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RIP Tony Bennett — 16 Comments

  1. The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay
    The glory that was Rome is of another day
    I’ve been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan
    I’m going home to my city by the Bay
    I left my heart in San Francisco
    High on a hill, it calls to me

    To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
    The morning fog may chill the air, I don’t care
    My love waits there in San Francisco
    Above the blue and windy sea
    When I come home to you, San Francisco
    Your golden sun will shine for me
    When I come home to you, San Francisco
    Your golden sun will shine for me

    –“I Left My Heart In San Francisco”
    ______________________________

    Yes, San Francisco and its residents chose poorly but … anyone who can’t understand the loss posed by its current deterioration is no friend of mine.

  2. I know many will disparage it here, but his duet concert with Lady Gaga is quite good. He’s in great form, and she shows her wonderful ability to sing the standards. They way she flirts with him also shows her great respect for the man, and he enjoys it all.

  3. Now the smart people are just singing “I Left San Francisco”.

    I lived in the East Bay (east of San Francisco and Oakland) for 40 (adult) years, 1977-2017, so I “saw it all”. The first 20 years were good in terms of weather, sightseeing, CA travel, etc. But the roads (including Interstates) were pretty much ignored except for patching (and still are), and I left my job (retired) as a county reference librarian (1990-2003) due to increasing disrespect from my boss and “shunning” by my lockstep “progressive”/Berkeley-schooled “colleagues”. (Like being in jr. high with cliques.) Couldn’t wait to get out of CA. So when my son (who works remotely) announced in 6/16 that they were moving to TX, I thought for about 5 seconds and said “I’m going too”! It took me until 10/17 to get to TX, where newcomers say, “I wasn’t born in TX, but I got here as soon as I could.” 🙂

  4. Saw him with my wife on Valentines Day 2013. He was excellent, finished with Fly Me to the Moon and brought the house down. At 86. Many years ago, my father was an accountant at Columbia Records, this was probably 1964, when Bennett came in to the office in Manhattan on some kind of business. Afterwards he took the regular guys out for a drink after work. It was one of the highlights of my father’s life.

  5. San Francisco IS a great loss. Who was its mayor? Why, one Gavin Newsom, now governing the decaying state of California, who is likely to replace Biden as POTUS. Enjoy the decline if you can. I’m not sorry I’m old, but I fear for my kids and grandkids.

  6. My wife and I saw him at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa 5 years ago, and he was wonderful. I was teasing some of my younger colleagues at work the following Monday, telling them we’d seen this great act, a guy named Anthony Benedetto. They of course had no idea who I was talking about.

  7. physicsguy: I can’t imagine disparagement. Lady Gaga clearly loved him, and they both loved their collaboration together.

  8. Boy, this song sure hits me where I live. I was stationed at NAS Alameda, right across the bay from “The City,” from 1963 to 1968. At the time, San Francisco was a great place to dine, sightsee, and shop. My wife and I went there often.

    When my squadron deployed to the Pacific theater knowing that we were going in harm’s way, we hoped we would return safely to the City by the Bay.

    On those few occasions where my squadron would dine at the Subic Bay P.I. O’Club, someone would always ask the band to play that song. The band had an excellent vocalist who did the song justice. (Though not up Tony Bennett’s standard.) That far from home, the song was very meaningful to us.

    The fate of San Francisco is something that’s hard to grasp. If you loved and enjoyed the city the way we did, it’s an outrage. Really an unforgivable sin.

    Tony Bennett has been a long time favorite. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing him in person, but his artistry has always been top notch for me. What a wonderful, full life he lived. We just don’t see many like him anymore. RIP.

  9. You can feel his yearning to return to where he left his heart. Truly a singular talent with a unique timing in singing a song’s lyrics, most notably in the song, ‘The Shadow of Your Smile’ from the movie ‘The Sandpipers’.

    “Frank Sinatra, whom Mr. Bennett counted as a mentor and friend, once put it another way. “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business,” he told Life magazine in 1965. “He excites me when I watch him. He moves me.” NY Times

  10. @ Geoffrey > “You can feel his yearning to return to where he left his heart.”

