When I Was A Child I Caught A Fleeting Glimpse

Before I die, I want to be able to duplicate the tone David Gilmour has on Comfortably Numb.

Take A Breath

I’ve been trying to think of something nice to say about the saxophone for most of my life, and I finally got it: on some of David Gilmour’s best guitar solos, you can tell that he also plays the sax.

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

Every year when I see who is getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, my reaction is either “it’s about time” or “why them?”  Maybe sometimes both.

This year, I got to thinking: what makes a band deserving anyway?  So I listed my 10 favourite bands and looked for the similarities.  Here’s the list:  The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Deep Purple, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Who, The Rolling Stones, CSNY, The Kinks, Dire Straits, Jethro Tull, U2.

OK, that’s more than 10, but nevermind.  And I know your list is different and that’s cool.

But what sets them apart?  Genre/subcategory?  Nope.  Great musicianship?  Mostly, but not – with the greatest respect to those listed – universally.  Killer song writing?  It helps, I suppose.  Clothes?  Just kidding.

Maybe it’s a combination of curiosity and fearlessness.  I tend to think of my favourite artists as explorers, trying new ideas, poking around in unfamiliar places.  Even after they’ve forged their own sound and persona, there’s a restless drive to seek out the new and see what it has to offer.

That drive, that curiosity, that willingness to try something new is why the music of these bands still sounds fresh and exciting.  That spirit of exploration keeps the music young.

Come On You Painter, You Piper, You Prisoner

So  …  actually  …   underneath it all  ..  Shine On You Crazy Diamond is a blues song.

Only took me 4 decades or so to see that.  Guess I’m a slow learner.

Pick Up My Guitar And Play

You could disagree with the albums, but it’s hard to debate the artists who made Guitar World’s 10 Essential Classic Rock Guitar Albums: Van Halen, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, The Who, The Stones, The Beatles.

Personally, I would swap Are You Experienced? for Electric Ladyland and Wish You Were Here for Dark Side of the Moon, and I do not count myself among those who believe Exile On Main Street is The Stones’ masterpiece, but let’s not quibble.

Except: The Doors?  Really?  The Doors debut album is absolutely an essential part of the Classic Rock catalogue, but who considers them a guitar band?  And - with all due respect - who puts a ton of effort into learning how to play like Robby Krieger?  I didn’t even remember his name.

Not to take anything away from The Doors well-deserved legendary status, but on a list of essential guitar albums, I think we’d be better served by the likes of AC/DC, Dire Straits, Clapton or Petty.  Little bit more distinguished guitar playing came from those cats.

Music in the Cafes at Night; Revolution in the Air

Beale Street, Bleeker Street, Haight-Ashbury, Sunset Strip, Music Row and Motown.

These are the streets that changed music history, according to Rolling Stone - or is it Chrysler?  And of course, by Motown they mean West Grand Boulevard, but we’ll let that slide, shall we?

Elvis, Dylan, The Dead, The Doors, all those Motown hits, all that Country … no one’s gonna argue that some pretty important music came off these streets – and still does.

Here’s another one, though, that’s kind of a glaring omission:  Abbey Road.  A little band called The Beatles made a few hit records there, and I’m told they enjoyed a bit of influence in their day.  Oh, and The Hollies, The Shadows, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Oasis.

Oh wait a minute!  Guess they don’t get many Dodge Challengers driving around London.

No One Here Gets Out Alive

In each of the six decades since the birth of rock and roll, you can find some magic, and you can shake your head and wonder how anybody could listen to such rubbish. 

But for me, the 70’s is the big enigma.  Some of the best rock, much of it indelibly stamped into the concrete of our collective consciousness, was made in that decade.  And I couldn’t do without it.  But it was a confusing decade, one with little or no direction, a time of extremes and excesses.

Hard rock, prog rock, power pop, funk, metal, disco, jazz fusion, punk, folk-rock, singer-songwriter … and the leisure suits.  Brother.

The 70’s were not kind to a lot of 60’s icons.  The Stones, Clapton, and The Who, for example, all had their moments, but really they drifted through with mixed results.  Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd triumphantly pushed through, and then collapsed at the finish line.  Deep Purple didn’t make it.  The Beatles and Hendrix didn’t even get out of the starting block.

