Which Music Will My Cats Like?
What kind of music do cats like? This charming science fair display follows the scientific method of hypothesis, experimentation, resulting data, and conclusion. The student theorized that the cats would fall asleep to classical music. In this case, the conclusion is what I would call a punch line: “My hypothesis was wrong, because they did not care either way.” Flickr user Daniel N loved this display and took a picture for posterity. You can see a larger version at the photo page. Link -via Buzzfeed
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Flute Hero?
[YouTube - Link]
Ever wonder what would happen if you combined true musical talent with a popular video game like Rockband? This is what you would get.
While taking a break from practicing one day, MsFrizzyHair, a recent college graduate with music degree had a bizarre thought as she watched her brother play Rockband. "I wonder if that microphone would pick up a flute…" Check out the video to see the answer!
– via youtube
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13 Examples of Literature in Song
It’s no real surprise that Wikipedia has a thorough list of these, but it’s interesting to parse through the many, and find a neat collection of songs and albums that were based on, or influenced by books. Led Zeppelin has a scatological lyric library referencing JRR Tolkien, but let’s see what else is out there.
13. Alan Parson’s Project – The album is called Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and includes interpretations of Edgar Allen Poe’s best, like “The Raven”, “Dr. Tar and Professor Feather”, and “The Cask of Amontillado.” Here’s the awesome “Dream Within A Dream” video. Also by Parsons: “I, Robot” (Isaac Asimov).
12. Rivendell (Rush) – A quiet, thematic representation of the Elf version of a Bed & Breakfast. (Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, of course.)
11. 2112 (Rush) - Side one* is loosely based on Anthem by Ayn Rand.
10. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica) - Based on the classic by Ernest Hemingway.
9. The Thing That Should Not Be and The Call of Cthulu (Metallica) - These guys really let good classic fiction influence their songwriting. We get not one, but two songs in honor of H.P. Lovecraft’s best character. Also by Metallica: “One”, based on the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
8. The Small Print (Muse) - “clearly alluding to Goethe’s Faust, being sung from the point of view of the Devil to someone selling their soul to him in exchange for, presumably, musical prowess and fame…” source
7. Anthrax Loves Stephen King - As do a lot of bands like Pennywise (It). But Anthrax named one of their best albums Among the Living after King’s character Randall Flagg in The Stand. They also penned a song called “Skeleton in the Closet” based on King’s “Apt Pupil”.
6. Tom Sawyer (Rush) - Wow, Rush. Even “Red Barchetta” is based on a vague book called A Nice Morning Drive by Richard S. Foster. At least Tom Sawyer is pretty well known both as a song and a book. Who can resist the urge to sing along when Geddy Lee croons, “The River!”
5. Tales of Brave Ulysses (Cream) - Psychedelically sums up all you need to know about all the ins and outs of Homer’s The Odyssey. And I quote, “Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers…” (This was actually a lyric inspired by lyricist Martin Sharp’s travels in Ibiza.) But the Sirens are there, so that’s cool.
4. The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen) - Based on The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Henry Fonda and Bruce Springsteen would have had some cool conversations, I bet.
3. White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane) -Based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Here’s a nice rendition of that song.
2. Animals (Pink Floyd) - It never actually occurred to me before, but an argument can be made that the Animals album, with it’s corrupt pigs (be they on the wing, or three different ones), dogs and sheep, political overtones… Yeah, it’s definitely based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
1. Iron Maiden (Pretty much every song of theirs, ever) - At least a heavy handful. These Brit bad boys of metal must have had some scratched up library cards. Their adaptations include:
- Seventh Son, by Orson Scott Card (on the 7th Son of a 7th Son album, including all songs)
- Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
- Flight of Icarus (Mythology)
- The Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Alan Sillitoe)
- Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlen)
- To Tame a Land (Dune, Frank Herbert)
- The Trooper (The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Tennyson)
- Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
- Murders in the Rue Morgue (Edgar Allen Poe)
On second thought, an honorable mention should be made for Led Zeppelin’s “The Battle of Evermore”, as it pretty much describes the Battle of Pellennor Fields in The Return of the King.
