From one tale of a barber, in King March, to another tale of a barber, in Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville (Operavox, 1995).
The animation’s opening scene, with a figure on his knees laying out the stage, seems to be a nod to the opening scene of a different Figaro opera, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. (Both operas are drawn from a trilogy of plays by Beaumarchais.)
Two songs about UFOs:
115. Parliament, “Unfunky UFO” (1975):
116. Sufjan Stevens, “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois” (2005):
From foxes’ dumplings to asses’ ears: King March (“Animated Tales of the World,” 2002), a Welsh version of the second-best-known Greek legend about King Midas (the first best-known being the one about the golden touch).
The original Midas appears to have been a real person, the first of three historical kings of that name in Phrygia (in Anatolia, in present-day Turkey), and asses’ ears were for some reason part of the actual official insignia of some of the royal houses of Bronze Age Anatolia. This story (Folktale Type 782) may thus have originated in Anatolia, as a just-so-story to explain the origin of the insignia, and then traveled both westward (to Greece, and thence northwest to Wales, Ireland, and elsewhere) and eastward (as versions of the story are also found in, inter alia, Central Asia, India, and Korea), getting associated with various different kings. (Phrygia was also quite wealthy, which probably explains the other Midas myth, about the golden touch.)
The King March/Mark in the Welsh version is often identified with the still better known King March/Mark who was the husband of Iseult/Isolde, who famously fell in love with Tristan/Tristram (supposedly because of a love potion, but perhaps because she found his ears less daunting than her husband’s).
Two songs about taking space travel to the farthest limits:
113. Pink Floyd, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” (1968):
114. Julia Ecklar & Anne Prather, “Pushin’ the Speed of Light” (1983):
Another tale of talking animals: Crossing the Snow (“Animated Tales of the World,” 2004), from Japan. This story is interesting in the way it sets up our expectations for one kind of story and then ends up giving us a very different kind. I can sympathise both with those who find the twist a welcome message of trust and tolerance, and those who find it frustrating and insipid. What produces a better ethical and political message is not always the same thing as what produces a better aesthetic frisson.
Four songs about longing to be abducted by aliens:
109. The Byrds, “Mr. Spaceman” (1966):
110. Styx, “Come Sail Away” (1977):
111. Radiohead, “Subterranean Homesick Alien” (1997):
112. Katy Perry & Kanye West, “E.T.” (2010):