Tag: music
The Highwaymen – Ghost Riders In the Sky
Barcelona Gipsy balKan Orchestra – Amarisi
An evening pause: It is interesting to me how similar gypsy music is to Jewish kelzmer music from Eastern Europe.
Hat tip Judd Clark, who adds “She’s got that glow.”
Remember Monday – Fat Bottomed Girls
Tiny Tim’s first appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
An evening pause: Aired live April 4, 1968. This important moment in time not only illustrates the incredible tolerant and eccentric nature of 1960s culture, it shows us Johnny Carson at his best. He recognizes the eccentricity of his guest, uses it for humor, but then is also sincerely willing to interview Tim and let him express himself. As always, Carson is kind to his guest, which is one of the reasons his audience loved him so much.
Carson also recognized that Tiny Tim’s eccentricity was great entertainment (something Tim recognized himself quite clearly), which is why Carson allowed the appearance to go so long. It was good show business.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Geoff Castellucci – Sixteen Tons
Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence
An evening pause: I’ve posted several covers of this great song by other artists, as well as a different and earlier reunion performance by Simon & Garfunkel (which is no longer available). Here they are again, because the originals are always the best.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
Steve Martin – King Tut
John Williams – Imperial March
An evening pause: What is most important about this performance is that Williams was doing the conducting on his 90th birthday. The only sour note of this performance is the idiotic masks they made some members of the orchestra wear. Obviously, a horn player can’t give anyone an infection, but a violin player can. Note too how all the VIPs on the front of the stage (such as Steven Spielberg) were also immune from COVID and didn’t need masks either. What fools and hypocrites.
Hat tip Phil Berardelli.
Ally Venable – One Side Understanding
Hank Williams – Cold Cold Heart
Zac Brown Band – Knee Deep
An evening pause: Performed live in 2022.
I heard this song on the radio and was astonished because it actually didn’t overload the sound with a typical rock instrumentation so that it was no longer a country tune but a simply rock song with the singer having a western accent. Instead it is simple and clear and a pleasure to listen to, partly because it doesn’t sound like every other pop song played these days.
It also makes a great song to start the weekend.
Morgan James – Dream On
Heart – Crazy on You
An evening pause: I posted this same song in 2022 from a different performance during the same 1977 tour. This version however was recorded as part of a documentary and includes some backstage footage that is definitely worth watching.
Has tip Rex Ridenoure, who notes that “Heart was the first rock band with female leads who also wrote all their own songs.”
Dean Martin – That’s Amore
An evening pause: Performed live on television 1965. A great song to start the week.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Clara Cernat & Thierry Huillet – Porumbescu Balada
Bob Lind – Elusive Butterfly
Ray Bolger & Judy Garland – If I Only Had a Brain
An evening pause: From the 1939 MGM classic, The Wizard of Oz, when Hollywood still made films in which the witches were the bad guys, not the heroes.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Blue Man Group – Drumbone
An evening pause: Performed live 2010. Makes a nice contrast to the Bach dulcimer pause two days ago.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Naomi Priest & Saskia van Gerven – The Boxer
Ekaterina Yukhnova – Sarabanda
Dido – White Flag
Zbigniew Rybczyński – The Orchestra (final scene)
An evening pause: Music is of course Ravel’s Bolero. This provides us an elegant thumbnail history of the Soviet Union using dance, choreography, and clever filming. And it is honest, showing how the whole thing was run by gangstas, as all such top-down communist/socialist societies are, and as America is now adopting. More information about the entire work here.
Hat tip Dave McCooey.
Liza Minnelli – New York, New York
An evening pause: Performed live 1992. Now an ode to a city that no longer exists.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Gordon Lightfoot – The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Julie Andrews segment during of Carol Burnett’s 90th Birthday Special
An evening pause: Aired in 2023. The best part is the short film providing sample moments from the three television specials they did together.
Hat tip Phil Berardelli.