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08 Sep 00 - 03:42 PM (#293630) Subject: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis 'Classical' music has had the largest influence on me, but it's not what you'd call strange... Hmm. This is a hard one. I've always been pretty eclectic in what I like listening to. For classical music, I'd have to say that the strangest stuff I've ever heard is Nancy Telford's 'random music' (don't know what else to call it) choral arrangement of She's Like The Swallow. There were several sections where the choir each individually sang different phrases of text on three different notes, at random tempos, and the conductor merely decided when we all would move to our next notes. It's really hard to describe. Sort of like the crowd noise when people are waiting for the lights to go out in the theater, and everybody's talking at once, only this had some musical structure added to it. Really strange. That experience certainly influenced my creativity when I'm writing music. The thought that music doesn't have to be nailed down to an absolute time or even note is a liberating concept during the writing stage. For me anyway. Eventually I do nail it down, but the concept of not nailing it down is an amazing one. So, what's your strangest musical influence? ~*sirepseh*~ |
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08 Sep 00 - 03:54 PM (#293641) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Dave (the ancient mariner) Listening to a Congolese Choir (Missa Lubba Les Troubadors Roi Baudoin sp? ) Singing "Sanctus" from the Latin Mass, to the beat of Congolese drums (used in the movie "If") very inspiring if a little odd. Otherwise I would have to say Japaneses Kibuki music. Aye. Dave |
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08 Sep 00 - 04:05 PM (#293647) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Wesley S There was a semi-classical composer by the name of Moondog { Louis Hardin } that recorded 2 LP's for Colombia back in the 70's. Great stuff. Lots of jazz influences in his composing. Plus a record I heard called "Music from the end of the world" that included the Monkey Chant and Balinese Gamalian music. I also seem to want to pick up my Martin D-18 and play riffs off of James Brown and Prince records sometimes. Something in the funk gets lost however. A poem by Moondog said - "Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time. But now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time" |
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08 Sep 00 - 04:20 PM (#293653) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: SINSULL I HAD THE RARE EXPERIENCE OF BEING INVITED TO A MONASTERY IN TIBET FOR EARLY MORNING PRAYERS. A HUNDRED MONKS CHANTING, MURMERING, BLOWING STRANGE HORNS, BEATING STRANGE DRUMS, GONGS, CYMBALS. THE SMELL OF INCENSE AND YAK BUTTER LAMPS. MESMERIZING. WHEN STRESS IS AT ITS WORST, I SIT QUIETLY AND REMEMBER THOSE FEW HOURS OF TOTAL HYPNOTIC PEACE. I HAVE DECIDED TO IGNORE MY CAPSLOCK PROBLEM AND GET ON WITH MY LIFE. |
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08 Sep 00 - 04:26 PM (#293656) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: bflat Learning to sing in Latin at the age of seven. I didn't have the foggest notion what I was doing but I still recall how scared I was that I was going to get it wrong. Not a good idea to foist that kind of expeience of a kid. bflat |
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08 Sep 00 - 04:34 PM (#293661) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: MMario learning to project by singing while disc-harrowing corn fields |
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08 Sep 00 - 04:53 PM (#293672) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: annamill I once heard a CD by a 4-string quartet doing Metallica!! Love, annamill |
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08 Sep 00 - 04:53 PM (#293673) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: mousethief Hildegaard von Bingen ranks right up there, also Byzantine and various other eastern European chant forms. Although I have yet to compose a song that makes use of these influences, they definitely influence my singing/phrasing.
