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I Get Along Without You Very Well: Chet Baker (1955)
Romance is dangerous, and romantics are dangerous people. They will turn lives upside down, destroy anyone and anything in their path – including themselves – all for the benefit of realizing a romantic vision. Like Melville’s white whale, romance is at once terrifying and beautiful, never able to be fully understood.
Chet Baker began his career as a beautiful young trumpet player, who happened to sing once in awhile. He ended his career gaunt and toothless, looking at least a decade older than fifty-nine years on earth might suggest, his heroin and cocaine numbed body sailing out of an Amsterdam hotel room window and onto an unforgiving sidewalk two stories below.
Jazz aficionados argued whether or not Baker was a good singer or not. He probably wasn’t, technically speaking, but that’s why I love him. This recording of “I Get Along Without You Very Well” is a pop song. Hell, it’s an indie-pop song. My case is this: Baker sings for effect, not technique. He sings so soft and close to the microphone that it sends chills up the spine. The celeste in the beginning is an indication of arrangement coming dangerously close to being called record production, an element usually ignored in traditional jazz recordings. Finally, Baker never touches his trumpet, nor does anyone take a solo. Yes, we clock in just shy of three minutes.
Chet Baker’s story is a tragic one; and let’s face it, tragedy is romance’s troubled kin. But even putting aside Baker’s biography, his voice is so mysterious, intimate, lackadaisical, and – here’s his trump card – androgynous. All these variables add up to a strange sensuality. Introduce his dangerous biography into the mix and Baker has all the makings of an indie-pop idol.
I have quite a few Chet Baker records, and there are so many great tracks, but this song always stands out as being the most dangerous. One can only imagine how many lives this recording has destroyed. His voice, gentle and hypnotic, casts a spell upon the listener. How many bad loves had been reunited on Baker’s watch? How many misguided make-up/break-up cycles were perpetuated because of his heartbreaking croon? How many perfectly good nights alone ended in gin-soaked tears and letters written but never sent after listening to this track on repeat for three hours? Romantics beware; Baker’s got your number.
Download song
Chet Baker Wikipedia
Buy The Best of Chet Baker Sings (highly, highly recommended)
Romance is dangerous, and romantics are dangerous people. They will turn lives upside down, destroy anyone and anything in their path – including themselves – all for the benefit of realizing a romantic vision. Like Melville’s white whale, romance is at once terrifying and beautiful, never able to be fully understood. Chet Baker began his career as a beautiful young trumpet player, who happened to sing once in awhile. He ended his career gaunt and toothless, looking at least a decade older than fifty-nine years on earth might suggest, his heroin and cocaine numbed body sailing out of an Amsterdam hotel room window and onto an unforgiving sidewalk two stories below.
Jazz aficionados argued whether or not Baker was a good singer or not. He probably wasn’t, technically speaking, but that’s why I love him. This recording of “I Get Along Without You Very Well” is a pop song. Hell, it’s an indie-pop song. My case is this: Baker sings for effect, not technique. He sings so soft and close to the microphone that it sends chills up the spine. The celeste in the beginning is an indication of arrangement coming dangerously close to being called record production, an element usually ignored in traditional jazz recordings. Finally, Baker never touches his trumpet, nor does anyone take a solo. Yes, we clock in just shy of three minutes.
Chet Baker’s story is a tragic one; and let’s face it, tragedy is romance’s troubled kin. But even putting aside Baker’s biography, his voice is so mysterious, intimate, lackadaisical, and – here’s his trump card – androgynous. All these variables add up to a strange sensuality. Introduce his dangerous biography into the mix and Baker has all the makings of an indie-pop idol.
I have quite a few Chet Baker records, and there are so many great tracks, but this song always stands out as being the most dangerous. One can only imagine how many lives this recording has destroyed. His voice, gentle and hypnotic, casts a spell upon the listener. How many bad loves had been reunited on Baker’s watch? How many misguided make-up/break-up cycles were perpetuated because of his heartbreaking croon? How many perfectly good nights alone ended in gin-soaked tears and letters written but never sent after listening to this track on repeat for three hours? Romantics beware; Baker’s got your number.
Download song
Chet Baker Wikipedia
Buy The Best of Chet Baker Sings (highly, highly recommended)