Recently in Music Category

This is me experimenting with embedding Youtube playlists.

So why not embed an entire Sondheim musical while I'm at it?

Here's a student production from ASU.

So I'm watching David Letterman introduce Simon Baker, star of The Mentalist, and suddenly Paul Shaffer's band plays him on with an up-tempo number that is so familiar.

Except I can't quite identify it.

But it sounds like an R&B song from the 60's or 70's. Probably originally introduced by a black singer. Dionne Warwick? The Supremes?

Is it a Burt Bacharach and Hal David song?

Duh-DAH-duh-Dah-Dah-Dah...

I know the song must have something to do with Simon Baker or his show.

So I Google "Simon Baker play on song David Letterman" to no avail.

I even downloaded some software that purports to identify songs.

No luck.

It's driving me crazy.

So I call my sister and play it for her. It's a bit frustrating because the band doesn't get to play a full refrain; it's cut off in the release.

It doesn't ring any bells with my sister.

So I try humming it to her. [Sorry about that, Donna!]

Still nothing. So we talk for a few minutes, and I ask if she'd listen once more.

This time she hears something. Play it again.

Yes, she definitely recognizes the tune. Some lyrics pop into her head. "Just like a paperback novel..."

OK, now we've got something to Google.

And sure enough, it was just as I suspected.

Except it was Gordon Lightfoot.

And it wasn't originally an R&B song. Well, Paul Shaffer's version confused me.

But it certainly did have a connection to Baker's show.

Bea Arthur was one of my favorites. It's terribly sad news that she has passed away.

I first encountered her in the 1966 Original Cast recording of Mame, where she played Vera Charles opposite Angela Lansbury's Auntie Mame.

A year later a bunch of us trekked up to New York City to visit a former classmate and attend a performance of Mame, where both Lansbury and Arthur were still in the cast.

Here's a clip of the two of them about thirty years later performing "Bosom Buddies" from that show.

In 1994 Bea Arthur, along with many other luminaries such as Jack Klugman and Celeste Holm, appeared at an AIDS benefit here in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music. Shortly before that performance a Gallop Poll had proclaimed Philadelphia as America's most hostile city.

When Bea Arthur stepped out on the stage (to a thundering ovation), she said, "I can't tell you how happy I am to be here in Philadelphia...because as you know, I am basically hostile."

Bye-bye, Bea. Miss you.

On Craig Ferguson's show the other night, he featured the old rock band Chicago performing their hit "Saturday in the Park".

Was it just me, or did they look like a bunch of over the hill has-beens trying to recapture their long lost youth?

And I got to thinking, how many times must they have performed that little ditty over the years? And what was that silly looking keyboard the lead vocalist had hanging around his neck?

Out of curiosity, I searched the Google and found this performance of the same song from a few years ago:

They don't look anywhere nearly as desperate or ridiculous in that clip. So maybe on the Ferguson show they were overcompensating for a non-responsive audience. Maybe?

I just finished reading a wonderful book called The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. It's not new, it was published in 2003, but it might be made into a movie sometime this year.

It's a non-fiction book set in the early 1890's, and it tells three interconnected stories:

1) Chicago architect Daniel Burnham's efforts to construct the World's Columbian Exposition (the White City of the title).

2) Patrick Prendergast, who bears certain resemblances to Charles Guiteau, but Prendergast's target is the mayor of Chicago.

3) A man calling himself Dr. H. H. Holmes, who operates a hotel some of whose guests "never thereafter were heard of again" (the devil of the title).

The stories would each be interesting in themselves, but they intersect in some fascinating ways.

Throughout the entire book there are wonderful little tidbits of history. For example, the designers of the exposition wanted to outdo the Eiffel Tower, which had been erected just a few years previously. The narrative of the man who achieved that and the way he did it form some of the most interesting passages; the author conceals the man's name early on so as not to give away the surprise (for those of us who didn't know the story).

BTW, a scene in Show Boat takes place at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley make appearances in the book (so there's an Annie Get Your Gun reference).

And I was reminded of Sweeney Todd.

A lot.

Having recently reconnected with a bunch of folks from my high school class (Hi, Norman! Hey, Gary! What's up, Jill? How's it going, Dennis?), I went back to the old yearbooks and realized just how much I've forgotten about those days.

As luck would have it, I have some audio recordings from those days: a performance that we put on at the local community theatre, a bunch of phone calls, etc. So I scanned in the photos from our yearbook, grabbed a few clips from those old recordings, and combined them with music by one of my favorite composers, and the result is this little video.

A prelude that takes a quick journey back through the last 42 years, followed by a nostalgic look at the days when it was Our Time. Probably of interest mainly to Eastern Lebanon County High School's Class of 1967.

I'm not much interested in today's modern music makers, so I passed on the concert on the mall. But I like this bit with Pete Seegar, including the lines:

"As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me."

Via digby.

Update: Alas, the curmudgeons at HBO are claiming copyright on a free concert performed at the Lincoln Memorial. Shame on them. But I've replaced the clip with one from German television which is outside of HBO's creepy mitts. h/t Mark Evanier

Let's see, there's Allison Janney, John C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris, Jack Black, and ... a cast of dozens!

If you're a fan of the musical 1776, then you'll probably want to take a look at the website put together by Keith Edwards, the son of 1776 co-author Sherman Edwards.

It's filled with photos, tidbits, and interviews with many of the folks who have been involved with the show over the years.

Worth a look.