Today I Learned

Page from Diamond Sutra, 868 CE, British Library, London, via Wikipedia.org I like Rhianna , but had never really dug into her music in any serious way. Maybe it’s partly because she’s such a young artist – she only hit the world stage about 20 years ago, after all – but I think it’s probably more because the song “ Umbrella ” was overplayed (in my opinion) to an incredible degree. I don’t particularly like the “-ella, -ella, -ella...” refrain, and it really gets on my nerves

Nachtmahr (“The Nightmare”), by Johann Heinrich Füssli TIL that the German translation of the word “nightmare” is “alptraum”, which led me to the wonderful painting above. While “ alp ” is the German cognate of the English word “elf”, the creature in question bears little resemblance to the Tolkienian Elves most of us are familiar with. Instead, they appear to be more closely associated with the vampire, or incubus, and attack sleeping people, either by giving them “elf dream

Lionel Hampton, playing Flying Home (1957), via YouTube.com With a title like “Good Vibrations”, you’re probably thinking I’ll talk about the Beach Boys, but no. Instead, I want to go back a bit further, and talk about jazz legend Lionel Hampton . Hampton started his career as a drummer, and combined brilliant technique with wonderful showmanship. An excellent example can be found here , where he demonstrates his ability, while also juggling his drumsticks and showing his sim

Hot Butter – Popcorn (Version Originale) 1972 full 7” Single In every life, and every generation, there are events and moments which...

Cover art for Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording), via Genius.com The musical Hair opened on...

Cover art for “Apt.” by the artist Rosé and Bruno Mars, via Wikipedia When I first heard APT , I thought it was great that there was a...

Cover of Billy Joel’s single "The Downeaster ‘Alexa’", via Wikipedia The Downeaster ‘Alexa’  was a song on Billy Joel’s  album Storm...

MAMMÚT Everyone has heard the stereotype of the older person complaining about the “new music” younger people listen to, and we can all...

Dead Kennedys – Nazi Punks F^ck Off cover For the past few weeks, I’ve had a song stuck in my head, or at least a part of it. The song is...

Joni Mitchell, 1983, via Wikipedia I’ve been hearing the song Both Sides Now  since earliest childhood, but I had no idea just how many...

Jimi Hendrix Castles Made of Sand  is a classic, by one of the truly great musicians. If you are not familiar with it, go find it and...

Duane Allman, Fillmore East, 6-Jun-1971, via Wikimedia Commons It’s amazing what you can find if you look. All I did was search for songs...