Don’t Stop Believin’: In Memory of Cory Monteith

Cory Monteith Meets Fans At Westfield Sydney  wikimedia commons

He’s known as the football star turned glee club singer on the hit show Glee.          

But his life was more troubled and more astonishing than his TV persona.

By 13 he was into drugs, by 16 he had dropped out of high school, and by 19 he was in rehab.

But somehow he went from a job as a Wal-Mart greeter to star of a hit show that features music and dancing, without any music or dancing experience. His audition tape consisted of him playing the drums—with pencils on Tupperware. (You can see him reprise a bit of it on the Ellen DeGeneresshow.)

He told DeGeneres that on the way to the live interview, he listened to the cast version of the Broadway show Rent, and also listened to Billy Joel albums.  Joel’s song “Honesty” was the song he performed.

He was found dead in his hotel room early on Saturday, July 13.

The police haven’t released the cause of death, but early reports are that not foul play seems to be involved. He had recently gone back into rehab, and it seems likely that a drug overdose killed him

Popular entertainment is full of tales of undead villains, but drugs are the real vampires and zombies, possessing people—even the very talented and very young—until they are destroyed.

For a look at better times, here some of Monteith’s best-known pieces. They are available for download on Freegal.

They’re Coming to America: a Neil Diamond Song for 4th of July

I remember when I first heard this song at the beginning of Diamond’s movie The Jazz Singer.  It has a driving rhythm and a sing-along quality, a great way to start a film. It made me appreciate this country and what it has offered to immigrants.

 The movie had mixed reviews, but the soundtrack was Diamond’s most successful album.

 The slow ballads “Love on the Rocks” and “Hello Again” are also included.

 I downloaded onto my phone today, with the Freegal app. I think it makes nice 4^th of July music.

Freegal Songs for Earth Day

Earth Day: flowering crabapple  image credit: Ellen Mackey 2012

I’ve been searching the web for the best Earth Day songs and then searching Freegal to see what was available there.

Some of these songs celebrate nature; others lament what we’ve done to it.

Kansas                         Death of Mother Nature Suite

 John Prine                   Paradise

 Yardbirds                     Shapes of Things

 Johnny Cash                Don’t Go Near the Water

James Taylor               Traffic Jam

Woody Guthrie            This Land Is Your Land

Bruce Springsteen       This Land Is Your Land            

 Michael Jackson          Earth Song

Nitty Gritty Dirt           Fishin’ in the Dark

   Band

 John Mayer                 Waiting on the World to Change

 Dave Matthews           One Sweet World

   Band

 Kenny Loggins             Conviction of the Heart

                                    This Island Earth (album)

 John Denver                Calypso

                                    The Wind

                                    Annie’s Song

                                    Sunshine on My Shoulder

                                    Rocky Mountain High

 Walk Off the Earth      Little Boxes

 Pete Seeger                 God Bless the Grass

A Song for Earth Day 2013: “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie

Guanella Pass, Rocky Mountains, Colorado  Image credit: Ellen Mackey 2012

I saw Woody’s son Arlo in concert about 20 years ago.

He told us about how his dad had written a song about the Gulf stream waters and the redwood forests.

And he also told us about another verse,

“I saw a sign that said no trespassing

But on the other side

It didn’t say nothing.

That side was made for you and me.”

To see other “subversive” verses written by the champion of the common man, see this story by NPR.

Lots of Woody Guthrie’s work is available for free download on Freegal. So are versions of “This Land is Your Land” by Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

Best Songs for Earth Day: “Calypso” by John Denver

Ocean wave  image credit

Calypso. What a great word. What a great for a boat. And a song.

"To sail on a dream on a crystal clear ocean..."

I'm from the desert and I have to admit that I don't really get all the books I read about people and their longing for the sea.

But what I do get is that the oceans comprise two-thirds of the earth's surface, and that all of us--even high and dry landlubbers--depend on the health of the sea for the health of our planet.

So, let's cut way back on the carbon, let's figure out a way to do with much, much less plastic, and let's do our best to keep the ocean in good shape. For Jacques and John and for all of us humans living on earth.

“Calypso” by John Denver is available for free download from Freegal.

Best Song for Earth Day: “Conviction of the Heart” by Kenny Loggins

Redwood trees in Muir Woods National Monument, just outside San Francisco, California
Image Credit

According to SongFacts, Loggins co-wrote this song with guitarist Guy Thomas who decided he had to do something as he drove past a toxic waste fill in Los Angeles. 

