My latest addiction is to the “Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain.” After watching en emailed video of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” I was hooked.
The video above is a later version. There’s also an earlier version (see here) that’s more entertaining but less musically appealing. Two other Ukelele Orchestra’s productions that made a hit are “Heroes”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8X5NvcOOnI
and “Ode to Joy” at the British Proms.
and there are many more… One reason I enjoy this group so much is that they take music down to the roots–away with the intellectual pomposity of the classic purists, the jazz fanatics, all those who overanalyze music. It’s just fun, and let’s not reason why.
An alien being would not understand the power of music:
“This so-called ‘music,’ they would have to concede, is in some way efficacious to humans. Yet it has no concepts, and makes no propositions; it lacks images, symbols, the stuff of language. It has no power of representation. It has no relation to the world.” Oliver Sacks, The Power of Music *
Such was the opinion of the Overlords, those alien super intellects sent to supervise the growth of humans from childhood to adults in Arthur Clarke’s “Childhood’s End.” And the humans surpassed the Overlords. So much for intellect. Enjoy the UOGB!
These are great! Music is meant to move you. If it does that, then it has done its job.
My 9 year old has just taken up guitar lessons. The other day, the teacher taught her to strum chords for a pop song on a single string. He strummed along and sang. I sat outside the studio waiting and I must say that it sounded better than the original radio version. She walked out of the studio after the lesson just buzzing. Music does that to you.