Tag: music
Bobby Pickett – Monster Mash
An evening pause: From American Bandstand with Dick Clark, October 13, 1964. Perfect in anticipation of Halloween. And yes, believe it or not it was a pop hit in the mid-1960s.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Luna Lee – Voodoo Child
A evening pause: The Jimi Hendrix song, played on a customized gayageum. I do not think the Koreans who created this instrument ever expected this kind of music to come from it.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Asleep at the Wheel – Hot Rod Lincoln
An evening pause: Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
Robin Huw Bowen & Camille and Kennerly – Harp medley
An evening pause: Bowen is on the Welsh triple harp. They do two songs, Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through the Night) and the theme from Doctor Who.
Hat tip Marcus A.
Synchronized cavern diving
An evening pause: They call this a flash mob, but that’s not accurate. These divers did not mysteriously appear here to move in unison in order to surprise someone. They all planned it together.
Nonetheless where they are and what they do is beautiful. I especially like when they coordinate the pointing of their dive lights.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Deonis Kiroshka – Classical Guitar
An evening pause: Kiroshka made the film. Evgeny Kovalev made the guitar. Andrew Matveenko played it.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Dale Watson & The Texas Two – My Baby Makes Me Gravy
A evening pause: Somehow this seems a perfect way to end the week.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
Steve Hackett – After the Ordeal
An evening pause: Performed live in 2015.
Hat tip to Diane Zimmerman, who also discovered Hackett was performing in a Tucson concert tonight, so that is where we are, even as you watch this video.
Paul Robeson – Ol’ Man River
An evening pause: From the 1936 movie adaptation of the Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein Broadway musical Showboat. While some of the visuals are a bit overstated and feel a bit preachy, this is still the best movie version of this song I have seen. Rather than strut about with big visuals, the film focuses on Robeson, who sings the song introspectively, as if it is something he is thinking.
A bit of trivia: The film’s director was James Whale, the man who made the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Buddy Ebsen – I’m nuts about you
An evening pause: Ebsen is joined by Eleanor Powell, Jimmy Stewart, Una Merkel and Sid Silvers in this dance number from the 1936 film, Born to Dance.
Ebsen is remembered most for playing Jed Clampett in the tv comedy series, The Beverley Hillbillies, but he started out as a dancer in movies.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Roger Hodgson – The Logical Song
An evening pause: Hat tip to Edward Thelen, who continues to be the one evening pause suggester who tries to find sources other than youtube. Competition is a good thing, and Google and youtube need some competition.
Unfortunately, there was no way to embed the video shown at the Brighteon link, so sadly I still had to use youtube.
Hetty & the Jazzato Band – Tu Vuo’ Fa’ L’Americano
An evening pause: The title means “You Want to Be American”. The song was written in 1956, and is “about an Italian who affects a contemporary American lifestyle, drinking whisky and soda, dancing to rock ‘n roll, playing baseball and smoking Camel cigarettes, but who still depends on his parents for money.”
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Panache Quartet – Old songs
Camel – First Light
An evening pause: Performed live 1977.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman, who considers this her favorite Camel song.
Joe Ely – Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
An evening pause: Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
The Ventures – Wipeout
Liberace – Malaguena
An evening pause: Stay with it, because after the music Liberace and Sammy Davis do some comedy and a dance number that is pure light-hearted entertainment, the kind of thing that was normal on television in the 1960s, and now seems so difficult for modern performers to achieve.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Climax – Precious and Few
An evening pause: Hat tip Diane Zimmerman, who had not thought of this 1972 song until we saw the band make a quick cameo playing it on a 2001 Simpsons episode.
Luca Stricagnoli – Can’t Stop
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers – They Can’t Take That Away From Me
An evening pause: Another movie pause tonight, this time showing the films themselves. This clip includes two performances of this song, from two different Astaire & Rogers films. The first, from Shall We Dance? (1937), has Astaire singing the song, knowing that the Rogers character is leaving him. Of course she ends up not going.
The second clip is from The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), their last film together and done after a split of ten years. They knew then this would be their last film, and now the words have a meaning far greater than the story in the film. When they exit at the end of this song, they know it is pretty much for the last time.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger
An evening pause: The theme song from Goldfinger (1964) might have been one of the best theme songs among all the Bond films. This live performance by the voice from that original film is from 2011, when she was 78 years old.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Wayne Hancock – Thunderstorms and Neon Signs
An evening pause: The visuals here have a very nice documentary feel, even those shots which were clearly staged. They all invoke the highway world of travelers, almost anywhere in the U.S.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
Herb Alpert – Puttin’ on the Ritz
An evening pause: From the youtube page:
The Puttin’ On The Ritz music video is a creative collaboration between Alpert, artist Glenn Kaino and filmmaker Afshin Shahidi with choreographers Napoleon & Tabitha D’umo from So You Think You Can Dance and produced by Kerith Lemon. One long camera shot follows the lead dancer, Vincent Noiseux on a musical journey and features musicians Lani Hall, Bill Cantos, Hussain Jiffry and Michael Shapiro as well as corps dancers like Kherington Payne and others that have been seen on So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew, Dancing with the Stars, This is It, Step Up and more.
Hat tip Tom Biggar, who notes that Albert makes some cameos, which I think includes both the bus driver and the bartender.
Jon David Kahn – American Heart
An evening pause: On this day of remembrance, this song seems fitting. And as the lyrics boldly state,
I won’t be made to ever feel ashamed
that I’m American made
I got American parts
I got American faith
In America’s heart
Go on, raise the flag
I got stars in in my eyes
I’m in love with her
And I won’t apologize.
The image that best reveals what America represents, as a messenger of freedom, is that photograph of the American soldier gently cradling a baby refugee from war. Or as said in the 1993 movie Gettysburg, “We are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free.”
Chris Botti & Lucia Micarelli – Emmanuel
An evening pause: Hat tip to Thomas Biggar, who wrote, “This piece was written by Michel Colombier and released in 1971. Emmanuel was written to honour the memory of his son who died when he was only 5 years old.”
Mat Gurman – Hotline Bling
An evening pause: Kinda calm and relaxing.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar Rex Ridenoure of Ecliptic Enterprises.
Both have been generous with their suggestions, I just got them confused for this particular pause.
Roy Orbison & k.d. lang – Pretty Woman & Crying
An evening pause: Two songs on this appearance on the Tonight Show on December 7, 1987, plus a bit of their interview afterward with some interesting tidbits.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar.
Gatos do Sul – Fire the Pandeiro player
An evening pause: I am not a jazz fan, but these guys (especially the flutist and violinist) seem to be having so much fun!
Hat tip Diane Wilson.
Sophie Fatu – Fly Me To The Moon
An evening pause: I like this far better for Labor Day than anything else I’ve thought of. It’s cute, sweet, nice, and hopeful. And it somehow seems fitting as we close out the summer of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
Hat tip Frank Kelly.