Tag: music

Jan. rambling: worse than you’d think

P.D.Q. Bach

What’s Indoor Air Quality Like in Long-Term Care Facilities During Wildfires? Worse Than You’d Think

The Media Is Melting Down, and Neither Billionaires Nor Journalists Can Seem to Stop It. Across the industry, contraction, layoffs, sales, and labor unrest remind us of 2008 — but insiders are less optimistic this time.

Politicians Must Stop Playing Doctor — Personal ideology should not guide medical care, even for abortion.

Frank S. Robinson’s Book Review of “The Democrat Party Hates America”

The Green Island Power Authority responded to Chuck Miller’s questions. All of them.

2030 Census Planning in 2024

NY County data on detailed race by sex and age

What Happens When a Baby Is Born on a Plane? The unique reality of being—and having—a ‘skyborn’? at 39,000 feet

Pam Grier Set for Career Tribute at Toronto Black Film Festival

Complexly Signs Major Tetris Athlete

“God told me to run a bitcoin swindle on my parishioners.”

The last Salem “witch”

The Bookshop Sketch

9 Issues You Absolutely Need to Fix Before Selling Your Home

How to properly use a semicolon?

Now I Know: The Pregnant Platypus With a Secret and The Jail With a Built-in Breakout Plan (one of my sisters used to live in El Cajon)

Obits and a birthday

The Unthinkable Mental Health Crisis That Shook a New England College (WPI)

Colon cancer is killing more younger men and women than ever.

Norman Jewison, Director of In the Heat of the Night, Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof, The Hurricane, and many others, dies at 91

Charles Osgood, the host of CBS News Sunday Morning from 1994 to 2016, died at 91. I watched religiously. Thank you, VCR and DVR.

Joyce Randolph, Trixie on ‘The Honeymooners,’ Dies at 99

Bill Mumy, who I remember from Lost in Space and episodes of The Twilight Zone, turns 70 on February 1. 

SCOTUS on tape

The Supreme Court – now with sound! The Moving Image and Sound Branch of the National Archives is also home to over 300,000 sound recordings.   The recordings are organized chronologically.  Since cases are often argued over multiple days, cases can be split up between different recordings.

Time, Inc. v. Hill in 1966.  The Hill family case was argued by former vice president and future president Richard Nixon.  You can hear Nixon argue at about 51:30 in this recording.

  • Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 required states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  The recordings are divided into three parts: question one, question two, and the opinion.
  • Engel v. Vitale in 1962 decided that school-initiated prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment.
  • Gideon v. Wainwright from 1963 declared that indigent defendants must be provided legal representation without charge.
  • Roe v. Wade was argued over two dates: December 1971 and  October 1972.  The court declared abortion to be a constitutional right.
  • Loving et ux. v. Virginia struck down state laws that banned interracial marriage in 1967.

 

MUSIC
The American Dream Is Killing Me – Green Day [graphic]
Otis Redding: “(Sittin’ on) The Dock Of The Bay”, the first posthumous #1 pop song

Peter Schickele, Composer and Gleeful Sire of P.D.Q. Bach, Dies at 88. P.D.Q. Bach – Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Sportscast

Singer Melanie, Who Performed at Woodstock,” Dies at 76. Listen to Lay Down with the Edwin Hawkins Singers; Ruby Tuesday.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera film (2004)
Peter Sprague Plays The Wind Cries Mary featuring Lisa Hightower
John Lennon featuring the Plastic Ono Band: Jealous Guy
Coverville 1473: The Footloose 40th Anniversary Album Cover and 1474: Cover Stories for Roxette, Aaliyah and The Ventures
Symphonic Poem on Three Notes by Tan Dun.
Billy Joel: The Stranger
K-Chuck Radio: The Frank Farian Catalogue
Peter Sprague Plays Ocean Song, Earth Song
2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame Class: Timbaland, R.E.M., Steely Dan, Hillary Lindsey, Dean Pitchford

Ramones Biopic Caught In Crossfire of Heirs’ Clash In Court

Music of the early 20th century

Ezekiel 37

This music of the early 20th century became another mixed CD, which I’ll probably complete next month.

Maple Leaf Rag – Paul Schoenfeld. Right away, a bit of fiction. I did not have a Scott Joplin recording, which does exist (!), in my CD collection, so I went with another. But I can’t find that on YouTube, so you must settle for the original!

