Category:
Music
Music
Space Dance
Raquel Welch dances in a silver bikini to a jazzed up version of Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" — since Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey forever made that piece synonymous with space travel.The clip is from Raquel!, a 1970 CBS television special.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 04, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Futurism, Music, Space Travel, 1970s, Dance
HAIRPIN HARMONY, Legendary Broadway Flop
Theater expert Laura Frankos Turtledove says:
[The critics] all commented on the audience fleeing the scene of the crime at intermission. They, alas, were stuck with the second act.
The plot? Of course I can tell you the plot. There’s a baby food manufacturer who is looking for an act he can use to promote his product on a radio show. This guy has a sixteen member all-girl band, the Hairpin Harmonettes, led by his girlfriend and singing triplets. The trio consisted of the real life teenaged Clawson sisters, who billed themselves as Triplets, but actually Barbara was a year older than twins Doris and Dorothy. (These girls were managed by their dad, who got some radio spots for them before and after this disaster. Poor Barbara was professionally renamed “Dawna.” They were named Miss Subways in May 1944, which brings to mind a whacked out alternate version of ON THE TOWN, in which Gabby falls for all three of them…)
Anyway, the band promoter himself is the one who gets the gig (ooh, spoilers!) because he has a fine falsetto. So he wears diapers (for a radio spot? Well, maybe PR photos?) and talks baby talk, thus saving the day for everyone.
Except Harold Orlob.
Source of text.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 02, 2022 -
Comments (8)
Category: Entertainment, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Music, 1940s
The Most Unwanted Song
Wikipedia entry.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 21, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1990s, Pranks, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
Combined coat hanger and musical instrument
I wonder if Louis Jacobs thought he was going to strike it rich when he came up with his idea for a "combined hanger and musical instrument." From his 1918 patent:Be it known that I, Louis Jacobs, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Combined Hangers and Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification.
The object of the present invention is to provide a device for hanging shoes and other articles, and which can also be used as a musical instrument.
The object of the present invention is to provide a device for hanging shoes and other articles, and which can also be used as a musical instrument.
But how did it work as a musical instrument? Again from his patent:
The device may also be used in the following manner as a musical instrument: Thin pieces of paper are placed on opposite sides of the wire screen frame, and the frame, after the paper has been thus placed, is brought up to the mouth and the performer sings, speaks, or hums through the paper. The sound of the voice is first split up through the fine pores in the paper, striking the front side of the wire screen and causing vibrations therein, then passing through the holes to the rear side of the wire screen, again causing vibrations therein, so that the sound of the voice is magnified. Any tone, or tune, or the sound of any instrument or the phonograph can be imitated thereby. The effect of these vibrations on the nerves is soothing and quieting. It is also useful in talking to deaf persons, as the sound can be heard by them much better than the ordinary voice.
I can just imagine Jacobs talking to deaf people through his musical coat hanger.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 17, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music, Patents, 1910s
The Royal Teens, “Short Shorts”
What were those lyrics again?Their Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 17, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Fashion, Music, Public Indecency, Teenagers, 1950s
Woodstock X 3
A little late for the anniversary, but still, I hope, of interest.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 13, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, Parades and Festivals, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s, TV News
The Nine LaFalce Brothers
There have been any number of family singing groups. Many pop bands feature two brothers. The Beach Boys added cousins. Sister groups were popular in the forties and fifties. And finally, the famous Trapp Family featured ten children and two parents. But I do not believe any other act than the now-forgotten LaFalces had nine brothers onstage together.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 29, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Family, Music, Twentieth Century
The complexity of Brian Ferneyhough
Composer Brian Ferneyhough is known as the "Father of the New Complexity" movement in classical music. The movement, as its name implies, places a great value on complexity. Some details from The Guardian (Jan 21, 2003):Composer Brian Ferneyhough is an infamous figure in contemporary music, regarded with the sort of bafflement and fear once reserved for Berg and Schoenberg. His works are notorious for their mind-boggling complexity. One solo cello piece is written on up to five musical staves – the cello usually requires only one – while the performer is surrounded by a constricting noose of electronic sound. And there is an orchestral piece notated on a 3ft-high schore, the pages dense forests of notes.
Critics complain that Ferneyhough's music is not only complex, but also unlistenable. Judge for yourself.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 11, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music
Nervous Norvus
Nervous Norvus (aka Jimmy Drake) was in his 40s when his first record was released in 1956. The record,'Transfusion,' reached #13 on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart.According to Life magazine, he got his ideas for songs by "sitting in his California backyard, wearing dark glasses, going 'Ump, ump.'"
More info: wikipedia, songpoemmusic.com
Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 08, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music, 1950s
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |