Posts Tagged: download free music videos
Paul Robeson: Ol’ Man River and Vi Azoy Lebt der Kayser?
Here is the beginning of Encyclopedia.com’s profile of the multi-talented Paul Robeson, one of the most important figures — musical and otherwise — of the twentieth century:
Paul Robeson—singer, actor, civil rights activist, law school graduate, athlete, scholar, author— was perhaps the best known and most widely respected black American of the 1930s and 1940s. Robeson was also a staunch supporter of the Soviet Union, and a man, later in his life, widely vilified and censored for his frankness and unyielding views on issues to which public opinion ran contrary. As a young man, Robeson was virile, charismatic, eloquent, and powerful. He learned to speak more than 20 languages in order to break down the barriers of race and ignorance throughout the world, and yet, as Sterling Stuckey pointed out in the New York Times Book Review, for the last 25 years of his life his was “a great whisper and a greater silence in black America.”Born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898, Robeson was spared most of the daily brutalities suffered by African Americans around the turn of the century. But his family was not totally free from hardship. Robeson’s mother died from a stove-fire accident when he was six. His father, a runaway slave who became a pastor, was removed from an early ministerial position. Nonetheless, from his father Robeson learned diligence and an “unshakable dignity and courage in spite of the press of racism and poverty.” These characteristics, Stuckey noted, defined Robeson’s approach in his beliefs and actions throughout his life. (Continue Reading…)
The above video of of Robeson singing Ol’ Man River in Showboat – which was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II – is the best known clip of Robeson. Below, Robeson sings Vi Azoy Lebt der Kayser? (How Does the Czar Drink Tea?). The song, sung in Yiddish, satirizes Czarist Russia. More information, including a translation, is provided here and here.
by 
Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade of Pale and Conquistador
Taking a rock song from the 1960s and, 30 or so years later, throwing the Danish National Concert Orchestra behind it may seem a bit much. The song would become bloated, self reverential and a bit ridiculous. But if the song is A Whiter Shade of Pale, it all comes off well. The band is in great form and the [pullquote]ddddd[/pullquote]video itself is excellent. Moreover, the song really sounds classical at the beginning. It’s not one of those hokey attempts — a classical orchestra playing Smoke on the Water.
Wikipedia said that a television special was recorded in 2006 at the Ledreborg Castle in Denmark. The name of the orchestra in that citation and at YouTube are slightly different, but this most likely is from that performance.
Procol Harum was a great band whose biggest song far outshone all its others. Here is the beginning of Wikipedia’s profile.
Procol Harum are a British rock band. Formed in 1967, they contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.[1] Although noted for its baroque and classical influence, Procol Harum’s music also embraces the blues, R&B and soul. In October 2012, the band were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but were unsuccessful on this occasion.[2] (Continue Reading…)
The piece points out that Procol Harum was rejected in a bid to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. I think lesser bands are in. Here is a fan site that has a lot of interest material but seems to not have been updated. Below is Conquistador.
by
David Lindley: Mercury Blues and King of the Bed
I had the opportunity to see David Lindley perform last weekend through a very nice invitation by a couple of friends. Lindley was eccentric, brought a wide variety of string instruments with him and is immensely talented. He seemed to be upset that the 1960s ended, but also appeared to have adjusted quite well to the new millennium.
As the first paragraph of his AllMusic profile suggests, Lindley certainly comes out well if he is judged by the company he keeps:
David Lindley is the consummate musician’s musician. A much-respected session player, Lindley has added his melodic string playing to albums by a lengthy list of artists, including Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Rory Block, Ry Cooder, Warren Zevon, Terry Reid, David Blue, James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. From 1971 until 1981, Lindley played a guiding role on Jackson Browne’s recordings and concert performances. Lindley’s eclectic approach provided the foundation for his own bands, Kaleidoscope (1967 — 1970) and El Rayo X (1981 — 1990). (Continue Reading…)
One of the instruments he had with him was an oud, which is an antecedent of the lute. He also brought what looked like a rather bulky acoustic guitar. The bulkiness was due to the fact that the neck of the guitar wasn’t solid. Instead, the cavity in the body continued through the top of the neck.
Above is Mercury Blues, performed with Jackson Browne. (If you like car songs, check out Deuce and a Quarter, performed by Levon Helm, Keith Richards, Scotty Moore and other notables.) There are several very good and high quality videos from the same concert on YouTube, including Running on Empty and Take It Easy. I recommend them. Below is King of the Bed.
by
Stompin’ Tom Connors: The Hockey Song and Bud the Spud
Canadian folks singer Stompin’ Tom Connors — who died March 6 at age 77 — recorded an amazing 61 albums. Ten of them have not even been released.
Here is part of the bio at his website:
Born Thomas Charles Connors in Saint John New Brunswick on February 9th 1936, he was separated from his mother at a young age and raised by foster parents in Skinners Pond, P.E.I. until he was 13 years old. His life of poverty, orphanages, hitchhiking and playing bars would eventually turn into a life of hit songs, national concert tours and fame in spite of a constant uphill battle to be recognized by the music industry in Canada. In 1979 in a fit of frustration and disappointment he returned all 6 of his Juno awards as a statement of personal protest against the Americanization of the Canadian Music Industry, a sentiment he continued to express to this day. In 1989 Tom signed with EMI Music Canada, teamed up with talent promoter Brian Edwards and returned to the stage where fans young and old embraced his music once again as he quickly became one of the biggest concert draws and sought after performers in the country.
