Is the Danish National Symphony Orchestra now on crystal meth? They look too serious.

[John Watt]

I was rejoicing, listening to a new onacarom YouTube video in "music instruments",
and when that was over I saw suggested videos I found hard to believe.
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra is doing "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly",
also seeing other music themes from that series of "spaghetti westerns".
I had to watch and listen.
It looks like it could be a national symphony, never mind a symphony orchestra.
Not all of the people look Danish, or northern European, but it could be an international cast.
Women are singing and whistling, looking better than the original men.
Even if Fender Stratocasters are my favorite uh... retro body shape and electronics,
it's a muted tone compared to the Telecaster and Fender Twin of the original.
It don't mean a thang if it don't have that twang.

No-one was shown smiling, never mind laughing,
and I felt compelled to pick up that slack and start laughing out loud myself.
I found it that funny.
I like to think I'm a lead guitar virtuoso, and here in North America,
I've been the first to post about that on guitar forums and invent a guitar to go with it.
Is this Frederik Magles' off-handed, if not non-handed, way of luring me to Denmark,
thinking I have what the Danish National Symphony Orchestra needs,
some virtuoso leads with new music of the new millennium?
It's working.

Any modern update, with the ability to avoid intellectual American copyrights,
should be titled "The Good, The Sad and The Thug Ugly".
Not smoke, but meth fumes should be rising up from the stage.
I didn't see any zombies wandering around, when so many are easily available.

Is the Danish National Symphony Orchestra co-opting this American movie soundtrack?
Are they trying to create a new genre of modern classical music?
Will they adapt American rock stage props and hang the conductor during the performance,
with a harmonica stuck in her mouth, so she hits the saddest note with her last breath?
Will a Charles Bronson look-a-like surprise everyone by showing some real talent,
and play the piano?
I see the chimes player as having a more sedate and forlorn face than Henry Fonda.
If a female bassist is playing a bass solo, carrying it across the stage,
will slapping her ass like Claudia Cardinale gets it when she's handing out water,
make her play some slap-back bass riffs, getting down and funky with it?

I truly wish I could embed this video so it's here for you.
They really deserve it.

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

 

[John Watt]

This YouTube video wasn't made specifically for this thread, but it works for me.
Here's The Danish National Symphony Orchestra using a maple fret-board Stratocaster,
for the "surf sound" twang that a Fender Telecaster and Fender Twin amp made.
I'm using an offshore Stratocaster without any country of origin on it,
through a BOSS Katana portable amplifier made in Japan,
trying to sound like George Benson and Jimi Hendrix, and pulling it off.

And yes, I am as serious as the Danish National Symphony Orchestra,
even if they rehearsed and are reading sheet music when I didn't and I'm not.
8:39

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

 

[John Watt]

Hey! I'm seeing 48 views without any replies.
Are you just clicking, instead of conductor sticking it to me?
The expansive orchestration of this domain requires some quality replies,
even if they are coming from a dark piano or dark organ kind of place.

 

[John Watt]

Again, is the Danish National Symphony Orchestra now on meth?
And please, I'm north american. Don't think all meth users are sleeping in fields.
Now, stock-brokers are saying if they do meth they are more productive their first few hours,
than they used to be all day. Using a little illegal drugs is now being called "micro-using",
now a common workplace thing in America.
Standing outside a Port Colborne, a small, Lake Erie port city across from Buffalo,
7/11 late one night, coming back from a two-day bike-hike,
a meth-head walked up to me and asked if he could tell me about boron.
I thought he was playing with words on me, but no,
he gave me a thorough explanation about boron for five minutes and thanked me for asking.

What's with this song, for any symphony?
Sono Bono always said he only knew five chords on the piano, and wrote every song around them.
I'm not hearing any banging of any sort, tympani or impatient non-players,
or even getting Frederik Magle up there as a special guest to bang the mike against the mike stand.
That's so 60's. And what's with the black Stratocaster with the tortoise-shell pick-guard, white pickups and maple neck?
That's really messing with my Jimi Hendrix head.
If you can consider this version as being during the funeral, after all the bang bangs were over, maybe okay.
Not! Okay, is this an IKEA version, serviceable but not very exciting to look at, maybe scored in China?

 

[John Watt]

If I'm commenting on the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, far across the ocean,
I should put up something that's local for me so you can see the difference.
This is the Toronto Symphony Orchestra doing a new piece with Tanya Tagaq, an Inuit singer.
It's about ten minutes long. This made tears fall from both my eyes, I'm crying.
People who witness a Tanya Tagaq performance call it a revelatory and redemptive experience.
I'm a little disappointed they didn't use any Inuit drums.

This song is about "disappeared native women", a big theme in Canada,
and something law enforcement doesn't seem to be doing much about.
There are more women disappearing than just Inuit women, British Columbia being the worst.
Most of them are right along the Canada-U.S. border, and are seen as serial killings.

