Guitars, tips and great music discussions
Happy Canada to all of my loyal readers, we’re 141 years young!
Here in Canada we celebrate the 141st anniversary of our Confederation. We also mark and celebrate the founding of the Canadian state 400 years ago; from Champlain to today.
Keep on Jammin’ Canada!
The theme song from CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) has recently made the news and created a major debate both socially and politically in this country that I call home!
This theme is something that we all grew up with. Every time this song was played on a Saturday night on CBC, it meant the begging of something that we all waited for, for a whole week! It was like the ringing of a triangle that told the cowboys that dinner was on the table. We all knew that it was the start of something special and that something was known as HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA!
I know that most of my readers may be from another country and you may have a tough time wrapping your head around this one, but this is not just a simple song that unites us all under the same cloth, it’s about a way of life.
I decided to write this post a little bit after the emotional tidal wave of patriotism had past. If you are in the eye of the hurricane, trying to gauge and reason what to do first is overwhelming in the initial stages.
The negative train of thought is to say, What the hell are you doing at the CBC?, This is a nasty travesty of justice, a shaking of ones society’s core values or better yet, a single event that portrays a betrayal of ones country’s essence in the way of Biblical proportions!
The positive is to acknowledge that yes, the sun will come up tomorrow and we will continue on with life! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger …
I’m going out on a limb here folks, but I am leaning towards the positive aspects of this event. I know that I’m in good company to boot, here’s just a few!
Johnny Bower, as long as the song is played somewhere, that’s the main thing. That’s the key, the song will still have something to do with hockey.
Paul Henderson, Things have changed, and things change. They dropped the song. Get over it. Let’s move on.
The song was sold to TSN (The sports Network) and CBC decided not to pick it up. Ok, let’s remember this day and in the words of the hockey great Paul Henderson, Let’s get over it!
Keep on Jammin’
Woofstock is North America’s Largest festival for dogs. It’s held in Toronto on June 7th – 8th in the downtown core. “The summer of canine Love” is a good way to describe it! 140,000 people can’t be wrong!
My wife, Midnight our black lab and myself just came back from this crazy event and what a blast it was! They blocked off a fairly large area of streets in Toronto and it was informative and tons of fun!
There were so many people and their dogs all over the place.
The vendors had great freebees and the products were top shelf stuff! There was even this company called Happy Tails that have a Pet Resort & Pet Camp in the very popular Muskoka area.
Our guests have the freedom to come and go as they please between open pet-sized bedrooms or cabins, fireplace lounge and one of many large dog parks segregated by size and temperament. They can run and play all day, chasing chipmunk and dragonflies, hunting frogs, swimming, and umpteen other things dogs being dogs like to do.
There is also a human equivalent called the Deerhurst Resort not too far away as well. There is no connection between the two but it’s nice to have the best of both worlds right next to each other. If we had more dollars then sense, then I think we’d be there!
The best thing I we took out of this event was the ability to bring our dog right inside a very respectable pub for a couple of Guinesses! Cheers, a little hair of the dog won’t kill ya! Hope to see you there next year, drop me a line and we’ll buy the first round, really!
Keep on Jammin’
Just thought that you should know that this day in Rock and Roll history the following events happened.
Births on this day are …
1948 John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
1938 Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary)
1939 Charles Miller (War)
1944 Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople)
Miscellaneous things that happened on this date are …
1957 “That’ll Be the Day” by Buddy Holly and the Crickets is released.
1962 The Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout” is released on Wand Records. It will rise to #17 on the US Pop chart and will be covered two years later by the Beatles, whose version rose to #2. (I did not know that one!)
1966 “The Monkees” series debut on NBC-TV.
1969 John and Yoko record Give Peace a Chance at Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal
1976 The Who perform loudest concert ever , using 76,000-watt PA system
1977 The biggest and most expensive rock tour in history begins as Emerson, Lake and Palmer embark on a worldwide tour, with a 125 people begin in toe, including a 70-piece orchestra.
2005 The Salvation Army close Strawberry Field, a Liverpool children’s home which inspired the Beatles’ song, “Strawberry Fields Forever.â€
Keep on Jammin’
Well maybe it’s time to pull out the old sequined hot pants, 12-inch records, mirror balls and platform shoes from where ever you saw them last? Is Disco really back or is it just a pipe dream?
The record labels and the so-called people in the know and says it is back! Should we listen and be very afraid OR should we embrace this as a long lost, more then mis-understood cousin? I have mixed feelings.
Ever since disco started up, I kept listening for some crazy guitarist to jump in and blow me away. but I was just left hanging … for quite a while! Being as nieve back then as I was, I sorta was looking for a different style to come out of no where to bring to my arsenal of techniques to use when I was playing with different bands. The Rolling Stones started to jump on this bandwagon with their disco version of “Miss You”, but they fell far too short of my expectations.
I realize that the point of music is to sooth the savage beast in all of us. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, or so they say. But the most important thing that we have to recognize and acknowledge about any genre of music that it has the proper end result, is someone actually enjoying it?
