MUSIC VIDEO: from the LP "Music to Suffer By", by Leona Anderson

I don't believe we've ever postsed two music videos in a row, let alone three, but the news this week, ranging from ridiculous to depressing, is such that Walt just can't bear to write about it. It's time for an interlude!

Accordingly, we are pleased to present, from the library of rightly forgotten music, "Italian Street Song" from "Music to Suffer By", a 1957 LP by Leona Anderson. As you can read below, Ms Anderson was a star of the silent screen. When you listen to this, you'll know why her career faltered with the coming of "talkies".

 

Leona Anderson (née Aronson) was born on 3 April 1885 in St. Louis MO. She was the younger sister of Broncho Billy Anderson, who co-founded Essanay Studios in Chicago in 1907, for which company she appeared in several films, beginning in 1914, without much success.

In 1915, she appeared with Charlie Chaplin in the Essanay Studios comedy In the Park. In 1922, she starred opposite Stan Laurel in the comedy Mud and Sand, a spoof of the Rudolph Valentino film Blood and Sand.

In 1953, Ms Anderson revived her career in music, billing herself as "the world's most horrible singer". Who could argue with that? She became a favorite of comedian Ernie Kovacs and appearing several times on his TV show. Mr Kovacs' widow, Edie Adams, later recalled that "She (Anderson) knew she was camp, but she was very funny, and very sweet."

Discography: In 1953, Leona Anderson recorded a single, "Fish", for a small New York City record label. The song would later appear on the 1997 CD "The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection." This led Columbia Records to issue two singles by Anderson in 1954–55. This was followed by "Music to Suffer By" published by Unique Records in 1957, later reissued in 2011 on Trunk Records. 

"Music to Suffer By" featured Ms Anderson slaughtering several classics and standards, such as Georges Bizet's "Habanera" from Carmen and Cole Porter's "I Love Paris", as well as new material such as "Rats in My Room" and "Limburger Lover". By the late 1950s, she had become widely known for her bad singing, which was apparently an act she created to mock the pompous style of serious opera singers; "Opera singers just can't kid themselves properly," she said. "They can never let their voices go."

Leona Anderson came to Walt's attention and affection for her recording of the theme song for some of the Bob and Ray radio shows on WINS, New York. Yes, we have the video... well, the audio...

Leona Anderson's final film appearance was as the frightening Mrs. Slydes in the 1959 horror film House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price and directed by the legendary William Castle. She died in Fremont CA in 1973, at the age of 88.

MUSIC VIDEO: "Always look on the bright side of life"

Ed. tells me I need to get out of my funk. At least I think "funk" was the word he used... something like that... so I've been searching the Net for something cheerful and came up with this delightful music video. 

This should appeal to President Trump, since I hear he has called a halt to war games with South Korea, in order to show good will to North Korea, whose Dear Leader is (DJT sez) his great and good fiend friend. So let's watch this with great feelings of everlasting comradeship and happy happy joy joy.

 

MUSIC VIDEO: Gilbert & Sullivan's "Trial By Jury" - Opera Australia

Walt is a hyuge fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist William Schwenk Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. The two Englishmen ["For they are both Englishmen!" Ed. (singing)] collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are the best known.

One of their earlier collaborations -- the second, in fact -- is Trial By Jury, a short (just over half an hour) but excellent operetta which includes some of the fine choral music for which Sir Arthur preferred to be remembered. I like it for that even more than for the extended joke about the law and the lawyers.

The G&S operettas are rarely performed these days in Once-great Britain (see previous post) of the North American ex-colonies. They are regarded as old-fashioned, racist (especially The Mikado), colonialist, and all else that is politically incorrect. Fortunately for those who appreciate British humour as well as fine music, Opera Australia staged a revival in 2005, which included this fine modern-dress production of Trial By Jury. Enjoy.

 

Some of you may be confused (as I was) by the music and characters included in the curtain call. As nearly as Ed. can determine, Trial By Jury was presented as an encore to H.M.S. Pinafore, hence the appearance of Little Buttercup, Captain Corcoran and other characters from that operetta, which can also be found on YouTube.

VIDEO: Amelia is back with "Remigration Airways"

VIDEO: To our Irish readers and friends...

...and those who wish they were Irish

to yez all!

from Walt, Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.]

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! As a special Saint Paddy's day treat we give you "The Irish Ballad", written and sung by Tom Lehrer to a bemused audience of Danes at Copenhagen in 1967.

Musical interlude for mid-autumn festival

In case you didn't see the harvest moon last night...

and we have a nice old song you (and your main squeeze!) can listen to while you're viewing or shooting the moon tonight.

