Only goes to show you, there are only two tunes, Pachelbel's Canon in D...and the Other One. I think it's "Turkey In the Straw", but that might be Pachelbel's Canon, too. I'm not sure.
Brings to mind the radio show of the wonderful Mr. Karl Haas (now deceased), "Adventures in Good Music", carried on WFMT (Chicago) when I lived there.
Having never studied classical music or its history, at the time (my late teens) I became an avid daily listener. Karl's voice would open up the show: deep, mellifluous, and never lacking in reflecting the energy and enthusiasm he felt for his subject matter and life's work. I wish that everyone reading this could hear what is in my head right now--Karl's voice, intoning, "Good morning, everybody." A pedestrian trio of words; his voice invariably hooked me into one hour of fascinating music and monologue, always on an intriguing topic relating to classical music studies, at once esoteric, gossipy, and engaging.
It was from Karl that I learned (probably sometime in the late '70s) the correct pronunciation of Johann Pachelbel's name. Karl's voice speaking it was a sonic memory that will remain with me forever.
My "crowd" (at the time) of jazz piano trio / piano bar buffs, prounouced it (blush) to rhyme with "Taco Bell", a pronunciation that I still hear today most frequently (along with Anton Dvorak's name being pronounced as it's spelled rather than the correct Bohemian pronunciation--thanks once again to Karl for the enlightenment!).
Karl spent a few minutes during his show devoted to the Canon in D and its influence upon music culture, speaking (never "lecturing") on the German pronunciation of Pachelbel's name. Just as--to Karl--"Bach" would always be "Bahhhh" (slur that "h" sound in the back of your soft palate), "Pachelbel" was (again, spoken in that rich and deep, slightly accented radio voice) "Pah-HELLL-bl" with that second syllable about ten times louder and more emphatically spoken than the two to either side.
Anyone who I may chance to meet from this Forum at any Rick event, is welcome to ask me for my impression of Karl speaking this name.
Sadly, Karl passed on, on Sunday, February 6, 2005, at the age of 91.
Following Karl's show on WFMT was that of Studs Terkel, who is still with us at 95, having been born one year earlier than Karl, in 1912. Studs stopped broadcasting his show in 1997. Another great radio voice, bringing gifts of wonder and curiosity to a worldwide audience.
Back in the early '80s, I was living in Wichita, KS and used to listen to Karl's show on KHCC out of Hutchinson, KS. And I'll always associate the second movement to Beethoven's "Pathetique Sonata" with Karl Haas as long as I live. I'm told he played it live as he was taping each show.
Yeah, I learned as much or more about classical music from KH than I did in college.
Yeah, it’s a good thing that chord progressions can’t be copyrighted. Otherwise there’d only be about four songs in existence.
I’m sure, like a lot of you, I’m plagued with “similar-itis.” Lots of times I’ll hear a song on the radio and think “that’s just like ------.” Or when I was seeing a teacher, he would show me something and I’d say, you know, that’s the such-and-such song. It can really get in the way sometimes.
And I wrote a song recently that I thought had a nice rollicking groove to it in a JJ Cale sort of way. But I thought the progression sounded awfully familiar. Then one day I was surfing around and discovered that Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” had almost the exact same progression. That was the song! Oh well, as I said, good thing progressions can’t be copyrighted.
firstbassman wrote:Yeah, it’s a good thing that chord progressions can’t be copyrighted. Otherwise there’d only be about four songs in existence.
I once brought a new tune to my band, showed the bass player the verse & chorus. I then showed him the riff that brought you back to the verse after the chorus, and as I finished it he shouted "Livin', Lovin', She's just a woman!".
So I added a passing note & called it a day.