Most Commented Music Blogs (1,259)

Did Paul McCartney really die way back in the late 60's? Most will say that this is all a complete sham ,But there are some facts that cannot be put to rest , The one thing that cannot be explained away is the book that was written telling how he replaced a Paul McCartney
Mind you all that this is just a Neutral point of view here
But since that book written saying that the author had replaced McCartney ,I have just one question to ask
If Paul McCartney had not really died way back in the late 60's
How come after someone writes that he replaced Paul McCartney can get away with telling his story and not one Law Suit has been Filed against him?
If I was the one that was being smeared all over the pages of a so called book about Me being dead
I most certainly have filed a Lawsuit against the Author
Wouldn't you have done the very same thing?
Of course you would have
And then I must ask ,Why is it that This Paul McCartney has chose to remain silent?
Maybe this Paul McCartney doesn't want certain things to be brought to light?
You be the judge

No two people are the same. While some want sax every day, others are fine without any. For me... I grew up on sax. It was all around as a kid and sax was pure pleasure. But then, the shine tarnished and sax wasn't giving me the pleasure I desired. To be honest, it was annoying as I grew older. Maybe just too much sax in my life ruined it.

Pawn shops and music stores go hand-in-hand. I remember getting my first Spanish guitar from a hock shop. I must have been 12 or 13 years old. If I recall, it was $20 but my dad only had $17 so the store owner made the deal. In school, I studied music. Formally, my instrument was oboe and right behind me was sax... 3 sizes. Alto, Tenor and Baritone. Only one person could play the Baritone as it was so big, they had to sit it in a holder.
One Saturday, my day and I were perusing pawn stores and found a smaller sax. It's size is Soprano and much smaller than the others, also it didn't have a curve at the bottom like the others. I hadn't seen anything like that in the school symphony or the marching band.
I wanted that sax. So, we put $5 down and would return each week making installments until it was mine. If my memory is correct, my dad had a heart attack and was unable to work. It was a short time later he had a triple bypass open heart surgery and was out of work for several months. We never returned to the pawn shop to finish the deal on the sax.

In other blogs, I've mentioned my musical taste is fickle. I could like something one day and not the next...or if there is a style change. On my 'do not listen' list you can find Country Music. To be specific, American country. I grew up in Miami and 'country music' was totally connected to the people in the area. Islanders, listened to different 'country' music.
On the highway one day, a CB'er asked "Where's the country music station?"
My response was "What country?"

I don't recall hearing any sax in country music. Moot point as I don't listen.

What I do listen to is Smooth Jazz.. but only in small doses as the sax quickly gets annoying. C'mon, aren't there any other instruments suitable to play smooth jazz?
Ian Anderson / Jethro Tull could play flute to rock music, I'm sure somewhere in the world there's a 'kickin' flutist playing smooth jazz.

So.. if you're like me and you don't like sax, I suggest you stay away from smooth jazz.

There are loads of great songs performed by less-than great artists when judged solely by their personalities or lifestyle.

I'm starting off with David Lee Roth, the on and off front man for the mega rockers Van Halen.
David would walk in front of (upstaging) other members during interviews. Talk about a big ego... Like a rock star with a cocaine high. He was always over the top and extremely annoying. His attempt of a solo career had lots of highs but mostly lows. His voice wasn't lacking, I'll guess it's probably due to his personality.

Teamed up with Steve Vai on guitar, this song rocks!
Just Like Paradise

There are a vast treasure of musical heritage hidden within the rural areas of West Bengal...

Here are a few sample collected from there...

This blog is not about politics. I've been formulating the idea for this blog in my mind for months. No big hurry, but two things happened this week to move it up on my list. My Rihanna blog with FF's comment about Tina Turner and Satellite Radio channel surfing that landed me on a soul station.

Somewhere in the early 1960's my dad bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder. My (older) brother borrowed 45rpm records from friends and made a 'party mix' of songs. Depending on the speed, that could run non-stop for an hour or more.

What did he record? A little of this and a little of that. Some surfing music, rock & roll, Rhythm & blues and soul music. To us, music was music... well, with the exception of Country Music. I could listen to Roy Clark, but it tapered off sharply after that.

There were a dozen guitar players in my neighborhood, a few drummers, one guy playing bass guitar, one guy playing saxophone and one guy playing accordion.
I teamed up with a duo guitarist & drummer who played on Miami Beach hotels poolside. Americans called it 'pass the hat' and the British called it busking. Either way, the music was free and we accepted donations.

To get the gig with these guys, I had to play keyboards, so my parents bought a small portable organ by the Italian company Farfisa. I quickly memorized a bunch of songs and we were playing a few hotels every morning in the summer. Too young to drive, we always had a parent schlep us and our gear to the gigs as well as acting manager/agent to see we had plenty of bookings with the entertainment directors of the hotels.

We played music the tourists wanted to hear and that often got us special events when they had the pool open at night for a BBQ or party. We were available for birthday parties, school dances, teen hop at the bowling alley and the best paying gigs... fraternity parties at the local college!

Dance music was most of our repertoire, but college kids loved Soul Music and so it was. We also did songs by The Young Rascals and on request... The Supremes song You Keep Me Hanging On was on our list.

This brings up the part of Black female singers. A generation later, I watched a documentary about Whitney Houston where she mentioned her musical beginning was singing Gospel. Look around and nearly EVERY Black female singer got their start doing gospel. Can you name 20? I probably could.

My musical taste runs fickle and I have my favorites regardless of their success. Maybe it was the songs they were singing as many sounded like fingernails across a chalkboard.