(Iron Maiden illustration by Ado Cedric & Tio Julio.)
*For help with determining what this means, ask a grownup.
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Prisencolinensinainciusol
The song is called Prisencolinensinainciusol, written by Italian artist Adriano Celentano in 1972. Recorded by Celentano and Raffaella Carrà in an American accent, it sounds like it should be English, but the lyrics are pure gibberish. Link -via Metafilter
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The History of the Chipmunks
In some cases, no one will get behind a wacky idea until there’s nothing left to lose. Such is the case with Ross Bagdasarian Sr. who recorded a novelty song called “The Witch Doctor”. As his record company was close to bankruptcy, three executives went along with recording a chorus of three sped-up voices he called The Chipmunks.
Production commenced and in just a few months leading up to Christmas of 1958, the record shot to the top of the charts, becoming one of the best selling singles of all time. Bagdasarian won two Grammy Awards, Liberty Records was saved from bankruptcy, and the Chipmunks became a household name with children all over the world.
And that’s just the beginning of the story of Simon, Theodore, and Alvin. Link -via Boing Boing
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Nintendo Jazz Odyssey
[YouTube - Link]
Love video games and jazz? Well, Scott Bradlee and Ben Golder-Novick teamed up to bring you this: classic video game music in piano and saxophone!
Love 8-bit Nintendo games but not necessarily 8-bit musical
instruments? Wish you could hear the soundtracks of those games
rendered by live musicians as you play?Eight Bits of Jam will come into your living room and provide real-time acoustic soundtracks to old school games such as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda,
Mike Tyson’s Punch-out, and many more. All you have to do is put the television on ‘mute’ and Eight Bits of Jam will take care of the rest.
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Ohio is a Piano
Andy Woodruff noticed that Ohio has 88 counties, the same number as keys on a piano. So he went to work on a map application that assigns a note to each county. You can play a song on the map (a couple of songs are plotted out for you) or reassign the notes based on census data such as population, number of rental houses, or median age. You can even hear what a route from one place to another sounds like! Link to map. Link to the story behind it. -via the Presurfer
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Band-cest: Keeping it in the Family
Growing up singing together has its advantages! This post looks at thirteen different sibling acts that made it big, with videos of each.
Often our brothers and sisters are the first people we sing and play music with, so if it works well, it’s only natural to continue to sing and play with them. The tonal similarity of siblings’ voices allows for the building of beautiful harmonies, which can explain the success of the music made by siblings.
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8+ Scientifically-Minded Musicians
Modern musicians are frequently believed to be stupid airheads who couldn’t hold down any “real” job. But in reality, there are a lot of intelligent rock stars. Some musicians are even geniuses – and not just when it comes to music composition. These musicians are not only intelligent, they have also used their knowledge to get college degrees or in their secondary professions.
Brian May: Queen
Brian May of Queen isn’t your average rock and roll supernova. He was named the 39th Greatest Guitarist of All Time by Rolling Stone, but he’s also great at something else – astrophysics. May graduated from the Imperial College of London with an honors degree in physics and Mathematics. He then went on to obtain a doctorate in both departments, when Queen exploded into rock and roll stardom. While he gave up his schooling for the band, he did not stop working with physics and published a few academic papers while in the group.
More recently, he printed a book entitled Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe in 2006. In October of 2007, he completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics. His thesis was titled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud. The month after, he was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.
Greg Graffin: Bad Religion
Greg Graffin was an anthropology and geology double-major from UCLA. He went on to obtain a master’s degree in geology from the school and then earned a Ph.D. in zoology from Cornell University. Throughout this entire time, he was singing and touring with Bad Religion, a band he helped form when he was only 15.
Although he’s still playing with Bad Religion, Graffin also teaches Life Sciences at UCLA. He has also written two books, one a series of correspondences between himself and historian Preston Jones titled Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant? A Professor and Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity, the other is being released in 2010 and is titled Anarchy Evolution. According to a recent Twitter post, he is also be involved with an upcoming television series, called “Punk Professor.”
