Fake Violin Scam

Police are describing people pretending to play the violin for money as a "nationwide issue."

More info: The CW7

Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 02, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams, Music

Ambrose (Part 5)

Linda Laurie was a 17-year-old high school student in 1958 when her first recording, "Ambrose (Part 5)", was released by Glory Records. It reached number 52 on the billboard charts.

It's a very odd record. For a start, why is it titled "part 5"? There were no parts 1,2,3, or 4.

Then there's the 'song' itself. Why is Ambrose walking her into a subway tunnel? Does he intend to kill her? We never find out. The song ends in mid-sentence. Incidentally, the voice of Ambrose ("Just keep walking") was done by Laurie herself.



Two years later, Laurie released a sequel, "Forever Ambrose," which showed a nicer side of Ambrose. Evidently he hadn't killed her in the tunnel. But this follow-up never made it onto the charts.



In 1962, Laurie released a final Ambrose song, "Return of Ambrose," which had Ambrose back in more menacing form ("keep digging"). Again, it didn't chart.



Laurie went on to have a fairly successful career as a songwriter. Her biggest hit was "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)," which reached #3 on the charts when it was covered by Helen Reddy.

More info: Wikipedia.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 01, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Music, 1950s

The Electronic Record for Children

Bruce Haack's Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 30, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Music, Children, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s

Marimba Trios

Although I was unable to find any recordings of the Wheeler Marimba Trio, it appears that contemporary marimba trios are a definite thing.

And then, there's always six marimbas!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 26, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1950s, Twenty-first Century

America Never Took Water

Sing along to this rousing anti-Prohibition ditty! Full lyrics here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 23, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Government, Law, Music, Propaganda, Thought Control and Brainwashing, Alcohol

Black Hole Symphony

Black Hole Symphony, which was penned by composer David Ibbett and is due to be performed by an orchestra at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts, blends real science into the creative mix.

The work cleverly translates cutting-edge research on black holes into an electro-symphonic score with five movements and includes visuals based on images taken by scientific instruments, including the Event Horizon Telescope, a large array made from a global network of radio telescopes, which took the first image of a black hole.

Not to be confused with "Black Hole Sun."

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 21, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Music, Science, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults

Terry Riley’s In C

According to Wikipedia, the musical piece "In C," composed by Terry Riley in 1964, was one of the first minimalist compositions. It consisted of "53 short numbered musical phrases, lasting from half a beat to 32 beats... repeated an arbitrary number of times at the discretion of each musician in the ensemble."

Wikipedia also notes:


At one performance of "In C," in 1971, as the pianist repeatedly hit the same C key, the rest of the orchestra and the audience simply left the room until she was done. Supposedly she didn't notice until they had returned.

Birmingham Post - Jan 16, 1971

According to music historian Alex Ross, in his book The Rest is Noise, Terry Riley's "In C" was quite controversial when it first came out and some initial performances "elicited lusty boos". So I'm guessing that what happened in 1971 was that the audience and orchestra left the room in protest, leaving the pianist to continue playing alone. I'm sure she must have noticed that everyone was gone.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 19, 2022 - Comments (4)
Category: Music

The Mozambique Dance

The ladies don't come onstage soon enough in the video, but that's my only complaint.





Source: The Province (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)18 Feb 1965, Thu Page 29

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 19, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Fads, Music, 1960s, Dance, Caribbean

Chopin A La Moog

Fair Warning: You will not be able to unhear this, thus ruining Chopin forever for you.

Player at bottom.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 16, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: Music, 1970s, Parody, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults

Auditory Memory

Auditory Memory was the title of a 1975 album by Jerry Cammarata. It consisted of 52 minutes of silence.

According to New York Magazine (Oct 16, 1995), "Cammarata promoted the album by holding a press conference with an orchestra composed of bowed instruments that lacked strings, drums with no skins, and woodwinds devoid of reeds."

Scrantonian Sun - Feb 9, 1975

image source: discogs.org

We've previously posted about an earlier silent record, "The Sound of Silence," released by students at the University of Detroit in 1959. I was curious how many other silent albums have been released. Some googling revealed a list of many more.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 14, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Music