Curio Cabinet / Song Curio
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
Happy 93rd birthday to Angela Lansbury, one of the greatest stars of the stage and screen! Whether as a witch-in-training in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, an amateur sleuth in Murder She Wrote, or a devious baker in Sweeney Todd, Lansbury always brings an unparalleled level of warmth and professionalism to all of her roles. Take her part as Mrs. Potts in 1991's animated Beauty and the Beast, where Lansbury sings the titular tune. To tap into the teapot character, Lansbury adopted a cockney-English accent and practiced with the demo tapes lyricists Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken sent her. From there she only became more of a boss; Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle) recalled during the recording sessions for Beauty and the Beast that 60-year old Lansbury endured a red-eye flight and bomb scare right before heading into the studio and nailing the gentle, eponymous track in one take. Now we're just hoping we get to be as tough as Angela Lansbury when we're 60!
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Image credit & copyright: One Music PH
Happy 93rd birthday to Angela Lansbury, one of the greatest stars of the stage and screen! Whether as a witch-in-training in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, an amateur sleuth in Murder She Wrote, or a devious baker in Sweeney Todd, Lansbury always brings an unparalleled level of warmth and professionalism to all of her roles. Take her part as Mrs. Potts in 1991's animated Beauty and the Beast, where Lansbury sings the titular tune. To tap into the teapot character, Lansbury adopted a cockney-English accent and practiced with the demo tapes lyricists Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken sent her. From there she only became more of a boss; Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle) recalled during the recording sessions for Beauty and the Beast that 60-year old Lansbury endured a red-eye flight and bomb scare right before heading into the studio and nailing the gentle, eponymous track in one take. Now we're just hoping we get to be as tough as Angela Lansbury when we're 60!
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Image credit & copyright: One Music PH
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FREEJazz Guitar Song CurioFree2 CQ
Is there anything that idiosyncratic actor Jeff Goldblum can't do? For his 66th birthday this week, we're taking a listen to the snazzily-dressed artist's debut jazz recordings with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Aside from the obvious questions—like why would someone start a musical career so late in life? And what kind of name is Mildred Snitzer (particularly when no bandmate bears the name)?—we're digging Goldblum's smooth take on Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me. By all accounts, Goldblum has been playing piano nearly all his life, and his foray into music performance is yet another way to allow audiences in on his wacky optimistic personality (albeit under the guise of jazz standards rather than being chased by dinosaurs). Goldblum signed with Decca soon after appearing on the Graham Norton Show last year, where he provided spirited accompaniment to singer Gregory Porter on the tune Mona Lisa. What does the future hold for Jeff Goldblum's musical legacy? Whatever it is, we bet it'll be full of joyful improvisations on the fly!
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Image credit & copyright: Jeff Goldblum
Is there anything that idiosyncratic actor Jeff Goldblum can't do? For his 66th birthday this week, we're taking a listen to the snazzily-dressed artist's debut jazz recordings with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Aside from the obvious questions—like why would someone start a musical career so late in life? And what kind of name is Mildred Snitzer (particularly when no bandmate bears the name)?—we're digging Goldblum's smooth take on Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me. By all accounts, Goldblum has been playing piano nearly all his life, and his foray into music performance is yet another way to allow audiences in on his wacky optimistic personality (albeit under the guise of jazz standards rather than being chased by dinosaurs). Goldblum signed with Decca soon after appearing on the Graham Norton Show last year, where he provided spirited accompaniment to singer Gregory Porter on the tune Mona Lisa. What does the future hold for Jeff Goldblum's musical legacy? Whatever it is, we bet it'll be full of joyful improvisations on the fly!
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Image credit & copyright: Jeff Goldblum
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
It's Flashback Friday and World Egg Day! Enjoy this eggcellent favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Rebekah Del Rio walks into Twin Peak's Bang Bang Bar. The singer made her mark with an a capella Spanish version of Roy Orbison's Crying in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Last year, she returned to the auteur's world to perform No Stars in the revival of his beloved, weird '90s detective show, which wraps up each episode with live music. Del Rio's haunting singing in Mulholland Drive marks a pivotal moment in the highly-acclaimed film; in turn, Lynch co-wrote the dreamy ballad No Stars for her record Love Hurts Love Heals. The performance also showcased a few different easter eggs for viewers: the diagonal stripes of Del Rio's dress are patterned after the floor in the series' purgatorial Red Room, and that's none other than electronic artist Moby backing her on guitar! Though characters in Twin Peaks often find themselves realizing nothing is what it initially seems, they can take comfort in knowing that in the end, there is a familiar place and great song to come home to.
