Killing Me Softly with His Song

Hi, there is a good movie out, About a Boy with Hugh Grant. I saw it at the local multiplex, and really liked it, its about a bachelor who ends up in a relationship with a boy. Which I can relate to, although I don't get a big monthly check for just being.
The movie features the song "Killing Me Softly", the Robert Flack hit of 1973. I always thought of this song as kind of a dorky love song (which the movie uses to its advantage). Thinking back, it was 1973, just after the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, Woodstock, etc., so it was dorky in the mind of a 19 year old boy.
Since, like the Hugh Grant character in the movie, I had a little extra time on my hands, so I decided to look up the song on the internet and see what it was about and why, etc. I found out that it was written by Charles Fox (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics). This duel had and continue to work in the movie and TV business, with their other big claim to fame was penning the Happy Days theme song. I wonder which made them more money? [Also turns out Norman Gimbel wrote the English translation of "Girl From Ipanema"!]
Killing Me Softly was inspired by feelings that a folk singer, Lori Lieberman, had when she went to see Don McLean perform his ballad American Pie ("drove my chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry...") at the Troubadour. She felt that Don was singing about her, and if you read the lyrics to Killing Me Softly, it all fits. Lori Lieberman recorded it, and it never made it up the charts. It did make it up to the airlines play list where Roberta heard it on a cross country flight. (Remember before the days of walkmans when you actually did listen to 9 tracks of airline music and thought it was cool?).


Robert Flack in 1973
Roberta first sang Killing Me Softly at the Greek, which afterwards Quincy Jones, the other act on the bill, leaned over and said, "Don't you ever sing that song again until you get it recorded. Don't you know that the crowd is full of singers looking for material?" She soon recorded it with arranger Eumir Deodato (himself to become famous within weeks, with the hit instrumental "2001".) Killing Me Softly went gold in no time and stayed #1 for 12 weeks. (Remember the days of Top 40, and all that?) Also reappearing Roberta's earlier Grammy (For whatever they are worth...) feat by winning Record of the Year as well as Best Pop Vocal -- Female. It also got Song of the Year for composers Gimbel and Fox, ironically beating out Perry Como's version of And Love You So, a Don McLean composition (originally on his Tapestry album, not the Carole King one) which had charted four times, including for Elvis Presley.

As you may know (which I had forgotten, but my 13 year old Harley remembered) American Pie was written about the day the music died. More specifically the day Buddy Holly, Richie Valens ("La Bamba") and The Big Bopper's ("Chantilly Lace") airplane crash February 3, 1959 in an Iowa corn field. I also thought that American Pie was a dorky song, but as a 18 year old, I had no ideas about anything, other than getting high, drinking beer and sipping Southern Comfort.
American Pie is full of references to all kind of rock and roll innuendoes, including Jimi and Janus who with Jim Morrison all died the previous year in 1971. Also reference to James Dean and Bob Dylan (the jester). A lot of speculation goes into what he meant by those lyrics. If you ask Don McLean, he laughs, "When people ask me today what American Pie means, I tell them it means I don't have to work anymore if I don't want to." Now this describes the Hugh Grant character who lives off his dads one hit and has never worded a day in his life.


Don McLean singing American Pie in 1972
And yes, the Fugees (Lauren Hill, Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel) did an outstanding cover of Killing Me Softly in 1996. Another side line tidbit. In 1975, at Bottom Line in NYC, Ed Begley, Jr who was the opening act for Don, thought it would be funny to pie (as in American Pie) Don in the face. Ed thought it was funny ,as I do, but apparently Don did not. Pieing was a big part of the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In TV show (1968-73), so it was kind of pop counter culture to pie.

Lori Lieberman sings the blues
at the 1997 Winter Consumer Electronics Show
"Lori Lieberman, a hippie whose voice and guitar plucking
touched the heart of the teenager I used to be..."
So Lori Lieberman, who first recorded the song, probably had no problem not getting the writing credit when she recorded the song, as it was her record. Now as it continues to be a continual part of our culture and a continual cash cow, must be continuing to sing the blues. I found a reference and photo of her from performing at a party for the Winter Consumer Electronics Show 97. Otherwise she has slipped into obscurity. [see corrected note below] Happens all the time. (Another being the Grace Lee Whitney of Star Trek, there's a story.)

