Doin' the Friday Shuffle

Up, up, and away!!!

1) "Distant Camera" -- Neil Young -- Silver & Gold

Young in soft acoustic mode, nice coloring by the slide guitar, plaintive singing; pretty song.

2) "Talk Show" -- Andrew Lippa -- john & jen (original cast)

I liked Lippa's Wild Party, so thought I'd like his earlier effort, but it has left me rather flat. Here, a single mother imagines herself on a "Maury"-style talk show discussing problems with her teenage son.

3) "Over the Rainbow" -- Ella Fitzgerald -- Ella Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook

The greatest song of the 20th century, in one of the best renditions it's ever been afforded.

4) "There Won't Be Trumpets" -- Sondheim (sung by Bernadette Peters) -- Anyone Can Whistle - Live at Carnegie Hall

This song was cut out of the original production of Anyone Can Whistle, and yet is today one of Sondheim's most oft-recorded songs. A great song for Bernadette's voice.

5) "Kit Kenne Elvenni" -- Zoltan Kodaly (sung by the Rutgers Glee Club) -- Rutgers Glee Club 1999 Tour

Love me the male choirs. Stirring, I think, Russian, choral piece.

6) "People! . . . No, I will speak!" Benjamin Britten -- Peter Grimes (opera)

Short dialogue scene from this, my favorite opera, as the townsfolk argue about what should be done with Peter.

7) "Just About Glad" -- Elvis Costello -- Brutal Youth

Lesser Elvis from this mid-90s Attractions reunion.

8) " 'Let us sleep now' /In paradisum" -- Benjamin Britten - War Requiem

Some gorgeously tender choral writing from Britten's anti-war piece.

9) "Is That Remarkable?" -- Adam Guettel -- Floyd Collins (Original Cast)

Great song in which the reporters who have assembled, vulture-like, to report on the story of Floyd Collins, a caver trapped underground, that captures perfectly how the media can take simple statements and blow then all out of proportion. Set to a jaunty, guitar-led beat, and sung in a wonderful "My Gal Friday" reporter style.

10) "Drowned" -- The Who -- Quadrophenia

Classic, solid Who. Rolling piano, stabbing guitar chords, and that never-duplicated "beat-the-hell-out-of-them" Moon drumming style.

Until Whenever