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Esther Ofarim’s astonishingly moving performance of Scott Walker’s ‘Long About Now,’ 1970
07.09.2013
02:13 pm
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In yesterday’s mail I got a copy of Universal’s newly-released Scott Walker box set, which includes Scott(s) I-IV, ‘til The Band Comes In and a few singles. It’s a classy box and it sounds great, but that’s not exactly what this post is about (I’ll get to it in greater depth in the coming days).

On ‘til The Band Comes In, the least well-known of of Walker’s “classic” albums, there’s one song, “Long About Now,” that Walker could just not sing, since the lyrics were from the perspective of a wife waiting for her husband to return from his daily grind:

Long about now
He’s heading home
Back from the rain
Burned to the ground
His ashes will rise black butterflies
Tapping at my window pane
He’ll want to rest within my design
All the way to the end
Lighting my skies all up inside again
Dimming Summer
Long about now
He’s headin’ home
Drowning the games
That steel a man
Long about now
He’ll shrug and sigh and need me again

As poetry on the page—or screen—I think you’ll agree it’s a great lyric, but combined with the big ballady arrangement of Wally Stott, it really comes alive as a song. But who could sing it credibly and hold her own with Scott?

Walker’s then manager (and songwriting collaborator) Ady Semel was Israeli and also managed the beautiful Israeli pop singer Esther Ofarim, who had a worldwide 1968 hit with her then husband, Abi, called “Cinderella Rockefella” and she was brought in to sing “Long About Now.” My god did she kill it.

Yesterday, I plunked ‘til The Band Comes In on the stereo, not intending to really “listen” to it, but just to see how it compared to the CDs I already owned. I was doing the thing that audiophile nutjobs do, A-B’ing the old and new CDs. Anyway, I ended up doing the dishes and kept listening and when it got to “Long About Now,” my ears perked up and I was completely transfixed and moved by what I was hearing (I know the song well, but haven’t put this album on in well over a decade). On the last line, I found her performance to be so overwhelming emotionally that I got a lump caught in my throat and burst into tears. I probably listened to it five or six times on repeat.

It’s an incredible performance and frankly, one that I didn’t expect to find a video of, but wouldn’t you know it, in 1970 Esther Ofarim appeared on The Rolf Harris Show and did that very number.

Prepare to be astonished:
 

 
Thank you kindly, Adam Starr!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.09.2013
02:13 pm
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