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What are you listening to? Part III
- Thread starter S.B.G
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Ah, John Lennon. An extraordinarily gifted individual.
I have long thought it tragic that he was murdered when he was murdered.
Tragic, because it wasn't just that a gifted and brilliant artist was senselessly slaughtered - which is an appalling and tragic thing to happen at any time - but tragic, in that it happened just when Lennon had finally confronted and overcome his own demons, and had begun to come to terms with himself, and had reached an accommodation with who he was and where his place lay in the scheme of things both personally and professionally.
His final album shone and was shot through with and informed by this knowledge - the edge and brilliant power of his artistry was tempered by acceptance and knowledge and tenderness, a tenderness that never slipped into sentimentality.
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I'm in the 'Deep Purple' mode. Deep Purple in Rock album.
A little Baroque music; a piece known as the Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel.
This is a piece I have always liked, but around 20 months ago a colleague played it in unforgettable - and incongruous - circumstances, which have given it an added dimension whenever I play it and listen to it.
This is a piece I have always liked, but around 20 months ago a colleague played it in unforgettable - and incongruous - circumstances, which have given it an added dimension whenever I play it and listen to it.
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Well, after some J. S. Bach - the incomparable, unforgettable and seriously smooth 'Air On A G String', followed by Antonio Vivaldi - with the lovely Largo (Winter) from 'The Four Seasons' and the 'Adagio In G Minor' by Tomaso Albinoni, among a few other Baroque numbers, a change is called for.
Thus, prompted by posts on a different thread, it is time to re-visit one of my personal favourites, both movie and music with the soundtrack to Jackie Brown.
Thus, prompted by posts on a different thread, it is time to re-visit one of my personal favourites, both movie and music with the soundtrack to Jackie Brown.
I'm currently playing a one minute forty-eight second excerpt from a 1961 self-help LP, How to Master Time Organization, which would later be sampled in They Might Be Giants' Snowball In Hell.
Cheap Trick?
That is a blast from the past, and is a name I haven't heard since the early 1980s! A guy I was friendly with as an undergrad adored them, and made me a present of one of their albums.
Since I plan to watch Amadeus (1984) this week, I am rocking Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus". Amadeus is one of the films I haven't come around to seeing it yet. One of my high school buddies was a huge fan of that movie and Michael Jackson. A true 80's fan. I remember seeing that all over his MySpace circa 2006-2008 when it peaked.
What is weird is after getting the videos of Rock Me Amadeus (both original music video and film montage), it led me into 90's dance songs like Rednex, Scatman John, and Haddaway. Songs during my teenage days. Absurd leads to absurd. I started bobbing my head when watching that SNL skit with Will Ferrell, Chris Katton, and Jim Carrey.
YouTube is like that though. One minute, I am watching public street fights, wildlife animal fights or something relaxing like body spray painting, massages, or Bob Ross. The next minute, I am watching Asian softcore porn movies on YouTube.
What is weird is after getting the videos of Rock Me Amadeus (both original music video and film montage), it led me into 90's dance songs like Rednex, Scatman John, and Haddaway. Songs during my teenage days. Absurd leads to absurd. I started bobbing my head when watching that SNL skit with Will Ferrell, Chris Katton, and Jim Carrey.
YouTube is like that though. One minute, I am watching public street fights, wildlife animal fights or something relaxing like body spray painting, massages, or Bob Ross. The next minute, I am watching Asian softcore porn movies on YouTube.
Ah, Amadeus. I really liked the movie - it is actually both moving and powerful.
This is a movie with a sublime soundtrack - hardly anything but music by W. A. Mozart himself; seriously, you won't need 'Rock Me Amadeus' to set the mood. Mozart's own music is so, so much more brilliant than anything anyone could write to complement it.
A two album (vinyl) set of the soundtrack was subsequently released, - which I have - one that was later still released as a CD set.
The sets and lighting are excellent, and Tom Hulce (as Mozart) shocked some with his portrayal, which drew attention to the vulgarity, lewdness, childish crudeness and immaturity that was an essential part of Mozart's character (his letters make that very clear). His political views (pretty radical) grew partly as a result of his increasing loathing and disgust for the rigid and hierarchical class system and culture of deference within which composers and musicians were expected to know their place and keep to it, irrespective of how talented and gifted they were.
