This song starts as if they are making up as they go along. Which in Big Star's case probably wasn't a million miles from the truth. But wait for the chorus.
Big Star did it all. Made unfashionable music at the wrong time, sold no records, self-destructed and influenced generations of subsequent bands. As they sing: "Love me, we can work out the rest".
The Herbs was a children's show featuring puppets named after, yes you guessed it, different herbs. So Lady Rosemary, Sir Basil, Dill the Dog, Sage the Owl etc., and Parsley himself who introduced each episode. It was written by Michael Bond who also wrote Paddington Bear (statue on platform 1 of Paddington Station, of Paddington that is, not Michael). The rhyming of Parsley with harshly is genius.
I will leave it to you to imagine how this would work for different areas of maths.
Some songs' greatest moment comes in the opening bars or words. When Charles Trenet starts to sing, with those first two words you know you are on to a good thing.
La Mer is also one of those songs expropriated by other languages (and lyrics). There are English, German and even Soviet Russian versions amongst others.
The vibraphone consists of tuned metal bars which the player hits with mallets. It is common in classical music, but especially prevalent in jazz and there is no-one better on 'vibes' than Milt Jackson. Here he is with Modern Jazz Quartet, the group founded and led by pianist John Lewis and in which Milt spent much of his career.
So shut down the laptop, kick off your shoes and let John and Milt sink you in to summer. They start slow. Then get a little less slow. But never get too fast.
What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?
A drummer.
Okay, drummers get stick (sic). John Lennon, when asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, said he wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles (actually that is probably apocryphal). But drummers are important and even cool, and none cooler than Honey Lantree. This is 1964 and women are not drummers.
The song itself is a piece of classic pre-lapsarian sixties pop produced by legend Joe Meek. Go Honey (especially from 1.27).
If you had wandered in to Hyde Park in the summer of 1966 you might have seen a bunch of barely twenty somethings making a cheap promo film and launching a mod anthem. The mods (from 'modernist'), sharply dressed, riding their Lambrettas (mopeds), had evolved in London in the 50s, listening to jazz and blues and ska, but by the following decade were also listening to the likes of The Who.
The kids were alright.
Some pieces of music, especially classical music, are often familiar, but you can't name the composer...
Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg wrote this short piano piece in 1896 in memory of his and his wife Nina's recent 25th wedding anniversary celebration. It is played here by Alice Sara Ott.
And today sees the start of the BBC Proms, eight weeks of largely, but not exclusively, classical music from all eras in the Royal Albert Hall in London.