O..O |
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08 Sep 00 - 05:01 PM (#293680) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Wow! These all sound like they'd be really interesting. I'm going to have to make a list and find some of them. annamill - do you remember the CD info? That is so cool! |
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08 Sep 00 - 05:04 PM (#293684) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: RWilhelm Peter Stampfel |
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08 Sep 00 - 06:57 PM (#293717) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Thomas the Rhymer No categorization: Paul Dresher, Fred Frith (Art Bears) Beethoven's Ninth-second movement, Philip Glass, Eric Satie, Yoko Ono, Raindrops on a tin roof with a big wind blowing through trees and the sounds of a fire crackling at the hearth... and many, many more! |
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08 Sep 00 - 07:00 PM (#293719) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Sorcha Well, I don't know how much I was influenced by it, but the strangest things I have ever played were Stravinsky and a tympani concerto by Daruis Milhaud. I also have this Japanese bamboo flute CD that I can't hear but half the notes on, and it is strange. Might not be quite so strange if I could hear it all. I don't think Hildegaard is strange at all. |
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08 Sep 00 - 07:29 PM (#293734) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Mbo The traditional Indian music performed by Ravi Shankar & friends on the "Gandhi" soundtrack. |
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08 Sep 00 - 07:34 PM (#293737) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: sophocleese The Fugs, scarred me for life that album my Dad got of them. That and the king in Monty Python's Fairy Tale singing "ya dee pockaty yumting ktoo!" or words to that effect. |
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08 Sep 00 - 07:39 PM (#293741) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: catspaw49 CLICK Spaw |
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08 Sep 00 - 08:04 PM (#293757) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Great! Keep 'em coming, phoaks! Let's have some more for the list of music so strange, that if it were played outside the Neil Young Center for the Terminally Screwed, it would turn the Center at a 90-degree angle, inextricably altering the fabric of the space-time continuum, and leading to bands of escaped tiple players assaulting the ears of a race of space-going frogs from another dimension who are armed only with bufflebusters. (That was the closest translation of the word 'galing-galugh-guh' that I could find in the 'Intergalactic Foreign Curse Dictionary'... Honest!) Spaw's farts have a definite influence on me. I don't know if that counts as musical though. They influence me to choke, gag, and leave the room, where I proceed to roll on the floor, laughing madly. Is the primary composition of his farts really laughing gas? Sometimes I wonder... |
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08 Sep 00 - 08:07 PM (#293761) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Lena They are not strange at all; Stravinsky has always been my greatest love(and he was a nice folkie folker...),and the cello sonata op.8 from Zoltan Kodaly ...I always get surprised of how much it affects me.When I heard it the first time,many years ago,i couldn't sleep for one week,it kept on roaring(for the first measures are a big cello roarrr)in my head.And good old Frank Zappa.Yes,I love their music so much.Anyway,I started playing clarinet because of Stravinsky's first piece for clarinet solo...i'm glad I was able to play it on an alto clarinet. |
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08 Sep 00 - 09:04 PM (#293796) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: dwditty 'Spaw, Your "influence" - certainly not inflatulence in your case - was on Howard Stern one morning not too long agao. I had to pull over at one point I was laughing so hard. dw |
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08 Sep 00 - 10:32 PM (#293848) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: CarolC My warped and twisted sense of humor (hey, I play the accordion, remember?) (Love Zappa) Carol |
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08 Sep 00 - 10:38 PM (#293851) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Jon Freeman I have told the tale before for different reasons but my strangest musical influence was Jayne (who I loved but I found out had a boyfriend in prison). The influence in this case was screwing my emotions up enough to actually get me able to write a couple of tunes. Jon |
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08 Sep 00 - 11:00 PM (#293860) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Brendy And a very nice tune as well, Jon. B. |
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08 Sep 00 - 11:15 PM (#293864) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Peter Kasin Mr. Methane. |
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08 Sep 00 - 11:27 PM (#293869) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Oversoul The viola has been my strangest and most rewarding musical influence. I come from a banjo, guitar, mandolin background and the viola has brought it all together. This is not a "snappy" instrument, but it can get around enough to say quite a bit when given the chance. If you like "slide" guitar styles, or have a regard for sonority, the viola might really be for you too. |
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08 Sep 00 - 11:29 PM (#293870) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Escamillo Spaw. |
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08 Sep 00 - 11:30 PM (#293871) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Brendy It's a nice instrument on a slow ballad. Beautiful tone, a viola. B. |
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08 Sep 00 - 11:31 PM (#293873) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Brendy ....And it gives Irish trad a interesting angle. B. |
