Category:
Music
Music
The Sampognaro
My source for this illo claims the musical instrument depicted is called a "sampognaro." Yet googling reveals no such creature.Who can help?
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jul 08, 2020 -
Comments (7)
Category: Music
B. Brock and the Sultans
B. Brock and the Sultans were a Beatles knockoff band whose one-and-only album, released in 1964, included a cover of 'I want to hold your hand.' But to drive home how like the Beatles they were, almost all the other songs on the album included the word 'beetle' — ‘Beetle Walk,’ ’30 LB Beetle,’ ‘Feed The Beetle,’ ‘Fast Beetle,’ ‘Mexican Beetle,’ ‘Little Brown Beetle,’ and ‘Do The Beetle’.More info: The Lost RPM
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 02, 2020 -
Comments (5)
Category: Music, 1960s
“Oh, it was my cruel parents who first did me trepan”
To trepan means to perforate the skull with a drill. Which makes the title of this old folk song from Norwich extremely odd.However, the song itself isn't actually about parents drilling a hole in the skull of their child, despite the title. Turns out, 'trepan' has another, archaic meaning, which is to trap or ensnare, and that's how it's used here.
But even though it isn't about pediatric brain surgery, it's still quite a dark and violent song.
It's performed below by Jon Wilks. He starts singing the song about halfway through the clip.
Oh, it was my cruel parents that first did me trepan;
They married me to an old man for the sake of money and land.
If they'd married me to a young man without a penny at all,
He'd have took me in his arms and have loved me all the more.
Oh, it's, "Hush, my dearest Nancy, oh, wait 'til we go to town,
I'll buy you a lady's bonney, likewise a mus-e-lin gown;
There is no lady in the land your beauty can compare,
And I'll buy you a little lapdog to follow you everywhere."
"I want none of your little lapdogs nor none of your gentle care;
It's a pity that such an old man my beauty you should snare.
I am not sixteen years of age and scarcely in my bloom;
Oh, you are my cruel torment, both morning, night and noon."
When he comes to bed at night he's as cold as any clay:
His feet are as cold at midnight as corpse, I've heard them say;
His pipes are out of order and his old flute's never in tune:
Oh, I wish that he was dead and a young man in the room.
[Now some they do persuade me to drown him in a well,
And others do persuade me to grind him in a mill.
I'd rather take my own advice and tie him to a stake,]
Oh I'll get a big stick and labour him well, until his bones I break.
They married me to an old man for the sake of money and land.
If they'd married me to a young man without a penny at all,
He'd have took me in his arms and have loved me all the more.
Oh, it's, "Hush, my dearest Nancy, oh, wait 'til we go to town,
I'll buy you a lady's bonney, likewise a mus-e-lin gown;
There is no lady in the land your beauty can compare,
And I'll buy you a little lapdog to follow you everywhere."
"I want none of your little lapdogs nor none of your gentle care;
It's a pity that such an old man my beauty you should snare.
I am not sixteen years of age and scarcely in my bloom;
Oh, you are my cruel torment, both morning, night and noon."
When he comes to bed at night he's as cold as any clay:
His feet are as cold at midnight as corpse, I've heard them say;
His pipes are out of order and his old flute's never in tune:
Oh, I wish that he was dead and a young man in the room.
[Now some they do persuade me to drown him in a well,
And others do persuade me to grind him in a mill.
I'd rather take my own advice and tie him to a stake,]
Oh I'll get a big stick and labour him well, until his bones I break.
Source of lyrics
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 26, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Languages, Music
The Music of Colonel Sanders
Colonel Sanders was apparently a music fan. During the late 1960s, while he still owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, he released a number of albums which were sold at his restaurants.His first record, released in 1966, was "Favorite Old Church Hymns recorded by The Colonel's Mandolin Band for the glorification of Christ."
The story goes, as reported by the Danville Advocate-Messenger (Nov 6, 1967), that "a group of sixth-graders originally became interested in mandolins after their teacher brought an instrument to the school. When the children, who lived near Colonel Sanders, had formed a band and played many times, they performed for him and he forthwith bought them all new mandolins and assisted them in making a record." In fact, he decided to print 30,000 copies of the record, almost none of which sold.
Vice.com reports that thousands of copies of the record are still in a storage warehouse in Kentucky, and you can buy one if you visit the original KFC location in Corbin, Kentucky.
The other albums he released were more generic music compilations. The best title among the lot is Colonel Sanders' Tijuana Picnic, which sounds vaguely obscene, but was just a collection of Tijuana Brass knockoffs. You can listen to the whole album on YouTube (clip below).
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 18, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Junk Food, 1960s
Cassandra and Tom
Decide for yourself!
Source of text.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 04, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Ambiguity, Uncertainty and Deliberate Obscurity, Celebrities, Music, Photography and Photographers, 1970s, Dance
Harry Partch’s Zymo-Xyl
We've posted before about "hobo composer" Harry Partch. (Specifically, about his composition 'Barstow' inspired by hitchhiker graffiti he found on the outskirts of Barstow, CA).Another of his oddities was his zymo xyl — a musical instrument he made out of 17 upside-down liquor bottles, 14 oak blocks, hubcaps from 1952 and '52 Fords, and an aluminum kettle top. It was said to sound a bit like a xylophone. He specified that the liquor bottles should include two Old Heaven Hill bourbon bottles, two Gordon's gin, and two Barclay's whiskeys.
You can hear him play the zymo xyl at the end of the clip below.
Los Angeles Times - June 30, 1996
image source: wiktionary
Posted By: Alex - Sat May 16, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Music
Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, “High Blood Pressure”
Medical intervention is definitely required for this singer and his gyno-pathic disease.
Posted By: Paul - Mon May 04, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Music, 1960s, Disease
Magneto and Titanium Man
So far as my researches at ISFDB reveal, Marvel Comics has inexplicably never used this song in a film. WU hereby offers it, gratis, for the relaunch of the X-Men.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 21, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Movies, Music, Comics, 1970s
Six Minutes of Disco Dancing
So much polyester. So many fly ladies. So many dudes in jumpsuits. So many funky moves.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Apr 19, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Fashion, Music, 1970s, Dance
MONAD Studio - 3D-printed, Piezoelectric Violin
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 06, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Inventions, Music, Technology
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |