Thesis: To consider what the chance intersection of ideal beauty and intellectual confusion would mean in determining the fate of Earth. Phase 1: While touring San Francisco, I stayed at the Sir Francis Drake. The bartenders were adequate. Phase 2: I began a blog. I learned romance might exist, but depends upon whether a man and a woman can tread the maze individually and reach its center at the exact same instant in time. Phase 3: The center comes and goes as if it were a mirage.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Music & the theory of time standing still
Yes, I remember "Jay" & the Americans
While step-pa-pa was listening to Richard Tucker out-Italian the Italian tenors, cara mia ma-ma had her own brand of sort of Italian music that she enjoyed. This is to say, she loved Jay and the Americans, and this band had one song with an Italian name. It was "Cara Mia" = "my beloved."
I probably enjoyed the music this group produced as much as my mother did, and maybe even enjoyed it more than I did the sound of Tucker. The roots of this band actually go back to the late 1950s, but its popularity came in the 1960s when David North agreed to adopt the name "Jay" and became the new lead singer.
The version posted here today is from a television show recorded in 1965. Be prepared to smile, if not outright laugh. Maybe television programming has not gotten more idiotic over the years; maybe it always has been sort of goofy, and we have been doomed since the very beginning. Whatever .... try to ignore the few brief seconds the "go-go girls" appear on screen, and just listen to the song. North had quite a voice, did he not?
The band is Jay and the Americans The singer is Jay North The song is "Cara Mia"
No, I did not & will not forget Queen & Freddie
I wonder sometimes, maybe others do, too, why I have not mentioned Queen and Freddie Mercury in these recent posts when I write about great bands and great singers. Many rock and roll enthusiasts would name Queen as the greatest band of all during the second half of the 20th Century and, I am certain, Freddie would secure countless votes as the best front man, if not actually the best singer, of his times. In my case, I think Queen and Freddie might belong in a category of their own, over and above all the other bands and all the other singers, especially those of the 1970s and the 1980s.
So, this time around, included below is Queen and Freddie doing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a song he composed, according to legend, in about ten minutes. This performance is from Queen's appearance at Wembley Stadium in London in 1986. Judge for yourself if they might not have been the greatest among the great.
The band is Queen The singer is Freddie Mercury The song is "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
Awww, Cara Mia, Fram...LOL...has a ring to it :D That was great! I am going to have to watch some more. What a fabulous concert with Queen too! Now, that, would have been a rocking fun night!
I enjoyed your selections today :D Thank you!
PS: Don't knock the go-go girls....I happen to have been one myself in the day...LOL We rock!
Now I'm going to pony trot on out of here and search my closet for my white go-go boots and my yellow paper dress! Do you remember those? LOL Have a Happy Day, Fram!
OK, you see what you have done, me ol' boy? You have awakened memories.
I have been a self-avowed Queen fan since I was thirteen and I'm pushing 38 now. And no, I am not the type of Queen fan who, as I described on my blog when I wrote about Queen, listens only to their 'Greatest Hits'. Typical example, this song if from their 'The Game' album and had it not been for May's solo it would have been a run-of-the-mill tune. It is said that that was the only chord Freddie could play on the guitar and he actually said at the Knebworth concert.
Queen remains one of the few bands where each member wrote his own song and where up until the release of 'The Game' all members, bar John Deacon, sang their own songs. From 1980 onwards only Freddie sang most of the songs.
Also Queen's earlier albums were panned by the critics, whilst loved by the fans, but just like Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, and his insistence on not releasing singles in the UK, only albums; Queen only performed in theatres at the beginning of theor careera did not use synthesizers for their first eight studio albums.
I'd better stop now because I could carry on and on and bore you to death. Let's just say that my favourite Queen record is one most people have not heard: 'Queen II', released in 1974, the first side called 'White Side' with songs by May and Taylor and the second side called 'Dark Side' with songs by Mercury only. Sublime.
There are times I think about buying a CD with Jay and the Americans, Kelly, but never quite get around to it. They did not have many songs, and I do like most of them very much.
I have two tapes of Queen's 1986 Wembley Stadium concert. They were shot from different angles, and vary a bit in the songs shown on each. They are well used tapes, as you might imagine.
Go-go girls are fine with me, Kelly. It just seems sort of silly dropping them into the performance for five seconds. Actually, I probably would have preferred having the camera on them throughout, with Jay and the guys standing off on the side to sing.
Yes, Mag, she is sweet and lovely, and always has adored music. She has been to Europe, but never to Florence or anywhere in Italy. Maybe she should visit Florence to experience Italian music first-hand.
Am I a good dancer? Reasonable, I guess. Average, I suppose. My preference is for a slow dance in a romantic setting. I am on record as saying I am willing to take lessons.
