Lighthouse-Sunny Days 1972

What if?

What if February 3rd 1959 had never happened? What if plane # N3794N did not develop trouble and never crashed at around 1am in Clear Lake Ohio and Buddy Holly, J.P.(the big bopper) Richardson and Richie Valens were allowed to continue their lives as you or I can do? Would it have made a difference to the music world? One can only imagine Richie Valens being a guiding light for artists like Carlos Santana and even doing some side work with Carlos, being an inspiration for many Latin American kids as he piled up many hits thru the '60's and becoming known as the grandfather of Latin Rock and perhaps allowing  some of the under privileged Latinos a chance to escape the poverty of their life and allowing them to have an inspiration to help on their way. Hell, he most likely would have been playing at President Obama's Inauguration.
  The Big Bopper? Well who knows what would have become of him but I sense he could have become another Wolfman Jack type of personality that would spin his favorite tunes to a generation of young men and woman looking for something different to grove to and occasional release a Country and Western song that would keep his name in the news.
  But Buddy Holly, now there was no stopping him if "The Day the Music Died" had never happened. A tour with the Beatles, an album with Mick Jagger, perhaps in the 70's the ultimate Rock and Roll tour. He would have had a few more hits but would more than likely been able to write a few hits for other artists and then like Johnny Cash , Rick Rubin would have gotten a hold of Buddy and record a few albums in the same vein as "American Recordings" bringing his back into the public spotlight and allowing him to retire gracefully from the industry he helped form.
  But alas is was not to be as the plane did not stay in the air and the three young men died instantly leaving us all to wonder, What if?

U-MV112 - Jim Carroll - People Who Died

Patti Smith - Horses & Hey Joe

Layla(Another Woman in Song)

One of Eric Claptons most famous songs is LAYLA(1970) and the inspiration for the song was real.
 Patricia Ann Boyd was a former model and wife of George Harrison when Clapton wrote the song and in total had 6 songs written about her, Harrison wrote "Something" "I need you" and "Isn't it a pity" while Clapton wrote "Layla" "Wonderful Tonight" and "Bell Bottom Blues". And according to rock historians both John Lennon and Mick Jagger were deeply attracted to her, but never acted on those impulses however Eric Clapton did and as a result the song 'Layla" became a reality. Pattie Boyd and George Harrison divorced in 1974 and in 1979 she married Clapton which was 9 years after the song "Layla" was released on the Derek and the Domino's album "Layla and other assorted love Songs". However like many marriages that involved drug and alcohol abuse this one ended as well in 1989 according to Boyd because of Eric's alcoholism and infidelity, and Boyd states that "Wonderful Tonight was the most poignant reminder of all that was good in our relationship, and when things went wrong it was torture to hear it".
  Today Boyd is a photographer whose collection "Through The Eyes of a Muse" is a collection of photo's  from her day's with Harrison and Clapton and her autobiographical  book WONDERFUL TODAY:George Harrison,Eric Clapton ,and me was published in 2007.      Official website

"Layla" is from the Derek and the Domino's album 'Layla and other Assorted love Songs" that also contains "Bell Bottom Blues" and while it is about Pattie,the main story is from a 12th century Iranian Poem called Layla and Majnun and is about a moon princess who was married off by her father to someone other than the one who was desperately in love with her, a story that at the time Clapton could relate to.

Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (R.I.P. january 4, 2011)

A Case for…

What do Neil Diamond, Bobby Darin,Prince and Metallica all have in common? Have you guessed yet? They are all in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, which is really quite an achievement for all those artists so here is another question. What do Rush, The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive have all in common? They are not in the rock and roll hall of fame.  You read it correct Prince is in the Hall of fame but the Guess Who one of Canada’s greatest musical acts is not, Neil Diamond is going into the Hall of fame this year but BTO have never even been nominated, and Metallica has been a member for a few years but Rush can not even get close. Now before people attack me about my comparisons let me put one thing straight, I like Neil Diamond, his Hot August Night is still one of the best Live albums ever and his string of hits in the 70′s rival anyone’s and as for Bobby Darin, well his Mack the Knife is a classic and Metallica deserves to be there but so do the three Canadian acts I have mentioned.  The Guess Who blazed the way for Canadian music and they made a big dent in the United States as they racked up a number of hits there including 3 top 10 singles,These Eyes and No Time cracked the top ten while American Woman became just the second single by a Canadian Group to hit Number 1 there,The crew Cuts with “Sh-Boom” also hit #1 in 1954. But they are not in the Hall of Fame. Bachman Turner Overdrive was another Sucess as they also scored big in the United States, their 2nd album simply titles BTO 2 hit #4 on the album charts and produced two top ten singles down south, “Let It Ride” and “Taking Care of Business”. They followed that with “Not fragile” which scored them a Number 1 album and produced a few more hits with “You ain’t Seen nothing yet” reaching the #1 spot in both Canada and the United States as well as Europe.  As for Rush,well what can you say about a band that has been together for over 30 years and has been as inventive as any band that is out there. Their list of acheivemnets is too long to put here but here are just a few of them.
Rush has come to release 24 gold records and 14 platinum records (3 of which have gone multiplatinum), placing them within the top 3 for the most consecutive gold albums by a rock band. Rush ranks 79th in U.S. album sales according to the RIAA with sales of 25 million units. Total worldwide sales approximate 40 million units
Rush has won the following Juno awards:

• 1975 Most promising group of the year
• 1978 Group of the year
• 1979 Group of the year
• 1990 Artist of the Decade (80′s)
• 1991 Best HardRock/Metal album – Presto
• 1992 Hard Rock album of the year – Roll the Bones
• 1981 nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
  • “YYZ” — lost to The Police‘s “Behind My Camel”
• 1992 nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
  • “Where’s My Thing?” — lost to Eric Johnson‘s “Cliffs of Dover”
• 1995 nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
  • “Leave That Thing Alone” — lost to Pink Floyd‘s “Marooned”
• 2004 nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
  • “O Baterista” from Rush In Rio — lost to Brian Wilson‘s “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow”
• 2008 nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
  • “Malignant Narcissism” from Snakes & Arrows — lost to Bruce Springsteen‘s “Once Upon a Time in the West”
• 2009 nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
  • “Hope (Live For The Art Of Peace)” from Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace — lost to Zappa Plays Zappa‘s “Peaches in Regalia” (featuring Steve Vai and Napoleon Murphy Brock

But yet no nomination to the Hall of Fame. So what gives? It is not like the Hall of Fame ignores Canada, Neil Young,Joni Mitchell,Leonard Cohen and the band are all in the Hall so these exclusions do not make sense to me but I think it is high time we Canadians start making the hall of Fame take notice and start letting them know that we want these bands in the hall, after all ‘sh-boom” is not the greatest Canadian Song of all time.

Max Webster - Here Among The Cats

Some Music for a wet fall Day!

Now that the cooler wet weather has entered our lives again and winter is almost here you may staying in a little bit more and want to either discover or re-discover some music. The following are 12 albums that require some time and patience to listen to, but are well worth the effort. So again in no particular order are my choice for the 12 albums for a late fall day.

1.Love-Forever Changes[1967] Still the best album from the early psychedelic period.

2.Eric Andersen-Ghosts upon the Road[1988] A album of lost lives and loves from one of the best Singer/Songwriters of my Generation.

3.Loretta Lynn-Van Lear Rose[2004] What a comeback! The perfect blend of country,folk and Rock ably assisted by Jack White

4.Nick Drake-Five Leaves Left[1969] Haunting vocals and sparse instrumentation make this a classic.

5.Richard and Linda Thompson-Shoot Out the Lights[1982] Listen to a marriage fall apart, both artistically and personally.

6.Lenny Gallant-The open Window[1994] East coast singer’/songwriter at his Canadian best.

7.Todd Snider-Songs for the Daily Planet[1994] The Who’s My Generation has never sounded so good as on this album.

8.David Ackles-American Gothic[1972] Fighting for the American Dream[and not finding it] “The Montana Song” is a classic.

9.John Stewart-California Bloodlines[1969] The former member of The Kingston Trio makes the perfect country album for the new decade.

10.Laura Nyro-Eli and the 13th Confession[1968] Others may have had bigger hit’s with her songs, but the original is always better.

11.John Gorka-Out of the Valley[1994] Alternative Country’s leader, “Good Noise” is the best anti Republican song I have heard.

12.Gram Parsons-Return of the Grievous Angel[1974] The grandfather of Country Rock’s Finest Moment. Ass kicking country and tender love songs. True American Cosmic Music.

