saturday evening with mr t...

i received this via email the other day from mr.t...

Here is my salute or bow to Mason Williams – an underappreciated genius in my opinion. He was a stand up musical comedian (he once wrote a song for his routine in 1964, also on an album, “Them banjos” complaining that they played the “same damn song all day”) was one of the head comedy writers who at first paid Steve Martin, out of his own pocket to join the Smothers Brothers writing team, later launched Steve Martin’s career for him into the international spotlight, is an environmentalist of sorts, and superior writer and musician beyond just classical gas. That song defines instrumentally what 1968 was all about and has an eerie surreal effect on those who grew up with it, if you close your eyes and think about the times at that moment as you listen to it. To me , unintentionally, it was the first composition to break through the barrier of classical music versus rock and pop as an instrumental piece (perhaps influenced by the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album and others of course), yet bridge the gap between stuffed-shirt music and all out anti-establishment rock somehow, (not the corny stuff like “Music to Watch Girls By” or the old Benson and Hedges cigarette theme). I remember hearing it on the radio constantly that summer, especially on our trip tp California, and my mom really liking the piece as exciting yet non threatening. Even though there was the Tijuana Brass, they were a novelty band. Songs like Wipe Out was surf music for kids. This was for everybody, defining the times. To me, the composition seems to say” we’re in the middle of this crazy era, struggling with right and wrong and different values and this is the music to help drive us all through the mess. The minor key it is in keeps the struggle recognized, then lets up at the releasing the “tension” with switching to the major chord, and breathing a “sigh of relief” as if to say there is hope. Now it is the underlying theme of this era without having to come out and say so or brag, as perhaps I now have accidentally done. See the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mguzKze1sYo