By the way, speaking of my mother and dancing in the same breath, one of my earliest memories of her is being held by her while she is dancing and singing.
My goal in life is to stir old memories and to create new ones, CiL.
I will not try to attempt to match my knowledge of the members of Queen, either individually or collectively, with your expertise. As I sometimes say, much of the music I love now I was too busy making money to even notice back when it was being played in real time.
The first time I recall seeing Queen, as a matter of fact, was on television in a saloon. The guys were adorned in something less than masculine garb. You might imagine the reception from the patrons of this particular establishment, which was largely occupied at the time by iron miners and deck hands from ore carriers.
Somewhere along the line, for me, the band's music overcame the members' appearance, and their appearance changed, and the world became right again. I am now left to wishing I could have seen a live performance, but am content simply with enjoying their music.
Boy, that was 'I Want To Break Free' and Freddie remembers feeling anxious about the release of the single in the States. That was a good album, 'The Works'. If you want to read a good biography of Freddie Mercury I strongly recommend Lesley Ann Jones's 'Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography'. It's probably one of the more thorough books about Freddie's life ever written. I also read Peter Freestone's book about Freddie but it was so predictable and boring that I closed on the fifth page (he was Freddie's personal assistant).
As for being surrounded by miners and deck hands when watching 'I Want To Break Free' I can only imagine that some of them were secretly hoping Taylor was ACTUALLY a woman!
Pausing to think for a moment, CiL, I cannot recall ever having read a biography about an entertainer -- be it musician, singer, actor, whatever. (On the other hand, some people might characterize Norman Mailer more of an entertainer than a writer, in which case, I might actually have read one.) I will seriously consider making Freddie the first.
Experiences are validated via environment, whether driving on a fast-moving interstate highway or a snail-speed crowded street; running on a wilderness road under starry skies or a metropolitan pathway beneath glaring street lights. So it is with saloons. The time during which this vision of queen was witnessed was about 7:00 a.m. The miners were just getting down to serious drinking after finishing the night shift; the sailors were gathering their second (or third or fourth) wind after a night of reveling. The world is fascinating, to say the least.
Yes, no doubt a few of the lads, some of them sober, some of them drunk, had their eyes glued to "pretty boy" Roger.
Bachelor of Arts with a double major in English (= literature) and history (= reality). Master of Arts in literature. Once upon a time, U.S. Marine Corps = Semper Fidelis. These things pretty much explain everything there is to know about me.
Other than that, ask, if you actually are curious .... I like to drift where the current takes me within this endless sea of blogs, read what others write in their blogs, observe, learn, question and, hopefully, understand, while offering a few comments of my own along the way .... by the way, the photo of me actually is me .... was me .... will be me .... hmmmm ....
Fotocursus voor compactcamera
-
Als fotograaf en cursusleider krijg ik vaak de vraag of je echt een dure
spiegelreflex- of systeemcamera nodig hebt om goede foto’s te maken. Het
antwoor...
COLANTARE DUBA
-
Colantare Auto Duba la Graphis Advertising: Transforma vehiculul într-un
adevărat instrument de marketing!
*Graphis Advertising* îți oferă soluț...
My First Adult Ruby-crowned Kinglet
-
Driving around Antelope island on that cold, windy day and seeing only
bisons, I decided to pluck up the courage to drive to Frary Peak.
The road to ...
This or this? #9
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Normally when I do this feature I give you two photos from which to choose.
(once I gave you two pairs) This time I have four photos with the same
subject....
Halcón peregrino (Falco peregrinus)
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"A través de mi ventana" A la memoria de Richard Pegler, naturalista,
fotógrafo y buen amigo. Tu alma vuela libre junto a las aves de las Islas
Sorlingas.
¿Te vienes de biblioteca?
-
Será el próximo jueves 17 de octubre a las 18:30 h. en la Biblioteca
Pública José Luis Sampedro.
C/ Felipe el Hermoso, 4 Chamberí (Madrid)
Metro Iglesia
...
update
-
I think a little up date is good
Det er lenge siden jeg har vært her og blogget
Men her er noen søte svaner med baby
Jeg syns de er veldig fine og ...
Taituroiva orava
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Orava (Sciurus vulgaris) Nähtävissä on että talviturkki alkanut
muuttua jo ruskeammansävyiseksi. Useita oravia on pihapiirin
lähettyvillä. Vauhdikasta m...
The Portable Jack Kerouac
-
I have lots of things to teach you now,
in case we ever meet, concerning the message
that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina
...
A Carteira Perdida!
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*A Carteira Perdida é uma belíssima história de amor verídica, que recebi
já traduzida faz um bom tempo por via e-mail. Ao procurar quem escreveu uma
car...
