Well, it's Tuesday. We'll call it Thinkers Tuesday. The thinker (above) wanted me to post his favorite Crimson track, CAT FOOD but I kindly explained this was my blog. 🙂
STARLESS, originally recorded by King Crimson for their Red album. This cover by the Crimson Jazz Trio (CJ3) is an amazing jazz cover. I've always loved the trio format in jazz. For me the trio highlights the individual talents better and poses a greater challenge to how you fill/don't fill the silent void.
The trio includes one Ian Wallace, himself a onetime contributor to the rock behemoth, King Crimson in the early 1970's for Islands and Earthbound albums. King Crimson founder, Robert Fripp, has said about CJ3: "The CJ3 have respectfully and irreverently taken eight Crimson classics, repositioned them in the musical spectrum, and delivered their first songbook with superb musicianship in service to wit and invention". That is high praise indeed.
So enjoy this installment of "Under The Covers" and I'll add the original King Crimson version below.
Marching Bands. You either love 'em or hate 'em. When I was a youngster I was in a marching band. Most of the time I played trumpet but one year I agreed to play Tuba. I have some fond memories of that time period and I remember the challenges of playing and marching in precision formation at the same time - being aware to alway keep the horn pointed to the home crowd unless there was a need for quieter sound then we could face the direction we were marching in. No easy task. We occasionally played band arrangements of pop songs by groups like Chicago etc.
It was about this time in my life when the band RUSH burst on the scene being championed on local FM radio. Today I wanted to pay tribute to RUSH and marching band. Here is a fun clip of the Ohio State University Marching Buckeye Band playing a medley of RUSH classics. Enjoy. I will not post any videos by RUSH because there would be too many to feature. When watching this video remember that in addition to playing the band members are counting steps and direction at the same time. Just great fun.
As a side note: the band always end their halftime shows marching to write out the word Ohio in script.
Happy Sunday. Todays video by 2 Cellos is a cover AC DCs hard rock classic THUNDERSTRUCK. The group has made a name for itself doing cover versions of much of popular music. In fact it's sort of been their kitschy calling card which does not impress me. Live concert performances by this group leave me feeling flat and disappointed. But this video is not a contemporary concert performance.
While I find the original version completely unlistenable I do like this "cover" version for several reasons. First but not least is that it can show that cello's can rock! But the video itself is what keeps my attention. Like a short form film this places the music back in the 18th century and I love the energy these guys bring to what is usually thought of as a quiet civilized musical setting. It's fun to watch them literally shred their bows as they play. I also really enjoy watching the audience as everything starts out "normal" meeting audience expectations and approval but when the percussive nature of the piece kicks in the adults are all up in alarm and you can spot some young kids totally diggin' it. And of course that the end the audience is left in shocked disbelief i.e. thunderstruck.
*** the quote above is from the popular Star Trek TV series and is frequently uttered by the enemy of humanity – a machine biological hybrid race called the Borg who are known to transform biological life forms into machines with a hive mind. Re-purposed here as a reminder that we as humans are unable to resist our weaknesses no matter how hard we try.
2 perfect additions to the imagined soundtrack for what it means to be human. Josephine is like the perfect blending or Tracy Chapman and Annie Lennox. 🙂
Like all images since the first of the year - this image can be found in the Museum of Malcontent.
ELO - Getting To The Point
How I feel about the country of my birth (USA) and the coming year: "It's out of control now... It's getting to the point when nobody can stop it now, it's getting to the point of no return, and all that I can do is stand it watch it now, watch it burn burn burn...."
... on being and becoming ... 