"I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping / still my guitar gently weeps"

[larryhammer]

Three things musical nicked from Kottke:

Fred Rogers sings his opening song from 1967 to 2000, spliced together.

On the past century's decline of the quality of pianos, due to, among other things, skilled craftsmen being replaced by mechanization, certain design decisions, and a near complete lack of good enough wood. Note, though, that the mechanization has gotten better over the years.

Funky dance moves. The music and moves kick it up a notch about 1:15 in -- but the intro helps you appreciate what follows.

---L.

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Rogers clip. If you want to hear an LP that is a strong favorite of mine, it's over at Way Out Junk (http://wayoutjunk.blogspot.com/2007/08/tomorrow-on-childrens-corner-with-fred.html). It's an mp3 I made from a cassette recording I pulled from an LP belonging to my cousin's ex-girlfriend, and Rogers's humanity and humor shines through all of it. My favorite selection is Lady Elaine Fairchild's off-center parody of a song from earlier in the album (which is all one story with copious songs). It's from before he had his show on public TV. Some library in Pennsylvania has the sheet music for the whole thing, but they don't seem inclined to loan it out, dangit.

[larryhammer]

Oh sweet. Will listen later this morning, after my meetings.

---L.