Not the Same Old Song - Part 43

 If I Only Had the Nerve

We've already seen If I Only Had a Brain and If I Only Had a Heart from The Wizard of Oz.  Here's my version of If I Only Had the Nerve, sung by the Cowardly Lion.

This one was a little tricky.  In the movie, this song has more than a bit of homophobia, talking about being a "sissy," and Burt Lahr does his version of a limp wrist in his lion costume to the words "I'm just a dandelion, a fate I don't deserve."  I replaced the words "a fate I don't deserve" with some other words ... you'll see.

Not the Same Old Song - Part 42

 If I Only Had a Heart

Last time, we saw my version of If I Only Had a Brain from The Wizard of Oz.  Dorothy's next companion is the Tin Man, who wants to have a heart.  Here's my version.

Not the Same Old Song - Part 41

 If I Only Had a Brain

Previously, we've seen my version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, as well as Somewhere Under the Rainbow, my alternate X-rated version of that song.

Later in the movie, each of Dorothy's companions sings about what he wants the most.  The first one is the Scarecrow, who wants to have a brain.  Here's my version.

Not the Same Old Song - Part 37

 Somewhere Under the Rainbow

Last time we saw my take on the beloved song Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  I don't think I can top that, so I'm not going to try.  Instead, this time it's Somewhere Under the Rainbow.  I've rewritten the words, and I used different photos and videos to accompany them, for an entirely different X-rated version.  This isn't your mother's Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Notes: 

1. The guys in "the guy that you meet just might be the one for you" and subsequent video clips are Connor Maguire and Jimmy Fanz.

2. My thanks go to Somewhere Over the Rainbow composer Harold Arlen, and my apologies to lyricist Yip Harburg.

Not the Same Old Song - Part 36

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

It's with some trepidation that I present my version of this beloved song, sung by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.  After my last "Not the Same Old Song" post, illustrated entirely with photos and videos of one of my favorite unashamed males, the gay Australian naturist who calls himself Nudist Jeff, it occurred to me that I could do the same thing with Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

And what makes it perfect is that Australia is sometimes called Oz.  That started in the 1960s, partly because the way Australians pronounce Aussie sounds like Ozzie.  But also, for Americans (and The Wizard of Oz is a very American fairy tale), Australia fills the bill as a faraway, exotic place, like Oz.

Here's Somewhere Over the Rainbow, illustrated with photos and videos of Jeff in the beautiful land of Oz (Australia), to assure all of us friends of Dorothy that

Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue,

And the dreams that you dare to dream 

Really do come true.

Jeff lives in the town of Denmark on the southern shore of Western Australia, and he has posted lots of nude photos of himself in various scenic locations. If you'd like to see more of this guy, go to his Twitter page (I refuse to call it X): https://twitter.com/Nude_Hiker

Not the Same Old Song - Part 5

The Wizard of Oz

Today's post is a bit different.  But I'm hoping that friends of Dorothy will enjoy it.  

I have always loved the movie The Wizard of Oz, including the music by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg.  But I have also long felt that at the moment when Dorothy steps from her house into the land of Oz, and the film changes from black and white to Technicolor, the music doesn't do justice to the magic of the moment.

Like I said, I love Harold Arlen's music, and his use of the Over the Rainbow theme in this scene is good, but the rest of the accompanying music doesn't do much for me.  What would it be like, I wondered, if the music were as lush and gorgeous as the visual scene when Dorothy first steps into the land of Oz?

A while ago, I was listening to Samuel Barber's Music for a Scene from Shelley, and it struck me during one passage, that this sounded like the music for Dorothy to enter Oz.  I set to work replacing the soundtrack for the scene, and here is the result.

To set the scene: the tornado has dropped the house into the land of Oz, and Dorothy gets up and opens the door to find out where she is.  Note that the soundtrack is silent until Dorothy opens the door, just like in the original movie.

Would I want to change the original movie?  Not really.  This was just me having fun playing "what if", namely, what if Samuel Barber wrote the music for The Wizard of Oz?

Samuel Barber (1910-1981), at right in the 1936 photo above, was an American composer of classical music.  You might have heard his beautiful Adagio for Strings, but none of his other music has become well-known, which is a shame.  Unlike many other 20th century composers who composed prickly, dissonant music that most people hate, Barber's compositions are lyrical and melodic, and some, like the slow movement of his violin concerto, are hauntingly beautiful.  Music for a Scene from Shelley, from which I took the music for the video, was composed in 1933, so it's nearly contemporaneous with the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie.

Barber was gay.  He lived with his lover, fellow composer Gian Carlo Menotti (at left above).  Menotti is best remembered as the composer of Amahl and the Night Visitors, a Christmas mini-opera about a boy who encounters the three wise men on their way to Bethlehem.

I found the photo above of Menotti and Barber on the blog Vellohomo.  Thanks, Franco!

Finally, so that we have at least one naked man today, this 2021 painting by artist Philip Gladstone is called Tangled (for Samuel Barber).  I don't know anything about the work, but I'm guessing Barber would have liked it.