You Don’t Know What Love Is

Play this while you read for a good soundtrack.

I’m not a person who revels in misery.  In fact, I believe that the only company for misery is banishment.  But my poor wife – oh my poor, depressed wife.  Some of it is hormonal, or chemical, and some of it is based on what I like to call the expectations of others.  Basically, my wife is upset that she cannot be, nor does she want to be, June Cleaver.  It seems that others have this expectation.

You remember June – she was always cheerful, her house was so clean you could lick the floors, she met her husband at the door with a smile, a kiss and a cocktail at the end of every day, and her kids were perfect.  She worried about nothing.  In short, she was not just the perfect wife, but her entire life was perfect.

By contrast, there’s an awful lot going on for my wife to absorb on a daily basis.  We have four kids.  The oldest is going to college in less than a week.  The youngest is only 2 and a half.  The twins don’t know how to listen, and they fight with each other all the time.  My daughter is ferociously defiant, her twin brother frequently overactive, and our toddler is – well – a typical two-year-old boy.   There is no keeping our house clean, and it’s too small anyway.  She is often overwhelmed, and nobody could blame her or be surprised.

Just to set the record straight, I’m not in the June Cleaver cadre.  If I wanted to live with June Cleaver, I would have married June Cleaver.  But I didn’t.  I married the woman I love, and my best friend – and that’s all I want her to be, herself.  Opening my heart and my life to her was the best thing I’ve ever done.

I know I can be supportive, but I also understand that I cannot fix this for her.  Worse yet, I worry that somehow, somewhere her depression is my fault – even though the more rational side of me knows that not to be the case.  And I live for her smile, for when I see it, I know that there is hope at the cadence of the blues.  She doesn’t have to be the perfect wife – she’s perfect for me.  And that’s all that matters.

Current Events Soundtrack:

I have discovered the auto-tune, and I am at once amazed and incensed.  I was listening to Studio 360 this weekend on NPR when they began a discussion of the auto-tune by playing a clip of Cher’s Believe.  Basically, the auto tune is the technology used to create this type of artificial vocal effect.  That’s fine.  Not exactly scatting through a line of jazz, but it’s fine.

However, this is not what the auto-tune was originally put into use for.  It’s original design was to alter the voice of a singer so that it was in tune with accompanying music.  HOLD THE PHONE FOR JUST A MINUTE?!  I thought being able to sing on key was – well – a prerequisite for being a professional singer, never mind the record contract.  Have we sunk so far into the abyss of focus-grouped, music-where-music-doesn’t-matter end of the business that we are willing to give people who look the part the opportunity to sing — even if they can’t hold a tune? 

This is not a rant against pop music.  I like pop music.  I even like “special effects” that give us the techno sound.  But I believe that you should actually be able to sing to get a recording contract – but I digress – for the auto-tune has given us a gift:  The Gregory Brothers have created The Auto-Tune News.  Yes, the technology that puts artists back on key, can also take the non-singers of the world and turn them into a rock-opera.  I give you a singing Vice President Joe Biden and Katie Couric.  This could be the best form of political satire – ever!

This day in history soundtracks:

In AD 79 Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Calcutta India was founded in 1690.  I know Petula Clark made this song a hit, but here’s the original Kalkutta Liegt am Ganges – sung by Vico Torriani.

During the War of 1812, the British overrun Washington DC, and chase President James and Dolly Madison out of the White House.   And then there was Canada’s role?

It’s Ukrainian Independence Day (1991).

Birthday Soundtracks:

Alessandro Marcello (1669).  His best known work:  Oboe Concerto in D Minor.

Theodore DuBois (1837).  A French composer, mostly of sacred music.  This is his Toccata for Organ.

Fred Rose (1897).  Rose was a popular and country music songwriter, and later a publisher in Nashville.  Here is Hank Williams, Sr. singing what was Rose’s biggest hit:  Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.

Alyn Ainsworth (1924).  British band leader and musician.

David Freiberg (1938).  Vocalist with the bands Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.

Jean-Michel Jarre (1948).  New age and popular musician.  This is his performance at the millenial New Year at the pyramids, in Egypt, in 2000.

