Old Fogey Music Alert!

So you miss the songs of your youth or those of your folks? Born in the 1920's or '30's? Then you'll find this 78 RPM to MP3 music site of real interest. No Beatles here, but Guy Lombardo and George Gershwin, Rudy Vallee and early Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Waller - they're here, too. It is a treasure trove of classics and they're available here at 78 Records, the brainchild of Cliff Bolling. You can read about what inspired him to post some 3,739 titles on this page linked to mp3's, here.

Make sure to bookmark the site -- it is worth visiting again and again. A real eye-opener for our children and grandchildren offering an unexpurgated view of our musical past in the first half of the Twentieth Century.

Cohen, More Cohen & Hmmmm...

Rfduck greeted the new day thusly, "Hello everyone! I don't like today's theme, so we'll do Friday's. Friday was Vitamin C day."

1. What is your favorite band or artist whose name starts with the letter C?
Leonard Cohen
2. What is your favorite song that starts with the letter C?
Closing Time by the aforementioned L.C. as seen on Youtube
3. What is your favorite album that starts with the letter C?
My, my, this one is tough. Conservatively, I have near to a thousand albums in my collection, most on vinyl. Nope, while many have accused me of being an asshole, few (except my wife) would ever accuse me of being anal. So no, the albums are neither cataloged nor indexed and they aren't arranged alphabetically, either. Hence the dilemma - I am hard-pressed at the moment, to name even one album beginning with the letter "c".

Hmmmm...

Jump to: navigation, search

Cohen Live
Live album by Leonard Cohen
Released	1994
Recorded	1988, 1993
Genre	Folk-rock
Length	71:50
Label	Sony
Leonard Cohen chronology
The Future (1992) Cohen Live (1994) More Best of Leonard Cohen (1997)

Cohen Live is a live album by Leonard Cohen released in 1994.

The songs were recorded live in 1988 and 1993.

Track listing

1. "Dance Me to the End of Love" (Toronto, June 17, 1993)
2. "Bird on the Wire" (Toronto, June 17, 1993)
3. "Everybody Knows" (Vancouver, June 29, 1993)
4. "Joan of Arc" (Toronto, June 17, 1993)
5. "There Is a War" (Toronto, June 17, 1993)
6. "Sisters of Mercy" (Toronto, June 18, 1993)
7. "Hallelujah" (Austin, October 31, 1988)
8. "I'm Your Man" (Toronto, June 17, 1993)
9. "Who by Fire?" (Austin, October 31, 1988)
10. "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" (San Sebastian, May 20, 1988)
11. "If It Be Your Will" (Austin, October 31, 1988)
12. "Heart With No Companion" (Amsterdam, April 19, 1988)
13. "Suzanne" (Vancouver, June 29, 1993)

All of the info above from the Wikipedia entry on the album Cohen Live.

Is that a Strat in your pants or...?

Police look for man who hid Fender Stratocaster in his pants

I've heard of getting close to your axe, but that's ridiculous.

Monday Music Mambo -- Hug A Snake Day

RFDuck extracted his beak from his rain slicker long enough to mutter, " Sorry the mambo is up late! Today is National Hugging Day."

"Name three musicians you want to hug, and one you don't want to hug."

"That's all for today. Thanks for mamboing!"

1. Leonard Cohen - For the hours of pleasure he's given me (that sounds SO WRONG).
2. Bob Dylan -- For the years of listening pleasure he's given the denizens of this mud ball...
3. Melanie -- Just because she is.

And the anti-hug of the musical world -- Gene Simmons. The man's tongue just creeps me out.

Seventies Song Suxsations

After a three month hiatus, I return to the Monday Mambo. This week, Russ/rfduck has scuttled the (unknown) theme in favor of queries regarding our 1970's music predilections. Here, see for yourself:

1. What is your favorite band from the seventies (any band that recorded in that decade)?
Hmmm, I was fond of a whole bunch of them. Which genre?

Ok, easy answer - The Doors, Moody Blues, Jefferson Airship, The Grateful Dead are all favorites in their own niches...
2. What is your favorite song that band released in the seventies?
"Roadhouse Blues (1970)" and Riders On The Storm (1970)" come to mind.

3. Where would we find you in the seventies - a disco, a punk concert, or neither?
Neither. I could be found at a little dive a couple of blocks from the Burlington, Vermont waterfront named "The Chicken Bone" owned by a former college roommate. Disco was pervasive in most of the clubs, but at "The Bone" it was an admixture of blues, punk and other rock that could be heard on Friday and Saturday nights.

