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.

Silence on Mockingbird Hill

I was never really that into the guitar.  I mean, I play chords, but I’m a pianist, a singer, not a guitar guy.  But I knew who Les Paul was early on.  Every kid did.  Somebody’s older brother, their cousin, their dad played in a garage band (or wished they did) and had a Les Paul.  In guitar lingo that’s the same as saying “Steinway.”  And that was just the start of what he did.  He made more than a guitar, he made a new instrument – and with that he made music.  The Les Paul – the solid electric guitar – was revolutionary.  Rock and roll, pop, jazz – none of it would sound the way it does without him.  He invented tracking – the idea that you could layer recordings one on top of the other.  That was really the beginning of mixing music, synthesized music and more.  And he didn’t do it to be impressive, he did it to make music.  And he kept on making music.  There was no retirement for Les Paul – in fact there still won’t be.  Like Bell and Edison, his name will be forever connected with sound, with music.  Thanks Les, for all of us who have stood on Mockingbird Hill and felt your vision.  It’s been an honor.

Current Events Soundtracks:

It’s Independence Day in the Central African Republic and Laos

Soundtracks for This Day in History:

In 1521, the Aztecs lose their capital, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) to Hernando Cortez.  And a vibrant culture is lost along with it.

1889 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents the derigible, changing pro-sports events forever (well, think about it).  All kidding aside, the blimp was a huge invention at the time.  In fact, Come Take a Trip in My Airship was one of the earliest hit songs in the history of American popular music.  This recording is Billy Murray, a noted variety singer popular between 1890 and 1910.

1940 – The Battle of Britain began, as the Germans attempted to use constant nightly bombing raids to wear down the morale of the British.  And as Londoners spent night after night in air raid shelters, songs like The White Cliffs of Dover reminded them of better times to come.  This Vera Lynn recording was the original – and became a smash hit overnight on both sides of the Atlantic.

1942 – Bambi premieres in movie theatres, featuring a dramatic plot, cute forest creatures, the requisite death/abandonment by the hero’s mother (what was Walt Disney’s problem, anyway? And they keep on doing it.  Over and over again cartoon mommy disappears.), and this wonderful song.

Birthday Soundtracks

1820 Sir George Grove.  As any musicologist knows, Sir George Grove is to music what Larousse is to gastronomy.  Specifically, he wrote the book – literally.  Grove’s dictionary of music and musicians was the definitive music reference book of its day, and it continues to be republished and updated to this day (even now online).  Grove was a good friend of Sir Arthur Sullivan (one half of Gilbert and Sullivan – never to be confused with Gilbert O’Sullivan) and was responsible for finding a large cache of previously undiscovered Schubert works, including the music to Rosamunde (this is a recording by the Utah Symphony).

1860 Annie Oakley.  America’s greatest woman gunslinger, immortalized in the Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun.  Take it away, Ethel.  Her duet partner is Bruce Yarnell (like you care).

1879 John Ireland.  An English composer with a flare for the dramatic, as represented in his Elegy from the Downland Suite.  This is Andre Previn conducting the Leicester Schools Symphony Orchestra in 1970.

1895 Bert Lahr.  The guy was really funny, even without the lion costume.

1899 Alfred Hitchcock.  Good evening – deep breath – your suspicions were correct.  I’m going to link now to Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod (the Hitchcock television theme).  But – deep breath – I’m not going to stop there.  So many great movies with great soundtracks (mostly by Bernard Herrman), like North by Northwest (my favorite of them).  Oh yes, and have you ever heard the singing of school children by so spooky?  Unfortunately I cannot find it to link to – if you have it, send it over.

1912 Ben Hogan.  Hogan was one of the true legends of golf.  And, I know he’s not in The Legend of Bagger Vance, but the Rachel Portman score seems perfect for his birthday, anyway.

1919 George Shearing.  There’s jazz piano, and then there’s George Shearing’s jazz piano.  Born blind, he developed an extraordinary and unique style that involves block chording and a improvisational style that draws heavily on classical French impressionist music.  This version of Lullaby of Birdland is a great example.

1930 Don Ho.  Ho was the icon of Hawaiian music, and an ambassador for that music to the entire world.  There are certainly plenty of choices when it comes to his prolific repertoire.  But this is just too weird:  Don Ho singing on I Dream of Jeannie.

1948 Kathleen Battle.  Her distinctive, light soprano voice has made Kathleen Battle an icon of American opera singers.  In short, when she sings you think:  O God is that angelic!  Over the years, her repertoire has diversified to include more contemporary and avante garde projects.  Here she is singing O Mio Babbino Caro from Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini.  By the way, this is my favorite Puccini soprano aria.  My favorite Puccini tenor aria:  Nessun Dorma from Turandot.  There is no better tenor to compliment Kathleen Battle than Luciano Pavarotti.

