1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,000 This week on A Prairie Home Companion, it's our annual joke show, jokes like Martha Stewart's new recipe for tuna casserole. It serves six to eight. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Single women are skinnier. Why? Because they come home, they see what's in the fridge, they go to bed. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Married women come home, they see what's in the bed, they go to the fridge. 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000 Women use twice as many words every day as men do. Why? Because they have to repeat everything. 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000 Those jokes and more this week on A Prairie Home Companion. 6 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:30,000 Saturday night at six on WUGA. 7 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,000 And now, Shickly Mix. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Shickley. 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:01:00,000 Wait a minute, wait a minute. I've got the wrong fader up here. Okay, here we go. Here's the theme. 9 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:07,000 Hello there, I'm Peter Shickley and this is Shickley Mix, a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal. 10 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,000 Or as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good. 11 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:18,000 And how good it is to acknowledge the fact that our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 12 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:26,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this noble radio station whose commitment to excellence is firm, 13 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,000 yet flexible enough to accommodate me in one of its studios. 14 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000 Long enough to produce this high aiming, yet charmingly vernacular slice of edutainment, 15 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:44,000 which is then distributed into the wild blue yonder by PRI, Public Radio International. 16 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:49,000 You know how employees often buy or make funny signs and hang them on their walls? 17 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,000 Certainly one of the classics is the cartoon you often see in copy centers. 18 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:01,000 It shows the staff rolling on the floor with laughter and it says, you want it when? 19 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,000 Well, another sign you see a lot says, we never make mistakes. 20 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,000 And mistakes is spelled M-I-S-T-E-A-K-S. 21 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:14,000 And that's the name of today's show, We Never Make Mistakes. 22 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:21,000 I know it's not such a great radio title because, you know, you can't see how the word is spelled over the radio. 23 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:28,000 But trust me, right here on this log, it's M-I-S-T-E-A-K-S. 24 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,000 What we're going to do is, we're going to check out some musical goofs, 25 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:37,000 ranging from the barely noticeable to the well-nigh incredible. 26 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,000 A few years ago, my son and I were wondering what the chord changes were 27 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,000 in the bridge of one of the early Beatles songs. 28 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:49,000 I can't remember why, but we got out the recording and listening very closely, 29 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:54,000 we discovered that R. Paulie plays the wrong bass note at one point. 30 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,000 I think the bridge happens twice and he does it correctly one time, 31 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:03,000 but the other time he plays a note that isn't in the chord and it's obvious that he didn't mean it. 32 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:08,000 You know, back at the beginning there, the Beatles would record a whole album in a couple of days. 33 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,000 But the point is that I had never noticed it before. 34 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,000 I suppose I might have thought that it sounded a bit muddy there or something. 35 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:19,000 Here's another example of what I'm sure was a slip-up, 36 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000 but I'll bet almost nobody ever notices it. 37 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,000 This is the beginning of one of my favorite songs, 38 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:28,000 Nashville Cats by the Lovin' Spoonful. 39 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:30,000 It starts with the refrain. 40 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:46,000 Nashville cats play clean as country water Nashville cats play wild as Mountain Dew 41 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:52,000 Nashville cats been playin' since these babies 42 00:03:52,000 --> 00:04:01,000 Nashville cats get work before they're two elders 43 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,000 Okay, now let's hear that refrain again, 44 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:10,000 and this time notice that the drummer stops for a beat at the end of each phrase. 45 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:18,000 On the words water, dew, babies, and two, he interrupts the rhythm and then continues. 46 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:34,000 Nashville cats play clean as country water Nashville cats play wild as Mountain Dew 47 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:40,000 Nashville cats been playin' since these babies 48 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:49,000 Nashville cats get work before they're two elders 49 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,000 Okay, that's the first time the refrain occurs. 50 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,000 Now here's the third time it occurs. 51 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,000 Same thing, the drummer stops at the end of each phrase. 52 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:10,000 And Nashville cats play clean as country water Nashville cats play wild as Mountain Dew 53 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Nashville cats been playin' since these babies 54 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:26,000 Nashville cats get work before they're two pickets 55 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:33,000 Okay, now here's the second time the refrain occurs, 56 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,000 and this time the drummer forgets. 57 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,000 He plays right through the end of the first phrase and then he remembers 58 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:42,000 and does it right on the other three phrases. 59 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:46,000 Watch out, Mr. Drummer, you're on candid microphone. 60 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:53,000 And it was Nashville cats play clean as country water 61 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:58,000 Nashville cats play wild as Mountain Dew 62 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:04,000 Nashville cats been playin' since these babies 63 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:13,000 Nashville cats get work before they're two elders 64 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,000 Now that has got to be a goof. 65 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:20,000 You can't tell me that when they were working on that song in the studio, 66 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:24,000 somebody said, hey, I've got a great idea. 67 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,000 Out of the 12 times that thing happens in the song, 68 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:34,000 let's have the drums not stop just on the fifth time but do it on all the others. 