Status Quo Under The Influence

Who would've thought that 35 years into their career, Status Quo would release their finest album long after the general public lost interest? Leaving Polygram, their major-label home for nearly all of their career, Quo (guitarists Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, bassist John "Rhino" Edwards, keyboardist Andy Bown, and drummer Jeff Rich) signed with Eagle Records in the U.K. and proceeded to record a new platter.

"Famous in the Last Century" is the 24th studio album by the British rock band Status Quo, released in 2000 to largely negative reviews. According to the band's autobiography, the idea to record it came from their manager David Walker, who said that they should celebrate the millennium with an album containing twenty of their favourite hits from the last century. To quote leader Francis Rossi, "Or, put another way, another bloody covers album! We went along with it, as usual, but inside I felt like a fraud…for me it was the worst Quo album there had ever been - or ever will be!" Ironically it still reached #19 in the UK Albums Chart, a better position than the previous Status Quo album of mainly original material, Under the Influence.

A look at the top 300 most powerful players in world capitalism, who are at the controls of our economic future.

One of the most significant musical figures in mid-17th-century Rome, Giacomo Carissimi was a prolific composer of motets and cantatas, who also greatly influenced the developments of the Latin oratorio. This set brings together his 28 motets that were published under the title Arion Romanus by Giovanni Battista Mocchi, a student and loyal admirer of Carissimi. Arion was an ancient Greek bard and musician, who, in Greek and Roman mythology, was thrown overboard by pirates and rescued by a dolphin. In the liner notes that accompany this collection, the authors draw fascinating parallels between Arion and Carissimi himself: both were accomplished, charismatic and influential artists and musicians, and just as Arion was plunged into the depths of the sea, Carissimi explored the depths of the sacred music tradition to create a perfect synthesis of spiritual contemplation and intense emotional expression. The motets from the Arion Romanus collection also showcase his mastery of a wide range of formal structures, from the concertato to the madrigal.