Time to Press 'Pause'
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I'm not quitting, just taking a break
In my natural habitat (photo by Deborah Jaffe)
I started this blog in June 2007. After an uncertain beginning, it pr...
UNIWIGS
-
Hello my beloved readers! I am glad that there are still so many of you
with me. Even though I'm not the best blogger, haha. Let's start with what
really ...
Blogini osoite ja nimi on muuttunut
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*Tervetuloa lukijaksi uuteen blogiini*
* te kaikki tämän vanhan blogin lukijat*
*sekä myös uudet lukijat.*
*Pääset tästä linkistä uuteen ➣ Kuvallista bl...
4 years ago
Romance, from Fram
I discovered Romance might yet exist, but it depends upon whether a man and a woman can tread the maze, individually, and reach its center at the same moment in time.
The Actual Instant of Love, from Fram
I am a jealous guy, of the sort John Lennon sang about. Any man who says he is not a jealous guy either has no genuine depth of feelings for the woman he is saying it about or is a liar. I can remember very distinctly, for example, when my feelings for my wife vanished. It happened in an instant. When love vanished, so did jealousy.
Actual love happens in an instant, I believe, although it does not always seem to be that way. I am not talking about "love at first sight," but, rather, "love at first instant." This means two people might have known each other for weeks, even for years, before the "instant" occurs. It comes with a single sentence spoken by one, or a single action taken by one, that strikes the other like lightning.
Affection grows; love is born. Love also disappears in an instant, I believe, although it does not always seem to happen that way. Incidental to my point, I do not believe in "love at first sight." That is no more than simple, physical or emotional attraction, which is the cause of countless and never-ending problems.
Happiness is momentary, from Fram
When I was age eighteen, a wise, old man of twenty-six told me that happiness is a momentary thing. It might last for minutes or days or weeks or, sometimes, even for a few years. But, like life itself, happiness is a transitory thing and, like fate, it is capricious. At some point along the road, I came to realize this wise, old man had been right.
The Three Sorts of Friends ....
Though friendships differ endless in degree, The sorts, methinks, may be reduced to three. Acquaintance many, and Conquaintance few; But for Inquaintance I know only two -- The friend I've mourned with, and the maid I woo!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge poet & philosopher Fragment 10: "The Three Sorts of Friends"
Time retains ....
Time retains its sacred right to meddle in each earthly affair. Still, time's unbounded power that makes a mountain crumble, moves seas, rotates a star, won't be enough to tear lovers apart: they are too naked, too embraced, too much like timid sparrows.
Old age is, in my book, the price that felons pay, so don't whine that it's steep: you'll stay young if you're good. Suffering doesn't insult the body. Death? It comes in your sleep, exactly as it should.
When it comes, you'll be dreaming that you don't need to breathe; that breathless silence is the music of the dark and it's part of the rhythm to vanish like a spark.
Wislawa Szymborska poet, essayist & translator Nobel Prize for Poetry 1996 "Entropy"
Yesterday is History ....
Yesterday is History, 'Tis so far away -- Yesterday is Poetry -- 'Tis Philosophy --
Yesterday is mystery -- Where it is Today While we shrewdly speculate Flutter both away.
Emily Dickinson poet "Yesterday is History"
Never the answers
The most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers.
Will Durant historian, philosopher, teacher
The equality of man
Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.
Thomas Jefferson president, patriot, free thinker
The audience
Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self.
Cyril Connolly writer, editor, literary critic
I am free
I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. Robert Heinlein science fiction writer philosopher
Marine Corps Forever, from Fram
To all Marines, those among the dead, those who still live, those yet to be born: Semper Fidelis, to the end of time ....
Have gun .... will travel
Once upon a time: "She said, There is no reason ...."
Time & again ....
Time .... he's waiting in the wings .... he speaks of senseless things .... but, if you could heal a broken heart, wouldn't time be out to charm you?
Voluspo 28-29
Alone I sat when the Old One sought me .... The terror of gods, and gazed in mine eyes .... "What hast thou to ask? why comest thou hither? .... Othin, I know where thine eye is hidden" .... Deep in the wide-famed well of Mimir .... Mead from the pledge of Othin each morn .... Does Mimir drink: would you know yet more? ....
8 comments:
Awww, Cara Mia, Fram...LOL...has a ring to it :D That was great! I am going to have to watch some more. What a fabulous concert with Queen too! Now, that, would have been a rocking fun night!
I enjoyed your selections today :D Thank you!
PS: Don't knock the go-go girls....I happen to have been one myself in the day...LOL We rock!
