You know Neil Young as a musician, of course — but did you know that, together with his wife Pegi, they have been deeply involved with the founding and funding of a leading school for children with special needs, the Bridge School? Or that the school holds an annual all-acoustic benefit concert, where the world’s leading musicians come and perform? Here are just a few samples from these concerts — and if you like what you hear, support the Bridge School — buy the CD or (even better) the DVD:

Arcade Fire — Wake Up
David Bowie — Heroes
Jerry Garcia (w/Bob Weir) — Ripple
Metallica — Nothing Else Matters
Pearl Jam — Nothing As It Seems
R.E.M. (w/Neil Young) — Country Feedback
Trent Reznor — Hurt
Tom Waits — 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six
Thom Yorke — Lucky
Neil Young — Down By The River

So, that’s it — R.E.M. has called it quits after thirty-one years. Given the non-stop creativity that Michael Stipe and his bandmates have brought on stage throughout that time, no-one can begrudge them a well-earned retirement. Although… maybe a reunion tour in a few years? That said, as a farewell for now, here is some of the R.E.M. you may have missed out on:

Dangerous Times (1980 Wuxtry Records Demo)
Radio Free Europe (First TV appearance)
Driver 8 (Acoustic performance)
Love Is All Around (Troggs cover)
Low (MTV Unplugged Acoustic Version)
One (Automatic Baby — R.E.M. + U2 — version)
Furry Happy Monsters (On Sesame Street)
Man on the Moon (With Bruce Springsteen)
Feeling Gravity’s Pull (Rehearsal at Olympia Theatre, Dublin)
Supernatural Superserious (Acoustic version in a car)

In recent years, the restoration and widespread availability of film classics from the silent era has been accompanied by the creation of new scores for these films. Now, many aficionados insist that silent film should remain just that — silent — but they are no less misguided than art scholars who insist on the “white purity” of Greek marbles. Here is a sampling of some of today’s most interesting composers for silent film — and, should you get the chance, by all means watch them perform their music as live accompaniment:

Augsburger Tafelconfect & Boris D. Hegenbart-Matsui — Alice In Wonderland (1915, Dir. W.W. Young)
Syntax Orchestra — The Champion (1915, Dir. Charles Chaplin)
Ben Model — Bliss (1917, Dir. Alfred J. Goulding)
Club Foot Orchestra — The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Dir. Robert Wiene)
Kelly Rossum — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920, Dir. John Robertson)
Carl Davis — Flesh and the Devil (1926, Dir. Clarence Brown)
Gerhard Gruber — Cafe Elektric (1927, Dir. Gustav Ucicky)
Alloy Orchestra — Metropolis (1927, Dir. Fritz Lang)
Louis Gentile — Tabu (1931, Dir. F.W. Murnau)

The tragic circumstances surrounding the death of singer Facundo Cabral threaten to overshadow his key role in the development of the musical movement known as the Nueva Canción (“New Song”). We have already featured one of Nueva Canción’s offshoots, the Cuban Nueva Trova, in a previous playlist. Here, we would like to showcase the diverse styles of the Argentine folkloric branch of the Nueva Canción through three singers whose careers launched at roughly the same time, propelled by the ideas and action of Argentine folklorist Jorge Cafrune:

Facundo Cabral:

• Estas Manos
• Pobrecito Mi Patrón
• Yo No Vendo, Yo No Compro

Mercedes Sosa:

• Juana Azurduy
• Todavía Cantamos
• Gracias A La Vida

José Larralde:

• Herencia Pa’ Un Hijo Gaucho
• Mejor Me Voy
• Afiche

Gil Scott-Heron passed away at the end of May. While many people are familiar with his seminal The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, far fewer are aware of his broader scope of work, and his influence upon later poets and musicians. Here, as a farewell to Gil, is a sampler from his first decade of work, which helped define hip hop before The Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight ever saw the light of day:

1970: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
1971: Lady Day and John Coltrane
1972: The Get Out of the Ghetto Blues
1974: The Bottle
1975: Ain’t No Such Thing As Superman
1976: Johannesburg
1976: Tomorrow’s Trane
1977: We Almost Lost Detroit
1978: Angel Dust