While Roy Dotrice was excellent as Leopold Mozart, Mozart's gifted, but controlling father, the best performance by far, for which he deservedly won an Oscar, was in the role of Antonio Salieri, (the court composer) which featured an outstanding portrayal by F. Murray Abraham.
Hahaha, what is that guy yelling about?
Just an old guy yelling at the kids to get off his lawn!
Some tracks from Bossa Antigua (Paul Desmond). I like these up until whenever it crosses my mind that the percussion in one or two of the tracks, say O Gato, sounds almost exactly like the recurring motif of Briony's typewriter that pops up in the opening credits of the film Atonement.
Then of course I can’t hear anything else and so have to move on, reluctantly because Desmond’s phrasing is so right; the blues cousin of bossa nova definitely turned up for the session. Bossa was around for awhile before the Antigua album came out, so I guess Desmond had time to noodle around and make it his own for these takes.
Gotta love samba for ambience of a summer afternoon, but right now at the very least I need to find something with “a different drummer”, no offense to Connie Kay. Maybe having the thing in vinyl and hearing it the room instead of through these terrible earbuds would help.
But enough whining. I’m going to start an iPod touch replacement fund and put in 25c every time I whine about something trivial. At least maybe I’ll cure my attitude problem even if I only get to fifty bucks before the first frost.
Then of course I can’t hear anything else and so have to move on, reluctantly because Desmond’s phrasing is so right; the blues cousin of bossa nova definitely turned up for the session. Bossa was around for awhile before the Antigua album came out, so I guess Desmond had time to noodle around and make it his own for these takes.
Gotta love samba for ambience of a summer afternoon, but right now at the very least I need to find something with “a different drummer”, no offense to Connie Kay. Maybe having the thing in vinyl and hearing it the room instead of through these terrible earbuds would help.
But enough whining. I’m going to start an iPod touch replacement fund and put in 25c every time I whine about something trivial. At least maybe I’ll cure my attitude problem even if I only get to fifty bucks before the first frost.
On samba, bossa nova (and on the related topic of Brazilian fusion jazz) I think I have mentioned that I was privileged to see the fantastic and legendary trio Azymuth play live around 13 years ago. Cool, smooth, easy and absolutely effortlessly brilliant - this was a rare privilege; astonishingly, they played in a pub, and I was exceptionally lucky that I heard about it in advance.
Another Brazilian group that I have long liked are Oz Mutantes, seriously cool and subtle stuff, and that is not even referring to the classic giants of Brazilian music.
A bit of an eclectic mix tonight:
The 'early 18th century' Gypsy Music track featured on (the soundtrack of the movie) Amadeus (take a listen to it, it's great and up there on YouTube).
Then, there was a a song called 'Quelqu'un M'ai Dit' sung by an independently wealthy woman named Carla Bruni who had some success with sultry French songs, among other things, (and this is rather good, by the way), and then, as I rather like obscure Renaissance music, there were a few from an Italian album called "….In Viaggio" (not least the Tarantella Frigia - a superb track, and the track called 'Antidotum Tarantulae') by a group with the name of PIZZICAeNo'Pare……and a track called 'Carpe Diem' by Aldebert...
The 'early 18th century' Gypsy Music track featured on (the soundtrack of the movie) Amadeus (take a listen to it, it's great and up there on YouTube).
Then, there was a a song called 'Quelqu'un M'ai Dit' sung by an independently wealthy woman named Carla Bruni who had some success with sultry French songs, among other things, (and this is rather good, by the way), and then, as I rather like obscure Renaissance music, there were a few from an Italian album called "….In Viaggio" (not least the Tarantella Frigia - a superb track, and the track called 'Antidotum Tarantulae') by a group with the name of PIZZICAeNo'Pare……and a track called 'Carpe Diem' by Aldebert...
I was searching for a version of "Gymnopédie No. 1" played on non-acoustic instruments, for most versions I've heard contain some sort of… room tone that I don't particularly like to hear. I found more than I bargained for—a cover by artist Giselle Minns that features synth, operatic vocals, and vocoded backing. It's from a classic/electronic fusion album Turning Circles.