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What Are You Listening To Right Now?


Guest Black Lotus

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Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

 

Right now I'm listening to one of those Eastern European orchestras performing George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F. Gershwin straddled the boundaries between popular and classical music almost effortlessly during his short lifespan, building his reputation as America's greatest composer on only four works -- the Rhapsody in Blue, the tone poem An American in Paris, the opera Porgy and Bess, and this concerto. He also left behind a large catalog of popular and stage music, much of which became standards sung and recorded throughout the 20th century. So here was a man who left two great musical legacies.

 

Gershwin at one point wanted to study with the French master Maurice Ravel (most famous for the Bolero), but the latter balked. Reportedly he told the American "Why would you want to be a second-rate Ravel when you are already a first-rate Gershwin?".

 

Incidentally, the Rhapsody in Blue, the orchestral version of which became his signature work, was originally written for a small band and has a totally different sound when performed in that arrangement.

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Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

 

In the year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and six,

We set sail from the coal quay of Cork

We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks

For the grand City Hall in New York

'We'd a near-leaking craft, it was rigged 'fore and aft

And how the trade winds drove her

She had twenty-three masts and she 'stood several blasts

And they called her
the Irish Rover

 

There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee

There was Hogan from County Tyrone

There was Johnny McGirr who was scared stiff of work

And a chap from Westmeath named Malone

There was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule

And fighting Bill Tracy from Dover

And your man Mick McCann, from the banks of the Bann

Was the skipper on the Irish Rover

 

We had one million bags of the best Sligo rags

We had two million barrels of bones

We had three million bales of old nanny goats' tails

We had four million barrels of stones

We had five million hogs and six million dogs

And seven million barrels of porter

We had eight million sides of poor blind horses' hides

In the hold of the Irish Rover

 

We had sailed seven years when the mains'ls broke out

And our ship lost her way in the fog

And the whale of a crew was reduced down to two

'Twas meself and the captain's old dog

Then the ship struck a rock; oh Lord what a shock

And nearly tumbled over

Turned nine times around - and the poor old dog was drowned

I'm the last of the Irish Rover

 

The Clancy Brothers' version.

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