Category Archives: music

Camille Paglia and black music

Camille Paglia was at the height of her popularity in the early and mid 1990s, right after the publication of her magnum opus Sexual Personae. While she is currently dismissed as a provocateur (or should I say une provocatrice?), her thought and writing are still valuable to me and she still is one of my main inspirations in the nobrow canon. Consider for example a speech she gave exactly 26 years ago at the M.I.T. where she said the following about black music:

“[…] you cannot be graduating from an American liberal arts college without knowing about black music. This is a great art form we have given to the world. Jazz, blues, Billie Holiday, Coltrane, Charlie Parker–there is no true liberal arts education in this country without that. We must do something to the curriculum to build that in. Right now dance, which is this enormous form, the most ancient of all art forms, is off there in the Phys. Ed. department–you go and take an aerobics class! You are not a liberal arts graduate until you know about dance–you know about it. You know about Martha Graham, you know about ballet, you know about the incredible contributions that African-Americans have made to dance.”

What will become of us?

Garbo in The Joyless Street

A scene from The Joyless Street (or The Street of Sorrows), a 1925 silent film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and starring Greta Garbo before she came to Hollywood. Scored to Shostakovich‘s Violin Concerto no. 1 in A minor. Shostakovich scored many ‘silent’ films but I’m not sure he originally scored this Youtube clip. The very young Dmitri Shostakovich helped to make ends meet by playing the piano in movie houses and later went on to compose film scores for many silent films, including his debut The New Babylon.

Like many of Pabst’s contemporary films, The Joyless Street concerns the plight of women in German society.

“The Needle and the Damage Done”

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-6AME4iSzY]

The Needle and the Damage Done (1972) Neil Young

“The Needle and the Damage Done” is a song by Neil Young that chronicles the descent of musicians he knew into heroin addiction. Neil has introduced the song thus:

“Ever since I left Canada, about five years ago or so.. and moved down south.. found out a lot of things that I didn’t know when I left. Some of ’em are good, and some of ’em are bad. Got to see a lot of great musicians before they happened… before they became famous.. y’know, when they were just gigging. Five and six sets a night… things like that. And I got to see a lot of, um , great musicians who nobody ever got to see. For one reason or another. But.. strangely enough, the real good ones… that you never got to see was.. ’cause of, ahhm, heroin. An’ that started happening over an’ over. Then it happened to someone that everyone knew about. So I just wrote a little song.”

This post is dedicated to my friends Walter and Dominique.

Così fan tutte

All Ladies Do It/Così fan tutte (1992) – Tinto Brass [Amazon.com]

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti, (Eng: “They all do it” or “They are all like that”) opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a bawdy film by Tinto Brass. Mozart took as a theme “fiancée swapping” which dates back to the 13th century, with notable earlier versions being those of Boccaccio‘s Decameron and Shakespeare‘s play Cymbeline. Elements from Shakespeare‘s The Taming of the Shrew are also present. Furthermore, it incorporates elements of the myth of Procris as found in Ovid.

Although the title is usually translated into English as “They All Do It”, Italian speakers will notice that the word “Tutte” has a feminine ending on it. The title can thus be translated as “All Women Do It” (i.e. cheat), or even “Women are all the same”.

 

World dance music classics #6

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yE-hUJYrvs]

Sueño Latino (1992) – Derrick May mix

Sueño Latino is an Italo disco duo from Italy, formerly known as Righeira. In 1989 they released a famous eponymous house–techno song Sueño Latino. The track is based on Manuel Göttsching‘s E2-E4. It was remixed by May in 1992. The track you hear here as in a post by Youtube user Tuneseeker is cut off during the drop out.

More Italo here.

See previous entries in this series.

World dance music classics #5

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-ppc4lYyg]

Miss You (1978) – The Rolling Stones

“Miss You” is a 1978 song by The Rolling Stones, from their album Some Girls. You need the twelve inch version.

The Rolling Stones disco years:

Several of the songs on 1976’s Black and Blue had boasted vague dance influences, and certain songs such as “Hot Stuff” were essentially compromises between Mick Jagger’s growing interest in contemporary dance music and Keith Richard’s obsession with reggae. “Miss You” was the first Rolling Stones single with prominent disco influences however, most noticeably in Charlie Watts‘ thumping, four-on-the-floor drum beat, and in Bill Wyman‘s funky, grooving bass-lines

See previous entries in this series.

Introducing PCL Linkdump

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPATPXGJgKo&]

Rahsaan Roland Kirk via PCL Linkdump

Of course I am well aware that, to most of you regular readers, PCL Linkdump is a well known destination; it’s just that I’ve never officially introduced them and give them the shout-out they deserve. PCL Linkdump is run by a team of contributors among which I particularly appreciate the work of Mr. Dante Fontana, who has just posted James Brown & Luciano Pavarotti – It’s A Man’s World in remembrance of Luciano Pavarotti (1935 – 2007).

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCIyzNISw1Q]