Peggy Lee On Record (1941-1995)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Ridin'High, Dec 29, 2016.

  1. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Or fake stereo/Duophonic.
     
  2. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Glad to get full confirmation!

    While we are it, here is a photo of the cassette counterpart:


    [​IMG]


    Also appreciated.

    Exhibit B:

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    The LP is from 1982, the CD from 1990.

    The error thus went back to the LP era, and was passed down to at least the earliest of the CD pressings.

    (I know of one earlier Japanese LP, from 1973, and one later CD pressing, from 2002. I do not know if those include this stereo claim, too. I would expect the error to have been fixed by 2002, but who knows ...)
     
  3. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter




    I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to provide a reminder, aimed at this thread's regular readers (and/or Peggy fans). Should you be interested in additional session details, consider among your options the Peggy Lee online discography, which also offers a set of eight photos from the Man I Love dates. (I call this a reminder because the discography has been already identified as this thread's main source.)

    The Man I Love sessions are itemized near the top of the 1957-1959 discographical page. For a sample, check quote below. (A different page holds the set of session photos.)


     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2018
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  4. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Thanks for the reminder, and I apologize if I’ve duplicated a well-known source. I would just mention that the details I linked to at the SFF were derived from independent sources—notably the Frank Sinatra discography, Put Your Dreams Away, compiled by Luis Carlos do Nascimento Silva (Greenwood Press, 2000).
     
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  5. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    No apology whatsoever needed; if anything, it's better to have multiple sources to offer. Actually, there's even a shared source here: the discography's details about the Man I Love sessions were gathered partly from Capitol logs, and partly from Silva's book, back in the late 1990s (with a few details, from other sources, added much later).

    Just to make this post worthwhile to other readers ...

    Here is a Public Domain Sinatra set that includes the full Man I Love album:


    [​IMG] [​IMG]


    And here is a Public Domain Lee CD that also contains the full Man I Love album:


    [​IMG][​IMG]
     
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  6. .crystalised.

    .crystalised. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Edmonton
    "Original album, 1950".
    Oopsie.
     
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  7. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    Have you ever come across other pictures taken at the sessions for this album? I'm still curious to see ones that show the orchestra, and possible evidence (or not) of any separate mics for a stereo recording that might be visible.
     
  8. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    Isn’t that a stereo (boom) mic in the photo posted earlier?

    [​IMG]
     
  9. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    The one closest to the camera, Bob? I don't think so. Though cut off in the camera's view, it seems to be similar (to me) to the boom you see on the other side of the podium, with the 44 mic-ing that section of the orchestra. I'm guessing it's holding a mic doing similar duty for a section of the orchestra also not in view.
     
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  10. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    No. Just the pics I previously posted, plus several additional shots of Peggy, in the booth. Sadly, no additional shots of the orchestra's members, nor the mikes around them.

    If any such pics were in circulation, I feel certain that you guys (at the Sinatra threads) would have already found and posted them.

    With that said, here are some photos about which I am curious. A 1957 date has been given to the first two, a 1956 date to the third. I have no date for the fourth. Do we know from which record sessions they are?


    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  11. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Top three from TONE POEMS OF COLOR sessions.
     
  12. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    :agree: The purple sweater in the third photo is the same as the one which appears green on the cover of the album Where Are You?.

    Fourth photo is not from a recording session. It’s on the set of the film Marriage on the Rocks (1965). Frank is talking to director Jack Donohue.
     
  13. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    [​IMG]
    Capitol Tower recording session #1, Frank alongside Capitol co-founder Glenn Wallichs.
     
  14. .crystalised.

    .crystalised. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Edmonton
    You two. So impressive! :righton:
     
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  15. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    I hadn't noticed it when seeing this picture in the past, but that looks to be John Palladino on the left in the background, wearing the white shirt, facing away from the camera.
     
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  16. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    XI. THE MAN I LOVE
    (Continued; Fourth Post)




    "Peggy Lee and I met early in our careers when we both started out in New York and have been great friends ever since. Her wonderful talent should be studied by all vocalists; her regal presence is pure elegance and charm."
    Frank Sinatra

    "I consider Peggy Lee as great a musician as Frank Sinatra, who in that world is king."
    Duke Ellington


    Men Lee Loved (Or Viceversa)

    The year 1956 brought significant changes to Peggy Lee's life and career. In her personal life, the lady decided to get married for a third time, on this occasion to Hollywood actor Dewey Martin. In her professional career, the singer made the decision to leave Decca, the label with which she had been under contract for the last five years.

