, all was peacefully resolved on that matter shortly thereafter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cat\u2019s \u201cMorning Has Broken\u201d charted in nine countries, including peaking at number nine on the UK Singles Chart. So come on, let\u00b4s play this gentle old hymn, that actually became much more associated with funerals than with weddings, so quite why we thought it was appropriate for our wedding, I can\u00b4t quite remember really. We probably thought we were being groovy. I still think it\u2019s a really happy and celebratory lyric, though, and I seem to remember that we had been to the weddings of so many of our friends at which people didn\u00b4t sing the often antiquated hymns that had been chosen. So we picked this and Amazing Grace, thinking they were contemporary pop songs ! Mind you, we got married in a monastery, and dad and uncle Billy nearly lifted the roof of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Good old Eleanor Farjeon was ahead of her time. So, come on, let\u00b4s play it our readers and listeners.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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