69 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:38,000 Okay, so if I'm right, why did they leave it? 70 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:43,000 Were they out of recording time or nobody noticed or maybe they did notice but didn't care? 71 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:47,000 The Lovin' Spoonful played a real laid-back, good-timey kind of music, 72 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:53,000 and hey, as the saying goes, consistency is the hemoglobin of small minds. 73 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,000 Like I said, it's one of my favorite songs and I'll bet I heard it at least 50 times 74 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:02,000 before I ever noticed that little percussional lacuna. 75 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:04,000 Or actually it's the opposite of a lacuna. 76 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,000 A lacuna is a gap and the drummer was supposed to leave a gap but he didn't. 77 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:15,000 So it's more like an anti-lacuna, as in anti-matter or anti-pope or anti-mame. 78 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:19,000 Oh, alright, alright, there goes the irrelevancy alarm. 79 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:21,000 Can't even have a little fun around here. 80 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:24,000 Anyway, the bottom line is that it's a great cut. 81 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:29,000 Even if I'm right, that for a moment there the drummer fell asleep at the sticks, as it were. 82 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:33,000 Does it lessen your enjoyment of the song? Not mine. 83 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:43,000 Nashville cats play clean as country water 84 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:49,000 Nashville cats play wild as Mountain Dew 85 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:55,000 Nashville cats been playing since these babies 86 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:03,000 Nashville cats get work before they're two 87 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,000 There's 1352 guitar pickers in Nashville 88 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:12,000 And they can pick more notes than the number of ants on the Tennessee anthill 89 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:18,000 Yeah, there's 1352 guitar cases in Nashville 90 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:23,000 And anyone that unpacks his guitar can play twice as better than I will 91 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:29,000 Yes, I was just 13, you might say I was a musical proverbial knee high 92 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:34,000 When I heard a couple new sounding tunes on the tubes and they blasted me sky high 93 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:40,000 And the record man said everyone is a yellow sun record from Nashville 94 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:45,000 And up north here ain't nobody buys them, and I said but I will 95 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:53,000 And it was Nashville cats play clean as country water 96 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:57,000 Nashville cats play wild as Mountain Dew 97 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:02,000 Nashville cats been playing since these babies 98 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:08,000 Nashville cats get work before they're two 99 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:14,000 There's 16821 mothers from Nashville 100 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:19,000 All their friends play music and they ain't uptight if one of the kids will 101 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:25,000 Because it's custom made for any mother's son to be a guitar picker in Nashville 102 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:30,000 And I sure am glad I got a chance to say a word about the music and the mothers from Nashville 103 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:36,000 And Nashville cats play clean as country water 104 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:41,000 Nashville cats play wild as Mountain Dew 105 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:46,000 Nashville cats been playing since these babies 106 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:54,000 Nashville cats get work before they're two pickers 107 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:59,000 Nashville cats by the Lovin' Spoonful 108 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:04,000 You know I usually run into John Sebastian a couple times a year. I'm going to try to remember to ask him about that next time. 109 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,000 Here's another even more minute slip-up that I find quite endearing. 110 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,000 First let me play you the refrain of an old-fashioned song. 111 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:19,000 It's a little different from the old-fashioned song. 112 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Here's another minute slip-up that I find quite endearing. 113 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:29,000 First let me play you the refrain of a song called Rainmaker done by members of the Solstice Assembly. 114 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:34,000 Notice that they sing the refrain twice. 115 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:39,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, land is parched and dry 116 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:44,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make a rainfall from the sky 117 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:49,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, crops are gonna die 118 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make the heavens cry 119 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:59,000 Some say I work miracles, some say I'm just insane 120 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:03,000 Okay, now here's that refrain later in the cut. 121 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:08,000 This time the guy singing bottom harmony forgets that they repeat the refrain. 122 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:13,000 So he's missing at the top of the repeat. 123 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:17,000 He comes in on the err of Rainmaker. 124 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 Listen to the guy on the bottom. 125 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:26,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, land is parched and dry 126 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:31,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make a rainfall from the sky 127 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:36,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, crops are gonna die 128 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:42,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make the heavens cry 129 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:47,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, let the moon rise 130 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:52,000 What I love about that, and the reason I'm glad they left it in, 131 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,000 is that we've all been to concerts that feature harmony singing, 132 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:58,000 and the performers sort of wander around when they're not singing, 133 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,000 you know, particularly if they play the guitar or something like that. 134 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,000 And every once in a while, one of them all of a sudden goes like, 135 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:08,000 oops, and has to rush over to the mic, getting there just in time, 136 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,000 