Good-bye to the “Big Man”

Learned late Saturday that Clarence Clemons passed away. He was best known as the saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I am sad…they’ll never sound the same again. Clemons, as well as the rest of the gang, made every song sound great. Fortunately, one of my aunts and a good friend of mine introduced me to the band. Another aunt and I went to their concert in 1997–the only time I saw them live. Great show!!

Here’s a 1978 performance of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” in Passaic, NJ from YouTube. There were so many great songs that featured Clemons. He’ll be missed.

An Enjoyable Earworm

It took me awhile to find the name of this song and the band who performs it. It’s called “Rhythm of Love” by the Plain White Ts–the same group who sings “Hey There, Delilah.” WASH FM  played “Rhythm of Love” this morning. So I felt it would be a good day. The song has been used in a Haverty’s furniture commercial.

An earworm is a song or tune that you just can’t get out of your head, and usually it’s extremely irritating. Only this one’s fun and very upbeat. And the lyrics are included.

I listen to music sometimes while working. But I have been in offices where music and radios were frowned upon. So I always had some kind of song in my head during the day. (Trust me…you NEVER want to hear me sing. 🙂 )

Anyway, enjoy!

 

Les Paul Would Have Loved This!

Today would have been Les Paul’s 96th birthday. Google commemorated it by an interactive guitar Google Doodle, which is pretty neat. I discovered it last night, and since then have been having way too much fun sounding terrible!

This brings back memories of visiting relatives in another state.  My 16-year-old cousin had been given an electric guitar for his birthday, and he let me try it out. I was almost 12. I refused to use a pick, and I ended up rubbing a water blister on my thumb, but I didn’t care. I was way too into strumming it and playing the various chords. The guitar was glossy and red, yellow, brown, and black–or some combination of those colors–and I couldn’t get enough. When I got tired trying to hold it the regular way, I laid it carefully on my lap, picking the strings fast–just like I’d seen some country musicians do. My cousin helped me when I needed it.

Good thing there were no music critics around. If my cousin–always a big teaser–was annoyed, he never, ever showed it. I’ve always appreciated that.

The neat thing about this Google Doodle is that you can record, play back, and use the keyboard to strum rather than work with a mouse or trackball. I learned a lot from the Post’s blog today. Melissa Bell shared the work of someone named Mark, who played Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Here’s the Post’s Michael Cavna, who posted someone’s version of “Ode to Joy.”

Here’s a little on Les Paul, the great man himself.

And here’s me, being my usual untalented, quirky self. I know this sounds awful, but I got a real kick out of it. Enjoy it if you can. I named “Just Hangin’ Around.”