Little classical music detour for you today, but stay with it because I have some Emerson Lake and Palmer coming your way (below.)
Modest Mussorgsky died at the young age of 42 on this date in 1881. His was a rather sad life full of alcoholism and erratic behavior. This from Wiki:
I first encountered him and his music through a Classical Music course I took in college. That was also during my druggie days, and I can recall sitting in a stupor watching the movie Fantasia and tripping to the “Night on Bald Mountain” scene.
I also recall not really enjoying it as there was way too much devil-related crap floating around on the big screen. It was bumming me out so much that I started to leave, but was too stoned to get up. I am glad that I stayed however, because the final scene/song helped redeem things (and my state of mind) when the movie segued and concluded with Schubert’s Ave Maria (7:60 mark here in the video if you to skip the dark stuff.)
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at the Exhibition was more genteel and not as spooky as Night on Bald Mountain. ELP did a nice job putting some lyrics to it and doing this version of the tune.
P.S. As for how Fantasia went from being a flop when first released in 1940 to a popular “head movie” in the 60’s click here.