or maybe even two syllables late. 137 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:18,000 Let's hear the whole song. 138 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:23,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, land is parched and dry 139 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:28,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make a rainfall from the sky 140 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:33,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, crops are gonna die 141 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:39,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make the heavens cry 142 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:44,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, try to make your living making it rain 143 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:49,000 You gotta put on a real good show, tell the people anything 144 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:54,000 You gotta get the Lord's attention any old way you can 145 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:59,000 Maybe His show a little mercy and start crying for the land 146 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:04,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, land is parched and dry 147 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:09,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make a rainfall from the sky 148 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:14,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, crops are gonna die 149 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:20,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make the heavens cry 150 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:25,000 Some say I work miracles, some say I'm just insane 151 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:30,000 Many a time I've lived my life, I could make it rain 152 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:35,000 One time I had a whole town beating drums and singing through the night 153 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:40,000 And we watched the morning sun come up without a rain cloud inside 154 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:45,000 I knew if I didn't make some weather and see them storm clouds gather 155 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:50,000 I'd be running out of town when the sun went down, covered up with tar and feather 156 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:55,000 Well I was on my knees and I raised my hands to the heavens high 157 00:13:55,000 --> 00:14:00,000 I felt the rain like a sigh of relief coming pouring from the sky 158 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:05,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, land is parched and dry 159 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:10,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make a rainfall from the sky 160 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:15,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, crops are gonna die 161 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:20,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make the heavens cry 162 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:30,000 Let the cool little rain fall on down 163 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:42,000 Let the cool little rain fall on down 164 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:47,000 Sometimes I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse 165 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:52,000 Too little rain's just not enough, too much just makes things worse 166 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:57,000 Well the good Lord promised me a miracle in this life with only one condition 167 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:02,000 He said take your money, get out of town and don't try and start another religion 168 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:08,000 Hey, hey, rainmaker, rainmaker, land is parched and dry 169 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:13,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make a rainfall from the sky 170 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:18,000 Hey, hey, rainmaker, rainmaker, crops are gonna die 171 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:24,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, make the heavens cry 172 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:32,000 Rainmaker, rainmaker, rainmaker 173 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:41,000 I bet you guessed the name of that song. Rainmaker, performed by Ed Norman, John Newland, and Mona Scheiber, 174 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:44,000 members of the Solstice Assembly. 175 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:50,000 Now you may think that I'm nitpicking in pointing out these little mistakes, and of course I am. 176 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,000 But I hope I've made it clear that I'm not necessarily being critical. 177 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000 All I'm saying is, even on recordings, you know, everybody thinks, 178 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:05,000 hey, they can edit so much on studio recordings that people can sound better or at least more consistent than they do live. 179 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:11,000 And it's true, especially something like a really out-of-tune note. They'd never want to leave that on a recording 180 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,000 because it would make you cringe to hear it. 181 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,000 But things do occasionally slip by, record makers. 182 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:24,000 It's particularly tricky with classical music, because no matter how much liberty a performer may take with rhythm, 183 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,000 and that's usually expected, nobody wants a piece to sound like a sewing machine, 184 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:33,000 the notes themselves are supposed to be what's on the paper, what's written in the score. 185 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:37,000 I know, sometimes soloists are expected to do some ornamentation, 186 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:41,000 but in general, you're supposed to play it like it's writ. 187 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:46,000 Here's part of the Spanish dance from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. 188 00:16:46,000 --> 00:17:09,000 This is Anserme and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. 189 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:15,000 Sounds nice. But if you know the Nutcracker very well, you will have noticed that something's missing. 190 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:21,000 Here's another recording, Ashkenazi with the Royal Philharmonic, and I'm going to count out the measures. 191 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:28,000 I'll say one, two, three, and where I would say four, you'll hear the oboes go... 192 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:34,000 And then I'll say one, two, three... 193 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:39,000 Then both phrases repeat, although the orchestration makes it a bit harder to hear the oboes. 194 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,000 OK, now concentrate on those low oboes. 195 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:50,000 The first entrance is on the downbeat of the fourth bar, and the second is right after the downbeat of the third bar. 196 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:54,000 One, two, three... 197 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:58,000 One, two, three... 198 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:02,000 One, two, three... 199 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:09,000 One, two, three... 200 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,000 Alright, now let's go back to the Anserme recording. 