Dec 8: Remembering John Lennon, Dimebag Darrell & Other Fallen Musicians

On December 8th, 1980, Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed outside the entrance of the Dakota apartment, in New York City. His influence and significances don’t require any explanation.

On December 8th, 2004,  Pantera/ Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell was shot on stage during a live performance; a most grisly scene. Dime was one of the most influential metal guitarists of the last thirty years. His significance was even greater during the 1990’s because he continued to play lengthy guitar solos, even when they weren’t in style. He carried the torch for the current generation of shredders.

When I realized that both of these men were murdered on the same day 24 years apart, I felt it was fitting to write a piece on fallen musicians in their honor. I have been planning on writing this for some time, but I didn’t know what I was going to say until I sat down to write.

So many exceptional musicians have died far too young.

Duane Allman lead guitarist for the Allman Brothers (1971), John Bonham drummer for Led Zeppelin (1980), Jeff Buckley (1997), Cliff Burton bassist for Metallica (1987), Kurt Cobain vocalist & guitarist for Nirvana (1994), Jim Croce (1973), Bobby Darin (1973), Jimi Hendrix (1970), Buddy Holly (1959), Robert Johnson (1938), Janis Joplin (1970), Phil Lynott bassist and vocalist for Thin Lizzy (1986), Freddie Mercury vocalist for Queen (1991), Keith Moon drummer for The Who (1978), Jim Morrison guitarist and vocalist for The Doors (1971), Berry Oakley bassist for the Allman Brothers (1972), Randy Rhodes guitarist of Quiet Riot & Ozzy Osbourne (1982), Stevie Ray Vaughan (1990), Allen Woody bassist for Gov’t Mule & the Allman Brothers, and most of the original members of Lynyrd Skynyrd come to mind, but there are many many more.

Randy Rhodes lived a clean life and died at 25.

These people died young, many of them before they hit the peak of their career. Guys like Duane Allman, Cliff Burton, Jimi Hendrix, SRV, and Randy Rhodes were so ahead of their time. Their innovations still impact music today. Nevertheless, I can’t help but imagine what they would have done with the rest of their lives. The bright side is that they will forever live on through their recordings, and in the hearts and minds of those who have been touched by their music.

The more I think about it, as sad as it is that so many talented musicians died prematurely, it’s amazing how many have lived and continue to live long lives… many in spite of their lifestyles.

I read Eric Clapton’s autobiography when it came out two years ago, and the book read like a combination music history/ twelve step program pitch pamphlet. With all of the shit that Clapton did to his body, the man is still alive and on stage; and he’s not alone.

BB King is well touring well into his 80’s, and Buddy Guy is 73 (going on 50). Greg Allman managed to escape what seemed like certain death. He was a partial influence for the song “That Smell,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd; the chorus was written about him:

Ooh, ooh that smell
Can’t you smell that smell?
Ooh, ooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you.

I’m shocked that all of the guys from Aerosmith are alive (although I wish Steven Tyler was in better shape). And all of the longtime members of Pink Floyd have lived long lives (Pianist Richard Wright passed away last year at age 65).

I could go on forever with this. So many more incredible musicians have continued to live, create, and entertain than those who have died.

In honor of Lennon and Dime, I am choosing to focus on those who have survived them.

It’s easy to fixate on tragedy.

Death is a story, life isn’t.

The Beatles: Rock Band Set List is Really Good

For many of you, any Beatles set list was going to be satisfying, but I am not the biggest Beatles fan. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate them for their historical importance, influence, and even a lot of their music, but they have never ranked among my favorites.

That being said, I am a big fan of George Harrison.

So, onto the set list. The complete list of tracks is available at GameSpy.

The high points for me are:

• While My Guitar Gently Weeps – Ranks among my favorite songs ever. The song is written by Harrison, but the extensive solo work is Eric Clapton (w00t!). It will be years before I can actually play the solo, but I’ve got the rhythm guitar down.
• Here Comes the Sun – This song is just incredible.
• Taxman - Another Harrison classic.
• Helter Skelter - This song still feels so uncharacteristically edgy and aggressive to me.
• Something
  
• I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
• Octopus’s Garden – The SCUBA diver in me has a soft spot for this song.

There are a number of other interesting tunes on the list, but those are the ones that excite me at first glance.

The presence of While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes the Sun really sell me on the game. Who knows, maybe this game will increase my appreciation of the Beatles. It wouldn’t be the first time that a music game has made me see brilliance in music that I had previously ignored (See Dinosaur Jr. & the Killers).

