Music

Francesco Parrino is getting the Benny and Björn spirit of things here with his piano cover of Super Trouper, probably my favorite ABBA song ⁠— though like with other covers of his I’ve listened to, I enjoy the first half of the track more than the second.

Once I know a piece well enough I go a-hunting for interesting versions of it. This is all I could find of my current most-played piece: Brahms’s 4th Symphony. It’s a synth version of the first movement only, and compared to the one I’m used to ⁠— Carlos Kleiber conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker on Deustche Gramophon ⁠— a bit plodding.

“Helikopter, Helikopter”. As someone says in the comments, it’s the new Iranian anthem.

The Daily Mail seems to cover all angles of Eurovision 2024 in this sprawling report. Politics aside, I thought the Irish entry was pretty amazingly performed. I missed the Swiss song as too many bland numbers had forced me away from the screen, and my faith in Eurovision songwriting is not up to searching for it to listen to it. But mainly: I was totally taken aback by the number of votes for Israel; I know there’d been a campaign to do so and supporters probably went out and bought extra SIMs ⁠— Jews vote ⁠— but surely not in enough numbers to achieve the level reached; the mostly-European public spoke and it was briefly intensely heartwarming. As was seeing Eden Golan’s return to Israel at Benny-G arrivals.

Campy? It’s bloody rocket fuel darling. Happy 50th, Queens White and Black.

Two of the great rock performances, it seems to me: Prince on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and Neil Young with Led Zeppelin.

On researching Prokofiev; Princeton musicologist Simon Morrison uncovers more works by my favorite composer.

The biggest change Prokofiev and his collaborator Sergei Radlov made to Shakespeare’s familiar story was to add a happy ending: Their Juliet wakes up from her potion-induced slumber just as Romeo is reaching the awful conclusion that she is dead. But when Prokofiev presented his score to the Soviet cultural authorities, who had been growing ever more conservative, they balked at the ending. The Shakespeare purists among them did not like the idea of changing the familiar ending. Prokofiev had a logical answer to their objections, saying, “Living people can dance, the dying cannot.” Grasping at ways to preserve the integrity of his vision, he even suggested hanging a red flag outside the theater on nights when the sad ending was to be performed, a green flag when the happy one was planned.

At 1:03, this transcendent moment of moviemaking, John William’s theme counterpointing Alec Guinness’s delivery of George Lucas’s creation. “It surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.”

So right now all the James Bond movies are available on Amazon Prime, and with the sudden plethora I was stumped which I’m due next to rewatch. When in doubt, it’s back to Goldfinger, just the first few minutes this time. Once again I’m blown away by just how good it is; it’s definitely arguable that both preceding and all subsequent movies lead to and emanate from it. The post-credit opening scene with the swoop down to the diving board and the cut to Felix watching the dive from the glass window ⁠— what delicious glamorous filmmaking. “Into Miami / Pigeon Game” is the 1-minute musical accompaniment.

At /r/interestingasfuck, President of Ukraine Zelensky plays piano without his hands. As humanity rallies to ballsy Ukraine, it seems Putin has lost already?

Marc Andreessen has just tweetstormed a section of an Ayn Rand lecture on the contrast between the tribes of Apollo 11 and of Woodstock. Whilst I commend his pro-Deplorables stand, I do feel that as one of the fathers of the age he could be utilizing his mystique to do more, starting perhaps with banging heads in San Francisco. During a recent podcast interview with I forget whom, he dismissed laughingly the prospect of running for office; perhaps he should reconsider. Also, just for some rounding, he might want to read Mailer’s Of a Fire on the Moon, surely an Apollonian who yearns for the Dionysian.

Goodness, The Ultimate James Bond Medley is every song from the 25 movies. They probably should have done it as an album, like David Arnold’s, because for example the “You Only Live Twice” chorus needs its proper twiceness, and I could have taken the whole thing of Ted Mills singing “We Have All the Time in the World”, and although it’s very nice, they do splice up songs mercilessly.

Because the Marvel intro music is replaying in my mind’s ear (composed I believe by the great Michael Giacchino), I went to YouTube and found Every Marvel Intro. Turns out the first time we heard this brief yet potent bit was Dr Strange.

Brian May with Rick Beato for an hour. Beato is like the Charlie Rose of music if Rose had been head of CIA or something ⁠— Beato’s been a session musician, music professor, studio owner, etc. And like the meticulous mega-talented pros they are, just as the interviewer covers his topics so the guest does all the talking (and glorious playing).

Scit-scat and a motherfuckin’ scats. “Tenacious D’s “You Never Give Me Your Money” with music vid by Taylor Stephens. The End.