201 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:19,000 I'll count it out again, but you won't hear any oboes in that fourth bar, because they've miscounted their rests, 202 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:25,000 and when they do come in, they're a bar late, and they stay that way throughout the whole passage. 203 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:35,000 Now I'm going to only count the one, two, three bars the first time now, and if you listen carefully, you can hear those oboes being a bar late. 204 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:39,000 One, two, three... 205 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:58,000 If you don't know the piece that well, and I certainly wouldn't have noticed it if it hadn't been pointed out to me, 206 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:07,000 the mistake doesn't stand out, because as it happens, the notes the oboes play still fit in the harmony, even a bar later. 207 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:14,000 And also, the oboes in the Anserme recording aren't as present anyway, they're not as loud, so you don't notice it as much. 208 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:22,000 But it is surprising, not only that the goof wasn't caught, but also that it happened in such a warhorse, 209 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:27,000 a piece that you'd think the members of the orchestra had played a million times. 210 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:31,000 But here's a truly astounding one that got away. 211 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:35,000 This is part of a Beauchamp recording of Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss. 212 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:57,000 First we'll hear the CD reissue. Notice especially how the whole orchestra cuts off together at the exciting climax. 213 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:11,000 This is the first piece of the Ein Heldenleben recording. 214 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:21,000 The last piece of the Ein Heldenleben recording is the second piece of the Ein Heldenleben recording. 215 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:50,000 From A Hero's Life by Strauss on a CD reissue. 216 00:20:50,000 --> 00:21:01,000 Now, let's listen to the same performance, the same place, the same performance, by Beauchamp and the Royal Philharmonic on the original LP issue. 217 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:10,000 The upper strings get a measure off early in the excerpt, resulting in some orchestration that is very thick even by Straussian standards, 218 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:17,000 and some very strange imitative writing, and some harmonies that seem decades ahead of their time. 219 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:22,000 And when it comes to the climactic cutoff, remember when the whole orchestra stops together? 220 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:28,000 The violins and violas saw away for a full measure after everybody else has stopped. 221 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:57,000 And this was released. 222 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:03,000 Now, let's listen to the Ein Heldenleben recording. 223 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:34,000 Oops! 224 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:39,000 Beauchamp and the Royal Philharmonic playing part of Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. 225 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:46,000 The one we just heard was the original LP, on which I assume some tape editor used the wrong take. 226 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,000 It's hard to imagine that being the only take. 227 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,000 Then when it was released on CD, they fixed it up. 228 00:22:52,000 --> 00:23:00,000 Either they went back and used the proper take for that section, or who knows? 229 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,000 Certainly not me. 230 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:08,000 I'm Peter Shickely, and this show is Shickely Mix from PRI, Public Radio International. 231 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,000 Now me, of course, I never make mistakes. 232 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:16,000 But when I do, I'm glad there are good tape editors around. 233 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:23,000 Mixing can be the performer's safety net, but as we've seen, it can also be the performer's nemesis. 234 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:28,000 I'm going to play two recordings of the prelude to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. 235 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:33,000 This begins with one of the most famous phrases in 19th century music, 236 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,000 followed by a modified repetition a step higher. 237 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,000 I'll play both right from the top. 238 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:46,000 Here we go. First, a CD with Isolde in the Chicago. 239 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,000 Here we go. 240 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:46,000 And now, an LP of Reiner and the Chicago. 241 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:15,000 That's right. The whole first phrase is missing on the Reiner recording. 242 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,000 It's just not there. 243 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,000 Now there's no way that could have been Reiner's fault. 244 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,000 He didn't stand up there on the podium and say, 245 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,000 Listen gentlemen, these beginning phrases are so similar. 246 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,000 Let's just leave the first one out. 247 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,000 Here we go. Pick up to the fifth bar. 248 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:36,000 My theory is that in this piece, the rest, the silence, 249 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:40,000 between the first and second phrases is so long 250 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:44,000 that somebody who was working on the tape, perhaps the editor for instance, 251 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:48,000 got done with his work, rewound the tape with the gate half closed, 252 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:53,000 heard that silence, stopped the tape, put some leader on it and sent it off. 253 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:57,000 Still, it should have been caught somewhere down the line. 254 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:02,000 You know, if you listened to that opening with the volume way up, 255 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,000 I'll bet you could hear the sound of heads rolling. 256 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:10,000 Sometimes a performance is released that is so abysmally bad 257 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:14,000 that you have to wonder, did they only have time to do one take? 258 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:19,000 Or did the conductor feel that the orchestra had already reached the apogee of its abilities 259 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,000 and that a good performance, even a competent performance, 260 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:27,000 was a chimera that it would be fruitless, if not reckless, to pursue? 261 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:32,000 The Saber Dance by Katchaturian features an infamous tune 262 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:37,000 with a fast oompa, oompa, oompa, oompa, oompa accompaniment. 263 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,000 Now oompas are easy to do on the piano. 264 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:45,000 The left hand does the ooms and the right hand does the paws, oompa, oompa, oompa. 