The song of the day for Wednesday, July 17, 2013 is “I’ve Come Home Again.”
About This Song
One of three wonderful songs by Charles deForest on this album, “I’ve Come Home Again” was written especially for Astoria: Portrait of the Artist. Charles DeForest was a well-known composer and performer in New York for many years. He died in 1996. To learn more about Charles DeForest, here is a remembrance by friends posted on the Cabaret Hotline and his obituary from the New York Times. His other two songs on this album are When Do The Bells Ring For Me and Where Do You Go From Love. All three are wonderful songs.
About This Version
Yesterday, I was texting with my co-blogger Lesley and asked her what she was doing “… listening to Astoria,” she said and I replied that I was listening to Hometown, My Town. I cannot think of either of these albums without thinking of the other. In Hometown, My Town we meet the young man with great and wonderful dreams about skyscrapers and penthouses, determined to conquer New York (if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, but that’s another song). And then in Astoria: Portrait of the Artist, the mature man looks back on those very early days, just returned home from fighting in a war and working and studying to make a dream come true, and shares those memories of his old neighborhood. His home, still, after all these years. And with “I’ve Come Home Again” he shares with us these thoughts:
I’ve touched a star or two
Tomorrow if I try
Even brighter stars and prayers
Will be answered
And should the moment blind me
That little boy will remind me
Hand in hand, we’ll go home again.
And so when Lesley asked me to make “I’ve Come Home Again” the song of the day, I was more than happy to make it so.
To read the liner notes for Astoria: The Portrait of the Artist, please visit this topic at our sister site (still being developed) The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography.
http://open.spotify.com/track/72OlhrmOcmJNnx8fcsYffH
“I’ve Come Home Again,” as well as Astoria: The Portrait of the Artist, is available from iTunes.
This album can take my breath away, it seems to always surprise me anew. It is fearlessly honest and so very true. With Jorge Jorge Calandrelli’s arrangements and Ralph Sharon on piano, it is a masterwork, sung by a master.