Michael Stuart Kelly 279 Report post Posted February 5 Country and Atonal Rodney posted this video on Facebook. I posted this over there (and I hardly ever post on Facebook anymore: Quote This was like Alexander the Great chopping through the Gordian knot of my lifelong cognitive dissonance that started in my college days. That I have lived to see and hear this... ahhh... life is good... If I had heard this song decades earlier, my life might have gone in a different direction. Merle Hazard described my music composition teachers and the avant garde culture at Boston University perfectly. At least I now get to laugh... And that banjo riff... the John Cage silence... LOL... Michael Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
9thdoctor 49 Report post Posted February 5 7 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: If I had heard this song decades earlier, my life might have gone in a different direction. Which direction would that have been? Not sold on extended atonality? Find it too hard to extract the ear-worm of Stravinsky's uber-catchy adaptation of The Owl and the Pussycat? Nothing tops the "beautiful Pussy" part for getting unintended laughs from a college recital audience. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Michael Stuart Kelly 279 Report post Posted February 5 Dennis, You bring up bad memories. btw - In my composing days, I sketched out a companion piece for Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat, which, thank God, was before his atonal phase. The reason I wanted to do this was because the instrumentation of Stravinsky's piece was so odd that nothing else was written for it. So I wanted to use the same ensemble. (I played that thing a number of time since trombone was one of the instruments. That's how I got interested in it.) I was full of Rand at the time, so, for the story, I chose a short story by O. Henry called "The Cop and the Anthem." I called my piece Soapy after the protagonist. The story is about a bum named Soapy who wanted to go to jail for the winter. Cold was coming on and in jail it was warm with guaranteed meals. He tried everything he could to get arrested, but couldn't for the life of him. After the last attempt, he freaked and ran and ran and ran until he had to stop from exhaustion. It was outside a church. As he heard the music coming from the church, he started musing over how he had wasted his life. He decided to clean himself up, get a job, and make something out of himself. No sooner had he come to that decision, a cop came along, arrested him for vagrancy and threw him in jail for the winter. In my piece, there were no words or singing. Essentially the actors would mime of the different situations. However, there was a ballerina always dancing around Soapy like a fairy or an angel, reflecting his moods and inner resolves. My idea was to make the setting realistic and the ballerina other-worldly. Soapy would only dance once--with the ballerina. It would be during church anthem and it would be uplifting, going to a nice climax. After the officer arrests Soapy at the end, the ballerina would follow them downtrodden, no longer dancing. I never finished this. I intend to still write music at some point in my life, so I just might do this piece. Except I don't want to ally it anymore to L'Histoire. which, truth be told, kinda sucks. So the ensemble will probably be a lot different. String orchestra would do just fine, or maybe something else. Maybe even a light pop music angle... I'm going to think on this... Michael Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
9thdoctor 49 Report post Posted February 5 3 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: Soapy would only dance once--with the ballerina. It would be during church anthem and it would be uplifting, going to a nice climax. Recall that Rand wanted to see a hybrid of ballet and tap dancing. The trouble being that different shoes are needed (I think). How about having Soapy tap dance? And make sure the arresting officer looks like Kant. Then you'll have a shot at getting it premiered at OCON. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brant Gaede 74 Report post Posted February 5 5 minutes ago, 9thdoctor said: Recall that Rand wanted to see a hybrid of ballet and tap dancing. The trouble being that different shoes are needed (I think). How about having Soapy tap dance? And make sure the arresting officer looks like Kant. Then you'll have a shot at getting it premiered at OCON. She said Fred Astaire mixed them up. I think it was tap with elements of ballet. I'm not sure what she wanted. Don't recall that. --Brant Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
9thdoctor 49 Report post Posted February 5 3 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: You bring up bad memories. While we're doing music humor and bringing up bad memories for you, there's a channel on YouTube that's all about combining wildly different songs and old time music videos with hilarious results. The first one is selected to keep those bad memories flowing, plus the dancing might be something Soapyish. The second one is rather more clever, musically speaking. The whole thing calls to mind Charles Ives. Like the end of the 2nd Symphony, when Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean gets mashed up with Camptown Races. There are a bunch more of these, some great, some just ok. Worth checking out. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peter 59 Report post Posted February 8 Ear worms? This song is tonal and well sung but the lyrics? The most critical and scathing song lyrics ever written, tada. Peter Big Shot" by Billy Joel Well you went uptown riding in your limousine With your fine Park Avenue clothes You had the Dom Perignon in your hand And the spoon up your nose And when you wake up in the morning With your head on fire And your eyes too bloody to see Go on and cry in your coffee But don't come bitchin' to me Because you had to be a big shot, didn't you You had to open up your mouth You had to be a big shot, didn't you All your friends were so knocked out You had to have the last word, last night You know what everything's about You had to have a white hot spotlight You had to be a big shot last night They were all impressed with your Halston dress And the people that you knew at Elaine's And the story of your latest success Kept 'em so entertained Aw but now you just don't remember All the things you said And you're not sure you want to know I'll give you one hint, honey You sure did put on a show Yes, yes, you had to be a big shot, didn't you You had to prove it to the crowd You had to be a big shot, didn't you All your friends were so knocked out You had to have the last word, last night You're so much fun to be around You had to have the front page, bold type You had to be a big shot last night Well, it's no big sin to stick your two cents in If you know when to leave it alone But you went over the line You couldn't see it was time to go home No, no, no, no, no, no, you had to be a big shot, didn't you You had to open up your mouth You had to be a big shot, didn't you All your friends were so knocked out You had to have the last word, last night So much fun to be around You had to have a white hot spot light You had to be a big shot last night Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peter 59 Report post Posted February 10 Another “ear worm?” I have told this story before but . . . I was out of the army in 1969 and walking by Janice Joplin’s San Francisco residence with a disc jockey friend George Feist, (pronounced Feast), when he said, “Go push her button. If she likes your looks she might let us in.” I just couldn’t do it, but I remember being thrilled at the thought. Emma Franklin, elder sister of Aretha recorded “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart,” in 1967, a year and a tear, before Janice Joplin in 1968. I watched Emma’s version from around 1993 and it is only a little different from the Joplin mega hit and frequently in a good way. How can lyrics so simple, (and almost violent singing) touch us in such a profound way? Is she talking about her loving heart or her loving . . . . Peter Oh, come on, come on, come on, come on! Didn't I make you feel like you were the only man yeah! Didn't I give you nearly everything that a woman possibly can? Honey, you know I did! And each time I tell myself that I, well I think I've had enough But I'm gonna show you, baby, that a woman can be tough. I want you to come on, come on, come on, come on and take it Take it! Take another little piece of my heart now, baby! Oh, oh, break it! Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, have a! Have another little piece of my heart now, baby . . . . Piece of My Heart,” by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns originally recorded by Emma Franklin in 1967. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jonathan 225 Report post Posted February 10 * Erma. Anyway, I love both Erma and Janis's versions -- quite a contrast of how two different artists handled the same piece. J Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caroljane 105 Report post Posted February 11 7 hours ago, Peter said: Another “ear worm?” I have told this story before but . . . I was out of the army in 1969 and walking by Janice Joplin’s San Francisco residence with a disc jockey friend George Feist, (pronounced Feast), when he said, “Go push her button. If she likes your looks she might let us in.” I just couldn’t do it, but I remember being thrilled at the thought. Emma Franklin, elder sister of Aretha recorded “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart,” in 1967, a year and a tear, before Janice Joplin in 1968. I watched Emma’s version from around 1993 and it is only a little different from the Joplin mega hit and frequently in a good way. How can lyrics so simple, (and almost violent singing) touch us in such a profound way? Is she talking about her loving heart or her loving . . . . Peter Oh, come on, come on, come on, come on! Didn't I make you feel like you were the only man yeah! Didn't I give you nearly everything that a woman possibly can? Honey, you know I did! And each time I tell myself that I, well I think I've had enough But I'm gonna show you, baby, that a woman can be tough. I want you to come on, come on, come on, come on and take it Take it! Take another little piece of my heart now, baby! Oh, oh, break it! Break another little bit of my heart now, darling, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, have a! Have another little piece of my heart now, baby . . . . Piece of My Heart,” by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns originally recorded by Emma Franklin in 1967. She was so underappreciated. Even those who appreciate her do not spell her name right! She chose to be Janis. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jonathan 225 Report post Posted February 11 10 hours ago, caroljane said: She was so underappreciated. Even those who appreciate her do not spell her name right! She chose to be Janis. Damned Autoincorrect. J Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Michael Stuart Kelly 279 Report post Posted February 11 There is one song Janis Joplin sang that I never resonated with. She used to sing "Summertime" by George Gershwin from the opera Porgy and Bess. The thing is, that song is a lullaby. I never could get the image out of my mind of Janis holding an infant in her arms and screeching into the poor baby's face to get it to go to sleep. Janis was definitely not good lullaby material from the baby's perspective. I would hate to see what she wanted to put in the baby's formula... Michael Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jonathan 225 Report post Posted February 11 Whiskey and herion. Not good for da baby. J Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peter 59 Report post Posted February 11 3 hours ago, Jonathan said: Whiskey and herion. Not good for da baby. J Last night on the PBS and BBC show "Victoria" the German Aunt is left to care for the six kids while Vicky and Albert travel to Ireland. The Aunt gives the two oldest kids who I would guess are 10 and 12 a glass of wine with their breakfast. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