 

Though the lyrics are kind of general, one line near the end sticks with me: “Air that’s too angry to breathe/water our children can’t drink…”

Loggins performed the song on Earth Day 1995 at the National Mall.

It’s available from Freegal.

Best Songs for Earth Day: “The Garden Song” by John Denver

Garden and barn at Littleton Historical Museum. Ellen Mackey 2011

Try to imagine these days someone writing a simple little song about planting a garden. Then imagine it becoming a big hit.

Yeah, I can't imagine it either. I mean, I can see Mumford & Sons using garden imagery, but infusing it with something more sinister than a crow watching hungrily. The crow would probably need to peck out the eyes of memory, or something heavy like that.

I suppose in the 70's more people had a little garden they tended on their farm or in their backyard.

I have a particular affection for this song because I was able to pluck it out on my little guitar, even with my limited guitar skills.

It’s available for free download on Freegal.

Best Songs for Earth Day: “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver

Rocky Mountains, Guanella Pass.  Ellen Mackey 2012

He seems quaint now, a "aw, gosh" folk singer with a bowl haircut and big round glasses singing songs like "Sunshine on My Shoulder," and "Thank God I'm a Country Boy."

But the guy could sing. In the early 1980's, I had the quintessential Colorado experience: listening to John Denver in concert at Red Rocks amphitheater.

We were kind of far from the stage, and when someone in jeans and a t-shirt came out a couple of hours before the show and sang a rousing "Johnny B. Goode," I wondered who this rockin' warm-up act was.

It was Denver himself, showing that he could hang in with the best of them on something besides his trademark mellow and meditative ballads.

Back in 1976, Newsweek called him the "most popular pop singer in America." 

Then disco happened. And new wave. And rap. And all the rest.

But John Denver's poetry still quietly evokes the beauty of Colorado. And his music is still the kind that us old fogies will sing along with when nobody else is watching.

“Rocky Mountain High” is available for free download on Freegal.

Best Songs for Earth Day: "Fishing in the Dark" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Image Credit

Even though this song is not about saving the earth, the lyrics conjure up the kind of nature scene that saving the earth is all about.

The first verse paints a picture of a warm summer night with a lazy yellow moon, trees, and lightning bugs floating on the breeze.

In addition, it has a nice catchy tune. It's available for free download from Freegal.

Some of the members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band live in Colorado, and we've had a chance to see them fairly often, especially strings player John McCuen.

During one concert he told us about an argument he had with his brother about whether or not the banjo was a cool instrument. His brother finally ended the argument by saying, "If the banjo was a cool instrument, the Beatles would have used it."

Beatles or not, I think the banjo is a cool instrument. And it sounds especially cool when Nitty Gritty plays it.

Dancing and Singing on the Titanic

The Dancing Girl (painting and silk cloth) in Lululaund mansion.  Image Credit

I typed the word “Titanic” into the album field of Freegal and found lots of collections of Titanic music.

One called Back to Titanic includes tracks from the motion picture that they didn’t get on the first album. You can get “An Irish Party in Third Class,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and “Nearer My God to Thee,” among others.

One called Music Aboard the Titanic has several pieces of music that were popular in 1912 - ragtime, light classical, and waltzes.

Another is Titanic Tunes: A Sing-Along in Steerage which includes rousing songs like “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” and “Glorious Beer.”

And the last is Titanic: Music As Heard on the Fateful Voyage. This album includes many of the songs mentioned by passengers who survived the shipwreck. Tracks include "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Shine on Harvest Moon," and "Songe d'Automne," which many credible survivor accounts indicate was the last song played by the band.

Titanic Tunes, Flicks, Portents, and Everything Else You Could Want

The Titanic sank 101 years ago.  See the site Remembering the Titanic for music, books, films, recipes.

Today is the 101^st anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It’s a story that fascinates with the convergence of wealth, nature, arrogance and coincidence.

I should know. I spent a year and a half reading, researching, watching, and listening to all things Titanic.

Here’s my master site with all the best books, movies, and music: Remembering the Titanic.

Incidentally, the 2 CD’s  I highlight Music Aboard the Titanic  and Titanic; Music As Heard on the Fateful Voyage are available for free download from Freegal. I wish I had known that before I downloaded some of the songs from Amazon.

Here’s a bunch of other stuff I put together:

Titanic Recipes  This book has recipes that were used for all the different classes on the Titanic. It also tells you how to re-create that last meal—all you need is three free days and an extra sous chef or two.