 

[John Watt]

There are dangers when you transpose modern electrical instruments into acoustics.
The Qatar Philharmonic Brass falls victim to that.
Here they are, playing the "Theme from Peter Gunn", with a tuba playing the bass line.
That's what really made this song, the driving repetitious, deep electric bass the entire arrangement hinged on.
It was a showy tune, very dramatic and could be said to be a precursor for James Bond soundtracks.
That bass line was used all over the world in many ways, as was the sense of urgency the arrangement conveyed.
Here, we get a trombone solo to start, and then, oh no, another trombone solo.
By then, with the not even half-present bass, the song is lost.
The drummer is held down to a metrinomic beat, no flashy drumming here,
and when the horns come in all it does is remind me of what this song could have been.
What's wrong with using an electric bass if it brings the song to the stage?
Something tells me it was a patron of the arts in Qatar who requested this song be played.
I really don't see the musicians, especially the tuba player, wanting to do it.

Buddy Rich told this joke.
If a frog is hitch-hiking beside the road and sees a man driving by with a trombone beside him,
what's the difference? The frog has a gig.
Sometimes marching band instruments need to be given their marching orders.

 

[John Watt]

Here's Henry Mancini playing his Peter Gunn.
I'm still hearing a more modern and hard rock heavy bass tone,
when this older studio production from 1983 doesn't have it.
As you can hear, it's a far better arrangement than the Qatar Philharmonic Brass,
and the solos are some of the best that Hollywood studios could offer.
You can hear a jump into some mild funk that doesn't come across with the tuba...
okay... that's all I'll say.

This doesn't exactly conform to my stated thread theme,
but I felt compelled to offer the original version for comparison.

 

[John Watt]

Awe right! Here's Johnny Hallyday live at the Stade De France, with his Peter Gunn.
You can hear this rock band with the more prominent bass tone,
and for a bunch of guys who are maybe a quarter of an orchestra they sure make a lot of noise.
I could see myself up there, whanging away on the chords and grabbing a solo,
or echoing the trumpet and sax player, unless I started crowd surfing and they wouldn't let me go.

 

[John Watt]

Canadians aren't immune to being too serious, or in the case of Diana Krall,
a little somnabulent.
The original song with Dionne Warwick had that sense of walking on by urgency,
the first words having a fast walking beat to them, a real attention grabber.
Obviously, the weight of this arrangement for this huge orchestral production,
has got them too pre-occupied to even begin to cut loose with it.
It sounds like Diana has not only walked on by, she's turned into an alley out of misery,
and could be considering looking in a dumpster to see what else got dumped.
The percussionist tries to keep all three congas going, but he's wearing a suit, a bad sign.
I'm still hearing the bass line from Peter Gunn and that would have worked here.
This is recorded in Rio, and I betcha they can't see the beach from the stage.

And yes, this is an acoustic orchestral arrangement of a Hollywood studio production.

 

[John Watt]

Oh! Here we go, from Diana Krall, from British Columbia, Canada, playing "Live in Rio",
to a Brazilian artist playing live in Brazil.
That also includes going from a large orchestral production to guitar, piano bass and drums.
These musicians are doing it all for me, as far as playing live and getting into it.
Over ten minutes long... and believe me, time flies as fast as these musicians are making it.

Are these musicians too serious, or are they having too much fun?

 

[John Watt]

Maybe this Danish trend of being too serious while playing non-serious soundtrack scores,
is scoring some serious sounds with serious musicians around the world.
These youngsters are only serious, even if towards the end some ecstasy starts to show.

 

[John Watt]

Talking about the Danish National Symphony Orchestra being too serious,
here's a Symphonic Orchestra from Peru who don'know what to do,
and that's doing a Led Zep song without preparing backstage with enough drugs.
Jimmy Page was famous for messing up, wrong notes, going off the beat,
and nobody is taking their shirt off and popping some veins while they're singing.
Arm hair just isn't the same as chest hair.
Despite the heavy production of the original recording,
the only electric rock instrument they bring onstage is the bass guitar,
and the cellist plays the solo, when it should have been given over to violins.
And it's just a little over three minutes long, a shorty, a shorty, and nobody likes a shorty.

