[Dixielandjazz] Re: "As Time Goes By"

[Jim Kashishian]

"As Time Goes By" (1931. Herman Hupfeld) 

Bill Haesler used this song to end his last post to DJML, which causes me to
tell all of you what I did last Saturday evening.

Not having a gig, the wife talked me into going to a Rod Stewart concert in
Madrid.
I got some last minute tickets up in the Gods which cost me 40 Euros a piece
(not particularly cheap!).  The downfront tickets were 125 Euros each!

Well, had we been down front we wouldn't have been able to sit in our
expensive seats as everyone there lept out of their seats as soon as Mr.
Stewart walked on stage and stayed standing.  Our seats had a good view...if
you had binoculars! I couldn't understand a word he sang until he got to the
mushy part of the evening when he did 4 of his American Favorites songs,
including As Time Goes By.  On all his pop hits, which are very good by the
way, the drums reached us at the far end of the sports arena, but the voice
didn't. 

No matter!  Everyone around me was thrilled with the music, including my
wife!  I enjoyed the theatrics, the stage presentation, the lighting, some
really fantastic electric guitar (which cut above the drums!), but no voice.
Not that he has much of a voice, but there was none in the sound that was
reaching us.  It's amazing that that makes no difference to the fans who are
just thrilled to be there.

That's the thing with the big stars, they don't have to win over their
audience.  The audience is in their pocket before they go on stage even.
Different for us guys & gals, right?  Unless we are at one of our local
clubs, we normally have to work pretty hard to win over a crowd.  It can
happen by the 3rd song, but normally seems to happen (in a concert) towards
the end.  Then, they suddenly want you to play 25 encores!  (We do one,
followed by a second...which is normally two choruses of Mood
Indigo....really quiet, really slow.  Easy way to get outathere!)

Anyway, Rod Stewart put on a great show.  I wish I owned as many neat
clothes as he does.  He put his whole wardrobe on, I believe, during the 2
hr show.

The American Favorites part was very clever, and used real, old style band
stand music stands, a full string section, and his normal backing group
behind music stands & dressed in white tuxedos.  Good show.  Kinda bland
vocals, which bored the kids down front, and they all sat down for the first
time.  No matter, "Maggie" got them back on their feet!

He was clever to only do about 10 minutes from those Favorites albums.  Did
a nice version of What a Wonderful World, and his gravily voice worked well
on the tune.

Saw a non musician friend of mine after the show.  He loved the girl
saxophonist.  He said he didn't know if she played well or not (she did!),
but he like her.  Mainly he was concerned with her long legs & miniskirt.
Now I know why I never toured with Rod Stewart!

Jim