Portents of Doom  No kidding. Several years before the Titanic sank, a man wrote a novel about a huge ocean liner full of rich and complacent people that sank. I gathered quite a few those kinds of portents for this article

Things You Never Knew About the Titanic  They were never trying to set a speed record. And they wouldn’t have been able to deploy all the lifeboats even if they’d had them.

Molly Brown  Other than being “unsinkable” on the Titanic, she was quite a remarkable person in her own right.

Get Your Titanic Music on Freegal: Songs for the 101st Anniversary

Jazz musician Carl Wolff chose representative songs from the Titanic's playlist for this collection.

Musician and jazz composer Carl Wolf chooses several pieces of music that were popular in 1912 - ragtime, light classical, and waltzes - and groups them by the venue in which they were most likely played from a First-Class Dinner Dance to Tea in the Palm Court.

The Memphis Jazz Band, a strings-and-piano chamber group, performs such tunes as "The Maple Leaf Rag," "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," "The Merry Widow Waltz," and "Blue Danube." The last selection is "Nearer My God to Thee," which was reported by some survivors to be the last piece played.

The whole album is available for free download on Freegal.

Mix Together Some Andy Griffith and LL Cool J: Wheelhouse by Brad Paisley

Country music star Brad Paisley performs to more than 11,000 members of the Naval Station Mayport community.
Image Credit

It’s here! It’s here! And it’s here for free download on Freegal. Brad Paisley’s highly-anticipated album Wheelhouse showed up this very day on Freegal. Entertainment Weekly says the album “includes some of his boldest—and funniest—work so far.”

This is the first time I’ve known the release date of an album and been able to check when it appears. Which means Freegal folks aren’t second-class citizens. We get to start as soon as everyone else. (We do have to be a little patient, of course, since most of us can only get 3 songs a week.)

Paisley has always been one of my favorite country artists. The fellow who wrote “American Saturday Night” isn’t afraid to broaden his horizons and talk about how all kinds of immigrants have helped this country.

He can play his humor broad—as when he proclaims “I’d like to check you for ticks” but he can also show a wry sense of humor with a song like “Alcohol.

I’m listening to 30-second samples of his album right now— did I just hear a riff from Roger Miller and Andy Griffith talking about Aunt Bea’s pie? And some whistling? And Eric Idle? And LL Cool J? And old-time radio? And Jeff Foxworthy?

You’ve got to hear this. He manages to bring it all together, to be serious and funny, but mostly he is showing that he is one heck of a musician.

ACM Award Winners on Freegal: Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Thompson Square

Miranda Lambert was the biggest Freegal artist to win at the Academy of Country Music Awards Sunday night. She picked up Female Vocalist of the Year along with Single Record and Song of the Year for her song “Over You.

Lambert’s albums Kerosene, Revolution, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Four the Record are available for free and legal downloads from Freegal.

Jason Aldean picked up Male Vocalist of the Year. Freegal includes his albums Jason Aldean, My Kinda Party, Relentless, Wide Open, and Night Train.


Thompson Square was voted Vocal Duo of the Year. Freegal has free downloads of all the songs on the albums Thompson Square and Just Feels Good. 

Alabama Shakes: Hang Loose and Hold On

According to their SXSWwriteup, Alabama Shakes began in a high school psychology class.

Brittany Howard, the lead singer, had been playing the guitar for a while and approached a classmate about starting a band. “I just knew that he played bass and that he wore shirts with cool bands on them that nobody had heard of,” says Howard.

They used to be called Shakes, but they changed their name to Alabama Shakes.

All the tracks from their album Boys & Girls is available for free download from Freegal.

One YouTube wag calls them what would happen if you crossed Creedence Clearwater Revival and Kings of Leon.

I love Howard as a vocalist. It’s nice to see a woman fronting a band with this much soul.

 “Hang Loose” and “Hold On” are my favorite tracks.

Academy of Country Music: Get the Scoop on Nominees You Can Download on Freegal

Freegal has free legal downloads of some of the ACM nominees. image credit

Entertainment Weekly calls the ACM awards the Golden Globes of country music.  It looks like it’s going to be a country music show—with a few awards thrown in here and there.

