Now Then & Back When #2: The Standards

Hello there. It's been a while. Let me explain. Those who listened to/watched the first blogcast liked it but said it was too long for new listeners. Yes yes, I flag things for later and never get back to them too. On investigating, I learned that the average attention span online is precisely 1.52 minutes-- that data is completely fabricated-- and mine first blogcast came in at about 55.

So... here is the new, improved, short (well, shorter at 10 to 16 minutes) version that I will post once a week, instead of once a month. This way I just might hear from folks with comments, corrections, quips and whims and whines. Or just love notes. Here goes.

So here it is, the 2nd of the Now Then & Back When slide-show blogcasts. Just what do they mean by some songs being pop music "standards"? Hear it, see it, feel it here.

We start the Standards with a somewhat obscure waltz, Alice Blue Gown, then turn to the ubiquitous chestnut Autumn Leaves. Next time we'll move on to Berlin... Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies and his classic love ballad Always. Then Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered provides a chance to hear old and new takes of the hot and bothered song a gay 22-year old Larry Hart penned in 1940.

Now Then & Back When #2: The Standards, part A from Mark Freeman on Vimeo.

links for blogcast #1

#1 Change Is Gonna Come Across the Universe

POP 101: Now Then & Back When slideshow No. 1 from Mark Freeman on Vimeo.

#1 Change Is Gonna Come Across the Universe

first blogcast ever of POP101: Now Then & Back When

Okay, for those of you I told I'd be doing it soon, here it is. And if this is out of the blue for you, here it is too.

This will be the very first in a series of blogcasts on pop music, with various versions of each song... and what I hope is just enough commentary. Sometimes the "Now" is recent, the "Then" is a cover from, say the '80s and the "Back When" an original from the '60s. At other times, the "Back When" stretches way back to 1905 or some such pre-electric microphone year that I adore.

The plan is to post a new blogcast about every month. In between I'd love to hear from you. Covers that bring you back to the day? Originals that still get you? 

Needless to say, feel very free to pass this on to any or everyone.

Title of the first blogcast: Change Is Gonna Come Across the Universe

Ready, set, launch!