making love with his ego

In 1960 Dirk Bogarde played the famed composer and pianist Franz Liszt in the sweeping biopic Song Without End. The film portrays Liszt as a 19th century rock star -- at one point a woman quickly snatches up his gloves from the stage in a move that reminds one of Frank Sinatra's bobby-soxers and the Rolling Stones' groupies. And nobody could have played this massive talent with the massive ego better than Dirk Bogarde. He brings an enormous confidence and a brilliant air of arrogance to the role that few other actors could have pulled off.

I know I'm a bit goofy, but I couldn't help but think of Ziggy Stardust while watching the film... so here is my little tribute to Dirk as Liszt as Ziggy...

The Wind Cannot Read - Music Video

I just realized today that I never posted this on the blog before! I made this video a few months ago for my Song of the Week on Silents and Talkies, but completely forgot to post it here, where it really belonged :)

The images are all taken from The Wind Cannot Read, and accompanied by the theme song from the movie, sung by Vera Lynn. I tracked down an old 45 in England on ebay and converted it to mp3 to use for the video. I hope you like it!

Lyrics for Lovers

On the Dirk Bogarde Estate website, they have the entire album that he recorded in 1960. It's available on CD (you know I'm buying it.) but for free you can listen to the whole thing via this link. Before you listen, a word of warning: he does not sing. It's spoken-word set to music. I happen to like spoken word music (like Charles Boyer's LP Where Does Love Go) but it's an acquired taste. I always used to think it was silly, but it's grown on me.

I really love discovering when actors recorded music, books on tape or spoken word albums, especially actors whose voices are as essential to their acting as their mannerisms and appearance.

I've tried to explain my tastes in vocals before, but nobody ever seems to really understand me -- I'll try it here and see if anyone can make sense of what I have to say :) In music and movies (and life I guess) I like deep voices with some gravel in them. This is why Frank Sinatra is my favorite singer -- if you put on headphones, turn off the lights and close your eyes you can almost feel like you are falling into his voice. His voice reaches into eternity, it just seems like it could go on forever into space. It's so full of depth. And so this was one of the first things I noticed about Dirk Bogarde, too -- he has one of these voices. It's very deep and not entirely smooth. He also speaks with a certain flourish that translates marevelously into these spoken word songs.

Well, I really hope you'll enjoy these! As for me, I'm listening right now!

ps. Thanks Nicole for the picture!!


UPDATE: Just One of Those Things is my favorite -- I hadn't listened to the whole thing when I wrote the post, but I just finished and thought I'd let you know :)