MEME: Wednesday Mind Hump – Relaxation Roulette

Intrepid mid-week mememeister, rfduck, greets us today in this fashion:

“Hello humpers! Welcome to another Mind Hump. Today is Sit Back and Relax Day, so sit back, relax, and answer these questions:”

1. Name a few things that help you relax.
Music, a hot cup of coffee or a cool drink, an interesting book.
2. Name a few songs that help you relax.
With over 3000 songs on my computer, this is still an annoyingly difficult question. I am listening to new-to-me music constantly via such entities as Radio Paradise, Last.FM, Pandora's Box and WERU. To relax, I find myself turning to the classics. Mozart concertos, Brahms, Beethoven, Elgar and Erik Satie. Most anything by Paul Winter. The celtic harp of Alan Stivel, such as Brian Boru. The folk songs of Loreena McKennet, Celtic Women, Enya, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. All help me to relax, most times. Then there are special times, when to relax I need something heavier. Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Jethro Tull, Dire Straits, Leonard Cohen in his late period. This chart will illustrate my listening habits over the past six months that I have had scrobbling turned on at Last.FM. And, since I don't always have Last.FM loaded in the taskbar, I listened to other things, as well.
3. Where do you like to relax?
I like to relax at home or in other familiar surroundings.
4. What is your ultimate relaxation situation?
In bed, reading a book in the supine position. Ah, heaven!

MEME: Monday Music Mambo – Canada Mambo Long Time

Rfduck, mememeister du jour, looked at the calendar and found the answer to why his small western Oregon town had been seemingly overrun with refugees from Vancouver, “Hello everyone! Time for another mambo. Sunday was Canada Day, so we'll make an all-Canadian playlist.”

Choose one song for each artist:

1. Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now, Jericho, Big Yellow Taxi
2. Bryan Adams: Straight From The Heart, Summer of 69
3. Neil Young: Old Man and so many, many more (I have 96 songs, with dupes, in my collection. Perhaps the most prolific song writer of the late 20^th century)
4. Sarah McLachlan: Adia; Do What You Have To Do, Blue
5. The Band: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down; The Weight; Cripple Creek
6. Barenaked Ladies: What A Good Boy (studio)
7. Leonard Cohen (Yes, again. If you can't think of anything, just choose "Hallelujah."): The Partisan; Field Commander Cohen
8. k.d. Lang: I love her cover of Cohen's Hallelujah; Busy Being Blue, Help Me
9. Alanis Morrisette: Hand In My Pocket, Knees Of My Bees,
10. Rush: After careful consideration I have come to the conclusion that I just never liked anything RUSH ever did. Therefore, I am substituting for Number 10. Gordon Lightfoot, whose Canadian Railroad Trilogy, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and Rainy Day People, to name only three, hold more interest to me than the sum total of all Rush has ever done.

MEME: Monday Music Mambo – Closing Time

Here's a stretch. Lacking sufficient fodder, Rfduck has this to say, “Hello mamboers! Today is Leon Day. The only musical Leon I know of is Leonard Cohen.” Obviously, he's never heard of Leon Redbone, “the most famous non-famous American musician of the 20^th Century.”

“Name your favorite Leonard Cohen song.”

“And, to make the meme longer, name a few songs you've been loving a lot recently.”

Okay then, buckaroos. This is actually tougher than you'd think. I listen to Leonard Cohen a lot. There are a whole lot of songs to choose from. According to the meager stats provided by my Windows Media Player, I have only 11 albums by Leonard Cohen, totalling 92 songs. I listen to them all an average of once a month. Some get more ear time than others. But picking just one? Bastard!

Alright, after careful deliberation, a reading of the tea leaves and a throw of the I Ching I've made my choice. It's “Closing Time” from the 1992 album The Future

“We're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling, gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing something tight
And I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the Devil and it's once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights --
we're busted in the blinding lights
of closing time”

Copyright © Leonard Cohen
and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada Company Partial lyrics shown for education purposes under the “Fair Use” provisions of the Copyright Act.

