My personal blogspot about all sorts of things, but mostly Music, Sports, Entertainment, Wanderlust, Graphic Art and Beer. No relation to Joe or Fred Bloggs.
Monday 31 December 2018
CALIFORNIAN REUNION – 2018 I just love this photo. Mostly because it's of wonderful friends and memories of a holiday last June. But also the harmony and warmth of the image. From Margaret and Gary providing that symmetric central balance, to the conformity of the line yet the individual character of each person shines through. The giant redwood forest backdrop couldn't be better. PHOTO Credit: Donna Bianchi
Friday 28 December 2018
Some of you may have seen this already... if not, then it'll amaze you - it's mental ! A cast of thousands gathered in Courmayeur, Italy, close to Europe's highest mountain Mount Blanc, under the banner of Rockin' 1000 Summer Camp, to perform a Power Medley of 6 songs: 'Rocks' > Primal Scream - 'Bohemian Like You' > Dandy Warhols - 'No One Knows' > Queens Of The Stone Age - 'Reptilia' > The Strokes - 'Suck My Kiss' > Red Hot Chilli Peppers - 'Woman' > Wolfmother
Just over five minutes of music followed by numerous credits and thanks. We see out the year with The Biggest Rock Band on Earth - extraordinary.
Tuesday 25 December 2018
An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary. Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like).
Thought you might like a White Christmas. All aboard this real time Norwegian train ride. With Moby emerging from the tunnel on 'Everloving' - Chill-out, naturally...
Actually a clever link (mid tunnel) makes this 6.36 minutes long - original track is only 3.24 FYI: The Kongsnut tunnel is 60° 34' North by 7° 35' East in Southern Norway, nr Bergen.
Friday 21 December 2018
Of all my favourite artists, and there are many, one that hasn't to date been a STAR TRACK is R.E.M. Deliberately sounding like the Beach Boys, with a video portraying Christmas scenes and lights, on their song 'At My Most Beautiful' - sub-captioned on YouTube: in pictures.
And while on the subject of pictures.... HISTORIC NOTE >>> 50 years ago today Apollo 8* blasted off from Cape Kennedy into outer space. Three days later the crew witnessed and photographed an Earthrise and we all saw our beautiful planet. So I dedicate todays track to the one and only Planet Earth.
*James Lovell was part of that crew that only orbited the Moon. Five missions later he commanded the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission and missed out on walking on the Moon.
Monday 17 December 2018
Over the last three years the FRIDAY MUSIC SPOT has clocked up 150 tracks.
It all began on 13th November 2015 with Funkadelic's 'Maggot Brain'.
The first 50 songs can be seen via this link. For 51-100 click here: 101-150 are listed below. Click on the blue arrow to replay that track. NB: Not all of the videos are still available, but you can 'google' for an alternative.
Welcome to:
101 ➤Thailand from the Air .…….….……….…....… Unknown Aritist 102➤Becoming Human .……….…...……...……….…… Ryan Taubert
107➤Streets of London .….…..……..….........………… Ralph McTell
108➤Come Back To Me .…….………..….……………… Liam Gallagher
109➤Keep On Dancing ……..….……....….……………….. The Gentrys
110➤Top 10 Riffs .………...................................… from AC/DC
111 ➤Today I Feel …………..………………….………… Oberst & Buckner
112➤Where Is My Mind..................... Telepathic Teddy Bear
113➤Stuck With You....................… Hewy Lewis & The News
114➤Summer of '69'...................................… Bryan Adams
115➤Here I Go Again .....................................… Whitesnake
116➤More Sweetly Play The Dance African Immanuel Essemblies Brass Band
117➤Chasing Shadows.............… Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys
118➤People Get Ready............. .....… Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart
119➤Civilised Man..........................................… Joe Cocker
120➤Highwayman.................................… The Highwaymen
121➤Swallowed By the Cracks..................… David & David 122➤Rain Plans.............................................… Israel Nash 123➤Don't Look Back..........................................… Boston 124➤Breakfast in America............................… Supertramp 125➤Tunnel of Love......................................… Dire Straits 126➤Handle With Care..................… The Traveling Wilburys 127➤Where Do The Children Play.................… Cat Stevens 128➤100 Years......................................… Five For Fighting 129➤Got To Do It........................................… Andrew W.K. 130➤Burn Baby Burn...............................................… Ash 131➤Use Me...............................................… Nick Marzock 132➤Don't Stop Believin'...................................… Journey 133➤All We Do..............................................… Oh Wonder 134➤The Circle is Small.........................… Gordon Lightfoot 135➤Bridge Over Troubled Water............… Aretha Franklin 136➤What Have I Done To Deserve This? Pet Shop Boys w/Dusty Springfield 137➤Sabre Dance....................................… Love Sculpture 138➤Singing The Blues............................… Tommy Steele 139➤Sometime World...............................… Wishbone Ash 140➤Wind of Change......................................… Scorpions 141➤Dreams..................................................… Cat Power 142➤When We Was Fab........................... George Harrison 143➤Let it Rain........................................… Quinn Sullivan 144➤If Heartaches Were Nickels ............… Joe Bonamassa 145➤Solsbury Hill......................................… Peter Gabriel 146➤My Back Pages........................… Bob Dylan & Friends 147➤Rosanna........................................................… Toto 148➤Just a Shadow.....................................… Big Country 149➤Things Will Change..........................… Treetop Flyers 150➤Give It To Me.................................… Michael Jackson
Friday 14 December 2018
By my reckoning - and I don't suppose any of you are going to argue with me - today marks the 150th Track on THE FRIDAY MUSIC SPOT. Calls for a blockbuster... There's been a lot this past year concerning the Long Player: 70th Anniversary of it's birth, favourite all time LPs etc. Now you may have seen this headline a few month's back:
"THE EAGLES HAVE DETHRONED THE KING OF POP"
The band's greatest hits album, released in 1976, has surpassed Michael Jackson's seminal 1982 album "Thriller" to take the top spot on the RIAA's list of the highest-selling albums of all time in the US.