Who’s Sorry Now – the Rhythmakers. This song receives a very different take by Connie Francis (#4 in 1958). The tune hit the charts by five different artists in 1923, but it does not appear to include the Billy Banks-led group. Classic Ersie two-step.

 Bizet Has His Day – Les Brown (1941). This is based on Bizet’s Farandole from L’Arlésienne-Suite. I’m a sucker for popular songs swiping classical themes.

 Run On For A Long Time – Bill Landford and the Landfordaires (1949). As I noted here, this recording was the foundation of Moby’s Run On.

 Little Brown Jug – Glenn Miller (1939),. It’s Glenn Miller.

 Hit That Jive, Jack – Nat King Cole. When I was aware of Nat Cole, he released songs like Ramblin’ Rose, People, and Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer, which were fine. But early Nat was great.

Which bone is connected to which?

Dry Bones – Delta Rhythm Boys. This song was inspired by Ezekiel 37 in the Hebrew scripture/Old Testament of the Bible. Here’s a version where the camera focuses on the parts of the singers’ bodies. I put this track on a Biblical sources Mixed CD. The CD I took the track from was the soundtrack to the movie Rain Man; I love the first half of that album.

 Cow Cow Blues – Meade Lux Lewis (1951). It’s probably from an Atlantic Blues CD.

Rag Mop – the Ames Brothers (1950). This was a #1 song for two weeks. But I first heard a version of it on the Beany and Cecil cartoon show when I was a kid. I looked for a decent YouTube video but found a lot of remixes; here’s a snippet. You may know the song from the Muppet Show, as shown here.

Jan. rambling: power and the glory

Until The End Of The World

The Corruption of the Evangelical Movement, the Weekly Sift review of Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory.

The effect of abortion bans on women’s health, a preview of a program running on Hulu.

See How 2023 Shattered Records to Become the Hottest Year. Month after month, global temperatures didn’t just break records; they surpassed them by far. This year could be even warmer.
History is not a feel-good story.
Renaissance fairs and the Red Scare

Stealing Jokes Is Taboo, So Why Do Comedians Keep Doing It?

Julie Newmar documentary

A Parliament of Owls and a Murder of Crows: How Groups of Birds Got Their Names

The Jay Thomas story about the Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore

Steamboat Willie (1928)

Now I Know: The Problem with Free Pizza and The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders and These Pigs Don’t Fly, But They Are Flags

Passings

Hail and Farewell (CBS Sunday Morning 12/31/2023)

My wife’s uncle on her mother’s side, Glenn Olin, and her aunt on her father’s side, Portia Bush, both died in January 2024.

Tom Shales, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Washington Post Critic, Dies at 79

Glynis Johns, Who Played Mrs. Banks in ‘Mary Poppins,’ Dies at 100. I watched a show called Glynis, which ran for 13 episodes in 1963.

David Soul: Starsky & Hutch actor dies aged 80

The 1890 US census was destroyed 103 years ago. Here’s what survived.

Sports
NFL ‘Sunday Ticket’ At Stake As Court Clears Way For Major Antitrust Trial. A jury trial, which could significantly impact the market for NFL games, is set to start on Feb. 22. Damages are estimated at $6.1 billion.

NFL: Saturday, Jan. 20 – I’m rooting for the visitors

AFC — No. 4 Houston at No. 1 Baltimore 4:30 p.m. (ESPN, ABC)

NFC — No. 7 Green Bay at No. 1 San Francisco, 8 p.m. (FOX)

NFL: Sunday, Jan. 21 – I’m rooting for the home teams

Game 9: NFC — No. 4 Tampa Bay at No. 3 Detroit, 3 p.m. (NBC)

Game 10: AFC — No. 3 Kansas City at No. 2 Buffalo, 6:30 p.m. (CBS)

Bhutan: In the mountains of the world’s most remote country, baseball takes hold

MUSIC

Until The End Of The World – U2

Samba Em Comun – Peter Sprague, featuring Sinne Eeg

On The Beautiful Blue Danube, followed by the Radetzy March. Vienna Philharmonic.

