I've been a bit Sinead-obsessed lately, so here's another. The Times They Are A-Changing has somehow deepened over the years as it turns out to be appropriate for any number of moods and interpretations. Sinead's, listened to today, is both scary and reassuring at the same time. I've never heard anyone do the song with such an escalating emotion as the song progresses.

PS--
And as a bonus track, though this isn't a "great performance," Kris Kristofferson's song about Sinead is a great and wonderful gesture that makes me like Kristofferson a whole lot.

We all know "Unchained Melody" but this clip from him singing it on the Andy Williams Show in 1965 is so simple and romantic.

You can skip over the beginning conversation if you like.


https://youtu.be/m0EBs6uRgtw?si=-zjjzflBQPzZeMcn

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Here's Roy Orbison singing "Crying" w/K.D. Lang accompanied by a soulful blues harp. Perfection.
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My gosh, what a beautiful falsetto at the end there. Thanks for this one, John.

Here's an interesting contrast, a short clip of The Beatles' famous first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show:

https://youtu.be/GeguGXadtvo?si=lfRdPIIJOi01LNNl

And the Arctic Monkeys making a dirge of a normally upbeat song in Madison Square Garden. I think Alex Turner is trying to impersonate Paul McCartney too. I cringe slightly but it is unusual:

https://youtu.be/IJCTQFbnvGw?si=LhUy6pW13_qOt-y9

I've resisted posting any Beatles performances because it wouldn't be fair. In my mind, the entirety of the rooftop performance is perfection in so many ways. If you haven't seen "Get Back" produced/directed by Peter Jackson I urge you to watch it.

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About ten years ago I went on a huge Les Misérables kick that included watching all of the anniversary concerts I could. Here is Norm Lewis at the 25th Anniversary Concert (a semi-staged production), singing "Stars." He is by far my favourite Javert, not only for the strength and beauty of his voice, but for the incredible pathos he brings to the role.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=57QiQDenG0k

Here's a fun song with a great vocal that includes lovely yodeling and fine instrumental solos.

Christine, as a hardcore fan you might enjoy Éponine's gentle "L'un vers l'autre" from the original French concept album, if you don't already know it.

This lovely piece didn't make it into the English version of Les Miz. Maybe the lullaby-like feel kept putting audiences to sleep. Or maybe the producers wanted Éponine to have a little more backbone than this. Or maybe they just had to cut something to keep from paying the cast and crew so much overtime. (As Forbidden Broadway's epic spoof sang, "At the end of the play you're another year older....")

While I'm here, another kind of performance. The reading of a letter. Alan Carr breaks character a few times, but I'll forgive him.

Here's one of my favs along with a bit of talk show intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ52...k9wjZI&index=1

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We tend to post performances that are song-related (myself included) but I was hoping more for theatrical/stage performances — Like this one you posted, Julie. It triggered the thought of an old favorite of mine, David Sedaris, who did a reading once in clown face.

It includes one of my favorite David Sedaris quotes in the introduction. In response to an admirer who said to him once, "You are a lot nicer than I thought you would be based on your books", Sedaris replied, "Oh I'm not nice. Just two-faced."

https://youtu.be/nqGy-OzJpmc?si=RsPjWvPeRRXEq0FK

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More comedy. Here is Stewart Lee. (Voted 41st best standup. Not bad for someone who doesn't do jokes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEjt...annel=JimmyLee

Here's a slam poetry winner from years ago that I like to revisit from time to time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LYOTATI4TY

This is partly for Roger, ha. Dylan is far from perfect, but this is. (I'm still more likely to attend a Neil Young concert.)

https://youtu.be/xCipKmyngLY?si=c_o026BUlrUF3-w2

Gene Hackman, in what I'd like to call the last western. I was never a fan, then Clint Eastwood surprised me.

https://youtu.be/0vscLrMD_qY?si=2VrLGyPuwLQe1Por

Jim, Wow! That Melanie clip is fantastic!