265 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,000 But in an orchestra it's usually split up with some instruments doing the ooms, 266 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:53,000 oomp, oomp, oomp, oomp, and the others doing the paws, 267 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:57,000 one, two, three, four, oompa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, 268 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:01,000 which at fast tempos are much harder to play by themselves. 269 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:08,000 What happens in this performance is, well, it's sort of like a Steve Rice Shifting Phase piece. 270 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:14,000 The paws get closer and closer to the ooms until they're almost simultaneous. 271 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,000 And then, twice during the piece, there's this sort of lurch, 272 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:24,000 a sort of desperate gear shift as the orchestra tries to get back on track. 273 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,000 If you were going to do a car movie performance analogy, 274 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:35,000 it would be Edsel, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and this rendition of the Saber Dance. 275 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:51,000 The Saber Dance from the Ga�na Ballet Suite No. 2 by Katchaturian, 276 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:55,000 played by an orchestra under the baton of a conductor. 277 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:59,000 I'll withhold names to protect the guilty. 278 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,000 But hey, everybody makes the occasional mistake. 279 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,000 And the next one I'm going to trot out involves one of my favorite singers, John Ferrante. 280 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:11,000 He performed in PDQ Bach concerts for 20 years 281 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:18,000 and defined the sound of PDQ Bach's preferred vocal type, the Bargain Countertenor. 282 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:23,000 John is now in that great choir in the sky, but I can't resist telling a story on him, 283 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,000 even though he's not around to get back at me. 284 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:30,000 The second PDQ Bach album was recorded live in Carnegie Hall, 285 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:36,000 and just one performance was recorded, so there were no alternate takes available. 286 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,000 On one of the recitatives in the grand oratorio The Seasonings, 287 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:45,000 John's voice unexpectedly cracked on the word soothsayer. 288 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:58,000 And there were in the same country Shepherds pies 289 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:03,000 That lacked but one ingredient 290 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:21,000 And so the shepherd's chef sought out a soothsayer saying 291 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:33,000 Soothsayer, say unto me the soothsayer 292 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:39,000 Soothsayer 293 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:44,000 Now, every time I heard John Ferrante sing The Seasonings after that, 294 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:48,000 he cracked his voice at the same spot. 295 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,000 This artistic decision had a double benefit. 296 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:55,000 It got a laugh, and it made people who knew the recording 297 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:59,000 assume that he'd always done it on purpose. 298 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,000 Now, what about leaving imperfections on recordings? 299 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,000 It's not as easy an issue to decide as you might think. 300 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,000 If The Seasonings weren't comedy, 301 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,000 John would have been understandably distraught 302 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,000 at the lack of an opportunity to correct that place. 303 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:18,000 Extensive editing may lead to performances that are, 304 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,000 probably for most performers, unnaturally perfect, 305 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:26,000 and yet to leave major boo-boos in is not exactly honest either, 306 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:27,000 in this sense. 307 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:31,000 I used to have an old recording of the violist William Primrose 308 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,000 playing the Brahms E-flat major sonata, 309 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,000 and there was one glaringly out-of-tune note in it. 310 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:41,000 Now, if I listened to that recording 25 times, 311 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,000 that note was out of tune every single time. 312 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:50,000 But if I had gone to hear Primrose play that piece in concert 25 times, 313 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,000 it might have happened only once. 314 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,000 Of course, other things might have happened in other places, 315 00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,000 but it's not unreasonable to want a recording 316 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:01,000 to represent the best you could ever perform the piece, 317 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,000 technically speaking. 318 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,000 I find myself reminded of A Hard Day's Night, 319 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,000 the Beatles' first movie. 320 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,000 In these days of grunge rock, it's easy to forget 321 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,000 that one of the things that made the Beatles so refreshing 322 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:18,000 was that they hadn't had their teeth capped. 323 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,000 They looked like real people. 324 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,000 Now, it was great that they didn't Hollywoodize themselves, 325 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,000 dentally wise speaking, but I think it's a safe bet 326 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:30,000 that if, on one of the days of shooting that movie, 327 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:34,000 John had shown up on the set with a huge pimple on his nose, 328 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,000 a pimple he didn't, after all, usually have, 329 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:41,000 he wouldn't have said no to a bit of makeup. 330 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:45,000 That has got to be one of the greatest analogies 331 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,000 in the history of musicology. 332 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:53,000 John Kirkpatrick once wrote about the Scarlatti harpsichord sonatas 333 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,000 with the incredibly virtuosic hand crossings. 334 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,000 He said that the sense of danger and effort 335 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:03,000 was an important part of the pieces, which it certainly is, 336 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,000 and that when he occasionally did a performance 337 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,000 in which he got every single one of those notes, 338 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,000 he felt a bit of a letdown. 