Funeral for a King

Levon Helm's funeral recessional (May 2012). Music speaks louder and more succinctly than anything else can.

Real Wild, Child

This is just too cool for school.

Think Iggy Pop wrote Real Wild Child? Nope. It's a 50's B-Standard, as shown by this bad-ass version, credited to "Ivan" - that is, Jerry Ivan Allison - the drummer for Crickets.

And yup, that's Buddy Holly on guitar - to my ears, playing his Strat directly into the board, in 1958. That's about 10 years before it was considered an innovative studio trick, like when the Beatles did it on Dear Prudence. Talk about ahead of your time.

10,000 (Japanese) Maniacs

As it is, I believe the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth symphony to be the most passionate music ever made. This performance just takes it to a level I can hardly describe.

We can imagine the debut of the symphony during Beethoven's life, and consider when imagining it that everything was smaller - the performance hall, the symphony, the choir, the stakes. Now compare that to what you are about to witness here: A 10,000-strong amateur mixed choir and professional orchestra (both from Osaka and Sendai) with a beautifully-meshuganeh maestro, Yutaka Sado. Truly breathless.

Passion

Holy freaking expletive. The passion is insane here. The last chorus is amazing.

Thanks to Merlin Mann for posting this.

Moments of Reality In the Midst of Historymaking