The energy that began as punk and coalesced into New Wave was certainly welcome.  It brought some much-needed focus to all that aimless thrashing about.  To borrow from Rossini’s invective against Wagner, the 70’s had wonderful moments, and dreadful quarters of an hour.

Whole Lotta Riffs

The beat: definitely.  The energy: probably.  The simplicity: most of the time.  The lyrics: often.  The audacity: goes without saying.  But what really sets a great rock song apart is the riff.  The hook that buries itself into your DNA, where it forevermore acts as a switch, a trigger, a hypnotist’s command.

BBC Radio’s Greatest Guitar Riffs have most of the ones you’d expect: Whole Lotta Love, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Back In Black, Smoke On The Water and Layla landing in the top 5.  Can’t really argue with those.

And as you scan down the list, you realize – joyfully, I’ll bet – just how much great music we’ve been blessed with.  Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Rush, Free, Fleetwood Mac, Cream … on and on it goes.  I can’t think of one riff on this list that doesn’t deserve to be here.

However, it is nothing short of shocking that the Stones and Beatles have only one entry each.  Nice of the BBC to spread the joy, but I can think of another dozen or so riffs from those two groups that are more than worthy.  Nevermind.  I’ll get over it.

Sad, though, that there’s nothing current.  Rock riffs seem to have gone the way of the dodo, and that is not a good thing.

Undercover Agent For The Blues …

… and Rock!  Take a look at the influence John Mayall has had.  The connections.  The influences. The great music that came out of his influence.

It’s almost unbelievable.  The diagram just depicts the most obvious connections.  The ones that could fit on a page.  It’s missing the Yardbirds-Page-Zeppelin link.  It obscenely abridges Clapton’s reach.  It skips the whole Dylan universe outside the Willburys.  It doesn’t even try to show who Phil Collins has touched, which is, like, everybody.

Was John Mayall as influential as Lennon, Dylan, Jagger, Hendrix or Page?  Maybe not, but when you think about who he’s played with – and who they played with, he’s touched just about everything.  Mayall is one important cat.

A Hunger Still Unsatisfied

Are you older than, say, 30?  Got regrets?  Feel like a part of you is lost?  Still trying to find yourself – in the future, the present, the past?  Or … want your spirit crushed?

Go listen to High Hopes by Pink Floyd.  They’ve done a lot of songs about loss, but this one is the champ.

A life consumed by slow decay.  Steps taken forward but sleepwalking back again.  Encumbered forever by desire and ambition.  Our weary eyes … the grass was greener … the water flowing … the endless river … sheesh!

Poignant poetry, a moody tune with a haunting, tolling bell, impeccable Floyd production, and perhaps David Gilmour’s most heartbreaking guitar solo.  I cannot listen to this song without weeping.

Sad, cathartic, and absolutely beautiful.  By the way, the accompanying music video is one of the most amazing videos of all time.

The light was brighter.

Hey Mr. Fantasy

As the intro points out, the number of reunions that have taken place since Traffic first did it in 1970 are too numerous to list, but the Readers’ Poll on Bands That Should Reunite is still kinda sad.

We’ve got the usual suspects: Pink Floyd, Oasis, GNR, The Smiths, Genesis, The Kinks  …  but most of the write-ups say something like “it ain’t going to happen ‘cause xx hates yy” or “zz isn’t interested, so dream on.”

So it’s sad.  Or worse.  I mean, Led Zeppelin can’t reunite because their drummer is dead.  Ya, the 2007 show was amazing and Jason Bonham did a great job, but shouldn’t we move on?

Can’t we treasure what’s come before and still give a shot to the host of current acts out there that deserve a listen?  Isn’t “the new” what attracted us to those old acts in the first place?

Mind-Blowing Music

Gibson has a list of 10 Classic Albums to Expand Your Musical Horizons, and a message:  get outside your comfort zone.

The list includes work by the likes of Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Black Keys and Tom Waits, with whom I easily relate.

But it also includes artists I have shied away from, such as Coltrane, Hank Williams and Brian Eno.

