Major Plug:
I know, I hate when PBS interrupts things to ask for money… so I’ll keep it brief. I printed a new version of the “Road Trip” comic book. It’s really nice and a lot cheaper than the Graphic Novel version I had made. So, spare a “sawbuck” ($10) and help keep the comic running. Thank you!
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I had two major musical influences in my life: my older sisters who listened to 60s AM radio with the likes of Jan & Dean, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, etc. AND my Mother who listened to Classical music all the time. My first memories of music was the “Peer Gynt Suite” by Greig. I’ve used “In the Hall of the Mountain King” more than once in the comics over the years. Then as I grew up, my Mom started me on her clarinet. So I’ve performed in Concert Bands and many Orchestras over the years and this stuff rocks in its own way.
True head bangers know Classical music was the Heavy Metal of its time. Imagine folks use to going to a concert with these tiny little string quartets playing on and on to suddenly be hit with the likes of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky with these massive orchestras with 60, 70 or 100 pieces in them! It would have blown their powdered wigs right off. Too bad they didn’t have cigarette lighters back then for when the orchestra finished…
I’m more into full blown symphonies by the likes of Tchaikovsky or Dvorak, but Wagner has a warm spot in my heart as he was used by Chuck Jones in the classic Warner Brothers Bugs Bunny cartoon “What’s Opera, Doc?” So, I’ve included the original overture and a portion of the cartoon below! Kill the Wabbit!
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxiv3CBMS4M
BUT! For you rockers, how about a little red rocker Sammy Hagar and “Heavy Metal”. Sure, why not… 🙂
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You know this whole ‘classical’ rock thing may just spark a whole new generation of listeners man… I know it’s crazy but hear me out… What if Led Zeppelin played with an fancy dancy Orchestra… I know crazy, but it just may spark a trend… Think about it and get back to me…
That way lies Deep Purple’s “Concerto for Group and Orchestra.” Yes, I’ve actually heard it, a friend of mine bought a copy (and immediately regretted it despite liking classical as well). My own classical tastes lay with the impressionists (Debussy, Ravel) and then-modern soviets (Shostakovich, and especially Kabalevsky), picking up on minimalists (Glass) and hippie classical crossovers (Terry Riley).
I recently described 70’s Tangerine Dream as “what Debussy or Ravel might have done with a Moog Modular.” You have to believe Beethoven would have rocked with screaming guitars all the way through if he’d had them.
As good as John Lord is on his organ (no sex jokes now…) he’s no classical composer which is why that album by Deep Purple failed. When Lord rocks, he’s great.
Beethoven would have definitely rocked the world with guitars!
You silly Canadians… already been done… but then I know you like to kid this old fart too!
😛
There’s KISS Symphony that they did in 2004. Actually brilliantly done. (But then I’m biased as I love KISS.)
Actually Zeplin is to blues what real heavy metal is to classical. It is the juiced up, guitar heavy, grind version of blues…at least most of Zeplin is.
They did delve into other styles, but their main influence was definitely the blues.
There is also a newer current (mainly in europe it seems) of symphonic metal- taking it back towards the classical influence- most of them seem to be led by extraordinarily beautiful women…and I’m not complaining.
or what if orchestras or string quartets or small avant garde neo classical outfits played zeppelin?
oh wait, that’s happened. 😉
yer right though… heavy metal, whether those few can really see it or not, shares some pretty serious ties with classical music in many, many ways. the chaos, the speed, the need to cram 450 notes into 2 measures…
Yeah, I could only play 400 notes in 2 measures… damnit!
Yeah, the parallels are just too many to ignore. 🙂
Darn right! Just listen to Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and tell me that he wasn’t the first Heavy Metal artist!
Maybe instead of lighters, they held up torches.
That would be actually kinda cool!
🙂
Get them through the door and hit them with great music! I have always felt that to truly enjoy music, you have to listen to the music of our past. Not saying that you have to enjoy or appreciate everything from the past, but for people to understand that if it weren’t for the pioneers of their time, we wouldn’t have the plethora of musical categories to choose from.
Well said my man!
🙂
Throw in an umlaut and Dvorak does sound TOTALLY metal…
His 9th symphony, New World, is one of my favorites. Gives me chills to listen to it.
🙂
I’m not even sure you need the umlaut… Get Pablo Francisco doing his impersonation of “Previewman” (the late, great Don LaFontaine), and have him just say “Dvorak”… yeah! (the “zh” sound in Dvorak’s name just makes it…)
I’m with you Byron, I grew up with & appreciated all kinds of music. If it was well crafted, it didn’t have to be rock – I used to baffle my friends to no end; we’d go to a record store & in addition to the latest ‘Sabbath or Uriah Heep LP, I’d be as likely to also pick up a Bach, Mozart, Shostakovich, or Vaughn-Williams, piece, or something by Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Cash or Bill Monroe…
You’re also right about Classical being the pop & heavy metal of it’s time. In fact, I’ve read that the first popular use of the word “fan”, from “fanatic”, was used for followers of the first “rock” star, Hungarian Pianist/Composer Franz Liszt. In the mid 1800’s he toured & would draw huge crowds, sell out concert halls, his concert tickets would be scalped for huge prices, he had his own version of (wealthy) deadheads who would travel around Europe following him from concert to concert, and women would faint at his concerts & fight over handkerchiefs or gloves he would toss into the audience.
