Tribute to Joe Raposo

A short vignette assembled to honor and thank a very special composer. The music is an American 1972 high school chorus rendition of "Listening To You" from the legendary musical "Tommy", by The Who. During the "Harvard" image sequence (the building is Harvard's Music School, where Joe studied), the bespectacled older woman seated at the piano is Mademoiselle Nadia Boulanger, who served as music instructor to Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Quincy Jones, Phillip Glass, Burt Bacharach and dozens of other star musical names you'll also recognize. In 1958, she happened to also instruct a young student named Joe Raposo. You may also spot Karen and Richard Carpenter. In 1973, the Carpenters overheard and "fell in love with" Joe's composition "Sing", and picked it as the first single for their upcoming album "Now and Then". This was despite A&M warning it would not be a hit. Karen and Richard were right; A&M was wrong. "Sing" soared to No. 3 on Billboard and earned the siblings their seventh gold record. The child clutching Raggedy Ann at 1:06 is my visual homage to the "Raggedy Ann" animated musical feature Joe Raposo composed in 1977. The photograph at 1:18 shows Joe alongside Dr. Seuss, with whom he composed the music of at least three animated programs in the late Seventies. The two shared a sense of whimsy and became very close friends. The penultimate image is one I Photoshopped of what Joe, Jon Stone and Jim Henson might look like today, if they had only remained with us. I imagined Jim would be very into world music and using it extensively with the Muppets - and might have dreaded his hair out by now, like a lot of guys his age (at least in Santa Fe, where Jim lived for awhile and owned a ranch). It's a fanciful look - but I could see Henson doing it, because in Santa Fe, that's the 60-something male hippie look. Miss you, Jim. The remaining photos are of our generation. I guess I should mention if you look closely at image 00:38, the two girls are watching Roosevelt Franklin - a character sadly removed from Sesame, whom Joe Raposo very clearly enjoyed scoring themes and instructional music for. This is for Joe's fans: all of us everywhere. Enjoy. :)