Orla Fallon (1974).  Lead singer of the Celtic Women and an accomplished soloist, Fallon has a clear, beautiful Irish soprano voice, as evidenced in this recording of Down By the Sally Garden.

Passing Memorial Soundtracks:

Louis Prima (1978).  A little bit of Dixieland, a little bit of Chicago blues, a lot of standards – that’s what made Louis Prima so popular.  There are plenty of great Louis Prima recordings, but I have to say I really like I Wanna Be Like You, from Disney’s Jungle Book.  Honestly, it’s a great tune, and Prima is in his prime.  It doesn’t hurt having Phil Harris come in at the end, either!

Paul Creston (1985).  A contemporary American composer that melded jazz elements with minimalism, Creston had a fondness for utilizing instruments usually left by the wayside in classical performance, as evidenced by this Marimba Concertino.

Alexandre Lagoya (1999).  One of the premiere classical guitarists of his generation.  Here is a recording of Lagoya playing Albeniz.

More notes on notes tomorrow.

Feed Me Seymour!

Let’s just say I’m familiar with the workings of the news business – although it’s not something I do for a living now.  And I know, very well, that there are to kinds of news stories that get more attention than any others.  The first is bad news.  It’s always at the top of a news broadcast, screams of print headlines, flies across Twitter quicker than – well – a Google search result.  We can skip that for now, though.

It’s the second kind of news story that I want to address this evening – and that’s big things.  We see these all the time:  Giant statues, huge animal sculptures attracting tourist crowds, giant flags, even the elusive, almost-mythical, giant squid.  Today, however, we get the story of the discovery of a rare, giant pitcher plant in the Philippines.  Now, if you’re not familiar, the pitcher plant is not unlike the Venus flytrap.  It’s a small thing with sticky corrosive goo inside it’s flower that allows it to grab, kill and eat small insects.  This one, however, is not that small, and has been known to devour frogs and rats.

Frankly, I’m of two minds on this one:  One big gross-out for sure, but imagine this as a natural rodent trap.  “Look honey, it kills all the mice in the house – and it blooms so beautifully!  I don’t even have to water it!”  This is clearly the extra-large version, but what if it were to come super-sized?  I’ll stick with the Japanese plum tree in my front yard, thank you.

This day in history soundtracks:

In 1000, Hungary was officially founded.

President Andrew Johnson finally declared the American Civil War over in 1866.  Here’s the theme to Gettysburg by Randy Edelman.

Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture debuted in Russia in 1882.  Do you think we’d love it as much if it didn’t have the cannon fire in it?  I do!

Senagal won its independence on this date in 1969.

Birthday Soundtracks:

Jack Teagarden (1905), one of the great trombonists of the jazz age.  Here he is playing The Stars Fell on Alabama.

Alan Reed (1907), the original voice of Fred Flintsone – Yabba Dabba Doo!

Isaac Hayes (1942) – What’s My Name?  Dig it!

Robert Plant (1948), the lead singer of Led Zeppelin.  Many people think this is the number one rock song of all time.  Many people also disagree, and I happen to be one of them.

Doug Fieger (1952), the lead singer of The Knack, performers of My Sharona – a perennial college party favorite.

Agnes Chan (1955), who hit the Asian music scene with a hit album in 1971 when she was just 15 years old.  Here is her cut of Devoted to You.

Yuri Shiratori (1968), singer of Japanese pop.

Actress Amy Adams (1974), star of the hit Disney movie Enchanted, where she sang this.

Maxim Vengerov (1974), a phenomenal violinist.  Here he is playing Liebesfreud by Fritz Kreisler.  And time for another trivia moment.  Kreisler was a very talented violinist and composer in his own write, who claimed to have come into possession of lost compositions by well-known composers.  These, it turned out, were actually nice pieces he wrote himself – and thus ruined his reputation for the remainder of his career.

More notes on notes tomorrow.

Nanny 9-1-1, Meet Cocktails 101

Ok.  Deep breath.  Exhale.  It’s 12:30 AM.  Two of my three youngest are still awake.  Apparently they’ve found Starbucks, or something.  My daughter keeps on running into our room (where the baby is very tickled to see her), with the latest in her laundry list of reasons why she cannot stay in her bed:  It’s hot, she’s scared, there’s a bug (just one?) on the window screen, her twin brother annoys her (apparently even while sound asleep – he’s the treat this evening), she’s lonely, she can’t make her body behave (God help me when she’s 14), etc.  I’m beginning to feel like this.