The key word here is US, because it's only in the States. Worldwide sales of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' are still way out in the lead.
Something by Michael Jackson then, but not actually off 'Thriller', but similar, this is 'Give In To Me' from his 1991 'Dangerous' album, featuring a certain Saul Hudson on guitar - Slash to his mates! Explosive video with plenty of wind effects and sparks flying... very Jacko
Check in this coming Monday for the full run down on the Bill Blogs 150.
Friday 7 December 2018
"They remind me of so and so...." is a phrase you hear often.
I went to see Israel Nash in concert the other week. Of who it's been written 'sounds like Neil Young with Beach Boys harmonies'. I can hear John Fogerty and Bob Seger similarities in there also. (refresh your memory here). Playing support at the concert were fellow Loose record label artists Treetop Flyers. No, I'd not heard of them either, but closer investigation the following day revealed a London based band that “effortlessly captures the spirit of late-1960s west coast pop-rock: the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young”- as one review put it.
While I could have picked any number of great songs released since their debut album 'The Mountain Moves' in 2013, it eventually came down to a straight contest between two: 'Haunted House' which, when it gets going, reminds me of Dire Straits, and this track 'Things Will Change'. I really like Reid Morrison's voice and their unusual 'official' video, that sounds like 'Ventura Highway' by America, on the road with The Four Tops. One of those sunny but at the same time sad songs.
* Live at WFUV - turns out to be New York’s source for music discovery, a noncommercial, member-supported public media service of Fordham University for more than 70 years.
So now you know !
And this great track: 'Sweet Greens and Blues' > www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JMBNK_Q1ho - which is a bit Toploader 'Dancing in the Moonlight' with Van Morrison sax.
Special offer this week at your local Co-op store. Wimbledon Brewery 33cl cans - American Red Ale & American Pale Ale for £1.85 a can. 🍻
Friday 30 November 2018
Today is St. Andrews Day. Which is an ideal excuse to spin a track by one of my favourite Scottish bands. Spin is appropriate too, as my original vinyl copy is off their second album 'Steeltown' released in 1984, that I now have as a digitised version. Written and sung by Stuart Adamson on lead guitar, this is 'Just a Shadow' by Big Country. Big favourite of mine that keeps on playing in my head ! For all Scots, near and far.
For the purist the album track was a slightly longer track containing the full guitar solo play out. No video of Big Country butclick this link for that version.
Thursday 29 November 2018
An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary. Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like).
This is part of a deliberate Scottish celebration, today and tomorrow. The video is full of images of the Isle of Skye, where the band Runrig were formed in 1973. 45 years later they played their final concerts this August past. A 'live' album release 'Once in a Lifetime' in 1988, captures their brand of celtic rock, from which this rousing track is taken. Donnie Munro sings 'Skye'. "Take me there..." -- bang the drums
Bet you didn't sit still through that...
Friday 23 November 2018
It was probably when my daughter started playing the drums that I began to appreciate the significance of the drummer at the back (but the heart) of any band. There was a lot more going on than just providing the beat. Well I've been catching up with the Sky Arts series 'The Art of Drumming' and it's claim that I'll never listen to music the same way ever again, couldn't be more true. Aside from a greater knowledge I have a whole new vocabulary. From the rudiments, rolls, fills and paradiddles to back beat, shuffles, one-drop, swing and ghost notes, it's whole new world of discovery. Plus lots of 'stickmen' I'd not known previously. You may not know Hal Blaine, but you sure have heard him play. As a session musician in the 60's he played on all the Beach Boy's hits and countless others also. (A brief list) Here's the very cool Jeff Porcaro of Toto on the opening beats of 'Rosanna' The drum pattern is known as a "half-time shuffle", and shows "definite jazz influence", featuring ghost notes and derived from the combination of the Purdie shuffle and the Bo Diddley beat. The Purdie shuffle can be prominently heard on Steely Dan's track "Home at Last" from Aja, which Jeff Porcaro cited as an influence.
⏩ Drums > harmonies > chorus > horns > & solos (synths, guitar, piano & guitar) - it's got the lot. And if all that isn't to technical then check this out: 'What makes this Song Great' with Rick Beato (watch and listen, as he dissects the song in 16 minutes)... You might want to play the complete song again, once you're done !
Friday 16 November 2018
After last week's video went down (or around) so well I've been wondering how to follow it. Well this may do the trick. Except having discovered this video, I couldn't find the exact same clip available on YouTube. So I hope this works for everyone. A slightly different approach to the FRIDAY MUSIC SPOT - just click on the picture arrow as normal, it should link and open a new page in your browser on the correct vimeo video page. From Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert, cue vocals Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, 'Slowhand' solo Eric Clapton,Bob himself and George Harrison. Lots of smiling going on and ending with a rarity, only a 20 second Neil Young guitar solo, backed by a house band of Booker T and the MGs, that's some line-up.
Poetically looking back on the idealism of youth in one of those songs where the title doesn't actually appear in the lyrics*. 'My Back Pages' - a favourite Dylan track of mine:
If the link doesn't work, try searching: Bob Dylan - My Back Pages LIVE (1992) - that'll get you there. * Sing along (if you want to) - link to lyrics.
Friday 9 November 2018
All that recent Blues music rather coincided with some cold and wintery days on the home weather front. This should liven up proceedings a bit. Mad fun on a magic roundabout. Peter Gabriel 'on yer bike' and climbing up on 'Solsbury Hill'. Love it
