Dionne Warwick//Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

Tomorrow morning, WAYYY TOO EARLY, I will be on a plane leaving for San Jose, Costa Rica. I’m going to visit my friend Annie, who has been stewarding this house for the summer. I’ve never been to Costa Rica. In fact, I’ve never been anywhere in Latin America, so I’m totally excited! I’m overdue for an international jaunt.

There’s some good news and some bad news to this. The good news: today we are going to listen to DIONNE WARWICK singing a song written expressly for her by BURT BACHARACH. The bad: there isn’t going to be an OSS post for a full week. I’ll miss you guys.

So obviously, this song it about a very different San Jose, but I think some of the lyrics still apply. Indeed, I may be “going to find/some peace of mind.”

Something of note about Dionne Warwick, besides that when her career was slowing down in the late 90s she decided to become a spokesperson for Psychic Friends Network, is this : she was born just down the road from where I’m sitting right now (The Bricks), in East Orange, NJ. EO!!!! Also interesting is that Warwick made the Top 250 Delinquent Taxpayers List published in October 2007, as she currently owes the government $2,185,908.08 (thanks Wikipedia). Hot damn. I thought I was broke. Maybe she can pay that and the government can start up some kind of Dionne Warwick Stimulus Package. Everybody gets 50 cents and a copy of the “Walk On By” single.

As for Burt Bacharach, he is a supremely cheesy song-writer, but somewhat self-consciously so, which puts him delightfully over on the kitschy side of the cheese-kitsch continuum. There’s some real talent under that kitsch, which you can really hear in this song, which is AWESOME. And damn, I really like those backup vocals! Woah Woah Woah Woah Woah Woah Woah Woah Woah.

And on that note, see you next week.



Do You Know the Way to San Jose?.mp3

ONE LAST (TOTALLY UNRELATED) THING BEFORE I GO: My BFF, Ange, is DJing tonight with Mia from Electrelane at Bruar Falls in Williamsburg. It's going to be sweet, so skip the free RAA show and come there instead to help me decide if it's really worth it to sleep for only three hours pre-flight or if I should just stay up all night instead.

LA is a great big freeway.
Put a hundred down and buy a car.
In a week, maybe two, they’ll make you a star.
Weeks turn into years, how quick they pass,
And all the stars that never were
Are parking cars and pumping gas.