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Music

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Here.

Then here.

Shit. Who knew Joan Osborne could actually sing?

With the greatest band in the world (if sadly depleted) The Funk Brothers.

Search around for "Standing in the Shadows of Motown".

Not bad for a bunch of old men.

And.

And in their pomp. And (if you\’ve not heard this it is stunning).

OK everyone, back on your heads, back to work.

Baby Music

Turns out BB (That\’s Baby Bigmouth- Ed) likes appalling renditions of Wipeout played on dusty guitars by her rusty-fingered dad, is rather partial to the odd bit of blues and likes nothing better than a bounce about to Beyonce with her mum.

That probably creates great marital harmony than the implications of her Dad bouncing about with Beyonce…..

Fascinating Stuff

The researchers, at Sheffield University, discovered that singers taking the pill benefited from a more stable and controllable vocal range.

They claim the hormones help reduce the changes to the vocal chords and ligaments that control them.

Dr Filipa Lã, who carried out the study at Sheffield\’s music department, said: "Singers tend to have a more erratic voice around premenstrual and menstrual phases of the cycle. They have less vocal control, and suffer vocal fatigue and also hoarseness."

The British soprano Lesley Garrett said: "When I was taking the pill I found it reduces a lot of the symptoms that accompanied my period.

"Now I am taking hormone replacement therapy and I think this is now helping female singers extend their careers beyond the menopause."

 

The Youthful Vibrancy of the Lib Dems

In particular, and despite being 59 himself, Mr Eno has been instructed to advise the Liberal Democrats on how to appeal to young people.

My favourite story (which I might have mis-remembered but that\’s how these things go) about Eno was the reason for leaving Roxy Music. He said that with both him and Brian Ferry in the band one had to go: there\’s only room for one non-musician in a band.

Still, nice to see that one political party is up there, with it, appealing to the hep cats and the musical combos topping the hit parade.

Ike Turner Dies.

Ike Turner, pretty much the inventor of rock and roll, has died.  He\’ll be remembered of course as the husband of Tina Turner rather than the astonishing musician he was. A pity.

So here\’s what is generally agreed to be the first rock and roll record ever.

1951, if you can believe that.

Music Trivia

Noddy Holder was Robert Plant\’s roadie?

Robert Plant, born in West Bromwich, was 19 and, having abandoned plans to become a chartered accountant, was desperate for a break in the music business. With nowhere to live, he was sleeping in a spare room in a pub in Wolverhampton – opposite, as it happened, the window cleaning business run by Noddy Holder\’s father. "Noddy was our roadie," remembers Plant. "We used to go to gigs with his dad\’s buckets banging around on top of the van. And that is when I met Pagey."

Makes an interesting start to an alternative history, don\’t it? What if Jimmy Page had hired the other one? Guitarists the world over massacre the famous solo from "Cum on Feel the Noize" and every Christmas is celebrated with the Top of the Pops performance (and re-release) of Stairway to Heaven with the bloke in the gold topper?

Friday Music Competition

What is the connection between this absolutely stunning piece of political propaganda*:

 

And this pop classic:

??? *No, not an endorsement of the point being made, nor a rejection of it. But you\’ve got to admit it\’s a bloody good way to make the point.

Burka Blue

Burka Blue, Afghanistan\’s first all girl band.

Via.

My brother\’s been working out there for a few years now, head cheffing for the forces. Not heard any stories from him about dating the local girls, perhaps this helps to explain why?

McFly: The Heart Never Lies

OK, OK, I can now announce that I am officialy an old fogey. No going back from here, next stop the grave, eh?

Wife was flicking through the channels a few minutes ago and stopped to watch a vedo by a band called McFly.  Apparently the young beat combo has had a hit in the teenyboppers parade with a song called "The Heart Never Lies".

While said wifie was tapping her toes along the music made no impact upon me whatsoever. All I could think about was, hey, that was shot in Bath, wasn\’t it? Now which crescent, hmm, no, not the Royal, Lansdown, Camden? None of those look quite right. Portland Place maybe?

