A thumbnail biography of the great man focusing on the inane:
- Was found to have absolute pitch when a child. After confinement at home and treatment from doctors he recovered and was pronounced tone deaf in 1864
- Served in the US army for a long time but because he was just leading a military band most people think he is a bit of a dick for always wearing his medals
- He wrote 136 marches the most famous being the one used for Monty Python's Flying Circus (and some crap called Stars and Stripes Forever)
- He wrote operettas some of which opposed militarism (did he conduct them in a military uniform?)
- He wrote five novels one of which includes a poem about monkeys
- Mr. Sousa was not a fan of the recording industry: "These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy...in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord left. The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape." (1906)
- Mr. Sousa recorded music for Victor.
1 comment:
You forgot to mention that he had a phone named after him. I don't think it was a cell phone.
Richard (of RBB)
Post a Comment