Now I'm going to pony trot on out of here and search my closet for my white go-go boots and my yellow paper dress! Do you remember those? LOL
Have a Happy Day, Fram!
Your Mum must be very sweet and lovely lady since she likes such a sweet song. I already like her. Has she ever been to Florence?
The second one is so, so cool!!! I love dancing to it. Are you a good dancer, Fram the Wolf?
Have a good day :-) Bye, bye.
OK, you see what you have done, me ol' boy? You have awakened memories.
I have been a self-avowed Queen fan since I was thirteen and I'm pushing 38 now. And no, I am not the type of Queen fan who, as I described on my blog when I wrote about Queen, listens only to their 'Greatest Hits'. Typical example, this song if from their 'The Game' album and had it not been for May's solo it would have been a run-of-the-mill tune. It is said that that was the only chord Freddie could play on the guitar and he actually said at the Knebworth concert.
Queen remains one of the few bands where each member wrote his own song and where up until the release of 'The Game' all members, bar John Deacon, sang their own songs. From 1980 onwards only Freddie sang most of the songs.
Also Queen's earlier albums were panned by the critics, whilst loved by the fans, but just like Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, and his insistence on not releasing singles in the UK, only albums; Queen only performed in theatres at the beginning of theor careera did not use synthesizers for their first eight studio albums.
I'd better stop now because I could carry on and on and bore you to death. Let's just say that my favourite Queen record is one most people have not heard: 'Queen II', released in 1974, the first side called 'White Side' with songs by May and Taylor and the second side called 'Dark Side' with songs by Mercury only. Sublime.
Many thanks for this post.
Greetings from London.
There are times I think about buying a CD with Jay and the Americans, Kelly, but never quite get around to it. They did not have many songs, and I do like most of them very much.
I have two tapes of Queen's 1986 Wembley Stadium concert. They were shot from different angles, and vary a bit in the songs shown on each. They are well used tapes, as you might imagine.
Go-go girls are fine with me, Kelly. It just seems sort of silly dropping them into the performance for five seconds. Actually, I probably would have preferred having the camera on them throughout, with Jay and the guys standing off on the side to sing.
Yes, Mag, she is sweet and lovely, and always has adored music. She has been to Europe, but never to Florence or anywhere in Italy. Maybe she should visit Florence to experience Italian music first-hand.
Am I a good dancer? Reasonable, I guess. Average, I suppose. My preference is for a slow dance in a romantic setting. I am on record as saying I am willing to take lessons.
By the way, speaking of my mother and dancing in the same breath, one of my earliest memories of her is being held by her while she is dancing and singing.
My goal in life is to stir old memories and to create new ones, CiL.
I will not try to attempt to match my knowledge of the members of Queen, either individually or collectively, with your expertise. As I sometimes say, much of the music I love now I was too busy making money to even notice back when it was being played in real time.
The first time I recall seeing Queen, as a matter of fact, was on television in a saloon. The guys were adorned in something less than masculine garb. You might imagine the reception from the patrons of this particular establishment, which was largely occupied at the time by iron miners and deck hands from ore carriers.
Somewhere along the line, for me, the band's music overcame the members' appearance, and their appearance changed, and the world became right again. I am now left to wishing I could have seen a live performance, but am content simply with enjoying their music.
Many thanks, for your history lesson.
Boy, that was 'I Want To Break Free' and Freddie remembers feeling anxious about the release of the single in the States. That was a good album, 'The Works'. If you want to read a good biography of Freddie Mercury I strongly recommend Lesley Ann Jones's 'Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography'. It's probably one of the more thorough books about Freddie's life ever written. I also read Peter Freestone's book about Freddie but it was so predictable and boring that I closed on the fifth page (he was Freddie's personal assistant).
As for being surrounded by miners and deck hands when watching 'I Want To Break Free' I can only imagine that some of them were secretly hoping Taylor was ACTUALLY a woman!
Greetings from London.
Pausing to think for a moment, CiL, I cannot recall ever having read a biography about an entertainer -- be it musician, singer, actor, whatever. (On the other hand, some people might characterize Norman Mailer more of an entertainer than a writer, in which case, I might actually have read one.) I will seriously consider making Freddie the first.
Experiences are validated via environment, whether driving on a fast-moving interstate highway or a snail-speed crowded street; running on a wilderness road under starry skies or a metropolitan pathway beneath glaring street lights. So it is with saloons. The time during which this vision of queen was witnessed was about 7:00 a.m. The miners were just getting down to serious drinking after finishing the night shift; the sailors were gathering their second (or third or fourth) wind after a night of reveling. The world is fascinating, to say the least.
Yes, no doubt a few of the lads, some of them sober, some of them drunk, had their eyes glued to "pretty boy" Roger.
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