The funny thing about "Killing Me Softly" being about the song "American Pie", is that the writer/director pair that wrote and directed "About a Boy", Chris & Paul Weitz, previous big movie was "American Pie". (Remember the one where the kid does it with a pie?) I'm sure the Weitz brothers knew this when they picked the song, and left it for us to figure out the connections.

In the end, I learned that both Killing Me Softly, and American Pie are actually two very cool songs.

*** Update October 2002 ***
... flipping through the computer pages --- and read your article on "Killing Me..." It was really interesting to me --- most of it was correct, with the exception of one small tidbit that I thought you might appreciate --- as I sat in the audience of the Troubadour those many years ago, it wasn't the brilliance of "American Pie" that inspired my poem on that napkin, but alas, "Empty Chairs" off an earlier album of McLean's.... And, no --- ! Ahhh --- I haven't "slipped into obscurity" --- how scary to read THAT about oneself! --- believe it or not, I have just completed my fourth CD, which will be out soon -- I have this very loyal following, and a terrifically full life --- (married to actor, Joseph Cali --- we share eight kids...) Anyway --- thanks for the article... Best regards, Lori Lieberman


Comments?

Killing Me Softly
Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel
Sung by Roberta Flack

Chorus:
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him to listen for awhile
And there he was this young boy,
a stranger to my eyes

Chorus --

I felt all flushed with fever
Embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters and read each out loud
I prayed that he would finish
But he just kept right on

Chorus --

He sang as if he knew me
In all my dark despair
And then he looked right through me as if I wasn't there
And he just kept on singing
Singing clear and strong

Chorus --

 

American Pie
written by Don McLean

A long, long time ago I can still remember how that music used to make me smile and I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while but February made me shiver with every paper I delivered, bad news on the door step, I couldn't take one more step, I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride but something touched me deep inside, the day, the music, died. So...

Chorus:
Bye, bye Miss American Pie drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry an them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye singin this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

Did you write the book of love and do you have faith in God above, if the bible tells you so, and do you believe in rock n' roll, can music save your mortal soul and can you teach me how to dance real slow? Well I know that you're in love with him cuz I saw you dancin in the gym you both kicked off your shoes and I dig those rhythm and blues. I was a lonely teenage bronkin buck with a pink carnation and a pick up truck but I knew I was out of luck, the day, the music, died. I started singin...

Chorus ---

Now for ten years we've been on our own and moss grows fat on a rollin stone but that's not how it used to be, when the jester sang for the king and queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean and a voice that came from you and me, oh and while the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown the courtroom was adjourned, no verdict was returned, and while Lenin read a book on Marx, the quartet practiced in the park and we sang dirges in the dark, the day, the music, died. We were singin...

Chorus ---

Helter Skelter in a summer swelter the birds flew off with a fallout shelter, eight miles high and fallin fast, its the land that falled on the grass the players tried for a forward pass with the jester on the sidelines in a cast, now the half-time air was sweet perfume while the sergeants played a marching tune we all got up to dance oh but we never got the chance oh as the players tried to take the field the marching band refused to yield do you recall what was revealed, the day, the music, died. We started singin...

Chorus ---

Oh and there we were all in one place, a generation lost in space with no time left to start again, so come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candle stick because fire is the devils only friend, oh and as I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fists of rage, no angel born in hell could break that satan's spell and as the planes climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial right I saw satan laughing with delight, the day, the music, died. He was singin...

Chorus ---

I met a girl who sang the blues and I asked her for some happy news but she just smiled and turned away, I went down to the sacred store where I'd heard the music years before but the man there said the music wouldn't play and in the streets the children screamed, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed but not a word was spoken, the church bells all were broken and the three men I admire most, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day, the music, died, and they were singin...

Chorus ---

They were singin... Bye, bye Miss American Pie drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry an them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye singin this will be the day that I die.

BTW: The "No Man is an Island" quote is from For whom the Bell Tolls - by John Donne (1572-1631)
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