Better think of your future
Time you straighten right out
Creating problems in town
Rudy, a message to you
Rudy, a message to you
What an earworm. Once you listen to it, you’ll be humming it all day long. RIP Terry Hall.
Today I learned that “rudy” is slang. I always thought it was about a specific person!
A ‘Rudy’ (or rudi or rude boy) is a 1960s Jamaican slang for a youth who is out of control. The term became popular in England in the late 1970s, referring to teens who listened to ska and their fashion of the time.
https://genius.com/2215187
While you’re here, take a look at my photo tour of Coventry Music Museum. There are lots of Specials memorabilia, a signed guitar, and even the car they used in the Ghost Town video!
If you don’t know, “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon” by Queen, you’re in for a treat. Absolutely lovely song and one of my favourite songs. Just over 1 minute of perfection.
When you’ve listened to that, follow it up with Seaside Rendezvous. Another delightful song!
If you’ve never heard either of those songs, you should run, without hurting yourself, to the nearest record store and purchase a copy of Queen’s 1975 album “A Night At The Opera”. A stupendously good album, and I guarantee you have heard at least one song from it. There’s no way you haven’t heard this song I’m thinking of. (it’s also on any music streaming service, if you must have instant gratification.)
When I shared this on Mastodon yesterday Stephen Tures replied, linking to this documentary on the making of the album. I’ve only watched 17 minutes of it, but listen with headphones as they play snippets from the songs too!
What! Two posts in one day? Well, I’ve been miserable with Covid-19 this week. But there is good news. Today is the day when Queen released The Miracle (Collectors Edition) which is a 4 disc compilation featuring the original tracks of the album. It’s the sessions disc that is getting my attention. There are great reworkings of the album songs, cleaned up demos, and well, Face it Alone, which in the context of the sessions, is not that bad.
I thought I was the only one who loved the original Party and Khashoggi’s Ship, but no, there are two of us out there! The new versions are so different. I’m sure they’ll grow on me. Listen to the full album on Spotify.
Queen will release a new song tomorrow, Face it Alone, with vocals by the late Freddie Mercury. First play was supposed to be on BBC Radio 2 in the UK, but a French DJ played it last night, and somebody recorded it. I first heard there would be a new song back in July, and I was so excited to hear what it would be.
The song comes from a demo recorded in 1988 or 1989. There are copies of the demo floating around out there, but it looks like they’ve been scrubbed from YouTube. There used to be a version of it here last July. The demo wasn’t great. It was probably recorded on a tape recorder with a microphone held up in the air as other people talked nearby. I presumed that Queen have a better recording of it.
Is it any good? I listened to it once. I’m not jumping up and down with joy that there’s a new Freddie Mercury song. They didn’t have much to work with, and it unfortunately shows. Freddie’s vocals sound very auto-tuned. His singing at the start of the song sounds like an AI effect you’d hear on a Zoom call to remove background sound. It ruins his voice. Other vocals are better, the guitar is great, but it’s not a song I’ll listen to on a regular basis.
Edit on October 13th: the official video is out now. Sound quality is much better, of course, but that first verse sounds very forced. The last line, “is set on fire”, does not sound natural. I would love to know how much processing went into making this track.
I called to see my Dad yesterday, and he told me he has resurrected his old Pioneer record player. I have many memories of this device sitting in the corner of the “good room” at home, and after the needle and the rubber band that drives the player were replaced it works really well.
Seán Maquire (McQuire) recorded an album of songs in 1959, which my dad still has in his collection. Here’s twenty seconds of music from that album.
I have to confess I’m not familiar with Seán’s music at all, but an online search found a Wikipedia page about Seán McQuire which shows his birth surname as Maquire. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 77.
I’ll have to figure out how to properly record those vinyl records to digital format. Suggestions? It used to be simple to record things with an AUX or 3.5mm cable to a tape recorder, but Mac laptops and Android phones are more problematic. Maybe I’ll have to dig out my old desktop PC with its numerous audio sockets…
Liza Minnelli’s performance at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 is an iconic moment that will be remembered by fans of both Queen and Minnelli for generations to come. Her rendition of “We Are The Champions” was a poignant tribute to the late Freddie Mercury, and her powerful performance was the perfect way to honour his legacy.
Minnelli’s unique style and voice are well-known to fans of musical theatre and film, but her interpretation of “We Are The Champions” added a new dimension to the song’s emotional impact. She brought her own brand of theatricality to the performance, infusing the song with a sense of drama and intensity that perfectly captured the spirit of the tribute concert.
The emotional impact of the song was not lost on the audience, either. As Minnelli belted out the lyrics, the crowd responded with cheers and applause, clearly moved by her passionate performance. This emotional connection was undoubtedly strengthened by the fact that Freddie Mercury adored Liza Minnelli – their close friendship was well-known, and he had expressed his admiration for her movies and songs many times.