 

[John Watt]

no.... no.... and these are sad lower case no... no's.... oh no...
Here's what is promoted as a German mandolin orchestra playing a Pink Floyd song,
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond", as bad a choice for an acoustic orchestra to play as it can get.
Of course, these are also educated and professional orchestra players on a concert hall stage,
and... and... I have to admit that after five minutes, out of ten, I stopped watching.
This Pink Floyd song is about their original lead singer who only lasted one year, Syd Barrett.
According to Pink Floyd promotional legends, far more than the Beatles with "Paul is dead",
Syd just disappeared, said to be the inspiration and musical genius that propelled Pink Floyd.
For years you never heard anything else about him, until they said he overdosed and went into an asylum.
After another few years it came out he got out of the asylum and was living with his mother.
Pink Floyd began by playing outdoor concerts as substitute Woodstocks with acid being the main drug.
There really can't be any excuse for a national orchestra to be promoting this music,
and that's as much about being able to play it, even if sounding like it isn't considered.
These poor musicians are just droning along, strumming and picking as crazy as Syd got to be,
because they're trying to cover the synthesizer sounds, the new acid-rock sounds, Pink Floyd used.
When the sonics of what you are playing are more important than the actual notes, you should have the same synths.
And guess what? They can't use a mandolin, mando-cello or even a mando-pluggin, actually, no traditional stringed instrument,
because Pink Floyd used the same guitar Jimi Hendrix had, a Stratocaster with a tremolo unit.
Never mind tremolo effects, something the guitar player here doesn't get into,
you have to use an electric guitar just so you can bend the strings the same way.
That was the biggest part of Pink Floyds' guitar player, his "magic bends", fingers and tremolo unit.
Without all the effects all they are doing here is showing you how minimalist and lame the guitar playing is.
And as cultural as this orchestra is, being German, why are they promoting an English band?
This really is like trying to recreate the sinking of the Bismark with an English toy boat in a sandbox.
My Mohawk friends describe our world as being upside-down. This is proof of that from Europe.
Maybe they should have done "Money", and the conductor could turn to the audience and say,
as a modern variation, "we need to make some in the worst possible way".

 

[John Watt]

Wanting to be only serious, even very serious, more than being made to be serious,
and that's being made serious by any means, seems to be a global phenomena.
Here is the Orquestra Filarmonica del Espacio Cultural Metropolitano,
doing some Earth, Wind and Fire.
I was living in Toronto playing in show-bands when a friend, a keyboardist, also a non-smoker non-drinker,
and I decided to go downtown to see the new Monty Python movie, The Life of Brian.
This was the first time we were in this old theatre, famous for it's elaborate ceiling, all painting white.
As we stood there, looking up and around this song, "After the Love has Gone" started to play,
the first time I heard it. That was a beautiful moment. We just stood there listening. It was loud.
I always get off on this song, wanting to sing along, but no-one is even smiling here.
They're pulling the song off, obviously working an arrangement... with extended ending credits,
but when you see Earth, Wind and Fire next, you'll see la differencia.

 

[John Watt]

Oh! Watching this video still gives me the same good feeling from the first time I heard it.
That's not after the love of this song is gone, that's for sure.
I like how Maurice, the lead vocalist, gives the sax player a couple of extra rounds of solo,
considering the large production onstage and the depth of the arrangement.
They describe John Coltranes' playing as being sheets of sound,
and when this sax player gets to solo it's not the sound of sheets.

okay... okay... I hear myself on guitar with mild distortion, some phase shifting, a tremolo descending pitch blend,
using ascending pitch blends for the "oh... oh... oh... after the love has gone" part, giving it more of a rush.
It may be after the love has gone, but these guys look like they're still feeling it and looking for more.

 

[John Watt]

If you want to see the biggest smile for "After The Love Has Gone", oh yeah... it's David Foster.
This crafty Canadian wrote the song and got Brian McKnight, at the height of his popularity,
to sing it with him while he played piano and sang along, with an orchestra behind them.
When a song like this is a Billboard hit single and gets covered by other artists,
and orchestras around the world record their version,
it's not being rock royalty, but collecting royalties, probably more than most of us make in our lifetimes.
This is done like a vocalist singing the song with piano, under three minutes.

 

[John Watt]

I'm hoping you can pretend to be looking around, adjusting yourself in your seat, doing a between songs thing,
for this quiet moment in this thread, when I'm thinking about my life and after the love has gone.
When you are born and live with love in your life you grow up sharing that love as part of your life,
not knowing that love can be gone... and after the love is gone... there can be only one... you all alone.
How could I have been so wrong... when all I did was love all along... to end up living a life that's become,
as empty as words without a song... it's amazing I still feel this strong... take my heart and make my love go on.

 

[John Watt]

Here's a gig to not only warm your heart, but heat up your eyeballs.
Yes, there's a symphony onstage playing a modern pop hit from over thirty years ago.
But what's happening here that isn't too serious, as in instrumental versions as important occasions?
They get the original singer to sing the song, and look at the audience, not just sitting and staring,
but moving along and taking turns singing the song...
The lights... everything that's happening, might be pushing the sit-down musicians into the background,
and darkness... but there is a fast peek at some sheet music on a stand with a small light...
Simply Red was one of the biggest global touring acts when their albums came out, a band name,
and look at the lead singer now, Mick Hucknall, being much much more than just Simply Red.

"Holding Back the Years" is a nice progression over "After The Love Has Gone".
I might have to produce the next video if I want to hear "I'm Back in a Band Onstage".