In the end, it’s all just good music!
Liszt had groupies? Cool…
Some of Johnny Cash’s stuff is just damn good. He had a great voice and talent for delivery. Yep, I came out with some of the oddest assortment of albums from Bachman-Turner Overdrive to Maynard Ferguson (saw him live once in a bar… man, he can blow).
Variety is the spice of life. But, it’s loud and rockin’, it’s on my car stereo… 😛
Not only did Liszt have groupies, but in a sort of rock and roll recursion moment, Roger Daltrey starred as him in the film Lisztomania some years ago!
Likewise for Wolfie-boy (Mozart). Talk about superstar divas…
Evil trickery! Almost as evil as that rock and roll music you hooligans listen to!
Hey Dawn!
I know, you “youngsters” like your modern “music” which is hard on this old man’s ears…
What the hell is a Lady Ga Ga? Man…
Whoops, Byron fails! Lady Gaga is a shit-hot musician, fine, fine vocalist, and excellent social commentator. In fact I’d call her a direct descendant of a certain godmother. She’s the real deal, something all the Britstinas – or for that matter, La Putana Ciccone – will never be. I LOVE her music. The videos I can’t comment on, since I don’t ‘do’ music videos, but the songs sparkle. Also, she’s one ace blues/soul singer live! Trust me on this 🙂
Hooray for Wagner and all of the Nazis he influenced!
…and hey, the more you influence kids with classical music, the better chance we’ll get more hooligans like Alex from “A Clockwork Orange”!
Okay, I didn’t mean to insult your interests. I think Wagner’s stuff is great. He made some truly incredible music…and Hitler loved his work, too. To each his own.
LOL! You did not insult my interests… I can’t be responsible (nor anyone else) what Hitler or other’s like him listened too. I understood Saddam Hussein boogied to KC & the Sunshine Band on Saturday nights… as you said, to each his own…
🙂
Now “A Clockwork Orange” is a subject for another day. What a crazy film. Genius and disturbing at the same time. Which good films should be. Heh, “hooligans”… love that term!
😛
Hang on – you’re telling me Ahh Murkans don’t use the word *hooligans*?! Eek, your language needs some sprucing up STAT! 😀
I believe it went the way of calling things “neat” or “nifty” … I don’t hear it much here in the heartlands of the USA.
Also, us real rednecks don’t even use the “Ah” in “Ah Murkans” It’s just Murkans, thank you! Like bein’ up a crick wit’ no paddle.
🙂
Actually, we took up calling your countrymen ‘Merkins’ a long time ago. The spelling is strangely appropriate 😛
Awesome book, awesome movie. I really, really hope some Hollyweird loons don’t take it into their microcephalic heads to remake it. ‘Don’t frak with perfection, motherfrakkers!’ I say…
You’d get a bunch of Clockwork die-hards quoting Alex’s painful screaming: “IT’S A SIN!
IT’S A SIN!!”
I remember Yngwei Malmsteem came out in the eighties and wowed some of my smarter friends with his classical metal goodies, and I always dug a few licks by Iron Maiden and even Anthrax (Belly of the Beast anyone?) that had what sounded like classical movements in them.
I’ve been say this for years, but I’ve always wanted to shred some canyon on my Harley with Tchaikovsky blasting. Now with my iPod I can actually do it!
Tchaikovsky’s symphonies are truly under-rated. I have several of them and he held his own.
Can you hear your iPod over your Harley? 🙂
Haven’t tried yet. It’s been parked for a few years until this summer. Working out a few issues and new parts. I’ve been using a full helmet for some time that should help, so I think it should work okay. I’m waiting for a bluetooth speaker equipped helmet to hit the market so I can wait a few years for the prices to drop so I can buy. 🙂
What amazes me about Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the number of ways in which it kicks ass … the first movement knocks you flat on your back, the second picks you up and energizes you, the third movement mellows you out, and the fourth movement (with the “Ode To Joy”) sticks a lightning rod into your skull and totally demolishes your mind.
On top of all that, do you realize that by the time Beethoven wrote the 9th, he had completely lost his hearing. This is what he heard INSIDE HIS OWN HEAD. Holy violas, Batman.
I suppose if we really wanted to get twisted, we could look at this the way I did a moment ago, too quickly, and read it as, “Heavy Metal Thundarr”
“Ariel… Ookla… We ROCK!”
Of course, if you wanted to take another approach to this, you could read it the way I did, too quickly while distracted, and see the title as “Heavy Metal Thundarr”!
“Ariel… Ookla… We ROCK!”