Rod McKuen
Concerto For Four Harpsichords & Orchestra / Four Statements From Three Books (LP)
FormatLPLabelStanyan RecordsGenreComposition
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condition (record/cover): NM (fabrication marks not affecting play) / NM (in shrink)
The unlikeliest guest in this list. Rod McKuen, the best-selling poet of late-sixties America and author of more ballads than anyone could count, decided in 1968 that he would write a concerto for four harpsichords and orchestra. It was recorded in London with the London Arte Orchestra under Arthur Greenslade and issued on McKuen's own Stanyan label. The four movements (Statement, Serenade, Largo and Eddie's Theme) play out like a film score in search of a film, all plucked baroque filigree over lush strings.
The B-side, Four Statements from Three Books, turns songs from his poetry collections into orchestral pieces, among them The Art of Catching Trains and A Cat Named Sloopy. File it next to the harpsichord-mad easy-listening records of the same years, though with a strange earnestness that makes it hard to dismiss. Original 1968 US pressing.
| Concerto For Four Harpsichords & Orchestra | |||
| A1 | Statement | 4:45 | |
| A2 | Serenade | 4:33 | |
| A3 | Largo | 3:56 | |
| A4 | Eddie's Theme | 5:08 | |
| Four Statements From Three Books | |||
| B1 | Alamo Junction (from "Stanyan Street And Other Sorrows") | 2:50 | |
| B2 | The Art Of Catching Trains (from "Lonesome Cities") | 4:59 | |
| B3 | Church Windows (from "Lonesome Cities") | 2:46 | |
| B4 | A Cat Named Sloopy (from "Listen To The Warm") | 3:59 | |
- Jeff Thrasher
- Artwork
- Rod McKuen
- Composed By, Producer
- Arthur Greenslade
- Conductor
- The London Arte Orchestra
- Orchestra