    Around the beginning of the next year, two other men started to court the recently re-married woman. Neither had adulterous intentions in mind, though. The courtships in question were strictly professional: both gentlemen asked Lee out ... on recording dates. One of the men was Glenn Wallichs, president of Capitol Records & future chairman of that label's board. The other mensch was Frank Sinatra, Capitol's biggest star at the time & pop music's future chairman of the board. Aware that her Decca contract was up for renewal, the two chairmen-to-be wanted her on their label. Or labels.




    Sinatra's World (on a String and a Baton)


    For Frank Sinatra, the year 1956 was one of branching out. Not content with being just a successful singer and actor, he aspired to a more entrepreneurial role in Hollywood and Vine Street. Earlier in the 1950s, several film & television actors had already attained the goal of gaining major control over their own careers, avoiding or extricating themselves from the kind of contracts that had shackled (and would continue to confine) many another star. Frank was keen on striking a similar type of deal. As someone who was enjoying a nearly unprecedented amount of success in both music and the movies, he felt self-assured about his ability to control and dictate his own professional destiny. To that end, he set up several production companies, some dealing with his prospective film work (Kent, Bristol) and another with his music projects (Essex).

    The setting up of Essex was apparently negotiated as part of Frank's contract renewal with Capitol Records. By most reports, he envisioned Essex as a new record company for which Capitol would serve just as its record distributor. (Capitol had a different understanding of the matter. The label's honchos would eventually declare that the Essex imprint was little more than a way to help their star handle his income taxes. But that topic is outside of this post's purview.) Frank's personal plans for this newly founded label included not only carrying out his own musical projects on it but also recording and producing other artists.

    That was not all. He planned to indulge in his long-held ambition of becoming a session conductor, too. Back in 1945, Columbia had given him the opportunity to conduct one instrumental session, and ten years later he was more than ready to go at it again. Whatever Frankie wanted, Frankieboy got. Clout, boldness, initiative and hard work led to the production of his first full album as a conductor, recorded inFebruary and March of 1956. With the first of the Tone Poems of Color sessions, Capitol officially inaugurated his newly built recording studios, located at a building that was also brand new: the Capitol Tower.

    With those February-March 1956 instrumental album dates behind him, the newt minted conductor must have set sights on his next Essex project in the same capacity. It would come to fruition in April of the following year. This time, his objective must have been to conduct a vocal album. Since not even he could possibly conduct and sing simultaneously, Frank needed a singer.

    In what must have sounded like an off-the-cuff remark but might have actually been pre-planned, Sinatra asked Lee ... to record an album together. According to her pianist, Lou Levy: "Frank lived a few blocks away [from Lee] ... He'd walk over and they'd have drinks. They'd hold parties and get-togethers. I think the idea started during an informal gathering at her house. Frank got the idea and he suggested it to her ... I think it was one of his here's an idea you can't refuse type of things." Of course,and as I have already intimated, the album that Sinatra had in mind was not a duets piece, but another Essex project for him to conduct.

    And to produce, too. Granted that the session's producer, in the proper sense of the word (i.e., the Capitol person calling the shots from the control booth), seems to have been Voyle Gilmore, Frank Sinatra probably provided heavy input throughout the entire process, and might have thought of himself as the actual producer (with Gilmore in charge of carrying out Sinatra's wishes). In Peggy Lee's own words: "Once we planned a whole album together. It was his idea. He produced, and it was first released on Frank's Essex label, which was a subsidiary of Capitol Records, and later the album was released on Capitol ... The album was called The Man I Love, and Frank thought of everything to the last detail, including putting menthol in my eyes so I'd have a misty look in the cover photograph ... Frank is a producer who thinks of everything."






    The Man I Love as a Concept Album

    "The album was totally Frank's concept," Lee also wrote. "He brought me a long list of great songs to choose from, and Bill Miller came over and set the keys with me. Then Frank hired Nelson Riddle to write those lovely arrangements and Frank conducted them. A marvelously sensitive conductor, as one would expect."

    Conceptually, Sinatra might have actually envisioned The Man I Love as another of his concept albums. In a previous post, I mentioned music critic Will Friedwald's perception of The Man I Love as the project that Sinatra would have recorded if he had been able (& willing!) to shift gender. The album's lyrics do suggest a sensibility that a typical 1950s listener would have branded as feminine. As Friedwald opines, "Sinatra had a musical vision that was larger than himself. Although he would never himself sing The Man I Love, there was no reason he couldn't vicariously 'sing' it through the mouth of another performer. And of all of his contemporaries, the one great singer of his approximate generation (male or female) whom he seems to have felt the closest to was Peggy Lee."

