The late great Johnny Cash takes his turn at interpreting a strange but fascinating song, arguably one of the best cowboy songs ever written. I remember loving it for its great rhythm whenever it came on the radio, but never listened carefully to the lyrics. I just did so and found them weird, but the song is still great. Here is a live performance from 1987 [Read more…]
The Ventures were an instrumental rock group from the days of my youth who were known for their up-tempo, driving, pulsating beats that gave special prominence to drummers. They were one of the few purely instrumental rock bands that had an extended successful career, the British group The Shadows being another one.
Here are two examples. One is the tune Wipe Out. [Read more…]
Portugal is one of those countries that decided that increased austerity for its people was the way to go in dealing with its financial crisis and the result has been massive hardship for many. This has led to protests outside parliament and other venues where prominent government leaders are assembled. A professional opera singer Ana Maria Pinto attended one such protest last October that took an unexpected turn. [Read more…]
He died yesterday of a heart attack at his home. He was 72. Who can forget his performance at the 1969 Woodstock festival? [Read more…]
Growing up in the pre-internet (and indeed pre-VCR) age, one could only see films when they were still in the theaters and so had only one or two chances. So a great performance would have to be savored in one’s memories. The arrival of the VCR and videocassettes changed all that, giving new life and new audiences to old films. [Read more…]
This is fun to watch. It is possible that the video is faked and that the music notes were produced separately and spliced in. But I think it is entirely possible that he had to kick a lot of broken crockery to get the full set of notes he needed and then picked those clips that he could sequence to get the result he wanted. That’s still pretty good. [Read more…]
Given the ebullient mood of so many people after Tuesday’s election, this seems like an appropriate video. [Read more…]