Archive for October, 2009
When The Beatles broke up John Lennon went on with the “Plastic Ono Band” and Paul McCartney started Wings. When John Lennon was shot dead on December 8. 1980, the remaining Beatles Paul, George, and Ringo didn’t restart The Beatles again. It would take 15 years for two new songs to be released by The Beatles and they used two demo recordings by John Lennon to do so, therefore the origional band was back together.
With the loss of Freddie Mercury the lead singer and front man for Queen, the band now known as Queen + Paul Rogers. In March 2007 when Brad Delp passed away at the age of 55 Boston died with him. Although most of the band were already gone Brad was the voice of Boston. Chicago is another band with an identity crisis. Terry Kath possibly and arguably the best guitarist of all time, (one fan said of his electric guitar howled and screeched but it was all controlled), had died from a gunshot in 1977, the band went on without him leaning on lead singer Pete Cetera who also played bass guitar for the group. He left the group in 1985, between the loss of Terry Kath and Pete Cetera the band was never the same. Any one today looking to see Queen, Boston, or Chicago the magic that was once there is gone and will never be there again.
The Righteous Brothers broke up in 1969 then reunited to record Rock And Roll Heaven in 1974 which turned out to be a big hit. As the title implied it made reference to several artists who had died prematurely to that date.
The song named Jimi Hendrix with “Foxy Lady”, Janis Joplin singing “Piece Of My Heart”, Otis Redding for 
ock Of The Bay” as well as Bobby Darins’ “Mack The Knife”, Jim Croce had “Leroy Brown”, and Jim Morrison with “Light My Fire”.
Since 1974 there have been a host of artists that have died long before they should have, I like to refer to them in packages, like Janis Joplin,Jim Morrison, Bobby Darin being joined by Elvis Presley and of course the incomparable Freddie Mercury. These greats I have together for their singing and showmanship. Next I have what I call my guitar packages, one includes Jim Croce, John Denver, John Lennon and the second guitar package boasts the best of the best George Harrison of The Beatles, Terry Kath of Chicage, and Jimi Hendrix, with the last two the best of all time.
Buying an acoustic guitar, you have the option of buy an acoustic guitar or an acoustic electric guitar. An acoustic electric guitar is an acoustic guitar with an equalizer that runs off a 9 volt battery which electrifies the pickup that is usually located in the saddle. Add an guitar amplifier and your ready to play anywhere. (Warning: Inserting the battery incorrectly could damage the equalizer.
The onboard equalizer faders slide up or down for adjustment and give your guitar extra highs, mids, and lows. A good staring point is to set each slide in the center, you can then adjust each one acording to what you are playing, like if you were playing lead on a song you can up the volume. The EQ usually has a “Low Battery” light that will tell you when the battery needs changing.
In July of 1985 there was a concert for Live Aid. The concert ultimately raised $280,000,000 that went to buy food for third world countries. Performing at the concert were acts such as Led Zeppelin, The Who, Bob Dylon and others.
This concert wasn’t about someone playing an acoustic guitar, or a band playing electric guitars, this show was about Freddie Mercury and Queen. Queen played for 20 minutes, Brian Mays’ guitar was vintage Queen but the show was about Freddie Mercury, being the great showman he was Freddie put on a show unparalleled by any. His performance was incredible it was voted BEST LIVE ROCK PERFORMANCE of all time. One of the highlights for me was Freddie had the 75,000 fans singing and clapping along to Radio Ga-
Ga. Second to Freddies show stealing performance was Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969, with the Sex Pisols 1976 Manchester concert coming in third.
You have decided you want to buy a guitar but are faced with the complicated task of shopping for it. First you must decide wheather you want to play bass, acoustic, or electric guitar. Armed with this you set out to buy your guitar, you then discover to buy a top of the line named guitar you must pay thousands of dollars for the one you like, with this you now get discouraged because the price is more than you can afford. Don’t give up!
