According to societyofrock.com (as of the date of this blog post) this video is… “Probably The Best Mashup We’ve Ever Seen!”
Well, ok… I’m not a big ‘mashup’ fan, but I’ll have to admit the timing reference the tempo on this DJ’s version of a Ozzy Osbourne being mashed up with Earth, Wind, & Fire… is quite entertaining.
I mean, mixing light metal with pop and pulling it off with a sense of continuity is a decent feat for sure.
As further quoted… “Both are truly amazing musical acts, but they couldn’t be anymore different in their music styles. Then again, as they say, opposites attract, and that much is proven, here!”
According to wikipedia… Cornell was known for his role as one of the architects of the 1990s grunge movement, for his extensive catalog as a songwriter and for his near four octave vocal range] as well as his powerful vocal belting technique.
Chris released four solo studio albums, Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009), Higher Truth (2015) and the live album Songbook (2011). Cornell received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his song “The Keeper” which appeared in the film Machine Gun Preacher and co-wrote and performed the theme song to the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), “You Know My Name”.
He was voted “Rock’s Greatest Singer” by readers of Guitar World, ranked 4th in the list of “Heavy Metal’s All-Time Top 100 Vocalists” by Hit Parader, 9th in the list of “Best Lead Singers of All Time” by Rolling Stone, and 12th in MTV’s “22 Greatest Voices in Music”.
The singer had played a show with Soundgarden, who were midway through their tour, when shortly after Chris Cornell was found dead on his MGM hotel by an apparent hanging.
“Born Christopher John Boyle in Seattle on July 20th, 1964, Cornell – who took his mother’s maiden name after his parents divorced – was the son of a pharmacist father and accountant mother in Seattle. He had two brothers and three sisters and jokingly likened his family to The Brady Bunch in interviews. Cornell eventually carved a path for himself after taking piano and guitar lessons before finding his way to the drum kit, which he played in an early incarnation of Soundgarden.”
Wikipedia mentions that In 1960, Russell Solomon opened the first Tower Records store on Watt Avenue, in Sacramento, California. He named it for his father’s drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theater, where Solomon first started selling records.
By 1976, Solomon had opened Tower Books, Posters, and Plants at 1600 Broadway, next door to Tower Records. In 1995, Tower.com opened, making the enterprise one of the first retailers to move online.
You probably remember your first encounter with a brick and mortar record store… heck even if it weren’t selling vinyl and only CDs, you no doubt can still flash back to the earliest of days that you experienced the ambiance of music in an actual walk in store…. Russell Solomon and Tower encouraged that experience.
We now see that vinyl is back, but a touch to late to save the iconic Tower Records from moving on into the music history books.
All Things Must Pass’ is a documentary that explores the rise and fall of Tower Records, and its legacy forged by its rebellious founder, Russ Solomon…
OK, I’m talking mostly about the guitarist… You know, the one that has their amp pointing directly at the audience which blows high freqs right at a group of folks in front of it, going right through the legs of the player.
This long standing point continues to be an issue to this very day, especially with smaller hall/bar set ups. A simple matter of slanting an amp back to an angle that suits the ears of the guitarist would benefit everyone.., especially the audience (you know, the guy or girl with their ears bleeding hearing that amp straight on!).
At larger gigs (if not using forward throw reflectors) I’ve noticed that a good FOH mix guy will actually have the guitarist use his/her amp as their own ‘monitor’ pointing directly at them on stage away from the audience, otherwise using the amp mic for the FOH mix. Total forward hz/gain control this way, without isolated pockets of death freqs!
“So the amp gets louder. The singer (who, from the audience’s PoV, is always the most important person) immediately has a problem, because the guitar sound is now drowning out the vocal on stage (the electric guitar sits in approximately the same frequency range as the human voice, and its harsh upper midrange can obscure the harmonics of vowels that support singers’ diction and pitching)…”
Many think that the double bass drum set-up was started by the Hair or Metal bands of the eighties, however…
It actually started with ‘jazz’ legend Louie Bellson, a gifted musical school kid @ 15 in ‘1939 !’ who sketched out a double bass drum kit for his art class. That drawing earned him a high grade and served as a vision of what he would become… the most famous and arguably the very first double bass drummer.
So, the history of the double kicker goes way back further than one might expect. Now of course, you can use double kicker foot peddles to achieve the same affect (but not the same look) on a single bass trap.
71 seems to be a popular number this 2017 year for departed musicians…
Now, another powerful musician, drummer… Bartholomew Eugene Smith-Frost, aka: Frosty has moved on to the next musical dimension on April 12, 2017.
Ever since the day my face was melting after hearing Lee Michaels and Frosty play a small venue in Southern California in the late 60s, my appreciation for Frosty had never faded.
Be sure to treat yourself to some of the earlier work of Frosty and Lee (videos)… and of course, many of Frosty’s Austin bands.