The baby, as cute as he is at 2, is sitting up in our bed at the moment, rending pieces out of some already-been-chewed kids book, and then whipping us in the head with them.  What he is not is asleep.

So – now – this is a Nanny 9-1-1 moment, right?  Except it isn’t working, or it’s working very, very slowly.  I think we’ve firmly, but silently, put our daughter back into bed two dozen times.  So, we’ve decided that the minute everybody is asleep – it’s time for a cocktail.  But what to have:  Tequila? Vodka? Don’t spill the wine!  No matter what, we agree with Marie Lloyd – A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good! 

A technical note:  Marie Lloyd, the legendary English Music Hall performer, actually died in 1922.  Her daughter, also a great performer, is who you see in the clip here.  And the vodka clip?  That’s Dorothy Loudon in the funniest performance in the history of – well – live performances. 

Current Events Soundtracks:

I know I said not every tropical storm this year – but who’s counting.  Here comes Hurricane Bill.  No?  What about this Bill?  Wow, I could have saved that for the health care debate, instead of this one.

Happy Independence Day in Gabon and Indonesia.  They are both nice national anthems, but I think Indonesia’s contribution to world music, the Gamelan, is far more compelling – don’t you?

Soundtracks for this date in history:

In 1959, Miles Davis releases his landmark album, Kind of Blue.  Here is So What from that album.

In 1969, Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast of the US.  Oh, no, there is no Camille song.  But wait – how about a bit of La Traviata, based on the book Camille?  See, tropical weather can be so musical.

In 1982, the first CD’s were released – in Germany.  And what says Germany and CD’s better than Peter Schilling?

In 2004, the nation of Serbia adopted a new national anthem, (along with numerous other new national symbols).

Birthday Soundtracks

Hans Leo Hassler (1562), composer of high renaissance polyphony in Germany.  Here is his Ave Maris Stella.  Note that the choir first lays down the original plain chant, something that had been out of practice for a number of years outside of Germany, but there remained through the Baroque period.

Nicola Porpera (1686), a lesser known composer of the Italian baroque, who specialized in vocal music.

Davy Crockett (1786), American pioneer and hero.  How could I possibly let this slide by without Fess Parker?

Mae West (1893), actress, comedienne, the last hootchy-kootchy girl, and the first sex symbol.  And she could really belt one out.

Larry Clinton (1909), swing band leader.  His big hit:  The Dipsy Doodle.

Robert DeNiro (1943), actor.  Truly a master of his craft.

Belinda Carlisle (1958), lead singer for the Gogo’s.  When I was in college, Belinda was all that and a bag of chips.  She got the beat.

Memorial Soundtracks:

Ole Bull (1880), great Norwegian violinist and composer. 

Billy Murray (1954., Murray was one of the premiere recording artists from the dawn of recorded music.  Here he is singing In My Merry Oldsmobile from 1909.

Ira Gershwin (1983).  Lyricist, who with his brother George, wrote some of the great standards of all time.  After George died tragically in 1937, Ira soldiered on, pairing with some of the greats of popular song:  Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern.  Here is a recording of William Bolcom and Joan Morris performing Long Ago and Far Away, a song Ira wrote with Jerome Kern.

Pearl Bailey (1990), singer and actress.  Here is an interesting vocal pairing – Pearl Bailey and Carol Channing – singing a medley from the hit musical Hello Dolly, in which both played the title role at different points.

More notes on notes, tomorrow.

Lullaby and Good Night

I freely admit this, I sing my children to sleep.  This is no mere attempt to placate them, it’s an attempt to keep the chain going – sort of a musical heredity if you will.  I didn’t ask for this sick, twisted brain that collects music and musical information nobody within twenty years’ of either side of my 45 knows.  I really didn’t.  But I do feel the need to pass it on to my kids.