Here’s a roundup of the artists you can download free (and legally) from Freegal:

Entertainer of the Year

Jason Aldean
Miranda Lambert

Male Vocalist of the Year

Jason Aldean

Female Vocalist of the Year

Miranda Lambert
Martina McBride
Carrie Underwood

Vocal Duo of the Year

Love and Theft
Thompson Square

Album of the Year

Blown Away by Carrie Underwood

Single Record/Song of the Year

“Over You” by Miranda Lambert

Freegal at the Movies: Top Gun

Cockpit USA top gun G-1 flight jacket  image credit

It’s common for movie moguls to look to books, comic books, or even video games for inspiration, but Top Gun was based on an article that appeared in the California Magazine in 1983.

Better check out those magazines more often, guys. The Oscar-winning Argo was also based on an article, which was published in Wired magazine in 2007.

Top Gun has been 3D-ified and is now for sale on in Blu-Ray 3D format.

The whole soundtrack is available for free download on Freegal, with quite a few luminaries from the 80’s. Everyone remembers “You Take My Breath Away,” by Berlin.

Kenny Loggins also has a few tracks, the most notable being “Danger Zone.” Cheap Trick, Miami Sound Machine, Teena Marie and Loverboy also have tracks on the album.

Freegal at the Movies: Star Trek Themes

Klingon man at Destination Star Trek, London, England  image credit

I saw the new Star Trek: Into Darkness trailer about a week ago. You can’t really tell what it’s about, but I like it that way. I think it would spoil a Star Trek movie to know too much about it.
 
Watching the trailer, I remembered that Freegal has a free download of just about any theme music you’d want: the original Star Trek, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the soundtracks from the movies.
 

As the fellow above would say, “Maj!”              

 

(In case you don’t speak Klingon, you can find a few useful phrases here.)

Freegal at the Movies: “Jurassic Park Theme” by John Williams

Jurassic Park sport utility vehicle  Image Credit

I’ve just been reading the book Frankenstein’s Cat by Emily Anthes, a book about how scientists are bioengineering animals. It can make a person disturbed and hopeful at the same time.

There’s creepy but noble: changing the genes in pig hearts so they can fill in for the shortage of human hearts available for transplant.

There’s creepy but cool: aquarium fish that glow bright colors because they have some jellyfish DNA.

Then there’s creepy and disturbing: a home kit that sells for $99.99 and allows any home enthusiast to take a living cockroach, thread silver wires down its antennae and make a do-it-yourself remote-control cockroach.

On a little more hopeful note, she points out that it’s still too difficult to clone dinosaur DNA because it degrades over time. So for now, at least, Jurassic Park is still science fiction.

This year is the 20^th anniversary, and Speilberg’s dinosaurs-gone-amok film is coming out in 3D IMAx, if you like your dinos that big and loud.

You can get the music from the soundtrack as a free download from Freegal. John Williams himself conducts the orchestra. There are also some nice piano renditions by Dan Redfeld.

And if you want to go the creepy-but-cool route, you can download the track of Weird Al Yankovic singing his song “Jurassic Park” to the tune of the uber-dramatic “MacArthur Park.”

Messing Around with The William Tell Overture

When I’m researching topics for this blog, I come across all kinds of strange little tidbits. Writing about the new movie coming out, The Lone Ranger, I remembered Bobby McFerrin’s performance 20 years ago in Denver.

He directed the orchestra in “The William Tell Overture”, but they didn’t play their instruments. They used their voices. It looked something like this:

Sadly, Freegal only has one album of Bobby McFerrin’s, but he is directing some rather nice classical music on it.

The other recording I came across was one by Spike Jones. I had never heard of him (even I’m a little too young for that), and I listened to the sample, thinking he might be some hip dude.

When I heard someone who sounded like they were gargling the music, I reassessed and looked him up. He was known for his comic albums. The William Tell Overture is one of his classics. In it he calls a horse race, playing on the crazy names racing horses can have. I leave it to  you to gauge the funny factor of lines likes “Cabbage by a head,” and “Girdle in the stretch.”

If you like it, a bunch of his stuff can be downloaded free on Freegal.

Freegal and the Movies: “The William Tell Overture” from The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) with his trusty horse Silver at Pleasure Island in Massachusetts.  image credit

Yesterday we went to the movies and saw all the previews for new ones coming out.
Disney is coming out with The Lone Ranger, and I drank up the scenery, since some of it was shot in Creede, Colorado, a bare 50 miles from my hometown. A childhood friend lives there now & says the crew was very nice. I don’t think he made a Depp sighting, though.

Creede, Old mine on Bachelor Loop tour image credit

You can’t think of The Lone Ranger without thinking of “The William Tell Overture.” It wasn’t written for the TV show, but pulled from a Rossini opera about a Swiss patriot.

