Christmas with friends

             This is my friend and fellow Soka Gakkai member Mary Pat Kuppig, Christmas 2010

Jimmy Rowles and I Looking Back

     At eighteen I was the youngest staff songwriter for Hello There! Publishing. In 1967 I was assigned by the company to work as lyricist with the famous jazz pianist and composer, Jimmy Rowles. When I showed up at Jimmy’s house in Burbank, he was visibly surprised by my youthful appearance but once we got down to work, our dramatic differences in age became meaningless. He played a number of his compositions and one in particular struck a chord with me, a slow, melancholy waltz. My favorite book as a girl was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Jimmy’s melody reminded me of heather covered moors in the mist. I took a tape of the song home and wrote the lyric that evening and when I called Jimmy the following morning, telling him the lyric was complete, once again he was surprised. I sang the lyric as he played and when the song ended he was silent for a few moments. I wasn’t sure how to interpret his silence and worried that he didn’t like what I’d written. He looked at me and said that I had just perfectly described the place where he grew up. I think he titled the song LOOKING BACK. Many vocalists, including Diana Krall, have recorded and continue to sing LOOKING BACK. I have the very first recording of the song with Jimmy playing and me singing.

     We kept in touch over the years and on my twenty-first birthday I went to hear him play in Hermosa Beach. Sarah Vaughn, Jimmy’s old friend and one of my musical idols, was sitting in with him and when the set concluded Jimmy introduced me to Sarah and bought me my first legal drink. The last time I saw Jimmy was in 1993 at Capitol Records. He was suffering from emphysema and walked on the arm of an assistant and dragged an oxygen tank. But even in his fragile condition he had the same raspy laugh and could still play with verve.

     In 1996 Bones Howe called me and told me Jimmy had passed. That night I wrote a lyric titled I’VE BEEN MEANING TO CALL in honor of my old friend.

   

Diana Ross, Kanye West, Nas, Jimmy Webb and Me

In 1969 I was a young songwriter at Mr. Bones Music Publishing in Hollywood headed by Bones Howe. I wrote a song ( under my maiden name Cheryl Ernst)  titled 'The Interim' which was recorded by Diana Ross for Motown. Jimmy Webb, who had at one time worked in the copyright office for Motown, had written a song titled simply, 'Interim' which was recorded by Richard Harris.
Other than the confusion over the titles, the songs are not remotely the same.

Although it was clearly titled 'The Interim' on Diana Ross' Diana Ross (Re mastered) cd released by Motown in 2002, my song was attributed to Jimmy Webb. In 2006 Kanye West and Nas released
Hip Hop is Dead and included 'Still Dreaming' which sampled Diana Ross's recording of my song 'The Interim' and once again the song was attributed to Jimmy Webb.

All parties concerned; Motown, BMG publishing, BMI, Universal and Jimmy Webb have been notified of the error and still the misattribution continues despite our ongoing efforts.

I wrote my first song at 14 and I'm still writing songs at 67. I've had other songs recorded by many artists but I've never had someone else take credit for my creative work. Copyright infringement is a big problem for many creative people in the internet age. While I may never get wealthy from songwriter's royalties, at the very least I, not Jimmy Webb, should get the credit for my song.  

LONDON AND AMSTERDAM 2013

September 12
Expanded bus tour took us through Mayfair and Kensington. One property in Kensington cost 300 million pounds. Mind boggling. Spent the afternoon at the magnificent Victoria and Albert museum, my current favorite London museum. It houses every form and era of art from every corner of the globe. Glass, porcelain, silver, fashion, sculpture and jewelry; rooms and rooms of treasures. It could be said that the British Empire pillaged the riches of the countries it colonized and explored but in the 21st century I'm grateful to the British taxpayers for the opportunity to visit all London museums for free.
We had a light lunch in the Pre-Raphaelite room adjacent to the V&A tearoom. The decor is 19th century elaborate, over the top elegance. Delicious.
Sat at a bus stop on the way back to the hotel and had a fun conversation with two little sisters and their mother from Kent. The older of the two was severely disabled and was on the way to a doctor's appointment. The little sister got off school in the bargain. We talked about pop music, who they liked and didn't. They were big fans of Emilie Sande. Both wanted to be actresses/singers and had already chosen their stage names. Reminded me of myself at their age and really made my day.

September 13
Moved on to the Grange Whitehall Hotel next to the British Museum. The Grange is an old world hotel housed in a Georgian building on a short block of Georgian buildings, literally right around the corner from the BM and Russell Square. We had a spacious room with an elegant decor. Great breakfast in the dining room overlooking a private garden. Really friendly and helpful staff and lots of American tourists.
We toured the library at the BM; a treasure trove not only of rare books but all form of ephemera so popular in the 18th century private collections of the upper class. Natural wonders of the world; shells, corals, gems, rocks, taxidermy, coins, pottery and an enormous collection of wax seals took hours to see. There was an exhibit of Meso American wall friezes and sculpture that was creatively curated.
Amazingly bad Italian take away spaghetti dinner in our room.