    Musically, the album consecrates the marriage of the lyrical with the symphonic. (To personify: Miss Lyrical and Mister Symphonic, blessed by the Reverend Riddle, we could say.) To quote Friedwald again:

    "Riddle ... seems to have been following orders [to make] The Man I Love a super-special project, even by Sinatra standards. Sinatra seems to have encouraged Riddle to create his most poetic, most classically inspired orchestrations ... but at the same time among the most intimate ... [T]he charts for The Man I Love are as exquisite as a sweepingly large symphony yet as personal as a great singer accompanied only by a solo piano player ... Sinatra recorded albums that were more intimate than The Man I Love ... and that were also more symphonically grandiose ... but never one that attempted to do both at the same time ... More than Sinatra or Riddle, the contributor who is consistently responsible for this juxtaposition is Lee herself ... Even in a potentially excessive setting like a symphonic string section, Lee knows that the key to interpreting a text like That's All is to know what to leave out ... Where the orchestra is big and symphonic, Lee's singing is lighter than usual -- her voice shines out like a flashlight in a cavern. At other times she seems like a butterfly in a thunderstorm ... "

    As I see it, The Man I Love is voiced by a woman who has been fully swept off her feet. Love has her floating on air, high up on a rarefied, heavenly atmosphere of romantic bliss. This state of being is made manifest by the orchestra as well, with its sweeping flourishes, and its musical enactment of that elusive state of being, cloud nine.




    Songs

    "The Man I Love"

    "The album's general tone is set by the opener: of all [of] Gershwin's classic songs, 'The Man I Love' is the one most explicitly crafted from the same cloth as the composer's concert works, especially the 1924 Rhapsody. Here, 'The Man I Love' opens with an atmospheric intro, and throughout the combination of singer and orchestra outlines the simultaneous intimacy and grandeur that would apply throughout the remaining eleven tracks; the background, with harp, strings, and French horn, is very Appalachian Spring. Lee's singing is direct and specific -- she's not singing about all men, or even every man in her life ... but about one particular guy. She takes the general and makes it personal; the objective becomes subjective."
    Will Friedwald

    "There have been very few men in our business who have affected me so deeply that I can't adequately express myself about them, and Frank Sinatra is one of them. Cary Grant is another, Bing Crosby another. Yet we have been very close friends for many years in each case."
    Peggy Lee


    To be continued.
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2018
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  17. kennyluc1

    kennyluc1 Frank Sinatra collector

    Great post ...informative and literate.
     
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  18. .crystalised.

    .crystalised. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Edmonton
    Hear, hear.

    Wonderful post. Had never considered the juxtaposition of intimacy and grandeur, but that's exactly what's happening in this album, and what makes it special. It's unlike any other Frank Sinatra or Peggy Lee offering.
     
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  19. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    XI. THE MAN I LOVE
    (Continued; Fifth Post)


    [​IMG]


    The Man Lee Loved Not

    The identity of the masculine specimen who Lee is holding in the front cover of The Man I Love is not disclosed in the album's fine print. From time to time, Frank's fans have either assumed or proclaimed that Sinatra is the mystery man. Peggy's comments on the matter have only added to the mystery. This is what she writes in her autobiography:

    Frank thought of everything to the last detail, including putting method in my eyes so I'd have a misty look in the cover photograph. (I didn't feel at all misty about the man I was holding, however.)

    That veiled, parenthetical remark was echoed in an interview on the radio. Lee recalled having actually confessed to Sinatra that the man who "Frank had on the cover" was not her "true love." Obviously, this particular comment puts to pasture any claims that the mystery man was the then-forty-something Ol' Blue Eyes (whose hair, even from the back, never looked this good).


    [​IMG][​IMG]


    The Man Lee Married

    As mentioned in a previous post, Peggy Lee had married Dewey Martin, an actor, in April of 1956. Before this marriage (the second for him), Dewey's budding career had resulted in ten Hollywood film credits, including a cult horror classic (The Thing from Another World) and a high-profile movie (The Desperate Hours, playing one of the story's three prison escapees, next to Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March). Then thirty-two years old, the actor had previously spent five years as a Navy pilot and prisoner of war.

    After the marriage, the guy barely ever worked in Hollywood anymore. It is said that he had grown to hate the American movie industry. From the mid-1950s through the 1970s, Martin became one of those TV faces who were seen just here and there, in the odd episode of many a series (
    The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, et cetera) ... But not forever. Dewey was 55 when he did his last film role, apparently quitting altogether afterwards. Maybe it was for the best, given his longevity. He will turn 95 this year.