Due to the unwavering love for promoting his home country, some of the many accolades he has received include becoming an Officer of the Order of Canada, his own Canadian postage stamp, he was invited by the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson to receive the Governor Generals Performing Arts Award, he was the recipient of both the Queens Gold and Diamond Jubilee Medals and he earned 3 honorary doctorate degrees (Saint Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick; “Laws”, University of Toronto; “Laws”, and the University of P.E.I.; “Letters”). (Continue Reading…)
The Toronto Star has a nice obit. This is how it starts:
Stompin’ Tom Connors , the lanky, cranky country-folk music legend who extolled Canada’s pastoral and working-class virtues in song for more than 40 years in saloons, festivals and concert halls across the country — all the time railing against a global music industry that he considered had betrayed the nation’s character and song treasury — has died. He was 77. (Continue Reading…)
Connors fought the influence of the American music industry. This brings up one of the great lines ever, which is credited to Mexican president José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori: “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!”
Connors wrote and performed The Hockey Song (above, sung at the 1993 celebration following The Montreal Canadians, Stanley Cup win). It is to hockey what Take Me Out to the Ball Game is to baseball. Below is Bud the Spud.
by
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Heads Will Roll and Zero
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who have been around since 2000, are getting a lot of coverage. Spin’s March cover story is about the band — the piece is promoted here – but apparently isn’t online yet. The New York Times also recently ran a piece on the indie band. This paragraph is about halfway through:
You’ve never met three more awkward rock stars. Chase is a consummate music nerd, a conservatory-trained jazz drummer who still plays in the city’s experimental scene. Zinner, who looks the part of a rock star, is a regular at bars and other bands’ shows but doesn’t say much. And Karen O is an exhibitionistic Boo Radley, a warped dervish onstage who disappears after the encore and is rarely seen out in real life. What they have in common is a hypersensitivity to the world that borders on pathological — a near parody of the artist’s temperament. It sounds like a miserable way to live. “There’s definitely been times where I thought I would trade any of my gifts just for a normal, happy life,” Karen O said. But it’s also their secret weapon. When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ collective anxiety about, well, anything — themselves, one another, existence in general — boils over, it happens to make a really cool sound. As the band’s producer Dave Sitek puts it, “Discomfort is fuel for them.” (Continue Reading…)
I have no idea what Time’s writer Lizzy Goodman means by the phrase “an exhibitionistic Boo Radley,” and sort of doubt she does either. But it’s a nice phrase, and Karen O certainly is a great front person.
There is dark stuff in many of the band’s videos. Above is Heads Will Roll and below is Zero.
by
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Won’t Back Down
Like a lot of Tom Petty & the Heartbreaker’s songs, Mary Jane’s Last Dance (above) seems to have a touch of Dylan and a touch of British invasion. This song also sounds a bit like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Below is Jammin’ Me.
Here is the band’s site and the start of the bio at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, into which the band was induced in 2002:
In a sense, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are America’s band. Durable, resourceful, hard-working, likeable and unpretentious, they rank among the most capable and classic rock bands of the last quarter century. They’ve mastered the idiom’s fundamentals and digested its history while stretching themselves creatively and contributing to rock’s legacy. Moreover they are, like such compatriots as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, a people’s band, writing of everyday struggles and frustrations while offering redemption through tough-minded, big-hearted, tuneful songs. (Continue Reading…)
Below is Jammin’ Me.
by
Milestones, Good and Bad, for the Winter Brothers
This Day in Music notes that Dan Hartman died of a brain tumor on March 22, 1994. Hartman was a mainstay in both Winters’ careers and, among other things, wrote Free Ride, according to the item.
TDIM also notes that Randy Hobbs, a bass player for Johnny Winter, was born on this day in 1948. He died in 1993.
Above, Hartman plays bass on Frankenstein, a hit for Edgar Winter. Rick Derringer is the lead guitar player and Chuck Ruff is on drums. The people look dated, but the song still sounds great.
by
War: Low Rider and Cisco Kid
Low Rider, above, doesn’t start until about a minute and half into the clip. It is interesting to watch Don Cornelius hold court, however.
War has a long, complex and interesting history. Here is the beginning of AllMusic’s profile:
One of the most popular funk groups of the ’70s, War were also one of the most eclectic, freely melding soul, Latin, jazz, blues, reggae, and rock influences into an effortlessly funky whole. Although War’s lyrics were sometimes political in nature (in keeping with their racially integrated lineup), their music almost always had a sunny, laid-back vibe emblematic of their Southern California roots. War kept the groove loose, and they were given over to extended jamming — in fact, many of their studio songs were edited together out of longer improvisations. Even if the jams sometimes got indulgent, they demonstrated War’s truly group-minded approach: no one soloist or vocalist really stood above the others (even though all were clearly talented), and their grooving interplay placed War in the top echelon of funk ensembles. (Continue Reading…)
Wikipedia has more:
War (originally called Eric Burdon and War) is an American funk band from California, known for the hit songs “Low Rider”, “Spill the Wine”, “The Cisco Kid”, “The World Is a Ghetto”, and “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”. Formed in 1969, War was a musical crossover band which fused elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues, and reggae.[1] The band also transcended racial and cultural barriers with a multi-ethnic line-up. War was also subject to many line-up changes over the course of its formation, leaving member Leroy “Lonnie” Jordan as the only original member in the current line-up.
Although War’s lyrics are often socio-political in nature, their music usually had a laid-back, California funk vibe. A particular feature of War’s sound is the use of harmonica and saxophone playing melody lines in unison, sounding like a single instrument, for example in the melody of “Low Rider”. The music has been sampled and recorded by many singers and groups, ranging from R&B/pop singers such as Janet Jackson to nu metal band Korn and hip hop groups like TLC. (Continue Reading…)
Eric Burdon, who had been in The Animals, also was a member of War at one point. The band produced Spill the Wine during that partnership.
by