But that's not all our mememeister asks of us. Oh, no, he wants more tunes we've been cannoodling to, too. OK, buster, you asked for it:

Wolfstone – Glenglass

Loreena McKennitt – Tango to Evora

Silly Wizard – The Wind That Shakes The Barley/The Ale Is Dear

Alan Stivell – Brian Boru

Skilda – AN NIGHEAN DUBH

The Band – I Shall Be Released

Celtus – Strange Day in the Country

Loreena McKennitt – Skelling

Gregorian – So Sad

Dagda – Criost Liom

There you have it for this week's Mambo. Hope you enjoyed it. A clean copy of the questions may be obtained over at the Mambo Headquarters and Lending Library if you'd like them.

By the way, does anyone know why the “scrobbing” feature of Last.FM doesn't register the music I listen to via the Windows Media Player?

MEME: Monday Music Mambo – Splurgetastic!

RFDuck, mememeister, finds himself in full-blown summer mode, saying, “Hello again! The mambo continues. This week's theme is National Splurge Day.”

“If you were given an unlimited budget for one day, what music-related things would you splurge on? You could buy CDs (or ultra-rare LPs), concert tickets, memorabilia - anything related to music.”

Sure, I'd like to dream about getting all the CD's, LP's, etc, I've ever lusted after. Except, I'm coming into divestiture mode, ie. getting rid of excess in anticipation of the end times. Still, there is some music I'd like to get to plug into a big MP3 player. And I secretly wish for a couple of decent guitars, six and 12-string acoustics and an electric guitar and bass with amps (not priceless, just a nice quality with good tone and action). Just because I'd like to learn how to play well enough to amuse myself and others. Oh, and some different, inexpensive flutes and whistles, some drums, a chanter, bagpipes, someone to re-work my father's old violin and bow, and enough time to get good enough to not send people running in the opposite direction the first time I stroke the bow over the strings...

We'll do another question because yesterday was Violin Day.

What is your favorite style of music, or band/artist, that uses the violin/fiddle?

This is actually tough for me. I am very fond of both classical music as well as Cajun and Bluegrass styles of fiddling. Push come to ultimate shove, it'd be classical music – I can listen to that longer than I can anything else.

If you want to play along, click the title above to get a clean copy of the questions and to leave a link to your answers in the comments.

MEME: Monday Music Mambo -- Desert Island Edition

RFDuck, intrepid musical mememeister, shook his groggy head and was heard to mutter on his way to bed, "Welcome to another mambo! Today is King Kamehameha Day, and I don't know a thing about Hawaiian music! I suppose we could tweak the theme a bit and talk about tropical-sounding music."

1. What is your favorite reggae or ska song?
I really haven't got one. Reggae isn't a genre I listen to unless it happens to come on the radio when I am listening to WERU or Radio Paradise. Otherwise, I never listen to it. I haven't a clue as to what “ska” is. Although, I do get a kick out of Vegemite Reggae's version of Stairway To Heaven off their album Stairways To Heaven / Stairways To Hell.
2. What music puts you in the mood for a tropical getaway vacation?
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville does it every time.
3. If you were on a cruise, what musicians would you want to be the entertainment onboard?
Lyle Lovett and his Big Band, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel and Leonard Cohen. Not asking for too much, am I? I'd want to dance and when I'm tired of dancing, I want to listen to an intelligent singer-songwriter.
4. You're stuck on a deserted tropical island. Assuming you have a way to play music, what five albums do you want to have with you? MP3 players do NOT count!
Let's see. First, something easy on the ears. Chopin, I think, his Etudes, or maybe Mozart's Requiem, Ludwig Von Beethovan's Ode to Joy or perhaps his sixth symphony. One or two of those. The Pentangle eponymous double disk album. It's A Beautiful Day would be one and the Beatles remix/reissue Love would be another. There, I think that's make five albums (LP's at that) from my collection of vinyl.

I'm looking forward to hear about your choices. Just swing by the link in this entry's title and snag a clean copy of the questions and go to town!

MEME: Monday Music Mambo

Rfduck sends “Greetings to all! Today is Emergency Medical Services Day. I think I can connect that to music. At hard rock and metal concerts, you'll often see a mosh pit where poor souls get slammed around.”

