It’s Oh So Quiet

In 1995, Bjork released a big band jazz cover of Betty Hutton’s 1948 hit “Blow a Fuse”. This was a cover of an Austrian song “Und jetzt ist es still” by Hans Lang and Erich Meder.

Bjork said of the song:

Isn’t that the best song you’ve heard for five years? In a way it was against my principles to do an old cover version because I’m so anti-retro. But it has this story, this narrative: there’s a beginning and something happens in the middle and the ending is different. So many pop songs, especially with English lyrics, are just 900 different ways of saying “she left me!” Which I actually love because it’s pop, just one idea, very simple, and it doesn’t mean it’s cheap. I can relate to it, but I belong to the storytelling group.”

Source: Creswell, Toby (2005) 1001 Songs: The Great Songs Of All Times. Prahan, Victoria: Hardie Grant Books, p.101-102.


Posted

in

by


Featured Content

Shostakovich on music
“There can be no music without idealogy … We, as revolutionaries, have a different conception of  music from the composers of other [non Soviet-Russia] countries.  Lenin himself said the “Music is a means of unifying people”.  It is not a leader of the masses, perhaps, but certainly an organising force … I think an artist […]
Gershwin’s romantic side
Rodney Greenberg describes a side of George Gershwin’s “romantic side”: He wrote a little waltz-song, which he would sing and play to his current dating partner.  It was, in effect, what his friend Kitty Carlisle (who later married playwright Moss Hart) described as his “mating call”, because he left a blank space in the lyrics […]
The possibilities of creativity
“The possibilities of creative effort connected with the subconscious mind are stupendous and imponderable. They inspire one with awe.” – Napoleon Hill, American author Quotations Book  
There’s one way to get him to play
People often begged him to play a little air on the violin, but he refused great lords and his fellow de-bauchers alike.  The only person who succeeded in making him play was the Marshal de Grammont.  He had a footman called La Lande who later became one of the best violinists in Europe.  After a […]
That which precedes success
“I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.” — Thomas Edison, American inventor A. R. Calhoun How to Get On in the World; or, a Ladder to Pratical Success, New York, 1895, p.137.  Digitally archived at: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20608/pg20608.html, accessed 18 September 2021. 
The here and now
“It is a mark of soulfulness to be present in the here and now. When we are present, we are not fabricating inner movies. We are seeing what is before us.” – John Bradshaw (1992) Creating Love: The Next Great Stage of Growth.  United States: Bantam Books, p.127.
Bugs Bunny can save classical music
“The future of classical music lies with the younger generation, which must be weaned away from the cacophony of rock and the neon glitter of “American Idol”-type TV shows. Instead of dragging children to concerts, where they squirm with boredom, rent some old movies featuring soundtracks of classical music. Even toddlers can be exposed to […]
Convey to others what we are
There is no insurmountable solitude. All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song – but in this […]
Mozart’s magic ring
When Mozart was in Naples, he so impressed his audience that they suspected “musical sorcery”. They ordered him to play without wearing his ring, the apparent source of his “magic”. Source: Marek, George (1969) Beethoven: Biography of a Genius. London: William Kimber, p.20.
Many an Orpheus and Arions make up a Bach
Johann Matthias Gesner was a colleague of Johann Sebastian Bach at St. Thomas’ School, Leipzig. He later worked on a commentary of the Roman author Quintilian (c. 35-100 A. D.). He included a comparison of Bach with the Classical lyre player: All these (outstanding achievements) … you would reckon trivial could you rise from the dead and […]