It’s Been A Long Long Day – Radka Toneff, a Paul Simon cover 

Coverville 1472: The Jimmy Page Cover Story

Nothing Really Matters – Madonna

Carmen Suite – Rodion Shchedrin

Red Flags – Brittany Howard

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again – Bob Dylan

Rainbow Connection dubbed into Japanese

Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles

The Covered Man – David Soul 

Midnight Special– CCR

Don’t Give Up On Us  – David Soul 

Mixed CD – Greetings

HELLO!

I called this mixed CD Greetings because it generally contains some salutation. It’s often Hello; sometimes that word is in the title, but not always.

What’s That You’re Doing – Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. From Macca’s Tug of War album. “Good morning. Or good afternoon. Good night.” Written by McCartney/Wonder.

Good Morning Good Morning – Big Daddy. I love the group’s cover of the entire Sgt. Pepper, in various styles from the 1950s.

Good Day Sunshine – the Tremeloes. Besides this being a cover of a song from the Beatles’ Revolver album, there is another Fab connection.  They were the group whom Decca Records signed in January 1962 instead of The Beatles.

Good Morning Starshine – Hair Original Cast album. “The earth says hello”.

Hello – Oasis. Some critics in their heyday had sonically compared Oasis with The Beatles if they were still recording in the 1990s.

Hello Hello – Sopwith Camel.  “Would you like some of my tangerine?”

Hello Hello – Mono Puff.  This is a product from John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. It’s on Hello Records.

Hitchcockian

Vertigo – U2. “Hello, hello (hola).”

Big Time – Peter Gabriel. “Hi, there.” From the So album.

Hello Hooray – Alice Cooper. “Hello! Hooray! Let the show begin. I’ve been ready.” I could have gone with the Judy Collins version, but it didn’t fit as well sonically.

Welcome – the Who. “Come to my house. Be one of the comfortable people.” The title is the last word sung on this track from the rock opera Tommy..

Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2 – Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. From the Greatest Hits album. “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.”

Welcome To The Terrordome – Public Enemy. “Yo, who you trust, man? (Would you join me please in welcome-in-ing)”

Tommy’s Holiday Camp – the Who. Another Tommy track, ending with a sinister Welcome.

#1 hits of 1904

celebrating the anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase

The #1 hits of 1904 include a few songs you know. You’re older than you look.

Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart) – Haydn Quartet (Victor), ten weeks at #1. The Crew-Cuts covered this in 1959. I have heard Sweet Adeline groups (female barbershop quartets) sing this song. I checked the Social Security database. Adeline was Top 1000 from 1900 to 1952. It fell off the list until 1999. In 2022, it was #92. Adaline (#242) and Adelina (#401) also ranked.

Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis– Billy Murray (Edison), nine weeks at #1. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in that year was described as “the most lavish fair of the era.” Louis was a Top 30 name between 1900 and 1927, in the Top 100 through 1959, and is still #246 in 2022; Luis is currently #125. 

Bedelia –  Haydn Quartet. I couldn’t find a particularly clean copy. (Victor), Seven weeks at #1. I checked the Social Security database.  Bedelia has never been in the top 1000 names since 1900.

Navajo – Billy Murray (Columbia), five weeks at #1. A piece of music of its time.

Silver Threads Among The Gold – Richard Jose (Victor), four weeks at #1

Blue Bell – Byron Harlan and Frank Stanley (Edison), four weeks at #1

You’re The Flower Of My Heart, Sweet Adeline – Columbia Male Quartet (Columbia), three weeks at #1

Bedelia – Billy Murray (Edison), three weeks at #1

Alexander– Billy Murray (Edison), three weeks at #1. A “comedy record” because Murray is presumably singing from the female POV? Alexander has been a Top 250 name since 1900, #4  in 2009, and #17 in 2022.

Blue Bell – Haydn Quartet (Victor), three weeks at #1

A couple more

All Aboard for Dreamland– Byron Harlan (Edison), two weeks at #1. This is about the Coney Island amusement park. I had a difficult time finding a decent recording.

Toyland – Corrine Morgan and Haydn Quartet (Victor), two weeks at #1

Adeline, Louis, Bedelia, and Navajo also reached the top 3 by other artists.

One song that my high school Glee club performed was a version of The Woodchuck Song. It was sung by Bob Roberts (Edison) and went to #3.

My favorite 1904 title is Under the Anhauser Bush, a comedy record by Arthur Collins and Bryan Harlan (Edison), which reached #2. The tune was used in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), starring Judy Garland, as was Louis, sung by Judy.

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