Wednesday, March 27, 2013

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.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

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.

Monday, March 18, 2013

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

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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.

Friday, March 15, 2013

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.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

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.”

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

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.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

“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.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

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.