    The Martin-Lee marriage was stormy -- and probably a misguided, hastily made decision, on both parts. The courtship had started at a time when, according to harpist Stella Castellucci, the songstress was "so vulnerable. Very alone." In her autobiography, Peggy Lee hints at her hesitation and concerns, which had led her to seek advice from her spiritual counselor, Ernest Holmes:

    "I remember once when I was very troubled about Dewey Martin, the very good-looking actor, Ernest said to me with typical New England candor, Now Peggy, you don't have to marry them all. Peggy heard but didn't always listen ... I married Dewey ...

    The vocalist had actually received two marriage offers around this time. She ended up accepting Dewey's. It would be her third trek to the altar.

    Dewey Martin was apparently a traditionally oriented male, at least when it came to relationships. The mister bought Peggy's home off her because, according to the press, he believed that the one to own a home in a marriage should be the man, not the woman.


    Lee's career became one of the main sources for the couple's marital discord. It seems that Martin's personal preference leaned toward having his wife stay at home, and let him be the household's sole breadwinner.


    Some witnesses have described him as a moody and temperamental individual, too. Press accounts sometimes referred to him as Mr. Lee, doubtlessly to his chagrin. For her part, Peggy was no shy and demure violet. I doubt that she ever enjoyed having others tell her what to do.

    Eventually, Peggy started to behave in the manner that, as a lifelong performer, she had become accustomed to. After concert, she
    would bring her musicians home, where they would spend the after hours relaxing, drinking, playing music, and celebrating. Around 4:00 a.m., they would still be at it. Understandably, Dewey was less than pleased.

    By late 1956, Mister Martin had already thrown the men out of the house more than once. On some occasions, they had left of their own volition instead, amidst screaming matches between husband and wife. "Our home is for us, our family and our friends," Dewey went on to tell the press. This message was further put across by an actual sign, placed atop his house's doorway: "Get lost, man, get lost."

    Wishing to work on their marriage, Mrs. Martin Lee went into semi-retirement at one point in time. I am not certain when. It could very well have been during the months that followed the civil union (April 1956), as portrayed by one of her biographers. Or it could have been as late as the first half of 1958. Whichever the timeline might have been, Lee's attempts at fulfilling her husband's expectations were probably half-hearted, and certainly short-lived.


    In mid-1958, the couple stopped living together. Papers were served within the second half of that year. The Associated Press reported on the proceedings. Peggy described Dewey as "moody and jealous," and accused him of cruelty. She (or her lawyer) pointed out that he tended to upset her just "prior to singing engagements." The court finalized their divorce in 1959.


    Mystery Man, Unmasked

    This fact was of course known to the folks who were present at the shot, but not to the public at large -- not until recent years, that is. Will Friedwald, the already mentioned music critic, was the one who uncovered it and disclosed it for public consumption. In the early 1990s, he conducted an interview with Peggy's pianist, Lou Levy, and apparently asked the question directly. Friedwald publicly shared Levy's response in his liner notes for the 2009 DRG CD edition of The Man I Love:

    For years, it's also been rumored that Sinatra posed with her on the cover, assuming the role of the man she loves with the back of the neck to the camera. However, Levy set the record straight: "She was married to Dewey Martin then, in fact; on the cover, where you see her face, that's the back of Dewey Martin's head. Dewey happened to be there when Frank came up with the idea, and that's how The Man I Love thing started. That's what they sort of had in mind; I heard her and Frank joke about it later, because the marriage didn't happen to work out, but the album did."

    A couple of curious minor details can be gleaned from the quoted remarks by Levy and Lee. One,
    Sinatra's vision for the cover might have dictated some subsequent decisions, including the selection of "The Man I Love" as the album's title and leading song. Two, Martin ended up in the album's cover only because he happened to be around at the right time. Had he not been within earshot, Lee might have nixed Sinatra's natural impulse to ask Martin to pose.

    (Another quick point, this one about the biographies that are out. In the years that preceded and followed the release of the DRG CD, Lee's biographers certainly identified Martin as the man on the cover, but they do so in passing, without giving any specifics. That's probably because neither biographer had any direct evidence; they were trusting instead casual claims from Peggy's fans.)



