Disco Saves Lives: Give CPR to the The Beat of Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive”

in Life, Music | September 2nd, 2013

What to do if some­one one around you goes into car­diac arrest? The Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion has two sim­ple tips. Over at their web site, they write: “If you see a teen or adult sud­den­ly col­lapse, call 9–1‑1 and push hard and fast in the cen­ter of the chest to the beat of the clas­sic dis­co song ‘Stayin’ Alive.’ CPR can more than dou­ble a per­son­’s chances of sur­vival, and ‘Stayin’ Alive’ has the right beat for Hands-Only CPR.” The song also has the right title for the job at hand.

To help spread the word, the AHA pro­duced a series of videos avail­able on YouTube, includ­ing this one star­ring Ken Jeong, an actor and come­di­an who is also a licensed physi­cian in Cal­i­for­nia. You may well rec­og­nize him from Judd Apa­tow’s film Knocked Up, where, like here, he exhorts peo­ple to “focus, pay atten­tion.”

Behind this schtick, there’s some real sci­ence. Accord­ing to NPR:

A study by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois Col­lege of Med­i­cine has found that the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” has the utter­ly per­fect beat for per­form­ing car­diopul­monary resus­ci­ta­tion. The 1977 dis­co hit con­tains 103 beats per minute. That’s close to the rec­om­mend­ed chest com­pres­sion rate of 100 beats every 60 sec­onds.

Below, you can find a very dif­fer­ent ver­sion of the same cam­paign that aired in the UK. And thanks to this ad cam­paign, at least one life was actu­al­ly saved.

Note: Anoth­er song to keep in mind in these life or death sit­u­a­tions is Queen’s “Anoth­er One Bites the Dust.” It has the right beat. But not so much the right title.

Demos for Hands-Only CPR can be found at the AHA web site.

via Metafil­ter

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The Art of Fugue: Gould Plays Bach

in Music | August 31st, 2013

Between 1979 and 1981, the Cana­di­an pianist Glenn Gould col­lab­o­rat­ed on a series of doc­u­men­tary films with the French vio­lin­ist, writer and film­mak­er Bruno Man­sain­geon. In the scenes pre­sent­ed here, Gould plays a pair of move­ments from Johann Sebas­t­ian Bach’s The Art of Fugue.

Gould was near­ing the end of his life when he gave these per­for­mances. He died of a stroke on Octo­ber 4, 1982, only a few days after his 50th birth­day. Sim­i­lar­ly, The Art of Fugue was one of Bach’s final projects. He worked on it over the last decade of his life, and the unfin­ished man­u­script was pub­lished after his death, per­haps also from a stroke, in 1750 at the age of 65.

The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, is made up of 14 fugues and 4 canons, each explor­ing the con­tra­pun­tal pos­si­bil­i­ties of a sin­gle musi­cal sub­ject. Gould plays “Con­tra­punc­tus I” in the video above. Below, he plays “Con­tra­punc­tus IV.”

via @SteveSilberman

Relat­ed con­tent:

Glenn Gould Explains the Genius of Johann Sebas­t­ian Bach (1962)

The Genius of J.S. Bach’s “Crab Canon” Visu­al­ized on a Möbius Strip

A Big Bach Down­load: The Com­plete Organ Works for Free

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Learn to Make Borscht with Neko Case and Get a Taste of Her New Album

in Food & Drink, Music | August 30th, 2013

What’s the dif­fer­ence between borscht and alt-coun­try music?

Uh, pret­ty much every­thing, except for singer-song­writer, Neko Case, the most recent in a long list of celebri­ties to share Ukrain­ian beet soup recipes with an ador­ing pub­lic.

Filmed at the behest of Rook­ie, an online mag­a­zine by and for teenage girls, Neko’s video­taped les­son is both basic and refresh­ing­ly unex­act­ing. Her sta­tus as the child of Ukrain­ian immi­grants affords her the street cred to tell view­ers they should take it as a sign they’re on the right track should some­one of east­ern Euro­pean extrac­tion insist they’re doing it wrong. (Her on-cam­era ver­sion is gluten-free, and—prior to the addi­tion of sour cream and chick­en stock—lactose-free and veg­an, as well.)

