Musical Sounds

Johnny Cash used to tell anyone who listened that he "knew 1,000 songs." Samson is said to have killed 1,000 men with a donkey's jawbone, making donkeys out of them. Okay, but did Samson ever make any music with a donkey's jawbone or was he too busy counting corpses?

The Samson question is not answered in a recent WSJ A-Hed piece, but the A-Hed piece informs us that Macario Martinez is making music from a donkey's jawbone and is headed for a music contract with Sony, after blowing up the internet with a music video on Tik Tok, singing and riding on the back of a garbage truck, and becoming famous enough that he quit his street sweeper's job in Mexico City to pursue his musical calling full-time. The things you can do with a jawbone. And a guitar.

Mankind has always been making sounds from banging on something, be that bones or cow bells. Apparently hitting a donkey's jawbone rattles the teeth and produces desirable music. I have to say, the jawbone is a lot bigger than I would have thought. It's a common instrument in Latin American countries.

I like to read the credits in the liner notes on every CD I buy. (Yes, I still buy CDs.) On a recent purchase of a double CD of Melody Gardot's music, I noticed someone credited with playing the glockenspiel on the La Vie En Rose track, a signature song of Edith Piaf's. I don't think I ever saw anyone credited with playing a glockenspiel before. On a Billy Joel album from a long time ago I noticed he was credited with the "finger snaps."

Macario's breakout number is titled "Sueña Lido Corazón" (Beautiful Dream My Love).  It's a pleasant ditty, much better than what passes for music these days in the States, which I think has no melody and is basically diarrhea of the mouth.

Macario put the video out on Tik Tok like many of his previous efforts which usually clock in with 1,000 hits. When he woke up and checked his tally he found he had scored 100,000 hits. Like a lot of musicians who've been at it a while, and found success, his was overnight.

Macario is only 24, so he either has a long career ahead of him, or he'll be like the Baha Men who let the dogs out, and were pretty much never heard from again.

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