Very sad news, just as 2023 draws inevitably to its close - one of the greatest of all interpreters of Stephen Sondheim's songs Mr David Kernan has departed for the glittering halls of Fabulon.
Originally an actor (he indeed appeared in Zulu, as well as some tackier stuff later on like Carry On Abroad), Mr Kernan's fame was sealed when he became a fixture on the cult 60s satirical programme That Was the Week That Was.
However, that show's producer and impresario Ned Sherrin had other plans for his talents when TW3 was over, and so it was that he became best-known for his singing, not least in the world premiere of the Sondheim revue Side By Side By Sondheim.
By way of a tribute, from that show, these...
[You'll need to adjust the volume on this first clip; it's very old...]
And my favourite [no video, more's the pity]:
Leave you? Leave you?
How could I leave you? How could I go it alone?
Could I wave the years away? With a quick goodbye?
How do you wipe tears away when your eyes are dry?
Sweetheart, lover, could I recover?
Give up the joys I have known?
Not to fetch your pills again every day at five
Not to give those dinners for ten elderly men from the UN
How could I survive? Could I leave you
And your shelves of the world's best books
And the evenings of martyred looks, cryptic sighs
Sullen glares from those injured eyes?
Leave the quips with a sting, jokes with a sneer
Passionless lovemaking once a year?
Leave the lies ill-concealed and the wounds never healed
And the game's not worth winning and wait, I'm just beginning
What, leave you, leave you? How could I leave you?
What would I do on my own? Putting thoughts of you aside
In the south of France, would I think of suicide?
Darling, shall we dance? Could I live through the pain
On a terrace in Spain? Would it pass? It would pass
Could I bury my rage with a boy half your age
In the grass? Bet your ass!
But I've done that already or didn't you know, love?
Tell me, how could I leave when I left long ago, love?
Could I leave you? No, the point is, could you leave me?
Well, I guess you could leave me the house, leave me the flat
Leave me the Braques and Chagalls and all that
You could leave me the stocks for sentiment's sake
And ninety percent of the money you make
And the rugs and the cooks, darling, you keep the drugs
Angel, you keep the books, honey, I'll take the grand
Sugar you keep the spinet and all of our friends and
Just wait a goddamn minute!
Oh, leave you? Leave you? How could I leave you?
Sweetheart, I have to confess, could I leave you?Yes
Will I leave you? Will I leave you?
Guess!
Sheer perfection. We'll miss him.
RIP, David Stanley Kernan (23rd June 1938 – 26th December 2023)
A sad loss of an excellent interpreter of Sondheim's work. He was able to express deep meaning edged with humour.
ReplyDeleteRip
He was one of the greats! Jx
DeleteGod I remember hearing that version of Could I Leave You on radio three decades ago, it really surprised me to hear a man singing a love song clearly to a man as it was really unusual at the time ((still kind of is, despite there being a lot more out LGBT artists than there used to be
ReplyDeleteMr Ned Sherrin knew exactly what he was doing to shake up the establishment, and I know full well Mr Sondheim smiled his broadest smile at this production. Jx
DeleteHe was great on Loose Ends,
DeleteMade a big impression on me, though I didn't know who he was til now
ReplyDeleteWell there you go. The Museum of Camp does it again! Jx
DeleteI know, it was just a short clip of a song I heard twenty years ago
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