Inexplicably beautiful music: Nominations

[Dale]

Those who like My Bloody Valentine and the Lost In Translation soundtrack might also want to try The Pastels' ....

Keith Jarrett...

Thanks for the The Pastels tip. I'll definitely get it.

I have a nearly 30 year history of listening to Keith Jarrett. The encore of the Koln Concert recording is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard.

[jim stone]

Scarlett Johanson (sp?) is chiefly what grabbed me
about LIT. Maybe we can have a picture of her on
the site? The Department of the Explicably Beautiful.

[tower.wanadoo.co.uk@fs]

if emmlines childhood memories can drag up the theme song to the banana splits,then it might be interesting to compare it to the chorus of marleys "buffalo soldiers".in my excuse for a mind i can just see little baby bob sitting there at his tv and singing along to the oy.oy.oy's. maybe in trenchtown they called it the banana spliffs. i better stop now because i can feel some horrible puns coming on.

[Maeloc]

I have a nearly 30 year history of listening to Keith Jarrett. The encore of the Koln Concert recording is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard.

I'm a big fan of the Keith Jarrett trio, not specially of his solo albums, but Paris Concert really impressed me, check the first part of October 17, 1988 and that version of The Wind, that no words can describe. He was in a state of grace that day.

I must acknowledge that I never listened to the Koln Concert, shame on me One of those records you never buy because is always there

Thank you for the information & suggestions, Chas, I think I will try Blue Valentine

[emmline]

if emmlines childhood memories can drag up the theme song to the banana splits,then it might be interesting to compare it to the chorus of marleys "buffalo soldiers".

Don't know the Buffalo Soldiers song.
Banana Splits: (cue actors in stupid animal costumes)
1 banana, 2 banana, 3 banana, 4...4 bananas make a lot of sodas, maybe more.
Over [field?] and highway the banana buggies go,
Coming [here?] bring you the banana splits show,
Na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na
Da da da, da di da da
Da da da, da di da da...

that was profound.

[dlovrien]

"Baby Mine" - Alison Krauss

from The Best of Country Sing The Best of Disney <-no commission link to Amazon.com

I didn't care for this song in "Dumbo", but this version gets me misty every time...

[tower.wanadoo.co.uk@fs]

funny how emmline can remember the lyrics to an old tv theme song but has no knowledge of much loved and very famous bob marley song.that in itself must count as an example of inexplicable beauty.then again,what do i know when my greatest wish is for tom waits to cover "no woman,no cry" with emmy lou harris, mary black and dolores keane on backing vocals.

[BrassBlower]

"The Voice" - Eimear Quinn

"Distant Vision" - Kansas

"Inside My Heart" - Iona

(OK, so I'm fond of prog-rock with Celtic leanings.)

[Montana]

At the risk of exposing my cultured? :roll: side, my all-time favorite is a chorus aria from Giuseppi Verdi's opera Nabucco. The name of the piece is "Va, pensiero". It gives me goose bumps every time I hear it.
Mike

Hey Mike, I think you and I are missing something here. This thread doesn't really seem to be about beautiful music or just any beautiful music. When I see the words "prog rock" go flying by and spend the rest of the day singing the Banana Splits song (thanks for getting that stuck in my head, emmline ), I think we are exposing our ignorance by bringing up classical music...

[kevin m.]

Gee, where do you start on this one.


Archie Shepp, Fire Music really angry music that somehow manages to be beautiful at the same time.

Last week,I was listening to 'The Bonzo dog doo-dah band' performing a track called 'The Bigshot' (Viv. Stanshall doing a 'film noir private dick' type pastiche monologue-extremely funny).It struck me that the honking saxes and the 'drumkit falling down a staircase' backing music was VERY much like Archie Shepp,circa 1967/8!

Have the Bonzo's records been reissued on CD? They are definitely right up there with the weirdest. What was it now? A Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse?

For weirdness the Temperence Seven were quite good in their more limited way.