Source Image Via The Toad [Flickr]
Milo Aukerman: Descendents
Anyone familiar with the punk band The Descendents knows of the nerdy caricature that has come to serve as the band’s logo. That drawing is based on the band’s lead singer, Milo Aukerman. Fans may also recognize the name of the group’s first album, ‘Milo Goes to College.’ The album was named because Milo was actually going to college at UCSD at the time.
His affection for learning caused the band to go on a number of temporary hiatuses while he returned to school. Eventually, Aukerman earned a Ph.D in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Even after graduation, the band continued the cycle of reuniting and separating as Milo kept returning to the band and then his career in biochemistry. The group is currently dormant, but with their history, most fans still hold out hope that Milo will come back soon.
Tom Scholz: Boston
Tom Scholz is the founder and guitarist for a little band called Boston. But before he ever even started the group, he received a master’s degree at MIT in the field of mechanical engineering. He was working as a senior product design engineer for Polaroid when he decided to try his hand at rock.
After Boston took off, Tom created his own music technology company, Scholz Research & Development in 1980. In 1995, he sold the company to Dunlop Manufacturing, who continued to produce the company’s most famous product, the Rockman guitar amp. The amp was designed by Sholz himself and still is manufactured with his signature on each unit.
Dexter Holland & James Lilja: The Offspring
The lead singer and co-founder of the Offspring, Dexter Holland graduated as valedictorian of his high school before he moved on to college. He then moved on to USC where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in biology and Master’s degree in molecular biology. When the Offspring took off, he actually left his doctoral program in Molecular Biology at USC in order to focus on the band. Unrelated, but also interesting, Holland is also a licensed pilot and hot sauce entrepreneur. His hot sauce, Gringo Bandito, has even been picked up by Albertsons.
Dexter isn’t the only smart guy who’s played in the band though. James Lilja played drums with the band for a few years before returning to his medical calling – in gynecology. If you thought it was strange to have a punk rock professor in LA, just imagine visiting a rock star gynecologist in San Jose.
Sources #1, #2, Image of Dexter Via Jack Shepler, Rock Music Review [Flickr]
Philip Taylor Kramer: Iron Butterfly
After leaving Iron Butterfly, bassist Philip Taylor Kramer obtained a degree in aerospace engineering. He then began working on the MX missile guidance system for a US Department of Defense contractor. After that, he began working on facial recognition systems, advanced communications and fractal compression systems for CDs. In 1990, he opened a business, Total Multimedia, with Micheal Jackson’s brother, Randy, where they specialized on data compression techniques for CDs. Kramer also worked on a project started by his father that would discredit Einstein’s theories. Part of his research involved a transmission project that could result in communications that went faster than the speed of light.
His disappearance in 1995 sent conspiracy theorists aflutter and remained a complete mystery for four years. It started when he drove to the LA airport to pick up an investor who never showed up. Kramer then made a number of phone calls from his cell phone, including one to the police where he said, “I’m going to kill myself. And I want everyone to know O.J. Simpson is innocent. They did it.” He was never heard from after this and the mystery ended up appearing on Oprah, America’s Most Wanted, Unsolved Mysteries and a Skeptic magazine article depicted the number of conspiracy theories surrounding his disappearance.
His body was finally uncovered in 1999, when photographers looking to shoot old car wrecks at the bottom of Decker Canyon in Malibu discovered his minivan with his remains inside. The death was officially ruled a suicide based on his phone calls made that day, but conspiracy theories still rage on.
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter: Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers
The guitarist for such classic bands as Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers is also a self-taught expert on weaponry systems. After a lengthy studying period at home, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter decided to demonstrate his knowledge on the subject by writing a five-page paper that proposed the ship-based anti-aircraft Aegis missile be converted into a missile defense system. After he gave the paper to California congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Baxter’s career as a defense consultant began.
In 1995, he was elected chairman of the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense, a position he still holds. Through work with that project, he was awarded consulting contracts with the Missile Defense Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of Defense, Science Applications International Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. He has also joined the NASA Exploration Systems Advisory Committee.
Baxter believes his unique way of looking at terrorism is what has allowed him to do so well in the industry, “We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments, and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles. My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at.” Next time you’re wondering if the country is doing everything it can to keep you safe, remember that someone nicknamed “Skunk” is on top of it. It may not help comfort you, but at least you might giggle about it.
