h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh,My!



In my tender years, I have only managed to see Crimson live in '84, when I found them so loud I had to retreat to the men's room, holding my ears, Aerosmith, who were so loud I had to leave, and Zappa, who I watched from the nosebleed section in '85.

I did get to see Micheal Nesmith doing his cowboy thing at the Austin City Limits studio in, I believe, '91.

I soon learned to carry earplugs.

I found that the 'live' music scene in Austin was vastly overrated.
I saw a lot of local bands and drank a lot of cheap beer, but in the end, I just stayed home and tortured my own guitar.

Am married to woman who can sing and sometimes does it a cappella at the drop of a hint at church.
Many of her favorites are from 1 Corinthians and the Psalms.
I am endeavoring to write a hymn or two for her, not because I'm particularly inspired. I'm just willing to write anytime and this seems like a good opportunity.

Generally, I find litanies and hymns a bit pretentious.

Could you improvise to something in Sanskrit?
( Chants in the key of E#).

Let's see.... where did I put those Ravi Shankar albums....
ah... They're right next to the George Harrison folk music albums!

Wanders off, whistling "Simple Gifts"

Simple Gifts

http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~eknuth/mandotab/simplegi.html

An old Shaker hymn.

Sanskrit?

The Hymn of Creation:
At that time there was neither
existence nor non-existence,
neither the worlds nor the sky.
There was nothing that was beyond.
There was no death, nor immortality.
There was no knowledge of the day and night.
That one alone breathed, without air, by itself.
Besides that there was nothing.
Darkness there was enveloped by darkness.
All this was one water, without any distinction.
It was inactive, covered by void.
That one became active by the power of its own thought.
There came upon it at first desire,
which was the first seed of the mind.
Men of vision found in their meditative state,
the connection between the Being and the Non-Being.
All gods were subsequent to this creative activity.
Then who knows from where this came into existence!
Where this creation came from ,
whether He supported it or not,
He who is controlling it from the highest of the heavens,
He perhaps knows it or He knows it not ! (Rig Veda X.129)

Key of E#, huh?

Oh, sorry, Mods and Beanfoto:

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/vedicsection/vedaindex.htm

Never hurts to attribute!

Thought it was going to be the introduction to "Monkey" m'self!
You know
* Born from an egg on a mountain top,
Funkiest monkey who ever rocked*
(with apologies to Chinese classic, "Journey to the West")

King Crimbo AND the Rig Veda?
Far out man...

Whose version of the guitar solo is that?

I was thinking maybe Eddie Lang. His version of Rachmaninoff's Op.3 No.2...from 1927...

O.K. ,got me there, I know Rachmaninov, ( in a non Biblical sense of course), but not Eddy Lang....

Eddie Lang 1902-1933

Outside of Roy Smeck, the first man outside classical music to make the guitar sing as a solo instrument.
Famous for his duets with his boyhood friend Joe Venuti, Lang, who was born Salvatore Massaro in South Philadelphia, studied the violin as a child, and later worked with a young Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman.
Only fifteen sides exist with him as the primary artist or soloist, but he recorded with Red Nichols and Tommy Dorsey, in addition to the Mound City Blue Blowers. He also worked with Jean Goldkette and Bix Beiderbecke and Frank Trumbauer.
He sat in on many sessions with black musicians, including Bessie Smith, using aliases because of the the attitudes at the time. His best known alias was Blind Willie Dunn. He performed some of his best work in duets with Lonnie Johnson, another ex-violinist and possibly the finest guitarist after Lang at the time. The duets, like "Blue Room", "Blue Guitars", "Handful of Riffs", "Hot Fingers", and "Have To Change Keys To Play These Blues", were lyrical, intricate and playfull.

His work with Joe Venuti influenced Stephane Grappelli and Django Rheinhardt who, with Le Hot Club of France, carried the guitar/violin possibilities to new heights.

He was one of the first guitarists to routinely use harmonics and combined flat and finger-picking on his tunes.

Lang died during a tonsillectomy...

He can be found on Yazoo's albums:
Eddie Lang, Jazz Guitar Virtuoso
and
Pioneers of the Jazz Guitar

Tried to post you days ago but failed.
Computers down/ hogged by other!@#$%^&*()_+| teachers since.
Anyway, heard of ev'ryone of the names past, (& Inc. ) Joe Venuti, hate jazz, love the Blues...
Thought of writing Sleeve notes?

Well, my father is a Dixieland freak and my daughter is trying to learn trombone...

What about New Orleans music?

Ah, sleeve notes... a lost art...
I remember sitting almost level with my Granma's record player and watching the cheap needle riding the grooves... and staring at the album covers, fore and aft, with my headphones on...

Most Good Time N'orleans music grabs me, but if anyone improvises I reach for my (hyperthetical) gun!
I'd like to buy a piano accordian , get some tuition and play Cajun, as piano accordians are relatively cheap here compared to Blighty, but I can't speak Chinese yet, and how do you mime Cajun?
Did you have to wind the Gramophone up, or did you use the Cat's Whisker?

No variations on a theme?

Nah, it was a basic BSR changer, electric and rumbly...
I don't think I've ever heard of a Cat's Whisker.

How do you get by, not speaking Chinese (which dialect?)?

Since I cannot read music, nor play by ear, my guitarring is more of an argument between me and my instrument.

I tried to post a reply, but it wouldn't let me.
I'm an excellent mime on at least 2 continents and I am learning Chinese, ( very slowly).
Cat's Wwhiskers were a primitive radio .
Keep taking the Tablature!
Cat's whiskers were a primitive form of Radio receiver/ tuning device

Ah...pre-Marconi...

Y'see, the problem I have with learning other people's songs is that I wander off on my own... Now the frets are all grooved in the wrong place...from my playing something that sounds like Bartok on acid for years...

No, post Marconi, but 1st "mass" market radio.
How about filing your frets, or are they too far gone for that?
Bartok on acid? Explains a lot.