Wonderful Prince playlist, although the extended 12 inch version of "Mountains" is one of my favorite of all Prince tracks. I agree with you that "Pink Cashmere" is the best Prince b-side, although it's hard to argue with "Erotic City" or the 12 inch version of "La, La, La, He, He, Hee," which was the b-side of "Sign o'the Times." The newly released tracks are very good indeed.
John, are you familiar with Guy Davenport's essay "Hobbitry," collected in his book The Geography of the Imagination? He talks about trying and failing to learn Old English from Tolkien, and then recounts a casual conversation with a Kentucky friend who had been a classmate of Tolkien's at Oxford. He says this friend, a history teacher named Allen Barnett, remembers "Ronald" being fascinated by Barnett's tales of old time Kentucky folk. "He used to make me repeat family names like Barefoot and Boffin and Baggins and good country names like that."
I didn’t know the Temptations cover—thanks for sharing! And I am not familiar with that essay either, so I will be looking that up forthwith! Thank you, Simon.
The Overture and March of the Kitchen Utensils are on my playlist, but I had forgotten the rest of the suite, especially that first Entr'acte. Listening again made me reflect on how much of an influence Vaughan Williams had on British, and American, cinematic music. VW of course wrote film music himself, but often I will find myself thinking when watching a film, particularly from the '40s and ' 50s, about how V. Williams-esque the cadences are. I remembered VW's 4th Symphony as the most discordant. Listening this time, the first movement is dissonant, but it might also be the ominous soundtrack of a Film Noir psychological thriller. The symphony is moody, but VW's sense of humour breaks through in that last movement-Finale con epilog fugato: the dialogue between the angsty woodwinds and the down-to-earth brass, the intervals where the dissonance dissolves into jazz, the utter chaos of the fugue, and then, in a twist that made me laugh, that final resolving chord coming after the pause makes you think the previous series of dissonant chords was the end.
Prince's 'United States of Division' was really on the nose. Did producers hold it back in 2004 to avoid raising a political firestorm? 'Magnificent' had something of the sound of a demo with instrumental added, rather like Buddy Holly's posthumous releases. I like Holly's 'Learning the Game', but I can hear the join between his voice and the instrumental accompaniment. Prince's voice, which is a bit out of balance in volume with the accompaniment, sounds like it was recorded in a different setting or on different equipment than the instrumental.
I agree that RVW’s music (and, of course, Holst’s) has had a huge influence on film music. In addition to his film scores, there is his Sinfonia Antarctica, which is an adapted film score. And yes, I always thought the first movement of the 4th sounded sort of like Godzilla music.
In 2004, the Musicology album was supposed to be Prince’s “comeback,” so I wonder if “Division” was a bit too inflammatory. Prince produced most of his tracks himself, and I don’t know what sort of state these tracks were in before the Prince Estate worked on them. I think that there is a lot of material in his legendary “vault” that needs some additional production before it finds release.
Dear John, wowser - this Prince playlist! The beat in 'Magnificent' Thank you!
I prefer Vaughan William's Symphony No 5 D major. One of my faves - Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. So I really appreciate this post and the playlists you've curated for us all!.
Thanks for this interesting post, John. I look forward to listening to these later today. A friend of mine was at Prince’s last concert in Manchester and caught his pick at the end.
The Prince playlist! So good! Thanks John.
You’re welcome! Glad you’re enjoying it.
Wonderful Prince playlist, although the extended 12 inch version of "Mountains" is one of my favorite of all Prince tracks. I agree with you that "Pink Cashmere" is the best Prince b-side, although it's hard to argue with "Erotic City" or the 12 inch version of "La, La, La, He, He, Hee," which was the b-side of "Sign o'the Times." The newly released tracks are very good indeed.
I don't know if you've written about this performance, but here's my appreciation of Prince's gorgeous cover of The Temptations' "Just My Imagination" from an aftershow in The Hague in 1988:https://substack.com/@simonrandall/note/c-52902829?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2brnho
John, are you familiar with Guy Davenport's essay "Hobbitry," collected in his book The Geography of the Imagination? He talks about trying and failing to learn Old English from Tolkien, and then recounts a casual conversation with a Kentucky friend who had been a classmate of Tolkien's at Oxford. He says this friend, a history teacher named Allen Barnett, remembers "Ronald" being fascinated by Barnett's tales of old time Kentucky folk. "He used to make me repeat family names like Barefoot and Boffin and Baggins and good country names like that."
I didn’t know the Temptations cover—thanks for sharing! And I am not familiar with that essay either, so I will be looking that up forthwith! Thank you, Simon.
The Overture and March of the Kitchen Utensils are on my playlist, but I had forgotten the rest of the suite, especially that first Entr'acte. Listening again made me reflect on how much of an influence Vaughan Williams had on British, and American, cinematic music. VW of course wrote film music himself, but often I will find myself thinking when watching a film, particularly from the '40s and ' 50s, about how V. Williams-esque the cadences are. I remembered VW's 4th Symphony as the most discordant. Listening this time, the first movement is dissonant, but it might also be the ominous soundtrack of a Film Noir psychological thriller. The symphony is moody, but VW's sense of humour breaks through in that last movement-Finale con epilog fugato: the dialogue between the angsty woodwinds and the down-to-earth brass, the intervals where the dissonance dissolves into jazz, the utter chaos of the fugue, and then, in a twist that made me laugh, that final resolving chord coming after the pause makes you think the previous series of dissonant chords was the end.
Prince's 'United States of Division' was really on the nose. Did producers hold it back in 2004 to avoid raising a political firestorm? 'Magnificent' had something of the sound of a demo with instrumental added, rather like Buddy Holly's posthumous releases. I like Holly's 'Learning the Game', but I can hear the join between his voice and the instrumental accompaniment. Prince's voice, which is a bit out of balance in volume with the accompaniment, sounds like it was recorded in a different setting or on different equipment than the instrumental.
I agree that RVW’s music (and, of course, Holst’s) has had a huge influence on film music. In addition to his film scores, there is his Sinfonia Antarctica, which is an adapted film score. And yes, I always thought the first movement of the 4th sounded sort of like Godzilla music.
In 2004, the Musicology album was supposed to be Prince’s “comeback,” so I wonder if “Division” was a bit too inflammatory. Prince produced most of his tracks himself, and I don’t know what sort of state these tracks were in before the Prince Estate worked on them. I think that there is a lot of material in his legendary “vault” that needs some additional production before it finds release.
Dear John, wowser - this Prince playlist! The beat in 'Magnificent' Thank you!
I prefer Vaughan William's Symphony No 5 D major. One of my faves - Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. So I really appreciate this post and the playlists you've curated for us all!.
Yes, I love the Fifth too; I’ll be featuring it in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for this interesting post, John. I look forward to listening to these later today. A friend of mine was at Prince’s last concert in Manchester and caught his pick at the end.