Music Blogs (1,258)

Whenever I speak to a former band mate, my opening line is from the move The Blues Brothers as we are always joking about about putting the band back together.
It's getting harder to make that statement when so many of my musician friends are gone.

Phil... disappeared.
Chuck... hasn't been seen in years.
Harold... murdered.
Bill... died of a heart attack.
Larry... died of lung cancer.
Frank... died of pancreatic cancer.
Bob... died in his sleep.
Billy... drug overdose.
Danny... heart attack.
Paul... retired, not interested.
Jay... undergoing cancer treatments, would attend a jam if possible.
Carlos... full-time job, does studio work and weekend gigs.

Interestingly, I called a cousin who recently moved to South Florida to update him on my brothers kidney transplant and we got to talking about his retirement and that he and his younger brother still play music. I got the invite as they need a bass player because they are getting a band together!

Occasional parties and social events. They don't play Rock & Roll and chances are, I'll need to buy a tuxedo!

The Beatles released their 11th album in 1968 (correction) 1969 (September in England and October in America) with the iconic cover of them walking across Abbey Road. I'm doing some YouTube videos and a little history about The Beatles and saw a reference to the famous crosswalk. Well.. it's called a crosswalk in America and 'Zebra Crossing' in England. My response to that was "Zebra crossing?... get the fuk outta here."
There are NO ZEBRAS to be seen anywhere... however if you consider it coming from the land of strange names and short cuts, zebra crossing makes sense... to them.
Yeah, I get it. The white stripes are the zebra part.

One big question is the stripes on a zebra. Are they white with black stripes or black with white stripes?
The underside is white, so I'm saying white with black stripes. Yes, that's my final answer.



Back to The Beatles and Abbey Road. You see, the studio/studios where they recorded at is named Abbey Road Studios. Pretty catchy name that didn't take much thought.



I read that a zebra crossing really exists outside the location of the studio. It's a historical landmark, but now I learned the actual album photo came from somewhere else. Please, I'd like to leave my childhood memories intact.

Google maps has the exact location. Amazing.

@51.5320966,-0.1777321,116m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x48761aa33eb87a9b:0xe406bb492eaf555b!8m2!3d51.5321771!4d-0.1778452!16zL20vMDExazNt?entry=ttu

Abbey House, 1A Abbey Rd., London NW8 9BX, United Kingdom
GRJF+R3 London, United Kingdom

Producer Rick Beato was fortunate to get a tour of the Abbey Road Studios and went over some of the microphones and equipment The Beatles and many other famous groups used to create their albums.

Sharing her songs that were a part of my youth.

I'm not sure why the Ricky Nelson song Travelin' Man popped into my head. For me, Sunday morning usually means 4 hours at the model aircraft field but we had rain, so I responded to a few customer emails, made some sketches for a client and did some errands.
The rain eased up in the afternoon and radar showed no immediate storms, so I took a quick trip to the flying field.
Since I was the only one there, I was able to get 9 flights that totaled more than an hour flight time... typically, when 8 to 10 guys show up on a Sunday, I only get 1 flight per hour.
Maybe I should rethink and fly in the afternoons. No lines, no waiting.

Back to the song... I can't get it out of my head right now, so I did a little research.
Throughout musical history, there were songwriters and artists who performed their songs. Why? Lots of reasons. some songwriters were older, perhaps their looks weren't marketable, so they would have a young handsome semi-talented performer who would become famous and both the songwriter and performer would get rich!

Travelin' Man was the perfect example. Written by singer-songwriter and record producer Jerry fuller who wrote the song with soul singer Sam Cooke in mind. As fate would have it, Cooke's manager wasn't impressed with the song and the demo passed into the hands of Ricky Nelson who recorded the song. Released in April 1961, it was on the 45 with Hello Mary Lou. Both songs were considered to be on the "A" side as many had an A and a B, this was a double A. Nelson was a success with Travelin' Man reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Short song with simple lyrics, it was about a world traveler who had a girlfriend in every port he visited. 2:24 in length. Probably like his women, he got in and got out!



Song credit: Jerry Fuller
I'm a travelin' man, I've made a lot of stops
All over the world
And in every part I own the heart
Of at least one lovely girl

I've a pretty señorita waiting for me
Down in old Mexico
If you're ever in Alaska stop and see
My cute little Eskimo

Oh, my sweet fräulein down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you oh so tight

Oh, my sweet fräulein down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you oh so tight

Oh, I'm a travelin' man
Yes, I'm a travelin' man
Yes, I'm a travelin' man
Oh, I'm a travelin' man

For the guitar geeks... the backup band wasn't actually playing the song and the guy with the Fender Telecaster smiled, but he didn't know the solo.

afraid of saying anything.


Mera dil bhi kitna paagal hai
ye pyaar to tum se karta hai
par saamne jab tum aate ho
kuchh bhi kehne se darta hai
mere saajan, mere saajan
saajan saajan, mere saajan

Kitna is ko samjhaata hoon,
kitna is ko behlaata hoon,
naadaan hai kuchh na samajhta hai
din raat ye aahein bharta hai.

Har pal mujh ko tadpaata hai
mujhe saari raat jagaata hai
is baat ki tum ko khabar nahi
ye sirf tum hi pe marta hai

Mera dil bhi kitna paagal hai
ye pyaar to tum se karta hai
par saamne jab tum aate ho
kuchh bhi kehne se darta hai
mere saajan, mere saajan
saajan saajan, mere saajan

Movie: Saajan,

Singers: Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik.

The Guzheng is a multi-stringed instrument from China that dates back more than a thousand years. Moyun is a young woman who plays pop songs on the Guzheng and posts videos on Youtube and the Chinese equivalent site Bilibili.

Guzhengs come in several sizes, vary in the number of strings and depending on the sound desired can be metal or nylon strings. Plucked with finger picks similar to a Western Zither, the Guzheng has a series of bridges dividing the strings with high notes on a short side and low notes on a long side. This allows for more resonance in the sound and gives the player a full range of high and low notes. Typical of the style, pressing one string on the long side gives a vibrato or pitch bend sound typical of Chinese music.



Here is a short introduction of Moyun and her Guzheng:

Randy Meisner was the original bassist, singer and co-founder of the EAGLES. He was 77 years old and died due to complications of (COPD) Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease.
Randy left the band in 1977 and though he avoided any reunions, he was present for the 1998 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.