Day 38: August 19 - I Watched Every Season of Great British Interior Design Challenge And Now I've Officially Run Out Of Things On Netflix
Songs about/from TV.
Sesame Street - Sesame Street Theme
We’re starting with what is undeniably the best theme in all of TV I will die on this hill. Full of bounciness and joy, I don’t know how you don’t smile listening to this sauntering masterpiece. Classic 70s vibes
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Poet, musician, and activist Gil Scott-Heron’s classic work The Revolution Will Not Be Televised aims at both the comfort and white-washing provided by tv, but also those who would want to take part in a revolution from the comfort of their own home. Littered with then-contemporary TV references, TRWNBT brings into direct conflict the consumerist ease of life ‘As-Seen-On-TV’ and the reality of Black experience and Black resistance. Further, Scott-Heron’s resistance will not meet the oppressors where they are on their couches, but will be in the streets, in the communities, enacting change and making their voice heard.
Musically, this also just has one of the slappiest bass lines in the history of bass lines. This peak slap is paired with a punchy drum and improvisational jazz flute, giving TRWNBT a presence, an urgency, and a wild freshness, to match the directness and the left-field referentiality of Scott-Heron’s spoken word.
Jack Sheen - Television Continuity Poses: I
I’m pretty sure this doesn’t have anything to do with tv at all. Instead, I think Manchester, UK-born composer and conductor Jack Sheen may have been inspired by the physicality of actors who have to remain or reassume a position between takes. Musically, a solo violin, in a scordatura tuning (re-tuned), careens softly through an incessant mist of harmonics while an ensemble periodically intones a chord. According to the composer, this work explores the extremes of activity and stasis (note how, even with the flurry of notes in the violin, much of it is repetitive and centered on the same pitches). This is the first of a three movement cycle and performed by the Riot Ensemble.
Simon and Garfunkel - 7 O’clock News/Silent Night
Simon and Garfunkel again put the conflict between TV and reality in stark, aural opposition. Simon and Garfunkel sing the Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night over an arpeggiated piano accompaniment in one ear while newsreel samples of discord, strife, and death play in the other. Such a simple delivery, but clear and powerful, if maybe a tad sentimental.
Jack Sheen - Television Continuity Poses: IIIa
The third movement from Jack Sheen’s Television Continuity Poses sees a fragmentation of the ensemble. The violin remains hectic, but the ensemble splinters, refracting the chord from the first movement and adding new lines against the violin. The textures here are lovely and diaphanous, with the ensemble bursting forth while still blending into the violin harmonics. Again, not a goal oriented piece, yet the writing is very clean and efficient, never obscuring or adding too much, but giving just enough motion to keep our interest. Also, gotta love the toy piano activating the texture with soft articulations. This is from the same Riot Ensemble recording.
Black Flag - TV Party
This 1982 tune is a piss-take on people who live ‘a tv kinda world,’ as Black Flag lead singer Henry Rollins puts it. Just a good amount of energy and fun while skewering probably a good amount of us, if we’re honest.
BONUS: Elmo - Rubber Duckie
I mean, how could I not