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Image credit & copyright: Showtime
It's Flashback Friday and World Egg Day! Enjoy this eggcellent favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Rebekah Del Rio walks into Twin Peak's Bang Bang Bar. The singer made her mark with an a capella Spanish version of Roy Orbison's Crying in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Last year, she returned to the auteur's world to perform No Stars in the revival of his beloved, weird '90s detective show, which wraps up each episode with live music. Del Rio's haunting singing in Mulholland Drive marks a pivotal moment in the highly-acclaimed film; in turn, Lynch co-wrote the dreamy ballad No Stars for her record Love Hurts Love Heals. The performance also showcased a few different easter eggs for viewers: the diagonal stripes of Del Rio's dress are patterned after the floor in the series' purgatorial Red Room, and that's none other than electronic artist Moby backing her on guitar! Though characters in Twin Peaks often find themselves realizing nothing is what it initially seems, they can take comfort in knowing that in the end, there is a familiar place and great song to come home to.
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Image credit & copyright: Showtime
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
With a name as loud as Screaming Females, the expectations to indulge in rock 'n' roll's excesses may seem pretty high, though the trio from New Brunswick, New Jersey, has found better success through their DIY punk ethics. From recording on indie label Don Giovanni, to singer-guitarist-artist Marissa Paternoster's hand-drawn album artwork, to opening tours for Garbage, the Breeders, and Jack White's band The Dead Weather, the group has earned a reputation for crafting some of the best punk rock of the past decade. Perhaps nothing signified the continuing maturity of their craft like 2012's It All Means Nothing from their album Ugly. With critical acclaim at their backs, the trio hooked up with '90s super-producer Steve Albini (Nirvana, the Pixies), to craft big, anthemic-sounding songs like It All Means Nothing. The song undercuts typical rock hedonism with Paternoster's angular guitar work and lyrics about foregoing consumerism in favor of personal authenticity. If past habits are any indication of the future, Screaming Females are going to continue making some of the hardest hitting rock songs around on their own terms.
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Image credit & copyright: Christopher Patrick Ernst
With a name as loud as Screaming Females, the expectations to indulge in rock 'n' roll's excesses may seem pretty high, though the trio from New Brunswick, New Jersey, has found better success through their DIY punk ethics. From recording on indie label Don Giovanni, to singer-guitarist-artist Marissa Paternoster's hand-drawn album artwork, to opening tours for Garbage, the Breeders, and Jack White's band The Dead Weather, the group has earned a reputation for crafting some of the best punk rock of the past decade. Perhaps nothing signified the continuing maturity of their craft like 2012's It All Means Nothing from their album Ugly. With critical acclaim at their backs, the trio hooked up with '90s super-producer Steve Albini (Nirvana, the Pixies), to craft big, anthemic-sounding songs like It All Means Nothing. The song undercuts typical rock hedonism with Paternoster's angular guitar work and lyrics about foregoing consumerism in favor of personal authenticity. If past habits are any indication of the future, Screaming Females are going to continue making some of the hardest hitting rock songs around on their own terms.
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Image credit & copyright: Christopher Patrick Ernst
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FREEJazz Guitar Song CurioFree2 CQ
When legendary jazz drummer Art Blakey passed away in 1990, fellow musician Max Roach commented "we used to call him 'Thunder.' When I first met [Blakey] on 52d Street in 1944, he already had the polyrhythmic thing down. Art was perhaps the best at maintaining independence with all four limbs." That's no small compliment from another jazz great. Indeed, Art Blakey was a showstopper on the drums, capable of drawing upon decades of experience on signature tunes like Moanin'. On the bluesy track, written by Bobby Timmons for Blakey's band the Jazz Messengers, the drummer starts out by gently lending his cymbals to the call-and-response opening. From there, he keeps a steady swingin' pace, introducing subtle rising and falling shifts in volume with each successive soloist until he's barely audible—but totally in time—behind the bass player. For Blakey, being the best didn't mean playing the fastest or the hardest, it meant being the best drummer to play with, and on the anniversary of his 99th birthday, there's no better example of that ethic than his work on Moanin'.
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Image credit & copyright: Herman Leonard
When legendary jazz drummer Art Blakey passed away in 1990, fellow musician Max Roach commented "we used to call him 'Thunder.' When I first met [Blakey] on 52d Street in 1944, he already had the polyrhythmic thing down. Art was perhaps the best at maintaining independence with all four limbs." That's no small compliment from another jazz great. Indeed, Art Blakey was a showstopper on the drums, capable of drawing upon decades of experience on signature tunes like Moanin'. On the bluesy track, written by Bobby Timmons for Blakey's band the Jazz Messengers, the drummer starts out by gently lending his cymbals to the call-and-response opening. From there, he keeps a steady swingin' pace, introducing subtle rising and falling shifts in volume with each successive soloist until he's barely audible—but totally in time—behind the bass player. For Blakey, being the best didn't mean playing the fastest or the hardest, it meant being the best drummer to play with, and on the anniversary of his 99th birthday, there's no better example of that ethic than his work on Moanin'.
