Bach and Rock ‘n Roll
From Toccatas to Tchotchkes, He’s Everywhere
“I consider Johann Sebastian Bach the greatest man who ever lived, along with Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” Fats Waller
Maybe you hate classical music? Perhaps your only interest in Bach is on his birthday when memes with word-play such as “Bach to Bach” and images of him wearing sunglasses or sticking out his tongue pop up.
My Favorite meme is Ennis and Jack from the movie Broke Back Mountain wearing Bach-like wigs under their cowboys hats. Another creative Bach lover did a 7-minute YouTube video chronicling the life of Bach in memes.
If you’re old enough to have watched Tom and Jerry cartoons on Saturday morning, you may have seen Droopy and Butch play Bach’s “D-minor Toccata and Fugue.”
Bach Tchotchkes
Beethoven trinkets abound: socks, coffee mugs, and apple-cinnamon-soap-in-a music-box that plays the “Ode-to-Joy” from the 9th Symphony.
Without doing the rigorous research that such a claim would require, I’m suggesting that Bach has inspired even more stuff. Beethoven may be more…
