Beruhmte!

From a strange label, it's Famous Overtures, Volume 1.

Yep, they're all here, folks, those long pieces of music containing fifteen-seconds-long passages that seem eerily familiar.  Then a few minutes late you remember that it was part of a Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes cartoon you saw when you were seven years old.

1)  William Tell Overture - Rossini
2)  The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture - Nicolai
3)  Tannhauser overture - Wagner
4)  The Bat Overture - Strauss Jr

You not only know Track 1 from The Lone Ranger and Pizza Rolls, but the "dawn" sequence was used for almost as many "farmyard at sunrise" cartoon sequences as was "Morning" from Grieg's Pier Gynt.

And of course, Track 3  includes the themes famously set to words by Michael Maltese as "Return My Love" in What's Opera, Doc?.

Now you, too, can be Beruhmte!

See you Thursday.

Cowboy Songs, Vol 1 and 2

Yodelin' Slim Clark was a yodeler.  He was slim.  And he posed with fine-lookin' women.

And faithful? Why, with him you got true high fidelity!

Yodeling Slim Clark - Cowboy Songs, Vol I

01. Saddle in the Sky (2:33)

02. Rocky Mountain Sweetheart (2:57)

03. The Trail Rider's Call (2:46)

04. The Swiss Yodelers (3:03)

05. Swiss Lover's Lullaby (2:30)

06. The Cat Came Back (2:41)

07. Old Chisholm Trail (2:51)

08. My Calgary Home (2:42)

09. Jack o'Diamonds (Rye Whiskey) (2:40)

10. Yodeling Mad (2:41)

11. Big Rock Candy Mountain (2:35)

12. Just One More Yodel (2:35)

13. Stampede the Outlaw (2:42)

14. The Gal I Left Behind Me (2:46)

15. Sweet Betsy From Pike (3:14)

16. I Miss My Swiss (2:38)

17. The Bum Song (2:51)

18. The Old Rugged Cross (3:16)

Yodelin' Slim Clark - Cowboy Songs, Vol II

01. The Fox (2:42)

02. My Montana Blue Eyes (2:45)

03. Plantonio, the Pride of the Plains (3:26)

04. Memories of Old Chuck Wagon Days (3:00)

05. When the Work’s All Done This Fall (2:57)

06. Swiss Dreams (John White) (2:29)

07. The Blue-Tail Fly (3:01)

08. Mathilda Higgins (2:57)

09. The Jam at Gerry’s Rock (4:01)

10. The Lane County Bachelor (2:59)

11. Billy Venero (4:07)

12. Just Yodelin’ (2:17)

  Now get out there and brand some fillies and punch some cows, see?

75 Years of Hits

This is some sort of promo collection from a music publisher, Peer Music.  There's some really fun stuff on it from many styles of music.

75 Years of Peermusic Hits, Disc 1 (79:18)

01. The Carter Family - Keep on the Sunny Side (2:53)

02. Jimmie Rodgers & The Rainbow Ranch Boys - Blue Yodel (T for Texas) (3:26)

03. Louis Armstrong - Lazy River (3:06)

04. Benni Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - Moten Swing (3:25)

05. Mildred Bailey - Rockin' Chair (3:15)

06. Artie Shaw - Frenesi (3:08)

07. Jimmie Davis - You Are My Sunshine (2:51)

08. Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly and Helen O' Connell - Green Eyes (3:23)

09. Bing Crosby with Woody Herman - Deep in the Heart of Texas (2:45)

10. Xavier Cugat - Brazil (2:50)

11. Desi Arnaz - Babalu (3:37)

12. Dave Barbour - Mamb Jambo (Que Rico el Mambo) (3:02)

13. Elvis Presley - Blue Moon of Kentucky (2:07)

14. Les Paul and Mary Ford - I'm a Fool to Care (2:56)

15. Edith Piaf - L'Accordéoniste (3:37)

16. The Platters - The Great Pretender (2:41)

17. Buddy Holly - Everyday (2:09)

18. Jane Morgan and The Troubadors - Fascination (2:24)

19. The McGuire Sisters - Sugartime (2:34)

20. Perez Prado - Patricia (2:08)

21. Doris Day - Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (2:32)

22. The Skyliners - Since I Don't Have You (2:39)

23. Bean Martin - You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You (2:13)

24. Ray Charles - Georgia on My Mind (3:41)

25. The Ventures - Walk, Don't Run (2:08)

26. The Rooftop Singers - Walk Right In (2:36)

27. The New Vaudeville Band - Winchester Cathedral (2:28)

28. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Mas que Nada (2:42)

75 Years of Peermusic Hits, Disc 2 (78:14)

01. Donovan - Mellow Yellow (3:44)

02. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown (2:43)

03. Donny Hathaway - The Ghetto (2:54)

04. The Stampeders - Sweet City Woman (3:28)

05. Tony Orlando & Dawn - Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'round the Old Oak Tree (3:27)

06. Willie Nelson - If You've Got the Money (I've Got the Time) (2:04)

07. Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home) (4:13)

08. The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian (3:26)

09. James Ingram - I Don't Have the Heart (4:16)

10. Whitney Houston - Run to You (4:27)

11. Boy George - The Crying Game (3:23)

12. Madonna - You'll See (4:41)

13. Björk - It's Oh So Quiet (3:40)

14. Garth Brooks - Longneck Bottle (2:17)

15. Luis Miguel - Sabor a Mí (3:06)

16. Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) (5:08)

17. Lou Bega - Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit of ...) (3:41)

18. The Soggy Mountain Boys - I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow (3:10)

19. B2K - Uh-Huh (3:43)

20. Juanes - A Dios le Pido (3:25)

21. Michael Bublé - Sway (3:09)

22. Celine Dion - Forget Me Not (4:07)

Decide what you like!  Personally I can live happier without encountering Madonna, Bjork, Boy George, and Celine Dion ....