Inter­est­ed in sam­pling her ver­sion? Put the lap­top on the counter. You won’t miss any­thing if you com­mence chop­ping right away. The demo is as casu­al as her lack of styling, clock­ing in at near­ly twen­ty min­utes, includ­ing tips for tear-free onion cut­ting, cel­ery leaf usage, and the mak­ing of mire­poix.

You’ll also get a tiny taste of “Man,” the first sin­gle from her soon-to-drop new album,The Worse Things Get, The Hard­er I Fight, The Hard­er I Fight, The More I Love You, though keep your ears peeled for the song that plays as the cred­its roll. In an age defined by such pres­sure cook­er shows as Top Chef, Hel­l’s Kitchen, and Chopped, the phrase “If I puked up some son­nets, would you call me a mir­a­cle” is odd­ly alt-appe­tiz­ing.

Neko Case’s new album is still stream­ing for free at NPR’s First Lis­ten site.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Allen Ginsberg’s Per­son­al Recipe for Cold Sum­mer Borscht

Cook­pad, the Largest Recipe Site in Japan, Launch­es New Site in Eng­lish

Archive of Hand­writ­ten Recipes (1600 – 1960) Will Teach You How to Stew a Calf’s Head and More

Ayun Hal­l­i­day just dis­cov­ered kvass. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday

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Watch Big Time, the Concert Film Capturing Tom Waits on His Best Tour Ever (1988)

in Film, Music | August 30th, 2013

Here at Open Cul­ture, we’ve often fea­tured the many sides of Tom Waits: actor, poet­ry read­er, favored David Let­ter­man guest. More rarely, we’ve post­ed mate­r­i­al ded­i­cat­ed to show­cas­ing him prac­tic­ing his pri­ma­ry craft, writ­ing songs and singing them. But when a full-fledged Tom Waits con­cert does sur­face here, pre­pare to set­tle in for an unre­lent­ing­ly (and enter­tain­ing­ly) askew musi­cal expe­ri­ence. In March, we post­ed Bur­ma Shave, an hour-long per­for­mance from the late sev­en­ties in which Waits took on “the per­sona of a down-and-out barfly with the soul of a Beat poet.” Today, we fast-for­ward a decade to Big Time, by which point Waits could express the essences of “avant-garde com­pos­er Har­ry Partch, Howl­in’ Wolf, Frank Sina­tra, Astor Piaz­zol­la, Irish tenor John McCor­ma­ck, Kurt Weill, Louis Pri­ma, Mex­i­can norteño bands and Vegas lounge singers.” That evoca­tive quote comes from Big Time’s own press notes, as excerpt­ed by Dan­ger­ous Minds, which calls the view­ing expe­ri­ence “like enter­ing a sideshow tent in Tom Waits’s brain.”

Watch the 90-minute con­cert film in its entire­ty, though, and you may not find it evoca­tive enough. In 1987, Waits had just put out the album Franks Wild Years, which explores the expe­ri­ence of his alter-ego Frank O’Brien, whom Waits called “a com­bi­na­tion of Will Rogers and Mark Twain, play­ing accor­dion — but with­out the wis­dom they pos­sessed.” The year before, the singer actu­al­ly wrote and pro­duced a stage play built around the char­ac­ter, and the Franks Wild Years tour through North Amer­i­ca and Europe made thor­ough use of Waits’ the­atri­cal bent in that era. Its final two shows, at San Fran­cis­co’s Warfield The­atre and Los Ange­les’ Wiltern The­atre, along with footage from gigs in Dublin, Stock­holm and Berlin, make up the bulk of Big Time’s mate­r­i­al. As for its sen­si­bil­i­ty, well, even Waits fans may feel inse­cure, and hap­pi­ly so, about quite what to expect. (Fans of The Wire, I should note, will find some­thing famil­iar indeed in this show’s ren­di­tion of “Way Down in the Hole.”)

