So it looks like the band KISS is about to tour again, this time with a change to their line up. Boy, Gene hasn’t aged a day now has he!
Keep on Jammin’
Don Kirshners Rock concert
Don Kirshners’ Rock concert brought us the best that Rock & Roll had to offer. It was the best and most viewed music show on television during my youth … and we thank you for it Don, wherever you are these days. This music variety show premiered on September 29, 1973 and sadly ended on January 1, 1981.
I can vividly remember staying home and watching this show countless nights, seeing musical giants strutting the stage! My mind would wander, imagining myself performing with these greats. I thought about how in the hell, what did these guys do to make the guitar sound like that? Did they sell their souls to the devil for unearthly musical powers?
At the time, Don Kirshners Rock concert was a land that I wanted to go to and be part of some how, some way. I now realize that this show helped me to become hooked on guitar playing.
The shows that really were embedded in my mind were Black Sabbath, Frank MarinoPoco, Brownsville Station , Kool and the Gang (as a young guitar player, these guys were out of sight man!), and John Klemmer (I distinctly remember this being my first exposure to jazz guitar playing).
Here is just a PARTIAL list of the musical who’s who of Rock, that played on the show, as well as helped forge my R & R experience for years to come!
Bad Company, Badfinger, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Black Sabbath, Brownsville Station, Joan Baez, Pat Benatar, Black Oak Arkansas, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Blue Öyster Cult, David Bowie, The Byrds, Harry Chapin, Cheap Trick, Jim Croce, Devo (one of my favorites!), The Doobie Brothers, Eagles
Earth, Wind & Fire, Edgar Winter Group, Electric Light Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, Foghat, Golden Earring, The Guess Who, The Hollies, James Gang (the guy who lived down the street played in this band, Domenic Triano), Billy Joel, Johnny Winter, Kansas, B.B. King, Kiss, Mahogany Rush, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Frank Marino, Don McLean, Ted Nugent, New York Dolls, Billy Preston, Prince & The Revolution, Ramones (the ultimate wedding band, imagine the version of the bird dance!), Lou Rawls
The Rolling Stones, Todd Rundgren, Rush (my home town band from Toronto), Santana, Seals and Crofts, Sly & the Family Stone, The Stampeders, (love these guys!), Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, UFO, Uriah Heep, War, Weather Report, and T.Rex. Holly shit batman, what a partial list that was!
I ask people at work if they remember anything about this show and most of the time I get these blank stares looking back at me. Is it just me, or was this show one of the greatest shows to watch as a kid?
God bless Don Kirshner, where ever you are!
Keep on Jammin’ Don
Seven Ages of Rock
The BBC has produced one more gem of the documentary! This informative Rock and Roll documentary titled the Seven Ages of Rock was great to watch right from start to finish.
It was my wife’s birthday this past weekend and while at home eating her favorite Greek take-out food, we came across this amazing show that i just happened to tape earlier on in the week. The segment we took in was the We are the Champions section. It talked about, and with, some of the Arena Rock bands and how they achieved mastering this part of our R & R experience. The BBC brought us through it’s evolution of this period and how it shaped us morally and politically and it didn’t disappoint.
We both love all the bands of that era and the way they explored the sequence of it. Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Police, U2, Dire Straights, Kiss and to a lesser extent Springsteen. I realize I’ll take some heat for my comment about Springsteen from some of my readers, but that is for another future post.
This one hour doc was even making our puppy Midnight sit up and take notice (we’ll take any help to settle her down where we can get it!) It had all of the standard nostalgic rock doc footage, but it also brought us behind the scenes of the bands inner workings of their business dealings. The best and most insightful in this regard was from The Police’s Stewart Copeland.
The hats off best musical guitar lesson was from Mark Knopfler. He just casually picks up his trusty axe and shows us how he plays Money for Nothing from the 1985 album Brothers in Arms. That was just plain and simply amazing!
I’ve tried for years to figure out this song in many different ways, but I was never quite satisfied with my own end results. So when he picked up his Les Paul, and started showing us exactly how he plays this tune practically note for note, I almost died! So did my wife because we have a PVR (or TVo to my US readers) that allows me to go back and forth to pick apart any section of the video that is recorded with ease.
Having and using this piece of technology, is what helps in driving my wife up the wall and down the other side. The other is when I re-play the song for ever, because I am so annul in reproducing ANY song on guitar. If you have the ability to tape this part of the program and you honestly want to play this tune properly, them tape it! You WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!
OR, just check this out!
The only bands that where noticeable absent in the segment was Pink Floyd and The Who. Thank God they were in the first two programs. Otherwise, we both give this one 2 thumbs up! And, if the situation presented itself, I’d get the DVD for my collection … and I can be quite tight with my money!
Keep on Jammin’