Born this day, 1879: Ottorino Respighi, who after a slow musical development in his youth would become one of most notable Italian composers of the 20th century. Respighi’s music is wonderfully pictorial and lyrical, often with a sense of size that is nevertheless modern enough to sound removed from the traditions of Romanticism. Italian music tends toward the dramatic anyway, and Respighi’s work is certainly that.
For all that, I’m not nearly as familiar with Respighi’s music as I should be; I’ve listened to several of his tone poems (The Pines of Rome is one of the greats, and a favorite of mine), but not much else. So here, to honor his 147th birthday, I present a work for solo piano: “Notturno” from Sei pezzi prr pianoforte (“Six pieces for piano”). Apparently the “Notturno” is one of Respighi’s most popular piano pieces, all by itself. I can certainly hear why. Its pianistic tone painting is certainly redolent of Chopin, but with a decidedly modernistic twist to it.
Hey, it’s still Thursday as I write this! In fact, there are still 112 minutes left. So there!
I heard this on WNED yesterday, when they played it as part of their Canada Day observation. It’s a folk song from Newfoundland, set for chorus by Canadian composer Harry Somers. The group performing this is from Milwaukee, so I guess it can’t be Canadian across the board, but we northern states have a kinship with Canada, I think. Or at least I hope we do.
I’m reading The Uncool by Cameron Crowe right now. This book, which came out last year, is pretty much an answer to the question: “Hey, Crowe, we know that you based Almost Famous on your own life experiences as a kid, so why don’t you tell us the real story?” And I’ll have more to say when I finish the book, but here’s a passage that really stuck with me already:
“Take It Easy” hit the airwaves a few weeks later, like a blast of California sunshine. The band was called Eagles. (You were not supposed to call them the Eagles back then.) The song was instantly memorable, a potent stew of the stuff I’d loved. I always felt that a favorite song has a mind of its own. It arrives just when you need it, and that arrival memory remains for the rest of time. Every time you hear the song, you can remember the feeling, like you’re reading a diary entry. It’s one of music’s great gifts. I bought a used electric guitar, turquoise, of course; learned the play the song; joined a band called the Masked Hamster; rehearsed with the Masked Hamster twice in my schoolmate Russ Schumacher’s garage; was told the band had broken up; walked by Russ’s house a few days later; heard the Masked Hamster practicing with a new guitarist; and decided my instrument was the typewriter. All to the soundtrack of “Take It Easy”.
That thing Crowe says there, about a favorite song being like looking at a diary entry? I could not agree more. A whole lot of “Something For Thursday” has simply been just about that: sharing songs or pieces of music that have been a part of my life. (And yes, some of it has been about exploring new stuff, too. One needs to hear music, not just because you never know when the next song or symphony or filmscore or overture of your life is going to come along, but also because the new music informs the old favorites, gives them context. When you hear some new band that is flying because the band of your youth taught them how to walk, that’s really something.)
So…heck, where was I? Oh yeah, this is a Something For Thursday post. Here’s “Take It Easy”.
With this new format on this site, I’m experimenting more with Featured Images and such to make the front page a bit easier to follow…but anyway, I don’t have a lot of time because we’re off in a few minutes to go see a REALLY BIG TRAIN. So in keeping with that, here is my favorite train song of all time.
One of my favorite James Bond theme songs is Gladys Knight’s title tune for 1989’s Licence to Kill. Both the film and the song tend to be underrated, but I think both are fantastic. The Licence to Kill song starts with the same horn riff that opened the song to Goldfinger, an homage which necessitated royalty payments to that song’s creators. But Gladys Knight’s singing is the real star of the show here. She has one of those big voices that can fill whichever room she’s in, and fill it here she does. This is one of the best of all Bond songs.
Does this amazing song need an introduction? No, not really.
I find myself increasingly amazed by the lyrical approach to a lot of the great songs that I’ve never really paid close attention to before. The singer here isn’t the one taking the “Midnight Train to Georgia”…well, she is, actually, but she’s not the one whose turns of life have made taking that train necessary. It’s her man who went to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, dreams that didn’t pan out, and now he has to return home. He can’t even drive himself, having pawned everything–he “pawned his dreams and sold his car”–just to live, and now all he can afford is the one way ticket home.
But at least he has his lover, who is going home with him on that same train. There’s romance, after all, on those midnight trains that cross the nation while the rest of us are sleeping.
I’m going to get back to my little series featuring Black Music From The 1970s soon, but this song has been living rent-free in my head of late, so that means it’s time to feature it here. It’s by Canadian singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr., and it was featured in the final episode of the first season of the amazing show Shoresy. The song seems to me to be about two people who are accepting of their own limitations and each others, and they love each other anyway. I love the delicate piano-and-voice minimalism of the song. Enjoy!
Continuing an exploration of Black Music of the 1970s, we have Minnie Riperton today.
Riperton was a native of Chicago who tragically hit it big with her soprano voice, enormous range, and an airy tone that gave her songs an ethereal tone and then died of breast cancer when she was just 31. Her legacy endures, not just because of her music, but because of her influence on artists after her like Michael Jackson and Tupac Shakur. Her legacy also endures because her daughter is famed actress and comedian Maya Rudolph.
Maya Rudolph, daughter of Minnie Riperton, in a SNL portrait. Apparently Ms. Rudolph looks amazing in overalls.
Here is Minnie Riperton’s biggest hit, “Loving You”.