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08 Sep 00 - 11:46 PM (#293879) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Lyrical Lady Some years ago, a young man came live on our little island, He played his guitar and sang everywhere he went. He had a very low, gravely "whiskey" voice but sang in perfect pitch. We called him "MUDFLAP". That was the first time I had ever sung with a "musician", and I was hooked. People either loved him or hated him, his style was that different. Not long after, he died of throat cancer. If we had only known. Last year, I sang with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra at a Cancer Clinic Fund Raiser, and thought of him. |
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09 Sep 00 - 06:43 AM (#294003) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Jon - I know what you mean. Are you in a HearMe somewhere? Lyrical Lady - That is a very sad, beautiful story. Another musical influence of mine, although not strange, is Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 5. The French Horn parts are very beautiful, and I think that's why I play horn. I grew up listening to the original recording by the Berlin Philharmonic. No other version can stir me emotionally the way that familiar, grand, magical piece can. ~*sirepseh*~ |
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09 Sep 00 - 07:16 AM (#294015) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: gillymor Probably the Spike Jones, Dorothy Shay, Allan Sherman and Smothers Brothers records my Dad use to listen to with us. It's given me a lifelong infatuation with funny songs on up through Steve Goodman, Martin Mull, Frank Zappa etc. F |
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09 Sep 00 - 01:05 PM (#294148) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Rich(stupidbodhránplayerwhodoesn'tknowanybet OK, I've listened to a lot of bizarre stuff, and I've read odds and ends but the weirdest musical influence I have is a forum on a screen full of interesting people. Rich |
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09 Sep 00 - 02:30 PM (#294184) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Megan L As a child I learned to sing songs in Icelandic, Hawian, french, Portuguese, German and Russian from records my big brother bought. What a pity someone told me I couldn't sing and I was stupid enough to believe them, all the words are gone now. |
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09 Sep 00 - 02:34 PM (#294185) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Mbo I know who my biggest influence is, but she's not strange at all! |
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09 Sep 00 - 02:39 PM (#294186) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Giac Yma Sumac - purported Incan princess who had some incredible umpty-nine octave vocal range. Heard a rumor once that she was actually a Jewish girl from New York City named Amy Camus (read backwards) and that the Incan thing was all a marketing ploy. Years later I worked with a Cherokee man who swore it was true and that he had know her in NYC. Whatever, the tales did nothing to diminish her unbelievable range and vocal control. There was one song, which the record jacket said was an Incan lullaby being sung to a dead baby. Dark is not descriptive enough, but it tested her range to its fullest. Hearing it now in my memory gives me chills. Giac |
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09 Sep 00 - 08:26 PM (#294303) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Callie The string quartet playing Metallica could have been the Australian group "Fourplay". They do a metallica song, but don't ask me which one! One morning I heard a car horn honk two notes, and it started me off following that interval and humming a Villa Lobos tune, the name of which eludes me (Concerto d'Orangue? something like that, excuse this bad gap). The humming woke up my boy, who had heard the car horn in his sleep. He said it was the most beautiful transformation of an otherwise ugly sound. That moment will stay with me. There is so much natural rhythm and music in our everyday lives. That incident made me take a kind of calmer look at where music and inspiration comes from. Callie |
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09 Sep 00 - 09:58 PM (#294335) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Hutzul Yma Sumac! I couldn't remember her name. The first time I heard Cleo Lane's voice mimic John Dankworth's instrumentals. My Dad, when he would do a percussion kind of thing with a matchbook on his knee. Sounded like drum brushes. At a tender age, Miriam Mikeba and "The Click Song". And those throat singers from Siberia or whereever. Wow! |
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09 Sep 00 - 10:10 PM (#294341) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Mbo That's funny Callie, I'm well known for taking off singing or humming or whistling tunes when listening to dishwashers or ceiling fans or vacuums. Even loud noisy raps beats coming from cars, I start whistling some fiddle tune over it, in time with the beats, like Martyn Bennett does! |
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09 Sep 00 - 10:10 PM (#294342) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: catspaw49 Tuva. Ask Pam Swan (p.j.) about them. Spaw |
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09 Sep 00 - 10:26 PM (#294349) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Amergin The Mudcat.... |
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09 Sep 00 - 11:12 PM (#294369) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Escamillo Giac, I attended an Yma Sumac concert in a restaurant in Lima, she was in her late sixties and her voice was diminished,but was still extraordinary. Even in front of the reality of the decline of the artist, the audience listened to her in absolute silence and applauded respectfully and with enthusiasm. It was shocking to see that loyal attitude. I don't know why she was never internationally recognized as a star singer, I guess it was a wrong management who had "pidgeonholed" her into an exotic and rather artificial style. Un abrazo - Andrés |
