Guitars, tips and great music discussions
Just a short post. If you’re like me and you’d love to learn the whole song or even a small part of this song, here it is. Enjoy!
For those of you who are not familiar with the band or this song that they play here is their version of how to play this tune live!
Keep on Jammin’
To this day I still remember the moment when I happened to stumble upon the guitar icon just my mistake playing live in 1982.
It was during the summer at the annual music event called Chicago Fest at Soldiers Field. I was there with my brother in law.
The event was both inside and outside of the stadium. Inside I saw “Chicago” and the “Beach Boys” while outside there were beer pavilions that highlighted different styles of music.
My brother in law went to the bathroom and I was told to sit down at the edge of the Budweiser Pavilion. There was the song below playing and I looked up to see this trio playing this song about 150 feet away. They looked like some back woods band playing in the big city for their first time. Their attitude was bluesy and Rock & Roll epitomized to a “T”.
The drummer was on this small set, the bass player looked like the average guy that you might bump into on the street but the guitar player was a hold out from the 60’s. They were very tight and looked quite at home in their element on stage. The guitar player was the one who stood out like nothing that I have ever witnessed live before.
He had this great looking beat up old battered 1959 Fender Strat with a big rimmed hat with these fairly big silver Texas round things on it. His hands were just mesmerizing to look at. The sound was very southern. He even played part of the solo with his teeth. Up to that point in my life, I had never seen anyone play like this except Mr. Hendrix on old video footage.
I just sat there for a short period of time before I went up a little further. I was just in awe of this guy playing guitar. I also couldn’t believe that the crowd was so small for the talent that was in front of us, but what a huge win for the ones who were there.
I later found out who it was and he had just came back from recording the “Let’s Dance” album with David Bowie. He turned down the opportunity to tour with him to pursue his own tour with his band. This must have been a big ballsie move in Bowie’s eye’s to pull something like this off. Imagine the exposure that he would have gotten from touring with Bowie! Anyways, it was a concert that I will forever cherish.
So Mr Stevie Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990), R.I.P.
Keep on Jammin’ Stevie
The ROCKMAN by Tom Scholz is the result of the business venture that helped many budding rock stars obtain that BIG FAT Boston sound that everyone was after in the 1980’s.
Unfortunately or fortunately for myself during those years I did not get my hands on any of these ultimate tools of the trade. I was a young player who tried to create the sound that I wanted by going as direct as I could.
I know that is contrary to most of my posts but I wanted to, in the back of my mind, be as pure and honest with my sound as I could. I was trying to slay many dragons on many fields at once. My guitar mentor at the time, always was suspicious about all those tricks that some players used to fool the listeners. This was someone who I had trusted completely and I never thought twice about questioning his judgment. I hope to have him back in my guitar life if he will let me.
Here is an example of the power of the Rockman Sustainor. I’d love to have this one for sure, what do you think?
So, go through this site and tell me if you have had any dealings with any of these products. Please give us the pro’s and con’s of all aspects of them and don’t leave anything out, even if you think that they are self explanatory.
Keep on Jammin’
Note: please play the bottom youtube thingy then start reading the letters, I mean words eh, you hosers.
Oh my God they’re back again! Bob & Doug are having a Two-Four Anniversary coming up this May two-four(when else eh?) on CBC and this is to be the final one, once and for all!
Check out the SCTV site and the Maclean’s article about these guys! PLEASE read the whole Maclean’s one, it is the best of them all!
These guys were HUGE in the 80’s. I remember when they came back to Toronto one time and the cops had to close down the Don Valley Parkway(DVP) for a while! The reason, thousands of well-liquored fans staged an impromptu parade up and down it! Only in Canada, eh?
The song, that I whistled at the Hospital while moving patients around the Surgical floor’s, was one that brings back fabulous memories from my childhood. You know, some of the patients that were on Morphine sang along doing the “koo, oo, oo,oo, koo, oo, oo,oo!” part and it was a BLAST! I even recall figuring out the piano parts and attempting the song live at High School, damn that Geddy Lee and his 10 octave voice!