339 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:13,000 Well, that may be true, but on the recordings I've heard 340 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,000 of Kirkpatrick playing Scarlatti, all the notes are right. 341 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:22,000 It is easier to accept mistakes, that is, to get used to them, 342 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,000 on live recordings where the audience is audibly present 343 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,000 than on studio recordings. 344 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000 For tidbit time today, I've got an old recording fragment 345 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,000 that might be called A Singer's Worst Nightmare. 346 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,000 This serious rendition of an aria from La Boheme 347 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:43,000 has been circulating underground for years. 348 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:47,000 Several people have played it to me, and none of them knows who it is. 349 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,000 Though I know nothing of the provenance of this gem, 350 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,000 I'm convinced that it was not done for comedic purposes, 351 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:56,000 because I can't imagine any real singer 352 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,000 doing what you are about to hear to his voice. 353 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,000 This must be from the 1920s, anyway. 354 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:08,000 We're talking basement fidelity here, but be patient. 355 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:35,000 SINGING 356 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:52,000 A vocal train wreck of mythic proportions. 357 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000 This can happen, you know, even to decent singers. 358 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:59,000 I've heard a more recent example that took place on a broadcast 359 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:02,000 from a major American opera house. 360 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,000 It has to do with going for it, I think, 361 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,000 like it's no accident that Babe Ruth, the king of home runs, 362 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,000 was also the king of strikeouts. 363 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,000 Maybe what I love best of all about this tape 364 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:18,000 is that the guy goes right on as if nothing has happened. 365 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,000 Let's hear it again, and I'll let it play a little bit farther this time. 366 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:51,000 SINGING 367 00:36:51,000 --> 00:37:19,000 DRAMATIC MUSIC 368 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:25,000 Every time I hear that, it just, I mean, I dissolve, I fall apart. 369 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:28,000 And I think it's not only because it is so funny, 370 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,000 but also there's a nervousness, I think. 371 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,000 Any performer, I mean, that could be me. 372 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,000 I was climbing Tiwanot once, 373 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:39,000 one of the mountains in the Tetons in Wyoming with my father. 374 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:42,000 And I was above him, and he was on the rope. 375 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:44,000 I was belaying him. 376 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,000 You know, his weight wasn't on the rope, it's just for safety. 377 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:51,000 He dropped his glasses, and they fell so that they were lodged on the rope, 378 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,000 sort of between the rope and his shirt. 379 00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:01,000 And the only way he could grab the glasses was to let go of the rock. 380 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:04,000 In other words, I was going to be having his weight on the rope. 381 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,000 And I can remember, he told me that, 382 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,000 and we talked about how we were going to do it. 383 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,000 It wasn't his full weight, but some of his weight. 384 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,000 And I can remember, I started laughing. 385 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:16,000 And I felt so embarrassed and so sort of ashamed, 386 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:21,000 but it was obviously the laughter of nervousness. 387 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,000 That was an unknown but immortal singer 388 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,000 steering his voice unsuccessfully 389 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,000 through the perilous shoals of Puccini's La Boheme. 390 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,000 Even if I did know his name, I'd probably withhold it. 391 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,000 But I'm afraid the FCC won't let me get away with that 392 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,000 when it comes to the host of this program. 393 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,000 His name is Peter Schickeli, 394 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:50,000 and the show is Schickeli Mix from PRI, Public Radio International. 395 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:53,000 The drama critic John Lahr has written, 396 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:58,000 Great comedy is cruel, and therefore is written by the young. 397 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,000 Well, I'm not sure that it's always cruel, 398 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,000 nor that youth has a monopoly on cruelty. 399 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,000 It certainly is true that most of us will laugh 400 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,000 at somebody slipping on a banana peel, 401 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,000 only if we know that he's not really hurt. 402 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:17,000 The Marquis de Sade may have tapped into a primal place 403 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,000 that sex and violence have in common, 404 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,000 but if you find his books in the library at all, 405 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,000 they're not going to be in the section 406 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,000 with Dave Barry and Irma Baumbach. 407 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,000 Let's face it, though, it is funny 408 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:33,000 to see somebody get things hopelessly bollocksed up. 409 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,000 This suite has three numbers in it. 410 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,000 I call it the, if at first you don't succeed, 411 00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:42,000 fail-fail-again suite, and I guarantee 412 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:47,000 that it will be ten of the silliest minutes you've ever spent. 413 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,000 One of the flay rods has gone out of skew, 414 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,000 apparently, on the treadle. 415 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:54,000 What on earth does that mean? 416 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:56,000 I don't know. Mr. Wentworth told me to come and say 417 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,000 there was trouble at the mill, that's all. 418 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000 I didn't expect a kind of Spanish inquisition. 