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Image credit & copyright: Herman Leonard
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
This unlikely medley is stirring up quite the storm. Pop artists Labyrinth, Sia, and Diplo are joining forces to release an album under the moniker LSD this November. The music lives up to the group's trippy name, and the track Thunderclouds is creating the most buzz with its tale of a troubled couple. "Our house is burning when you're raisin' hell / Here in the ashes, your soul cries out / But don't be afraid of these thunderclouds." While Sia and Labyrinth trade turns singing the emotionally charged verses, they come together for the chorus; the signature beats of DJ and record producer Diplo serve as the spine of the song. Their work truly earns the label of "global pop" as Sia is Australian, Labyrinth British, and Diplo American. Though there aren't many details about how they decided to collaborate, Sia and Labyrinth have previously worked together on a song for the Wonder Woman soundtrack. Who knows what else these experimental musicians have up their sleeves?
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Image credit & copyright: Juco
This unlikely medley is stirring up quite the storm. Pop artists Labyrinth, Sia, and Diplo are joining forces to release an album under the moniker LSD this November. The music lives up to the group's trippy name, and the track Thunderclouds is creating the most buzz with its tale of a troubled couple. "Our house is burning when you're raisin' hell / Here in the ashes, your soul cries out / But don't be afraid of these thunderclouds." While Sia and Labyrinth trade turns singing the emotionally charged verses, they come together for the chorus; the signature beats of DJ and record producer Diplo serve as the spine of the song. Their work truly earns the label of "global pop" as Sia is Australian, Labyrinth British, and Diplo American. Though there aren't many details about how they decided to collaborate, Sia and Labyrinth have previously worked together on a song for the Wonder Woman soundtrack. Who knows what else these experimental musicians have up their sleeves?
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Image credit & copyright: Juco
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
Country music is filled with outlaws and cowpoke, but in the early '90s, Uncle Tupelo brought another demographic to the mix: punk rockers. Hailing from southern Illinois, the trio of Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn were innovators of the alternative country (alt-country) genre. Their short but impactful-collaboration saw its peak and demise with the critically-acclaimed album Anodyne released 25 years ago this week. The Tweedy-penned The Long Cut proved the young songwriters were just beginning to tap into their potential to craft jangly rock songs with a melancholy edge. Tensions between Farrar and Tweedy contributed to a split not long after the release of Anodyne, with Farrar going on to helm an even more alt-country band Son Volt, and Tweedy experimented with electronic music with Wilco. Despite their differences, their early Uncle Tupelo years were an indication that punk music didn't just belong to the cities, and country music didn't solely belong to the heartland.
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Image credit & copyright: Marty Perez, Legacy Recordings
Country music is filled with outlaws and cowpoke, but in the early '90s, Uncle Tupelo brought another demographic to the mix: punk rockers. Hailing from southern Illinois, the trio of Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn were innovators of the alternative country (alt-country) genre. Their short but impactful-collaboration saw its peak and demise with the critically-acclaimed album Anodyne released 25 years ago this week. The Tweedy-penned The Long Cut proved the young songwriters were just beginning to tap into their potential to craft jangly rock songs with a melancholy edge. Tensions between Farrar and Tweedy contributed to a split not long after the release of Anodyne, with Farrar going on to helm an even more alt-country band Son Volt, and Tweedy experimented with electronic music with Wilco. Despite their differences, their early Uncle Tupelo years were an indication that punk music didn't just belong to the cities, and country music didn't solely belong to the heartland.
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Image credit & copyright: Marty Perez, Legacy Recordings
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
Happy Plaidurday and Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite by Scottish artists from the Curio Cabinet archives.
Not since Buddy Holly before them has rock 'n' roll seen such sweet bespectacled hitmakers. 30 years ago, Craig and Charlie Reed—better known as the Proclaimers—released their album Sunshine on Leith, featuring their shouty-chorus hit, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles). Peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was featured in the 1993 film Benny & Joon, the song perfectly captured the earnest eccentricities of the Johnny Depp-lead movie. Stateside, the track has maintained a comical buoyancy and was notably featured as a running gag on the TV show How I Met Your Mother. In the duo's homeland, their unwillingness to mask their accents like so many of their '80s counterparts has boosted their status as musical icons: Scotland's soccer team plays 500 Miles as a pump-up song at home games, and those in favor of Scottish independence from England have found solidarity in the Proclaimers' outspoken politics. Though Craig and Charlie could hardly walk an entire 500 miles in any direction inside the seabound United Kingdom, their song still managed to find its own route to far-reaching success!