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09 Sep 00 - 11:44 PM (#294401) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Megan - many commiserations. I hope you're singing again now. One of the things which gets me very angry is the attitude some people have that some people are 'creative' and some aren't, or that some people can sing and some can't. Maybe we can't all sing like [insert famous singer here], but that's no reason for people to get prejudiced against any individual voice. Grr! Hey Mbo - When I was very young, I always used to pretend that I could hear angels singing in the sound of the vacuum cleaner. I'd sing along, too. I guess the harmonics of my mother's Hoover sounded really good to me! I still write my best melodies over a drone... I'd forgotten about that, thank you! This Yma Sumac person sounds pretty cool, I wonder what I can find about her on the net... |
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10 Sep 00 - 12:04 AM (#294412) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Rich(bodhránai gan ciall) Spaw is my strangest musical influence. Rich |
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10 Sep 00 - 12:36 AM (#294423) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: WyoWoman You all, definitely. Also my friend Steve, who plays "Stairway to Heaven" as a bluegrass song. And another friend who plays "Smoke on the Water" on banjo ... The strangest musical experience I've ever had was sitting in an auditorium in Casper, Wyoming, listening to the Tibetan monks do their multi-tonal throat singing. Each man was doing about three different tones, so eight men were making 24 individual sounds. Simply astounding. The strangest-in-a-horrible-way was when the guest composer for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival was Charles Wuorinen and the festival musicians played the world premiere of his rendition of Dylan Thomas' "A Winter's Tale," which is lovely poetry, but not when sung in 12-tone scales full of screeching dissonance and the most unmusical music one could imagine. One of the soprano solos, I swear to Heaven, sounded as though someone were using instruments of torture to get that lovely woman to produce such hideosities. And at her very shrillest, screechiest moment, I looked over at the museum guard standing at the back of the auditorium -- he had nothing to do with the festival, he was just hired to keep out the riffraff -- and his mouth was literally gaping with the shock and horror of it. My eye caught his and he tried quickly to recover his soldierly detachment, but it was too late. I was trying so hard not to laugh that I was making little snorting noises and then he got so amused at that that HE started chortling. And then we both were standing back at the back of the auditorium shaking with suppressed laughter and first one person, then another heard us -- and believe me, they were all in almost as much pain as the soprano -- and ... well, I had to leave the auditorium because I was afraid I was going to instigate open guffawing. And how did that influence me? Hmmmm, well, mmmmm ... I'm pretty sure if anyone ever asked me to sing the lead in a work by Wuorinen, I'd find it really easy to decline... ww |
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10 Sep 00 - 06:39 AM (#294483) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Giac Here are a couple of links to Yma Sumac info: She sang in a couple of movies, one was "Secret of the Incas," and it runs on cable every so often. |
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10 Sep 00 - 07:26 AM (#294490) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Lena Viola is an instrument I adore.Many years ago I used to be crazy about a recording of Brhams' first string quartet.The allegro section was played actually faster than the average,and in the turmoil of the music you could hear the viola shining clear and strong...so,when I was told that clarinet has the same range of violas,I picked it up. |
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10 Sep 00 - 04:58 PM (#294689) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: kendall Singing Roy Acruff songs with my brothers while digging clams! |
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10 Sep 00 - 05:55 PM (#294724) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: oggie Peter Peers singing the Agnus Dei from Benjamin Britten's 'War Requiem'. At the time (I was about 10) I had decided I didn't like singing and wasn't musical. The sheer passion of the piece and the beauty of the voice convinced me that it was worth trying. All the best Steve |
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10 Sep 00 - 06:24 PM (#294734) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Benjamin Angelit, a group from Finland. I listen to lots of soul/r&b and for some reason, the horn players have the most influnce (like Jr. Walker, Hugh Masekela- okay, he's not really soul). Courtry Blues guitarists (ie Brownie McGhee, John Jackson, etc.) have lots of influnce on me (but th's not odd to anyone who's heard them). Bross Townsend is absolutly amazing! If it's another sad story, a man by the name of Bruce Jay Pascow use to live by me. He was a member of The Washington Squares and was a mentor to me musically before he died in 94. I could go on forever about who's influnced me. What I've learned though is that everyone you listen to has something to offer in the form of influnce. From classical guitarists to blues guitarists to jazz pianist (that would be Bross!) to soul singers/horn players to musicians all around the world. I try to take in from everybody I listen to! |
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10 Sep 00 - 07:31 PM (#294764) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: guinnesschik Marty Robbins singing "Gunfighter Ballads." To this day, I love songs in which people die horribly. At three, I could sing all of "Blood On The Saddle." |
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11 Sep 00 - 12:16 AM (#294861) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Escamillo Not strange, but the musical influence which brought me to this site was PAUL ROBESON. It was one if his songs that caused my first question to Mudcatters, and I received immediate and gentle attention.
