I used to hitchhike a lot in college. I’d put on jeans, white tennis shoes, a brownish Harris tweed jacket, Oxford shirt, and a tie loose around my neck. I never got molested by any roving cruising homos, or psychopaths. Well, that’s not entirely true.
Once I was hitchhiking from Madison Wisconsin to Omaha Nebraska. Once […]
The 1960s band, The Small Faces have been subsequently classified as a “psychedelic band.” For this song, the psychedelic part is the cool sound known as flanging. A flange the plastic or metal container used to hold magnetic recording tape, used in recording music. You get the flanging or phasing sound by lining up two […]
Early July seems to be party time for many of our friends. We had to turn down attending the Roving Church of Fun’s Harry Potter day in order to see R&P whom we had not seen in a long time. P, an internationally known interior designer, had just finished a big job and was given […]
My ex used to sing this all the time, with a silly look on his face, and very out of tune. Wow, to think I remember when this song came out. Was there ever a sequel to this? For you music theory students, how many chords in this song?
[answer: 3]
An incredible find! From gypsy musician to legend, Django Reinhardt and planetary violinist, Stephane Grappelli and their band, “Quintette du Hot Club de France” deliver a riveting performance of “J’Attendrai.” Note that Django plays with only two fingers. He was in a fire as a young man and received 1st and 2nd degree burns […]
This is the music video of the title song for the French animated feature “Les triplettes de Belleville” written by M (Mathieu Chedid). If you don’t know this song, I’ll warn you: it’s very catchy. I can’t sit still listening to this song — my body HAS to move. And that sexy three part vocal […]
For those of you brave enough to learn about how your brain distorts and deceives reality (that’s right: YOUR reality) I can’t recommend highly enough Cordelia Fine’s “a mind of its own” [Norton]. I am actually the Wizard of Oz, or I think I am, and behind the scenes is this busy little man huffing […]
This video is undated but I’d guess it to be around 1968. Young Jobim and Late Sinatra on a classic song by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
“Salty Dog” has one of the most sophisticated and powerful chord progressions in rock n roll history. The progression has very little to do with rock, blues, country, gospel, or soul, but seems more neo-Baroque than anything. The shape carved in my mind by the melody climbs ever upward. The sound of the voice is […]
Finally, an antidote to Hallmark Cards sentimentality: ReelGreetings.com. Pop in an take a look at a whole variety of hilarious video postcards from different points of view. Take Grumpy Grandpa here, gee this dude looks familiar. I could swear this is John Hall, but, well, you never know. The website tells us: “Grumpy Grandpa has […]
Wow is all I have to say. Far out. Far out! I never heard this one. Get down guys. Get down. And THEN Get back.
These are highly charged words that mean a wide variety of things to a wide variety of people. I won’t even think about defining this sentence, but I’d rather focus on HOW we say it, or sing it. I can only speak for myself and a handful of other people who have said “I love […]
Has anyone analyzed David Bowie’s music? This is a fascinating song with a rather complicated structure. I hear a strong John Lennon influence, and specifically “A Day in the Life” (and to a lesser extent “I am the Walrus”) right up to the synthesizer climb at the end. We see all kinds of “space oddities:” […]
Five months before I graduated from Harvard, Leon Kirchner had set up an interview for me to meet the composer for Sesame Street, Joe Raposo, who had also studied with Leon. Joe was looking for an assistant or someone to help write more music for Sesame Street. I ended up taking a job at UCLA […]
This is one of my favorite Billy Joel songs. There is an Americana feel to it that is very attractive. I’ve heard some choral arrangements of this song that are bone chilling.
Another great Madeline Kahn performance of that classic patter song, “Getting Married Today” from COMPANY by Stephen Sondheim. I want to write a song like this. I love the physical inner drama with how we follow the amount of breath it takes to get out each line and then get scared that we might not […]
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