Like every Boston fan out there, never hold your breath about the issue date of the bands next album because of the bands agonizingly slow evolution in their recording process. Even though the band states that this album is 85% complete, I still wouldn’t dare to place a wager on the exact date. Does anyone out there recall the band taking 6 years to complete their third album Third Stage? Talk about build up to a product release!

Since Brad Delp’s death, Boston has chosen to use a couple of singers but their recent singer, Tommy DeCarlo, is the one that stuck.

Boston just has that sound that makes you stand up and take notice. Even if you not a fan of the band, I bet that you’d know them after listening to only a few bars of a song.

When my parents bought me a 50 watt 1/2 stack HIWATT (for a good laugh check out the link!) amp, the first song I played on it was Boston’s Don Look Back! I literally didn’t know how powerful it was so after 10 minutes of setting it up, I found the number 9 button on the volume control. It was so loud it work up John Elek down the street, not to mention the cat never came back for 3 days, it was at the foot of my bed, true story. Thank God the windows were open otherwise I don’t know what would have happened. I never went near number 9 again …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiOqHLVxZvA

So when do you think the band’s release date will be?

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I recall seeing the band in the old CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in Toronto in the mid 80′s and that show was just plain epic. The band actually went into Quadraphonic Sound that night, holy crap it was just like sitting in someone’s home who had a real kick ass stereo system. An old friend of mine, Ed Myers, had the first Quad Stereo that I ever experienced and for that I thank him!

While Rogers was playing Comfortably Numb that night with his band, David Gilmour joined in with a beautiful black Stratocaster of his and what a sight and sound that must of been. Behind Roger Waters on stage was his trademark white Wall and on the top of that was David Gilmour whaling away singing and playing guitar like only he can. Whenever I jam along with this classic tune or perform it live somewhere, I always have his majestic guitar solo playing in my head way before it should in truth come in. It’s just one of those solo’s that even non guitarists know off by heart.

Then for the last song of the evening Roger Waters, David Gilmour and then bands original drummer Nick Mason gathered on stage and offered the crowd their version of Outside the Wall. Gilmour was on a mandolin, Rogers on trumpet and Nick Mason on tambourine.

I’m not sure how many Pink Floyd fans there are out there, but if you wanted to see the olde boys from Pink Floyd play together again, even if it was for largely symbolic reasons, than this was a show to have seen.

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Now being a little more mature, musically that is, when I view a couple of their earlier shows on line I tend to pick up some unexpected treasures in those shows that I wasn’t really aware of back then. To see what I mean read on.

At work I’m always chatting with surgeons that use to play guitar in high school bands and our talks always revolves around obscure musical topics. This one day one of them told me about this particular Monkees episode that had Frank Zappa on it. Then right after saying this, this other surgeon chirped in and said that he was a massive Frank Zappa fan that went to see Zappa plays Zappa last year. Small world eh?

I then said, Really … Frank Zappa on the Monkees? You’ve got to be kiddin’ me. So off we went to a computer, did a quick youtube search and bang, there it was right in front of us.

Frank Zappa in a short clip on the Monkees show..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOI-SDYGviM

Michael Nesmith playing Frank Zappa and Frank Zappa playing Michael Nesmith interviewing each other as the other person, hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNJy-OgCzB0

Any Zappa fans out there?

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Well as it turns out, the Rolling Stone is going to let their faithful readers choose what band, 16 unsigned bands, to be placed on their iconic cover in a 4 round contest.

At the end of the showdown, two of the last remaining acts will perform on stage at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee early this summer.

I can’t even imagine the thrill that will get cha …

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They just appear to be having a great time in each others presence. I’m not sure what they’re getting at or if there is any purpose to the interview but it sure is entertaining at times! In one section someone alludes to the fact that it is being shot in a local TV studio somewhere in Calgary.If anyone out there knows more about the video please tell me, I’d love to find out.

Nash can’t remember, but he thinks there are serious stories to be told here, but..he…can’t…. remember. Jim…..Help!!! Just kidding. Iggy and Nash remember everything that happened over the entire six week tour, but they refuse to incriminate each other.
Nash the Slash’s Gravesite

At one point in the video, they show us some of the finer points of yoga and stretching. Come to think of it, they may have been the forerunners of the 20 Minute Workout video’s? Remember that show?