1. Who are some of your favorite hard rock and/or metal artists?
See below if you're on the front page of the blog. Also, I'm fond of Credence Clearwater Revival, The Doors, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Queen, Lenard Skynard – all sorts of bands, actually.
2. What are some of your favorite hard rock and/or metal songs?
Again, besides the ones below, I've got more than 1500 songs in my play lists, dating from 1906 through 2007. The vast majority are from the middle of the period and covers swing, jitterbug, rock and roll, psychedelic rock and hard rock, along with lots of folk and new age. Picking one or two is an exercise in futility. The selection will change minute by minute. Fidelity isn't my middle name. For the sake of discussion, I'm fond of AC/DC's Girl's Got Rhythm, Aerosmith's Walk This Way, and Poison's Unskinny Bop.
3. Have you ever been to a show where someone needed Emergency Medical Services? (I suppose huge festivals don't really count because odds are someone will be using such services eventually while attending.)
Despite having been an EMT, I never worked a “show”. I've dealt with injuries and illness at public events, but they were either races or sporting events.
4. Ever been in a mosh pit? Never. Before my time.
The rules are, there are no rules!!! All you need to do is copy and paste the above questions into your blog and add your responses. After you've finished, return here and leave us a comment so we'll know you've Mamboed. Be sure your Mambo is linked back to http://bdinsanity.blogdrive.com so others can dance too.

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. If one of the questions doesn't inspire you then simply "pass" it. Just use your imagination and dance like crazy!

If you don't have a blog or you're an exhibitionist *woo hoo* feel free to Mambo right here in our comments section. There's absolutely no pressure ... although it's called the Monday Music Mambo you can Mambo on any day.

Until next time, this is your music-lovin' Mememeister saying have a good Monday and a good Mambo!

Monday Music Mambo

"At the Second Fret, Philadelphia coffeehouse, Jim Kweskin and Jug Band produce carefree musical cookery from compound of such miscellaneous instruments as kazoos, washtubs, hubcaps, washboards and jugs."

Saturday Evening Post, May 30, 1964, "Just Playin' Folks"
photo by John Launois

[left to right, Fritz Richmond, Jim Kweskin, Mel Lyman, David Simon (seated), Geoff Muldaur]

Via EclectiCity

Rfduck is obviously getting giddy and foolish with the onset of final exams. Witness this week's Mambo: “Hello mamboers! School's in session! It's School Day today, according to my source for daily holidays. We're going to do something really creative and fun.”

Your task: Create a mini-course catalogue for Music University. You can make up classes like Guitar Solos 101, Introduction to British Invasion, Advanced Hotel Destruction - anything you want! You can even list professors if you'd like (Prof. J.M. Osbourne for that last course suggestion, perhaps?) Have fun with it!

The Jim Kweskin & Mel Lyman Memorial Jug Band

College of Music and Tuning at Kazoo U.

Class Catalogue:

Music Theory 001 – “Doe, a deer, a female Deer”

Music Theory 002 – The Motion Is The Lotion

Music 101 – Basic Jug Band Music

Music 102 – Advanced Basic Jug Band Music

Music 103 -- Folk Music Theory

Violin 101 --Fiddling

Violin 102 -- Fiddling Around

Violin 103 -- Fiddle Faddling Around

Violin 104 – Jumping from windows without breaking anything

String Instruments 111 -- Hammered Dulcimer

String Instruments 112 -- Getting Hammered

String Instruments 113 -- Picking Banjo

String Instruments 114 (Banjo 105) -- Claw Hammer Style

String Instruments 115 -- Gut Bucket Bass (Playing Music On A G String)

Guitar Tuning 001 – The E String Is Your Friend.

Guitar Tuning 002 – 12 Strings for 5 fingers – Remedial Callous Development

Performance Theater 211 – Maximizing Time In The Arc Light

Folk Music Theory 101 -- Fundamentals of Folk Music: Sixteen Tons of theory

Folk Music Theory 102 (Philosophy 102/Botany 102) – Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Folk Music Theory 103 (Gospel Singing 101) – Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

Folk Music Theory 104 (Philosophy 104) – Musical Protests (War? What's It Good For?)

Percussion 101 - Stealing Hubcats For Steel Bands

Percussion 102 -- Washboard, Spoons & Syncopation -- An EclectiCity Course

Well, there you have it, such as it is. Hope it brought you a smile this Monday.

Monday Music Mambo -- Stress Relief

Mememeister Rfduck took a moment from preening his feathers to exclaim, “Hi everyone! I'm back, as promised. Today is National Stress Awareness Day.”