There are many manufacturers of no-name guitars that are equal to if not better than the top guitar manufacturers entry level or intermediate level guitars. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the qauility of finish and action of these lesser known brands.
So you bought your new acoustic, bass, or electric guitar, you get it home, you want to look at it, and you want to play it. There’s no better feeling than getting a new instrument but after the feeling is gone you need to take steps to keep it looking the way it looked when you took it out of the box.
Wheather you spent thousands or hundreds the steps are the same:
1. Invest in a guitar stand, some guitar packages include a guitar stand, either way don’t leave your guitar on the floof where it collect dust or get damaged.
2. Keep your guitar in a room where the humidity is approximately 50%. Your guitar is constructed of wood and that wood is subject to expansion and contraction depending upon the humidity in the room where you keep it. Hint: A basement or attic is probably not the best place unless the areas temperature and humidity is maintained.
3. Keep your guitar clean using a soft micro-fiber cloth, don’t use a standard towel or dish towel for cleaning.
4. After wiping the loose dust off your guitar use guitar polish. Do NOT use common household cleaners as they are too harsh. You are not required to use polish all the time but once you start using it you and your guitar will feel better.
When you think of the prototypical rock star, guitar virtuosos like Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen might be first to pop into mind. Others envision high-profile drummers such as John Bonham and Keith Moon. In any case, it’s unlikely a bassist springs to mind first. These unsung heroes of the traditional rock band setup serve to keep the other musicians on one page.
The bass guitar provides a modicum of reliability and discipline. Lead guitarists often go off on sonic tangents, and it takes a dependable bassist to reel them back in. Likewise, drummers occasionally get caught up in their creative fills. While the bass isn’t necessarily the instrument that draws listeners to a piece of music in the first place, its steady rhythm keeps them enthralled.
Initially called the Army which was later changed to White Heart only to be shortened to Heart in the 70’s. The band was formed by Steve Fossen who plays bass guitar along with two brothers Roger Fisher and Mike Fisher. Ann Wilson joined the band followed by sister Nancy in 1974 after which Mike went to being the sound man for the group.
Their debut album “Dreamboat Annie” which featured songs such as Crazy On You and Magic Man was recorded in 1975 and released in Canada, since the bands origion is in Vancouver, British Columbia, where it sold more than 30,000 albums before it was released in the US where it went platinum.
Through the years the rest of the band has gone through several changes of all its members, and in the early 90’s the girls hung up their electric guitars for acoustic guitars and formed the Lovemongers. Today they are still touring as Heart and are still the women to be reckoned with in rock.
The Beatles continued popularity spans more than 40 years. Oct. 9th was one month since 14 remastrered albums of The Beatles were released. In that time there have been 5.5 million albums sold worldwide. The cultural geniuses back when the group had started said they were just a fad, and I say “Yeah a fad that lasted more than four decades.
In 1961 the bass guitar was taken over by Paul McCartney when Stuart Sutcliffe left the band. Lead guitar was played by George Harrison and on rhythm guitar was John Lennon. In 1962 Ringo Starr assumed playing the drums when Pete Best was let go by the group.
The Beatles were always leaders in creativity but never lost the ability to communicate their ideas to their audiences.
Have you ever heard a music group or song on the radio and thought to yourself they’re ok but nothing special, than you hear that group or song live and are blown away by them. Well such was the case for me with The Doobie Brothers. For decades you’ve heard their music on the radio with songs like “Listen To The Music”, “Jesus Is Just Alright”, “China Grove” ,and “Black Water”
One day upon looking up a great song by them but little heard “Another Park Another Sunday” I came across a dvd by them LIVE AT WOLFTRAP. It has 23 tracks, one of which was the song I was looking for. I was astounded, prettier electric guitar packages you have never heard, that being from Tom Johnston who also does the lead vocals for this song, John McFee and the fingerpicking style of Pat Simmons. Their vocal and guitar harmonies will give you chills, so if you want a thrill look them up, you might be surprised as well.