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Image credit & copyright: Jukebox Time Machine
Happy Plaidurday and Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite by Scottish artists from the Curio Cabinet archives.
Not since Buddy Holly before them has rock 'n' roll seen such sweet bespectacled hitmakers. 30 years ago, Craig and Charlie Reed—better known as the Proclaimers—released their album Sunshine on Leith, featuring their shouty-chorus hit, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles). Peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was featured in the 1993 film Benny & Joon, the song perfectly captured the earnest eccentricities of the Johnny Depp-lead movie. Stateside, the track has maintained a comical buoyancy and was notably featured as a running gag on the TV show How I Met Your Mother. In the duo's homeland, their unwillingness to mask their accents like so many of their '80s counterparts has boosted their status as musical icons: Scotland's soccer team plays 500 Miles as a pump-up song at home games, and those in favor of Scottish independence from England have found solidarity in the Proclaimers' outspoken politics. Though Craig and Charlie could hardly walk an entire 500 miles in any direction inside the seabound United Kingdom, their song still managed to find its own route to far-reaching success!
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Image credit & copyright: Jukebox Time Machine
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
These days we may worry about technology taking over our lives, but Gary Numan was obsessing over the concept nearly 40 years ago. His 1979 hit Cars arose out of a punk-egalitarian way of playing with a Minimoog synthesizer: he didn't necessarily have to know how to play the instrument well when he first picked it up in the band Tubeway Army, so long as he could make interesting sounds and songs with it. Add to the mix lyrics which take inspiration from dystopian sci-fi writing by authors like J. G. Ballard, and the locked-door journey of Cars seems like it's on an endless ride where "nothing seems right." For all of the fear and uncertainty the lyrics profess, Cars has aged incredibly well as an early synth-pop hit, in no small part due to Numan's gift for arranging synthesizer parts: from riffs that threaten to overtake his vocals, to the earworm bass grooves, and soaring high notes—Numan's futuristic cityscape may be a frightening one, but at least there are good tunes in the tape deck.
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Image credit & copyright: Uncyclopedia
These days we may worry about technology taking over our lives, but Gary Numan was obsessing over the concept nearly 40 years ago. His 1979 hit Cars arose out of a punk-egalitarian way of playing with a Minimoog synthesizer: he didn't necessarily have to know how to play the instrument well when he first picked it up in the band Tubeway Army, so long as he could make interesting sounds and songs with it. Add to the mix lyrics which take inspiration from dystopian sci-fi writing by authors like J. G. Ballard, and the locked-door journey of Cars seems like it's on an endless ride where "nothing seems right." For all of the fear and uncertainty the lyrics profess, Cars has aged incredibly well as an early synth-pop hit, in no small part due to Numan's gift for arranging synthesizer parts: from riffs that threaten to overtake his vocals, to the earworm bass grooves, and soaring high notes—Numan's futuristic cityscape may be a frightening one, but at least there are good tunes in the tape deck.
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Image credit & copyright: Uncyclopedia
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
Julie Andrews may have flown by umbrella into our hearts in 1964's Mary Poppins film, but by that time, the 29-year old soprano had decades of singing under her floppy flower hat. Andrews' voice was actually something of a medical marvel; while singing to keep spirits up during World War II, the eight-year-old was told by a doctor that her vocal cords had already developed like an adult's. Andrews crossed the pond and took Broadway by storm in 1956 with her role as the original Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Despite her popularity, Andrews was passed over for the 1964 film version of the musical, though as luck would have it, that same year she would make her Oscar-winning film debut in Mary Poppins, flexing her pipes for audiences in A Spoonful of Sugar. The chipper tune is the first film introduction to Andrews' four-octave vocal range, not to mention her crisp English enunciation, and ability to turn any moment she's center stage into pure magic—a skill that shows no sign of stopping even with her 83rd birthday this week!
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Image credit & copyright: Walt Disney Productions
Julie Andrews may have flown by umbrella into our hearts in 1964's Mary Poppins film, but by that time, the 29-year old soprano had decades of singing under her floppy flower hat. Andrews' voice was actually something of a medical marvel; while singing to keep spirits up during World War II, the eight-year-old was told by a doctor that her vocal cords had already developed like an adult's. Andrews crossed the pond and took Broadway by storm in 1956 with her role as the original Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Despite her popularity, Andrews was passed over for the 1964 film version of the musical, though as luck would have it, that same year she would make her Oscar-winning film debut in Mary Poppins, flexing her pipes for audiences in A Spoonful of Sugar. The chipper tune is the first film introduction to Andrews' four-octave vocal range, not to mention her crisp English enunciation, and ability to turn any moment she's center stage into pure magic—a skill that shows no sign of stopping even with her 83rd birthday this week!
