[78-L] Marvin Hamlisch dies

[David Lewis]

Philip wrote: I was very angry at Hamlisch at the Academy Award ceremonies that year when he accepted his STING Oscar - not even one mention of Joplin's name the whole night, and I never forgave that; at the time he just seemed an arrogant guy who was lucky.  I had a piano teacher then who in addition to my Chopin, Beethoven, and other standard lit was willing to work with me on the Joplin, Joseph F. Lamb, and James Scott I brought in excitedly.  (This teacher also put me onto Gottschalk, a lifelong love.) Ignoring Joplin at the Oscars raised my immature indignation. After that  I always referred to Hamlisch as "Ham-misch" and my mother playing the CHORUS LINE lp over and over on our Zenith console drove me crazy; when the family went to see the show in LA I deliberately opted out.  I think he changed once things weren't so lucky and effortless for him; I'm sorry he passed at a time when I think he was contributing something beyond his compositions to musical life, had some personal perspective that showed in his interviews, and it saddens me now that he's gone.

>>>> I heard you. I was very excited about "The Sting;" I loved hearing it on the radio, poking out among "Precious and Few," John Denver and all of the other pablum on thedial at that time. Now I can't even listen to it; too sweet and obviously arranged for my more advanced tastes. I had a stepmother who abused me with her Chorus Line LP and 8-track tape to the extent that I can't listen to that either. And "The Way We Were" has always impressed me as the most bathetic song imaginable; schmaltz topped with whipped cream topped with more schmaltz. However, I was also saddened by his passing. What he achieved was to thrust Scott Joplin back into the popular forum in a way perhaps no one else could have done it,despite that the news agencies still credit him unequivally for the soundtrack to "The Sting" and that my classmates still called the hit "The Sting" even though I knew thetitle was really "The Entertainer." The Rifkin LPs may have been popular, but they were playing mostly to the classical audience, and I find the interpretations now a littlestilted and too precious. Schuller's "The Red Back Book" plays on an endless loop on the University of Michigan's phone answering system; hearing those arrangements all slowed down, played from a damaged tape, calls attention to the fact that they don't date well. Although Gunther had his idea of what was authentic, it is an idealizedauthenticity, and "The Red Back Book" was never used as an urtext, just a source of parts. Both Schuller and Rifkin were more likely to reach a conservatory audiencethan John Q. Public, whom "The Sting" definitely did reach, fueling mass interest in ragtime. While the mass interest may have passed, the effect of it has not; Joplin hasgone from being an academic, antique, boutique curiosity to one of the most recorded American composers of all. I don't think any of us could have done that, for all ofour love of ragtime. 
Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com