1. Name two artists who give you stress.
There are so many punk, hip hop, rap, and similar artists that fill the bill. Eminem and Bonnie “Prince” Billy come to mind. So does Kanye West. Really, though, there are so many whose names I've not even bothered to learn...
2. Name two artists who relieve your stress.
Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell do it for me. So do Dire Straits and Jethro Tull, in their own ways. And there's always Nora Jones...
3. Name two songs that relieve your stress.
Tacoma Trailer on Leonard Cohen's “The Future” album is one. Waltz #1 (Nunley's Carousel), written by Billy Joel and performed by Richard Joo, which appears as a bonus track on “The Essential Billy Joel, Disc 2”. Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah (from his 1994 album “Grace”) does a nice job, too, but it has become a musical cliché, sad to say.
4. Name two albums that relieve your stress.
The ones I turn to most often lately are Johnny Cash's “American IV: The Man Comes Around” and George Martin's reimagining of a dozen Beatle's classics on his 1998 album “In My Life”.
5. When you're stressed, do you ever want to grab a guitar and smash it into an amp like Pete Townshend?
That thought has occurred to me once or twice but I hate the waste of a good (or even cheap) guitar. Then again, I hate to bet, too. Must be my Scottish heritage showing through.

Saturday's Song

Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians - 1989 Live

Sad Kermit :: HURT

Via An Aquarium Drunkard. I can only echo his thought: Genius. Pure genius.

MEME: Monday Music Mambo – Play Me!

Hello! Welcome to another Monday Music Mambo! Today is Blue Jean Day, but I believe we've done that one already. Instead of that, we'll make a playlist.

Choose a good song for each situation listed. You can be as creative as you like:

Going to work in the morning – On The Road Again a la Canned Heat
Finding a $20 bill on the ground -- The Snoopy Dance (Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy)
Starting a new, exciting relationship – In The Air Tonight a la Phil Collins & Genesis
Getting angry – Roadhouse Blues a la The Doors
Needing some peace -- Riders on the Storm a la The Doors; Nights in White Satin a la The Moody Blues
Acting silly – The Monster Mash; Peaches a la Presidents of the United States
Working out – Truckin' a la The Grateful Dead
TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) – Let The Good Times Roll per Louis Jordan

MEME: Monday Music Mambo - Grammy Winners Day

Monday Music Mambo

Rfduck took a moment from foraging under the couch for dropped Fritos to say, “Hello, folks! American Greetings says today is Lincoln Day. I disagree and say it's Grammy Winner Day! The 49th Annual Grammy Awards were held last night, so today's questions are all about the lucky winners.”

“Go here to see the list of all the winners (or here if the first list doesn't work for you) and answer the following.”

1. Of all the albums that won a Grammy this year, which is your favorite (or what you think would be your favorite if you heard it)?
In our household, it'd be St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley, hands down!
2. Of all the songs that won a Grammy, which is your favorite?
Personally, I'm partial to Bob Dylan's Someday, Baby off the Modern Times album.
3. Of all the artists that won a Grammy, which is your favorite.
Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

MEME: Monday Music Mambo – Week Umpty-ump minus one

Rfduck sent this dispatch from Mamboville (turn left at the sign for the North Pole and then on until midnight) "Christmas will be here in one week! This week's mambo will be about Christmas music. I'll put up an additional question for those who don't celebrate Christmas."

1. What are your favorite Christmas songs?
Good King Wenceslas (Duke of Bohemia who encouraged Christianization and was martyred by his brother Boleslav. He is popularly associated with Christmastide charity and is the patron saint of Bohemia), Deck The Halls, Jingle Bells, Silent Night -- your basic “classics”.
2. What Christmas song do you dislike?
I recently discussed that here.
3. Do you prefer Christmas carols, classics or new interpretations?
None of the above. Not being a Christian, my general response is “Eh!?!” to the whole issue of Christmas music. These days, I can stay in my own little musical cocoon by sticking with routine, listening to local public radio offerings in the car and Radio Paradise when working at the desktop.

And a question for everyone:

4. Was this a good musical year for you? What were your favorite purchases/downloads/new discoveries? Not a bad year from my POV, musically. There were several “finds” for me this year. Biggest Earworm Award goes to Gnarls Barkley's breakout, cross-platform, cross-generational hit Crazy from the St. Elsewhere album. The reproduction of a number of Beatles tunes for the Cirque d' Soleil, currently in performance, is the kick ass album Love. I also fell in love with Bob Dylan's Modern Times album, and I am absolutely smitten with Leonard Cohen's Dear Heather album, just to name a few...