 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: GBK
Date: 2012-01-29 06:13
Acker Bilk is 83 today.
"Stranger on the Shore" (#1 in 1962) is 50 years old this year.
Both still going strong ...
...GBK
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Author: BobD
Date: 2012-01-29 10:52
Good to know he has reached the Shore...and with a good lip.......
Bob Draznik
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2012-01-29 11:44
He always said that "Stranger on the Shore" was his superannuation package.
Tony F.
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2012-01-30 09:28
GBK,
Do you have a sound bite of your "Stranger" performance with the orchestra a few years ago? If so, please post or send it to me. Maybe Acker would like a copy as well.
HRL
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Author: GBK
Date: 2012-01-30 11:13
Hank,
I did about 5 or 6 outdoor performances a few summers ago. Not sure if it was ever taped.
I'll check my own personal tapes to see if someone made me a recording.
BTW - The audience loved it - not so much because of me, but rather because they all immediately recognized the tune.
...GBK
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2012-01-31 00:34
But don't be modest! You surely did Acker proud!
"Stranger on the Shore" is what Pete Barbuti used to call an "awww song!
Post Edited (2012-01-31 00:38)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-01-31 12:51
It's interesting that "Stranger on the Shore" made such a hit on radio's rock stations, where Acker Bilk's style of music really didn't fit in with the pre-metal, hard-rock vibe. I lived in the California Bay Area at the time, where the biggest and most commercialized Top-40 station, KEWB AM-91, put "Stranger on the Shore" in heavy rotation. I heard all the snarky comments about his wide vibrato. I never tried to copy it. I probably made snooty comments myself, to the effect that the song was sentimental. (As a kid, I practiced self-protective, "Don't show 'em anything" cynicism. In my art-snob vocabulary, therefore, "sentimental" was a cussword.) Even so, I couldn't help liking "Stranger on the Shore." Maybe it was a guilty pleasure, but I certainly never switched stations when it came on!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2012-02-01 02:46
My HS band director hated that recording. It wasn't the sound he liked and everyone was trying to emulate it.
Raising the spectre of envy, how could someone who sounded like that make so much money? But then, how could any clarinet player make it to the top of the charts?
So, Mr. Bilk commands a lot of respect.
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2012-02-01 22:49
I always put Stranger on the Shore on my tune list for everywhere I play, and the fun part is that EVERYBODY knows the song. It's simple enough to play.
My other regular tune is Benny Goodman's Memories, also a simple tune.
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Author: Guy
Date: 2012-02-01 23:56
Here's Acker performing it live. I've never understood the knock on him at all. His sound, however unconventional, is enormously appealing to a great many people. Those who dislike him would be well-served to investigate the "why" of his appeal.
http://bit.ly/tBcNRr
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2012-02-02 02:54
The director of the Air Force band I played with when "Stranger" was popular was himself a clarinetist, and he used to loathe Ackers vibrato. Naturally enough, whenever we played anything where the clarinets were prominent the whole clarinet line would exagerrate our vibrato and drive him nuts. Personally, I always thought that Monty Sunshine's "Hushabye" was more appealing.
Tony F.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2012-02-02 10:39
Monty Sunshine's version of Petit Fleur was more popular than Sidney Bechet's
Bob Draznik
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