From an interview with Yuja Wang at steinway.com:

Sometimes when I play Prokofiev, I try to extract the groove or beats from other rock music.

Other rock music!

Poolside.FM, the lovely Mac throwback to 1997.

This video rather magnificiently splices together various bands playing “Terrapin Station”. My new most favorite YouTube video ever.

Some rise, some fall, some climb ⁠— Robert Hunter, 78. Mister, your inspiration moved me brightly.

Music from Baskets compiled by Josh Moshier on SoundCloud. There is also the Baskets Soundtrack at tunefind.

Having just seen Sam Smith on a televised weekend concert, I was reminded of Spectre and went and found a podcast episode where they satisfyingly eviscerate his lazy theme song, “The Writing’s on the Wall”.

“The Moment” is an occasional column/blog by novelist Amit Chaudhuri in The Paris Review.

We have entered an uncanny valley of algorithmic culture. I believe it’s still easy to step out of, but even easier not to. And maybe it’s merely a speeding up of how things have always worked.

Check it out, How We Made, a weekly series by The Guardian interviewing two collaborators on a seminal work of art ⁠— from 2001: A Space Odyssey to the Swatch watch.

The Bloomsbury set thought about work and leisure, with ideas for today as we wrestle more universally with these issues.

Quincy Jones on Michael Jackson’s bullshit and everyone else’s too. Oh and famous friends.

On golf, drunk driving in Phoenix, and “the hillbilly passover Seder”: Alice Cooper eulogizes his good friend Glen Campbell.

The world’s most rhinestone cowboy, Glen Campbell, has died at 81. He is one of my favorites.

Tainted and beloved: Terry Teachout on the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras’ participation in the Nazi project..

David Arnold speaks to collaborating with Chris Cornell on “You Know My Name”, the theme song for the James Bond movie Casino Royale: “We needed someone who could sing the way Daniel acted…” This has become my #3 favorite, after Carly Simon’s Marvin Hamlish number and Nancy Sinatra’s John Barry one.

Dhani Harrison inducts Jeff Lynne into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

“Even The Beatles have sort of faded for this generation, but Billy hasn’t. Billy’s still cranking,” observes cover band leader Mike DelGuidice. Billy Joel is outearning the likes of U2 and Adele.

It seems to be a deceptively hard song to cover, but here’s a good one with a man, a woman and a ukulele on a living-room sofa, deceptively casual, deceptively perfect. Nobody’s done it better, not even Radiohead. And for something completely different: a great ‘Nobody Does it Better’ series montage by Rik Moran.

David Cripps, the London Symphony Orchestra’s horn soloist, on playing the Star Wars music, and particularly “Leia’s Theme”. Seems clear from this and an interview I read on “Rey’s Theme” that John Williams is inspired by charismatic actors.

FYI: Prokofiev was the best. By Bruce Turlish.

New for me and rather swish and great: Arturo Márquez’s Danzóns. This is #2, as played by the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and conducted by the charismatic Gustavo Dudamel.

(All YouTube links…) You’ve heard the accordion, now hear:

• the piano: Rey’s Theme
• two oboes (sweet though sound isn’t great even to my ear)
• mocked-up full orchestra (awesome)
• two harps (not quite as sweet as I’d hoped, but still, harps)
• a nice composite of all the theme’s appearances in the movie
• the coolest (video of this one’s worth watching too)
• some conspiracy theory musical analysis

And in the LA Times, an interview with John Williams about the soundtrack .

So the neighbor Brian is playing his and I thought, you know what, John Williams’ “Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars: The Force Awakens kind of lends itself to the accordion. And here it is on YouTube, very nicely done by Adam Matlock in his bedroom. Commendations to you, sir.

Derek Sivers’ MusicThoughts. Prepare, good friends, for a bombardment of enhanced civility.

A bit of a fun mindbender. Queen’s Greatest Hits performed by what I guess is a Beatles tribute band using the latter’s idioms. Full album.

Oh my, the entire Star Wars symphonic suite played by one man on a Wurlitzer.

You owe it to yourself and to the rest of us to watch and listen to “Bohemian Rhapsody” played on a church organ by blind organist Bert van den Brink.

0n the 70s forty years later: “The depression can seem not like confinement but a kind of freedom; the aimlessness can seem like spaciousness, a shambling kind of grace.”

Everybody, everybody, you’re gonna love this account of the making of Boogie Nights, long enough to read like a small book. My only qualm is that they totally should have put Michael Penn’s final comment at the end.

Wow. Dan Kois, a senior editor at Slate, heads to Portland for a week of serious karaoke.

All 8 Kraftwerk shows at Tate Modern, £60 per, sold out quicker than the museum’s servers could handle.