Source Image Via NASA (yes, that NASA)
A few other educated musicians of note:
-Lionel Richie has a degree in economics from Tuskegee.
-Art Garfunkel has a Masters from Columbia in both history and math.
-Tracy Chapman has degrees in anthropology and African studies from Tufts University, where she was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.
-Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave has a degree in social studies from Harvard. After leaving the music world, he settled down and began teaching history.
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Failed/Cringeworthy Celebrity Music Crossovers
When a celebrity gives up something that he or she gets paid millions to do, in order to pursue what they feel could be their “true” calling, music, most of the population cringes. Digging through these videos was like sitting through a horror movie that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of. Joe Pesci? Kevin Costner? Guaranteed to drop jaws, here are 24 of the celebrities-gone-musicians that are awkwardly amazing in their own right, with video evidence.
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The Breakfast Cats
For all fans of The Breakfast Club, and whether you love or hate cats, YTMND has a great post up, a video loop that further links humans and cats. Presenting, The Breakfast Cats.
Looks like they’re crackin’ skulls.
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Distraxion
Distraction is a film by Mike Stern, who probably didn’t have to listen to the boss’ favorite music while creating this. Still, you know he’s been through it at one time or another! Link -via YesButNoButYes
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The 15 Weirdest Music Videos Of All Time
There have certainly been many odd music videos over the years. The short format seems to invite experimentation and risk taking. Brainz has collected 15 of the weirdest videos of all time, including a gem from Leonard Nimoy for his song "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins":
As if Leonard Nimoy needed to prove himself even more odd, the ‘Star Trek’ legend released this gem. “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”, which comes in at number 9 on our list, tells the story of the little Hobbit featured in J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. Beyond weird.
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Beethoven's 5th Completely Visualized
Hit Play or go to Link.
Here’s a hypnotizingly apt way of visualizing music. There’s a bunch of these on You Tube, but Beethoven’s 5th is decidedly the best. If you’re curious as to which instrument is represented by each color bar, well…here you go.
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Fur Elise with Animal Sounds
[YouTube - Link]
The sounds of a cat on bass purr, a loon on lead vocal, two owls, wood stork and cuckoo (solo) are the sole musical instruments in this furry arrangement of the classic, Fur Elise, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.
You can see who is currently singing at the botton of the screen.
– via SwitchZoo
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Raindrop Melody Maker
Click on the raindrops to make a melody, which will loop for you in this interactive page from Lullatune. Click the green clock for a metronome if you like. I managed to make a pleasant tune and played it for quite some time while I surfed the ‘net. Link -via Arbroath
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Otamatone
(YouTube link)
Leave it to the Japanese to invent a musical instrument with a face that looks like a cartoon character. The Otamatone was developed by toy company CUBE Works and Maywa Denki, an art collaboration of the Tosa family that specializes in nonsense machines. -via the Presurfer
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The Live Album Quiz
In this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss, you’ll be given eight musical artists on the left and eight titles of recorded-live albums on the right. Cam you match them all up? Most of these albums were really big hits. My score?
Good luck! Link
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Musical Tea Pot Plays Your Tune
This musical kettle is designed by Naoki Kawamoto in an effort to “redesign soundscape.” It will play your favorite tune when things get heated up and begin boiling.
Link Via BoingBoing
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Tweeting from Lollapalooza!
One of the good things about living in the midwest is that while I may not live in a big city, a bunch of them are within decent driving distance – Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha. Milwaukee and St. Louis aren’t too bad.
Anyway, as such, I’m headed to Lollapalooza in Chicago this weekend! And I’ll be Tweeting as I go, so if you can’t be there to enjoy the extremely varied selection of music, you are welcome to live vicariously through me. I’m a little bummed the Beastie Boys won’t be playing, but I totally understand why they can’t be there.
Bands that are definitely on my “To Watch” list include Manchester Orchestra, Heartless Bastards, the Decemberists, the Arctic Monkeys, Animal Collective, Tool, Vampire Weekend, Snoop, the Killers and the Silversun Pickups.