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Image credit & copyright: Walt Disney Productions
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
To hear Russian-American Vladimir Horowitz play his Carmen Variations is to hear themes from Georges Bizet's opera unlike anything that came before it. Horowitz, whose 115th birthday is celebrated this week, kept the piece in his repertoire since his early performances in the '20s, all the way up to his golden jubilee season in the late '70s, and it's no wonder why. Horowitz's improvisations on Danse Boheme ("Gypsy Dance") begin with a repetition of the original buoyant theme, with each successive occurrence of the ostinato bass line finding a new register on the keyboard. As he veers between frantic virtuosity and controlled subtlety, it's important to remember Horowitz once said "piano playing consists of intellect, heart and technique.... without intellect, you will be a fiasco; without technique, an amateur; without heart, a machine." Luckily for listeners, Horowitz had all three in spades, and his recorded performances remain some of the most technically virtuosic and emotionally moving works of 20th century classical music.
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Image credit & copyright: Grammy Awards
To hear Russian-American Vladimir Horowitz play his Carmen Variations is to hear themes from Georges Bizet's opera unlike anything that came before it. Horowitz, whose 115th birthday is celebrated this week, kept the piece in his repertoire since his early performances in the '20s, all the way up to his golden jubilee season in the late '70s, and it's no wonder why. Horowitz's improvisations on Danse Boheme ("Gypsy Dance") begin with a repetition of the original buoyant theme, with each successive occurrence of the ostinato bass line finding a new register on the keyboard. As he veers between frantic virtuosity and controlled subtlety, it's important to remember Horowitz once said "piano playing consists of intellect, heart and technique.... without intellect, you will be a fiasco; without technique, an amateur; without heart, a machine." Luckily for listeners, Horowitz had all three in spades, and his recorded performances remain some of the most technically virtuosic and emotionally moving works of 20th century classical music.
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Image credit & copyright: Grammy Awards
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
No one lights up the dance floor in Senegal quite like Youssou N'Dour—though his biggest global hit, 7 Seconds with Neneh Cherry, was a downtempo song with a message. Cherry, the daughter of jazz musician Don Cherry, grew up listening to N'Dour in Sweden; she and N'Dour originally met at a music festival thrown by Cherry's parents. When both artists blew up on English-speaking radio in the late '80s, Cherry suggested the two write an anti-racist and anti-violence song together: the palpable hit, 7 Seconds. Amid dire, descending chord changes, N'Dour and Cherry plead in French, West African Wolof, and English for peace and understanding. The track reached the top ten singles charts in over 17 countries, earning both artists international stardom. For N'Dour's 59th birthday today, we're turning up 7 Seconds and meditating on his and Cherry's powerful music.
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Image credit & copyright: Youssou N’Dour
No one lights up the dance floor in Senegal quite like Youssou N'Dour—though his biggest global hit, 7 Seconds with Neneh Cherry, was a downtempo song with a message. Cherry, the daughter of jazz musician Don Cherry, grew up listening to N'Dour in Sweden; she and N'Dour originally met at a music festival thrown by Cherry's parents. When both artists blew up on English-speaking radio in the late '80s, Cherry suggested the two write an anti-racist and anti-violence song together: the palpable hit, 7 Seconds. Amid dire, descending chord changes, N'Dour and Cherry plead in French, West African Wolof, and English for peace and understanding. The track reached the top ten singles charts in over 17 countries, earning both artists international stardom. For N'Dour's 59th birthday today, we're turning up 7 Seconds and meditating on his and Cherry's powerful music.
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Image credit & copyright: Youssou N’Dour
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
For a guy who started his career singing about spray painting vegetables in Loser, Beck's 2017 single really shows off his music's heroic evolution. The latest video for Up All Night features a knight in shining armor braving the treacherous obstacles at a party gone wrong to rescue her passed-out "prince." Coupled with whimsical and surreal visuals by the productive collective Canada, Beck's danceable love song becomes downright epic. While the slick, retro-futuristic acoustics of Up All Night may come off as effortlessly catchy, the making of the track and the subsequent album Colors was actually a huge undertaking. Beck has said the record was already being worked on before his previous record, the mellow and folky Morning Phase, was even released! We'd say the results of all the tinkering are such a success, he can ride off into the sunset with his protagonists on this one!
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Image credit & copyright: Beck/Capitol Records
It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
For a guy who started his career singing about spray painting vegetables in Loser, Beck's 2017 single really shows off his music's heroic evolution. The latest video for Up All Night features a knight in shining armor braving the treacherous obstacles at a party gone wrong to rescue her passed-out "prince." Coupled with whimsical and surreal visuals by the productive collective Canada, Beck's danceable love song becomes downright epic. While the slick, retro-futuristic acoustics of Up All Night may come off as effortlessly catchy, the making of the track and the subsequent album Colors was actually a huge undertaking. Beck has said the record was already being worked on before his previous record, the mellow and folky Morning Phase, was even released! We'd say the results of all the tinkering are such a success, he can ride off into the sunset with his protagonists on this one!