1951 Dan Fogelberg.  In my opinion he only needed to write one song.  Leader of the Band, apparently, was written for his father.  It could have been written for my father, who has been gone now for 14 years.  He gave me my music, and even now – as I sit here listening to Fogelberg, I’m crying.  I love you Dad.

1959 Danny Bonaduce.  Danny Partridge.  Come on, get happy.

1960 Koji Kondo.  Kondo is Nintendo’s most prolific video game soundtrack composer.  Here his is playing his Super Mario music on an acoustic piano.

Passing Anniversary Soundtracks:

Francesco Durante (1757), often overlooked Italian baroque composer.  Here is his Concerto a Cinque in G minor.

Jules Massanet (1912), best known for his Meditation from Thais, a violin piece.  The voilinist is Sarah Chang.  And yes, that is Placido Domingo conducting.

H.G. Wells (1946), one of the world’s first science fiction writers.  Here is something rare indeed, the opening scene (and title score) for Things To Come by Arthur Bliss.  Interestingly, the printed score was destroyed during the Blitz in World War II, but later reconstructed – painstakingly – through the use of computer technology and the actual film.

Nino Ferrer (1998), a well-known French pop and jazz musician who really hit his stride in the 1970’s.  Here is an interesting song of his called Oh! He! Hein! Bon!

Nazia Hassan (2000), who died tragically young from lung cancer, was a rarity in south central Asia:  A Pakistani singer that was also successful in India.  Her first hit was in 1980 with Aap Jaisa Koi, which she recorded for the film Qurbani when she was only 17.

Phil Rizzuto (2007), legendary short stop for the New York Yankees, is probably the only baseball player turned announcer to be featured in a rock song.

More notes on notes tomorrow.

Let’s Turn Out the Lights and Go To Sleep

Note:  Tonight’s header is also the title of Rudy Vallee’s Theme song.  It was written by Herman Hupfeld, who also composed the signature song from the film Casablanca, “As Time Goes By.”

My children will not go to sleep at night.  They find excuses to stay awake that drive my wife and I up a wall.  The twins, in particular, are just one continues hamster wheel of insomniatic behavior.  They torture each other, they sing, they play games, they even pretend to pack to go to Grandma’s house.  Since they sleep in the same room, while it keeps them from torturing the baby (the teenager – of course – is going to eschew sleep at every chance anyway), it also keeps them in independent, trouble-making isolation.

I was relating this to my sister on the phone this morning via the neurotic parent guilt syndrome (“What am I doing wrong?  They’re going to grow up to be narcissistic, drug-trafficking, bank robbers, I just know it.”) when she pointed out the fact that we used to stay up together all the time.  We were in seperate bedrooms, divided by a hollow wall, which was a natural amplifier for all sorts of conversation and entertainment.  A good deal of this behavior revolved around music.  I have a distinct memory, in fact, of staying up until all hours with her turning the kid’s ditty “The Littlest Worm I Ever Saw” into a ballad with well over 50 verses, somewhere around the time I was in the 5th grade.

In fact, as a teenager (before the vampiric phase set in) I stayed up one night with her, she fell asleep, and then I read E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime in one sitting.  By the way, Ragtime made a fantastic movie.  The cast was stellar, and I remember going to see it in 1981, with my parents (and when I was just old enough to see an R-rated film).  Jimmy Cagney had a cameo.  My father was ecstatic.  But, for me, the key to Ragtime was the score.  It was as if Randy Newman was alive in 1911 and new exactly what people were listening to.  The score to the broadway musical is certainly a monumental one, but it tries to marry modern Broadway convention with the lilt and schmalz of the early 20th century.  Newman hit his right on the head.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain – my sister and I were creative, and creatively busy until we fell asleep.  But, from my parental throne, this is an ill omen.  Our antics as kids lasted a long time – well into adulthood, in fact.  About 14 years ago, right after my father passed away, my mother took us on a trip to Las Vegas for the Christmas holiday (my father had absolutely no desire to go there).  I was in the midst of almost divorcing my now ex-wife for the first time (you should always listen to your inner voice), so it was just the three of us.  And my sister and I came to a monumental, if not obvious, conclusion – after several cocktails overlooking the fountains at the Bellagio.  Resort casino development and marketing is all theme-based (oh, wow, is that Mensa on the phone?).  And what Vegas needed was a Swedish-themed casino.  And that meant a Swedish theme song (by now we were sitting up in my hotel room at 1 AM).  And what was that?  Here’s the tune, you can sing along if you’d like:

“You can play…

You can win…

Come let the magic begin…

See the shows…

Eat at the smorgasbord…

Visit the Svendefjord…”

No, I’m not kidding.  And it still works.  In their bedroom down the hall, our 6-year-old twins are now fast asleep!

