Bob Dylan's Nobel lecture seems as incoherent and ambiguous as ever:

Bob Dylan's Nobel lecture seems as incoherent and ambiguous as ever:

“Moby-Dick,” as he describes it, gave Mr. Dylan the tool of intertwining character voices and the theme of rebirth through a narrator. “Ahab gets tangled up in the harpoon lines and is thrown out of his boat into a watery grave,” he writes. But Ishmael survives the shipwreck, “in the sea floating on a coffin.” The theme “works its way into more than a few of my songs,” he wrote, but gave no examples. (That sound you hear is a dozen dissertations being started.)

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — which is also admired by President Trump — portrays the hell of war, and the role of an artist to document it and give the world a reason to survive. Finally, Mr. Dylan turns to “The Odyssey,” with its themes of wandering, adventure and danger, and of returning home to a changed place.

What does it all mean? Mr. Dylan dodges answering directly. But he argues that songs both are and are not literature, the work of novels and plays and epic poems. “Songs are unlike literature,” he wrote. “They’re meant to be sung, not read.” And he asks people to encounter his lyrics the way they were intended to be heard, “in concert or on record or however people are listening to songs these days.”

But, he added, the granddaddy of Western literature was a singer and a lyric writer, too. “I return once again to Homer,” he wrote, “who says, ‘Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story.’”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-lecture-literature.html?module=WatchingPortal®ion=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=15&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-lecture-literature.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0

This delightful performance turns Beethoven's heroic funeral march into a happy funeral rumba.

This delightful performance turns Beethoven's heroic funeral march into a happy funeral rumba.

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

And now something just for fun: The second movement of Beethoven's Symphony no. 7, transformed into a Rumba.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZRb0FyAa9s

The Wall Street Journal picks up on Hevisaurus, theFinnish dinosaur-costumed kids' metal band:

The Wall Street Journal picks up on Hevisaurus, theFinnish dinosaur-costumed kids' metal band:

For parents, the band helps solve a practical problem: how to get their small ones rocking so hard they agree to take a bath, without picking up salty language along the way.

“We started listening to Gwar,” says Mr. Hamlin, who has a 3-year-old and a 10-month-old. “We can’t really listen to Gwar anymore, because if he said some of the words that Gwar would say I’d probably have a phone call from his nursery.” The American metal band plays in grotesque monster costumes—the adults-only equivalent of Hevisaurus—and has hits including “Slaughterama” and “Lust In Space.”

Mr. Hamlin now relies on Iron Maiden for bath time instead.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-combines-iron-maiden-dinosaurs-and-play-dates-hevisaurus-the-heavy-metal-sensation-for-children-1488214557

A fine skiffle maqam by Davy Graham.

A fine skiffle maqam by Davy Graham.
https://play.google.com/music/m/Tcnyegsoabqzfmhwxagsukbohqm?t=Rif_Mountain_-_Davy_Graham

Deep cuts here, reminiscent of Fela Kuti with a heavy dose of Lee Scratch Perry

Deep cuts here, reminiscent of Fela Kuti with a heavy dose of Lee Scratch Perry
https://play.google.com/music/m/Bvtjbm2fkjuoxjfvskei3vbbi5i?t=World_Psychedelic_Classics_5_Who_Is_William_Onyeabor_-_William_Onyeabor

Scarfolk Council​​ unearths a forgotten Prog Rock masterpiece by Scarfolk town native Beige, inexplicably...

Scarfolk Council​​ unearths a forgotten Prog Rock masterpiece by Scarfolk town native Beige, inexplicably unavailable on streaming music services:


Here's the story of 'Space Minstrel' from the LP's inner sleeve notes:

"The earth has been completely smashed up by a disappointing nuclear war. The only survivor, a minstrel, clings to a big lump of rock that was once part of the Queen's garden. As the minstrel hurtles through the spacious universe, he sings show tunes and music hall favourites to the planets as he passes them. But without a real audience he's soon depressed and considers flinging himself off his rock into a nearby black hole... 

...However, his love of song is too strong. He endures and his voice echoes through the heavens, bouncing off stars, nebulas and other cosmic rubble. 400 billion years and 3 days later, his vocal vibrations are picked up by an alien race called The Capri-Cortina. They discover a bit of thumb in the minstrel's white glove, rebuild him, and create millions of copies. The minstrels are given their own planet called Zipadeedoodah31-TX where they happily sing for what is left of eternity..."

'_Space Minstrel' was, perhaps not surprisingly, Beige's first and only album. They disbanded in 1979 and Geoff Djeff formed a short-lived minstrel punk band called 'The Dainty Boys._'

'Space Minstrel' (Scarfolk Records & Tapes. 1977)

Tracklist:
1. The Apocalypso of Creation's Demise
i. Earth Dearth 
ii. Part I
iii. Celestial Dixie Suicide (in Top Hat & Tails) 

2. The Majestic Cosmos of the Infinity-sized Steamboat Vortex
i. Mammy with the Four Green Arms in 4/4
ii. [Instrumental: Mellotron & banjo duet]
iii. New Horizons of the Intergalactic Space Minstrels in Space
https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/2013/03/space-minstrel-by-beige-prog-rock-1978.html?m=1

Lovely, pleasant dities in the olden style.

Lovely, pleasant dities in the olden style... but a bit conventional, overshadowed by more adventurous contemparies such as Gryphon and Stackridge.
https://play.google.com/music/m/Tkh7r4ccfabbac6kh3jg7fnbz4q?t=Spring_Air_Live_-_The_Amazing_Blondel