London Calling

The Clash, with frontman Joe Strummer, was probably at the top of my most-listen band of the 70-80s punk era. Now I find that the Clash Radio blog has for awhile made available for download podcasts (in MP3 and Ogg) of the late/great Strummer's half-hour BBC radio show done between 1998 and 2002. Here and maybe here. Mixed audio quality, but great, great content. In the meantime, if you haven't seen the posthumous 2006 film tribute, The Future Is Unwritten, here is a preview:

Song of the Day: I Want To Sing That Rock And Roll

By Giilian Welch from her 2001 Time (The Revelator) album

Check out this perfornamce on YouTube.

Here's another of my favorites, from the 2004 Cambridge Folk Festival a few years ago.

Here, Gillian works with The Decemberists -- one of our favorite "local" indie folk rock groups out of Portland -- Friday night:

Henryk Gorecki Leaves Us

Today we learn of the passing of Polish composer Henryk Gorecki, undoubtedly best known for his "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" for soprano and orchestra. I remember well my first listen nearly twenty years ago, staring out into a rainy Los Angeles night from my darkened downtown loft, hearing Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta.

Here is a different performance (in Auschwitz) of the music, but one which conveys the feeling from that night. The text of this movement is said to be taken from a prayer inscribed on a cell wall by a 17-year-old Polish girl who was imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo in 1944.

Soprano: Isabel Bayrakdaraian, Sinfonietta Cracovia, conducted by John Axelrod.
Taken from "HOLOCAUST - A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz". For the first time since its liberation, permission was granted for music to be heard in Auschwitz and a number of leading musicians were brought there to perform music for the film.

I have to wonder how many people across the planet are listening to Gorecki's symphony now, tonight ...

Happily, my music collection also includes the Gorecki string quartets commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. A remembrance is posted here by Kronos' David Harrington.

Some background on Gorecki if you are not familiar is here and many other places on the Web, like Wikipedia.