Category Archive: MUSIC
All the Young Dudes
Songs in Our Heart # 4 All the Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople) (Written by David Bowie; released July 1972) [Bowie‘s gift to Mott the Hoople is up there with his best. “Now I’ve drunk a lot of wine and I’m feeling fine Got to race some cat to bed Oh, is that concrete all around Or is it in my head? Yeah I’m a dude, dad“]
Continue Reading →Nicholas Carter in Conversation
(Bradley Forum, Adelaide, March 2016) [ASO Chief Conductor Nicholas Carter in conversation with Jacinta Thompson] TVC attended this important discussion at Uni SA last evening, in the “Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre”, a think-tank with the mission of “strengthening our democracy – valuing our diversity – building our future”. (As to these aims, one could not help hearken back to the imbroglio of Bob’s many failed attempts to impose the Australia Card on us, but let that pass!) The central text was the relevance of the orchestra in the 21st Century – which recalls the golden moment from The Ploughman’s Lunch,…
Continue Reading →“Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends”
Emerson at the Moog in 1970 (photo thanks to Surka)
Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 1944 – 10 March 2016) Anyone who has had the misfortune to sit through a spin of the record Switched on Bach by Walter – er, sorry, Wendy, Carlos, as well as a slew of other Moog travesties (from Moog Beatles tunes to Moog country and western) will know that the harmonic effect of this diabolical machine is as weird as some of its leading practitioners. Keith Emerson, who died last Thursday, was a leading exponent of prog rock, as exemplified by the synthesizer. In particular, via Emerson, Lake and Palmer, which in its first incarnation…
Continue Reading →The Pearl Fishers
Image from Antonio Bonamore from Zuccarelli's 1886 set design
(by Georges Bizet) (Met, March 2016) Time to fess up: I love The Pearl Fishers – unlike that other Brahmin-inspired piece, Lakmé, it does not cloy; it is not kitsch. It is a lovely piece, with pretty music, a good tight love-triangle plot and whilst there are not many polyphonic moments (apart from the famous piece, Au fond du temple saint, where the two fishermen declare their totally, okay – not totally – counterfeit affection), there are great declamatory solos and tremendous choral parts. I’ve loved it ever since I snapped up a cheap box of records of the production by Theatre National de…
Continue Reading →All by Myself
Songs in Our Heart # 3 All by Myself (Eric Carmen) (Written by Eric Carmen; released December 1975) [Ah, Memories…]
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