The Beatles: Rock Band is due out on September 9.

Little Wing: One Song So Much Beauty

“What’s your favorite song?”

I never liked that question. Why should I have to pick one?

My answer was always Layla because I am and have always been a big fan of Eric Clapton, and it was an easy answer to give. I mean, you can’t really argue with an answer like Layla, Stairway to Heaven, or Here Comes the Sun, right?

Over the last year or so I have been reflecting on that dumb question… what was my favorite song?

During one of these pointless mental wanderings I realized that the question wasn’t, “What’s your favorite recording,” or “What’s your favorite performance.” If I was looking for a favorite song, it would have to be a song that is performed brilliantly by at least two different artists.

The Classics

Jimi Hendrix

That’s when it hit me. Little Wing, the Hendrix classic off of Axis: Bold as Love (1967).

(The pseudo artistic editor who defiled this video by layering surf over Jimi should suffer an eternity of punishment.)

My only complaint with this song is that there isn’t more of it.

Derek & the Dominos

It was covered by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman when Derek & the Dominos released Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970). Sadly Hendrix died before he could hear Clapton & Allman’s reinvention.

(The original studio recording.)

(In March of 2009, Clapton played two nights with the Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theatre. I would have traded important body parts to see one of these shows live.)

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stevie Ray Vaughan created a new interpretation of the song without vocals on his 1985 album, Soul to Soul.

Tragically, of the four legendary guitarists who recorded the most well known versions of Little Wing, Clapton is the only one who survived.

Legacy

There are literally hundreds of covers of Little Wing. They range from jazz odysseys, to shred metal, and everything in between. Some of the bands that have covered this song will shock you… but regardless of who is performing the song, it is almost always good.

These are some of the more interesting covers I uncovered:

Skid Row

This one stunned me for two reasons. 1 – Skid Row covered Little Wing. 2 – It’s actually pretty good (But is doesn’t really offer up anything original).

Steve Vai

If it absolutely, positively, must be over done… choose Vai.

The Corrs

A magnificent acoustic, Celtic folk rock rendition. That was a mouthful.

Kirk Hammett (Metallica)

This one surprised me… but it also doesn’t do much for me.

Final Thoughts

The best versions of Little Wing leave room for the subtle details. There is a lot going on in this song that I don’t think most people hear. When I listen to it, it immediately makes my mind wander; I feel happy, sad and a sense of wonder all at the same time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little tour of Little Wing. I will leave you with one final recording of Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, and saxophonist David Sanborn.

Eric Clapton’s Brush with Techno

Back in 1997, Eric Clapton attempted to release an electronic dance album anonymously (I’m not 100% sure I am classifying that genre correctly as I am treading into territory that I don’t know anything about).

He went by the name x-sample, and partnered with long time collaborator Simon Climie. They called themselves T.D.F., and their album was Retail Therapy.

Long-ish story short, it didn’t do well, and the music press in the UK tore the old blues rocker a new one for leaving his musical box. You can read more here.

As much as I love Clapton, I could never get into this album… and I did try. My recommendation is to go to Amazon’s sales page and listen to the 30 second samples for each song. Get a feel for what they sound like, just for the experience, then go listen to some Derek & the Dominos.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC Presents John Lennon

I spent this evening at the opening of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC’s new exhibit, John Lennon: The New York City Years.

The museum, while small, is a lot of fun. It’s packed with memorabilia that will please most rock & roll fans. The stuff that interested me the most were the guitars. One of Eric Clapton’s Martin acoustics, Steve Vai’s Green Meanie, Kirk Hammett’s Skully, and one of Jimi Hendrix’s reverse strung stratocasters had me feeling like a little kid in Cooperstown.

I also loved Johnny Rotten’s “Don’t Fuck With Chuck (Manson)” jacket; it was delightfully insane.

And Bruce Springsteen’s 57 Chevy was way cool.

Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images

As you enter the museum they outfit everyone with headsets. The headphones were Sennheiser PX200, and they were the best sounding noise cancelling headphones I have heard outside of the very pricey studio quality stuff. They had great mids which Bose seriously lack. When you walk in front of a display, music from the artist featured begins playing through the headset – it was a nice touch.

