Would You Let Me
Walk down your street
Naked if I want to?
Can I
Pop fireworks
on the Fourth of July?
Can I buy
an amplifier
on time?
I ain't go no money now but I will pay you before I die
This man would have turned 100 a few weeks ago. When he died at 27, there were only 2 known pictures of him. To this day, those two pictures are all we have. I'm 23 and I think there are over 200 pictures of me on facebook alone.
Anyway, you haven't lived till you've listened to Robert Johnson's music. Find some. Sit alone in room with all the lights off. Cry.
I remember an old bass-playing friend of mine saying (and I'm paraphrasing) "If it wasn't worth boo then, then why's it worth a house now?" He was referring to vintage instruments in "mint" conditiion and the high prices they demand now. His belief was (and I have to agree with him) that if an instrument is in "mint" condition, it probably wasn't played alot. And why wasn't it played alot? It probably wasn't that good to begin with. So why do instruments that weren't worth your sweat when they were first issued, fetch such high prices now?
I have since adapted Wayne's theory to alot of music I hear. I was listening to Pandora the other day and they played me some American garage band (who shall, in order not offend any readers, remain anonymous in this article) from the mid 60's that apparently "recorded two singles and had little success outside of their hometown of Des Moines, Iowa" And after listening to this group, I understood why. There was nothing that unique about their sound, nothing that seperated them from the scores of other Stones-Yardbirds imitators founded in parents' garages across America. However, in recent years, this little known band has gained acclaim from record collectors as purveyors of punk and garage rock. My question is, why?? Why has this group with no discenible qualities garnered enough acclaim to require me to click the "dislike" button on Pandora??
The only explanation I can come up with is that its considered "vintage". It almost seems like everyone is searching for the next "lost to time" artist or band. Alot of these groups however do not strike me as "lost to time" but rather "lost to any quality"
Of course I definitely believe there were plenty of vastly underated bands and artists from the "vintage" era (Billy Nicholls, Moby Grape, Big Star and Roy Buchanan to name a very few). But these forgotten artists do not justify giving credit to those who don't deserve it.
I remember the first time I ever played a mic’d harmonica through an amp. It was through a cheap karaoke microphone from Circuit City and a Behringer amp that came with my first electric guitar. I’d had a Paul Butterfield fetish for years and knew that I wouldn’t be close to replicating that sound until I had a mic and an amp. Any description of how it felt to play amplified harp for the first time would risk some pretty gross hyperboles, so suffice it to say it felt something like what I imagine this feels like:
Playing any sort of amplified instrument (especially one as loud and distorted as blues harp) is never fun while living in an apartment. Invariably somebody is going to tell you turn down or stop altogether. And punching them in the groin only works as a response so many times before you have to concede to these demands. That’s why I got one of these:
It’s a wonderful little amp that’s only 20 watts and has some really nice features, without making it fussy (you know how you know you’re NOT watching a blues band? When the bass player has 13 pedals). But when you’re playing with a band, 20 watts goes about as far as the front of the stage.
I intend to remedy this problem with these:
Fender '59 Bassman Re-issue
Fender '65 Twin Reverb
I have some pretty big plans for these kids, but I’m gonna need to wait a little bit until I save up enough (insert corny term for money here i.e. “green”, “dough”, “dead presidents”) for them.
This blog was gonna be about Moby Grape. But to avoid the risk of appearing obsessed, its gonna be about this instead.
I read somewhere that the music you listen to as a teenager will stay with you your entire life. That is to say, what was on your walkman/itunes account/friends' mix tapes at 16 is gonna still be there when you're 60. The reasons why are unimportant here, although I have some hunches...
What I wanna talk about is what music defined YOUR high school experience. To get the proverbial ball rolling, I'll be listing the albums I listened to most frequently, but feel free to list songs, artists, videos whatever just so long as it conjures up memories of being a teen.
So I was talking to my love about the Taliban and we realised that this year will mark the tenth year anniversary of 9/11. This led to a discussion of what sort of event, or series of events, will take place to commemorate this occasion.
We concluded the following:
CONCERT
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
HOSTED BY:
Ryan Seacrest and Bryan Dunkleman
WITH PERFORMANCES BY:
The Black Eyed Peas
Justin Beiber
Toby Keith
Carrie Underwood
Aretha Franklin
U2
Stevie Wonder
Xtina
Christin Aguilera
Sting
Mary J. Blige (with special guest Steven Tyler)
Sheryl Crow
Bruce Springsteen
Elvis Costello
Tom Petty
Neil Young
Yoko and a very angry Paul
Meg White and Ringo drum circle
Sonny and Cher
the Jackson 4 and Williie Nelson
SPEECHES GIVEN BY:
Ellen Degeneres (being serious)
Rosie O'Donnel(being funny)
George Clooney (being seriously funny)
Morgan Freeman
Salma Hayek
Oprah
Matthew McConaughey
a drunk Will Smith dressed as the queen of England
I was reading an article in a magazine. It was talking about something to do with something that I don't remember now.