If you have any other recommendations or just want to follow along as we check out cool bands and try to hit up some local culture (the Shedd Aquarium is on our list, as well as the Chicago Art Institute), leave me a Tweet. And if you’re already following me on Twitter, you should probably switch to this new account – the old one got hacked by spammers and was suspended.
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The Anacreontic Song
A group of amateur musicians formed a club in London in the mid-1700s called the Anacreontic Society. They had day jobs as the pillars of society, but at night they would get together and present concerts. Member John Stafford Smith wrote a song that became known as the Anacreontic Song with six stanzas that became the official anthem of the group.
In all probability some drinking did occur at Society meetings, but the primary purpose of the Society (and its song) was to promote an interest in music. [The song] was commonly used as a sobriety test: If you could sing a stanza of the notoriously difficult melody and stay on key, you were sober enough for another round.
You can listen to a version of the Anacreontic Song on YouTube and hear why why this song is so remarkable. Learn more at Scribal terror. Link
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The Great Stalacpipe Organ
Found in the Luray Caves, Virginia, this has got to be amongst the most astonishing musical instruments in the World.
The organ was designed by Leland Sprinke in 1956 and replaces traditional organ pipes with the stalactites found naturally in the caverns. The Great Stalacpipe Organ literally ROCKS!
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3 Songs About Drugs and 3 Songs That Aren’t
Yes, we all know music largely revolves around sex, drugs and rock and roll, but sometimes it’s hard to actually tell which one the band is talking about. Here are six songs with meanings you may not have originally guessed.
Songs About Drugs:
“Got To Get You Into My Life” by The Beatles
This track really sounds like a love song written for a love interest with lyrics like, “Ooh, I suddenly see you/Ooh, did I need you/Every single day of my life.” Despite how it sounds though, this one is about the first time Paul tried marijuana and his instant love affair with the drug. What more would you expect from soneone who also named a romantic love song (Martha My Dear) after his dog?
Source Image Via Gonzalo Barrientos [Flickr]
“Motorhead” by Hawkwind and Motorhead
Even a lot of Motorhead fans don’t actually know that the name is a slang for a speedfreak. Lemmy wrote the song for the group Hawkwind first and then took it to be the title song for his post-Hawkwind group. Here’s some of the song’s lyrics that really give it away, “Motorhead, you can call me Motorhead, alright/ Brain dead, total amnesia/ Get some mental anesthesia.”
Source
“Hey Mr. Tambourine Man” by Bob Dylan
This one’s a little less certain. You see, although it is widely accepted that this song is about a man looking to score from his dealer, Bob claims none of his songs are about drug use. While I’m usually inclined to accept the artist’s word on his own songs, Mr. Dylan also claims that “Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35” A.K.A. “Everybody Gets Stoned” is especially not about drugs. I may be able to concede that he may have meant the song to be more about stonings and social outcasting, I have a hard time accepting a poet as prolific and intelligent as Bob Dylan didn’t realize and fully intend the double meaning of the chorus.
Source Image Via MarkyBon [Flickr]
Songs Not About Drugs:
“Hotel California” by The Eagles
With lyrics like “you can check out anytime, but you can never leave,” it’s easy to see why so many people associated the song with drug use. The reality is that the song is more about the hedonism of the Southern California lifestyle the group was exposed to in the seventies, which, to be fair, did include heavy drug use. Still, the drugs would be no more than a minor part of the song’s deeper meaning. Eagles drummer and writer Don Henley, said it was “basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about.”
Source Image Via Saguayo [Flickr]
“Mirror in the Bathroom” by The English Beat
While many people assume any songs involving mirrors, particularly when the mirror is in a bathroom, must be references to cocaine, this one is actually about narcissism. The writer, Dave Wakeling, said he was inspired to write the song while he was looking in the mirror at himself debating whether or not he could skip work that day. He then started thinking about the self-involvement and narcissism. The line about “a restaurant that’s got glass tables” was actually a direct reference to a fancy restaurant that opened near him that, would you guess it, had glass tables. Funny enough, the success of the song may have helped lead the band into cocaine addictions; Dave later remarked about it that, “songs can become sort of strangely prophetic.”
