Henry Purcell - Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary - March

I posted a version of this less than six months ago, but the link is already dead. Like a lot of people, I was first introduced to this piece of music through Wendy Carlos's version for the soundtrack of A Clockwork Orange. But the original version, for horns and drums, is full of a strange power, and it's clear why Stanley Kubrick was drawn to it.

RIP Sid Caesar

Shirley Temple - Animal Crackers In My Soup

You know time is passing when former child stars die of old age. RIP.

The Grateful Dead - Candyman

I've posted this song before, but the link is broken, so it's fair game. "Candyman" is notable among other things for featuring a Jerry Garcia pedal steel guitar solo. The Dead didn't do it all that often live, I think partly because it's hard to pull off the atmosphere of melancholy menace that pervades the song.

The Who - Heaven And Hell

For years this was the Who's usual concert opener. It's written and sung by their bassist, John Entwistle, and the lyrics reflect his sense of humor.

Scrapper Blackwell - Whiskey Man Blues

One of my ongoing informal life projects is to listen more to musicians I've heard are good but just haven't spent much time with yet. So recently I bought some Scrapper Blackwell, one of the blues guitarists of the 1920s-1930s. Here's a taste.

Bob Wills - Right Or Wrong

A pop song from the 1920s that became a country music standard. George Strait, among others, has recorded it. On this recording Bob Wills is the bandleader, Tommy Duncan the singer.