Rik and Me( A Canadian Ballad)

Brushes with famous people happen with all of us, we encounter millions of people in our lifetime and sooner or later we intersect with someone who can be called famous. They may not be famous at the time, but become famous later in their lives and your little encounter will be forgotten by that person but in your mind it remains. And that is the heart of this story, a brush with someone who would become famous in the Music world, Rik Emmett of the Canadian Classic Rock Band Triumph. I am sure he has forgotten this encounter, but for some strange reason i can still remember it(cue the fade out and fade in)
 It was the spring of 1976 and i was a 18 year old brash kid from Hespeler with a penchant for lippiness when i drank, and in this case a lot of drink. Drinking started early on that Saturday night for the gang as we were getting ready for a great night at the Coronet Motor Hotel. Rush were playing and Max Webster were opening for them and it was going to be a Rock and Roll night for the hespeler Boy's, and nothing was going to get in our way. We got there early to make sure we got a good table and proceeded to down a few more beers, when the news arrived that pissed me off, Max Webster had to cancel their appearance and some new Canadian band called Truimph would open the show instead. After the getting over this we proceeded to look for some women to hit on and I found one particular good looking gal that i could try my Hespeler moves on and while it was a slow process after a few Zombies i thought i was making headway when Triumph took the stage and ruined my evening. Islagged the band through their whole set and called the lead guitarist a wimp(or something like that), which i found out was a mistake. The young lady waited till just after the set ended and as the band was leaving the stage i made another rude comment about the guitarist and the band when she threw a drink in my face and the guitarist suddenly showed up beside me. It seems that the gal was Rik Emmett's girlfriend and he was not too happy that i was hitting on her during his entire set and upon hearing how i ripped the band, that made him even more upset and he wound up, trying to take a swing at me, i ducked and fell over backwards into the waiting arms of the bouncers, Luckily they held me back as i am sure i would have done serious damage to him and ruined the bands career(that's my opinion). I was quickly escorted out of the Coronet, but managed to get a little pride back as I wound up puking on the bouncers boots and after getting my bearings back after the little shot to thehead he gave me,i found the Van that Triumph were driving, and of course got my revenge on them, the van wasn't locked and let's just say that wasn't beer spilled on the seats. But i wound up with a hate on for Rik Emmett and the rest of the band that took me a long time to get over.

Suzanne

This is the first of a series on the Woman behind the song.

One of a songwriters main inspiration point is the women in his life, usually a girlfriend that they have loved and lost. Sometimes they are about fictional women that were inspired by real woman but the ladies make up many of the songs over the last 100 years or so. One thing that I have always wondered about is who is the woman that is being sung about, what made a songwriter write about her? And while it is not as earth shattering as some other things being discussed in town I still find it interesting and hopefully so do you.

In 1967 Leonard Cohen released SUZANNE, one of the truly great Canadian songs of all time and in true songwriter tradition the main character was real. Her name was Suzanne Verdal, the then wife of Canadian Sculptor Armand Vaillancourt and she lived in Montreal. The song describes the City of Montreal in all it’s splendor as well as giving us an image of SUZANNE that to this day still sits in my mind. The real Suzanne claims that she and Leonard never had sex despite what some think the song represents and as a matter of fact Cohen himself has said that there was neither the opportunity nor the inclination to actually go through with it, and according to Suzanne she has only seen Leonard twice since the song was released, once in the 1970′s and once in the 1990′s.

Today Suzanne lives in Venice Beach California and is an on again off again homeless person living off the good intentions of friends and artists that call the beach home

Suzanne in 1967   and in 2008

The Radio

The radio on my boyhood dresser was an old tabletop model with tubes. The top was cracked and at high volume, the busted brown plastic made it screech. My father got it when a great-aunt died i think, and it looked like the type of thing you would get at a junkyard. But,It was one of the greatest treasures he ever gave me. For with that radio he opened a new world that was hard to forget. As a ten year old the sounds that came out of that cracked jewel on my dresser changed my world. The Everly brothers, the Righteous Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel,Marvin Gaye came pouring out of that box like Angels from heaven. I had discovered music that my parents did not listen to. Sure my older brother and sister played their records and listened to their radios, BUT, THIS WAS MY RADIO,and no one was going to tell me what to listen to anymore. Elvis was the other generation and when i heard She Loves You by the Beatles and the first scream by my Dad and Mom to TURN IT DOWN i knew i had found my calling. Music,MY MUSIC, would be my salvation, it would set me free and make me different from my big brother and sister,it would allow me to define myself and create a world that i could call my own. It was CHUM,CHAM,CKWR,CFTR, all radio stations playing MY music. The Beatles, the Monkees, Neil Diamond, songs like Louie Louie, Gloria, Satisfaction,Go all the way and Moondance would be my break from reality. I could drift away in a Rock and Roll Lullaby. And as the ’60s morphed into the ’70s, music defined my teenage years. Pink Floyd,Led Zeppelin and Rush may have replaced the Doors, the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, but that radio, even though long gone,still held in my soul a very special place. Now in 2010 i am listening to my CD’s on my surround sound system, i still think back to that night when i first turned on that radio in 1967 and the strange noise began to emerge from that box. The voice sounded so sad,the sound so rich, the melody’s so tight i was dumbstruck by it all”You’ve lost that loving feeling”. I can tell you i have never lost that loving feeling for the world of music. All thanks to my Father and that old cracked music box. Somewhere out in the stratosphere and the cosmos an old radio is playing”break on through to the other side”

Ode to Billy joe(an Evaluation)

It was the third of June,
another sleepy, dusty Delta day.