Sadly they didn’t allow photography, so the only pictures I was able to take were by the bathrooms:

Giant "I love Ringo" Les Paul

An actual urinal from CBGB (Envy me for seeing this artifact)

The only part that I found disappointing was the John Lennon exhibit.

It was created by Yoko Ono, and near as I can tell she is famous for three things:

1. Breaking up the Beatles
2. Her painfully bad voice
3. Being an attention whore

Sadly at least a third of this exhibit was about her. Even worse, at some points those excellent Sennheiser PX200 headphones forced Yoko’s paint stripping voice into my ears.

Her excessive presence in this exhibit might not have been as obnoxious if she wasn’t the creator of the thing.

The stuff about John was cool, but far too much of the exhibit was about Mrs. Self-Important.

B.B. King, Buddy Guy, & 9 Year-Old Quinn Sullivan Blow My Mind

I just got home from a truly special concert. It’s late and I am completely drained, but I can’t bring myself to go to bed without sharing this experience with you.

I went to see blues legends B.B. King and Buddy Guy perform at the Beacon Theatre. I’ve had the tickets since the day they went on sale and have been eagerly awaiting the show like a little kid waiting for his birthday. Both men met my high expectations, but they had a special surprise in the form of a nine year-old boy named Quinn Sullivan that pushed the evening to unexpected heights.

I guess I should start from the beginning…

Buddy Guy took to the stage and did his usual routine, jumping between quiet blues, grand solos filled with instrumental madness, and onstage schtick (which is typical of bluesmen of his vintage). It was a lot of fun.

Then he announced that he was bringing out this kid and I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed. I thought to myself, “I’m here to see two of the greatest blues guitarists in history, what the hell can this kid offer that wouldn’t water down the experience?” 

Then he started playing.

If I didn’t see the kid with my own eyes and know his age – If he played from behind a curtain, I would have thought he had been playing for decades. However, he wasn’t even a decade old.

Quinn was ridiculous. He had it all: taste, chops, and panache.

Quinn and Buddy traded licks, played some Hendrix, and the song ”Whose Gonna Fill Those Shoes” from Buddy’s latest album Skin Deep (iTunes & Amazon). It turns out that the song’s title is a rhetorical question as the studio recording also features Quinn. Then Buddy put his guitar away and the band finished the set with Buddy on vocals and Quinn on lead guitar.

After an intermission B.B. King’s Blues Band took to the stage and jammed through two songs before introducing the man himself. He made his way out to a chair at center stage and then just did his thing. 

If you’ve never seen B.B. live, it’s a different kind of entertainment experience. He spends about half of his time playing his heart out and the other half chatting with the audience. In addition to his tremendous musical talents, the 83 year-old bluesman is also pretty damn funny. 

In the middle of his set, he brought Buddy and Quinn on stage. The three of them were a sight to see. B.B. remarked, “I don’t know where you get it from… I didn’t even pick up a guitar until I was 12.” 

Buddy and Quinn departed and B.B. finished out his exceptional set. 

It was an evening that I hope I never forget.

Upon returning home I looked up young Quinn Sullivan. 

According to his MySpace page, he has been playing since he was three. 

At six he was on the Ellen Degeneres Show where he played some Beatles Twist and Shout, and a blues rock jam:

Seven year-old Quinn playing Beatles/ Clapton ballad While My Guitar Gently Weeps:

Here is Quinn playing B.B. King classic, The Thrill is Gone at age eight:

Quinn play’s Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Texas Flood at nine with Buddy’s brother Phil Guy:

Finally, here is Quinn with Buddy:

I hope we get to see more of Quinn Sullivan in the future. He has a solo single available at iTunes & CD Baby.

My Musical Journey – Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Metal

Music is extremely important to me and has been as far back as I can remember.

My first musical love was the “Sesame Jamboree” cassette (remember cassettes?) that didn’t leave the tape deck in my mother’s car for years. When I was four or five, my parents were so sick of it they desperately tried playing anything and everything to see if I would respond to something else. What I found was Eric Clapton.

I still remember hearing Layla for the first time. I don’t remember the first half of the song, but I remember when the instrumental kicked in. I didn’t know anything about music, I just knew that that was the prettiest thing I had ever heard in my life. I’ve been a diehard Clapton fan ever since.

After finding Clapton, the rest of the classic rock catalogue just kind fell into place. Billy Joel, Elton John, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, the Allman Brother, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, Pink Floyd (especially Pink Floyd), the list can go on and on.

