Posted on 01/30/2015 9:01:58 AM PST by EveningStar
Rod McKuen, a ubiquitous poet, lyricist and songwriter whose work met with immense commercial success if little critical esteem, died on Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 81...
Mr. McKuen, whom The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture described as having been, at his height, the unofficial poet laureate of America, was the author of dozens of books of poetry, which together sold millions of copies...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
JCS was a great rock opera.
Rod McKuen, what are you doin’?
Remember Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows?
Remember Sinatra singing If You Go Away?
I do.
RIP Rod.
Saw it when it was on Broadway. Was impressed by just one thing, the performance by Ben Vereen. The most amazing combination of singing and dancing I’d ever seen. But you’re certainly entitled to a different opinion and I know I’m in a minority in mine.
Bro, quotation marks and italics are your friends lest we get the wrong idea about you..........LOL!
Of course Rod was molested as a child, so that explained his warped sexuality.
McKuen wrote sappy stuff,the bubble-gum of poetry. His popularity proves Americans have had crappy taste back then, too. I disagree with you on Rice/Webber’s JCS. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber are immensely talented and, to me, the Superstar album is a masterpiece. I listen to it every year during Passion Week, and at other times too.
Just did not like the stage show. The over the top costumes and set designs sort of spoiled it for me. One exception, as mentioned, was Ben Vereen. Amazing and like nothing I’ve seen since. Have to say, just about everybody I was with loved it so just take it as one bad review of a show, not necessarily of the music at all. Should have stuck with commenting about the late Mr. McKuen’s work.
I would put the album on the stereo and let them sing it to me.
Beautiful music...worked every time.
Never got to second base but won every heart.
RIP.
This song is among my top 5 favorites.
Ping
I never got to see the stage show. I think in later years, Vereen regretted putting a black face on Judas.
RIP... Does anyone else know he also wrote classical music? Piano Concerto #3 was recorded...
I assumed he died decades years ago.
It's also a surprise he was only 81.
It's natural to picture somebody who belonged so much to a past era as more an ancient than a contemporary.
RIP, translator of Jacques Brel, writer of "Seasons in the Sun," last best-selling poet.
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