Music Blogs (1,258)

Long before I was born, people were writing songs about drugs. Due to censorship many had hidden meanings. The 1960's changed all that. The first I can recall was Steppenwolf with The Pusher. On a sweeter note, the Beatles recorded Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. I read that was about their experiences with LSD.
It doesn't end there and though I respect a musicians passion for recording music about drugs, drug addiction and recovering from broken lives from the use of drugs, it sits oddly that there's such a great audience who want to listen to songs about drugs.


She's divorced with two kids in middle school, has a great job, nice house, eats healthy, non-smoker, rarely has more than a social drink with the girls, concerned about the environment, dedicates time for the gym, seeing to it that her kids make it to soccer practice and attend school marathons. She gives 100% support for all women's causes and has a pink ribbon bumper sticker.

Do you know her? There's a few on every block. At the Bar-B-Que she's friendly and enjoys the music... the transformation occurs when they play a Clapton song. That's were she has her arms in the air... well at least one as the other is holding her drink. Bumping butts with the other girls who want to be like her and all the single guys are wanting to be with her.

What Clapton song? Cocaine.
Maybe that's not the right song to sing in front of your kids.
Come sing it with me...

"If you wanna hang out, you've gotta take her out... Cocaine
If you wanna get down, down on the ground... Cocaine
She don't like, she don't lie, she don't lie... Cocaine

If you got bad news, you wanna kick them blues... Cocaine
When your day is done, and you wanna run... Cocaine
She don't like, she don't lie, she don't lie... Cocaine
If your thing is gone, and you wanna ride on... Cocaine
Don't forget this fact, you can't get it back... Cocaine

She don't like, she don't lie, she don't lie... Cocaine
She don't like, she don't lie, she don't lie... Cocaine"



(song & song lyrics credit: Eric Clapton)

Listen, if you get a friend request from a guy called Jeremiah, it's okay to accept.

He's a bullfrog, and a good friend of mine.




















Today's earworm courtesy of Biff
If you are puzzled, go to first comment and be swiftly returned to a rather nice decade.

I had a comment on my last blog that it was too wordy. Okay, I can do requests. I did a YouTube search tonight and found a video titled Short and Sweet. The amazing thing is, one of my favorite guitarists David Gilmore performs the song.

Some time in 2006 or so I ran across a PBS program (Soundstage, I think) with John Mayer in concert. (It came at a low time in my life, when I'd gone through a divorce, a loss of employment, and a back injury. But I digress...) Like always, I was late to the party, as Mr. Mayer had already released several albums, and a killer single entitled "No Such Thing" that I'd heard, but more or less dismissed after the original hype.

The music, lyrics, and straight out raw talent that Mr. Mayer exuded knocked me for a loop on that Soundstage program, and after I reviewed the "Heavier Things" album I was an instant fan. (The tune entitled "Bigger Than My Body" caught me instantly, as it spoke of hope and looking toward the future--along with the amazing guitar and metaphor laced lyrics.)

Album after album took me by storm, with "Continuum" becoming my favorite--a masterpiece, if you ask me.

The other day, after a prolonged streak of boredom, I went on a John Mayer binge. While I've managed to collect almost all of his current works (aside from the live albums), I have yet to load the latest ones into my CD player and hit "Repeat," so that in the course of a few days I'm familiar with every word and guitar lick. I did, however, become quite acquainted with two songs from "Battle Studies"--namely, "Heartbreak Warfare" (which I've known for quite some time), and "War Of My Life", presented live (a new discovery). This is the one that threw me. (Before "War Of My Life," Mr. Mayer adds a few lines from a Tom Petty song, quoting "You don't know how it feels...to be me".)

Mr. Mayer, apparently, is a fallible human being, too. After throat surgery, a decline in record sales (partially due to his absence because of said surgery), and a prolonged reputation for being a womanizer, it appears that John Mayer is vulnerable, just like the rest of us. Up until this point, however, I never realized HOW vulnerable.

If you listen to Mr. Mayer in assorted recorded interviews, he refers to his therapist from time to time, but never really expounds on any issue in particular. In this video he opens up, to a spill-your-guts degree.

