Really Really Good: Gemini Music Month
Published June 04, 2007
Kicking like two left feet on a newborn, it's the best of the best and what's next! Goodness abounds for another fun-packed edition of the Really Really Good show! This post is full of oddities on the net, music links for the internet geeks, and other naughty delights, fresh for the laptops and dedicated to the cosmic wonder twins celebrating birthdays for the next 20 days or so. Gemini's rule! (as long as we can keep our minds on ruling and off of how you are annoying the f*ck outta us!)
Putin Warns Europe in Missile Row
One of the topics to be discussed at the upcoming G8 meeting in Germany, will be the possible showdown between the old Cold War heavies, Russia and The US. Hopefully we can get some behind the scenes footage, like the ones from last year of Bush and PM Tony Blair having a little chat about The Middle East, among other things. If you missed it or just want to hear the President curse again, here it is!
These video gems found their way onto Business 2.0's list of 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2006. Some other notables include in the list are Bank Of America , the US Mint for announcing that a penny is actually worth more than a penny, and a nickel is just a few cents shy of being worth ten cents, and the hilarious incident at the BBC where they interviewed a guy looking for job, instead of the expert they were supposed to talk to. The job searcher handles is well, even if he didn't get the gig.
Speaking of job searchers.... The Adventures of Just Another Pretty Farce One of the most detailed accounts of job recruiters and how low they can go. If you have been out of work and searching for a job for a long period of time, you can relate to this story. Nashville resident, job seeker, and blog writer details a meeting with a less than scrupulous job placement company. Her meeting with the company was just the beginning, as the company in question went very public in their defense of their actions, even going as far as threatening legal actions. This story originally broke in April but it’s still a very interesting read.
So you had a fight with your lady last night? I bet it wasn't anything like this one! If it was, you must be taking the red pill like Neo! Japanese Human Art with a twist, found at Fazed.com Why is my girlfriend mad? Probably because she has a house full of strangers in all black outfits making a mess of things.
June Black Music Month 2007, "Let This Music Move You"
From the field hollers and Ole Negro Spirituals during slavery, the Ragtime & Blues that formulated Jazz, from Rock n Roll to Soul; and today's Hip Hop, black Music is the only American Music. In the early 20's it was Ma Rainey, often spoken of as the mother of the Blues, Big Mama Thornton who was the first to record the song "Hound Dog", a big hit for her then and much later a major hit for Elvis Presley. It was Charles "Buddy" Bolden whose playing inspired Joe King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. Scott Joplin was the first musician to sell 1 million copies of any type of music. The song was, "Maple Leaf Rag" published in 1899 and in its first six months sold 75,000 copies, becoming "the first great instrumental sheet music hit in America".
Laron Cue's Canhead Blog has everything from news, reviews, interviews, online sales, concert info, MP3s, videos, weblinks, and anything else we can cram online.
Kayaro Records Blog, is the online home to Kayaro Records, a new independent record venture, which is home to JhaVoice.
- Really Really Good: Gemini Music Month
- Published: June 04, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Music
- Part of a feature: Really, Really Good
- Writer: Laron Cue
- Laron Cue's BC Writer page
- Laron Cue's personal site
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In response to misinformation perpetuation:
Joplin wrote the Maple Leaf Rag circa 1897, in honor of the Maple Leaf Club, a black social club that existed briefly during the late 1890s in Sedalia Missouri. Shortly after its completion, Joplin told fellow ragtime composer Arthur Marshall that "the Maple Leaf will make me King of ragtime composers."[1] It was published in September 1899 (finally after Joplin submitted the rag to three publishers) on sheet music by John Stark & Son, after and in its first six months sold 75,000 copies, becoming "the first great instrumental sheet music hit in America."[2]
Over 1 million copies of the sheet music were eventually sold, making Scott Joplin the first musician to sell 1 million copies of any type of music. In addition to sales of sheet music, it was also popular in orchestrations for dance bands and brass bands for years.
The tune continued to be in the repertoire of jazz bands decades later, with artists such as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the 1920s, and Sidney Bechet in the 1940s giving it up-to-date adaptations, maintaining a timeless quality to it.
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is still a favorite of ragtime pianists, and has been described as an "American institution... still in print and still popular."[2]
As the copyright has expired, the composition is in the public domain. It appears in the soundtracks of hundreds of films, cartoons, commercials, and Bally Midway's 1983 arcade videogame, Domino Man. Long before the Scott Joplin revival that began with the feature film The Sting, the tune can be heard in the film The Public Enemy from 1931, as in one scene a piano player can be heard slowly working through the piece.
In 2004 Canadian radio listeners voted it the 39th greatest song of all time.
References
1. ^ Rudi Blesh and Harriet Janis, "They All Played Ragtime", New York: Oak Publications, 1971.
2. ^ a b Rudi Blesh, "Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist", Introduction to Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works, New York Public Library, 1981.
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Your comments about Scott Joplin and the "Maple Leaf Rag" serve to perpetuate misinformation. The best evidence is that "Maple Leaf Rag" sold only 400 copies in its first year. Though it became immensely popular in subsequent years, sales probably did not reach a million during Joplin's lifetime. Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911) was far more popular, which is why vintage copies of the music today sell for a dollar. Copies of the "Maple Leaf," excluding the first year printing, sell for between $25 - $75.