Many great bands have been hugely influenced by the classics. A few come to mind such as Pink Floyd, Camel, Van Der Graaf Generator, Barclay James Harvest, Curved Air, the Strawbs, Focus, Genesis, Mike Oldfield and Procol Harum. Those are just my particular favourites and there are many many more.
I love classical music as well (anything from Back to Beethoven, Mahler to Gershwin).
One evening I was idly taking a random look through You Tube - something I often do, just seeing where it takes me. I listened to some Simon and Garfunkel which led to some Paul Simon solo pieces and onto Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen and then I saw a video feed entitled David Bennett Piano.
I was intrigued by three videos looking at the way modern pop/rock composers had lifted pieces from the classics. It was a very intelligent comparison and there were plenty of surprises along the way. Who would have thought that Paul McCartney's "Blackbird" was based around a piece by Bach? Even Penny Lane included a classical motif.
Lots of artists from Elton John to Barry Manilow, Muse to John Lennon have all used classical passages for some very well known songs and are perfectly open about this and, as Mr Bennett pointed out - there is absolutely nothing wrong with this as most classical music is in the public domain. The rule on copyright is it expires 75 years after the composer's death.
Mind you American singer-songwriter Eric Carmen did fall foul of this rule in an unexpected way. His hit song "All By Myself" was based on a melody of Rachmaninov. He checked that there was no copyright but didn't realise that the rules in America and elsewhere were different back in the 1970s. In America copyright lapsed 56 years after the publication of the music and this period had passed but in other countries it's 75 years after the death and this hadn't elapsed. As a result he had to pay 12% of the Royalties from that song and its follow-up "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" to the Rachmaninov estate.
My favourite two features were Somewhere from West Side Story which is an amalgam of two classical pieces - Beethoven and Tchaikovsky - and a piece by White Stripes entitled "Seven Nations Army" that many sports lovers will recognise. It's a simple run of notes but it's been taken from Bruckner's Fifth Symphony. That's quite an obscure piece which just proves that Jack White certainly knows his classical music.
As an illustration here are some of the pieces featured with a description of what classical piece they are based on.
Light My Fire by the Doors is Bach related
Penny Lane has sections taken from Bach
Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum comes from Air on a G String by Bach
Bach's Bouree has influenced Blackbird by the Beatles, Bouree by Jethro Tull and Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.
Friends by Led Zeppelin is based on Holst's Mars from the Planets' Suite as is Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath.
Russians by Sting is based on Russians by Prokofiev
The Lovers' Concerto by the Toys is a complete copy of Minuet in G Major by Bach.
Party Like a Russian by Robbie Williams is based on Prokofiev.
This Night by Billy Joel is based on Beethoven.
Memories by Maroon Five is from Pachelbel's Canon as is Go West by the Pet Shop Boys.
And there are many many more. Just give David's channel a listen. Some of his videos have over three million views. This guy really does know what he's talking about and is a brilliant analyst of music with many other areas covered.
* * *
Last night I downloaded the Strava app to my phone. I have been meaning to do it for some time but have been unable due to my phone being full. But I eventually found an app that was taking up a huge amount of space. By uninstalling this and re-installing I was able to free up enough space to download Strava.
It was fun seeing how accurate my ordinary stepper has been and the answer is there wasn't much of a discrepancy. So now I will be logging all my walks and runs on Strava like so many others. It always takes me a while to catch up but I get there in the end.
* * *
A few blogs ago I talked about recurring dreams. Occasionally I have dreams of things from my past. I wonder of anyone else gets that. Many many years ago when I was working at Lowestoft in Suffolk, I quite often went to watch the power boat racing on Oulton Broad - just a couple of miles away.
It was an enjoyable way to spend an evening and I'm sure there was some liquid refreshment involved at the end of the racing, although this escapes me.
My dream surrounded a fatal accident involving top racer Tom Percival. I have no idea what prompted this and why I dreamt about it. I hadn't been thinking of Lowestoft, Oulton Broad, power boat racing or Tom Percival during the day or when I went to bed. So the dream must have come from the distant recesses of my mind.
It was all too sadly based on fact. I am sure that during my time as a reporter on the Lowestoft Journal newspaper I would have interviewed Tom Percival. Tom was Formula One World Power Boat Champion in 1978. He died in an accident in Belgium in 1984 after he collided with another boat. Apparently powerboat racing still goes on at Oulton Broad to this day. It's very fast and very exciting and I must return for a watch some day.
* * *
Regular readers will know that I am currently working my way through the novels and writing of Charles Dickens. Having completed David Copperfield, Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby, I am now midway through Barnaby Rudge which I am really enjoying. Pickwick Papers consisted of a number of fun episodes between some engaging characters, Copperfield and Nickleby were more about individuals and families but Rudge is about history and mystery.
It features the Gordon Riots of 1780 in London. These were brought about by anti Catholic sentiments and the protestant leader was Lord George Gordon. They started as peaceful demonstrations but then got out of hand. These were the days of revolution. Over in America, British troops were being put to the sword in the American War of Independence which was taking place at the same time and the French Revolution was less than a decade away.
I came across the phrase Tag Rag and Bobtail in the novel with reference to a rabble and wondered whether Dickens invented the phrase. It appears not.
A bobtail was the tail of a horse which was cut short and Shakespeare makes reference to it in King Lear in 1605. It was subsequently used by another author John Fletcher in 1619 as slang for a contemptible rascal. A tag was a piece of torn cloth and the phrase tag rag and bobtail was used by Samuel Pepys in his diary entry for 6th March 1659 when he said:
The dining room was full of tag, rag and bobtail, dancing, singing and drinking.
By the end of the 19th century the phrase had become raggle-taggle and there is an old English folk tune by the name of The Raggle Taggle Gypsy.
What care I for my house and my land?
What care I for my money, O?
What care I for my new wedded lord?
I'm off with the wraggle taggle gipsies, O!
Many readers of a certain age will of course remember Watch With Mother and the children's programme Rag, Tag and Bobtail that ran from 1953 until 1965. That programme must have seen me through from a mewling baby (I love the word mewling) into my teenage years.
Rag, Tag and Bobtail was the regular Thursday programme in the Watch With Mother series and featured Rag (a hedgehog), Tag (a mouse) and Bobtail (a rabbit).
* * *
Well today's blog has certainly been rather academic in nature. I'm sure it will return to the usual mindless rubbish very shortly.
talking of which, a final question. What do angry comedians eat at Easter?
Hot Cross Puns.