Category: Music

The better Italian prog rockers were every bit as good as their English-singing coevals. It’s about time I posted some of their efforts. We’ll start with a piece by Premiata Forneria Marconi, aka PFM, from their second album, Per un amico.

Jellyfish were possibly the best power pop band of them all. Unfortunately, they were active early in the ’90’s, the age of grunge. They didn’t sound like neurotic, suicidal heroin addicts, so they didn’t catch on.

John Renbourn didn’t fit neatly into any category. Faro Annie doesn’t sound much like his work with Pentangle. Sue Draheim plays fiddle; Danny Thompson and Terry Cox from Pentangle are on bass and drums.

A brief history of classic Yes. Drummer Tatsuya Yoshida organized the zeuhl bands Ruins and Koenjihyakkei and has probably worked with every prog rock musician of note in Japan. Guitarist Kido Natsuki has been part of Bondage Fruit (a very interesting instrumental band, despite the questionable name) and Umezu Kazutoki Kiki Band. I don’t know anything about Nasuno Mitsuru; he might be worth investigating.

Many years ago I thought I might be able to economically enlarge my classical music collection by checking out records from the Wichita public library and taping them. Nope. While the selection was good, most sounded as if they had been cleaned with steel wool. However, a few of the more obscure ones were listenable. These included Raymond Lewenthal’s first Alkan album and this one.

Godowsky is probably best known for his 53 Chopin paraphrases, in which he took the demanding Chopin etudes and found ingenious ways to make them even harder. He also wrote more approachable music, such as his “Java Suite,” which includes this impression of the gamelan.

Doris Pines, the 1947 Christmas Ball Beauty Queen of Julliard, recorded only two albums, one devoted to Godowsky and the other to Agathe Backer-Grøndahl and Cécile Chaminade. Both are overdue for rescue on CD.

If you had asked me half a lifetime ago who my favorite guitarist was, I would have said Steve Morse. I’ve heard a lot of music since then and I can no longer pick just one, but I still have more music by Morse in my collection than by any other single artist, except possibly for Jeff Beck.¹ Of course, I never heard the Dixie Dregs on the radio, except once as backing music in a cheesy commercial for a wet t-shirt club — for which I will never forgive that radio station.

My introduction to Leo Kottke, courtesy of the local freak radio station a long, long time ago. He recorded the tune again for his next album with added bass and drums (Larry Taylor and Paul Lagos, if I remember correctly), but I prefer it plain, with just guitar.

There were music videos before MTV, but not necessarily good videos.

A friend commented that she could quickly evaluate a book on rock music by checking the index. If it didn’t mention Todd Rundgren, the book was too superficial to bother with.

It’s traditional on Thanksgiving to play “Alice’s Restaurant,” but I thought this year we might listen to one of Guthrie’s other stories.

Grainger is best known for his arrangements of traditional tunes from the British Isles, but he had a wider range. I suppose this piece is inexcusably racist, but I don’t care.

It’s getting cold outside now, and it will be months before we feel a gentle summer breeze again (except in Kansas, where breezes are not gentle). Pete Ratajczyk, a.k.a. “Peter Steele,” was raised a Catholic but was an atheist for most of his career. He returned to the practice of his faith near the end of his life.

The vocal melody is trivial and the pretentious, awkward lyrics aren’t worthy of Greg Lake’s voice, but the tune is worth hearing for Keith Tippett’s piano.

Tom Chapin was Harry’s brother. He could also tell a story.

Of the various versions of this song, this one, just Walker plus David Bromberg on fancy guitar, is the best.

Of the later P.D.Q. Bach discoveries, this set of preludes and fugues is my favorite. (This is part of a playlist. There are eleven more preludes and fugues following. There’s more after that, but the rest is not as good.)

McCutcheon was a regular at Winfield for many years. His music often suffers from an excess of Message, but he does occasionally perform a rigorously logical song, such as this one.

Which was the most distinctive Canadian band? You can make a case for Rush, but my pick is Rare Air. They combined bagpipes and other Celtic noisemakers with funky bass and percussion and occasional guitar in the ’80’s. They recorded five albums (the first as Na Cabarfeidh), of which only the last three were released on CD.

Weber, a cousin of Constanze Mozart, is best known for his operas, but he was a formidable pianist as well, with large hands that could stretch a twelfth.