Interestingly enough the WKRP In Cincinnati DVDs that I bought a couple weeks ago are still inspiring music related blogs. Anyone remember the episode when Jennifer's childhood sweet-heart arrives, guitar in hand, expecting her to honour the marriage proposal he made when they were kids? Turns out that character was played by singer/songwriter Hoyt Axton, who wrote a bunch of songs that others covered, the most popular being 'Joy To The World' (Three Dog Night), 'The Pusher' and 'Snowblind Friend' (Steppenwolf), 'Greenback Dollar' (Kingston Trio), and 'No-No Song' (Ringo Starr).
His mother was Mae Boren Axton, who co-wrote 'Heartbreak Hotel', so we know where his song-writing talents came from. Beyond his abilities to write songs, he was also quite a talented musician and singer (I'm a huge Kris Kristofferson fan, and I'm sure Kristofferson himself would agree that his songwriting talents supercede his vocal and guitar abilities). Primarily a country musician, he was also a fantastic blues and folk singer and occasionally got into some jazz too.
This song is 'Della and the Dealer', which was the song the WKRP gang helped his character record a demo tape to send to Nashville:
Showing posts with label guitar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guitar. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Lynyrd Skynyrd
I was almost 38 years old before I finally realized what a fantastic band Lynyrd Skynyrd was, at least back in the original Ronnie Van Zant days. Man, but that dude could write lyrics, and the triple guitars of Allen Collins, Gary Rossington and Ed King were phenomenal. Here's where I once again have to completely admit that before I started to play guitar, my musical tastes were very shallow. I had written-off Lynyrd Skynyrd as a two-hit-wonder band of Confederate flag-waving red-necks. What a moron.
As an enthusiastic beginner guitar player, I was bound to get into Lynyrd Skynyrd just because of their emphasis on the instrument. I still had a bias against them due to the whole lyrical spat with Neil Young in Sweet Home Alabama due to Young's Southern Man and Alabama, but I was really starting to get into their groove. Of course all one has to do is scratch the surface to find documentation that Young and Van Zant were good friends, and that Ronnie had tongue firmly in-cheek when writing his lyrics. Anyhow, the more I listened, the more I liked, and based upon the lyrics of many of the songs, it was also becoming quite clear that my prejudice was unfounded (as prejudice usually is).
The song that clinched it for me was Saturday Night Special, from the album Nuthin' Fancy. My complete lack of depth combined with my anti-Skynyrd bias caused me to assume that this was a pro-gun song; again, what a moron. This has to be rated as one of the coolest (whatever that means) pro-gun-control songs of all time. The following snippet is just the final verse and the chorus:
Hand guns are made for killin'
Aint no good for nothin' else
And if you like to drink your whiskey
You might even shoot yourself
So why dont we dump 'em people
To the bottom of the sea
Before some ol' fool come around here
Wanna shoot either you or me
It's a Saturday Night Special
Got a barrel thats blue and cold
Ain't no good for nothin'
But put a man six feet in a hole
Great stuff. I always thought it was "Mister Saturday night special", but the first three sites I checked stated "It's a..." I'm not finished talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd yet. I'll either come back and add to this entry, or I'll just start a new one.
As an enthusiastic beginner guitar player, I was bound to get into Lynyrd Skynyrd just because of their emphasis on the instrument. I still had a bias against them due to the whole lyrical spat with Neil Young in Sweet Home Alabama due to Young's Southern Man and Alabama, but I was really starting to get into their groove. Of course all one has to do is scratch the surface to find documentation that Young and Van Zant were good friends, and that Ronnie had tongue firmly in-cheek when writing his lyrics. Anyhow, the more I listened, the more I liked, and based upon the lyrics of many of the songs, it was also becoming quite clear that my prejudice was unfounded (as prejudice usually is).
