Music – Page 4 – Chicago Boyz

I’ve Been Everywhere

September 6, 2020 by Jonathan

The 2004 remake of “Flight of the Phoenix” was mostly dreck except for the sublime opening scene.

I don’t think many people at this site are in need of an explanation as to what was wrong with Alexandria Occasio-Cortez’s objection to the statue of Father Damien. So I’ll just link a couple of songs about Damien, from Tom Russell’s album The Rose of Roscrae.

The Hands of Damien

A Crust of Bread, a Slice of Fish, a Cup of Water

The protagonist of the album, which is set in the American West, is an Irish immigrant and outlaw named Johnny: when he hears Damien’s story, it inspires him to seek his own redemption.

At the Tomb of Couperin – Thoughts on a Centenary

November 13, 2018November 11, 2018 by Sgt. Mom

There is a lovely little classical piece by Maurice Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin, composed shortly after the end of the war, five of the six movements dedicated to the memory of an individual, and one for a pair of brothers, all close friends of the composer, every one of them fallen in a war of such ghastliness that it not only put paid to a century of optimistic progress, but barely twenty years later it birthed another and hardly less ghastly war. Maurice Ravel himself was over-age, under-tall and not in the most robust of health, but such was the sense of national emergency that he volunteered for the military anyway, eventually serving as a driver frequently under fire and in danger. Not the usual place to find one of France’s contemporarily-famous composers, but they did things differently at the end of the 19th Century and heading all wide-eyed and optimistic into the 20th. Citizens of the intellectual and artistic ilk were not ashamed of their country, or feel obliged to apologize for a patriotic attachment, or make a show of sullen ingratitude for having been favored by the public in displaying their talents.

Smashing Pumpkins in 2018 and 1991

August 27, 2018 by Carl from Chicago

The Smashing Pumpkins came to Portland on Saturday, August 25th at the Moda Center (the arena where the Portland Trail Blazers play). It was a good show and the sound was excellent (we recently saw a show at the Veterans Arena adjacent to the Moda Center and the sound was so terrible we walked out half-way through the show).

They played the hits – most of the show was based on their first few albums – Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and a bit of their next two. There wasn’t a lot of their most recent work – the local paper described the show as “Give the Gen X’ers What They Want”.

The whole band was there except for original bassist D’Arcy. Like (nearly) everyone else, I had my story of when I ran into the Smashing Pumpkins back in Chicago – James Iha and D’Arcy were behind me in line at Best Buy purchasing CD’s a long time ago.

While I love the Smashing Pumpkins unconditionally, I can see how Billy Corgan’s “woe is me” routine would be grating. He had a bad childhood and it was highlighted from the very first song “Disarm” where he had pictures of himself as a child with annotations and they weren’t happy, for sure.