With those words, Bobbie Gentry began a debate in 1967 that still has not been answered to this day! What was thrown off of The Tallahatchie Bridge and why did Billie Joe MacAllister jump?  Now we all know it is fiction, and made a great tune that is still considered one of the great Pop and Country songs of all time, but those questions still linger for music fans everywhere, myself included. Was the song about abortion, a subject that at that time was as controversial as ever, was it about inter-racial romance that led to the suicide of the young man?  That is the theme that seems to stand out to me, for some of the lyrics do hint at that..
I was out choppin’ cotton
and my brother was balin’ hay.…since the song takes place in the deep south and has no real time frame to it, the majority of black’s back then would have been on plantations picking cotton,
Mama said to me “Child, what’s happened to your appetite?..the use of the word child was a Negro saying more than whites, but could be also used by the real poor whites of the time, so that one is iffy. But perhaps the biggest theme running through the song is the indifference that the family has to Billy Joe
Papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas,
“Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense,
pass the biscuits, please.”I’ll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don’t seem right….These lines lead one to think that perhaps Billy Joe was slightly mentally challenged and that his life was not of much importance, but it also comes back to the abortion angle, as perhaps rape was involved and Billy Joe forced himself on the narrator, but to protect Billy Joe she kept it hidden and wound up getting the abortion and when Billy Joe found out he jumped to his death. But it comes back to the question at the center of everything, What was thrown off the bridge? A fetus? I don’t think we will ever know as even Bobby Gentry has kept the secret of the meaning of her song.  But it has kept musicologists thinking and kept the song in many memory’s, and that is a good thing.
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge,
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

The Vinyl Revolution

As a child of the 60′s and 70′s the vinyl record was one thing that we took for granted, whether it was hearing my older brothers Elvis 45′s or having to listen to my Older sister play her Donny Osmond Albums, heck even hearing my Dad play his Glen Miller 78′s, Music back then was on Vinyl and of course we took it for Granted that it would always be around. The trips to Records on Wheels or heading to Toronto to Sam the Record Man where a right of passage for every generation, find the newest single by The Stampeders or pick up a copy of Alice Coopers latest album were the highlight of anyone’s day. Unlike the CD you could actually read the Liner notes on the Album and of course the legendary artwork on many of the albums were worth the price alone, something that the CD does not have. And if you only wanted a single song you could just buy the 45 and listen to it, hell I remember buying a single by Jim Gold’s Gallery called “Nice to be with you” and playing the hell out of it. But, like anything the vinyl record began to fade away as the cD came into being and of course they became popular as they were easier to store and you could put a disc on without having to flip it over half way through. And as Disc’s grew in popularity the Vinyl record seemed to just stay on the outside of popularity not quite obscure but known to only a few hardcore audiophiles. But the vinyl’s time is back and I for one am glad to welcome them. A number of current artists are releasing new albums and the record player is slowly becoming a viable option in the music world again. Browsing through used record stores to find the old albums of my youth has become fun again and as I did when the CD’s took over I will rebuild my library with the music that I love. And it is with pleasure that I tell you that Hespeler has its own Record store again, Millpond Records and Books is now open on Queen Street, so when downtown give ‘em a shout and maybe you will find a treasure amongst the music.

Tales from the Vinyl Jungle [6 albums that changed my life]

As the 60′s turned into the 70′s i entered High School and as my life changed so did my music. Growing up i had always loved music and the radio was where i got my references from, But in High School i discovered other forms of music such as Jazz,Blues and Folk. The following are my 6 albums that changed the way i looked at and listened to music. They made me expand my mind and track down the the other forms of music that was out there. Sure i listened to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Guess Who and other top acts of the era, but there was something else out there and i was determined to find them. So here goes the 6 albums in no particular order.

The Flying Burrito Brothers=Gilded Palace of Sin[1969]

A Girlfriend introduced me to this album in grade 10. Up until then Country music was off limits, but she insisted i hear this new style of Country so grudgingly i did. Next day i went out and bought this one and “Burrito Deluxe” as well. The sound of Country, Folk and rock combined to give a blast of Cosmic Joy. This of course led me on a path to discover Gram Parsons[a founding member as well as an ex-Byrd] and the outlaw movement in Country. Waylon, Hank Jr,Willie and eventually the Man in Black himself. Poco, Little River Band and the Eagles followed. Don’t know where that Girlfriend went but all these bands are in my CD collection.

