Guest: "Bjorn Turoque" (Dan Crane), "Master of Air-Emonies" at this year’s Air Guitar World Championships
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Isaac Hayes took the sound of Memphis around the world before dying Sunday at age 65. It was a sad day for soul fans and the end of a pioneering career.
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Before the 1980s, the only music you heard during the Olympics was the ceremonial sounds of a marching band. Nowadays, there are at least a dozen pop songs associated with each year’s games. The Takeaway looks at the origin of Olympic "anthems” from Strauss to Freddie Mercury to Jackie Chan.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a brilliant man. By the age of 13, he had written concertos, sonatas, symphonies, a German operetta and an Italian opera. He took Europe by storm and even wrote a requiem, which he intended to commemorate his own death. Today, the music of Mozart is heard in elevators, at a quiet volume. Terrance McKnight, host of WNYC's Evening Music, has been broadcasting from the “Mostly Mozart Festival.”
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Guest: Terrance McKnight, WNYC's Evening Music
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Guest: Jack “The Martini Cowboy” Grace, The Takeaway’s resident music expert
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The downturn in the economy is changing the music business. New bands can't afford to tour, and the ones that do spend more on gas than they do on hotel rooms. The Takeaway's resident musician, Jack “The Martini Cowboy” Grace, sings the blues about the highs and lows of touring when times are tough.
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It’s been a year and a half since Amy Winehouse caught the ears of American listeners. Now, there’s a new crop of young singer-songwriter-types tapping the well of old- and new-school sounds. If Amy was already a throwback, what’s so new about this latest crop?
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Happy Birthday, Big Mac. The McDonald’s signature burger turns 40 this year and the company has asked MySpace users for their own take on the iconic song. The Takeaway talks about the different ways you can sing two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun. Also online, view video of classic food jingles.
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McDonald's is asking MySpace users to create a new jingle for its signature Big Mac sandwich. Will the new tune find a place among these classics?

This New Sounds program hails the return of the long out-of-print KMH: Music in the Continuous Mode, a remarkable blend of technical virtuosity and relentless minimalism from the Ukrainian/Canadian composer Lubomyr Melnyk. Melnyk's music is dramatic enough for the stage yet meditative enough for deep listening, an approach he developed while working with dancer/choreographer Carolyn Carlson in Paris during the 1970's. Somehow lush and full, his pianistic minimalism is executed at a speed that suggests multiple pianos playing together in harmony. Also on the show, Philip Glass's musical portrait of Chuck Close, and other keyboard works.
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“Babylon” by Welsh singer-songwriter David Gray was a hit a few years ago, but apparently it’s also a hit among interrogators at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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Today, Christie's auctions a memento from John Lennon: his scrawled lyrics for “Give Peace a Chance.” Lennon gave the page to then-16-year-old Gail Renard in 1969 after she and a friend climbed up a fire escape to see him and Yoko Ono during their Montreal “bed-in.”
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U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay James Cason has recorded a 16-track album in Guaraní, the official indigenous language of Paraguay, turning the foreign-serviceman into a national sensation.
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Guest: Bill Wyman, Hitsville.org
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The Takeaway speaks with British rock band The Get Out Clause. They've made innovative use of CCTV cameras in their home city of Manchester to create a music video for their new song.
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Wikipedia user Aconcagua

One of the fathers of rock and roll, guitarist Bo Diddley, passed away in his Florida home on Monday at the age of 79. The legendary musician created the distinctive "Bo Diddley beat," which has transcended musical genre. Jack Grace, the "Martini Cowboy," explains. Listen to Bo Diddley's music and view photos of his life in music (from The New York Times), then tell us about your favorite covers.
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As Memorial Day approaches, we speak with a bugle player who volunteers at military services. Forrest Tosie is the Missouri state director of Bugles Across America, a non-profit organization that provides live buglers for veteran and active-duty military funerals. This Memorial Day, he'll be playing Taps for the St. Louis-area Veterans of Foreign Wars.
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