"Zoom, zoom, the world is in a mess," wrote Ira Gershwin, in a song from the 1937 Fred Astaire film "Shall We Dance?" He went on to suggest that the only remedy for such a state of affairs was to "Slap That Bass" and get some playful rhythms going.
It turns out everyone just wants to be a rock star. Music-genre video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band are bona-fide smash hits, entering the rarefied air once reserved for only the elite first-person shooters, Mario games or sports titles. And success breeds imitation.
Any album combining '60s hits like “Ode to Billie Joe” and “Respect” with Ornette Coleman's “Lonely Woman” deserves more than a passing glance. The late French saxophonist Barney Wilen was already thirty-one when he recorded Dear Prof. Leary with His Amazing Free Rock Band in 1968 for the German MPS label.
When it comes to celebrating Quebec City’s 400th anniversary, the challenge of making sure everything goes smoothly can be boiled down to a matter of scale.
A few years back, the great singer and thinker Willie Nelson offered some guidance to parents. "Mamas," he sang, "Don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don't let them play guitars and drive them old trucks. Let them be doctors and lawyers and such."
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