You were expecting maybe "Shine on, harvest moon"? Ha!

VIDEO à propos of nothing

It is fall. Let us begin the new season with something completely different. "But," Walt hears you ask, "why this?' 

My answer is that I know this song, and have known if for over seven decades. Let that inform those who keep asking how old Walt is and why he has the attitudes he does.

Or maybe not. An urgent phone call from Poor Len, who claims he heard it as a Boy Scout in Chibougamou (or someplace like that), prompted Ed. to make a search. He found this version, sung by Rodney Warnaklasuriya.

We therefore thought maybe the first version was an Australian corruptin of a Sinhala song, but a commenter adds this helpful information:

The song "Ging Gang Goolie" is a song popularized by boy scouts since the early days. The lyrics are not from any language, just sung in plain gibberish (edit: found out it is of Scandinavian origin, but still gibberish) so that, as I believe, it would break the language barrier between boy scouts from around the world.

Readers who have different information, or for whom this nonsense song brings back memories, are invited to share same. Click on the headline and the comments window will open up.

Another MUSIC VIDEO: Trudeau resigns, the Trump Effect

Only a few minutes after we posted "Bye-bye, Miss Canadian Pie", we started getting suggestions for other "Glad Trudeau Is Gone" videos. Agent 3 sent along the link to this one, by Quidan Productions, who introduce it thus: "Whether you're a political junkie, a comedy fan, or just here for the music, this satirical song is bound to entertain! It's a lighthearted roast of policies, politics, and personalities with a sprinkle of MAGA magic."

 

Excellent Sinatra-style music, fine animation, and nice credit to President-Elect Trump for his part in hastening the departure of Canada's. Worst. Prime Minister. Ever!

MUSIC VIDEO: Bye-bye, Miss Canadian Pie

The intended resignation of Justin "Little Potato" Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of All Canuckistan has pretty much broken the Internet, or at least the Canadian part of it. Reaction has been 99.99% positive... like this...

There has been a lot of wittier, more original stuff too. Walt particularly likes this Hoser Gang parody of Don McLean's "American Pie". 

Sure and it's an early favourite for the Wally Award for Best Music Video of 2025.

Footnote: Further to our post about the Liberal ladies who want nothing more to do with Blackie McBlackface, we note today's announcement by the Honourable Steve MacKinnon, who has been in charge of the Ministry of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour (previously known as the Ministry of Labour and Seniors) [Eh??? Ed.] for less than a year, that he won't enter the race to replace Junior. He will continue in his positions -- he is also Minister for Seniors -- until the Trudeaumaniacs are booted out of office, likely this spring.

Memo from Ed. to Walt, not for publication: What have I told you about long, compound-complex sentences?! If you can't do better than the first sentence of the Footnote, I'll be forced to plug in Hal and let him/her/it deal with you!

VIDEO: The recording that sold 50 million copies but is never listened to

OK, it's not a video, just audio with a picture of the label. Yes, it's Bing Crosby, with a New Year's wish. 50 million copies of this recording have been purchased by music lovers all over the world.

"50 million copies", you say? How can you say it's never listened to? Simple. It's on the "B" side of "White Christmas".

Walt, Poor Len (who's busy writing his year-end review of the Montréal Canadiens), [and Ed.! Ed.] extend their best wishes to all our readers as well as the non-readers who just laugh at the memes and watch the videos. (Yes, we are aware that that happens.)

Celine Dion sings "L’hymne à l’amour" at Queer Olympics opening

A commentator on Small Dead Animals asks why a planet-wide celebration of athleticism and uncommon sporting prowess is being introduced with yet another tedious display of cross-dressing, oddly selective sacrilege, and self-satisfied obesity? For "normies" like Walt, yesterday's opening ceremony was a truly emetic episode of wokeness triumphant.

There was, however, a moment of blessed relief, as Canadian singing star Celine Dion overcame chronic medical issues to sing "L’hymne à l’amour" from the first level of la Tour Eiffel. Rejoice, dear hearts, that real, straight people can still perform real, musical music. Enjoy.

 

Further reading: "Paris Olympics: a smug spectacle of wokeness The self-consciously ‘queer’ opening ceremony was offensively drab", by Brendan O'Neill, on Spiked, 27/7/24. Everything's getting "queered" nowadays -- e.g. the "queering of Palestine" -- and Mr O'Neill is getting tired of it. Aren't we all....

MUSIC VIDEO: "Don't Take the Good Times for Granted"

Let it never be said that Walt never posts anything positive and uplifting. 

 

Thanks to Agent 6 for sending this to us. Hope ya get shovelled out sometime soon!