Sometimes it's fight or die. Sometimes one must publicly declare war. Sometimes one must take a stand. That's how it appears in this video. I've attached links below, in case anybody's curious.


lyrics:
You Tube "War Of My Life" link:

Steve Perry best known as front man for the rock group JOURNEY from 1977 to 1987 also spawned a solo career in the 80's and 90's and left the music scene due to health and family issues.

Like many other groups who disbanded, the fans always wished Steve would come out of retirement and rejoin Journey. He didn't. Journey was fortunate enough to find Arnel Pineda from the Philippines who has an amazing 'Perry sound alike' voice. That put Journey back on the map.

Recently, Steve made an appearance for Journey's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Announced on August 14, 2018, Steve will release a new 10 track studio album titled TRACES on the 5th of October.

Lots of rumors over the years should soon be over. All the usual music sources and many rock stations are eagerly awaiting this new material. He's already released a new video for the song NO ERASIN' that's available on YouTube.
Congratulations Steve, it's about time!

A co worker received a big package the other day from FedEx. MacBook Pro that he intends on using for his moonlighting gig of Disk Jockey. With the exception of 2 turntables all his gear is electronic. Years ago, he carried boxes of LP records and now everything is on a hard drive.

If there's an obscure song request not in his collection, he can quickly download it from a library he subscribes to.

He hires out for parties, Bar Mitzvahs and a few weekends a month he plays a night club until 3am.

I asked about the volume of the music played and he agreed when the speakers are behind him the roar would send him home with his 'hissing' from the sounds but lately he's been moving the speakers away from the DJ booth and has sound insulating headphones to lower the volume.

Ask any professional musician about ringing in the ears (Tinnitus) and actually any loud volume sound will do this. Actually, you don't have to be a musician to experience hearing loss. Lots of factory workers who are around machinery for hours on end without some form of hearing protection will also experience the same effect.

Back to the DJ job. My coworker says the money earned from his night job goes directly into a fund for family trips and vacations. I thought that was a great idea!

I listen to a local classic rock music radio station that has a few hours of talk show in the morning and music at 10am. One day, they talked about little known groups who re-record famous songs that help start their career. They stated, the price to pay for this is 50% of the total royalties.

YouTube is my favorite source for music and I often follow song remakes.
For this blog, I picked "You keep Me Hangin On" in 1966 by The Supremes, remade (as a psychedelic rock song) by Vanilla Fudge in 1967, and again remade in 1986 with a disco beat by Kim Wilde.

The Supremes

Points if you know anything about them.
Double points if you know how to pronounce them.
Triple points if you can name people associated with them.

Thanks for reading my blog...

No points if you have to Google this.

Drummers aren't usually known for being lead singers in their respective bands. However there are some notable exceptions.

Here is just a few. Feel free to add to the list and post a video if you can.

Karen Carpenter


Don Henley


Peter Rivera


Keith Moon


Don Brewer


Sheila E.


Ringo Starr


Levon Helm


Phil Collins


Dave Clark


Mickey Dolenz


Peter Kriss


That's my list. I know there must be more.

I started playing music in the school symphony by day and cutting my teeth for 'Rock-n-Roll' in a garage band by night. For years and years it was playing music by other known artists. This is referred to as 'Cover Bands' musicians who don't play compositions of their own.

When I bought albums, I would read everything from cover to cover and all through the record liners. Usually on the back cover you can find the song listings and credits. For the most part, members of the band wrote their own songs.

Go back a generation and you will find many artists/singers/performers were promoted by management and record companies and all their music was produced. They became stars by the hard work of others. That's not to say they didn't work hard on their careers, it's to say their huge success was manipulated by others.

Let's say I wrote a great song, but I didn't have the voice, stage presence or finances to promote the song. If I knew the right people, I could offer/sell that song to a record company who could match the song with an entertainer to record it. If you check on YouTube for some 50's music, you can find many artists recording the same song.

When we get into the 60's songwriters often teamed up with singers. The magical match was singer Dionne Warwick and composer/songwriter Burt Bacharach (and Hal David). Burt is listed as a singer... I didn't think that was his strong point, Dion was the singer and sold millions and millions of records.

I just scratched the surface with this blog about songwriters and plan to write some more insight to the record business in future blogs.


Thanks for reading !

"Do you know the way to San Jose..."