Posts Tagged ‘music’
Aretha Franklin, R.I.P.
Like so many of the Motown artists, she led a rather chaotic life and made a host of very bad choices, but the woman was a fantastic performer.
Alexa house party…
A German man’s Alexa device created its own party, blasting music so loudly that neighbors called the cops, who broke down the door only to find no one home.
Ain’t modern technology wonderful?
Prager sells out…
The Santa Monica Symphony had a fundraising concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Its guest host was conservative radio host Dennis Prager, who is absolutely passionate about classical music, and who has been a guest conductor for various orchestras.
With boring predictability, liberals called for a boycott of the performance, supported by the mayor of Santa Monica and a city councilman who said they wouldn’t attend. Just as easily forecast, some of the musicians refused to perform, with two of them penning an open letter saying “Dennis Prager is a right wing radio host who promotes horribly bigoted positions,” which naturally served to point out their own left-wing bigotry. And all the extra attention drove sales up, so the event was a sell-out!
Read what Dennis himself had to say about it, here.
Glen Campbell, R.I.P.
Entertainer Glen Campbell has died at age 81, after a six-year battle with Alzheimer’s. Like Ronald Reagan, he went public with his health, and allowed a documentary to feature his struggles. He deserves kudos for that, but he will probably be best remembered as a country singer with a voice so easy to listen to that people who didn’t like country music suddenly found themselves liking country music a whole lot.
Parts of his life were tumultuous, and his behavior often less than stellar, but his fifth and last wife appears to have been one of the best choices he ever made. He was known not merely for his smooth singing voice and a vocal style which moved easily from pop to country and back again, but also for his ability as a musician, which put him high on everyone’s list. He never learned to read music, but he had the ear and a phenomenal memory, so he could listen to a piece once and then he had it. You don’t get asked to fill in for an ailing Beach Boy unless you’re really, really, good, you know., and Campbell most certainly was.
I will play my Glen Campbell albums this weekend in his honor.
UPDATE: Have a bit more of the man, flaws and genius, from people who knew him well.
Chris Cornell, R.I.P.
I have never been a fan of grunge music, and the genres I am now willing to listen to shrinks annually, but Chris Cornell was very different musically from Kurt Cobain and his other grunge peers, as this article makes clear.
Chuck Berry, R.I.P.
Legendary singer Chuck Berry has died, having spent many of his 90 years belting out hits he wrote and performed for his legion of fans. Unsurprisingly, he was among the first group of performers inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
His 1958 hit “Johnny B. Goode” is the only rock and roll song included on the so-called “Golden Record” affixed to the Voyager spacecraft that was launched into space in 1977.
UPDATE: Have some remembrances, here.
