Entry bubble World Peace Through Cowbells

By: Ginger | August 21, 2009 | Category: Fun

Man sitting with electric guitarSome of my blogs lately have been pretty serious and perhaps just a little intense, so it is time to lighten it up a bit. Whenever I am in a funk or taking life way too seriously, I turn to music to settle my nerves and put a little spring back into my step.

Recently, as I was driving down the highway listening to a 70's radio station, I heard a peppy little song with one of my favorite percussion instruments... cowbells.  I had a profound moment of clarity on highway 10. What the world needs now is love sweet love (hats off to Burt Bacharach and Hal David for that great song) and more songs with cowbells. If we were to put all of the people who are angry and hellbent on mayhem in a room and play them some songs with cowbells, it would suck the anger right out of them!

Thinking I was really on to something, I shared my love of songs with cowbells and my “peace through cowbells” theory with my husband. He just rolled his eyes and then he showed me a Saturday Night Live video clip featuring Christopher Walken directing the band to “add more cowbells.” Apparently, I can't come up with an original thought that SNL hasn't already covered in a skit.

I am kidding about the “peace through cowbells” thing... sort of, but music can significantly alter my mood and put me in better spirits. I listen to different music depending on my mood. Our country has such a rich, wide variety of music (blues, jazz, rock, rap, gospel, country, etc.) because of the various ethnic traditions and influences in our country.

I decided to do a search on USA.gov to see what musical resources were available from the government. I was amazed at the volume and rich history represented in our government's musical archives. Here are just some of the resources that are available:

Take a few minutes out of your crazy, busy day to sit back and relax. Go check out some of these resources and go put on some cowbell music. Drop me a line to tell me about some of your favorite songs and why you like them.

I will get us started. I love “Grazing in the Grass.” I like the original instrumental by Hugh Masekela, because of the cowbells, of course. I also like the 1969 version done by “Friends of Distinction.” This song just starts me dancing and fills me with happiness. The lyrics are about sitting back and enjoying the moment. There are times when we all need to do that. Have a good week and I'll see you next Friday.

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Entry bubble Perfect Sound Forever

By: Jake | October 01, 2007 | Category: Fun

On Saturday I saw Thurston Moore perform his new solo album in Washington, D.C. Moore is better known for being the leader of Sonic Youth and I saw Sonic Youth perform their 1988 album “Daydream Nation” in July.

A 33 album playing on a record player

“Daydream Nation” is one of 225 recordings in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. The National Recording Registry was created by the National Recording Preservation Act in 2000 “to maintain and preserve sound recordings and collections of sound recordings that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The National Recording Preservation Board chooses which recordings are to be submitted every year. They have chosen things you’d expect to see (or hear) such as the “I Have A Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. and President Roosevelt’s address to Congress after Pearl Harbor and things you wouldn’t expect such as recordings of Asian Elephants by Katharine B. Payne and various popular rock, rap and country albums.

The coolest thing about this registry is that the board accepts recording nominations from the public year round. A recording has to be 10 years old and can’t be a video recording to be nominated. I looked over the list to see if there is anything “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” that I would nominate and found they really do have a lot covered. Most major historical events I thought of I witnessed on television so they’re not eligible.

Of course one major historical event they don’t have is the first Federal Citizen Information Center campaign “Happy Facts” from 1973, but I'm not too certain it would make the review board's cut. The government still uses radio and television campaigns, but has expanded to use podcasts and blogs to distribute information these days.

While historical event sound recordings were a challenge for me, I had no problem thinking of three albums to put on the list. Suggest your own sound recordings in the comment section so we can discuss them.

“Remain in Light”-Talking Heads (1980)
“Ride the Lightning”-Metallica (1984)
“Slanted and Enchanted”- Pavement (1992)

| View Comments [2] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: congress   government   historical   history   information   library   music   preservation