Music Blogs (1,258)

The surviving members of The Beatles have agreed to remove their hit song ‘Eight Days A Week’ from circulation after learning that there’s actually only seven.
The song will now be pulled from all music streaming services and removed from any future pressings of their ‘Beatles for Sale’ album.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have even gone so far as to ask fans to burn any physical media with ‘Eight Days a Week’ on.

‘This is an incredibly embarrassing incident for us. When I was writing the song with John, we couldn’t remember if there were seven days in a week or eight and we didn’t have Wikipedia or anything to check with,’ said Paul.

‘It was mainly my fault because I insisted there was an eighth day called ‘Hymday’ and we were all so smacked up on drugs that no-one debated me,’ said Ringo.

Music fans are now busily scanning for factual inaccuracies in the entirety of Coldplay’s back catalogue.

AUTOTUNE is a digital audio processor pitch correction software that can transform a mediocre singers voice to perfection. What it does to vocals is what Photoshop does to images!
Available as computer download software or rack-mounted stand alone device, Autotune has been around for more that 20 years and has become a standard in the recording industry.
While it's intent was to correct off-key singing, with the thousands of settings, Autotune can be adjusted to give all kinds of coloration and effects to voices like pitch change and robotic-like sounds.
Let's say, you cannot hit the high notes... sing the song in a lower key and have Autotune change the pitch to whatever key you need.

The first time I heard Autotune in use was Cher's recording of Believe. It's the 'pitch-shift' effect she used with a hard setting to pull the notes to standard tuning. That gives it a grainy and very unique sound.

Leo Fender was an electronics repairman who teamed up with Doc Kauffman in the 1940's producing musical amplifiers. Leo split with Doc to create his first generation of amplifiers around 1946 that had a tweed covering and brown metal faced chassis attached in a combo where the amplifier and speaker were in one enclosure. Around 1950, models changed to a Tolex textured vinyl covering available in different shades of beige and brown. While this era was significant, it wasn't until the 1960's that Fender started producing larger and more powerful models and in 1963 introduced a blackface model where the amplifier (head) was detached from the speaker cabinet. This is the generation that created worldwide awareness for Fender and his Blackface amps.

In 1965 CBS bought Fender for $13 million and started producing the same products with only a cosmetic change of a silverface chassis. Soon after, there were circuitry changes making them less desirable than blackface Fenders.

Blackface Fender amplifiers became hard to find and getting one often came with a price tag 4 to 5 times the original list price. I owned a silverface purchased around 1969 and it couldn't compare to the sound of my friends blackface.

The venues I had performed at were mostly nightclubs and school dances, but I joined a well established band in 1970 and needed something more powerful for outdoor concerts and stopped using Fender.

Once in a while I'll check a sale on eBay and see that year after year, blackface Fenders always hold their value.

Blackface pre-CBS


Chromeface

Singer & songwriter Colin Hay was the front man of the Australian rock group Men At Work, who made international fame for their 1981 hit song "Down Under"

Over the years, the band broke up and reformed with different members a few times, but Colin, the founding member of the group remained the only original member of the group.

Through the magic of YouTube, I followed bits and pieces of his career and see that although he's got a fantastic (and distinct) voice he's become much of a has-been, staying busy doing low-key small venues of solo work and a few guest appearances here and there.

I recently found one of this appearances in which the audience had a major contribution providing vocal accompaniment. I closed my eyes and swelled with the aura he created on stage and think... was it wrong management that stunted the longevity of his success? I don't have the answer for that, but I did enjoy the song...



Overkill (Colin Hay / Men at Work / 1983 Studio album CARGO)

I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know we'll be alright
Perhaps it's just imagination

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away

Alone between the sheets
Only brings exasperation
It's time to walk the streets
Smell the desperation

At least there's pretty lights
And though there's little variation
It nullifies the night from overkill

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Come back another day

I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations that
I know will be alright
It's just overkill
Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away

Back in 2013, the metalcore band As I Lay Dying was in the middle of a tour, when their frontman Tim Lambesis was arrested and charged with soliciting a murder on his estranged wife. He met with a, unbeknownst to Tim, an undercover cop, and agreed to pay him $20.000 to carry out a hit.

Tim was subsequently arrested and thrown in jail in 2014, where he received a 6 year jail sentence, but he was released on parole in 2016.

I swore then and there, that I would refuse to listen to any As I Lay Dying, for as long as I lived, because I would not support Tim or his band. It went pretty well, until recently when I listened to this song, by accident



It only dawned on me, after about 25 listens, that it was As I Lay Dying.

So therefore I admit: I was wrong! I WILL listen to his band again, if they churn out bangers like this one!

Tapping is a style of guitar playing where the strumming hand assists the fingering hand by tapping the fretboard and adding additional chord notes the fingering hand cannot reach or to supplement with syncopated notes to the melody. Assuming the guitarist is right handed, it's the left hand playing chords and the right hand that picks (or strums) the notes. By tapping the fretboard a note is played with the same volume as though it was plucked.