    [​IMG]


    No One Cares
    (No One But Peggy Lee ... And Every Other Star In Existence)
    We fans or (fanatics!) can suffer from a very fan-centric perspective. Nowhere does that affliction seem more prevalent than among fans of the real big names, from Elvis and The Beatles to some of the more recently touted stars. I have read, for instance, that Beyoncé's voice is an unmatched vocal wonder, spanning anywhere between five and eight octaves (!), and exhibing the most expressive and gorgeous tonality that you will ever hear in a female voice. Alright then.

    I can only think that the same sort of "fan centrism" explains a claim that some of Frank's fans have made. If you are to believe them,
    the front cover of the album No One Cares is filled with a a whole horde of singers and celebrities, posing around our man Frank. Peggy Lee is supposed to be the blonde to the left. Yeah right.

    To me, the only identification that merits careful inspection pertains to the man with the eyeglasses. It's been said that it's Sammy Cahn. (He supposedly confirmed it, too.) Other than that id, I can see how the man right behind Frank might look like Nelson Riddle to some, because the face is similar enough -- but not quite.

    Then there is the assertion that Sammy is also somewhere in the background -- an assertion that I find mildly offensive. Then again, maybe I'm the one show is off the mark?? A poster here claims that Sammy himself confirmed his presence. (On that same thread, see also posts #41, 59, and 60, all three of them on page 3. Should you move on to ensuing pages, you'll find out that Count Basie and Lena Horne might also in the picture! One sensible fan finally points out: "One thing to know is that Sinatra was not in the original shot. He was superimposed over the background photo of the crowd, which extended further to the left and right and "behind" the bar before being cropped and darkened.")

    Supposedly, this whole notion either originated with or received full supper from Jonathan Schwartz. If true, it would only go on to further illustrate how the more of a fan of a singer we are, the more we could over-enthusiastically see ghosts where there are only empty shadows ...



    [​IMG]

    Songs / Album Promotion
    "He's My Guy"

    The Man I Love enjoyed a fair amount of TV promotion. During the September 3, 1957 broadcast of The Nat King Cole Show, guest Peggy Lee not only sang one of the album's numbers ("My Heart Stood Still") but also was given the opportunity to plug the LP. Prompted by Nat, she named the album, pointing out that Frank Sinatra was its conductor, Nelson Riddle its arranger. Though unseen, Riddle was actually there as well -- not far from Peggy and Nat, being as he was the music conductor on this TV show.

    Back in late 1956, Frank had signed a TV contract with ABC-TV, to be the executive producer and host of his own TV show, for the second time in his career.

    Guess which singer was asked to guest on the October 18, 1957 debut of The Frank Sinatra Show?
    In addition to Peggy, the other guests were comedian Bob Hope and actress Kim Novak, whom Frank had been dating. During Peggy's segment, The Man I Love was indirectly promoted through Peggy's singing of one of its numbers, with Frank posing as conductor.

    But that was not all. Viewers saw Peggy make a guest return appearance on the November 8 episode, during which she sang two duets with Frank and two solos. One of the solos was yet another number from the album: "That's All."

    In the clip below, we see the aforementioned performance from the debut episode. Two reasons led me t choose for inclusion here, one of them being Frank's presence. The other reason: the sight of a panel, kept throughout Peggy's segment, but highlighted during this album number. Bearing the title "Songs for Lo(v/n)ely Lovers," the panel further reinforces our speculation that Sinatra might have thought of The Man I Love as one of Sinatra's concept albums.



    To be continued.
     
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2018
  20. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Could any of you guys tell me if it is just my computer, or if no photos are showing up in post #391? The photos were there yesterday ...
     
  21. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    None on my end right now...
     
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  22. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    On my phone, I am seeing some, not all.
     
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  23. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    I’ll take that as a compliment, as I was the sensible “Guest” fan who wrote that SFF post.
     
  24. Ronald Sarbo

    Ronald Sarbo Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY, NY, USA
    Before Dewey Martin Peggy Lee had a very short marriage to another actor: Brad Dexter of "The Magnificent Seven" and who saved Sinatra's life although he seems to have been written out of the "official record". Kaplan in "The Chairman" takes Nancy to task for this omission.

    Lee tried to get Jackie Paris signed to Capitol but Alan Livingston turned him down. Then she helped Mark Murphy join Capitol. Both Lee and Murphy had been on Decca. Lee was chagrined to find that Murphy was gay. She concluded the notes to his Capitol album with the sentence: "Mark Murphy blows".
     
  25. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    I, for one, never even really noticed the cover of No One Cares had any people on it besides Sinatra himself. Probably because I don't think I've ever seen a copy of the LP, only the CD (of which I own a copy).
     

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