Does anyone have a close encounter of the hoser kind out there that would love to share with us? If so, you nappy-headed hosers, get those fingers moving right now, eh?
Keep on Jammin’
BTW the wife has a post about Canadian culture and a bit about Bob and Doug too. Check it out.
This was another show that I watched as a kid growing up in Brantford. The characters were just out of this world, the Count and Igor just to name a few.
The best part of the show was when Igor and the Wolf Man played albums and started to dance with a groovy psychedelic film going on in the background!
They played with guitars and basses during this part of the show. While quite naive back then, I thought that they were actual musicians. This is a link to the scene in the show that I am talking about. Back then I thought that the bat wing guitar that the wolfman used was real and I really wanted one!
If you want to see some more footage, go to YouTube for little morsels of the show.
Keep on Jammin’
I was on my morning break at the hospital, when I came across the nurse who I love talking about guitar playing and bands with in the Intensive Care Ward. She came up to me with this excited and enthusiastic look on her face.
She was bursting with her experience of this great band that she saw this past weekend. The band is called Wolfmother. They are an Australian trio that has a huge sound and the endurance of a 6 year old kid on stage. She says their obvious influences are Zeppelin, and Sabbath, and they have lyrics that are out of this world.
I just Googled them and found their site. I am currently listening to the audio part of their site, and I can’t help but also notice the influence of RUSH on a tune called “Women”. It brings me back to the bands Caressive Steel album days of Working Man, boy what a sound they have.
She told me that it was their last show in North America. They did a 3 hour show that kept going like the old “ever ready bunny”! At the end of the show they just started smashing everything they owned on stage. She thinks that if they smash everything into literal tiny pieces then they wouldn’t have to bring it all home with them, makes sense to me.
They spun the crowd into a frenzy like after having a wild episode of doing the wild thing then just lying there in a daze and thinking to yourself, what just happened?
So check out this band’s site, and maybe grab their album so they can afford to ship their equipment home with them next time, ok?
Keep on Jammin’
Don’t know about you but, I have always wanted to hear for myself if all this hype was true but I didn’t have the technical abilities to play this backwards on anything that I have owned in the past or present, I have wanted to hear this for a long, long time now.
So what do you think about this one?
Keep on Jammin’
Gotcha thinkin’ you dancing fool!!!
BTW,are there 2 bass players in this, or is it just an illusion from the short exposure to disco tunes during my formative musical years? See, my brother Tim always told me that this shit would rot my brain even if exposed in short bursts! Always listen to your brother, always!
Keep on ah …
It is just too funny to watch someone put Keith Richards in his place! He is just too funny, I love how he just pisses Keith off so much that you think it may end up with blows being thrown! Chuck Berry is the only guy in the world that could actually put Keith in his proper pecking order of guitar players. Enjoy, I did.
Keep on Jammin’
This instrument, the Harp Guitar, is the sweetest and most challenging one to perfect. Some of the great musicians to play this instrument have been Robbie Robertson, Steve Howe, Pat Metheny just to name a few.
The Harp Guitar is considered beautiful to the eyes and ears. Even Gibson was a Guitar Harp producer. We have a great Canadian woman who creates these missing links to the musical past and she is, Linda Manzer.
I have chosen Michael Hedges to illustrate this to you today. Unfortunately, like all the great ones, he is no longer with us. He was only 43 when he pasted away from a car crash.
The Guitar Harp has the appearance of a mythical instrument from the days of Robbin Hood, the Lutes of 1265 C.E. (C.E. = Common Era, used to be called A.D.) or the Baroque period. An ageless instrument at that!
I have never seen one up close but if I could be alone with one for a moment or so, I would try to decode this thing once and for all. I have tried my luck on a Lute and it was really fun to play. I love the sound and the action on the Lute. The neck is wide and the length is short, which makes it easier to play in my eyes. I suggest that if the opportunity presents itself, you should take full advantage of the moment to broaden your musical horizons.
Keep on Jammin’, (even Harp style)