Tag: Music

The Ears Of Texas Are

Entertainment, Music

…relieved, after Judas Priest unexpectedly canceled their Houston gig a couple days back.

I saw Priest in 1986(?) in Austin, and that concert got me to wear earplugs to concerts ever thereafter.

Let me tell you:  I played in a loud rock band for ten years before that, and Judas Priest were LOUD.  My ears rang for about four days after the show.

I am frankly amazed that these old farts can still play the shows they do, ditto the Rolling Stones etc. (but not the Eagles, who are pretty much just a mime gig nowadays, apparently).

More power to them, say I, although perhaps the last thing the Priest need is more power.

All that said, I myself have often said that I would (still) love to play in a band — just not a rock band;  been there, done that, got the tinnitus.  But put me in a quiet little dinner-dance restaurant, playing old 1940s and -50s standards and ballads, preferably in a trio (piano, bass, and Drummer Knob on drums) with a torch singer like Julie London or Diana Krall… I’d be the happiest septuagenarian in history.

I still miss playing in a band.

Classical Exit

Music

When I talked about which song you’d like to hear on your deathbed, I was of course referring to the spirit of the initial poll, which asked Brits which popular song they’d like to hear as they shuffled off this mortal coil.

No mention of classical music, of course, which didn’t stop several of you from listing your classical choice.

But in the spirit of that, here are my Top 5 Choices for Classical Deathbed Music — the music I’d want to hear in my last conscious awareness — and there are five only because I don’t want to list fifty (which I could), and in any event, I find it absolutely impossible to pick only one.  Any one of the following would be just fine by me, and all I can say is that I’d sorely miss hearing the other four.

Faure’s Requiem (appropriately enough)

Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, 2nd Movement

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini

Chopin’s Nocturnes

Strauss’s Die Fledermaus Overture (just a short piece, in case it’s all I’d be able to have, and Zubin Mehta conducting the Vienna Phil?  Worth every moment.)

Final Song

Entertainment

Brits were polled recently on which song they’d like to hear in their dying moments, and oy vey:

…and all I have to say is:  FFS.

  1. Having Sinatra bellowing his out-of-tune signature song would only hasten my demise by making me roar in rage and pain.  Fucking hell, imagine taking that noise with you into eternity.
  2. Ditto Whitney Houston’s braying version of that lovely Dolly Parton lament.  (I might just accept Dolly’s version, though.)
  3. I love me some Tina Turner, but not Simply The Best.
  4. Ditto Judy Garland, but not the syrupy Over The Rainbow.
  5. And being on my deathbed can hardly be called “having fun”, unless Salma Hayek has granted my dying wish.
  6. I don’t believe in angels, even when sung by Abba.
  7. Finally a song I could listen to without bellowing in rage.  Sing it to me, Satchmo.  It would be my 1b). choice.
  8. I don’t know Beautiful, so no comment.
  9. Hmmmm a Beatles song… not Hey Jude;  shuffling off the mortal coil with “Na na na nana na na” ringing in your ears would be just an unspeakable prospect.
  10. Okay, I wouldn’t mind a Queen song, just not that one.  Depending on my mood, I could do Bohemian Rhapsody (or Fat-Bottomed Girls, so I could leave with a smile on my face).

Actually, the last song I’d like to hear is September Song.  And yes, Willie’s version.  I can think of no better way to slide into oblivion — and if I could be greedy, his entire Stardust  album.