watched PBS again last night. 'Strange Days on Planet Earth' was cool, focusing on effects alien species can have on ecosystems/planets/etc, how this alien invasion has increased exponentially due to the transportation explosion of the past 40 years, and how what may have been considered a 'freak occurence' in the past are now being seen together as possibly interconnected symptoms of a larger problem. but what really piqued my interest was the documentary about rock n' roll evolving into an art form, beginning with the beach boys (pet sounds), then the beatles , then the kinks and the animals (the invasion), then came the rotating pebbles....but Burt Bacharach....I can't even begin to praise this guy enough. I had no idea he wrote so many songs with his lyrcist, Hal David. Dionne Warwick ("Walk On By"), the Supremes, Four Tops. You name it.

Bacharach did much more than merely write pop in the sixties, he defined it. In fact, it was his absolute dominance of the genre then, that mistakenly leads the casual observer today, into thinking that his output has since tapered off

I definitely have overlooked this prosperous branch of musical knowledge and pleasure, and it definitely calls for further investigation. Burt Bacharach's greatest hits anyone?

bbc2 song library