So how did it come to be the theme song for the Wild West? First, it’s a rousing piece of music that certainly conjures up a horse galloping across the desert.

Second, and probably most importantly, it was in the public domain, which meant the studio wouldn’t have to pay the rights for it.

Freegal has dozens of versions of “The William Tell Overture” available for free download.  You can find Arthur Fiedler, Leonard Bernstein, the London Symphony Orchestra, and lots of others.

Word in the blogosphere is that Hans Zimmer will be the musical director (Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom called it “The best thing of 2013.)

And, according to HuffPost Jack White (whose other music you can download from Freegal) was hired to write & perform the score.

I’m looking forward to seeing a Colorado/Depp/Zimmer/White collaboration. It’s been a long time since a Western has come along.

Mumford & Sons: From Calgary to Taos to Telluride



The folk/rock band Mumford & Sons has announced its Summer Stampede tour.


The popular British-roots folk/rock band Mumford & Sons has announced its “Summer Stampede” tour.

Fans in Denver may be disappointed that their show at the Telluride Bluegrass festival is sold out.

But, as the Denver Post’s blog Reverb points out, tickets to the Taos show are still due to go up for sale. And, Taos is actually closer to Denver.  (By the way, check out the great photos taken at their Red Rocks show last year.) 

I hail from a southern Colorado town not too far from Taos. It’s a good place to soak up southwestern culture and art.

If you want to get caught up on Mumford & Sons songs, you can download them free from Freegal.

Bringing Back Irish Music: 50 Years for The Chieftains

Fan video: shots of Ireland and "O'Sullivan's March" by The Chieftains.

Sometimes reading an encyclopedia isn’t so bad. Here’s the first sentence under the entry “The Chieftains” in Contemporary Musicians:

“In the early 1950’s, Irish music wasn’t even popular in Ireland

Irish folk music was for the old folks; all the hip dudes were learning to play American pop tunes.

But, a young Paddy Maloney started learning to play the old-time stuff, much to the puzzlement of his neighbors

Now, 50 years later, the Chieftains have been in the forefront of a revival and traveled the world, from Texas to China.

They’ve also collaborated with dozens of artists, including Jackson Bowne, Nancy Griffith, Elvis Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, and Burgess Meredith.

I count 22 Chieftains albums on Freegal, all available for free and legal download, from libraries that have access to the service.



I can't resist including some other pictures of Ireland I found on Wikimedia Commons.



Franciscan Friary, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland   image credit 



 Old farm building at Gorticrum Irish.  image credit



Flowers blooming in Ireland in October  image credit



Kilkenny Castle in Ireland  image credit

The Color of St. Paddy’s Day: “Green, Green” by The New Christy Minstrels




Green grass, reminiscent of the song "Green, Green" by The New Christy Minstrels  image credit

 

So, I’m all ready to go to work today, and I remember it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I have to go hunting for something green to wear.

On the way to work, I think of the song “Green, Green”,” kind of a bouncy little folk song my parents used to listen to, and I think it sums up the feel of Ireland, even though it’s not an Irish song.

 The quintessential version is by The New Christy Minstrels, and it’s available on Freegal.

Mirrors in Song: The English Beat, Michael Jackson, and Justin Timberlake

I was there during the 80’s. But somehow I missed the mirror songs.  

When The English Beat released their song “Mirror in the Bathroom,” I had just started college. Believe it or not boys and girls, I moved into my little rectangle of Durward Hall sans TV or stereo. I had a radio, but it was set to mellow contemporary and this ska/pop/soul/reggae/punk rock group somehow didn’t make it onto KOSI 101.

It’s a catchy tune, and watching YouTube, I recognize the 80’s music video tropes (by 1983 I had access to MTV): shots of the band looking serious, nodding their heads in sync, four quick consecutive shots of the same scene, reflections in mirrors, the latter of which, admittedly makes sense.

Fast forward to 1988, and Michael Jackson had taken the music video to a whole different level with his storytelling and cinematography. However, for the song “Man in the Mirror,” he took a different approach, staying out of the video entirely and making a montage of news footage of starving, homeless, and downtrodden people around the world.  (Though I heard this song on the radio in ’88, I missed the video, probably because I was in the library on Friday nights doing research for a graduate degree, rather than watching Friday Night Videos.) Jackson has a complicated legacy, and it will be interesting if his humanitarian-themed songs will outlive his sketchy personal life.

