… Who are you, and who am I?
How’s life on Earth?
Category: Music
David Jones
My favorite new LP is David Bowie – 1966: The Pye Singles. Produced by Tony Hatch, best known for his work with Petula Clark, it’s not actually a long player, being a collection of six singles, making for a quick and very enjoyable listen.
Sculptress of Sound
Once again I turn my attention to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. BBC Radio 4xtra is repeating a 2010 feature on workshop creator Delia Derbyshire. One point about Delia’s incomparable interpretation of Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme that seems obvious, but isn’t mentioned, is that one of the sounds is evocative of a Ben Franklin glass harmonica. The programme is also available on this YouTube video.
A few years after this documentary was produced, Paul McCartney revealed that he had a great interest in the Radiophonic Workshop, and had even made a point of meeting Delia, with the intention of trying an electronic backing to “Yesterday.” Nevertheless, the most experimental Beatles production to be released isn’t by Paul, but is John Lennon’s “Revolution 9.” One of Delia’s recordings in the documentary, with voices and a heartbeat, sounds as though it could have been an inspiration for Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”
Deaf Lennon, Dudley, (and Norm)
At the request of Dudley Moore, John Lennon made several appearances on “Not Only… But Also,” a mid-60’s BBC-TV show by Moore and his “Beyond the Fringe” partner Peter Cook. On November 20, 1964, Lennon and his pal Norm Rossington, from “A Hard Day’s Night,” joined Moore in filming a visualization of John’s poem “Deaf Ted, Danoota, (and me).”
Sir Fantastic
From 2010, a very interesting hour-long BBC biography of Elton John. Most of it is spent, as it should be, on Reg Dwight’s start, the transformation into Elton, and his first five years as the Superstar of the 70’s.
https://youtu.be/oNZHA5eMEw8
Our Legacy in Sound
In the year 2525, will the only present day recordings to survive be on the discs that are aboard the Voyager spacecraft? The Smithsonian is busy retrieving and preserving records and tapes, and so is the British Library. But even if these recordings from over the past 100 years remain available 500 years into the future, will there be equipment to play them?