Les Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and… Read Full Bio ↴Les Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and composer.

Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?".

Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950, and was credited with the early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and "Too Young", but both were actually orchestrated by Nelson Riddle.[1] (In later releases of the recordings the credit was corrected to Riddle.[citation needed]) Not a uncommon practice these days: Baxter himself had arranged Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" in 1947 for a recording conducted by Frank De Vol. In 1953 he scored his first film, the sailing travelogue Tanga Tika. With his own orchestra, he released a number of hits including "Ruby" (1953), "Unchained Melody" (1955) and "The Poor People Of Paris" (1956). The latter recording sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.[2]He also achieved success with concept albums of his own orchestral suites: Le Sacre Du Sauvage, Festival Of The Gnomes, Ports Of Pleasure, and Brazil Now, the first three for Capitol and the fourth on Gene Norman's Crescendo label. The list of musicians on these recordings includes Plas Johnson and Clare Fischer.

Baxter also wrote the "Whistle" theme from the TV show Lassie.

Baxter did not restrict his activities to recording. As he once told Soundtrack! magazine, "I never turn anything down".

In the 1960s, he formed the Balladeers, a besuited and conservative folk group that at one time featured a young David Crosby.[citation needed] He operated in radio as musical director of The Halls of Ivy and the Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello shows.

Like his counterparts Henry Mancini, Lalo Schifrin and James Horner, Baxter later worked for the film industries from 1960s to 70s. He worked on movie soundtracks for American International Pictures where he composed and conducted scores for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror stories and teenage musicals, including The Pit and the Pendulum, Panic in Year Zero!, Beach Party, The Comedy of Terrors,The Dunwich Horror, and Frogs. Howard W. Koch recalled that Baxter composed, orchestrated, and recorded the entire score of The Yellow Tomahawk (1954) in a total of three hours for $5,000.[3]

With less soundtrack work in the 1980s, he scored music for theme parks and SeaWorlds. In the 1990s, Baxter was widely celebrated, alongside Martin Denny and the Arthur Lyman Group, as one of the progenitors of what had become known as the "exotica" movement. In his 1996 appreciation for Wired magazine, writer David Toop remembered Baxter thus:

"Baxter offered package tours in sound, selling tickets to sedentary tourists who wanted to stroll around some taboo emotions before lunch, view a pagan ceremony, go wild in the sun or conjure a demon, all without leaving home hi-fi comforts in the white suburbs".
Baxter has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6314 Hollywood Blvd.

Speak Low
Les Baxter and His Orchestra Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Speak low when you speak, love,
Our summer day withers away
Too soon, too soon.

Speak low when you speak, love,
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift,
We're swept apart too soon.

Speak low, darling speak low,
Love is a spark lost in the dark,
Too soon, too soon,
I feel wherever I go
That tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here
And always too soon.

Time is so old and love so brief,
Love is pure gold and time a thief.
We're late darling, we're late,
The curtain descends, ev'rything ends
Too soon, too soon,
I wait darling, I wait

Will you speak low to me,
Speak love to me and soon.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to "Speak Low" by Les Baxter and His Orchestra convey a sense of urgency and fleetingness in a romantic relationship. The singer implores their lover to speak softly and keep their love hidden, as they realize that their time together is limited. The summer day is portrayed as withering away too quickly, emphasizing the transitory nature of their love.

The imagery of ships adrift and being swept apart further emphasizes the abruptness of their separation. The singer believes that tomorrow is always near, suggesting that their time together is constantly slipping away. The lyrics suggest that love is a precious and elusive thing, easily lost in the darkness of the world. Despite the longing and desire to make the moment last, the song acknowledges the inevitable passing of time and the impermanence of love.

The song captures a bittersweet sentiment, encapsulating the paradoxical beauty and pain of love. It speaks to the human condition of longing for connection and the realization that even the most intense and profound love can be fleeting.

Line by Line Meaning

Speak low when you speak, love
Speak softly and with care when expressing your love

Our summer day withers away
Our time together, like a summer day, is fading quickly

Too soon, too soon
Our time together is ending prematurely

Our moment is swift, like ships adrift
Our time together is fleeting, like ships adrift in the sea

We're swept apart too soon
We are separated abruptly and before we are ready

Speak low, darling speak low
Please speak softly, my love

Love is a spark lost in the dark
Love is a fleeting and easily hidden emotion

Too soon, too soon
Our time together is ending prematurely

I feel wherever I go
No matter where I am

That tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here
The future is always approaching

And always too soon
And it always arrives earlier than expected