Source
“Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul and Mary
This song really is about a growing up and abandoning an imaginary friend who happens to be a dragon. Although it’s merely a tale of lost childhood innocence, the release of the song in the drug-fueled sixties led to many people assuming that anything with the word “puff” was actually a reference to marijuana. Co-writer Leonard Lipton once said, “I can tell you that at Cornell in 1959 [when the song was written], no one smoked grass.” So, if you were hoping for the song to actually have been about drugs, you almost certainly have already lost that childhood innocence referenced in the song.
Source Image Via CelestialSpirit13 [Flickr]
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Wedding Processional Pays Off
The video of Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz and their attendants dancing down the aisle at their wedding has over 13 million views on YouTube. Neither Chris Brown, whose song “Forever” served as the processional music, nor Sony Music demanded a takedown of the video. Rather, they requested click-to-buy links to Amazon and iTunes from YouTube, and sales of the year-old song skyrocketed. But what about Jill and Kevin? They appeared on morning TV to talk about the video, but haven’t made any money. Instead, they are using their sudden fame to raise funds for charity. From their website:
We have been through a lot in life, but have come through each experience stronger and more in love with each other. Our experience since we posted the video has been incredible. We would never have expected this response to our wedding entrance in a million years.
We hope to direct this positivity to a good cause. Due to the circumstances surrounding the song in our wedding video, we have chosen the Sheila Wellstone Institute.
Sheila Wellstone was an advocate, organizer, and national champion in the effort to end domestic violence in our communities.
There is a donation button on the site. Link
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The Pentatonic Scale
(Vimeo link)
Bobby McFerrin involves the audience in a music lesson during the 2009 World Science Festival. The seminar was called “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus.” I love how he knew exactly the way the crowd would follow along. -via Metafilter
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Six Repurposed Disney Songs
Poor songwriters – they spend a ton of time writing and composing music for movies, only for a good chunk of their work to be cut at a later date. OK, that probably goes for most people in the movie industry, and songwriters actually have it better than most – with a key change and a tweak to the lyrics, their songs can be repurposed to fit the next big movie… or sit in a vault for 19 years to be pulled out for a television show, as the case may be. Read on!
“Beyond the Laughing Sky”
Alice In Wonderland has some great songs – “The Unbirthday Song” is bound to get wedged in your head if you’re not careful. In fact, the soundtrack consists of 18 tunes, the most number of songs in a Disney film at the time. Some of them are only used for a few seconds here and there, but Disney wanted to try to capture at least some of Lewis Carroll’s quirky little rhymes and verses and felt that song snippets were the way to do it.
But not all of them got included – more than 30 songs were written, including one about the Jabberwock (he ultimately got cut from the movie altogether), a song for the Caterpillar called “Dream Caravan,” a song for the Cheshire Cat called “I’m Odd,” and a song that Alice sang to open the movie called “Beyond the Laughing Sky.” Although “Dream Caravan” and “I’m Odd” never saw the light of day, you might know “Laughing Sky” by a different name – “The Second Star to the Right” from Peter Pan.
The song was cut from Alice because the song was a ballad and was a bit difficult for young Kathryn Beaumont, the voice of Alice, to sing. It was also determined that the slow song might start the movie off a little too slow, so the opening song was replaced with “In a World of My Own” instead – it’s a bit more upbeat and matched Beaumont’s range and style better.
“I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow”
Similarly, Pinocchio had lots of songs that wouldn’t fit into the movie: “Monstro the Whale,” “Turn on the Old Music Box,” “Three Cheers for Anything,” “Honest John” and “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow.” “Honest John” eventually turned up on the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD that came out just a few months ago, but “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow” was released to the public just seven years after Pinocchio came out. Disney didn’t even have to change the lyrics to this one – they used it as and even had Mr. Cricket sing it in the 1947 package film Fun and Fancy Free.