Which just goes to show, I\’m more interestewd in 200 year old architecture than I am the chart toppers of today.

Somebody warm up the undertakers would they?

(And expect sanbikinorian to be along in a moment to tell us which one it was.)

 

Status Quo

This comes up in a piece on Status Quo:

They became friends, but Parfitt didn\’t join the band until they recorded Pictures Of Matchstick Men. It hit the charts in the UK and US, and it\’s still their only American hit.

Wikipedia says the same thing. But I\’m really not sure about this at all. I thought they had a number one in the US in the 90s. It may be that my memory is entirely faulty….but I definitely recall hearing something on US radio and thinking, "What in hell are they playing Quo for?" and then hearing the announcer state that this was a hit. Anybody actually know?

And no:

I didn\’t know this was a John Fogarty song.

Sunday Competition

OK, so we\’ve had a near winner to yesterday\’s music competition. Now to take it a stage further. Now, it\’s obvious what the connection between these two videos is: it\’s the same song (I\’d never heard the first version before and thought it rather good).

 

And

Right. What is the connection between the second of Saturday\’s songs and this one? The usual geek points for the right answer.

Saturday Competition

So while I toil through these sexblogs a little competition for a Saturday morning.

There\’s this, from the days when children\’s TV shows really were decent TV shows. Yes, Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street.

 

Compare that to Tiswas: bite me Tarrant.

Then there\’s this.

 

OK, so, what\’s the connection between the two?

Other than the similarity in dancing styles between Joe Walsh on the table in the second and the little kid in the first? Music geek points for the first correct answer.

BTW, Wikipedia doesn\’t show the answer, just in case you were going to try and look it up.

Hymns and Whatnots

Damian Thompson * is very good today on the appalling quality of much new Catholic religious music.

Last month, Pope Benedict XVI gave Catholics everywhere the right to ask their priests to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass, in effect suppressed 40 years ago.

Liberal bishops were aghast. The "director of liturgy" for the diocese of Portsmouth, Paul Inwood, prepared a set of guidelines for parishes (since withdrawn following a storm of protest) that totally misrepresented the Pope\’s wishes by suggesting that most Catholics were not entitled to request the older form of Mass.

Also, Inwood insisted that priests coming into the diocese to say the old form of Mass would need child protection clearance. Eh? What a weird thing to say.

Anyway, I Googled Paul Inwood and discovered that he is not only a layman, but also a successful composer of trendy Masses.

I listened to the extracts on his website and, as Victor Lewis-Smith would say, sent for my Turkish slippers: this is music to make your toes curl. (One of the numbers is called Alleluia Ch-Ch, the "Ch-Ch" being a sort of noise you make with your mouth or a tambourine.)

The music of Inwood and other "contemporary" Catholic composers sounds like nothing else on earth.

This isn\’t a new thing though. Most of the decent hymns (with some exceptions for pre-Reformation stuff) in English come from the Anglican or Protestant churches: most especially the Methodist one. There certainly was (being very out of touch with Church matters I don\’t know whether there still is) a reluctance on the part of the Catholic church to use these hymns, and so we were all left with whatever scrag ends had been stitched together by the adherents of what is, after all, a minority religion over the past century and a bit since Catholic Emancipation. So not many people over not much time writing songs gave us not many good ones.

As I say, a something of a long standing problem.

* Looking at Thompson\’s photo I have a vague suspicion that I know where he went to school and who with. Me, Briffa and Jonathan Petre…and the drummer from Echo and the Bunnymen.

 

The Death of Recorded Music

Interesting piece about the economics of CDs and touring: there\’s a lot more to be said on the subject, of course.

But I will admit to a certain surprise at the surprise that\’s being shown here. OK, technology changes so the way a specific product (in this case, listening to music) is delivered also changes, changing the necessary business model.

Has no one read Schumpter? This is how it\’s supposed to work, isn\’t it?