MUSIC VIDEO: "Serenade for Strings"

Ed. here. Every now and then Our old buddy Arnie, over at Blazing Cat Fur, posts a "musical interlude" to give readers a break from the steady stream of news of the woke and ridiculous. It's a good idea but it's been a while since we put one up, so here's the calming and cheerful "Serenade for Strings".

 

Yes, dear hearts, that was the Spike Jones version. You were expecting maybe the Philadelphia Orchestra? Looks like it's a clip from a movie. Uncle Waldemar, who posted this, puts the date "1947" on it, but gives no other information. Anyone who can identify the source is asked to leave a comment.

UPDATED: VIDEO: Tuba Skinny runs afoul of the New Orleans LAW!

Walt's message for Independence Day: America is no fun any more! In this video, starting at the 3:55 mark you'll see Walt's favourite Dixieland New Orleans jazz band, Tuba Skinny, get busted by the New Orleans po-leece for "blocking traffic" on Royal Street. This was on April Fool's Day, but it was no joke.  

   

The well-named James Sterling, who posts many of the Tuba Skinny videos, writes: 

After much delay and confusion the City of New Orleans has returned Royal Street to a pedestrian mall as of April 26, 2022.   However, there is still pressure from certain business owners on Royal St. to ban the pedestrian mall so the struggle will continue. 

If you support the band and the freedom to make people happy, you can email the Civic Authorities and tell them what you think.

UPDATE ADDED 4/7/22: Good news, boys and girls! Tuba Skinny were not arrested when the New Orleans cops returned to the scene of their "crime". Guess they were in full compliance by then, because less than 48 hours later they appeared at the annual Abita Springs Buskerfest. Click here to see the just-released full video, 100 minutes of excellent Dixieland New Orleans jazz!

VIDEO: "If you're South African, let's hear you speak Afrikaans!"

Groete aan al ons Suid-Afrikaanse lesers! Long-time readers of WWW may remember that I spent the better part of the `90s in southern Africa, chiefly in Zimbabwe with forays into the Republiek van Suid-Afrika / Republic of South Africa. 

I was there for the transition from "white settler rule" or "the apartheid regime" to "majority rule" or the "new South Africa" -- the original rainbow nation.

In the bad old days (prior to the worse latter days) the country had two official languages, Afrikaans and English. Afrikaans is a simplified -- some would say degraded -- form of the Dutch which was spoken by the original European settlers in the 17th century. 

It is not a hard language for English-speakers to learn and pronounce, although the English, being English, mostly refused to make the effort. Most native speakers of Afrikaans are able to speak English. When they do, their accent sounds like that of the bad guys in Lethal Weapon II.

One of our agents, who amuses himself by trolling dating sites and chat rooms looking for fake profiles, says that he often sees (black) Africans from such fraud hotspots as Nigeria and Ghana claiming to speak Afrikaans, thinking that the word refers to an African language. Apparently they do this also, to prove their citizenship, when using fake South African passports to board flights to the UK/Europe and North America.

This is the reason why discount airline Ryanair has started requiring South African passengers to prove their nationality before travelling by completing a test in Afrikaans, even though that language is now used by just by 12% of the country's population. 

The Irish airline does not operate flight to/from South Africa, but says that says any UK-bound passengers flying to the UK from another part of Europe must fill in a "simple questionnaire" due to what it describes as a high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports. "If they are unable to complete this questionnaire," a Ryanair spokesthingy told the meeja, "they will be refused travel and issued with a full refund."

What an interesting idea! Wonder what would happen if the Brandon administration ordered guards along America's southern border to demand that all those African and south Asian-looking people claiming to be "refugees" from Mexico and Central America prove they can speak Spanish!

VIDEO ADDED 7/6/22: Ed. forgot to embed this video of Susanna Heystek playing "Bowing the Strings". This is a Canadian fiddle tune (written by Ned Landry), played in Canada by Ms Heystek -- 15 years old at the time -- whose Afrikaaner family immigrated to Canada from "the new South Africa".

  

The wildlife images are from South Africa, where the Heystek family were prosperous Boers (that's Afrikaans for "farmers"). They left that all behind to come to what they thought was the Great White North. Hope they haven't been too disappointed!

MUSIC VIDEO: Foggy Mountain Breakdown: Floyd Central Highlanders

Ed. here. I told you a few days ago that Walt would be taking some time off, but then the policial news heated up, and I couldn't keep him away from the keyboard. He's like an old firehorse; when he hears the bell, he starts running... the bell being an alarm over some stupid political move made by some stupid politician. 