The twins are at this great age, too, where nothing I can sing to them is uncool, and they want to sing along (OK, that’s counter-productive to the goal but – still – really neat all the same).  The baby – well he bops along to just about everything.  You pretty cannot go musically wrong with a two year old.

I like to be diverse.  Tonight, for example, I gave them four songs:  What Happened to the Manx Cat’s Tail (a Florrie Forde English Music Hall tune), Bali Hai from South Pacific, Exactly Like You, and Stay Awake from Mary Poppins.  I usually start with the English Music Hall or something upbeat, then work my way down in tempo.  High engines become low engines, and – if I’m really luck – at least one of them is sound asleep before I’m done.

Back in my room, with my wife next to me, I can sigh deeply and – no matter what happened during the day, or how naughty somebody has managed to be, know that it’s great to be the dad.

Current events soundtracks:

In honor of the first tropical storm of the year to hit Florida – Claudette – here’s, well, Claudette Peters singing, Go Claudette.  And, no, I don’t expect to do this for every single named storm this year.

This weekend marks Independence Day in India.

Soundtracks for this date in history:

In 1760, Frederick the Great defeated the Austrians at Leignitz.  When not at war, which was only some of the time, Frederick was a very competent composer.  This is his Hohenfriedberger March, as interpreted by the Swedish Army Band.  You’ll also find it on the soundtrack of the epic Stanley Kubrick movie Barry Lyndon, which also features incredibly beautiful music by The Chieftains and composer Sean O’Riada.

The Wizard of Oz premiered on this date in 1939.  From a musical standpoint, the songs really are that good – and would be even if the film hadn’t developed the staying power that it has today.  Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg wrote great stuff, and but I want to focus on Arlen, who spent his life as a pop song and musical composer.  The overture or opening credits sets the mood for this film so very well.  In fact, if you think about what you remember of the movie, the incidental music stands out almost as well as Over the Rainbow.  Think about it, and you’ll see what I mean.

The Beatles play the first stadium concert in history, to 60,000 screaming fans at Shea Stadium in New York.  Predictably, the New York Mets cannot draw more than 1/6 the crowd, but they have a kick-ass theme song.  Pay attention Met fans – this is baseball theme song.  Now, maybe, somebody will comment on my blog.  Probably from Queens.

The summer of love heated up in 1969 at Woodstock.  And the national supply of hallucinagenic drugs dropped drastically for the next week and a half.

Birthday Soundtracks:

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769).  So here’s a kicker piece of trivia:  Beethoven actually dedicated the composition of his Eroica Symphony (#3) to Napoleon.  Then, after Napoleon turned out to be a non-liberator, he rescinded it.  Then he wrote Wellington’s Victory celebrating Napoleon’s defeat.  Thank you, Ludwig, and good night.

Edna Ferber (1885).  She was the author of Showboat, which became a landmark musical in the development of the American musical theatre. Musical theatre was so incredibly different before it, that when Jerome Kern submitted the score to the producers, it contained an 8-minute song called “Misery,” but the producers were scared to death of any song and dance that lasted 8 minutes, so they made Kern cut it out.  Here’s Dame Kiri Te Kanawa with Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man, from Showboat.

Leon Theremin (1896).   Theremin invented the first electronic instrument, and – honestly – I think science fiction movie producers all over the world rejoiced.  Here he is playing his invention.  And here it is in practical use in the opening to The Day the Earth Stood Still, by Bernard Hermann.

Hugo Winterhalter (1909).  How many of you have had your cavities filled to this?

Oscar Peterson (1925).  Good God, he was great!  Here is Peterson and his trio doing Lush Life.  Magnificent!  And I have never seen a clip of Peterson where he is not truly enjoying himself.

Shirley Kwan (1966).  Her very lush, dramatic and stylized hits epitomize modern pop in Hong Kong.

More notes on notes tomorrow.

Are You Going to Washington County Fair?

Apologies to Simon and Garfunkle.

Today was a day of family, a day of suburban surreality.  Like tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders will this weekend, we visited the Washington County Fair.  Our third annual pilgrimage came under the umbrella of good weather (not even the threat of a shower), and so I took a vacation day, we loaded the twins and the baby into the minivan, and headed off at about noon.

