“But I said “Look here brother
Who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
—Zappa

Ordinarily this is called “Cool Stuff I Heard and Saw This Week.” But I feel the need to blog about a couple of rock deaths, so, nothing cool about that. I swear there have been so many deaths of rockers I’m tempted to do fucking obituary page. Anyway, on to the stuff:

–You’ve probably been saying the following to yourself: Why the hell doesn’t somebody do a medieval version of a Pink Floyd song? Because, you know, their songs are so suited to that. Well, wonder no more. Your dreams are realized with this version of “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” They pretty much nail it. Gilmour’s solo? Well, now you’ll just have to listen to it, won’t you?:

–It turns out that my chiropractor, who has kept my back healthy for 20+ years, is also an avid music fan (and follower of this blog.) When I visited him this week, he showed me his prized possession: a box set of the Beatles in vinyl, original French pressings. (Yes, he’s originally from France.).

Once I got up from the floor, I worshiped this particular record (which in my high-schoool French I was able to translate as Four Boys in the Wind.) It’s actually A Hard Day’s Night. (By Les Beatles). I offered him a hundred bucks to take the box set off his hands, reasoning that it was probably just taking up space and gathering dust in his house. He seemed somewhat reluctant to part with it. I’ll keep working the issue:

–As you doubtless know, George Martin – unquestionably the fifth of Les Beatles – passed away this week at the ripe old age of 90. I’ll let Paul McCartney have the floor here:

“I’m so sad to hear the news of the passing of dear George Martin. I have so many wonderful memories of this great man that will be with me forever. He was a true gentleman and like a second father to me. He guided the career of The Beatles with such skill and good humour that he became a true friend to me and my family. If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George. From the day that he gave The Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.”

I heard a DJ on the radio say that after McCartney wrote “Live and Let Die” for the Bond movie, the producers actually asked Martin who should sing it! George apparently just rolled his eyes and said “How about Paul?” Apparently that idea had never occurred to these genuises.

–Lastly, the great keyboardist Keith Emerson died in what was likely a suicide. Apparently he’d been suffering from a nerve disease that affected his hands, hence his playing. And I guess rather than maybe just retire quietly and, say, write or produce others, he killed himself. So much of his identity must have been wrapped up in playing he probably just saw no reason for living any longer. Sad.

I mentioned in an earlier post that a friend had turned me on to jazz years ago. He was also a prog-rock guy and turned me on to The Nice, the first band where Keith started getting attention. But it’s the band that everybody knows, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, that really got us going. I think we saw these guys four, maybe five times in the greater New York City area. Always a great show. If I could extend my Top Ten Concerts to twenty, one of those shows would be on there.

Here’s a song called “Knife-Edge” from the first ELP album: