Tag: music
The Piano Guys – Cello Wars
An evening pause: In honor of the 35th anniversary today of the premiere of Star Wars in 1977, a beautiful and silly rendition by the Piano Guys.
For those who were not alive in the 1960s and 1970s, it is hard to explain the impact of Star Wars. For more than twenty years, science fiction fans had dreamed of seeing a really good space opera science fiction film on the big screen. Sadly, we saw disappointment after disappointment instead. Except for Forbidden Planet (1956) and television’s Star Trek in the 1960s, practically every science fiction film about space exploration told childish stories that made no sense.
And then came Star Wars.
Harp music of Paraguay, played by the Japanese
Strange Charm: A Song about Quarks
Rod McKuen – Jean
An evening pause: This Rod McKuen song, “Jean,” performed here live by him on the Johnny Cash Show on February 4, 1970, was originally the title song for the wonderful movie The Prime of the Miss Jean Brodie (1969), starring Maggie Smith.
Russian flash mob – Putting on the Ritz
An evening pause: From frigid Russia, some Russians put on the Ritz.
The Little Mermaid – Part of That World
Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart
Issy Emeney – Appalachian Flatfooting
Boney M – Rivers of Babylon
Henry Dagg – Somewhere over the rainbow
Candide: Make Our Garden Grow: Bernstein at 70
An evening pause: The finale of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. Just before the song begins, Candide says this:
We will not think noble, because we are not noble. We will not live in perfect harmony because there is no such thing in this world, nor should there be. We can only promise to do our best, and to live out our lives. Dear God, that is all we can promise in truth. Marry me, Cunegonde.
Edwin McCain – I’ll Be
The Muppets – Bohemian Rhapsody
An evening pause: A very talented actor once told me that a great deal of all comedy is based on contrast, on juxtaposing extreme opposites in unexpected ways.
The Black Stallion
An evening pause: The central sequence from the 1979 movie, The Black Stallion, when the shipwrecked boy Alec succeeds in taming the shipwrecked Arabian horse. The combination of Carmine Coppola’s music and Caleb Deschanel’s photography in this sequence is unmatched.
The Statler Brothers – Flowers On The Wall
Wrecking Crew Orchestra
Ennio Morricone: Gabriel’s Oboe and theme from Cinema Paradiso
Chet Atkins – Mr. Sandman
Celtic Harp Orchestra – Morrison’s Jig
An evening pause: Here’s some more harp, this time played in a way you’ve never heard it by the Celtic Harp Orchestra.
Anne Postic – Celtic Harp at Lorient in 2008
Mitch & Mickey – A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow
An evening pause: From the movie A Mighty Wind (2003), a wonderful and funny pseudo documentary about the 1960s folk era. The folk team of Mitch & Mickey never existed, but this song is superb, made even more poignant by the story.
Mary Black – Thorn Upon The Rose
An evening pause: On St. Patrick’s Day, how about one of Ireland’s best singers.
No lose, it’s just the same
Tears of joy, tears of pain.
They’re hand in hand, they come as one.
Never see the Moon without promise of the Sun.
For all the roses, for all the blows.
I’d rather feel the thorn then to never see the rose.So when you give the handsome flower
Don’t forget the thorn upon the rose
Its cut is deep and its scar lasts forever
It follows love wherever love goes.
Dakuwaqa’s Garden – Underwater footage from Fiji
Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind
Kevin Olusola on cello
Les Paul and Mary Ford – How high the Moon
An evening pause: From the late 1950s, Alastair Cooke introduces Les Paul and Mary Ford, who then demonstrate some advanced music technology (and some smokin’ music) that would only become commonplace in the coming decades.
Dominic Boudreault – The City Limits (music by Hans Zimmers)
Dicken with Milah and Korben – Everything Counts
An evening pause: As my wife Diane said after watching this, “Gee, I wish I had had a cool dad like that.”
Ronald Jenkees – The Fast Song
An evening pause: How about some amazing piano jamming by Ronald Jenkees.