THE CAT’S PAWS

More often than not, soundtracks tend not to pair well with their films because of the rascals in the music industry conspire with the rascals in the film industry to promote their signed acts. Rarer, MUCH more rare,is when a film project’s production makes a concerted effort to integrate the mood and tenor of the music compatible with sequenced events that appear on the screen. Most rare are those that succeed entirely in this, and it’s nearly impossible to prevail on artists who are commissioned to write their compositions in a manner to accentuate the same flow and gist of the film at the very moments the tracks run behind what the viewers feel as their absorption in the power of what’s up on the screen. (more…)

Bob knocked out this record amidst other project and collaborations. He, Charlie Daniels (bass) and Russ Kunkel (drums–aka Jackson Browne’s drummer a decade later) laid down some tracks, whereupon Bob scrubbed a few of them. The record was stil swiftly recorded, and it’s but another subtle hint as to why this guy’s so damn good. (more…)

This is one of a slew of manipulated mono recordings of the original ‘Let it Be’ sessions of 1970, stripped of co-producer Phil Spectre’s augmentations. Spectre was big on adding tracks of dishes falling, seagulls crying, ocean shore sounds, et al. All of these and more can be found to the most astute listener on the original record. In ‘Naked’, nothing like that appears and has been painstekingly extracted. (more…)

The harrowing non-lyric vocals for the tune ‘Great Gig in the Sky’ (Pink Floyd album ‘Dark Side of the Moon’) came from a young Londoner who, in her words, was ‘green’. An interviewer asked her what she earned from her two-take (Abbey Road) studio perfomance: (more…)

I wrote an identical message last October; this makes year #4 of consecutive decisions by our symphony leadership to omit from their holiday program the performance of Handel’s masterpiece The Messiah. For the fourth consecutive year, people, the SLSO apparently still isn’t up to performing it for a scant weekend during the Christmas season. We in StL–and the symphony–better start worring now that our patrons will entirely forget who Handel is, let alone recall his masterpiece. (more…)

The Bloomberg Press, in announcing the news of Sid Barret’s death in July of 2006, offered a bit of detail regarding how the Cambridge, UK band’s founder named his band Pink Floyd. The writers of that article share what I’m certain is an error regarding how Barrett arrived at the name. The article states:

‘He is believed to have named the band after two bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, whose music was included in his record collection’.

Nope. I don’t doubt that these guys were in Barrett’s music collection, but I’m not going by version written by two Bloomberg.com writer lads easily ten years my junior. More accurate is what I read in one of those ‘rock music stars’ mags that I saw when over at a (Barrett-like) friend’s house back, oh, in the early eighties or even late seventies, and that version of the story, down on brownish paper, was vintage even then. Granted, Barrett was out of the picture nearly ten years prior to the rock mag’s story, but it’s all about age over beauty. I’m going with what the article we read (and re-read) told us.

So how did Pink Floyd really get it’s name? ‘Pink’ and ‘Floyd’ were Barrett’s pet cats. Evidently he liked cats, enough to own two of them, and just like that, two felines became the supergroup’s namesake.

SO..what does this mean? I’ll share: If I ever am in charge of a school trivia night event, SCREW the standard television category. Can you see a thirty-something (lady) social studies teacher frowning to ponder the the question: ‘How did the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd get it’s name?’ I’d be generous and would accept the wrong answer.