The movie is really two shorts all rolled into one experience; “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow” appears in the very first one called “Bongo.” It’s about a bear cub who works for the circus but runs away and ends up having all kinds of adventures in the wild. What does this have to do with Jiminy Cricket, you’re probably wondering? Well, he sets up the story of Bongo by strolling through a house, singing this tune. When he gets to the record player conveniently set up in the house, he puts “Bongo” on and the first short officially starts. You’re probably familiar with the second short – “Mickey and the Beanstalk.” Fun and Fancy Free actually takes its name from a line in Jiminy’s song:
“I’m a happy-go-lucky fellow
Full of fun and fancy-free
You can make the whole world seem mellow
If you take it in your stride like me.”
Don’t feel sorry for Jiminy, by the way – although he may have had to wait seven years for this particular song, his ballad from Pinocchio, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” has been one of Disney’s signature songs ever since and was ranked #7 on the American Film Institute’s “Top Movie Songs of All Time” in 2004.
Here’s Jiminy singing “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow,” if you’re interested. The song plays throughout the opening credits, but if you want to hear him, he starts chirping around 1:47.
“The Right Side”
“Land of Sand” and “Bobbing Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea”
There was also a song for the magical compass sequence called “Bobbing Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea” that was later shortened to “The Beautiful Briny” for Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
If it seems like a lot of Mary Poppins songs were repurposed, that’s because they were – the Sherman Brothers once laughingly refused to say what else they had reworked from the movie, saying that people would think all they had done for the past 10 years was shuffle songs around.
“The Morning Report”
Moving on to a more recent film (relatively), The Lion King originally had a song called “The Morning Report” where Zazu delivers a report and Simba fine-tunes his pouncing technique. Although it didn’t make it to the final film and was replaced with a simple conversation instead, it did find a spot with The Lion King musical just a few years later. The lyrics had to be slightly rewritten, but the changes proved successful. “The Morning Report” was a such a hit that the song was animated (it’s believed that it didn’t even make it to storyboards prior to the musical) and added to the 2002 IMAX release of the movie and the Platinum Edition DVD release in 2003.
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Music Royalties for Dummies
With all of the confusion recently on the internet about music and copyright, you may not know what’s what. Here’s something to help you learn about how music royalties work.
Considering how much “education” about music and copyright is out there (”downloading music is stealing!” ads and the like), most people have no idea how it actually works in terms of who owns what and who should get money from what kind of use. And lately, with issues like confusion over Pandora royalties, songwriters trying to collect royalties from blogs that post YouTube videos, and even arguments that video games may constitute a public performance of music, it’s just been getting increasingly complicated.
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Wedding Processional
(YouTube link)
The wedding party enters the sanctuary in an unconventional fashion. Say what you will about the staging; this is obviously a joyous occasion for all concerned. -via reddit
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The Busker's Handbook
What are the rules that you have to follow when you want to be a busker? Which songs can or shouldn’t you play? This funny blog is your guideline, including a diary of an unfortunate busker. Consider this excerpt from a post called "Natural Enemies: The Busker’s Nemeses":
Living statues earn money doing as little as possible. Wearing greenish outfits covered in (hopefully) fake pigeon shit, they are the vertical equivalent of a coma patient. People give them money just to watch them move. That would be like giving money to a busker to make him stop singing. Yes, even inanimate people get more attention than a busker and thus more money. It’s tempting to steal their income, but as immobile as they may seem, they will chase you even if it ruins their act.
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Music Tidbits: David Bowie
David Bowie is a great musician with a wide variety of musical talent. He’s also got a heck of an interesting life story, far more than I could actually include in this post, including his having a hot super model wife.
David Bowie at the O’Keefe Center in Toronto, Canada (1976) Photo: jlacpo [Flickr]
“Bowie” is Loaded with Alter Egos
Although he was born David Robert Hayward-Jones in 1947, he had already decided to change his name to “Davie Jones” by the sixties. Unfortunately, this caused confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkeys, so he changed it to “David Bowie” in 1966. The name came from the hero of the Alamo, Jim Bowie.
By 1972, he already became someone else, taking on the androgynous personality of Ziggy Stardust. This character helped Bowie get a foothold into stardom with the revolutionary themed album, Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars.
