Another autumn is rapidly coming to an end. Just a few more weeks and winter will be here. Are you feeling it yet where you are? I'm in Los Angeles so autumn-schmautumn. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was small with only three in attendance this year, but the food was fantastic! And I cooked it all. I also cooked up the following autumn musical Battle...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bands is the blogging event started by Far Away Series and now hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month. My blog is one of those with a second Battle excepting over these summer months. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
Diana in the Autumn Wind
Once again I delve into the psychedelic past of Lee's Basement to dig up another treasure from the cut-out bins. It was early 1970's when I was regularly foraging cut-out record bins wherever I found them. I can't recall where or when I acquired the vinyl album of The National Gallery performing musical interpretations of the paintings of Paul Klee, but I was onboard as soon as I laid eyes on it. Since I was becoming more aware of art at that time the concept of the album intrigued me. The psychedelic artwork of the cover certainly drew me in as well.
The National Gallery was not so much of an actual group as it was a classical/jazz/rock project by jazz artist Chuck Mangione and Cleveland record producer Roger Karshner. They co-wrote the songs and brought in various artists to record the album. This was a favorite album for me back in those days and received frequent spins on my turntable. I still have the vinyl in my collection and listening to it in recent days it still sounds great. I took good care of my vinyls.
Here are two versions of the song "Diana in the Autumn Wind" which appears on the National Gallery album and then later on an instrumental jazz album by Chuck's brother Gap Mangione. Which do you enjoy most?
The National Gallery "Diana in the Autumn Wind" (1968)
Gap Mangione "Diana in the Autumn Wind" (1971)
Time to Vote!
Don't let winter come before you vote. Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Don't let winter come before you vote. Battles are no fun without you the reader participating. Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites.
Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:
StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands
'MIKE'S RAMBLINGS'
'Curious as a Cathy'
Sound of One Hand Typing
Jingle, Jangle, Jungle
Next Battle on December 15th
I'll have my results for the current Battle on Monday December 9th. Hope you'll stop back to see which song version came out on top.
The Insecure Writer's Support Group
Join us on the first Wednesday of each month in Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group--a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. For a complete list of participants visit Alex's Blog.
The co-hosts for the December 4 posting of the IWSG are Ronel, Deniz, Pat Garcia, Olga Godim, and Cathrina Constantine.
December 4 question - Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader?
I do sometimes like ambiguous endings and have written such when that seemed to be the most appropriate way to deal with a story. An absolute cliff-hanger ending that demands resolution in a sequel of some sort is fine so long as there will be some upcoming book or part of the story and readers are on board with that. Personally I don't like investing too much of my time and energy into a series that goes on too long. I know some people seem to like this sort of thing, but not me so much. I like to move on to new stories and have variety.
If the book or story is a stand alone then I think the reading audience deserves a more absolute resolution to the story being told. Really though, I guess it depends. Depends on what? Hmm--let me think on that. I'll tell you next month,
Do you prefer to just wrap things up and move on when you read something? When a story leaves you hanging, do you like to make up your own ending?
Interesting concept for a song! I didn't know it, but prefer the jazzy Gap Mangione instrumental. As for cliffhangers, they're okay, although a proper conclusion to a story is more to my liking.
ReplyDeleteR. LEE BOID ~
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed both of these versions of the song. And anything about "Autumn" - my favorite season - is sure to be of interest to me.
This one's a bit tough to vote on because... I liked the slower portions of The National Gallery best of all. When the tempo picked up, I didn't care for the drumming. To my ears, it seemed kind of out of whack (or overly intrusive) with the rest of the song and its theme. But I dug all of the vocals.
I really liked the alto sax(?) in the Mangione cover. But that version didn't quite capture the longing ("goldenshadow") of the original. I liked them both, buy I'm voting for THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
>>... "Another autumn is rapidly coming to an end."
Where I live, it is already very ancient history. Spring & Autumn used to last about 6 weeks each. Now, it seems that we get about 6 days of each. And I thinks I knows why.
~ D-FensDogG
I say that is a great tune either way, but I'll take the NG vocals over the straight instrumental.
ReplyDeleteGoes on too long - like The Wheel of Time?
ReplyDeleteDespite no lyrics, I like Gap Mangione's version better. The first sounds like a weird song and his version sounds like a nice instrumental.
It is an interesting piece, one with which I was unfamiliar. I liked the first one better... EXCEPT for the singing. The singing was enough to have me voting for man who filled the Gap in the Mangione family. His was a nice jazzy version that I enjoyed without an asterisk.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting idea, borrowed, of course, from Modeste Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." I wonder what other obscure bands have tried this?
Sixgun McItchyfinger