The earliest example I found using this style was Vittorio Camardese from a 1965 video...

In the last episode we explored the Joshua Tree. This is the Logical follow up...
117. Interstate Love song / Stone temple pilots
116. Going underground*/ the Jam } digital dream door ) Alternative mix
001. Where the streets have no name / J tree ) U2

* Id est, the Inter-net. Science One is....
G rammar with a big hammer
R hetoric is 2nd by second... ) spring or summer.
A stro Logic, C est Tre-- but not Today
M usic is the next door at 4.
no doubt ] Math is five-- he can't Lie. ) ) All of these come into play under the fanciful umbrella
the Moving-folk call S K Y N E T. The evidence blows in the wind day & night, said the previously-Previous bird....
... If we change charts, my best guess is synchronic Overload yet again. And remember; the Unknown Chart Maker has a Seattle bias [ quoting from the previous bird / report
***** d 3 } 200 rock Albums of the 80's *****
11. Synchronicity / the Police .................... 14. Control / J Jackson
08. murmur / R E M ......................................3. ........
03. ............................................................. 11. Police / synchronicity
....... 1. Thriller / M Jackson
....... 2. Purple rain / prince
179. Cuts both ways / Estefan ...( 03 ) .... 182. Follow the Leader / E B & Rakim
..03.....
176. This Nation's saving grace / the Fall
....... 187. Reckoning / R E M
....... 184. . dream of the blue turtles / Sting
........003........... ( 200. Freeze-frame / J Geils band
........................... 197. Labour of Love / UB 40
..} report Line..} .....03. The Joshua Tree / U 2
......... more to follow...

Yes, it's somewhat common and natural.
It's not that much of an adjustment.

Granted, most players stick to one way.
But there's no law against trying something different.
It might feel good. Try it.
You know you want to.

Sure when most people think of sax,
it's with either a
alto or a tenor.
But there's baritone and soprano too.
Some people do it all.

What ?

22. Automatic 4 the ppl / R a pid ........ 70. Out of Time / eYe movement
......................................( 0.5 ) .......... 65. bee Thousand / guided by voices
17. Superunknown / soundgarden
..... d 3........................ 3. murmur / rem } rapid eYe move
Alternative Albums.......................... 2. remain in light / talking heads
digital dream door } ....................... 05. .................. [ Isa. 5
... 66. Speaking in Tongues / talking heads ... [ Acts, book of
... 61. This Nation's saving grace / the Fall
... 05.... ....... ) and so we observe; The instrument was put in play to be heard ) ) to be discovered, to bee remembered, to be repeated. Tis the nature of song & verse. The charting makes cent$ because people have been known to keep score. [ Prime reason of course } is to trump someone else's scoring.
.. 1. Nevermind / Nirvana ......................... 135. hybrid theory / L park
.. 4. ok computer / radiohead ................ 05. ) in British history......
.. 5. ) fastest selling Album ................. 130. Lo-end theory / Tribe called Quest
....... 41. Double nickels on the dime / minute men
....... 05. [ U2's 5th studio LP.................... 05. T H E
....... 36. Achtung baby / U2 ......................05. Joshua Tree
......... the Paradox is ..............................10. Ye Cure / Dis- Integration
the Chart-Masters at the Dream Door did not include
any of the 5 singles from J ... Tree in their Alternative song top 40. [ ?
... part 2. [ branch from the Tree above ] Alternative Songs, d3
92. Heart shaped box / nirvana.................... 96. You oughta know / A.M.
91. Academy fight song / .............................95. Mr. Brightside / the killers
90. Today / smashing pumpkins .................. 01......
... 110. Panic / the Smiths .................... 2. Love will tear us apart / joy division
... 109. man on the moon / R E M ........ 3. Radio free Europe / rapid eYe move
..... 01............ [ 76. Left of the dial / replacements
..........................75. bulls on parade / R A M [ rage against machine
72. True faith / new order
71. Still haven't found what I'm looking for / U2.... ) ) DNA what we were looking for was
1. Where the streets have no name .... if only for the Story Telling effect, let alone the
Tectonic force of the Intro & Edgy fret work.
.. 23. song 2 / blur ........................... 16. Just like heaven / the Cure
.. 22. personal Jesus / d mode......... 15. Wonderwall / Oasis
...... 58. Live forever / Oasis
.......57. Jesus Christ pose / soundgarden

One has to scroll deep into their song list before their top pick makes a story....
134. Ghost town / the specials
133. Lake of fire / meat puppets
..01. smells like teen spirit / nirvana..... ) standby for part 3

In music news today, drummer Ginger Baker who came on the music scene with the 1960's super group Cream has died at the age of 80.

While he became a legend with a style of his own, I'm told in his declining years he was 'more than' grumpy and difficult when asked to interview.

It didn't matter... he influenced thousands of aspiring drummers!



Ginger Baker in 2019
Jack Bruce died in 2014

That leaves Clapton to carry on the musical legend...