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Tom Waits, Play­ing the Down-and-Out Barfly, Appears in Clas­sic 1978 TV Per­for­mance

Tom Waits Reads Charles Bukows­ki

Tom Waits and David Let­ter­man: An Amer­i­can Tele­vi­sion Tra­di­tion

Tom Waits Shows Us How Not to Get a Date on Valentine’s Day

Col­in Mar­shall hosts and pro­duces Note­book on Cities and Cul­ture and writes essays on lit­er­a­ture, film, cities, Asia, and aes­thet­ics. He’s at work on a book about Los Ange­les, A Los Ange­les Primer. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall.

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John Lennon’s Raw, Soul-Baring Vocals From the Beatles’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ (1969)

in Music | August 28th, 2013

“When you’re drown­ing,” John Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1970, “you don’t say, ‘I would be incred­i­bly pleased if some­one would have the fore­sight to notice me drown­ing and come and help me.’  You just scream.”

“Don’t Let Me Down” is Lennon’s anguished scream to his lover, Yoko Ono. When he and the Bea­t­les record­ed the song dur­ing the Let It Be ses­sions in late Jan­u­ary of 1969, Lennon asked Ringo Starr to hit the cym­bal very hard at the begin­ning, to “give me the courage to come scream­ing in.”

The Bea­t­les were in the process of break­ing apart when Lennon wrote the song. It was a dark time in my ways, and he was becom­ing more and more depen­dent upon Ono for per­son­al and cre­ative sup­port. As Paul McCart­ney told writer Bar­ry Miles in Many Years From Now:

It was a very tense peri­od: John was with Yoko and had esca­lat­ed to hero­in and all the accom­pa­ny­ing para­noias and he was putting him­self out on a limb. I think that as much as it excit­ed and amused him, at the same time it secret­ly ter­ri­fied him. So ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ was a gen­uine plea, ‘Don’t let me down, please, what­ev­er you do. I’m out on this limb, I know I’m doing all this stuff, just don’t let me down.’ It was say­ing to Yoko, ‘I’m real­ly step­ping out of line on this one. I’m real­ly let­ting my vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty be seen, so you must not let me down.’ I think it was a gen­uine cry for help.

You can get a strong sense of Lennon’s anguish and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty when you lis­ten to the iso­lat­ed vocal track above. And for the full arrange­ment, includ­ing Star­r’s cym­bal-crash near the begin­ning and Bil­ly Pre­ston’s bril­liant elec­tric piano play­ing, see below.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Mick Jag­ger Tells the Sto­ry Behind ‘Gimme Shel­ter’ and Mer­ry Clayton’s Haunt­ing Back­ground Vocals

Lis­ten to Fred­die Mer­cury and David Bowie on the Iso­lat­ed Vocal Track for the Queen Hit ‘Under Pres­sure,’ 1981

Kurt Cobain’s Iso­lat­ed Vocal Track From ‘Smells Like Teen Spir­it,’ 1991

The Bea­t­les’ Rooftop Con­cert: The Last Gig Filmed in Jan­u­ary 1969

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Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Turned Into a Radio Play

in Music, Radio | August 28th, 2013

We told you all about it last Fri­day. The BBC planned to air a radio play writ­ten by Sir Tom Stop­pard based on The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floy­d’s clas­sic album released 40 years ago. The play aired Mon­day night, and if you missed it, you have a few scant days to stream the pro­duc­tion for free online. Don’t dil­ly-dal­ly. You can start lis­ten­ing to Dark­side now and be sure not to miss the trip­py ani­mat­ed visu­als that accom­pa­ny the audio. It’s also avail­able on Spo­ti­fy for free.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Down­load Brave New World for Free: Dra­ma­tized Ver­sion Read by Aldous Hux­ley

Isaac Asimov’s Sci­ence Fic­tion Clas­sic, The Foun­da­tion Tril­o­gy, Dra­ma­tized for Radio (1973)

A Radio Play Based on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Com­ing Mon­day. Watch the Trail­er

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Elton John Sings His Classic Hit ‘Your Song’ Through the Years

in Music | August 27th, 2013

In this video we hear and see the evo­lu­tion of Elton John’s voice and his often out­landish stage pres­ence as he sings his break­through hit, “Your Song,” through his long career.

