Disturbed – The Sound Of Silence
An evening pause: One of the best performances I have ever seen of Paul Simon’s beautifully poetic song.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman
Category: The Evening Pause
A nightly pause from the news to give the reader/viewer a bit of classic entertainment.
Prince & Lenny Kravitz – American Woman
Emmylou Harris & Mary Black – You’ll Never Be The Sun
The B-1 Lancer Bomber
An evening pause: One reason we have a Memorial Day is to honor those who have died to keep us free. We also remember them to remind us that the sacrifice was necessary.
I think it is long past time to repeat the same effort, no matter the cost, and use this plane’s payload a lot more than we are. There are people in the Middle East who are gleefully killing people for the sake of power. We should no longer tolerate them.
Hat tip Rocco.
R.E.M. – Losing My Religion
An evening pause: This kind of music video I really like: A live performance, filmed expressly for the video. No audience, no special effects, no fake cute story expressing the angst of adolescence. Just the musicians, their instruments, the words of the song, and the cameraman.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Yanni, Lisa Lavie, Lauren Jelencovich – Aria
Wintergatan – Starmachine2000
An evening pause: The same people who gave us the Marble Machine show us again how to use technology to make good music.
Hat tip Danae.
Chito
An evening pause: Hat tip George Petricko, who noted, “Just when you think the whole world has gone rotten, you see someone like this.” I say, this is just one more testament to what is possible if you are humble and do the best you can, with what you have.
The Cowsills – The Rain, The Park and Other Things
Electric Light Orchestra -.Can’t get it out of my head
Jamey Johnson & Lee Ann Womack – “Give It Away”
Johann Strauss – Perpetuum mobile
An evening pause: Hat tip Dane, who added that “Herbert von Karajan’s eccentricity as a conductor” makes this worth watching all by itself.
Blockhead – The Music Scene
An evening pause: Animation by Antonio Francisco Schepperd. As I watched this I could not help think of the very expressive 1960s word psychodelic.
The Dubliners – Dirty Old Town
Lacy J. Dalton – Black Coffee
Pink Floyd – See Emily Play
An evening pause: The link calls this the official video, remastered in 2011. The style and look of the filming however fits the 1960s to a T.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
An evening pause: I normally find myself very bored with “official” music videos. The stories are almost always the same, centered on the imagined profound angst of adolescent teen-age emotions. This video however does a nice job of mixing the music with the story, in a somewhat creative and different way, even if the angst is still the same.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Stevie Nicks – Edge Of Seventeen
Stevie Wonder – I Just Called To Say I Love You
Pearl Jam – Alive
A evening pause: If you look closely, past the hard rock angst and anger and clothing and hairstyles and performance cliches, what you can see here are some very serious and skilled musicians.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Foster The People – Houdini
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain – Psycho Killer
An evening pause: Let’s try this song again, this time played by people in suits.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Taking Heads – Psycho Killer
Such Great Heights
An evening pause: Unfortunately, I have no idea who the performer is for this gentle and very beautiful cover of a song by The Postal Service. She does not identify herself on her youtube webpage.
They will see us waving from such great heights,
“Come down now,” they’ll say
But everything looks perfect from far away,
“Come down now,” but we’ll stay…
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Claudia Drake – I can’t believe that you’re in love with me
John Prine – Hello in there
Billy Joel and Michael Pollack – New York State of Mind
An evening pause: Hat tip Frank Kelly. As Frank emailed me, “Student Michael Pollack asks Billy Joel if he can accompany him on piano, playing New York State of Mind. Billy Joel accepts and asks, “What key do you play it in.” Pollack: “What key do you want it in?” Just from that Joel can tell he can play, then Pollack starts playing, and this is important, when he starts, Joel instantly knows he’s [good]. Perhaps he realizes he might be a reason this kid learned piano. Joel is a bit amazed, watch it, he relaxes and just lets Pollack do his thing; he even makes a flamboyant point of putting his sunglasses on.”
Or as Joel says at the end, “The guy’s got chops.” Stick with it, it only gets better.
Colin Hay – I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you
Nirvana – Lithium
An evening pause: I must admit that the hard rock music of Kurt Cobain has interested me so little that, until this video was suggested to me, I had never listened to it. Though the music itself doesn’t do much for me personally, the lyrics and the history of the song were quite surprising. To quote from the second link,
Cobain said the song is about a man who, after the death of his girlfriend, turns to religion “as a last resort to keep himself alive. To keep him from suicide.” While Cobain said the narrative of “Lithium” was fictional, he said, “I did infuse some of my personal experiences, like breaking up with girlfriends and having bad relationships.” Cobain acknowledged that the song was possibly inspired in part by the time he spent living with his friend Jesse Reed and his born-again Christian parents. He explained to Azerrad, “I’ve always felt that some people should have religion in their lives [. . .] That’s fine. If it’s going to save someone, it’s okay. And the person in [‘Lithium’] needed it.”
The song was published in 1992. I suspect that even Cobain would be considered evil by the today’s modern generation for daring to express positive thoughts about religion.
Hat tip Wayne Devette.
Isabelle Druet – Ah que j’aime les militaires!
An evening pause: By Offenbach. The humor of this song, the title of which in English is “Ah, how I love the military!”, is sadly lost on us English-speakers, but you can sense it from the singer’s wonderful performance.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.