Finis

Approximately 20 minutes per day for 285 days = 3,789 pages of Henry Thomas Buckle...one of the most satisfying non-fiction reading experiences of my life. 

Trumpery

Ran across this whilst reading my Henry Thomas Buckle today (Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works Volume III):

And I'm pretty good at the whole context thing, but just to be fair, I looked it up...and found this:

Need I say more?

And now, this...

Have you ever heard of John Hartford? If you think not, have you ever heard the song "Gentle on My Mind"? Yep, John Hartford song. Glen Campbell did a fantastic version that made the song famous...pretty monstrously famous, as a matter of fact. But I have to say that John Hartford was a lot more than that one song. A lot more, actually. His 1971 album Aereo-Plain is widely accepted as the beginning of New Grass, for instance. And if that don't suit you...well, that's a drag.

But if it does suit you, you might be interested to know about a Kickstarter project I just happened upon a few minutes ago.

I signed up without having to think about it...but I had a queasy moment about this, though. For one thing...

I mean...how is that possible?

I mean...the song "Gentle on My Mind" alone won four 1968 Grammy Awards and sold millions of copies as a record, and according to Wikipedia has sold 251,000 digital copies since it became available in that format in 2017. Surely some of those folks would be into some more John Hartford. I mean, seriously..."Gentle on My Mind" is a good song, but Hartford has tons of stuff which is much, much better. Pop over to You Tube or Spotify and listen to some of Aero-Plain and see if you don't agree.

Anyway.

The Good News here is that the average backer for this Kickstarter campaign is throwing down $72.26, which sounds like a really good per capita average to me. And with $15,102 to go to meet the goal, that means that if that average could hold up a little bit longer,  it would only take 209 more folks to bring this steam-powered aero-plane in for a landing. 

The Bad News is that there are only 11 more days to get 'er done. 

So...come on people, now. Smile on Brother Hartford. 

Okay?

Okay.

⬇️

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hartfordfiddletunes/save-the-tunes-the-john-hartford-fiddle-tune-project/pledge/new?clicked_reward=false&fbclid=IwAR3XTLBcwDRT6IYbsOukCZemvUOdE-cUfXIgKDV8K7Cq8wbK1PCG4Ff-jIA

Conversating David Bowie (Part 1): And No One Will Recall Me

It's pretty rare for me to spend $80 on a set of recordings. But when I saw the 5 CD David Bowie Conversation Piece on Amazon, I didn't even have to think about it, I hit that pre-order button. And venisoon after--two days, actually--it arrived on my doorstep. Thanks, Amazon. I know a lot of people I love hate you...but I still love you.

It was a busy three days wherein I literally could not put disc one in the cd player...and since the gummint has outlawed cd players in cars, that wasn't an option...so it wasn't until this morning that I was able to get my first taste.

And?

Well. Talk about yer songs of innocence. This (21 year old) David Bowie sings in that fragile, high range that is just unrelentingly poignant. And the songs...many of which I'd never heard of before, and I've spent the past 45 years running down every Bowie lead I could find...are equally delicate and personal and real. Just amazing stuff, really. The recording quality isn't always great, but that will only be a problem if you like your music air brushed. It is way better than listenable, and there are some songs which are stunningly clear. 

And speaking of The Songs...check out the track listing for the first cd:


 1. April's Tooth Of Gold (Home Demo)

 2. The Reverend Raymond Brown (Attends the Garden Fête on Thatchwick Green) [Home Demo]

 3. When I'm Five (Home Demo)

 4. Mother Grey (Home Demo)

 5. In The Heat Of The Morning (Home Demo)

 6. Goodbye 3d (Threepenny) Joe [Home Demo]

 7. Love All Around (Home Demo)

8. London Bye, Ta-Ta (Home Demo)

 9. Angel, Angel, Grubby Face (Home Demo Version 1)

 10. Angel, Angel, Grubby Face (Home Demo Version 2)

 11. Animal Farm (Home Demo)

 12. Space Oddity (Solo Home Demo Fragment) *

 13. Space Oddity (Home Demo Version 1) **

 14. Space Oddity (Home Demo Version 2) ***

 15. Space Oddity (Home Demo Version 3) [2019 Remaster] ****

 16. Lover To The Dawn (Home Demo) *****

 17. Ching-a-Ling (Home Demo)

 18. An Occasional Dream (Home Demo) [2019 Remaster]

 19. Let Me Sleep Beside You (Home Demo)

 20. Life Is A Circus (Home Demo)

 21. Conversation Piece (Home Demo)

 22. Jerusalem (Home Demo) ******


 23. Hole In The Ground (Home Demo)

* The lyrics are a bit different on this take, and I would bet any amount of your money that this is the earliest version of the song, maybe even his first take.