The song that clinched it for me was Saturday Night Special, from the album Nuthin' Fancy. My complete lack of depth combined with my anti-Skynyrd bias caused me to assume that this was a pro-gun song; again, what a moron. This has to be rated as one of the coolest (whatever that means) pro-gun-control songs of all time. The following snippet is just the final verse and the chorus:
Hand guns are made for killin'
Aint no good for nothin' else
And if you like to drink your whiskey
You might even shoot yourself
So why dont we dump 'em people
To the bottom of the sea
Before some ol' fool come around here
Wanna shoot either you or me
It's a Saturday Night Special
Got a barrel thats blue and cold
Ain't no good for nothin'
But put a man six feet in a hole
Great stuff. I always thought it was "Mister Saturday night special", but the first three sites I checked stated "It's a..." I'm not finished talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd yet. I'll either come back and add to this entry, or I'll just start a new one.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
I Dig Music
Yep, for those who have seen Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, this blog is named after Russell Hammond's acid-induced exclaimation from the roof-top, before he jumped into the pool . His first choice was "I'm on drugs!", but since this will be my outlet for anything to do with music, the title I chose seems more appropriate.
I have loved music all of my life, but over the last couple of years it has become a passion (some would say obsession). Without getting into details, I've been suffering from an undiagnosed illness for the past 4 or 5 years that, while not life threatening, severely limits my energy reserves, and in turn, my activities. One of the main issues is that I often feel light-headed and/or dizzy after exerting myself at all, which at times even prevents me from reading effectively (so you'll have to excuse some of my grammatical missteps as well!).
Initially I fell into the TV-trap, and it was sucking my soul, lemme tellya. Then one night my wife and I were out at a club and a woman approached us and asked if she recognized me as the singer of a local band. She wasn't the first person to mistake me for a musician. Over the years I've had to disappoint many folks who were convinced that I had talent! One drunken guy just refused to believe my claims to the contrary, and insisted on buying my buddy and I a pitcher of beer. At that point I gave in, and we told him many fictitious stories about my debauchery of groupies while we enjoyed his gift. As always, fantasy is just so much more fun than reality!
In any case, it seems this last time was the catalyst that would transform at least a small part of that fiction into reality. I decided, boom, like that (sorry couldn't resist plugging in one of my favourite Knopfler tunes), that I wanted to learn to play guitar. For my next birthday, my lovely wife bought me an acoustic, and with the help of the internet I began teaching myself to play. Two years and two additional guitars later, and I'm still having a blast almost every time I pick one of them up. In addition to the obvious satisfaction of learning to play an instrument, the bonus prize has been the drastic widening of my musical tastes. I'm much more open to actually listening to various types of music now, whereas in the past I was prone to being prejudicial and/or shallow in my tastes. It's very freeing to give up the notion that the artist is duty-bound to keep us happy with the entirety of their work!
To wrap things up, the plan is to use this blog to write about the "new" music in my life. That obviously includes recent releases, but also all of the fine music I either overlooked, or simply didn't have access to in the past.
I have loved music all of my life, but over the last couple of years it has become a passion (some would say obsession). Without getting into details, I've been suffering from an undiagnosed illness for the past 4 or 5 years that, while not life threatening, severely limits my energy reserves, and in turn, my activities. One of the main issues is that I often feel light-headed and/or dizzy after exerting myself at all, which at times even prevents me from reading effectively (so you'll have to excuse some of my grammatical missteps as well!).
Initially I fell into the TV-trap, and it was sucking my soul, lemme tellya. Then one night my wife and I were out at a club and a woman approached us and asked if she recognized me as the singer of a local band. She wasn't the first person to mistake me for a musician. Over the years I've had to disappoint many folks who were convinced that I had talent! One drunken guy just refused to believe my claims to the contrary, and insisted on buying my buddy and I a pitcher of beer. At that point I gave in, and we told him many fictitious stories about my debauchery of groupies while we enjoyed his gift. As always, fantasy is just so much more fun than reality!
In any case, it seems this last time was the catalyst that would transform at least a small part of that fiction into reality. I decided, boom, like that (sorry couldn't resist plugging in one of my favourite Knopfler tunes), that I wanted to learn to play guitar. For my next birthday, my lovely wife bought me an acoustic, and with the help of the internet I began teaching myself to play. Two years and two additional guitars later, and I'm still having a blast almost every time I pick one of them up. In addition to the obvious satisfaction of learning to play an instrument, the bonus prize has been the drastic widening of my musical tastes. I'm much more open to actually listening to various types of music now, whereas in the past I was prone to being prejudicial and/or shallow in my tastes. It's very freeing to give up the notion that the artist is duty-bound to keep us happy with the entirety of their work!
To wrap things up, the plan is to use this blog to write about the "new" music in my life. That obviously includes recent releases, but also all of the fine music I either overlooked, or simply didn't have access to in the past.
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