John wrote the love song with lyri­cist  Bernie Taupin. He once said of their long-time col­lab­o­ra­tion, “I’m just a pur­vey­or of Bernie’s feel­ings, Bernie’s thoughts.” “Your Song” was includ­ed on John’s 1970 sec­ond album, Elton John, and was released as the B‑side to the gospel-influ­enced “Take Me to the Pilot.” Disc jock­eys pre­ferred “Your Song,” so it was switched to the A‑side. The song even­tu­al­ly rose to num­ber eight on the Bill­board Hot 100 and num­ber 7 on the UK Sin­gles Chart.

In addi­tion to record sales, the well-craft­ed song also earned John and Taupin the respect of their peers. “I remem­ber hear­ing Elton John’s ‘Your Song,’ ” said John Lennon in his 1975 Rolling Stone inter­view, “heard it in Amer­i­ca, and I remem­ber think­ing, ‘Great, that’s the first new thing that’s hap­pened since we (The Bea­t­les) hap­pened.’ It was a step for­ward.”

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

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A Radio Play Based on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Coming Monday. Watch the Trailer.

in Music, Radio | August 24th, 2013

This year, Pink Floy­d’s mas­ter­ful prog rock album The Dark Side of the Moon turns 40. Yes, 40. Explor­ing themes rang­ing from con­flict and greed, to men­tal ill­ness and the pass­ing of time, The Dark Side of the Moon has “every­thing you’d ever want … : Grand, trans­port­ing melodies, synapse-rip­ping synth exper­i­ments and sound col­lages, intri­cate musi­cian­ship, state-of-the-art stu­dio sound and John Lennon-meets-Thom Yorke lyrics like ‘The lunatic is on the grass/Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs/Got to keep the loonies on the path.’ ” Or, so that’s how Rolling Stone mag­a­zine sums up the album that it now ranks 43rd on its list of “The 500 Great­est Albums of All Time.”

Next Mon­day, BBC Radio 2 will hon­or Pink Floy­d’s mag­num opus with a new radio dra­ma from leg­endary play­wright Sir Tom Stop­pard. Appar­ent­ly Stop­pard (who co-wrote the screen­plays for Brazil and Shake­speare in Love) first con­sid­ered writ­ing a play based on the album back in 1973. Now, some 40 years lat­er, he has “trans­formed the Pink Floyd clas­sic into a psy­che­del­ic mash-up of Kant­ian phi­los­o­phy, epic rock and John Prescott sound­bites,” writes The Inde­pen­dent. To get you ready for Dark­side, as the play will be called, Aard­man Ani­ma­tions has cre­at­ed a three-minute trail­er that evokes themes from the album and play. Says the direc­tor Dar­ren Dubic­ki:

I spent time absorb­ing the rich detail from the Pink Floyd album, their art and the dra­ma script. What was fun­da­men­tal­ly impor­tant to us was that we retained a con­sis­tent visu­al tone that echoed the imagery cre­at­ed over the years for the band. The insane­ly sur­re­al and pow­er­ful art­work cre­at­ed by Storm Thorg­er­son and Hipg­no­sis has always had a strong dis­tor­tion on real­i­ty. Their sense of space and twist­ed con­text make for some uncom­fort­ably beau­ti­ful art. This tone has been con­sis­tent for decades and we want­ed to hon­our this with our con­tem­po­rary dig­i­tal, and ana­logue, slant on the style.

You can watch the trail­er above, and find some won­der­ful Pink Floyd mate­r­i­al in the sec­tion below.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour Sings Shakespeare’s Son­net 18

Watch Pink Floyd Plays Live in the Ruins of Pom­peii (1972)

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters Per­forms The Wall at the Berlin Wall (1990)

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