In one archive.

See you Thursday.
 

A Lilting Irish St Patrick's Day to You! (Re-Post)

Here's some music re-upped from 2013.  As I mentioned in my original post, this is one of those fine albums released by the Musical Heritage Society that makes you miss them a lot.

This is the original tape insert.

01. Southwind - Rose Of Tralee (3:04)

02. Snowy Breasted Pearl - Celtic Wedding March (2:57)

03. Lagan Love (2:17)

04. Down by the Glenside (1:26)

05. Sweep's Hornpipe (2:15)

06. Danny Boy (2:30)

07. The Coulin (1:31)

08. Scariunt Na Gcompanach (2:35)

09. Ballinderry (4:44)

10. I Won't Love You Anymore My Dear (2:01)

11. Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms (3:55)

12. Gaelic Farmer (1:03)

13. Down by the Salley Gardens (2:21)

14. Thompson's Reel (2:16)

15. Greensleeves (1:57)

16. Little Red Lark - Cornish Dance - O’Donnell Abu - Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow - Carolan’s Air (6:48)

17. The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls (1:57)

At least one melody should be very familiar to Boomers.  Track 11, "Believe Me, If All These Endearing Young Charms," is the melody heard in the 1951 Merrie Melodies short Ballot Box Bunny during the exploding-piano bit.  Bugs keep missing the last (rigged) note -- on purpose -- so Yosemite Sam gets so frustrated that he has to demonstrate.  "This here's the note, darn ya!" -- BOOM.

Enjoy this little bit o' the aulde sod, no matter where your folks hail from.

Carol Thompson - Irish Harp Music

See you Monday.
 

Farewell, Keith Emerson

It may seem silly to wish bon voyage to an artist who presented so many anti-religion and anti-God themes in his music, but I do it anyway. 

I’m grateful to know (such as I do) the music of Keith Emerson (born 1944). 

My first exposure to the work of ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) came from an unremembered friend.  I suppose I heard parts of Brain Salad Surgery in art class at high school, since I didn’t know any friends well enough to visit at their homes, who might have also appreciated the eruptive power of the music, as well as the words behind it.

As a provincial Oklahoma high-school senior, I was unaware of the sexual slang of the title, and of the controversy of the original album cover image versus what we got.  I was merely enthralled by the intricacy of the music, the poetic vision of the words (beginning with William Blake’s “Jerusalem”) and the audacity, in the 1970s, to propose that technology was likely to swallow Man.  Not an unknown prospect in science fiction, I’m sure, but unaddressed (as far as I knew) in pop music.

 The LP looked like this.

But the center of the front was a gatefold, like a door.

Here are the originals of the cover art.

I spent a couple of days in June 1974 making a colored copy of the cover.  You can see the colored pencil strokes (I am not a visual artist, if any kind at all).  The parts that aren’t colored pencil are colored with black-light paint.

From BSS I wandered backward and forward in their catalog.  The angry-child ranting against a god that certainly wasn’t my loving Father made me sad to think of their anguish.

News reports seem to indicate that Emerson shot himself because nerve damage had impacted his playing, and he didn’t think he could perform well enough for upcoming shows.  How sad for anybody to think that only one aspect of their life was so important as to occlude all of it!

I came across this double LP in the late 1970s.  Hmm.  Another band.  Makes sense.

This stuff is more raw than ELP, with some of the howling-synth nonsense that reminds one of the stereotypical mach schau of Pete Townsend smashing his guitar.  But among the raucousness I appreciate the fun romp of “America” and the mashup of “Country Pie” with the end of one of Bach’s Brandenburgs.

1. The Five Bridges Suite:
          I. Fantasia - First Bridge (6:08)
          II. 2nd Bridge (3:59)
          III. Chorale - 3rd Bridge (3:30)
          IV. High Level Fugue - 4th Bridge (1:02)
          V. Finale - 5th Bridge (3:34)
2. Intermezzo Karelia Suite (8:57)
3. Pathetique Symphony No. 6, 3rd Movement (9:22)

4. Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (5:39)

5. One of Those People (3:07)
6. Hang On To A Dream (12:39)
7. America (10:15)
8. My Back Pages (9:12)

And for some reason this LP hasn’t been released on CD.  Programming note:  One track from the original double-LP is not included.  There was too much material to fit onto one CD.  The excluded piece was a different version of the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony.

This material was originally present as two records, The Five Bridges and Elegy, according to Discogs.

Keith Emerson with the Nice

See you on Saint Patrick’s Day!