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Image credit & copyright: Beck/Capitol Records
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FREEWorld History Song CurioFree2 CQ
Jazz percussionist Salvador "Rabito" Agüero found strength in standing with his brothers in more ways than one. As the group Rabbits & Carrots, the Agüero brothers recorded the 1969 album Soul Latino, laying down some heavy covers of popular funk songs. On Las Cuatro Culturas, a take on James Brown's Give It Up or Turn It Loose, the song is built on a triplet-and-duplet riff from the guitar—from there, the two versions diverge; Brown's original mostly kept the groove going between two melodic sections. In contrast, Rabbits & Carrots' version starts off slowly, building to an epic, crashing end in the horn and rhythm sections. The song's momentum and title pay respects to the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, when military forces opened fire on student protestors at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, just days before the Mexico City Olympics. Rabbits and Carrots' message of peace and resilience would have been an empowering one for Mexican counterculturists when it was released; these days, their music is known for standing the test of time as a highly underrated testament to the power of Latino funk.
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Image credit & copyright: MusArt Records
Jazz percussionist Salvador "Rabito" Agüero found strength in standing with his brothers in more ways than one. As the group Rabbits & Carrots, the Agüero brothers recorded the 1969 album Soul Latino, laying down some heavy covers of popular funk songs. On Las Cuatro Culturas, a take on James Brown's Give It Up or Turn It Loose, the song is built on a triplet-and-duplet riff from the guitar—from there, the two versions diverge; Brown's original mostly kept the groove going between two melodic sections. In contrast, Rabbits & Carrots' version starts off slowly, building to an epic, crashing end in the horn and rhythm sections. The song's momentum and title pay respects to the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, when military forces opened fire on student protestors at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, just days before the Mexico City Olympics. Rabbits and Carrots' message of peace and resilience would have been an empowering one for Mexican counterculturists when it was released; these days, their music is known for standing the test of time as a highly underrated testament to the power of Latino funk.
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Image credit & copyright: MusArt Records
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
Why did the Beatles cross Abbey Road? To put the final touches on their 11th studio album, released on this date in 1969. Tensions between the Fab Four had been brewing since their manager Brian Epstein passed away in 1967; with a tenuous recording session for Let It Be behind them, the group went in to record Abbey Road more fractured than ever before. For his part, John Lennon wanted straightforward rock songs to fill the album, while Paul McCartney and producer George Martin wanted to continue the sound experiments they'd begun with Revolver. A compromise was reached with what's known as the Abbey Road Medley: a side two pastiche of nine song fragments saw the band both playing together as a four-piece again, and rattling off psychedelic lyrics with radical changes in key signatures and tempos between tracks. Beginning with McCartney's lament about Beatles business tensions in You Never Give Me Your Money, and finishing with the McCartney-Lennon-Harrison guitar pyrotechnics and resolute vocal harmonies of In the End, the Abbey Road Medley was a fitting coda to one of the most sonically daring albums of the '60s—and one of the greatest rock bands in the world.
Below: recreating the Abbey Road Medley live isn't an easy task. The Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux features members of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien's late night TV orchestras, who came together to pull off some of the Fab Four's daring studio trickery in live settings.
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Image credit & copyright: Apple Records
Why did the Beatles cross Abbey Road? To put the final touches on their 11th studio album, released on this date in 1969. Tensions between the Fab Four had been brewing since their manager Brian Epstein passed away in 1967; with a tenuous recording session for Let It Be behind them, the group went in to record Abbey Road more fractured than ever before. For his part, John Lennon wanted straightforward rock songs to fill the album, while Paul McCartney and producer George Martin wanted to continue the sound experiments they'd begun with Revolver. A compromise was reached with what's known as the Abbey Road Medley: a side two pastiche of nine song fragments saw the band both playing together as a four-piece again, and rattling off psychedelic lyrics with radical changes in key signatures and tempos between tracks. Beginning with McCartney's lament about Beatles business tensions in You Never Give Me Your Money, and finishing with the McCartney-Lennon-Harrison guitar pyrotechnics and resolute vocal harmonies of In the End, the Abbey Road Medley was a fitting coda to one of the most sonically daring albums of the '60s—and one of the greatest rock bands in the world.
Below: recreating the Abbey Road Medley live isn't an easy task. The Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux features members of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien's late night TV orchestras, who came together to pull off some of the Fab Four's daring studio trickery in live settings.