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11 Sep 00 - 01:46 AM (#294876) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Metchosin My dog Worty. He may not quite have the vocal range of Yma Sumac but he's close, even if his pitch does wander a tad and he's a great duet partner. And on top of that he has soulful eyes. |
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11 Sep 00 - 08:31 AM (#294929) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Patrish(inactive) My dads squeaky seat belts, used to remind me of the clangers singing and I used to make up songs to the squeaks, and of course the great Jimmy Shand and the White Heather Club. Patrish |
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11 Sep 00 - 09:08 AM (#294948) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Mrrzy This place! |
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11 Sep 00 - 10:00 AM (#294972) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: LR Mole Top Forty radio, which has always aired dreams and beauty right next to godawful dreck and pimple cream. All music,and there's something else coming in a bit. And Mr. Methane, which proves it. (Who pronounces that word "MEE-thane"?) |
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11 Sep 00 - 10:37 AM (#295001) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Callie I do |
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12 Sep 00 - 10:08 AM (#295618) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: MikeofNorthumbria How far out does a piece of music have to be, before we call it "strange"? If it's recognisable as music, then is it really "strange" at all? Or, as some ancient Roman put it (any classics majors out there who can do the original Latin?) "I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me." But enough of this hair-splitting. My vote goes to a scratchy 10 inch LP record on the Decca Label called "Guitars of Africa". (Field recordings, made in the 1950s by Hugh Tracey.) I bought it at Collet's record shop - where are you now, Gill? - back in 1962 and it's been delighting and inspiring me ever since. Why? Well, because here was a bunch of people with few assets, and several handicaps (like cheapo guitars, and clapped out strings), throwing EVERYTHING they had into the music. And having a good time while doing it. Some of them - for example, Jean Bosco Mwenda - were producing music of immense subtlety, while others were just belting out a basic chord chord sequence and singing a simple melody over the top. But they all played with an exuberance that I found totally irresistible (and still do). I only ever learned one of the tunes on that record up to performance standard, and I don't do that very often. But whenever I'm sitting in on a session, or doing a gig, I always try to give whatever I'm playing the same total commitment that those African players poured into Hugh Tracey's microphone. (And sometimes, when the spirits are smiling on me, it works.) Wassail! |
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12 Sep 00 - 11:03 AM (#295652) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Little Hawk The 3 great seminal influences on me, musically speaking (and philosophically speaking as well) were Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Bob Dylan in that chronological order. It's hard to say which one influenced me most. I became aware of Joan shortly after her first album came out, and my parents bought all her 60's stuff, while I continued buying everything else she's ever done. I was so in love with her in my early teens that I would probably happily have died for her, had the need arisen. Then I found out about Buffy (around 1964) and fell even more madly in love with her, cos I've always been crazy about anything having to do with Native Americans (generally called "Indians" at that time...even by the Indians themselves). My love for Buffy Sainte-Marie simply passed all boundaries what might be termed within normal sanity. Meanwhile, I was becoming aware of Bob Dylan, mainly through recordings of his songs by Baez, PPM, and numerous others. I loved the songs, but couldn't take his voice (I was a real folk purist in those days). It wasn't until 1969 that Matthew Clark, my American draft-dodger/guitar teacher/all round amazing guy made me sit down and listen to Higway 61 Revisited that I realized that nothing sounds better than Dylan singing Dylan. I became the truest Bob Dylan fan I have ever met. Bob can do anything as far as I'm concerned. He is my blood brother. Nobody says it like Bob. Except Buffy. She too is simply beyond compare. I've had the pleasure of a couple of lengthy conversations with Buffy, and she is a very sweet and likeable person in every way. All 3 of those singers have shown great courage and loyalty to their own heart and their muse. Live forever, Bob, Buffy & Joan! Now as to strange influences...well, I guess someone might find Dylan, Baez or Buffy strange at times...maybe. The strangest thing I ever heard was a kazoo orchestra from San Francisco. Over 300 people playing kazoos did the theme to the movie "2001 - A Space Oddysey". It was one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life. I hasn't influenced me though...I hope. Tiny Tim was pretty strange (and VERY talented, BTW), but he hasn't influenced me much either. Zappa is strange...he hasn't influenced me at all. My strangest musical influence nowadays is a slender, lovely little woman, the Good Witch of the South, who can play quite a variety of instruments, who has a pet whose name is a description of its owner, who shines like the moon and stars...and I consider myself a very fortunate man to have those beams shining down on me. Many thanks to all my musical influences! |