After Ziggy’s retirement, a new persona took over, known as “The Thin White Duke.” This character was based on the character Bowie played in The Man Who Fell to Earth. Unfortunately, The Thin White Duke was a rather negative character and when mixed with excessive cocaine use, he caused quite a bit of a stir by saying and doing things to support fascism and Nazism. Since the Thin White Duke’s retirement, Bowie has had to work rather hard to distance himself from the statements of the time, and even donated $10,000 to the NAACP.
He’s Big on Collaborations
David Bowie has worked with some of the most cutting edge artists in the music industry, as well as some of the most highly-regarded musicians in modern history. One of his closest friends since the beginning was Iggy Pop, who Bowie helped get through some of the tougher times by recording the songs they co-wrote together once he was a household name. The two also toured together on multiple occasions and even lived together in West Berlin throughout a period of the eighties.
Some of the big names he’s worked with include John Lennon, Lou Reed, Bing Crosby, Pete Townshend, Queen, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Peter Frampton, Trent Reznor, Toni Basil, Annie Lennox and everyone’s favorite actress-gone-singer Scarlett Johansson.
Bowie is a British National Treasure
David is number 29 out of 100 Greatest Britons. He is one of the ten best-selling musicians in UK pop history. He was previously offered the chance to be named as Commander of the British Empire in 2000 and a Knight in 2003, but he declined the opportunities. In 2003, the Sunday Express named Bowie as the second richest entertainer in the UK with over £510 million, but in 2005, Sunday Times Rich List said he actually only had £100 million.
His Eye is Permanently Dilated
At the age of 15, Bowie and his friend George Underwood got in a fight over a girl. George was wearing a ring and hit David in the eye, which resulted in David having to stay out of school for eight months so he could get multiple operations to protect his eye sight. He almost went blind from the incident and the pupil stayed permanently dilated and resulted in David’s having faulty depth perception. People commonly think his eyes are two different colors, but it only an illusion due to the extra blackness of the injured eye.
Even after the fight, David and George stayed friends and Bowie even hired Underwood to do the artwork on some of his early albums.
He Might be Bad Luck
David appeared on a show hosted by his friend Marc Bolan of T Rex in 1977. Shortly afterward, Bolan died in a car crash. For Christmas that year, he joined Bing Crosby in a rendition of “Little Drummer Boy.” Only one month after the record was complete, Crosby died. After that, Bowie was quoted as saying he was hesitant to be a guest artist anymore because, “everyone I was going on with was kicking it.”
He Really Gets His Kicks Acting
Aside from pretending to be other people in his concerts, he actually has always showed a big interest and aptitude in acting. His first major role was in the 1976 film, The Man Who Fell to Earth. Following the critical acclaim of that role, he expanded his acting resume by playing in the 1979 movie; Just a Gigolo; the 1980 Broadway production of The Elephant Man; the 1980 BBC’s adaptation of Baal; the 1986 film, Absolute Beginners; and his most famous role as the Goblin King in the Labyrinth. He’s since played in a number of movies including: The Last Temptation of Christ; The Linguini Incident; Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me; Basquiat; Gunslinger’s Revenge; Mr. Rice’s Secret; and The Prestige. He even received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1997.
He’s Got A Revolving Door On His Closet
A common thought about David Bowie is “Is he gay or bi or not?” Unfortunately, this answer isn’t so clear. He seems to shed his sexuality as much as he changes his egos around.
In 1972, David outed himself in an interview with Melody Maker newspaper. Around this time, he also frequently fed on rumors that he and Iggy Pop were fooling around together. He repeated these rumors in a 1976 interview with Playboy, saying, “It’s true –I am a bisexual…I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
But then, he changed his tune. In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone, he said, it was “the biggest mistake I ever made.” By 1993, he decided that he was always a “closet heterosexual” and that “it wasn’t something I was comfortable with at all.”
By 2002, he seemed to decide that being bisexual had more to do with where he was trying to sell records, saying “I don’t think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was a lot tougher in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual…I felt that [bisexuality] became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, and I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do.”
The Life Aquatic With David Bowie
The soundtrack for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou featured cast member Seu Jorge singing a number of David Bowie songs with tracks slightly altered lyrics to fit the movie’s plot. Bowie later remarked, “Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs acoustically in Portuguese I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with”
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