Blast IT

[caseyjo]

Whats the last song, Tv Vid, or on-line tune you listened to?..If you cant remember, what do you feel like listening to & if you dont feel like listening to anything, what is one of your all time favorite tunes?..Take your pic.....It's Blast it  time in the old TBd music room tonight.... So hit it peeps This is what I just listened to......It's actually on my profile right now.

[Snagg]

Today in Musical History, May 16th:

1964: The Motown juggernaut gets rolling, as they score their first # 1 hit: Mary Wells, "My Guy".

[Snagg]

[Snagg]

Today in Musical History, May 17th:

1866: Erik Satie b. Honfleur, France.

One of those classical musicians whom everybody recognizes the song but can't name the composer - the best example being "Gymnopedie" - but his crowning glory (or evil masterstroke) was "Vexations" - a piece composed in 1893, after a traumatic break-up with the only romantic relationship he ever had, and then he apparently hid the piece, remaining undiscovered until twenty years after his death.

No one even attempted to play it, until fellow eccentric music theorist John Cage staged a performance in 1963 - an endurance relay which lasted 18 hours and 40 minutes. A simple, half-sheet notation which, by Satie's instruction required a minimum of 840 repetitions, the piece is legendarily fiendish in that, for some unknown reason and despite it's simplicity, it can't be memorized; Listeners have reported that, even after hours of close attention, they can't play it or hum it by ear. Pianists insist that they have to sight read it, even more than halfway into a performance - Which suits it's vaguely sinister, unsettling melody. (Some keyboardists have even reported experiencing unpleasant hallucinations while playing it - But there are reports that some blind pianists can perform it.)  

Glacially slow, as unrelenting as it uninviting, it's either the most malignant musical joke in history, or a cry of the damned.

(There are rumors that, after Cage and his stable of pianists completed the last note, somebody in the back of the performance hall stood up and screamed "ENCORE !")

[Snagg]