Way back in the day, (back when I got hit by a school bus, true story here kidz) I had a buddy of mine whose parents had more dollars then sense and they gave their kids basically anything they wanted. Now this is where it gets scary, disco was all the rage and my buddy asked his parents to get a dance floor like Saturday Night Fever and guess what … they did! This thing was 1/4 the size of the dance floor of the above mentioned movie with the lights under the floor, attached to this light organ thingy with 1000 watt speakers to boot! It was really impressive and yes, I did the line thing at least once or twice … I think?
The matriarchs of disco and both crowned “Queen of Disco”, Donna Summers and Gloria Gaynor are both coming out with new disco music for June and I guess that will help get the ball, or should I say disco ball rolling!
So tell us if you are FOR or AGAINST the return of DISCO into our lives. Was once enough or is it something old is something new?
Keep on Jammin’
On The Hour, with George Stroumboulopoulos, he does a great interview with Canada’s greatest singer/song writer ever and does it only the way that he can do it!
He was born in Orillia, Ontario. As a young boy he grew up singing in church choirs. Later on in life the man moved to L.A. in the late 1950’s to seriously study music. It wasn’t until he came back to Canada that his career finally took off! In 1966 he released his first album titled “Lightfoot”.
His commercial success came into the forefront when he started to break into the US market in the 70’s. This was a great thing. Eventually, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and even Elvis started doing re-makes of his songs!
Lightfoot’s got a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, he was one of the first inductees into Canada’s Singer/Songwriters Hall of Fame and has won 15 Junos to boot. Not bad from some guy from Orillia.
As for me, I have a little story to tell you here kidz, so gather around the campfire and let’ go!
Circa: early 1990. Place: Toronto, Ontario Canada
I was working for a delivery company called Mr. Case and I had a drop off in Toronto’s affluent Rosedale area. I had my supplies in my van and I pulled up to the clients driveway and got out. Damn, wrong driveway! So I went back to the van and everyone’s worse nightmare comes to life, I LOCK THE KEYS IN THE VEHICLE!
I don’t want to bother the people in the house, so I look for a coat hanger to break in. Can’t find any. What do I do next! I now notice a car pulling up the driveway in the adjacent house. A man, a women and child exit the vehicle. The women notices me and asks whats wrong and I begin to tell her my story. The man in the background with the child listens and says that he’d be back in a minute. Beautiful! The women stays behind and we spark up a nice conversation. Remember, I’m in a area that the average house is about 2 million dollars.
No the man comes back out of the house with a coat hanger and he is walking down his driveway and heads towards me on his neighbor’s side. As he is doing this, he has pliers in hand is starting to bend the end to the familiar hook. As he reaches me and my van, he automatically goes to the drivers to.
I’m now thinking to myself, what in the hell am I doing letting a millionaire attempt to break into my van! I said thank you for the hanger and I tried to take it from him before he tries to open the truck. He then says “ok, but I’m kinda good at this type of thing”.
As I stumble around trying desperately to open the van and have a conversation with this rich guy, he taps me on the shoulder and says “Can give it a try?”. I then agreed and handed over the tool. After 10 seconds I see the door pin is open and this guy turns to me and says “I told ya I was good at this” and then I realized it was …
Keep on Jammin’
Albert Hofmann, the man behind LSD, has died! I honestly just found out this morning!
No I wasn’t getting small or something like that, I’ve just been too busy over the past couple of months doing lots of things!
He says that the developed LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide-25) as a porthole into the mind. This drug/treatment was to allow patients to seek out what was troubling them thus, helping focus the treatments to be used to help what ails them.
In his books he tell of his own experimentation with it, but says “LSD can help open your eyes,” he once said. “But there are other ways — meditation, dance, music, fasting.” Now he tells me!
Lots of other people jumped on the olde LSD thing, but their end results were a bit different. Like this guy! Ah, Timothy Leary’s (L)eague of (S)piritual (D)evelopment. Imagine actually meeting this guy. Better yet, can you think of who better to go camping with then him? Huh?
Some other notables are Carry Grant, the Beatles … the list goes on and on.
So let’s take out hats off for a moment and reflect on the great pharmacist Albert Hofmann’s accomplishments.
Keep on Jammin’ Albert, where ever you are!
The other day at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, Roger Waters was using an inflatable Pig during the show and it got away … and I mean really away!
It floated from Coachella California near Palm Springs and landed in a local backyard. It seems that two neighbors found parts of the animal on their property and will split the $10,000.00 reward plus they will get tickets for life for any of the shows in the future!
Lucky buggards … poor pig!
Keep on Jammin’
I don’t know why anyone would hurt poor old Ringo!
To read more, check out this article in a British paper.
Keep on Jammin’
I was just wondering to myself today about how many of you, my good readership, are musicians and who isn’t. I’d like to know for a number of reasons. No, this is not to embarrass anyone or start some kind of mid evil Inquisition folks.
It’s just to:
(1) to tailor topics.
(2) and concentrate on certain categories
Just a simple answer would do here folks, nothing earth shattering.
You could state “Musician” or “Non-Musician”. What instruments you play and maybe what type of gear you have. If your a “non-Musician”, then tell us what genre of music gets you going! If you have any interesting or entertaining events might be good for a laugh, I know we all have 1 or 2 of them up our sleeves!
So state your case and get back to us … we’re waiting!
Keep on Jammin’