And, sadly, it contains a few artists I had never heard of but probably should have, like Sonny Sharrock, Junior Kimbrough and Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

Reading the write-ups, I can see that each of these artists would have something to offer that relates to genres and styles I like, but pushes me past where I normally go if left to my own devices.  In terms of lighting that creative spark, it’s a great idea to immerse yourself in something new.

And if I think about it, most of my heroes did/do just that.

Thanks, Gibson.  You’ve given me some homework to do.

Just Nod If You Can Hear Me

Back on the sad songs.   Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb does a spectacularly morose job of summarizing the human condition.

When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb

Ouch!  Life is a pointless, hopeless big tease, only coming through in waves, and we can’t hear it.

Is there anyone at home?  No.  You are receding.  We are all alone.

I mean, hopefully most of us don’t feel this way too often, but we all do just a little from time to time, right?

Depressing, frightening  - and definitely sad.

Passion Plays

The Rolling Stone readers’ poll on the 10 Best Prog Rock Albums of the 70’s has it all: songs of symphonic length, self-indulgent morality plays, virtuosity, technical wizardry – and absolutely no dancing.

And yes, I had most of these albums.

Prog rock was big in 70’s; probably too big.  So it’s curious that only 5 bands scooped up all 10 spots (2 each for Rush and Genesis, with the grand prize going to Pink Floyd with 4).  Or maybe not, because the albums listed were huge.

Definitely not:  ELP, Focus and Mike Oldfield didn’t age as well.

I might have swapped out Floyd’s Animals for Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play, though.  Tull’s sense of humour with the “Story of the hare that lost his spectacles” bit was kinda funny.  And let’s face it, Animals was hard work.

8 Miles High

Well, why not?  40 Great Stoner Albums, a list of albums Rolling Stone says are “great for blazing along, but also great when you’re not high as a giraffe.”

Item one:  I’m no stoner.  I only owned 3 of the 40 albums listed, and I only recognized 14 album titles in total.  Tons of bands/artists I had never heard of!  I kinda always thought that drug and pop culture weren’t that far apart, and that you didn’t need to partake to get it.  Maybe I’m wrong.

Item two:  item one aside, I wonder if all these records are for stoners, or if some of them are just by people who were stoned.  David Crosby’s, If I Could Only Remember My Name, for example.

Item three:  Rock & Roll is an interstellar escape pod?  Pardon?  What does that mean, exactly?  I must be straighter than I thought.

Item four:  there is no item four.  Still trying to deal with item one.  I mean, I expected to see one or two blues greats, maybe Cream, Zeppelin, Dylan, The Byrds, Neil Young, Deep Purple (Mark I), Donovan, Tull, one of the 70’s Brit prog bands, someone from California other than The Dead …  Just three albums (Axis, Dark Side and Rubber Soul).  Sheesh!

Maybe I need to take a dreadlock holiday.

Far Out, Man

According to Wikipedia, psychedelic music covers a range of styles and genres, is inspired by psychedelic (drug) culture, and emerged in the mid-60’s among folk rock and blues rock bands.  Wikipedia also notes that these bands went to on to create prog rock, heavy metal and a bunch of other new genres.  But you knew all that.

The article mentions a bunch of bands you’d expect – The Beatles, Floyd, Hendrix, The Byrds – but no Led Zeppelin.

Ya?  So go listen to How Many More Times.  Seems to me that, exotic instrumentation excepted, this song has most of the characteristics listed: complex song structure, strange lyrics, extended solos, distorted guitar, wah wah, elaborate studio effects …  this song is a trip.

It’s always bugged me that Zeppelin was jammed into the heavy metal pigeon hole.  I get the name and their influence and all that, but they had too much depth and range.  And for my money, Zeppelin I is every bit as trippy as Pepper, Are You Experienced?, or Disraeli Gears.

Just goes to show that labels don’t mean nothin’. 

Hey!  Wait a minute!  Cream doesn’t get a mention in the article either.  Guess it needs some updating.

The Long Goodbye

Gibson’s 10 Epic Guitar Outros makes the point that great guitar work at the end of a song can be an exclamation point.  I agree!!!!!!!!!