White girls were everywhere but singers like Karen Carpenter bored me to tears. Remember Leslie Gore and I'll Cry if I want to ... Waaah. I cried because that song was played 32 million times.

I wasn't 100% on Black female singers either. What I disliked most were the wailers... Great voice, but they were over-the-top and I'd turn the volume down. Aretha, Patti LaBelle, Tina make it to that list.

Patti's duet with Michael McDonald (On My Own) was 'almost' a masterpiece, until she starts that wailin' shit (on live performances) and I have to turn it down. I think you get my point.

This week, I did hear a great song by a great singer Gladys Night and I think it's perfect for my blog... The voice of a Black Woman.

Thursday, I got a message from K asking if I wanted to join her at a concert on Friday afternoon. I looked at the lineup and thought "Yeah, I'd like to see those bands", so I wrote "You're on. How much is it?" "Well it's in The Courtyard, and those shows are always free. Let's meet up in front of my place at 4 pm, so we'll get a good spot."

"Score", was my immediate thought. Live music again, without social distancing or face masks. I live for concerts, so it was really a no brainer. The bands were Lotan and Urkraft, two Danish metal bands. Lotan is black metal with satanic undertones, and Urkraft is just pure death metal. I had a great time, however.. By 6 pm, before any of the bands came on, my body suddenly decided to go "Here, have a cold!". I sneezed like mad, coughed like I was a heavy smoker and my nose was clogged. But, that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying the show. Luckily, I had a spare face mask, so I wore that. I did get some looks, but I explained it was because I was having a sudden cold, and I didn't want to pass it on to someone else. Luckily, fans of metal are an understanding bunch, so they were all "No worries, I'll just keep a foot between you and me. Cheers!"

I love metal fans.. Anyway, back to the evening!

Shortly before 9 pm, the show ended, and K and I went on our way home. I was feeling VERY rough, but I told her I could make it, even if she had to do some food shopping when we got to our stop. I did walk slowly, like someone had hit me with a truck.

She did her shopping, paid and we were off home. I followed her all the way to her door, because I am a gentleman, and I wished her a good night, and told her I had a great time. I then walked the remaining five minutes home.

I locked myself in, sat on my bed and was extremely close to falling asleep. A quick brush of my teeth later, and I was ready to fall asleep. However, I didn't get a lot of it. Mainly because of my cold, but also because I couldn't really fall in a deep sleep. I think I managed about 5 hours or so, so by the time it was 7 am, I was up again.

Here twelve hours later, I feel a lot better. I can feel the cold leaving my body, which is fantastic. I need it to be gone by Monday. If it's not gone, we'll see how I feel at 6 am. If I feel rough, I will not go to school. It sucks because I want to have a perfect attendance record, but if you're sick, you're sick.

So in summary: I spent a few great hours with K, got a cold, slept bad and now I feel better. If only I hadn't developed that stupid cold.. The evening might have turned out differently..

Anyway, tomorrow might actually be great. K and I have a semi-confirmed "date". I have invited her over to my new place, and if she can find the time tomorrow, she might come by. We'll see what happens.

Final thoughts: Black metal and death metal concerts rule!

Rock on !

Guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan 'live' at Montreux 1985

In 1968, guitarist Jeff Beck released an album called TRUTH and the truth was every guitarist in my city wore out their records learning Beck's licks note-for-note. We knew he played with The Yardbirds in 1966, as well as two other famous guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

Forming The Jeff Beck Group he teamed up Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass and Mickey Waller on drums. Blown away isn't credit enough for the album as there aren't any 'B-side' songs on it. All of them were winners!

The original lineup of The Jeff Beck Group were only together a few years as it was reported Jeff may not have been the easiest to get along with, but each version of a new band brought a different set of talent.

Sadly the news came across the internet today that Jeff had contracted Bacterial Meningitis and passed away after a short battle. He was 78 and had finished a tour as recent as November 2022.

The song Shapes of Things was previously recorded by The Yardbirds, but Beck's version has much... much more energy and was the first track on his Truth album.

You might like it, if you try it.

Seriously, Fourplay is a clever name for a band with 4 members.
An excellent pianist collected 3 other excellent musicians to play on one of his albums.

All 4 musicians already had quite successful music careers.
Well, in recording that album they enjoyed playing music together so much, the four of them decided to team up and form a band.
One of them came up with the name, Fourplay.

Their original guitarist, Chuck Loeb died.
So, they added another good guitarist, Lee Ritenour.
Lee left and they replaced him with a guitarist, that used to do studio work for the band, Steely Dan.
Larry Carlton later toured with Steely Dan and still does on occasion. He also has his own band and tours with his son, the bassist his band. Yeah, he's a busy guy. Oh, he's also won 4 Grammys

Larry's music evolved. Some people stay stuck with whatever they played & listened to in high school or college. Others grow. Larry certainly has. Thus, he's an even better guitarist now.

Here's his rendition of the song 'Blues Force' (with Fourplay);
Bob James - piano
Nathan East - Bass
Harvey Mason Jr - Drums
Larry Carlton - Guitar

Musician, singer, songwriter Christopher Cross released the song Ride Like the Wind in 1980 and it was a hit reaching #2 on the Billboard charts.

The basis of the song was about a convicted outlaw on the run from a death-by-hanging sentence. He has to 'ride like the wind' to reach the Mexican border and avoid capture by the sheriff's posse.

Great song, great lyrics. Here is the album version:




Michael McDonald does the background vocals.