And now we have Justin Timberlake’s “Mirror.” It’s doing well, and near the top of the list on Freegal. His fans seem to like it. Rumor is, he wrote it for his wife, Jessica Biel, and it’s a sweet, relaxed sort of piece. Some reviewers say that Timberlake is branding himself as “luxury pop” and that this will likely be the most expensively-produced album of the year.

So there you have it, three different mirrors all for free download on Freegal.

How Many Roads Can a Man Walk Down?: Bob Dylan Voted into Academy of Arts and Letters

 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [vocalists Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.] image credit

Who would have thought, back when this photo was taken, that someday the prestigious Academy of Arts and Letters would come a-knockin’?

As the Associated Press points out, the Manhattan-based Academy was designed to keep people like him out

They were averse to all these modern things: jazz musicians, modernist poets.

And now the smart-alecky kid who intoned about rolling stones (and getting stoned, for that matter) is joining a group of mostly classical composers, along with Stephen Sondheim, Jasper Johns and Philip Roth.

Forgive me, I can’t help but think of a couple of Dylan songs that sum up the news: “The Times, They Are a Changin’” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”

Freegal has dozens and dozens of Dylan’s albums available for free download. You can find his classic sound on The Essential Bob Dylan, which includes the above songs as well as “Just Like a Woman,” “Lay Lady, Lay,” “Forever Young,” “I Shall Be Released,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,”  “Hurricane,” and a bunch of others.

Other albums of note: MTV Unplugged, Blues, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde, and Blood on the Tracks.

He also has a Christmas album Christmas in the Heart. If you like people growling out “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” this is the album for you

Incidentally, Freegal also has dozens of Joan Baez albums, including her love/hate song for Dylan “Diamonds and Rust.”

Just Enjoy the Show: “The Show” by Lenka

This photo reminds me of Lenka, known for her bright colors and upbeat songs.

This song is light and breezy, not overproduced, a little reminiscent of Colbie Caillet.

She didn’t show up yet in my library’s biography database, but thanks to  IMDB,

we know a little about her.

·         She is from Australia

·         “Come Together” by the Beatles is her favorite song

·         Her mother is a school teacher and her father is a jazz musician

·         She has been an actress, appearing in Easy A, The Dish, and Moneyball (The Dish is a fun, quirky little Australian movie about how a remote town and its satellite dish became a large part of the broadcast of the first Apollo moon landing.)

·         Her trademark is colorful clothing, which is why the picture above reminds me of her song.

“The Show,” along with all the other songs on her self-titled album Lenka is available for free download on Freegal.

“Share It Fairly, But Don’t Take a Piece of my Pie”: “Money” by Pink Floyd

Who’s got the money in the U.S.? Take a guess.

Yeah, I know you know the rich have way more than the rest of us. But I bet you don’t know how much more.

Take a look at this video and see how close your guess was.

Somehow, a large swath of this country has been convinced that the very rich are being taken advantage of.  There’s a book out called Pity the Billionaire. I want to read it just on the title alone.

What song goes with greed? I posed the question to Google, and the unanimous response was Pink Floyd’s “Money.”

Cash register sound effects, 7/4 time. “I’m in the hi-fidelity/First class traveling set/And I think I need a Lear jet.”
 

You can get the track, as well as the rest of the album Pulse from Freegal. But be careful. You’ll be getting it from a library—a place where we all pool our money and get more value than if we bought everything separately.

Ayn Rand would not approve.

The Song That Was Almost Cut From The Wizard of Oz: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Judy Garland



Poster for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz  Image Credit

 It’s true. The song that defines The Wizard of Oz was almost cut from the movie. Some execs thought that the song slowed down the movie, and that it wasn’t exactly seemly for one of their stars to be singing in a farmyard, according to thewizardofoz.info.

Fortunately, they kept the song in—farmyard and all—and it became a signature song for the movie, as well as for Judy Garland.

You can download Garland’s version on Freegal. About a jillion people have recorded the song, so you’ll want to use the “Advanced Search” feature to pinpoint her performance.

As for the jillions of others: one of the most famous versions is by Katharine McPhee, American Idol finalist and current star on the TV show Smash.

Another group lighting up the Freegal charts, The Piano Guys has a medley of “Rainbow” and the tune “Simple Gifts.”

Also in the mix are Susan Boyle, Tony Bennett, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, John Williams, Doris Day, Aretha Franklin, Harry Connick, Jr., Placido Domingo, and Barbra Streisand.  Mary La Plant does a version with violin & guitar, Cidade Negra serves up a Reggae version, and Sound of the Rockies does it barbershop quartet style.