LOVE=Forever Changes[1967]

At a party one night a friend of mine threw his big brothers album on the turntable and the world sounded different. The guitar work,lyrics and the folk sensibility seemed to call to me. Everybody had heard of the dead and Jefferson Airplane and of course the Doors but LOVE showed me there were other bands that were involved with the California sound. Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Spirit and Pacific Gas and Electric were just a few of the bands that soon found there way into my record collection.

Miles Davis=Kind of Blue[1959]
What can i say. Music appreciation class, Grade 11. The Teacher brought this album in and threw it on the turntable and said, if you don’t like this you don’t know or like music. John Coltrane soon arrived in my Collection as well.

Velvet Underground=Velvet Underground and Nico[1967]
More commonly called the banana album, this album opened the ears of a generation to a sound that was as raw as it was powerful. Not the slick sounds of the Beatles or led Zeppelin. Not even the raggedness of Black Sabbath, this was different, this was truly something unique. The NewYork Dolls, NRBQ and the Stooges were later but without this album i may have never found the others.

Eric Andersen=Blue River[1972]
Sure i knew who Bob Dylan was but i really didn’t listen to him as folk music was not my scene,or so i thought. When i first heard this album in early 1972 at Sam the Record Man i was hooked. The lyrics, melody’s and emotions sank into me quickly and made me change my mind about the folk scene. It allowed me to check out and fall in love with not only Andersen and Dylan but also with Tim Buckley, Richard Thompson, Arlo Guthrie and many more.

Frank Sinatra=In the wee Small Hours[1955]
Thats right Sinatra. OK you can laugh as i did when my Dad would play this but in the summer of 1979 the music world sucked and i was looking for something different. So i headed to a record show in Toronto and started to check out the collections available. I got into a discussion with one of the dealers and he grabbed this album and shoved into my hands, told me i could have it for free, but with one request. I had to listen to it honestly. Well i did and before you could say New York New York I bought another Sinatra Album. Dean Martin, Tony Bennett and Sammy Davis Jr all entered my collection before the end of the year.

So there you have it. Six albums that changed my life. They may not be the best and only one still sits in my top 25 of all time[LOVE] but i own them all on disc and still play them today. So do yourself a favor and open your listening spirit to allow other forms of music in, You won’t regret it.

Here Among the Cats

While sitting in a little local bar last Saturday night with a few friends listening to a real crappy karaoke version of “Smoke on the Water” we began to reminisce about the bars and bands that used to play in the region. While the bars are now gone, to be replaced by little corner pubs and assorted other things the music is still there. Today try to find a top notch rock band in their prime or an incredible top flight show band that even comes close to the area, it is not going to happen.
The Matador Tavern,Leisure Lodge,Coronet,Highlands/Tudor Tavern,Waterloo Motor Inn and if you were in the Muskokas the Kee to Bala[the only one still going]. The bands that traveled through here are legendary now,some still touring and others relegated to the back pages of our minds.
Longneck quartz bottles at the Tudor, fancy show bands at the Matador, the funniest waiter I have ever encountered at the Leisure Lodge,trying to find our way home in a drunken stupor from the Coronet and crawling out of Lake Muskoka to see a live Saturday night show at the Kee.
Myles and Lenny
Zon
Prism–a unknown band called the cars opened for them
A foot in cold water
Moxy
Major Hooples Boarding House
McLean and McLean
Jack the Bear
Jason–Steve Smith introduced his “Red Green ” character in this show band
Triumph–Rik Emmett once threatened to beat me up at the Tudor
Max Webster
Rush
Fludd
April Wine
The madcats
Doucette–he may have had only one song, but what a song
Mashmakan
Copper Penny
Goddo………….These were just some of the acts that played these bars. Kind of beats a drunk woman singing a Janis Joplin tune now don’t it. Well I think I will go put on a Max Webster album and chill.

Downtown train

Tom Waits - Downtown Train -1985

[via FoxyTunes / Tom Waits]

Rod Stewart may have had the bigger hit but as usual the original is better. Tom Waits at his finest

Jim Dandy

Black Oak Arkansas Jim Dandy to the rescue

[via FoxyTunes / Black Oak Arkansas]

I remember when this song was released, i played it to death and i think my parents regretted naming me Jim. Plus for some strange reason i find the female singer hot!