The video is very poor and grainy at times, I’ll warn you now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGZnP_oNVko

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of meeting the man, without the bandages, at a local patio. It was so cool to finally meet a boyhood legend that it left me speechless … yes speechless!

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Ok, I get it, they might want to upgrade/replace the old studio by how are they going to replace that feel that you get with a smaller much more intimate venue?

Not that I’m against the advancement of music halls but why don’t the designers work with what they have? Don’t they have the expertise and technology to do it correctly?

I’ve been a huge fan of ACL’s for so many years now that I can’t remember the first time I’ve ever seen it. The bands that they had were amazing. The complete listings of bands that have performed must be HUGE. Just check out some of the line ups that have been there on the Rolling Stone website, there’s no way you can read them all!

So check what I consider the best show ever to grace the stage at the famous Austin City Limits stage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Cc-EoybFY

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It’s wild just to think about what John Lennon would be doing, as a modern day artisan, if he was with us today.

I think that he’d be a rather hard working multi-media god.

He could have created some of his magical music right in the comfort of his Dakota apartment and then released it on iTunes or some other site. He could have produced fabulous digital art for art galleries or for sale. He’d more than likely have a blog to use as a soapbox to bring us his message about his comments on society. He might even have had a Twitter account, who knows?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okd3hLlvvLw

What do you think John Lennon would be doing to celebrate his birthday if he were alive today?

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I just watched quite a few of the CNE videos and I have to say that some of these clips brought back a flood of fantastic memories of past visits to CNE or The EX as most of us locals call it.

My favorite video of the entire collection was the one that showed the making of the main portable stage at Exhibition Stadium. Up until watching the video that I have, BTW included at the end of this post, I never knew the actual name of this stage. They call it the Centennial Stage.

This stage supported some of the greatest acts of the 20th century! The Who, Pick Floyd, The Police, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, John Cougar Mellencamp (ha, I finally had the chance to say his old name out loud!) and Simon and Garfunkel just to name a few. The best show that I have witnessed there, from a pure sound point of view, was Pick Floyd in 1987? They went all quadraphonic on us at that show, very trippy!!!

So I hope that the video below brings back some great memories for you if you had the chance to visit this stage or the Toronto CNE in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f34Wd1VLDwg

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I loved the 1991 movie called The Doors written by Oliver Stone and Randall Jahnson. My wife and I saw it when it was in theaters back then and we, along with of close friends at the time Ben & Joanne, loved it! It was neat to see something new about the band but I am more of a documentary kind of guy. Did you see it when it came out?

On a side note: If your a big Door’s fan, then you will be looking forward to up coming movie about the band titled The Last Beat.

I found a neat video review from Movieweb and it was interesting to watch. It was with the three remaining members of the band, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger. Manzarek said the this doc. is “the anti- Oliver Stone” movie and will act as “the true story of The Doors.” OK, you sold me right there Rick!

Now with the help of personal footage, archival footage and Morrison’s own never-before-seen film, the band has assembled a new documentary called, When You’re Strange, which opened in theaters on April 9th. Movieweb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMMo3EmIfJw

So are you a big enough fan to go out and see this doc?

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So Jimi Hendrix was on tour opening up for Engelbert Humperdinck and Engelbert’s guitar player didn’t show up and he was wondering what he would do. Jimi came up to him and said Hey man don’t worry, I’ll play guitar for you. Engelbert replied You can’t do that, your a star! Jimi then told him, wait a minute, let me check out this place.
Jimi noticed a curtain near the doorway and said, I’ll stand behind that curtain.

englebert asked him You will and Jimi replied I sure will. So Jimi got the music in front of him started playing with the band. Mr Humperdinck says that Jimi sounded like 3 guitars playing all at once. It was the biggest thrill of his life but the only thing that he was so upset about was that it wasn’t recorded! Can you say collector’s item?!

He was on my favorite CBC show called The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. On the show George invites his guest to talk candid off stage about their craziest or most memorable moment that they had and share it on tape to be shown at a later date. This segment of the show is called Best Story Ever.

I wish that I could of found this video on Youtube and dropped it directly into this post but no such luck. So if you want to see the segment in it’s entirety, you have to do a little bit of leg work here folks! It’s time well wasted.

1. Go to this link
2. Cut and paste Engelbert Humperdinck best story ever into the site’s search engine
3. Hit the red Search Video button to the right of it.

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