    The Welsh have a word for that: hiraeth.
    It’s a combination of nostalgia, homesickness, and longing perfectly expressed in Bennett’s song about San Francisco.

    Here’s a song on the subject.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkqq64tSj10
    “Hiraeth” : This word has no exact English equivalent. The nearest translation is a yearning or longing.
    A song collected by J. Lloyd Williams. Published in: Davies, Grace Gwyneddon (1933) “Chwech o Alawon Gwerin Cymreig”, Cardiff. [Six Welsh Folk Songs]
    Recorded by AR Log 1980 ( Album Ar Log 2)

    Dwedwch fawrion o wybodaeth
    O ba beth a gwnaethpwyd hiraeth
    A pha ddefnydd a roedd ynddo
    Na ddarfyddo wrth ei wisgo ?

    Derfydd aur a derfydd arian
    Derfydd melfed derfydd sidan
    Derfydd pob dilledyn helaeth
    Eto er hyn ni dderfydd hiraeth

    Hiraeth mawr a hiraeth creulon
    Hiraeth sydd yn torri ‘nghalon
    Pan fwyf dryma’r nos yn cysgu
    Fe ddaw hiraeth ac a’m deffry

    (Hiraeth hiraeth cilia cilia
    Paid a phwyso mor drwm arna’
    Nesa dipyn at y erchwyn
    Gad i mi gael cysgu gronyn)

    English lyrics:

    Tell me oh wise ones
    Of what stuff is hiraeth made?
    And what substance is put into it
    That it never fades from being worn

    Gold fades and silver fades
    Velvet fades silk fades
    Every sort of clothing fades
    And yet hiraeth doesn’t fade

    Great Hiraeth cruel hiraeth
    Hiraeth tears at my heart
    When I’m sleeping deeply at night
    Hiraeth comes and wakes me

    (Hiraeth hiraeth away away
    Don’t weigh so heavily on me
    Go a little nearer to the edge
    Let me have a little bit of sleep)

    ***
    The literal translation of the last line is “let me have a little grain of sleep”

  11. AesopFan

    @ Geoffrey > “You can feel his yearning to return to where he left his heart.”
    The Welsh have a word for that: hiraeth.
    It’s a combination of nostalgia, homesickness, and longing perfectly expressed in Bennett’s song about San Francisco.

    I am reminded of the Portuguese Saudade.

    Saudade (English: /sa??d??d?/,[1] European Portuguese: [s?w?ðað?], Brazilian Portuguese: [saw?dad?i], Galician: [saw?ðað?]; plural saudades)[2] is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. It is often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the object of longing ever again. It is a recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events— often elusive —[citation needed] that cause a sense of separation from the exciting, pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused. It derives from the Latin word for solitude.[3]

    Nascimento and Meandro (2005)[4] cite Duarte Nunes Leão’s definition of saudade: “Memory of something with a desire for it.”

    In Brazil, the day of Saudade is officially celebrated on 30 January.[5][6] It is not a widely acknowledged day in Portugal.

    From Amalia Rogrigues, the late, great Portuguese singer of Fado, we have AMALIA RODRIGUES – FADO DA SAUDADE

    Having lived a year in San Francisco and Berserkeley, I can understand the longing for a lost San Francisco.
    Here is the story of a lost Venezuelan dealing with lefty San Francisco. Dealing with Chavista Propaganda in the Heart of San Francisco

    The thing about first-world leftists who support chavismo is that they don’t realize they embody the imperialistic dynamics they criticize…
    Before tech booms would bring in a different, gentrifying demographic, San Francisco’s liberal politics and Latino population were a draw for Latin American leftists in exile who weren’t welcome in Miami.

    An irony here is that Chavismo and Cuban/Caudillo/Fidelismo are great mutual supporters. Castro etc was/is the friend of Chvismo,and vice versa. Miami Cubans are the enemies of Castro/etc. One would think that the enemies of the friends of Chavismo- the Cubans in Miami- would be a welcome place for refugees from Chavismo. O hwell…

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