Last Commented Music Blogs (1,259)

It's the end of the year and I'm calling around to Medicare, Social Security, insurance companies, banks, mortgage company to do updates. Social Security is open all night and for some odd reason the recorded message says there is a long wait time as they are receiving an extremely a high call volume.
WTF... it's 2am.
So 55 minutes of waiting on hold and one song playing in a loop was enough to memorize. Too bad I wasn't near a guitar or piano as I could have figured out the tune.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE, EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!

In 1955, American musician Richard Berry wrote a song called Louie Louie about a Jamaican sailor returning home to see his lover. It was the B-side of the 45 record and didn't get much play until the Kingsmen released it in 1957, making it a rock and roll hit!

If you were a musician during that time, Louie Louie may have been the most requested song on your list. Sometimes, it was sometimes pronounced Louie Lou-eye and always there was a misinterpretation to the lyrics as the vocals weren't clear and nearly everyone said the lyrics were suggestive in nature... enough to have the song banned in a few parts of America. I remember rumors that the FBI were investigating the Kingsmen trying to decipher the supposed s*xual nature of the lyrics. True? I cannot say.

*** published LYRICS ***
{intro}
Louie Louie, oh no, you take me where ya gotta go
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Louie Louie, oh baby, take me where ya gotta go

A fine little girl, she waits for me
Me catch the ship across the sea
Me sailed that ship all alone
Me never think I'll make it home

Louie Louie, oh no no no, we gotta go
Oh no
Said Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go

Three nights and days I sailed the sea
Me think of girl constantly
On that ship, I dream she there
I smell the rose in her hair

Louie Louie, oh no, me gotta go
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Louie Louie, oh baby, said we gotta go
Okay, let's give it to 'em right now

{guitar solo}

Me see
Me see Jamaica, the moon above
It won't be long me see me love
Me take her in my arms and then
I tell her I'll never leave again

Louie Louie, oh no, we gotta go
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Louie Louie, oh baby, said we gotta go
I said we gotta go now
Let's hustle on out of here
Let's go


Sure, I played it and recall the Miami version...
My little girl is waiting for me, she gets her thrills on top of me...

If you click in here
ignore this blog.

Just testing and messing around, trying to figure out why I can no longer upload

How frustrating it is to know or think, something you could once do ....
no longer can do

Eh" still talking about uploading here lol

testing 1-2-3 ....

I used to think that William Shatner's cover of Rocket Man by Elton John had to be one of the worst song covers to date. Times have changed and I found one that beats it by 1.6 kilometers or roughly one mile.

The original is: She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby.

Hyperchicken did a cover...



I get the feeling some high-school kids conjured this up to show off their newly learned video editing techniques.

13 years ago, drummer Mike Portnoy at the top of his career, decided to leave the group Dream Theater. After dozens of exhaustive auditions, the band selected Mike Mangini to replace him who played on an impressive one-third of their studio albums.
A year ago some negotiations took place and Portnoy decided to return to the band he helped form.

That's a bitter shock to Mangini and he took the change diplomatically stating:

“I understand Dream Theater’s decision to get Mike Portnoy back at this time. As was said from day one, my place was not to fill all the roles that Mike held in the band. I was to play the drums in order to help the band carry on," Mangini humbly states, "My main role of keeping our live show working tightly on a nightly basis was an intense and rewarding experience."

Deeply appreciative of his time in the band, he continues, "Thankfully, I got to experience playing music with these iconic musicians, as well as some fun times laced with humor. I also really enjoyed spending lots of time with the crew. And then there’s the Grammy win, which was amazingly satisfying."

Bidding farewell, he concludes, "To the fans: thank you so much for being amazing to me. I cherish the pictures I have of you all losing your minds and having fun. Finally, I really love the band, crew and management and wish them and the entire organization all the best.”

Mike Mangini performed well, going far more than he would have without his 13 years with Dream Theater. His new worth is reported $10 million and that in itself is an amazing accomplishment for a musician.
Having heard and seen videos of both drummers, I have to admit Portnoy has the edge on him for technique and assertive style. I'm sure Mangini will soon continue his musical success with another supergroup. He deserves it.

