Nothing to report, just a musical interlude for your enjoyment. Chaise Longue blew up when it was first posted on YouTube. After a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist (they lost to Samara Joy who we saw recently at the Blue Note).
Wet Leg – Chaise Longue at the BRIT Awards
“I was staying over at Hester’s house when we wrote it, and when I stay over, she always makes up the chaise longue for me. It was a song that never really was supposed to see the light of day. So it’s really funny to me that so many people are into it and have connected with it. It’s cool.”
I turn to Crosby’s music when I am feeling melancholy. His sweet voice is like an old friend who had been there, understands, and tells you how events fit into the broader universe. His perspective came from a kind soul who was perhaps too trusting and suffered for it. “Honest to the point of recklessness” as the song goes.
If you want to listen to some pure Crosby magic, take a listen to this solo concert from a small theater in Berkeley in 1981 – it’s very intimate, just him with his guitar and about 100 people in a beautiful wooden building designed by Julia Morgan.
Now he is gone. I like to think of him soaring above us, finally free of the weights that held him down, like his mother in his song Carry Me.
And then there was my mother: She was lying in white sheets there and she was waiting to die. She said, “If you’d just reach underneath this bed And untie these weights, I could surely fly.
She’s still smiling but she’s tired, She’d like to hear that last bell ring. You know if she could she would Stand up, and she could sing, singing
Carry me, carry me Carry me above the world Carry me, carry me.
If Only I Could Remember My Name was on repeat when I was in boarding school, especially when it was rainy and cold outside, like is in NYC today. Press play and remember David Crosby.
Biko and Manna Nhlangothi are a sister and brother duo raised by musician parents that perform as Biko Manna. They’ve been dazzling crowds with their street performances in their home county of South Africa for several years but have recently hit it big by covering Japanese pop songs on YouTube.
Apparently the story is the father visited Japan and fell in love with Japanese pop music and brought back some music with him. His kids picked up the lyrics by ear and they’ve made their own cover versions.
I’d love to learn more about them, there’s very little written in English but I could see them touring Japan someday. Biko’s voice will knock your socks off but her brother and younger (friend?) that joins in to ham it up are a kick too.
Here’s a documentary I found that talks a little about their background.
Alex Wise is a professional musician (alexwise.com) and longtime Deadhead. As an accomplished guitarist, he listens to the music of the Grateful Dead with a careful ear for detail and can speak to the evolution of their style in a much more nuanced way than your average Deadhead.
Listening to Alex’s interview with Brokedown Podcast’s JM Hart is like listening to two baseball stat nerds get into the weeds on the specifics of the game. I love it. The cracks about Weir’s attempts at slide guitar are something that would make any member of this particular tribe smile.
If you have a passing interest in the the music of the Grateful Dead and wondered what all the fuss was about and how people can listen to so many different versions of Morning Dew, this podcast episode will unveil some of layers of that fan-hood.
Anybody who thinks that the Russians have no sense of humor has not seen Little Big, Russia’s entry in this year’s Eurovision contest.
With over 125M views, Little Big’s Uno video is the most watched video on the Eurovision channel. The annual contest was unfortunately cancelled this year due to the pandemic but there’s plenty more to see on the Eurovision YouTube channel.
When Deadheads try to explain their appreciation for the Grateful Dead, they will probably point you to a concert at Cornell University in 1977, in particular the sequence from Scarlet Begonias to Fire on the Mountain.
YouTuber Michael Palmisano has built up his channel, Guitar Teacher REACTS around the deconstruction of live music jams. To celebrate his 100,000th subscriber, Michael deconstructed Scarlet > Fire from 5/8/77.
I’ve listened to this version many times but following the Guitar Teacher through his hour-long analysis revealed flourishes that I knew all along were there but never fully appreciated or had the vocabulary to explain. From Scarlet’s “mixolidian lick” to Keith’s arpeggiating progressions – he calls out all the shiny bits and holds each one up to the light like its own little gem.
At the transition into Fire at around 21 minutes, Michael breaks down how each musician transitions over “step-by-step” until the band collectively agree it’s time to jump over. Watching him walk you thru the magic, painted in real-time as only a band that plays together, night after night, can do is infectious.
Three mates stuck in their apartment Barcelona hit a chord with their bit, Stay Homas and have now become an internet sensation with their own YouTube channel and a profile in the New Yorker.
If you’ve been to Tokyo, you’ve heard the melodies. Meet the man behind the music, the colorful Minoru Mukaiya. H/T to Tyler for finding this wonderful video.