We were so close, there was no room
We bled inside each others wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace



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Hi Jim, that exact verse is when a few tears kick in nearly every time I hear this. This thread is great. It's like getting actually well-selected feeds from a search site. I also am getting an introduction from these clips to things I've completely missed over the years.

Here is the online launch of Caroline Bird’s selected poems “Rookie”. Funny, fizzing, frank, and another word beginning with an f that may mean heartbreaking. Hard to feel anything but buoyed after listening to her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJWm...=CarcanetPress

Caroline's readings begin at 3:30

This is proof of how silly it is when Angelina is instantly compared to Amy Winehouse. She sings with none of Winehouse's nasal sound and has a deeper voice with a vibrato and depth much more reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, or Billie Holiday when she goes higher (like here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHLtZQ3sIwE.) I guess it's the hair that blinds everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n13XcVdQr8

I've been revisiting Tracy Chapman lately, and she holds up quite well indeed. I couldn't pick what to single out among her own great songs, so I'll just showcase her voice in a cover: Stand by Me

I'm confident calling this one great. Sister Rosetta Sharpe, Up Above My Head

And one more by her, Didn't It Rain.

Sierra Hill doing “Mad World.” What she does with a mandolin has to be heard.

https://youtu.be/sFIQgPAms88?si=1gvxzSKCmMAjy_ua

John, so nice to find another bluegrass fan. Sierra Hull is wonderful, though I don't think she is the best mandolin player out there. She's definitely great, but there are greater.

Anyway, she is one of the many incredible musicians in this cover of With a Little Help from My Friends.

And here's another bluegrass cover of a mainstream hit by the Grateful Dead. I think they do it better than the Dead did! And it has some great mandolin.

But Sierra is fantastic as well. Don't mean to say otherwise. Here's another by her that I love.

The most enjoyable concert I ever attended had just two musicians: Dave Grisman and Del McCoury. If anyone has ever played the mandolin better than Grisman did that night, I can't imagine. And McCoury is pretty much as good as it gets in bluegrass. But I can't find any decent quality recordings of the duo on YouTube.

You can only imagine how much bluegrass I’ve heard here in NC. My father-in-law is still fiddling away at ninety-two. So much of it sounds alike that being stuck at a bluegrass show is torture. But these are new approaches. Thanks.

I only discovered my love of bluegrass when Trump was elected. Before then, I listened to political talk radio when I was in the car, but I couldn't bring myself to do that in the weeks and months following the election in 2016. It was too upsetting. Then I discovered the bluegrass channel of Sirius/XM and loved what I found. So at least something good came of Trump's election!

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I am not a jazz fan but make an exception for New Orleans style jazz. There’s just something joyous about the way the music is cranked out. I may have already posted a clip of this group, but because we’ve veered into bluegrass it worth another post.

https://youtu.be/jft3BVoxqjo?si=5EaJm71tQTlmyPT1

I see/listen to them in the same spirit as I do Abby Roach The Spoon Lady that Julie posted earlier in the thread (#44).

They are “busker great”. The clarinet player, trombone player and the band’s leader the coronet player are all virtuosos, IMO.

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Here's "Attaboy" by the Goat Rodeo Sessions: https://youtube.com/watch?v=d-31e8Nlujw

And on an entirely different note, since we're doing comedians, one of my favourite Brian Regan bits, "Stupid in School": https://youtube.com/watch?v=CafPNEWnDhk

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I liked Joe's Stewart Lee clip and I liked your Brian Regan.
Tina Fey is naturally funny. This clip of her as a guest on the Craig Ferguson Show is as good as a comedic interview gets. 15 minutes of sustained, improvised exchanges between the two that just keeps getting funnier. The final two minutes are the epitome of visual comedy.

https://youtu.be/sCrzWes-b7Q?si=a5Wz1-CQntYfwcEF


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Jim, if you would listen to jazz for a while. Don't judge or analyze just listen you will begin to hear the inside of it, the rhythms and the melodies and the stories and it'll open up. Maybe start with someone like Art Pepper or Bill Evans or Frank Morgan and it'll get you.