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12 Sep 00 - 12:30 PM (#295721) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: M.Ted From the Yma Sumac site listed above (since only a few of you will go there, and only a few of those will find this link, buried at the bottom of the page)--- The Real Amy Camus Story On the way to New York's Roxy Theater on Broadway, one cold February evening in 1951, two musicians were walking along with Hernán Braña, Yma's flautist, drummer, and good friend (who also wrote some of her music, including Taki Rari and Caribe Taki). Yma was appearing on the same bill as Danny Kaye. She did a nine-minute performance and sang three songs: Tumpa, High Andes and Hymn to the Sun, to great reviews. Seeing YMA SUMAC in huge letters on the brightly lighted marquee overlooking "The Great White Way," one of the musicians laughingly turned to Hernán and the other musician and said: "Hey look, it's Amy Camus!" They all had a good laugh and repeated the story to the orchestra. The story eventually reached Walter Winchell who stuck it in his column of usual vile slime. The entire story was made up for laughs. Amy Camus, the Jewish housewife from Brooklyn, was born in 1951 at the Roxy by a musician from Brooklyn having fun with Yma's unusual name. Yma thought the story was really funny. However, for publicity purposes, she subsequently accepted a presentation from the Borough President as "Honorary Citizen of Brooklyn" in 1957. Anyone who knows Yma recognizes that her charming accent is pure Peruvian, not anything resembling Brooklynese. |
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12 Sep 00 - 12:35 PM (#295725) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Steve Beisser My "strangest" influence is that of people who do not know me personally. Strangers influence me greatly; I have yet to play a couple songs of mine without having a reaction from people I have never met... These songs are intensely personal and I never tell anyone who they are about, but complete strangers come to me and tell me they can relate. Those moments influence me. I never EVER throw away a song idea anymore... You never know who is listening. |
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12 Sep 00 - 01:36 PM (#295768) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis There seem to be a lot of people listing Mudcat as their strangest musical influence. I wonder why? Would it have something to do with being able to share ideas, techniques, bs-throwing, and so much more, with people all over the world, through a system of devices that weren't even though of when folk music started? It is strange, and wonderful, and fantastic, that we are all here, brought together by technology and human ingenuity (sp?), sharing the love of music. Metchosin - your dog? Okay, that is a little strange... but totally understandable. Soulful eyes can influence anyone! MikeofNorthumbria - not strange, but very wonderful. (Which is a synonym in some books...) LH - Kazoo ORCHESTRA?!! That must have been funny! Your "strangest musical influence" sounds really sweet. You are lucky. M.Ted - Thanks for the links, and for posting that story. Steve Bessier - realizing that you have an influence on others can be a strange influence, for sure. ~*sirepseh*~ |
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13 Sep 00 - 02:15 PM (#296545) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Frankee - my brass coach LOVES Spike Jones! Do you know any sources for the albums? (He got me hooked on the stuff, and won't even let me borrow any of it!) One other influence of mine is a book of poetry someone brought into my grade 12 english class. I had never read such powerful poetry before. It really opened up my poetry writing, and that led to writing lyrics. My lyrics aren't as hard-hitting as my poetry, but they are still much more powerful than they would have been without that book. My stepdad has it right now. My music was always pretty powerful, and I couldn't write lyrics at all until after I read that stuff. More strange musical influences, please... |
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13 Sep 00 - 02:55 PM (#296569) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: annamill hesperis, I cannot remember the name of that 'string quartet'. I'm sorry. Actually a 4-string quartet would be a pretty strange musical experience in itself ;-) Would they have one-string each?? Love, annamill |
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13 Sep 00 - 03:07 PM (#296578) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis That would make my Mandolin a 'string octet' all by itself, so I don't think it works that way... ;) ::giggle:: hesperis |
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13 Sep 00 - 03:36 PM (#296593) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Wesley S Has anyone heard Capt. Beefheart and his Magic Band?? They sounded like Howling Wolf on acid. |
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13 Sep 00 - 03:54 PM (#296602) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Jim the Bart My Uncle Bill. He wasn't a blood uncle; he was my Mom's Aunt Sue's husband. My granfather (the patriarch) found him guilty of drinking and laughing too much when he was playing pinochle; he compounded his offense by winning too often, too. He also wore his hat at much too jaunty an angle. I have this early mental picture of him sitting on an old wooden chair, under the clothes lines, in the corner of the basement of Aunt Susie's old house on Wabansia Street. It's somebodies birthday, or confirmation, or first holy communion. He's got the collar on his hawaiian shirt open and his tie (!?!) askew, a cigarette hanging from his mouth and his straw hat pushed way back on his mostly-bald head. He is sweating pretty good (it was a hot summer). There is a drinking glass half filled with bourbon (Beam)sitting on the floor just to his right. He's got his guitar on his lap and he's singing an old Eddy Arnold song (Anytime you're feeling lonely) and then some Hank Williams. He's got a fine smile. That guitar exploded one Christmas night in the trunk of his car, where it sat without a case. I never heard him play after that. I can't prove it, but maybe he's why I like country music and Jim Beam and can't take cards too seriously. |