I knew that this was going to be an odd day the minute the SUV zoomed passed us in the left lane, featuring a pair of hands pasting a piece of lined paper to the window that read (thickly drawn in ball point ink), “give us boobz.”

The fairgrounds are about 20 minutes down the highway from our home, which sits on a suburban street, in a suburban neighborhood, in a suburban town, in a mostly suburban state.  Yet, once a year, Rhode Island manages to muster enough “country” to provide us suburbanites with tractor pulls, livestock, kitchy crafts, antique farm equipment, live country music, old-fashioned carnival rides and even tons of food-on-a-stick.  Of course, this is Rhode Island, so these delicacies mix in with clam “chowdah,”  johnny cakes, Italian sausage and Del’s lemonade.

We arrived in the middle of the day, so it wasn’t too crowded.  The kids rode the rides.  They ate sugar.  Then they had some more sugar.  We all danced to the country music.  We looked at chickens, cows, sheep, rabbits and – then – pigs.  Huge pink pigs, some with ribbons, and that’s when my youngest looked at one of the pink ones and said, “Daddy, Wilbur.”  Oh, my!  “Fine swine, wish he was mine…”

The second was a run-in with the Calliope.  This calliope is on a boat on the water,  but the sound is just about the same.  All in all, everybody had a grand time, and these suburbanites – at least – are already looking toward next year’s fair with anticipation!

Current Events Soundtracks:

This week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on a trip to Africa, probably the longest trip there ever made by an official of the US government.  She has dealt with important issues, war and peace, trade agreements, oil, womens’ rights, but the media here seems a bit more concerned about her demeanor in answering questions – in short this kind of politics.

Happy Independence Day to Pakistan.

Soundtracks for this day in history:

In 1888, Thomas Edison introduced the phonograph in London with a press conference featuring a recording of The Lost Chord, by Sir Arthur Sullivan.  Here it is.  It is quite hard to hear, but don’t let that diminish the historical significance of what you’re hearing.  You Tube amazes me.

The first beauty contest was held in Folkstone, England in 1908.  This recording by John Steele is perfect, although made 11 years later.

In 1935, the US Congress created Social Security.  Almost 75 years later, people are still fighting about it.  Our tenor, by the way, is the legendary John McCormack.  Enjoy1

Japan surrendered to the US, ending the war in the Pacific on this date in 1945.

1956 marked the premiere of the movie Bus Stop, featuring Marilyn Monroe.

Birthday Soundtracks:

William Hutchison (1586) one of the original colonists to settle Rhode Island.  Happy Birthday, Bill.

Doc Holliday (1851), one of those who fought at the OK Corral.

Comedienne and singer Alice Ghostley (1926), who made her splash in The New Faces of 1952.  Here she is singing The Boston Beguine.

Singer and musician David Crosby (1941), part of the group Crosby, Stills and Nash.  Icons of the folk rock movement, I think their best work is Suite Judy Blue Eyes.  Here they are singing it during Live Aid in the 1980’s.

Steve Martin (1945) is one of the funniest people on the planet.  Let’s just say this was his moment.

James Horner (1953) is right up there with John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry as one of the great film score composers of this generation.  His titles include Titanic, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Enemy at the Gate, Cocoon, The Pelican Brief and (my favorite) Willow.  It’s lush, exciting, dramatic, and pensive, and turns an OK movie into a great ride.

Sarah Brightman (1960), a soprano who has led an interesting career including performances in classic operas and broadway musicals.  Here she is with Andrea Bocelli singing their hit, Time to Say Goodbye.

Passing Anniversary Soundtracks

William Croft (1727) English Baroque composer.  Here is his Sonata in G.  Note the use of the recorder, which was a feature in English classical composition through the baroque and classical periods, long after it had passed out of fashion on the European continent.

Bertholdt Brecht (1956), German author and lyricist, who wrote with Kurt Weill in 1920’s Germany.  Here is Lotte Lenya in 1930 singing from The 3 Penny Opera.

Bruno Kirby (2006), a wonderful character actor who is probably best known as Billy Crystal’s best friend in the film When Harry Met Sally.  You made a woman meow?  Bruno, this is for you.

More notes on notes tomorrow.