In my boredom, I created a plan for the new decade: I say we (we meaning anything or anyone) make the internet available for ten years at a time, and then outlaw it for another ten years and continue this pattern every decade. And yes, I am very well aware that the internet is allowing me to put this idea "out there".....its still an excellent idea.
At the risk of soap-boxing, I think we (again, we meaning whatever you want it to mean) could benefit from not having constant access to new music. Having a whole world full of music so easily accessed, where we can invest ourselves weekly in a new band, I think has made very fickle fans of many of us, me included.
But I guess we do recieve some benefits from the world wide web. So, in my world (alongside everybody getting a free basset hound and a copy of the Band's first record) the internet would only be available ten years at a time.
I have many guilty musical pleasures (disco, the Pink Spiders). One of my biggest is what I call "bandwagon records".
When I talk about "bandwagon records", I’m talking about albums that are so blatantly following modern tastes and trends that it’s laughable. It’s not a phenomenon you see in its most unabashed form anymore (although if you look, it’s still there). But 30-40 years ago, you could find records like these EVERYWHERE.
For example, one of the more famous of these shameless delights is the Rolling Stones’ Satanic Majesties Request. Lambasted by critics and fans as "amorphous", "aimless" and "insecure" (Jon Landau, 2/10/68, Rolling Stone magazine), it was clearly an exploitation of the psychedelic music being made immensely popular by the Stones’ arch rivals, the Beatles. The fact that it was so clearly suffering from Pepper-itis however does not make it awful, and the album has since been re-evaluated as an odd piece of decent psychedelia by a band who never really understood the whole “peace and love” thing.
Most of my favorite bandwagon records come from the psychedelic period of the late ‘60’s music scene. Albums such as:
The Hollies-Evolution
Paul Jones-Love Me, Love My Friends
Johnny Rivers-Realizations
Beau Brummels-Triangle
The Temptations-Puzzle People
The Monkees-Head
Muddy Waters-Electric Mud and After the Rain
Beau Brummels-'66
Howlin Wolf-the Howlin’ Wolf album
Dave Clark Five-Inside and Out (not an album, but a song that nevertheless was a thinly veiled stab at psychedelia)
Paul Revere and the Raiders-Peace of Mind (again, not an album but a song)
Not all of these records are bad. Most of them are actually great. The worst of them are at the very least interesting to listen to as period pieces. Perhaps thats why I like them. Bandwagon records are in many ways a better summation of the times in which they were created than the "good" records which were their inspiration.
Or maybe I just like looking at people's dirty laundry.
Next week I’m gonna go buy new drum heads and it got me thinking about drums.
Drums are a funny instrument. When I think about it, there’s no reason anyone should ever want to play them: They’re expensive. They don’t last forever (heads and hardware need to be replaced pretty often). Transporting them ANYwhere without a tour bus is never groovy. Setting them up and tearing them down at a gig takes longer than any other instrument unless Keith Emerson plays in your band. You can’t really write a song with them…the list goes on forever all culminating with the stereotype that no matter how good you may be on your kit, you’re still not a musician. Of course this stereotype is not ENTIRELY true (Max Roach, Art Blakey, Charlie Watts), but like all stereotypes it’s based in truth. The distinction of weather you play drums and are a musician is weather you just “play” drums or you’re a drummer. I’ve certainly known many cats that “play” drums that I would not call musicians. The few actual drummers I’ve known I would never hesitate to qualify as musicians.
Just because you can lay down a moderately in-tempo 4/4 beat does not make you a drummer. And just cuz you listen to a lot of jazz doesn’t either.
I’ve always sort of had a love-hate relationship with drums. A lot of it stems from the attitudes a lot of supposed drummers have. They almost approach their instrument with the same attitude an auto-mechanic would approach some vintage car. There’s a lot of arrogance there as to how good your “chops” are (shudder) and it’s very off putting to a twelve year old just starting to learn about drums. However, when you hear a fellow who can make his kit SING, in any style, with no pretense at all, the feeling is indescribable.
I don’t claim to be the world’s BEST drummer. I know I’m not the worst either. But here’s twelve people I would love to play on the level of.
1.Charlie Watts
2. John Bonham
3. Mitch Mitchell
4. Spencer Dryden
5. Sam Lay
6. Ringo Starr
7. Glenn Kotche
8. Levon Helm
09. Al Jackson
10. Matt Chamberlin
11. Abraham Laboriel Junior
*note I did not include any jazz drummers in this list because I will make no pretenses that I am an expert in the art that is jazz drumming
Gosh, this is an incredible album. Its Buddy's latest. I really need to start playing blues again with people, nothing makes me happier. If you know anybody who needs a blues harp and keyboard player....
Gee whiz I love blues music.
So I'm not entirely sure what my blog is gonna be about. I do know its gonna be the shizzle!
Actually, it'll probably be about music seeing as how I'm pretty ignorant about most other things.
So to kick things off, I'd like to start with a list of my favorite blues records of all time.
1. Paul Butterfield Blues Band-Paul Butterfield Blues band
2.Fathers and Sons-Muddy Waters
3.the Complete Recordings-Robert Johnson
4.the Blue Horizon Sessions-Fleetwood Mac
5.Bluesbreakers-John Mayall featuring Eric Clapton
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