Born March 20, 1946, in Bellingham, Wash., Smith was raised in the Bay Area and also worked extensively in Los Angeles before relocating to Austin. He played on many of Austin’s biggest rock, country and blues records of the 1980s and ’90s, for artists including Alejandro Escovedo, Junior Brown, Roky Erickson, Butch Hancock, Marcia Ball, Tex Thomas, Doug Sahm & the Texas Mavericks, Toni Price, Guy Forsyth and Omar & the Howlers, among dozens of others…
An East Coast (US) guitarist has left us on April 12, 2017… J. Geils.
According to Wikipedia… John Warren Geils Jr. – ‘J. Geils’ – grew up in the New York Metropolitan Area, then interested in jazz and blues music. After moving to Massachusetts for his college education, he formed the J. Geils Blues Band while still a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After dropping the word “Blues” from their name, the band released their first album in 1970, performing soul and rhythm & blues-influenced rock music for most of the 1970s, before changing styles to New wave music in the 1980s.
The article from Rolling Stone (below) describes the circumstances and updates of J. Geils death at the age of 71, as of the date of this blog writing…
Take Care and Jam On with the music my fellow musicians!
“The J. Geils Band released a slew of albums during the Seventies and early Eighties. With vocalist Peter Wolf at the helm, the band became best known for singles like “Centerfold,” “Love Stinks,” “Come Back” and “Freeze-Frame,” which have since become rock radio mainstays.”
So, the question continues to come up amongst the drummer environment… ? “How do you clean chrome on your drums?”
Well, after some deep and exhaustive research I’ve discovered some very interesting and powerful conclusions from the professionals out there… Here are some specific ‘bullet point’ details regarding this subject matter…
You do not want any ‘spider webbing’ what-so-ever… learn how to prevent this and read on!
Only let your drum take a comfortable ‘bath’ and do not allow it to experience a rough treatment… for example…
* Never Steel Wool to clean chrome drums.
* Never Ever. Never dry wipe a dirty drum.
* Never attempt to clean a dirty drum without a full, and careful disassembly.
* Never follow a famous persons recommendation to use steel wool. (if you wait long enough, there WILL be one.)
* Never use a power operated tool for disassembly or assembly.
* Get the right tools for the job, in good condition, and don’t cheat.
* Dawn (or equivalent) liquid dish soap is safe on chrome.
* Stay away from rough fabric and use only soft cotton cloths.
* After disassembly soak parts in a solution of Dawn (or any soft water suds maker) and water for several hours.
* If the [your] shell has no paper tag or other badge that would be damaged by immersion, soak that also. If it does use damp cloths to saturate the grime on the shell, and then, once saturated, clean it.
* Always ‘SAVE’ any provenance tags / originality!
* Rinse to remove all residue, and dry.
* For your parts… clean, rinse and dry. Then use your polish of choice… Meguire”s, Mother’s, Blue Magic, Flitz, and Never-Dull, are just a few brand names of products that are safe for chrome with no abrasive qualities!
* Be sure your fastener threads are clean with any spall (look it up) – especially with thread cutting fasteners removed from the threads, and any residual removed from the lug bosses and other parts. Carefully start the screws so that no cross-threading occurs.
* Do not over tighten anything!
And if the job is beyond one’s individual skill, please consider hiring a professional.
Since its inception in 1968, Deep Purple (the band of course) continues to this day with ‘3’ core original members, inclusive of… Ian Paice on traps, Ian Gillin on vocals, and Roger Glover on Bass. And as of 1994 the wonderful ax-man, Steve Morse, joined the group. Ron Airey has picked up the keyboard duties hence the departure of previous keys man, Jon Lord.
In April (2017) Deep Purple has a brand new album titled Infinite coming out, and they will be touring shortly thereafter, what they’re dubbing, their Long Goodbye Tour.
This video spends some time with Ian Paice and Roger Glover and they further discuss the history of DP and their new projects… and, what could be their last road gig!
“There’s going to be a day in the not-so-far future when it is going to be ‘the last.’ That’s an emotional strain that I don’t think any one of us are brave enough to say ‘This is the date.’ But we are thinking… not thinking, we are realizing that time is creeping up every day that goes on, those numbers mount up. It’s inevitable…”
In the late 60s and early 70s Mott The Hoople was (of course) an English rock (with some glam slants) band that had R&B chops as their roots. They provided some very interesting and strong original sounds for sure.
Unfortunately for these old time rockers some of its original members have passed on…
Drummer Dale “Buffin” Griffin died January 2016 after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s… And in January 2017 Mott the Hoople Bassist, Peter Overend Watts Died due to throat cancer.
Their radio cut, “All the Young Dudes” (written by David Bowie) will continue on as a mainstay of their cult rock music.
Here’s a video from one of their last concerts (via 2013) – and below you can read further about their career in a special blog released by By Nick DeRiso for Ultimate Classic Rock .com.
“Watts helped start the Buddies with Mick Ralphs, a band that evolved into Mott the Hoople after periods in which it was known as the Doc Thomas Group, the Shakedown Sound, then Silence. They became Mott the Hoople after Hunter joined in 1969.”…
The history of Tower Records goes way back…