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13 Sep 00 - 04:22 PM (#296618) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Little Hawk I saw a Captain Beefheart album once, many years ago. I believe the title was "Lick My Decals Off, Baby". Or something like that. He looked like one wild, mean, and crazy guy...a biker's biker. Someone similar to him (I presume) once wrote on a washroom wall in a greasy spoon on the road to North Bay. What he had written (printed, actually)there was: "I LIKE TO F*CK, FIGHT, RIDE HARLEY'S, AND RAISE HELL!". Someone else had written underneath it... "Yeah, but what do you do for excitement?" Nice comeback! We don't get enough subtle humour on washroom walls these days. |
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13 Sep 00 - 05:28 PM (#296663) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Metchosin I love Captain Beefheart, the guys not only brilliant, he has something like a four octave vocal range. I've still got a couple of his vinly albums, Clearspot and Spotlight Kid and have managed to turn my 24 year old daughter on to him. And one of my favorite Capt. Beefheart quotes: I am matter You are matter The stars are matter It doesn't really matter |
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13 Sep 00 - 05:32 PM (#296668) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Metchosin vinly.......vinly.....now there's an interesting word.... maybe vinyl? |
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13 Sep 00 - 05:46 PM (#296680) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: guinnesschik Kinky Friedman also inspires and amuses me to no end. I really like his irreverent approach to music and life, and when I'm feeling blue, I get out my old Kinky vinyl (I know there's a bad joke waiting to happen there) and give it a listen. Then, I go PLAY. |
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13 Sep 00 - 11:33 PM (#296897) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Luther Beefheart, yes!!! favorite Beefheart quote of the moment: "I've always believed everyone is colored or else you wouldn't be able to see them." |
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14 Sep 00 - 12:04 AM (#296908) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Vinly??? Is that anything like.........dobly??? |
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14 Sep 00 - 12:06 AM (#296911) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Mbo My cussin' vinly. |
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14 Sep 00 - 12:07 AM (#296913) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Metchosin when recording vinly you should always engage the dobly! |
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14 Sep 00 - 09:08 AM (#297094) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Luther yep, and for best results, set it to eleven. |
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14 Sep 00 - 10:55 AM (#297162) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Hutzul Bartholomew I love your Uncle Bill story. I too had summers with relatives and pinochle and somebody's birthday or first Communion. It was my Uncle Junior (he hated being called "Junior") and his only song I remember was "El Rancho Grande" and my mom would do her cowgirl yodel. Was that Wabansia in Chicago? Could it be the same old neighborhood? |
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14 Sep 00 - 11:10 AM (#297165) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Metchosin Nigel Tufnel rules. |
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14 Sep 00 - 11:22 AM (#297167) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Rachel D If you think Beefheart is strange you really should try Sexton Ming. One listen of 'Children are scum' and your life will never be the same again. |
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14 Sep 00 - 12:41 PM (#297217) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: DonMeixner The Sons of the Pioneers, The Corries, Biff Rose, Mom and Dad. But probably Mr. Hanley, the music teacher who told me in the third grade I should never try to sing or play. Don |
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14 Sep 00 - 12:50 PM (#297224) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: mousethief Music teachers like that should be shot. All little kids can and should sing and play. They may never become maestros, but they will have fun and learn not to be too self-conscious, both good things. Nobody should crush a child's spirit that way. |
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14 Sep 00 - 12:57 PM (#297232) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: annamill DonMeixner, I thought I was the only Biff Rose fan!! I absolutely love his music. I have two of his albums. I haven't listen to him in a very long time. Tonight! By the way, do you think he sounds anything like Neil Young?? I'm a human sympathizer... Love, annamill |
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14 Sep 00 - 01:14 PM (#297247) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Little Hawk Yes! NIGEL! NIGEL! NIGEL! NIGEL! Play "Stonehenge", man! Decent! Now play "Hellhole"! Awesome! Now play "Christmas With The Devil"! NIGEL ROCKS!!!! Wonder if 'e's got those li'lle champagne glasses workin' yet? |
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14 Sep 00 - 03:56 PM (#297385) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Frankham Nobody has mentioned Moondog or The Hoffnung Interplantary Orchestra yet. Or Mickey Katz or Homer and Jethro. Or Richard Dyer-Bennett singing John Henry. For me, it was station KMTR in Tijuana playing Los Trabadajores De Mexice. Or Harry Partch. And Charlie Parker. And Larry Adler. Frank |
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14 Sep 00 - 04:00 PM (#297389) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Metchosin Frankham, maybe they are not as old as you and I. |
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14 Sep 00 - 04:11 PM (#297397) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: mousethief BIFF ROSE! Yes!