I was re-listening to 'The Bonzo's' as I was reading 'Ginger Geezer' by Lucian Randall and Chris Welch,a book that recounts the zany,but tragic life of the great mr. Vivian Stanshall.
Vivian was the singer,trumpet,tuba,Uke,R*c*rd*r,etc player with the band.Non-fans might have heard his extraordinary 'plummy' voice on Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' album,where he acts as M.C.,introducing the various instruments.
I have a 2cd re-issue of 'The history of the Bonzo's'-which actually features some of Viv's post Bonzos' stuff.
I did see a three C.D. boxed set 'Anthology' which seems to include all,or most of their albums.
'Tadpoles' was another strangely titled album of theirs'.
Vivian Stanshall was always a great hero of mine-up there with Spike Milligan and Ivor Cutler,(I can remember the band being resident on a kid's T.V. programme of the late sixties,called 'Do not adjust your set' which also featured future members of 'Monty Python' and also a young David Jason.

[burnsbyrne]

At the risk of exposing my cultured? :roll: side, my all-time favorite is a chorus aria from Giuseppi Verdi's opera Nabucco. The name of the piece is "Va, pensiero". It gives me goose bumps every time I hear it.
Mike

Hey Mike, I think you and I are missing something here. This thread doesn't really seem to be about beautiful music or just any beautiful music. When I see the words "prog rock" go flying by and spend the rest of the day singing the Banana Splits song (thanks for getting that stuck in my head, emmline ), I think we are exposing our ignorance by bringing up classical music...

Just try to imagine Verdi's arrangement of the Banana Splits song
Mike

[janice]

I feel OLD...(one banana, two banana, three banana, four...)

[Ro3b]

Air's new album Talkie Walkie (which includes that track from Lost in Translation) definitely does it for me -- it's one of those things I can put on and imagine as the soundtrack to the movie of my life. Ditto Thievery Corporation's The Mirror Conspiracy and (for different reasons) pretty much anything by Photek. But for really beautiful inexplicity, I reach for John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, which is a work of sheer unhinged ecstasy.

Kevin, thanks for mentioning Ivor Cutler; he's a childhood influence I sincerely wish I'd had. I'd be a much more interesting adult.

"If your breasts are too big,
You'll fall over.
Unless you wear a rucksack."

[Wombat]

But for really beautiful inexplicity, I reach for John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, which is a work of sheer unhinged ecstasy.

Very interesting. I was going to mention this work myself but didn't think its beauty was inexplicable in the right sense. What I find inexplicable is how any music could be this transcendentally beautiful.

One of the really nice things about this thread is the very different visions of the inexplicable and of the beautiful that are emerging. When I think about it, I don't think I could explain to someone who thought otherwise why any piece of music is beautiful. But you can sometimes give reasons why music should not be regarded as beautiful and I suppose the inexplicably beautiful is anything where the reasons look strong but the music just defies them.

[kevin m.]

Air's new album Talkie Walkie (which includes that track from Lost in Translation) definitely does it for me -- it's one of those things I can put on and imagine as the soundtrack to the movie of my life. Ditto Thievery Corporation's The Mirror Conspiracy and (for different reasons) pretty much anything by Photek. But for really beautiful inexplicity, I reach for John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, which is a work of sheer unhinged ecstasy.

Kevin, thanks for mentioning Ivor Cutler; he's a childhood influence I sincerely wish I'd had. I'd be a much more interesting adult.

"If your breasts are too big,
You'll fall over.
Unless you wear a rucksack."

Great (grate?) minds think alike!-I was tempted to use that very quote from Ivor Cutler(it's the opening 'track' on his 'Velvet Donkey' album).
Ivor tends to get re-discovered every decade-he was the bus driver in the Beatles 'Magical mystery tour' film.I saw him circa 1973 on a T.V. programme about British 'eccentrics' (he's Scottish).I remember that he was shown wandering around London zoo,making sketches of various animals.When he finally showed off his day's artworks,they depicted each animal taking a dump!!!
He's now in his eighties,long may he inspire us.
On a more serious note-I read that the great jazz Drummer, Elvin Jones died last week at the age of 76.
He was an integral part of the 'classic' John Coltrane quartet,though his playing with Sonny Rollins was just as good (the 'Live at the Village Vanguard'album recorded in 1958 is a five star Jazz classic).