In my diary Thursday I wrote that I got a suggestion for writing a musical diary, so ... in its way, Thursday’s diary was! So is tonight’s, focusing on a single song: Bohemian Rhapsody. It remains a remarkable work, a testament to Freddie Mercury’s inspired genius. Its complexity and variety is surprising. wikipedia has a great segment on it, with details on the details, as it were.
One snippet of that description, from the page cited.
May, Mercury, and Taylor reportedly sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day. The entire piece took three weeks to record, and in some sections featured 180 separate overdubs. Since the studios of the time only offered 24-track analogue tape, it was necessary for the three to overdub themselves many times and "bounce" these down to successive sub-mixes. In the end, eighth-generation tapes were used. The various sections of tape containing the desired submixes had to be spliced (cut with razor blades and assembled in the correct sequence using adhesive tape). May recalled placing a tape in front of the light and being able to see through it, as they had been recording so intensely.
I have written about Freddie Mercury before, and he remains one of my favorite artists. What I have written less about is how the creative genius of one can feed the creative genius of others. Creativity inspires, and feeds and nourishes. It is why I chose Jonathan Larson’s terrific line from his musical, RENT, as my sig-line.
The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation!
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So here, without further ado, are some of the ‘flowers and fruits’ that have resulted from the seeds Freddie Mercury and Queen planted.
The reason I thought of doing this tonight is because of a video I found which was just posted this week, of a new cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, I wanted to share with you. It was done by the Indiana University orchestra, and is simply breathtaking.
And here are the artists in the original!
Next up is a series of five exceptionally diverse covers, brought to us by brainpickings.org. I am not linking to the original videos, because they have already done that and deserve the credit, so please visit their page to view them. I will describe them, however!
1. The first video at brainpickings was taken by ASL interpreter Sam Farley’s SISTER, without his awareness, while he was driving a car! It is an incredible video (though how SAFE he was as a driver is an open question!)! I loved the video because of his conspicuously great passion for the music. Clearly, Queen has a real fan in him! (Sadly, that YouTube video is in Flash, and cannot be viewed on iOS devices. He graciously reprised his interpretation onstage for a group of children, here.)
2. Violinist Joe Edmonds performed his cover on violin, in four parts, using his own arrangement of the music. His creativity is not limited to the performance! Stunning!
3. LA-based Joe Penna performed Bohemian Rhapsody on slide whistles! That’s a first! (For me, anyway!)
4. The next cover is by the muppets! (brainpickings thinks it might be the best Bohemian Rhapsody cover in history!) Here is the brainpickings description:
A huge cast of the Muppets takes on Freddie & co, and it might just be the best “Bohemian Rhapsody” cover in history — and they’ve even got a Webby win to show for it. From the ingeniously modified lyrics to the priceless a-cappella, it’s equal parts hilarious and brilliant. Lo and behold, the track is even available as a fully legitimate download, proof that the Sesame Street empire can merchandise anything. (But we love them anyway.)
5. Jake Shimabukuro performed his cover at a TED talk! To me, this is one of the most incredible covers (of ANY kind) I have ever seen. (Like the ASL cover, the YouTube version linked of Jake’s cover is not viewable on iOS devices, but UNLIKE the ASL cover, it IS available in an iOS-viewable version,
here!)
He said this about it:
I’ve always believed that you know it’s the instrument of peace. Because if everyone played the ukelele, this world would be a much happier place!
Next, Richie Castellano decided to do the entire thing, singing all the parts, playing all the parts. Is the sum more than the whole of the parts? You decide!
There are many many more covers of this song available, I hope you have enjoyed these that I found! Thank you for visiting tonight!
On to comments!
From Ginny in CO:
In luckydog's diary on the Defense Contractor who slapped a child, entlord relays his pithy response to a stupid racial question, and then adds a brilliant rewrite of a common phrase.
From
WarrenS:
In James Wells' diary on Doing The Impossible, Gooserock carries out an elegant and incisive analysis of the hole we're in!
From side pocket:
I loved this comment by Magnifico....
responding to palantir's meteor photos.
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