Alex |
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14 Sep 00 - 04:34 PM (#297413) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Wesley S Frankham - I mentioned Moondog at the start of this thread. I love his stuff. And I understand his Colombia recordings have been released on CD. |
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15 Sep 00 - 12:56 AM (#297841) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Miles Davis. He was strange, man! Kind of blue... What was with that turn-your-back-to-the-audience trip anyway? |
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15 Sep 00 - 02:11 AM (#297878) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Benjamin MikeofNorthumbria, You should check out (if you haven't all readdy) African Guitar on Vestapol Videos as well as (if you play guitar) African Fingerstyle Guitar - Taught by John Low on Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. Bosco also has a CD out on Rounder Records I believe they are his last recordings before he died. As for Hugh Tracey, I can't find much on him. I've heard he was a great guitarist, but can't find anything he did. He did start The Library of African Music but I can't find anything of his or any other African Guitarist in that style on there. Anyways, I'd be instrested in hearing that record you mentioned. Benjamin |
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15 Sep 00 - 01:29 PM (#298015) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Jim the Bart Hutzul - Thanks. And Yes, indeed, it is in Chicago. My Aunt Sue and Uncle Bill Lubinski lived just off Damen Ave. They call it "Bucktown" (now that it's been gentry-fried) but it will always be just The Old Neighborhood to me. |
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15 Sep 00 - 01:32 PM (#298020) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Mbo_at_ECU I have an official Hugh Tracy kalimba from Africa. |
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18 Sep 00 - 07:49 AM (#299804) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: MikeofNorthumbria Hi Benjamin! Many thanks for the information on the African guitar record/video. I've put some data about "Guitars of Africa" in a letter posted to your personal page - get back to me if you want more. Wassail! |
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18 Sep 00 - 08:55 PM (#300323) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Hutzul Bartholomew: Hi neighbor of the past. My old neighborhood was just south at Hoyne and Chicago Ave. Now the Gentrified Ukrainian Village. |
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18 Sep 00 - 09:33 PM (#300338) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: GUEST,Kryptonium Livin With catspaw Opened me up to all kind of music |
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19 Sep 00 - 08:51 PM (#301091) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: hesperis Kryptonium: And some of it probably stank - literally! (I just have to pick on Spaw. Tsk, tsk.) Benjamin: That Guitars of Africa stuff looked cool, thanks for posting it. |
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19 Sep 00 - 08:51 PM (#301092) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: khandu My father, whom we called "Daddy Roy"(Later, he was renamed "SuperPop" by his grandson.) The reason he is a "strange" influence is because he could not play worth a damn. He had a heart for music and talked about the greats; Merle Travis, Chet, Mississippi John (From whose brother, Ennis, my dad would buy bootleg whiskey!) He would sit under an old oak with me, and play on his old Harmony. I was around three or four at the time, yet I recall the look of pleasure on his face whenever he would play. As a result of those "oak tree concerts", I developed an appreciation for, and a desire to play, Music. khandu |
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21 Sep 00 - 11:06 PM (#302778) Subject: RE: BS: What's your strangest musical influence? From: Art Thieme Lee O.B. (or Obie) Quiggins was a street singer I found picking an old Martin guitar on 4th and Main in Evansville, Indiana----July 21st, 1960 That night I taped Lee in a room at the old Lincoln Hotel in Evansville. He was a strange singer--to say the least. He had a bizarre speech impediment but that didn't stop him. As a kid barely out of my teens I thought Lee was the coolest guy I'd ever seen. He was real and authentic (I was sure) and whatever he sang, to me it was valuable "folklore". Taping Lee made me "a collector" as important as Child and Lomax. I came home that night and played those tapes for my family---an aunt and an uncle. When they quit laughing and calling him Art's unwashed baritone, I retired to my bedroom where I consoled myself by trying to strum a banjo I'd bought just that week. I was devastated. Lee Quiggins was as strange as I have described him. Actually moereso. My family was probably right. But he did have a unique style of picking his guitar -- a strange stacatto pecking sound not unlike the cacophony produced if chckens were to attack a hammered dulcimer or an autoharp. He had a flatpick stuck into a thumb pick---between the bottom of the pick and his thumb. To this day I've never seen anyone else do that. Last week, a few weeks after I had sent a cassette of Lee's performance that night to Fritz Schuler in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, I got a CD in the mail. Fritz had taken my tape of Lee and digitized it. He'd put it on a CD. I could not believe my ears---or eyes. I'm certain that, somewhere, in a better land over the proverbial rainbow, Lee O.B. (Obie) Quiggins of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee---58 years old in 1960---was happy and completely aware that an 18 year old kid from Chicago had immortalized and digitized him for all posterity and for all time. As Thomas Wolfe said once in one of his massive books, "This world, this life, this time---is stranger than a dream." Art Thieme |