Here’s the list:

Ozzy (Randy Rhoads) – Mr. Crowley

ZZ Top – La Grange

Zeppelin – Black Dog

Bowie (Mick Ronson) – Moonage Daydream

Rolling Stones – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking

Guns “n Roses – November Rain

Derek and the Dominoes – Layla

Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb

Eagles – Hotel California

Skynyrd – Free Bird

Yep.  Epic.  I some cases, these outros are the best part of the song, the signature.  Comfortably Numb, for example.  That, and Hotel California, where the outro almost becomes a second song that provides an emotional reaction to the first part.  It’s like the band is saying, “Ya, think about this for a minute.”

And we do.

Decades

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I got to thinking about how your perceptions and loyalties change over time, and decided to fill in this matrix of who my favourite artists were decade by decade.  It came out like this:

 

Some time bending was required to jam things into the decade pigeonhole, and some revisionism is at work here.  Looking back as each decade turned over, I definitely would not have listed the Stones as my second favourite band of the preceding ten years.  The third place band would have been #2, and the likes of Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and The Cars – or maybe The Police – and Bonnie Raitt would have shown up.  Oh, and John Lee Hooker, just a few decades late.

But this is a pretty accurate reflection of how I would rank the music as I listen to it now.

A coupla “Ya I knows”:

1. The Stones have not really done anything since Voodoo Lounge, or arguably Tattoo You.  But somehow they remain cool and the concert DVD’s are fun.

2. Not a lot of newness in the past 20 years.  Yep.  I’m getting’ old.  What can I say?

Eruptions

So Rolling Stone has its own list of 100 Greatest Debut Albums, proving once again that there is less room for controversy in a shorter list.  Here’s their top 10:

Beastie Boys – Licensed to Kill

The Ramones

Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced?

GNR – Appetite for Destruction

The Velvet Underground – and Nico

N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton

Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bolllocks

The Strokes – Is This It

The Band – Music From Big Pink

Patti Smith - Horses

A 40% overlap, but the gap is actually bigger than that.  Led Zeppelin I, for example, comes in at #72 on the RS list, despite the fact that they turned the world upside down, and as RS itself admits “the template was here.”

Just a little confused by RS’s logic.  They claim it’s about debuts “that gave you the thrill of an act arriving fully-formed, ready to reinvent the world in its own image.”  But they also said they deducted points if an act went on to far greater achievements.  OK.  No argument that Zep had many great albums after, but Zep I is arguably their best.  The impact was immediate, the excitement off the scale.  They certainly were “fully-formed.”

Similar gap with The Doors, by the way.

Scanning the longer list, one thing that strikes me is the number of times you could say, “they could have stopped there.”  This is acknowledged in a quote from Elliot Easton saying The Cars’ first album could have been called The Cars Greatest Hits.  You could say the same for The Band, Boston, Oasis, or even Hendrix.  They all went on to make some great music, but did they ever really match that first effort?

The impetus for both Gibson’s and Rolling Stone’s lists was the 50^th anniversary of Please Please Me by The Beatles.  In this case, you gotta wonder if the album is on the list because subsequent masterpieces dictate the debut had to be included.  OK, forget I said that.  But it could be true for Pink Floyd. 

Can’t Make You Think

Gibson’s 10 Great Concept Albums proves that the critics weren’t always right, and that the music wasn’t always pretentious.

OK, maybe that second bit is a stretch.

Here’s the list:

 1. The Who - Tommy

 2. Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick

 3. Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera

 4. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s

 5. Green Day – American Idiot

 6. Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare

 7. Dream Theatre – Metropolis Pt. 2 …

 8. Bowie – Ziggy Stardust

 9. Rush - 2112

10. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon

All in all, a predictable list, though if the article had made a hard distinction between a concept album and a rock opera, it might have been more interesting.

Then again, in terms of success – not to mention astonishment that the band could actually perform it live – you can’t really ignore Tommy.  Or Thick as a Brick, or …

There’s a pretty broad spectrum here in terms of adherence to a “concept.”  At one end you’ve got a tightly knit story (Tommy) – or a single song, actually (Thick as a Brick).  At the other end you’ve got a loose collection of songs that, according to John Lennon, worked as a concept “because we said it worked.”

Anyway, it’s a fine list of masterpieces.  Pretentious?  Maybe.  But isn’t music a form of story telling, and if the story is a long one …