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♫Disco Danse Macabre♫

Okay, kids, you're too young to remember this, but during the Middle Ages there was this notion of the Dance of Death , or, as the French would have it, the Danse Macabre . To be clear, although there are dead (or Death) in the dance, it's not a dance of the dead (sorry, animated skeletons ). It's a dance of the dead (or Death) with various representatives of living, leading the living to (lowercase-d) death. After all, there's only one way this story ends , kids, for everyone. A universal constant. And like many religiously tinged notions from the middle ages, there's art . And more art . And, later, music . And more music. Fenris knows all this, of course, and decided to turn it into a disco song ! So break out your bell bottoms, pull that pull tab off that Tab, and get ready to dance! One Halloween, seeking hub and bub I went down to the disco club I looked around and saw shapes and masks The bass was pumping and the vibe was fast Associating Dans...
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♫King Prog Descends from His Mountain Throne♫

Aside: I tried to limit one hyperlink per group. That made it progressively harder to pick examples as I went along. It starts with a flute. It's named King Prog Descends from His Mountain Throne . I'll connect those in a moment. Here was my comment on YouTube: " Yes ! What was the genesis of this song? I'm glad you didn't rush it out and gave it some focus . I'm unsure about the color of the robes - are they pink or crimson ?" Fenris replied: "h ELP , that's a lot of puns! I admire the craftwork that went into that. You have achieved a veritable quintessance of punsterism, an ambrosia , a nectar . Nice, it takes a rare bird to achieve this. Sound the gong !" So, back to the flute intro: it's not like, uh Jethro Tull , The Moody Blues , King Crimson, Focus, Genesis, or Traffic ever used them. I'll get to other instruments later. Mumble mumble Dream Theater ; Polyphia . Enough of this! I wish that YouTube had a repe...
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♫Electricity is Alive♫

When I was young, I found a  Switched on Bach cassette tape. It blew me away. I had heard Bach before, of course, but to hear it like that? Amazing. I had no idea of how influential it was to Moog , to Wendy Carlos , and to electronic music in general. Oddly (looking back), it didn't spawn an interest in Gary Numan ,  Kraftwerk , Laurie Anderson , or other musicians using "synthesized" music. But there were two things I watched regularly on our local PBS station: Dr Who and Cosmos . The Dreadnik's  Electricity Is Alive 's intro sounds very Stranger Things to me, which I've always thought was Vangelis -like.  But this isn't electronica. This is a  song.  About a force of nature that we have studied, captured, and put to our own use. And lest we forget, a thunderstorm will remind us: electricity is domesticated but not tamed. Just ask Joyce Byers - or Chuck McGill. I'd heard it listen I've heard it speak It flows like water In a voltaic creek The ...
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♫Do You Expect Me to Breathe Fire?♫

Fenris joked that the band in this video could have been named "Strongly Expressed Concern Against the Machine." Some wag suggested "Peeling reflecting pool blue Day." My idea: "System of a Down Down Down Town." (Brooklyn) The image is of an album cover (marked Demo Sessions Vol. 1). Posters in the background say "People over profits" and "Power to the people." A guitar player ( Billie Joe Armstrong , perhaps?) is singing into a microphone. Chuck Schumer , with a purple mohawk, plays base. His T-shirt reads "Hey now, none of that." The other side is running wild Madmen dance to please a child * In our letter, with regret We used our strongest wording yet * Oh, Gemini, why do you say things like, "Madmen dance to please a child" is a famous line from the poem "A Prayer for My Daughter" by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, written in 1919. Yup, that sounds like the current loyal opposition. There are no f...
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♫I Think My Cat Is Evil♫

Raised paw. Cape. Constructivist block print poster. Yes, your cat is evil . It's a cat . But, being a cat, the evil is limited in scope: He pushed my phone right off the edge Watched it fall, then listened to it crash Then he yawned, stretched, and claimed the bed Tail flick, tiny mustache Tiny mustache indeed! (Not a reference to Chaplin or Ron Mael, methinks.) The "ELO vibe"* matches well the cute-but-evil. What cat owner servant hasn't experienced that attitude? * I'm feeling Evil Woman , in particular. I think my cat can understand lyrics, because she just knocked my car key off the counter and batted them under the refrigerator. But as the song progresses, the protagonist becomes less sure the cute part's not a trap . The mood intensifies just after the instrumental break at 2:30: I looked at the paper He was hiding from me "Power plant vents blocked by cat toy," You don't suppose-could it be? Then the mood resolves but the words are more...
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♫An Unanswerable Question♫

Fenris asks (in earnest) if the song has a "Doris Day movie" vibe. It doesn't to me; but it's been a while and I only saw a few of hers. To me, it doesn't matter whether it's Doris Day per se. The song has a feeling about it. Mid-20th Century. The atomic age symbols work. The duet is lovely. They're exchanging thoughts, not glances* . *When arriving at MIT, students are given a book called "HoToGAMIT" (HOw TO Get Around MIT). There are some practical things, and some MIT culture things, and some...silly things, like the following: "To be is to do" – Socrates "To do is to be" – Jean-Paul Sartre "Do be do be do" – Frank Sinatra I'm getting off track. Here's the first verse: I wake in the morning Think 'bout gravity How can it measure In a quantum Reality Oof, there's a lot there! I totally relate to having odd thoughts in the morning. But "gravity"? Oho, no, giving the ne...
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♫Janie's Got the Codes♫

What the heck is "Gothabilly?"* Oh, The Cramps . Maybe. This has a pretty upbeat mood, presumably to offset the topic. I'm hearing more  Reverend Horton Heat than The Cramps but that's just me .  Anyway... * When I created a mix based on Janie's , YouTube suggested The Baboons " Drinkin' Gasoline " and Sparky and the Deadbilly's " Pistol in My Hand " . 50s Diner. Clean cartoon lines. Band in the background*. Janie 's in a pink polka-dot dress with a bow up top. Her wink breaks the 4th wall. Two greasers are eating as the same table. All very " those were the days ." * Is that Howard at the mic? Forget Janie having a gun . This Janie has the codes . Yeah those codes. The "football you don't throw." And despite her wink and grin, she's locked the diner door. Everybody froze Knew this wasn't good We did not believe When she said she could Why not just tackle her? Unplug the "silver case"? ...
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