** Lyrics still not in their final form, but this is closer to the demo version I've heard before...and which I am pretty sure appeared on the big RykoDisc collection Sound + Vision. (Man, I miss Rykodisc.)

*** Speaking of which, I was sure that this would be the aforementioned Rykodisc version...but nope, it's yet another one. (I have more versions of this song than I can count on all my fingers and most of my toes.) Part of the lead vocal on this one is sung by Bowie's partner John 'Hutch' Hutchinson...and the lyrics are STILL different...e.f.:"Can I please get back inside now if I may? / For here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world."

**** Um...I don't think this is the Rykodisc version, either. How many different versions of this song ARE there, FFS?

***** This seems to be an early version of "Cygnet Committee"--but it goes off into a different direction. Also, lead vocal is by J"H"H with Bowie doing the high harmonies. 

****** I think the Dylan was starting to settle into Bowie's belly at this point--his vocal's got a little snide stink on it. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The vocals are kind of Dylan-y, too.


So...the blue highlighted song is the only one I've heard before in this version...and I've only heard it on  The You Tub. Although it was previously released--as were some of the other songs here--on a recent collection entitled Spying Through a Keyhole which I didn't buy as it was vinyl only and kind of pricey. Hmm? Of COURSE I regret it...but it's all better now, ennit? 

The underlined ones are the songs I've heard before but not these versions...and some of them were radically different from the versions I'd heard previously.

And just to put a stone on it, of the 23 songs on the first cd, there were 10 songs I've never heard before (two versions of one, so there are eleven yellow backed titles), 22 recordings I'd never heard before, and 23 songs that I didn't own. 

And there are FOUR MORE DISCS in this set. Oh my my.

To Be Continued....

Denied Glory

Went to see Glory Denied, the second (of four) Kentucky Opera productions for the 2019 / 2020 season. I have to admit that as much as I love opera...which is a lot, at least 3,000...I had to brace myself for this one. Because, as you could probably infer from the title, it is a Modern Opera--written in 2007. And you know what that means, right? Angular, jaggedy music that sounds like you took an Aaron Copland symphony, sliced and diced it, threw away 3/4ths of the notes, then spliced what was left back together. And the vocals? You could guarantee that it would be William Shatneresque in terms of its strange (and sometimes dissettling) emPHAsis. I don't know who wrote that memo in 1930 which ordered all opera composers to adhere to an atonal formula, but I wish somebody would piss on it and say, "I want to write beautiful melodies!" Or maybe all of those people migrated over to the Land of the Musical. 

At any rate...Glory Denied was filled with angular, jaggedy music and screechy, wrongly emPHAsized lyrics. So no disappointment on those counts.

Still, there were things that I enjoyed.

The story--about an American prisoner of war who is released from captivity, then comes home to find that everything has changed...including his wife, who has taken up with another man--was powerful. 

The stage set was kind of interesting. (See above.)

And Cree Carrico, who played Younger Alyce, not only had a beautiful voice, but she was also extremely hot.

And if you like your operas to go, this one was just about drive through window service with a first act of 36 minutes and a second of 41. I think the only reason they had an intermission was to make us feel like we were getting our money's worth.

Seriously.

Kentucky Opera claimed that Glory Denied was "One of the most important new works of present-day opera...."

Well...to each his own the old maid said as she kissed her cow.

🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄

But everything else aside, there was one moment that really stuck in my brain. In a Seed Got Caught in My Gumline, Rotted, and Caused My Palate to Fester way.

After Older Alyce tells Older Thompson (the former POW) that she's been playing house with another guy while OT was being beaten by his Viet Cong warders, he is, as you might guess, a bit depressed. So he drinks a lot, wails for awhile, and then, finally, goes to Older Alyce and tells her that he forgives her. She responds, "I don't give a shit about your forgiveness."

And you know what makes this even worse? I got the distinct feeling that I was supposed to cheer for her. That I was supposed to see her as a Woman Who Took Control of Her Own Life and Threw Off the Rusty Chains of Patriarchy.

And so far as I'm concerned, that is just some serious bullshit. 

Older Alyce justifies her behavior by saying that she did what she had to do to survive. Mmm-hmm. Interestingly enough, Older Thompson points out that she was still cashing the checks the U.S. Army was sending to her...his salary.

Well. Welcome to the brave new world in which "transactional" isn't synonymous for "sell out whore."

Sigh.

I'm looking forward to seeing The Marriage of Figaro in a couple of months. I hear there are tunes you can hum and EVERYthing.