I blogged about the Canadian band RUSH having lost their drummer to cancer, had no plans to reunite. I thought Portnoy would fit that role, but it's too late. Mangini would be next in line for the gig!

I started my weekend YouTube marathon on Friday. Some videos were about guitar repairs and the others were mostly music videos (like the worst cover bands) when I caught an interview with Matthew Fink aka Dr. Fink who is a multi-talented songwriter, record producer and made his fame playing keyboard synthesizers for Prince and the Revolution band joining them in 1978. He's the guy wearing surgical scrubs and a stethoscope.

It's funny, Friday, I was telling my cousin (who also a keyboardist) that around 1968-69 I was in a 3 piece band playing keyboards and the guitarist's father was in hospital isolation. He had lung cancer and not expected to live long. We were allowed to see him but had to wear hospital gowns. When leaving the hospital linen area, we stole some scrubs, masks and hats.
We often performed at parties for college med student fraternities and made a big hit coming to the stage dressed in surgical scrubs... about 9 years before Dr. Fink!

The lyric "Life is just a party and parties weren't meant to last" was sung by Dez Dickerson who was the lead guitarist for Prince's band on the song 1999.

In a span of 60+ years, I've had lots of speakers in my house. Starting off with speakers reclaimed from junk TV's or stereos left in someone's trash. Hey... you have to start somewhere.
My dad bought a Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder with add-on stereo speaker. It was awesome as I could connect it to the TV speaker and record TV shows and it wouldn't pick up sounds in the room when we were all watching Thee Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show!

Learning guitar and my first amp had a tiny speaker, probably 6" but soon after I was able to get something bigger. The name was National and it had 2 10" speakers. I don't remember what happened to it (probably a trade for something bigger) but that vintage guitar amplifier would be worth a small fortune now!

One of my keyboards was financed and when making a payment, my dad saw a bigger amp at the finance office. It was repossessed, probably because it didn't work. He picked it up really cheap and the diagnosis was one wire from the power supply burned at the connector so it failed. Easy fix and I was the owner of an amp with a 15" speaker!

Years later and I had a specially designed cabinet with two 15" high-performance speakers.

Going from band to band and for outdoor concerts I often used 9 speaker cabinets, some fitted with 12" speakers and some with 15" speakers.

I ended up with a custom rig of four 15" speakers in 2 cabinets.

Somewhere along the way, I tried an ACOUSTIC 360 bass amp with one 18" speaker in a large cabinet that had special internal shape to maximize the sound. It's called a folded horn enclosure. It was always my desire to copy one (with the help of the woodshop I was working at) so, I bought two 18" bass speakers and downloaded the specifications of the enclosure.
John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin had 2, Jaco Pastorius had 2, the bassist in Santana had one. That project was put on hold.

In the 90's I bought a bass amp, 100 watts with one 15" speaker. Very nice, but I sold it looking for something larger and shelved that project.

Now, I own a guitar amp, 120 watts with two 12" speakers. My plan was to take guitar lessons, but that project was put on hold.

Since my 2 cousins want me to play music (professionally) with them I considered the guitar amp, but there's a possibility I'll ruin the speakers using bass at a loud volume.
I could buy bass speakers and put them in, but my thought is not modify the guitar amp and buy a real bass amp for practice and gigging.

I did a blog about speaker size and there are all thoughts from 10" to 18" but I'm seeing some manufacturers offering models with two 10" speakers and 300 hundred watts, they move a lot of air and be in a compact lightweight cabinet. The only drawback is the cost. I'm choking on $700 for a freaking combo amp.

Shopping online I see there is a special sale on a smaller model, 100 watts and a 12" speaker. I could buy THREE of these units for less than any of the others and have it easier to move things around, same watts, bigger speakers. Maybe 2 is enough for now.

The sale ends tomorrow, so I have to decide on which which speaker in my House, it's going to be!