
I love the new song, Now and Then, but I’m not sure of the implications of manipulating the voices of dead people. It could change history and what …
Beatles AI

I love the new song, Now and Then, but I’m not sure of the implications of manipulating the voices of dead people. It could change history and what …
Beatles AI
From the article:
There’s an argument to be made that the origins of mind-expanding folk music date back centuries before the advent of recorded music. There’s an old understanding, popular in Orthodox circles, that the Torah is, itself, one long song—a song handed down from smoked-out Mount Sinai by Moses, where the assembled masses of humanity experienced collective synesthesia, and saw the sounds of the voice of G-d.
Connect the dots: Jews are the people of The Book, and our book is a scroll of sheet music first performed at an ancient psychedelic rock concert. Bob Dylan (whose Hebrew name is Shabtai Zissel) knows it; Chronicles, Vol. One, for example, takes its name from the Hebrew Scriptures.
But there isn’t much scholarship around this heritage. Jeanette Leech’s wonderful book Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk traces a vast cosmic tree of outré acoustic music from around the world, including many examples of the surprising crossover of entheogenic religious devotional music. But it barely features a mention of a Jewish contribution to the genre. Sure, you could point to “Solomon’s Song” from C.O.B.’s 1972 album Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart. But that’s one smudged dot on a massive map.
The final chapter of And You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Our Vinyl, a book about Jewish LPs of yesteryear, dips a few toes into the water, pointing to some examples of frum folk rock—The Stanley Miller Band’s American Simcha or The Noam Singers’ The New Dimension in Hebrew Music. But that’s where the trail goes cold, and many of these documents never made it online. Forget about the ones they didn’t even mention: The Voices Four, Shimon & Ilana, Manguinot Bashira, the Beth Sholom Folk Rock Service’s Chants for Peace. Of these, you might find a clip or two online. Maybe.
And so it seems at least one corner of this day-glo forest remains shrouded in fog. But if you’ll allow, we’d like to guide you on a hidden path toward the world of psychedelic Jewish folk music.
Read the whole article here, and sample some works from Kinky Friedman, Victoria Hanna and Shmulik Kraus among others. A worthy read about a neglected scene.
I don’t know if it will ever replace the original performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, but indie darlings Khruangbin do an absolutely lovely rendition of Christmas Time Is Here, originally shown on “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in 1965.
As I prepare to spend Christmas alone in Beijing, it’s nice to be able to enjoy the dulcet sounds of the King of the Cameo, Robert Goulet.
Roxy Music’s most romantic song got a really unique treatment by the late Little Jimmy Scott.
Yes, that Love Will Tear Us Apart!
The Hot 8 Brass Band came to my attention with their cover of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing arranged for a brass ensemble. The band has soul and have no trouble giving life to older songs, but would they be able to give such life to one of the darkest post-punk ‘love’ songs ever made? The results are pretty astounding.
Below is the official video.
Very unpleasant news to report today, as Algerian-French singer Rachid Taha passed away today from a heart attack. He was one of the first and most important artists to fuse Raï and rock together in a way that gained him fame all over the world. Here he is taking on The Clash’s cult classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=276tBTaIhlw
Thanks to my good friend Christopher Morley who turned me on to John Cameron’s easy listening cut off the KPM record label from around 1973.
Agb’oju L’ogun was the dance floor hit sensation of 1979. Nigerian composer Shina Williams managed to gather the finest musicians working in Lagos, and this boogie beast is what they came up with.
Some classic post-punk for you, courtesy of The Three Johns.
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