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Image credit & copyright: Apple Records
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
It all started with a little dose of religion: struck by the evocative language of a 20th-century gospel hymn, R&B singer-songwriter Ben E. King crafted a tune that become the ultimate paean to love in the face of seismic change. Born on Sept. 28, 1938, the singer's sharp ear for gospel music (developed in his years in church choirs) and doo-wop love ditties inspired lines like: "If the sky that we look upon / Should tumble and fall…I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear / Just as long as you stand, stand by me." King's earnest and emotional delivery preserves some of the intensity of sacred music while also speaking to a secular audience. He may have been singing from the heart; when he passed away in 2015, he was survived by his wife of 51 years, Betty. The audience also stood by the song; in 2015, the Library of Congress inducted Stand By Me into the National Recording Registry, giving countless future generations the opportunity to slow dance to it.
Below: King with his wife, Betty.
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Image credit & copyright: Associated Press
It all started with a little dose of religion: struck by the evocative language of a 20th-century gospel hymn, R&B singer-songwriter Ben E. King crafted a tune that become the ultimate paean to love in the face of seismic change. Born on Sept. 28, 1938, the singer's sharp ear for gospel music (developed in his years in church choirs) and doo-wop love ditties inspired lines like: "If the sky that we look upon / Should tumble and fall…I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear / Just as long as you stand, stand by me." King's earnest and emotional delivery preserves some of the intensity of sacred music while also speaking to a secular audience. He may have been singing from the heart; when he passed away in 2015, he was survived by his wife of 51 years, Betty. The audience also stood by the song; in 2015, the Library of Congress inducted Stand By Me into the National Recording Registry, giving countless future generations the opportunity to slow dance to it.
Below: King with his wife, Betty.
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Image credit & copyright: Associated Press
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
From the slums of Shaolin, Method Man strikes again. The hip-hop legend and co-founder of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan recently announced a new album, The Lithium, that's sure to sling verses like nunchucks. A veteran of rhyme, Method Man's career began in the early '90s when his pal Prince Rakeem, better known as RZA, recruited his tight-knit group of friends for a collaborative project that would become Wu-Tang. United by their childhood experiences in Staten Island's projects and their love of Kung Fu flicks, sci-fi, and comic books, the group rebelled against inequality by embracing fraternity and boundless creativity. In '96, Method and RZA would ride the success of their platinum album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and create The Riddler, a tune that embodies the supervillain character in the film Batman Forever. In Meth's The Riddler, he takes on the role of the puzzling Batman crook and, with his signature smoked-out vocals, jocular wit, and rebounding flow, riddles the beat with cerebral line after cerebral line—even managing to make Jim Carrey's Riddler seem less quizzical and downright spooky.
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Image credit & copyright: Alex Valdez
From the slums of Shaolin, Method Man strikes again. The hip-hop legend and co-founder of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan recently announced a new album, The Lithium, that's sure to sling verses like nunchucks. A veteran of rhyme, Method Man's career began in the early '90s when his pal Prince Rakeem, better known as RZA, recruited his tight-knit group of friends for a collaborative project that would become Wu-Tang. United by their childhood experiences in Staten Island's projects and their love of Kung Fu flicks, sci-fi, and comic books, the group rebelled against inequality by embracing fraternity and boundless creativity. In '96, Method and RZA would ride the success of their platinum album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and create The Riddler, a tune that embodies the supervillain character in the film Batman Forever. In Meth's The Riddler, he takes on the role of the puzzling Batman crook and, with his signature smoked-out vocals, jocular wit, and rebounding flow, riddles the beat with cerebral line after cerebral line—even managing to make Jim Carrey's Riddler seem less quizzical and downright spooky.
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Image credit & copyright: Alex Valdez
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
It's Flashback Friday! Celebrate fall with this autumnal favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
"To everything... there is a season." Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn! is a fitting tune for the first day of autumn this Friday. However, the song celebrates not the changing weather, but the many seasons of life: "A time to be born, a time to die/A time to plant, a time to reap/A time to kill, a time to heal." Seeger, a songwriter, folk hero, and champion of social justice, wrote the song in 1959. When the Byrds released it in 1965, it shot to the top of the charts. That may seem like ancient history to today's teens, but the lyrics to the song actually date back even further. Seeger adapted them, almost word for word, from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, making Turn! Turn! Turn! the hit song with the oldest lyrics ever. Though Seeger, who died in 2014 at age 94, didn't believe in organized religion, he was impressed by the power of the Biblical lines he turned into lyrics: "I didn't realize when I improvised a melody to a short poem in the Old Testament, that these few words would be some of the most important words I ever would latch onto."