Anyhow... we've wrapped Walt in a wet sheet until he stops frothing at the mouth. (Can you believe he actually got banned from commenting on Breitbart News?) So let us lighten up a bit and have some good music. No, it's not Tuba Skinny again. We do like other authentic folk music... music of the people... and a friend recommended this bluegrass group to us. 

Actually when he said "FCTV", we heard "SCTV" and thought immediatelyh of the famously funny Canadian sketch comedy series. But no, it's FCTV, featuring the Floyd Central Highlanders, five girls from Floyd Central High School, in Floyds Knobs, an unincorporated area in Floyd County IN. Here's their very nice rendition of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown".

 

That's real American folk music, folks... from the real America!

MUSIC VIDEO: Aaron Ward song draws ire of liberals

Left-wing music blogger (((Bob Lefsetz))) recently called "Am I the Only One", a No. 1 country music hit sung by Aaron Lewis, "heinous". Give a listen and see if you can figure out why.

 

What's wrong with that?! Could be the patriotism. Do ya think? Maybe the unflattering reference to Bruce Springsteen. Whatever it is, it's got the lefties all riled up. Mr Lefsets -- a Jew who lives in California -- has taken the publisher, Big Machine Label Group, to task for releasing the number. He and his kind seem to think that Mr Ward and his kind should be "cancelled".

Scott Borchetta, CEO of Big Machine, has responded to Mr Lefsetz in an open letter, which says: "Firstly, I believe in the First Amendment. My job has never been to tell my artists what to sing and write about.... Aaron Lewis and I have political disagreements. But there are also things we agree on. I think that's the foundation for the idea of our country. It doesn’t work if we're so divided that we can't reach across the aisle, have a conversation or an argument, and ultimately, shake hands. If we can't do that, and this moment is so divisive, we may never get our country back."

Walt agrees. And to Aaron Ward, Walt sez: You are not the only one! Keep singin'!

MUSIC VIDEO: Album release: Maria Muldaur sings with Tuba Skinny

Every young man should have a crush on a girl singer, at least once in his life, right? When I was young(er) [MUCH "young(er") Ed.] I was hot for Maria Muldaur. 

I bought her first album, just to get the hit single "Midnight at the Oasis", but when I looked at the cover photo and listened to the first cut on Side B -- "Don't You Feel My Leg (Don't You Get Me High)" -- I couldn't help but feel "Heaven's above!" (Yes Father, I mentioned this in confession, ages ago.)

Over the decades I lost track of Ms Muldaur, so was delighted when she came out of retirement (I presume) to sing with my favourite New Orleans jazz (formerly Dixieland jazz) band, Tuba Skinny. 

Erika Lewis has been the vocalist with the band since Day One, but has recently been on a "time out", thus opening the door, so to speak, for Maria. She's put on some weight [You too! Ed.] but still has a beautiful sultry voice [Not you too! Ed.], just the type for this kind of folksy-bluesy music.

In May, Tuba Skinny and Maria Muldaur released "Let's Get Happy Together", their first (but, one hopes, not last) album together. Here is the official album release concert, recorded at the historic Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall in Mandeville LA.  

The album is on Stony Plain Records. You can click here to stream, download or order the CD. And don't forget to tip the band! When you donate, please tell them Walt sent ya! (No, I don't get a commission, just want them to know I'm trying to help.)

Footnote: Shaye Cohn, seen here playing the cornet, leads Tuba Skinny. Although she can play some half dozen other instruments, she doesn't sing... but in my fever dreams she doesn't need to! 

VIDEO: Tuba Skinny livestream, May 16th - 90 minutes of great jazz

Just released yesterday, a treat for all you music lovers who are locked down, locked in and/or locked up. Not only to you get to hear the Best New Orleans jazz band extant, but you get to hear Shaye Cohn (and the others) talk. Just like having them in your own garage, or whatever. Almost an hour and a half, beginning with a fine old(ish) Duke Ellington tune. Enjoy.

VIDEO: Latest Tuba Skinny number - the band needs your help now!

Regular readers will know that Walt is a hyuge fan of Tuba Skinny, the best New Orleans jazz band extant. Today we have a new number, posted to YouTube just yesterday, "The Variety Stomp". But hear this! James Sterling, who puts up these videos, has added an

URGENT APPEAL! "Tuba Skinny and all New Orleans musicians are in a financial crisis and need your help. All concerts, clubs, and restaurants are now closed due to COVID-19. Go to tubaskinny.com and purchase music or tip the band. Links provided on the band's web page. These YouTube videos are free but the band has bills to pay so please help the band in their time of need."



Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] ask you to help out, if you can. And tell `em Walt sent ya!