That’s what I listened to until I went to college and discovered the blues – a natural offshoot of my love of Clapton and his brand of electric blues-rock. BB King, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Robert Johnson, Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters, (early) Fleetwood Mac, and so many obscure or local performers found their way into my ears. The soulfulness of blues just hit me in the heart and spoke to me on a level that after years of trying, I still cannot articulate.

That’s when I decided it was time to learn to play guitar. I needed to find a more intimate way to interact with music. Listening wasn’t enough anymore.

I realized that there was a world full of music that I was missing. I found jazz, indie rock, and all manner of international acts with the help of some friends.

Somewhere along the way I found metal. As a genre I loathed it for so many years. It was angry, aggressive, distorted, and mechanical. Classical music set to lyrics and pumped full of technology and rage. I saw nothing redeemable about it at all. Then a friend introduced me to a band called Dream Theater. These guys are arguably the pound-for-pound most talented collection of musicians to ever work consistently in a single band.

Their progressive metal spanned everything from ultra heavy thrash songs to slow, undistorted or barely distorted ballads. Their music is so complicated, but it still has so much soul. I listened to them on occasion, until the night I saw them live. During the show they played the song “The Spirit Carrie On.” I had never heard it before that night, but it hit me the same way Layla did when I was a little kid – I could barely breath. That was the moment that I realized what I was missing.

I started listening to Iron Maiden, Dragon Force, and Metallica and found a whole new world of music that spoke to me. This music spoke in a different way than previous genres. If blues speaks to my heart and soul, metal speaks to my mind. The complexity and anger doesn’t make me angry, it makes me think – hard.

I’m not sure if this post has a real purpose… I’ve just been in a very introspective mood.

If I’m going to make a point, I guess it’s listen to more music. I mean really listen to it. You never know what you will find in a genre that you thought you couldn’t stand. You may still dislike it – I’m still unable to find anything I enjoy in disco and techno, but I found some decent country music (which I never thought I would be able to do).

I think the other point here is to just say “thank you” to everyone who has brought new music into my life. There are so many of you out there and I think you should know how profoundly you have affected me. 

… And “thank you” to anyone who has read through this bit of reflective writing. I tomorrow I will be back to more “normal” Geek Whisperer content. 

Derek Truck’s New Single

If you’ve never heard of Derek Trucks, you are missing out. Trucks is one of the best slide guitarists of all-times, and by far the best I have ever seen.

He play’s guitar with the Allman Brother’s Band along side his uncle and long-time Allman’s drummer Butch Trucks. He spent about two years touring and recording with Eric Clapton, and he also keeps a regular touring schedule with his own, Derek Trucks Band.

When touring and recording as a solo artist, Trucks melds genres together in exceptional ways. Listening to any track will reveal a multitude of influences including blues, rock, jazz, blues rock, southern rock, traditional Indian slide guitar, and Sacred Steel.

If you like any of the genres listed about, I recommend you give him a try.

Anyway, I’m very excited because Trucks has released a new single – Down in the Flood, a magnificent cover of an old Bob Dylan tune (further proof that everyone sings Bob Dylan better than Bob Dylan). The single is available for download on iTunes.

What has me even more excited is that the single is a precursor to a full-length album, Almost Free, due out on January 13, 2009. Mark your calendars.

http://derektrucks.com/news.html

“Technically correct is the best kind of correct”

In the immortal words of Bureaucrat #1.0 from Futurama, “Technically correct is the best kind of correct.”

All of you file sharers out there should be aware of an epidemic that is flooding our iPods with false information.

A long time ago when Napster was cool, some people misnamed a few songs in their share folder. As time passed and more people downloaded those misnamed songs, they began to multiply, spreading their heinous falsehoods throughout the Internet.

Today, there are thousands of people suffering from misattribute-itis. A common disorder whereby the victim thinks one artist performed a particular song, but it really was someone else. 

This stops today my friends. Here is a short list of some of the most common songs that have been misattributed as a result of file sharing:

• Carry On Wayward Son is performed by Kansas, not the Eagles.
• The way cool theme from Top Gun was performed by Steve Stevens, not Eddie Van Halen.
• We Built This City was performed by Jefferson Starship, not Journey.
• Eric Clapton’s song Tears in Heaven is not called Would You Know My Name.
• The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s song Under the Bridge os not called City of Angels.

I am certain there are more out there. I will add them if I find any more. 

Check your iPod friend. Make sure you are not an unwitting victim of misattribute-itis.