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Image credit & copyright: Julian Oliver Long
It's Flashback Friday! Celebrate fall with this autumnal favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
"To everything... there is a season." Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn! is a fitting tune for the first day of autumn this Friday. However, the song celebrates not the changing weather, but the many seasons of life: "A time to be born, a time to die/A time to plant, a time to reap/A time to kill, a time to heal." Seeger, a songwriter, folk hero, and champion of social justice, wrote the song in 1959. When the Byrds released it in 1965, it shot to the top of the charts. That may seem like ancient history to today's teens, but the lyrics to the song actually date back even further. Seeger adapted them, almost word for word, from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, making Turn! Turn! Turn! the hit song with the oldest lyrics ever. Though Seeger, who died in 2014 at age 94, didn't believe in organized religion, he was impressed by the power of the Biblical lines he turned into lyrics: "I didn't realize when I improvised a melody to a short poem in the Old Testament, that these few words would be some of the most important words I ever would latch onto."
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Image credit & copyright: Julian Oliver Long
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
Forget spring—fall is the real season for lovers! Just ask folk-rocker Neil Young, who penned his 1992 single Harvest Moon for his wife Pegi Young. At the time, Young was approaching 50, and finding himself in a newly prolific period of his life: a string of well-reviewed records were followed by tours with both country and grunge music fans appreciating the artist's simple sound and independent streak. When he settled in Colorado to record the album Harvest Moon, Young embraced his hit-song writing skills like never before, bringing in Linda Ronstadt to add background harmonies on the eponymous track, and creating shuffling, gentle melodic lines to accompany lyrics about aging well and the sweet satisfaction of staying with a beloved partner. For the Harvest Moon music video Young can be seen dancing in a moonlit bar with Peggy as they were, and also as younger versions of themselves. Hey, they don't call it fall-ing in love for nothing!
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Image credit & copyright: Getty Images
Forget spring—fall is the real season for lovers! Just ask folk-rocker Neil Young, who penned his 1992 single Harvest Moon for his wife Pegi Young. At the time, Young was approaching 50, and finding himself in a newly prolific period of his life: a string of well-reviewed records were followed by tours with both country and grunge music fans appreciating the artist's simple sound and independent streak. When he settled in Colorado to record the album Harvest Moon, Young embraced his hit-song writing skills like never before, bringing in Linda Ronstadt to add background harmonies on the eponymous track, and creating shuffling, gentle melodic lines to accompany lyrics about aging well and the sweet satisfaction of staying with a beloved partner. For the Harvest Moon music video Young can be seen dancing in a moonlit bar with Peggy as they were, and also as younger versions of themselves. Hey, they don't call it fall-ing in love for nothing!
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Image credit & copyright: Getty Images
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FREEMusic Song CurioFree2 CQ
Just another country boy lost in the big city. Despite a privileged background and the promise of a Harvard degree, Georgian native Gram Parsons couldn't shake his restless melancholy. Parsons, who died of an overdose on this day in 1973, dropped out of school and relocated to L.A., where he joined up with The Byrds, and later, the Flying Burrito Brothers. By the time Parsons conceived Grievous Angel with country starlet Emmylou Harris, it was painfully obvious what ailed him. On the opening track, Return of the Grievous Angel, Parsons' quavering vocals amble alongside a saloon piano; and as he tells of heading "West to grow up with the country," Harris' angelic voice flutters above his shattered innocence. Despite coming from the Old South, Parsons eschewed its inequalities and bigotry; but when he moved to L.A., hoping to find promised Hippie salvation, all he encountered was his "devil." Like his mother, who succumbed to alcoholism, Parsons found himself unable to reason with the madness of modernity—and drowned somewhere between the past and the present.
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Image credit & copyright: Jim McCrary/Redferns/Getty Images
Just another country boy lost in the big city. Despite a privileged background and the promise of a Harvard degree, Georgian native Gram Parsons couldn't shake his restless melancholy. Parsons, who died of an overdose on this day in 1973, dropped out of school and relocated to L.A., where he joined up with The Byrds, and later, the Flying Burrito Brothers. By the time Parsons conceived Grievous Angel with country starlet Emmylou Harris, it was painfully obvious what ailed him. On the opening track, Return of the Grievous Angel, Parsons' quavering vocals amble alongside a saloon piano; and as he tells of heading "West to grow up with the country," Harris' angelic voice flutters above his shattered innocence. Despite coming from the Old South, Parsons eschewed its inequalities and bigotry; but when he moved to L.A., hoping to find promised Hippie salvation, all he encountered was his "devil." Like his mother, who succumbed to alcoholism, Parsons found himself unable to reason with the madness of modernity—and drowned somewhere between the past and the present.
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Image credit & copyright: Jim McCrary/Redferns/Getty Images