Current events soundtracks:

Avast, ye scurvy dog, there are pirates afloat in Europe.  Stealing ships carrying lumber, a fair booty that will fetch – OK, OK, well maybe piracy is not what it used to be.

Tonight is another shot at catching the Perseid Meteor Shower.  Last night for background music I suggested either Jupiter, from The Planets, by Holst, or Heaven and Hell (theme from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos mini-series) by Vangelis.  Tonight, I recommend the Theme to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Good stuff.

The US Federal Reserve Board (which never speaks with much clarity) is sending relatively clear signals that they think the recession is over.  That version of Happy Days are Here Again is probably the most famous recorded, by the Ben Selvin Orchestra, one of the great bands of the jazz/pre-swing era.

Soundtracks for this day in history:

In 30 BC, Cleopatra (who didn’t remotely look like Elizabeth Taylor) committed suicide by allowing herself to be bitten by a poisonous snake.  And here is the perfect song for an iconic, stereotypical legend from the dawn of civilization.  Important tip:  Never make the mummified angry (another great score by the late Jerry Goldsmith).

In 1833, the city of Chicago was founded, and they managed to burn the whole thing down less than 40 years later.  Of course, here’s where I could go for Chicago the group, or Chicago the musical, or the soundtrack to In Old Chicago (a 1937 film that chronicles the great fire of 1871).  But, nope.  Here is the song Chicago, Chicago, as sung by Frank Sinatra (and I got all the way to my third post before I got some Sinatra in here).

In 1981, IBM released its first personal computer.  Shall we play a game?

Birthday Soundtracks:

Heinrich Biber (1644), a Baroque German composer of some note. 

Cecil B. DeMille (1881),  one of the greatest directors in the history of film.  Here is the opening theme of The 10 Commandments, by Elmer Bernstein.  I think Bernstein did his best work in the 1950’s and 60’s, scoring  – in addition to The 10 Commandments – The Magnificent Seven, Hawaii, and Thoroughly Modern Millie, just to name a few.  He continued scoring up through 2002, and he died in 2004.

Jane Wyatt (1910) was best known for her role in the television drama “Father Knows Best.”  She also played Spock’s human mom in the original Star Trek series.

Perennial country music favorite and Hee-Haw co-star Buck Owens (1929).  Here is one of his best songs, Together Again.

Mark Knopfler (1949), guitarist and lead singer for the band, Dire Straits.  He’d like to celebrate by Twisting by the Pool.

Pat Metheny (1954) may very well be the world’s greatest studio guitarist, and was a pioneer in both jazz fusion and new age recording.  You’ll enjoy this.

Ruh roh!  Actress Grey DeLisle (the voice of Daphne on the newer batch of Scooby Doo cartoons).  Happy Birthday, Grey!

Passing Anniversary Soundtracks:

Giovanni Gabrieli (1612) the Italian pre-Boroque composer who excelled in exalted, regal liturgical music.  This is his Canzon Duodecimi Toni.

Jacopo Peri (1633), a contemporary of Gabrieli’s, specialized in vocal music.

Anna Held (1918) was Flo Ziegfeld’s first wife, and a singer of some reknown.  Her hits included I Don’t Want to Play in Your Yard, Every Little Movement Has a Meaning All It’s Own, and I Just Can’t Make Eyes Behave.  Unfortunately, recordings of Anna Held are extremely rare, so this is actress Barbara Parkins playing the role of Ms. Held on stage.

Leos Janacek (1928) was the most influential Czech composer of the 20th century.  This Sinfonietta is a strong example of the disjointed, discordant structure that was a feature of post-impressionism, combined with the folk influences of his Czech culture.

Ian Fleming (1964) was the author creator of James Bond, and wrote 14 novels about his exploits – all of which have been made into films.  Here is Moonraker, composed by John Barry and sung by Shirley Bassey.  Barry is incredibly adept at tugging at your heart strings with even a score to a spy movie.  These Bond songs made Bassey’s career.  And Ian Fleming had one other novel of note, for kids – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  180 degrees from Goldfinger, isn’t it!

Henry Fonda (1982) made watching movies so easy, because you didn’t think he was acting – he was just simply going about his life and letting you in on it.  Dave Grusin’s score for Fonda’s last film, On Golden Pond, really conveys that well.

John Cage (1992) was an icon of the post-modern and minimalist movements in 20th century music.  He was known, in particular, for compositions that required what he called a “prepared piano” – a piano that had been altered from its standard construction.  This is his Bacchanale for Prepared Piano.

And – finally – Merv Griffin (2007) for one reason and one reason only.  He wrote this.

More notes on notes tomorrow.