Please listen to this. It's the Bill Evan's trio playing "Waltz for Debbie." It's light and fundamental at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCINvavqFXk

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John, I listened to the link. My eyes may be opened. It is quite beautiful the way it fits together. Thanks for the encouragement and path. I’ve never really even given it much of a chance. I am quick to call it pretentious. Yet in a sense it is anything but pretentious when I watch/listen to Tuba Skinny. Then listening to the Bill Evans clip I was listening to music in the act of being creative.

So I’ll go once again to see if I can allow myself to expand a bit more and let it in.

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Jim, I have come to think that when someone says something is pretentious, they don't understand it. They don't "get" so it's pretentious. The word has entered the cellar of meaningless words.

I grew tired of rock fairly early. I did always know Dylan was a genius and liked other singer-songwriter music. Then I had a friend and he introduced me to jazz. It took a few listens, and then I was hooked as usual I dived full of treading and listening to what I could afford. It is truly America's classical music. I grew up in the same town as John Coltrane. It was a bit of a local story when he died.

As for listening, I wouldn't start with Coltrane's major works. He's a giant but is challenging in his great albums. He made a few much more accessible albums, one with Ellington and another with singer named Johnny Hartman, which is perhaps the most romantic album ever made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecrE80rnjhw

I went through a period when I was obsessed with Art Pepper. A bit part of it is he wrote the best book about addiction there is. I guess De Quincy is one but I haven't read it. The memoir is called "Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper." Truthfully, he's not a major figure. He didn't change jazz the way Louie and Parker and Coltrane did, but he is one of the best alto sax guys ever. Here is a link to a short album. The story is he was hung in his house doing dope and his manager arranged for Miles Davis's rhythm section to wake him up. They did this little album in one day and it's a classic. Some simple and accessible and he could always let you know where his life was in solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16OoypHXcps

I honestly think his memoir is a giant book and not just for the drugs stuff.

I have tons more suggestions and anecdotes and such. Jazz has been with me through everything. It is intimate the way other musical forms aren't. I know you're an Angelina fan. It's the jazz in her voice that makes her different than anyone. She has said Billie Holiday was where she started.

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I almost forgot the Modern Jazz Quartet. So simple and pretty with still creating rhythms like no one else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I41N50GGkPE

The "Dentist" sketch from The Carol Burnett Show -- Tim Conway made his scene partner, Harvey Korman, laugh so hard he later admitted to peeing his pants.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9IUSM4EKcRI

Great movie, tough scene.

https://youtu.be/VTAXQYic9uU?si=PTMMii5INgd8OZ0n

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Thanks for this James. I've let this movie slip away from me. Tense scene, clash of minds. Art vs.artist. I'm with Tar.

Coincidentally, I finally got around to watching the AppleTV series "The Morning News". I had heard it was good. Five minutes into episode one this scene happens and it made me sit up and pay attention. I'm now two episodes in and it's got some good writing and good acting.

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I'll check out that link, Jim. I just saw that you posted. When I first saw the movie, I admit that I was distracted. Didn't watch it all that closely and thought it ran long. But, I was wrong. Cate Blanchett is just terrific, I love her. That scene got my attention. She is correct, or her character is correct, but notice that she hangs her head at the end of the scene. And it's kind of how I feel about it. The student isn't wrong for questioning what we hold in high regard, but he can't see beyond his own limitations, too, and in fact calls her a "fucking bitch" at the end of the scene. Which of course undermines his whole point of view. And his leg shaking throughout was a nice touch.

Burton's voice has been it for me. I first saw a broadcast of his Hamlet when I was about 15, and I was hooked. Stardom and celebrity ruined him, sadly; in his memoirs he laments that by the time he was old enough to play Lear his body was so weak that he could not have carried Ophelia. [Edited in: Cordelia. Oops.]

Or Cordelia, for that matter! ;)

Alcohol ruined Burton.

This is magnificent!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qt49