Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday. This week we have lost a key figure in the music industry, in the form of George Martin. He of course, produced The Beatles and many of their contemporaries, both managed by Brian Epstein and also bands like America and Cheap Trick. Without him, we wouldn’t have many of the vocal affects we hear today in many rock and pop songs, minus autotune. I can’t imagine John Lennon saying to George Martin “please make my voice auto tuned.” Hmm! Then again, maybe. He of course, hated his voice and always wanted affects put on it and well, George and his fellow engineers obliged. Need I say more?
Oh, let us not forget his importance in his producing comedy records too. For example: he produced some records by The Goons, which all 4 Beatles listened to on the radio, just like I listen to The Ongoing History Of New Music religiously each weeke. This inspired some college kids in England to form Monty Python, which inspired many other people to create similar comedy troupe and TV shows. This includes Matt Groening and even Matt Stone and Tray Parker, who created The Simpsons and South Park respectively. Without George Martin, would comedy be very different? I think so and to make what I just said more meaningful to you, check out this link for more. Thanks to Alan Cross for the following link. http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/final-words-sir-george-martin/
He will be missed by millions of people in both music and comedy.
We also lost another important figure in music this week. If you are a fan of what is called either progressive rock or art rock, Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer died on Thursday. He was 71 years old and played keyboards in the band. He loved to use any keyboards with him at the time, to create interesting sounds. Just listen to a few ELP songs and you will know what I’m talking about. He will be missed by all in rock, and in particular, fans of classic rock.
I am looking forward to this weeks episode and as for last weeks episode, this weeks post will talk about the Parallels with it and the season seven episode Lisa The Vegetarian.
First of all, in the earlier episode the main part of the story takes place at a petting zoo, where Lisa is haunted by a talking lamb in her mind, telling her not to eat him. This of course, helps her make a decision to go vegetarian. In the latter, the main story starts at a water park where Lisa saves a raccoon, after bark pulled one of his pranks.
In the former, Lisa has a conflict with her Dad, about a barbecue which has only meat which he is throwing. He of course Rex it and Homer is understandably pissed. Lisa runs away from home and ends up with Apu at the Kwik-E-Mart and meets Paul and Linda McCartney. This is also where we find out that Apu is a vegan. Of course, Lisa has one of his veggie dogs instead of regular hot dog, for us meat eaters. I’ve tried tofu but I’ve never had a veggie burger or veggie dog yet. However, I bet you that I can tell which is which from a veggie or a regular meat dog.
In the latter, Lisa becomes an intern at a veterinary hospital, with guest actor Michael York as Dr. Budgie and he becomes her mentor. Lisa becomes very good at what she is doing, meaning helping animals get well but she also becomes arrogant too. I should also mention that she was supposed to be taking care the school hamster Nibbles. Unfortunately, Nibbles dies because of her neglect and focus on being a veterinarian. However, Dr. Budgie still is proud of her.
It’s funny that both Paul McCartney and Michael York are both born in 1942 and guested on an episode focusing on Lisa And her love of animals. I had been planning to write this post even before it aired, simply because of the title and the similar title of the previously mentioned episode from Season seven. The difference here is that Marge also has her own story, where she cleans up crime scene’s for Chief Wiggum. When she hears about what Lisa has done, she goes to clean up her baby’s tears. Also, Bart tries to get some sense into Lisa, after she starts to be rather arrogant in her helping of other animals. However, she doesn’t listen and that’s when Bart mentions the hamster Nibbles. Then, that’s when reality hits Lisa that he is on the verge of death and passes away.
I liked the episode and I am looking forward to tonights episode. That should be interesting and a Marge centric episode too.
On the birthday front, happy 69th birthday to voice actor Frank Welker. He of course, voices many characters outside The Simpsons and voiced Santa’s Little Helper and other animal noises until 2006. Now, Dan Castellaneta does the animal sounds or sound affects are used.
Well that’s about it for this weeks post. Check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.
http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/
Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com
Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at
http://www.marchesvous.com
Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/
You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.
You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.
He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.
Anyway, that is it for this weeks post. Talk to you again next Sunday
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