Chim Chim Cheree
“Chim Chim Cher-ee” is a song from Mary Poppins, the 1964 musical film, and is also featured in the 2004 Mary Poppins musical.
It won Best Original Song at the 37th Academy Awards. In 2005, Julie Andrews included this song as part of Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs.
The song was written by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman (the “Sherman Brothers“), who also won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for the Mary Poppins score.
The song was inspired by one of the drawings of a chimney sweep created by Mary Poppins screenwriter Don DaGradi. When the Sherman Brothers asked about the drawing, DaGradi explained the ancient British folklore attributed to “sweeps” and how shaking hands with one or touching their sleeve could bring a person good luck. In their 1961 treatment, the Sherman Brothers had already amalgamated many of the P. L. Travers characters in the creation of “Bert”. His theme music became “Chim Chim Cher-ee”.
“It is more important to keep the horse going hard than to always play the exact notes.” -Charles Ives (handwritten comments on a score of the Concord Sonata):
Last Dance with Mary Jane
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” is a song written by Tom Petty and recorded by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was recorded while Petty was recording his Wildflowers album and was produced by Rick Rubin, guitarist Mike Campbell, and Petty. The sessions would prove to be the last to include drummer Stan Lynch before his eventual departure in 1994. This song was first released as part of the Greatest Hits album in 1993. It rose to No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Petty’s first Billboard top-20 hit of the 1990s, and also topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for two weeks. Internationally, the song reached No. 2 in Portugal, No. 5 in Canada and No. 7 in Iceland.
Asked if the song was about drugs, Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell said, “In the verse there is still the thing about an Indiana girl on an Indiana night, just when it gets to the chorus he had the presence of mind to give it a deeper meaning. My take on it is it can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of people think it’s a drug reference, and if that’s what you want to think, it very well could be, but it could also just be a goodbye love song.” In the rest of the interview, Campbell said that the song was originally titled “Indiana Girl” and the first chorus began, “Hey, Indiana Girl, go out and find […]
Crazy
Whether or not you’ve had the start you would have liked, the ending is up to you
Panama Red
“The guitar is your first wings. It’s assigned and designed to unfold your vision and imagination.” – Carlos Santana
Franklin’s Tower
“Playing scales is like a boxer skipping rope or punching a bag. It’s not the thing in itself; it’s preparatory to the activity.” – Barney Kessel
Cumberland Blues
It’s not about how long you’ve been playing, it’s about how often you play
Casey Jones
“The Ballad of Casey Jones“, also known as “Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer” or simply “Casey Jones“, is a traditional American folk song about railroad engineer Casey Jones and his death at the controls of the train he was driving. It tells of how Jones and his fireman Sim Webb raced their locomotive to make up for lost time, but discovered another train ahead of them on the line, and how Jones remained on board to try to stop the train as Webb jumped to safety. It is song number 3247 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
The song helped preserve the memory of Jones’ feat down through the years in its 40 plus versions and enhanced Casey’s legendary status to the extent that he has even become something of a mythological figure like Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan to the uninformed. Books and pulp magazines about the railroad and its heroes helped to perpetuate his memory as well.
“Fast is only cool if it’s melodic and has substance.” – Yngwie J. Malmsteen