419 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:05,000 No one expects a Spanish inquisition. 420 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,000 Our weapon is supplies, supplies and fear. 421 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,000 Fear and supply are two weapons. 422 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,000 Our fear and supplies and the ruthless efficiency 423 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:16,000 are three weapons. 424 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,000 Our fear and supplies and the ruthless efficiency 425 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:21,000 has an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. 426 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:26,000 Amongst our weapons, our fear, supplies, 427 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:31,000 amongst our weaponry are such elements as... 428 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:35,000 I'll come in again. 429 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:41,000 I didn't expect a kind of Spanish inquisition. 430 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:45,000 Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. 431 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:49,000 Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as... 432 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,000 a fear, a supplies, a ruthless efficiency, 433 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,000 an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope 434 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,000 and a night out with the naval... 435 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,000 It's no good, I'm sorry. 436 00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,000 Cardinal Biggles? You'll have to say it. 437 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:01,000 What? 438 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,000 You'll have to say our chief of weapons are... 439 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,000 Could I even say that? 440 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:14,000 I didn't expect a kind of Spanish inquisition. 441 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:26,000 Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. 442 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:29,000 Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. 443 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:33,000 In fact, those who do expect our chief weapon is... 444 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:34,000 Our chief weapon is... 445 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:35,000 ...supplies and... 446 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,000 Stop, stop, stop there. 447 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:38,000 All right, all right. 448 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:41,000 Our chief weapon is supplies blah blah blah blah blah. 449 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,000 Now, Cardinal Fang, lead the charges. 450 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000 One pound for a full sketch, 24p for a quickie. 451 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:50,000 What'll you have? 452 00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:59,000 Sketch, please. 453 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,000 And the top of the morning to all of you out there 454 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:06,000 from all of us up here at WOOF, Hoople, North Dakota. 455 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:10,000 Now, I don't want to bore you with a lot of useless chitchat this morning 456 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,000 when I could be doing it with a lot of useless music, 457 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:21,000 so let's get started right away with some PDQ Bach. 458 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:27,000 And we like to do this number for Arthur and Bob and Cliff and David and Esther 459 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:32,000 and Fiona and Gerard and Herb and Irene and Josie and Catherine and Larry and Molly 460 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,000 and Norman and Olaf and Phil and Quentin and Ralph and Steve and Tom and Ursula 461 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,000 and Vince and Warren and Zeen and Yvonne and Zeke. 462 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:43,000 So let's listen now as we hear I virtuosi di Hoople 463 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:50,000 performing the echo sonata for two unfriendly groups of instruments by PDQ Bach. 464 00:42:50,000 --> 00:43:11,000 Shickly number 9. 465 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:22,000 Excuse me, folks. 466 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:26,000 We seem to have the tape on backwards or something. 467 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,000 Let's give it another try. 468 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:32,000 All right, now we will hear the PDQ Bach echo sonata 469 00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:41,000 for two unfriendly groups of instruments. 470 00:43:41,000 --> 00:44:05,000 Well, that's better, but it still doesn't sound quite right. 471 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:15,000 Let's hear PDQ Bach's echo sonata for two unfriendly groups of instruments. 472 00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:58,000 Well, folks, you have just heard PDQ. 473 00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:14,000 Well, folks, I'm afraid the tape has broken on me here. 474 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:19,000 I'll have it fixed in just a jiffy. 475 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:23,000 This sure is a heck of a way to start the morning, isn't it? 476 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:31,000 Okay, now we're ready to hear PDQ Bach's echo sonata 477 00:45:31,000 --> 00:46:00,000 for two unfriendly groups of instruments. 478 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:08,000 Hey, what's doing that? 479 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:22,000 What does that mean? 480 00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:30,000 Maybe we need a station break in here. 481 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:34,000 Well, folks, we had a little trouble with one of our machines, 482 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:37,000 and the west wall has blown out, 483 00:46:37,000 --> 00:47:06,000 so I think we'll have a word from our sponsor. 484 00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:10,000 As the crowd roars to the center ring, steps our fractured baritone. 485 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:12,000 Are you in voice, Winstead? 486 00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:15,000 I believe I am in voice. 487 00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:23,000 Professor? 488 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:39,000 Oh, once I was wappy, once I was sappy, once I was sappy, 489 00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:42,000 like an old goat. 490 00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:43,000 Oh, no, not a goat. 491 00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:44,000 That's an animal. 492 00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:54,000 Like an old coat that is tornard and tat, teetered and tummed, tattered and tipped, tapped with a toupee, ripped. 493 00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:59,000 Left in this wide world to sleep and to snore, to weep and to mourn, 494 00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,000 be treed by a jade in her means. 495 00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,000 No, be mean by a trade for some jeans. 496 00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:06,000 I'll be jeaned by a teen with some jade. 497 00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:09,000 I'll be treed by a maid in her teens. 