September 14
Another day at the British Museum. Very crowded. Paul pushed me in a wheelchair  today because of bad knees. Saw every manner of artifact from every century and culture. Viking hoards, mummies, Etruscan wall friezes. After a while it's a little overwhelming and needed a slow lunch in the restaurant. The Elgin marbles are so impressively displayed in the bright, white galleries lit by skylights overhead.

On the bus tour back to Bloomsbury we passed the tower of London via the Tower Bridge. I've seen so many films about King Henry VIII lopping off the heads of his wives, these places seem a little cinematic at first until it sank in that the tower has stood there since 1066 and that the people portrayed by so many actually walked these grounds, languished in the tower bridge prison and lost their heads on the grounds. It is sobering to think that this city and these buildings which have witnessed so much human history still stand. We Americans love to tear things down and build new things all the time.
London has its share of new architecture too. The bullet shaped building known to locals as the gherkin, the city hall they call the onion and an enormous tower nicknamed the shard.

MUSEUM VISIT TO LONDON AND AMSTERDAM 2013

For two consecutive years I was unable to travel to Europe due to back problems. After a lot of physical therapy, shots and chiropractic adjustments, Paul and I finally went this September for 19 days.
What follows is a journal of 9 museums, 2 cathedrals and two synagogues in London and Amsterdam.
September 9th
10 1/2 hours to London Heathrow arrived September 10th at 11

: a.m. I was wheeled one mile from the gate to baggage claim by Mr. Bradshaw from Leeds. Shuttle to Hotel Mercure Bloomsbury, one of a chain owned by a French company. Chilly but efficient reception. We slept 4 hours to recover from an uncomfortable, bumpy flight then had dinner at Anatol, a Turkish restaurant decorated floor to ceiling with hand painted, Turkish designs. Great meal, excellent service at a reasonable price. Lamb mussaka for me and lamb stew with tomatoes and peppers for Paul.

September 11
Hop on hop off buses run in the big cities of the world touring the major sites. They are double deckers, the upper deck open air with recorded historical commentary. Passengers are boarded and dropped off at their desired stops at regular 15 minute intervals. While it's a little touristy, it's the most convenient way for people like me with limited mobility and energy to get around a big city. We braved the cloudy, brisk weather and sat upper deck for the best views of this remarkable city. First stop St. Paul's Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren's church was built after the great fire of 1066 with a tax on coal. While it creates a majestic impression from outside, it's interior leaves something to be desired. Dark, gloomy nave with a cold, uninspiring rotunda to follow. In my opinion its historical importance is all that accounts for the pricy admission charge; Queen Elizabeth's coronation, Diana and Charles wedding and a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr.. An interesting and moving fact;  on 9/11 hundreds of American tourists and Londoners gathered for a sermon delivered on the grand stairway in front of the church.
Just an hour left to see the Turner collection at the Tate before closing. Turner's paintings explode with light like drug induced revelations. Strange muddy glazes and surrealistic imagery sets him so far ahead of his British contemporaries.
Ate at an Indian restaurant next to the hotel. Had the fixed price, dinner for two which was delicious but way too much food. I should complain?

More entries to come.

MY LOS ANGELES

I lived and worked in San Francisco and later the Berkeley/Oakland area for 40 years before moving to Los Angeles in 2011. Recently I received a rather condescending reply to an invitation I made to a Bay Area friend.  I invited her and her family to stay with us in Los Angeles.  The friend said that she was surprised we had moved to LA but was sure it had 'its charms'. She didn't think she'd be visiting.

I was disappointed by her dismissive attitude but understood where she was coming from. My husband and I felt the same way when we visited family here on holidays year after year. We were typical Bay Area xenophobes with a Northern California superiority complex.  It wasn't until we briefly lived in Prague then relocated to Colorado that we changed our perspective.  Living in the same small area for so many years had blinded us to the fascination of other places.

We didn't make a conscious choice to live in Los Angeles. The needs of an ailing parent brought us. But now that we've settled into life here we see the city with new eyes. We frequently visit the Getty, LACMA, Norton Simon and other museums.  On Sunday we read the LA Times and have dim sum in Chinatown or drive up the coast and walk along the Malibu pier.  We shop at the Vallarta Market for the cornucopia of fresh vegetables and fragrant, warm bread. Actually the adjustment has been pretty smooth.  OK,  so LA traffic is bad but try to drive on the Bay Bridge or Highway 880 at 9 a.m.  One thing we learned from all this....get out of town before your feet get stuck in a rut!

March Suggested Reading

THE ASSISTANT by Bernard Malamud