One of the most memorable moments of Minnelli’s performance was when all the other performers came on stage to sing behind her, arm in arm, celebrating Freddie Mercury with a song he wrote. This spontaneous moment of unity and camaraderie was a fitting tribute to the man who had brought so much joy and energy to the music industry. George Michael, who was also performing at the tribute concert, hugged Minnelli and joined in the group sing-along with the other performers, creating a powerful and emotional moment that brought the entire audience together.
Personal anecdotes about Minnelli’s performance abound, adding depth and interest to the story. One notable example is the fact that she was not initially scheduled to perform at the tribute concert – she was asked to step in at the last minute after another performer dropped out. Despite the short notice, Minnelli rose to the occasion, delivering a performance that was both passionate and heartfelt.
In the broader context of the tribute concert, Minnelli’s performance played an important role in honoring Freddie Mercury’s legacy. “We Are The Champions” is one of Queen’s most popular songs, played at many sporting events, and its enduring popularity is a testament to the impact that Mercury had on popular culture. By choosing to perform this particular song, Minnelli not only paid tribute to Mercury’s musical talent but also acknowledged his impact on the wider world.
In conclusion, Liza Minnelli’s performance at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was a memorable and emotionally charged moment that will live on in the annals of music history. Her interpretation of “We Are The Champions” was a powerful tribute to Freddie Mercury and his enduring legacy. Tthe spontaneous sing-along that followed was a fitting tribute to the man who had brought so much joy and energy to the music industry. With her unique style and voice, Minnelli brought a new dimension to the song’s emotional impact, creating a performance that will continue to inspire and move audiences for generations to come.
Apart from hoarding driver CDs and diskettes in 1999 I also printed out a huge number of pro-Linux news articles. One of those was this page on building an MP3 player for a car called The MP3mobile.
Over the years I had grappled with the idea of adding an MP3 player to whatever my current car was but never really got anywhere but the MP3mobile was the initial source of inspiration for this idea.
The furthest I ever got with the idea was using a portable MP3 CD player but that didn’t work too well:
Bumps in the road caused skips.
Irish roads are bumpy.
More skips.
It’s funny now to see what the MP3mobile can do, but back then this was highly impressive.
The final result is immensely wonderful, and impresses the hell out of most hackerish people (like me). Non-computer people just wonder why you havn’t got a CD player. But, with my setup (based on RedHat Linux 5.0) I can do these things:
* NFS mount my car from my laptop (there’s a loose 10-base-T cable behind the drivers seat) and squirt new tunes into it.
* Hook up my GSM-modem to the car (so you can telnet into it and run emacs at 60mph 🙂 ).
* Hook up a GPS unit, so you could finger the car and find out exactly where a car full of computer equipment suitable for stealing is located.
* Compile as I go round bends.
* Coredump as I change gear 🙂
None of these things can be done with an autochanger. Sorry, but you lose 🙂
Future plans include:
* 418Mhz low-power radio link to allow me to upgrade the software when the car is in the garage 30m or so from the flat. * Link into the car’s engine management to monitor boost pressure, etc * Voice-command of the music functions.
The machine ran off a Pentium 166MMX CPU, and had a 2.5″ laptop drive with a massive 2.1GB of storage space.
It all seems so quaint and obsolete now doesn’t it? That may well be how your current state of the art tech appears in another twenty years!
In the time since then the rise of smart phones led to miniaturisation, better screens and power efficient computers. A few years later a Raspberry Pi or Android phone would have been a suitable replacement for the device. And later still Android Auto or Car Play would make the job of playing your own media even easier.
If you use an Android phone, then your car stereo could run Linux, at least through Android Auto as your phone has a Linux kernel!
London Concertante in St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork. March 2022
We haven’t been to a concert in a long time. Last night I went to St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral in the heart of Cork City to listen to London Concertante.
My son has shown a huge interest in music over the course of lockdown. He started with an electronic keyboard, and then on to other instruments. I know Matt would be delighted to hear he has expressed an interest in learning the saxophone too.
Anyway, we heard that there would be a classical concert in the Cathedral so we had to go. It was an amazing night. I’ll admit I don’t know much about classical music. I recognise the most popular compositions everyone else recognises. But despite that it was a feast for the ears.
In the video above they play Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons. I can’t imagine there’s anyone reading this who won’t recognise this fabulous piece of music.
PS. I shared this video on Facebook too and received a copyright strike. Luckily, I could dispute it without penalty and it was not muted “in 74 territories”.
I just heard this edit of Queen’s Keep Yourself Alive for the first time and I love it. It’s longer than the original and definitely worth listening to if you know the original.
Apparently it was recorded in 1975 as a possible radio edit according to this post but it was finally released in 1991 by Hollywood Records.
This acetate first was thought to be from circa 1972. But some years ago in an interview Brian confirmed that in 1975 it was re-recorded as new version for a possibly new release. Interestingly, the “long” track is refered to as a “long lost retake” on the hollywood version.
I’d love to know what other material is in the Queen vaults waiting to be heard..
Just last week I installed OpenRCT2 so I’m glad Youtube showed me this fabulous roller coaster synchronised with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody!
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