498 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:14,000 Oh, he floats by his hair. 499 00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:15,000 Oh, not by his hair. 500 00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:16,000 That would hurt. 501 00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:18,000 Speaking of hair, a man came up to me today and said, 502 00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:19,000 Doodles, your hair is getting thinned. 503 00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:21,000 And I said, well, who wants fat hair? 504 00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:25,000 Tom Dankshiller. 505 00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:31,000 He floats through the air with the latest of grease, with the latest of please, with plates full of cheese. 506 00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:33,000 I don't know what the birds and the bees. 507 00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:35,000 He can't miss. 508 00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:39,000 The manny young bear, the daring young mare, he's not a horse. 509 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:40,000 That's silly. 510 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:41,000 He'd break his neck. 511 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:45,000 The fanny young bear, the danny young bear, he's an awful old ham. 512 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:47,000 He's a young fellow about my age. 513 00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:48,000 You know, a funny thing happened. 514 00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:50,000 A man came up to me and said, Doodles, did you leave home? 515 00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:51,000 I said, I left home. 516 00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:52,000 He said, did you put the cat out? 517 00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:54,000 I said, I didn't know he was on fire. 518 00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:57,000 I said, killer. 519 00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:03,000 The daring young man on the flapping trapeze, a treasing try flaps, a trying flip flip, 520 00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:08,000 a flipping tripe, a fapping tripe, a horizontal bar. 521 00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,000 His grations are axial, no, his actions are horrible. 522 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,000 No, he's very good. 523 00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:15,000 All girls heed the pleas. 524 00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,000 But my wove, he hath lowness stay. 525 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,000 No, the doves and the hay loft away. 526 00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:21,000 No, I'm on the road, the man away. 527 00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:22,000 No, hey, hey, hey. 528 00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:23,000 No, no. 529 00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:25,000 Did you hear about the owl who married a goat? 530 00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:26,000 They had a hoot nanny. 531 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:30,000 Ha, Dankshiller. 532 00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:47,000 He's the man on the flying trapeze. 533 00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:52,000 The if at first you don't succeed, fail, fail again suite. 534 00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:55,000 Monty Python and the Spanish Inquisition. 535 00:49:55,000 --> 00:50:00,000 The echo sonata for two unfriendly groups of instruments by P.D.Q. Bach. 536 00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:07,000 And Doodles Weaver trying to make it through the man on the flying trapeze with the help of Spike Jones. 537 00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:12,000 You know, sometimes when I wonder how anybody can be as silly as I am, 538 00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:16,000 I listen to some of those old Spike Jones sides and look at some of those old 40s movies. 539 00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,000 Those were silly times. 540 00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:25,000 Doodles Weaver, you know, I mentioned on another edition of Shickly Mix, 541 00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:29,000 and it was said sort of jokingly that Doodles Weaver was related to Sigourney Weaver, 542 00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:32,000 but I think that's true. I think I read that someplace. 543 00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:36,000 So Sigourney, if you're listening, please get in touch with me about that. 544 00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,000 I'd be curious. 545 00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:43,000 Meanwhile, you know, we've had a lot of short little snippets on this show, 546 00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:49,000 ferreting out these stupid little mistakes that nobody would have noticed if I hadn't pointed them out. 547 00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:52,000 So let's go out with a nice chunk here. 548 00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:57,000 We heard a little bit of a nutcracker in one of the trickiest-to-hear mistakes before, 549 00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:01,000 where you had to just really be able to zero in on those oboes. 550 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:05,000 Let's hear the waltz of the flowers to go out on. What do you say? 551 00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:20,000 We'll hear that with the Ashkenazi version, Vladimir Ashkenazi conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. 552 00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,000 And that's Shickly Mix for this week. 553 00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:44,000 Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 554 00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:50,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station and its members. 555 00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:52,000 Thank you, members. 556 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:58,000 And not only that, our program is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. 557 00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:05,000 And special thanks to Ken Jeane and Leslie Gerber for their recordings. 558 00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:10,000 We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program, 559 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:12,000 with album numbers and everything. 560 00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:17,000 Just refer to the program number. This is program number 113. 561 00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:24,000 And this is Peter Shickly saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. 562 00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:29,000 You're looking good. See you next week. 563 00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:56,000 Thank you. 564 00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:26,000 Thank you. 565 00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:56,000 Thank you. 566 00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:26,000 Thank you. 567 00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:56,000 Thank you. 568 00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:26,000 Thank you. 569 00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:56,000 Thank you. 570 00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:26,000 Thank you. 571 00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:56,000 Thank you. 572 00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:32,000 If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Shickly Mix. 573 00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:37,000 That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Shickly Mix. 574 00:58:37,000 --> 00:58:39,000 Care of Public Radio International. 575 00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:47,000 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403. 576 00:58:47,000 --> 00:58:57,000 PRI Public Radio International.