So you folks have been waiting with bated breath…  shuffle through that iPod and give me your hearty opinion!  I need something new!

Well… without further ado, here is the first installment of the iPod Shuffle.

“Heart of Gold” – The Kinks, State of Confusion

A fine little ditty penned by Ray Davies about growing up with some country-esque fills from brother Dave, smooth acoustic strumming from Ray, and a nice rockin’ shuffle from the rhythm section.  Even though he’s writing this about a jealous older sister sibling when a newborn sister is introduced, you can almost imagine he is writing this about himself and brother Dave-   “Underneath the rude exterior, there’s got to be a heart of gold”.  Great harmonizing between Ray and Dave on that chorus as well.

“Wrong Man (Live)” – Deep Purple, Rapture Of The Deep Tour Edition

From the reissue of Rapture is one of the better cuts from this disc and a great latter period Purple track.  Sure, this ain’t your father’s Deep Purple but the Morse era has some great rock tunes.  With Paice, Glover, and Airey laying down a solid bedrock of rhythm, Morse drops some chunky, strutting riff and a great solo on top of it, and Ian Gillan delivers a passionate vocal throughout the verse and come chorus time, throwing in the Gillan shriek before the lead break.  Live cut very similar to the studio cut with a little bit more Gillan flair.

“No Reply At All” – Genesis, Abacab

I grew up with Collins-led Genesis, so I have a bit of an affinity for this era of the band.  I know, I know, some of you think Phil ruined Genesis-  I wholeheartedly disagree, although there is a big difference between the Gabriel era (which I like as well) and the more commercial appeal from Banks, Collins, and Rutherford.  This is a great Collins era track and cuts close to what he would do in his solo career-  strong vocal, horn charts (a rarity for Genesis at the time), and a strong rhythmic track underneath.  A bit different from what was on rock radio and a bit progressive for it’s time, although it leans very close to something like Earth, Wind, and Fire (of which lead singer Philip Bailey would collaborate with Phil Collins on 1984 hit “Easy Lover”)

“Across The River” – Peter Gabriel, Secret World Live

Oh, the irony of the iPod shuffle LOL…  if you like atmospheric music, Peter Gabriel always delivers.  “Across the River” opens with a very stark and ominous mood, heavy with light, atmospheric keys from Gabriel until accompanied with an absolutely haunting violin piece from Shankar.  Once entranced, Gabriel and Shankar trade vocalizations (a bit of the famous Gabriel falsetto) until Tony Levin offsets the mood with some serious bottom end on the stand up bass.  After a few minutes of being entranced, other instruments are introduced with some heavy piano chords, guitar, and kick drum to kick the song into a more uplifting gear.  If you like music with light and shade, this does the trick.

“Stay Young” – Oasis, The Masterplan

A very good B side from the brothers Gallagher, “Stay Young” (like many Oasis tracks) wears its influences on its sleeve but the outcome is typical Oasis.  A strong Slade-like hook with a more melodic vocal from Liam than his typical snotty delivery (which I love, by the way) and a catchy sing a long chorus with Noel in the background, this is a cut that’s strong enough to be on any of their albums.  Hey, stay young and invicible!  We know just what we are!  One of those songs that goes well in a live environment.

“Walk Out” – Matthew Sweet, 100% Fun

One of my favorite Matthew Sweet songs is driven by a simple, straightforward (but rocking) rhythm pattern but the key to the cut is the underlying harpsichord throughout the song and the baritone guitar line through the chorus.  As with many early Sweet cuts, the guitar work is excellent and is generally a stark contrast to the vocal but this time it’s fairly concise with a fairly short but sweet lead break.  Nice little melodic line from the harpsichord rounds out the song.

“Little Too Late” – Pat Benatar, Ultimate Collection Disc 1

First off, this is a great collection of Pat cuts but the mastering of EVERY SONG is waaaay too hot.  Find the original on Get Nervous.  As far as the song is concerned, it’s one of Pat’s more melodic cuts that leans a little too heavy on a circus keyboard line but is redeemed by a strong Pat vocal (and hook) and the always tasty guitar work of hubby Neil Giraldo.  Has a bit of that boomy snare drum come chorus time but it’s used to good effect (oh yeah, cool drum intro to this one too).  One of those choruses that ends up as an earworm after the song ends, but nothing wrong with that!

“Another Day” – Lethal, Programmed

Queensryche!  No, wait a minute…  yes, vocally it sounds like old school Queensryche circa Rage For Order/The Warning but that’s part of the charm of this.  Even leans Fates Warning, but there’s nothing wrong with that either.  Song kicks off with a dark, acoustic melody and dramatic singing before the power chords kick in around chorus with strong vocal.  Some sweet dual lead playing kicks in towards the end of the song, which changes back to the chorus and closes things out. Nice mix of light and shade.  If you like old school Queensryche this is up your alley.

Aaaaaand that’s it for this installment!  We’ll shoot for another shot at this within the coming weeks.  Fave cut of the week goes to “Walk Out” from Matthew Sweet.

“Happy trails to you, until we meet again”

While perusing a music board that I frequent occasionally, I saw a thread that brought back a sad memory:  Blues guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash 24 years ago today after a gig in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin.  I remember vividly where I was and what my next actions were:  I was at work at the time listening to the radio as I was going about my daily duties.  When the news was announced I was completely stunned-  I was a big fan of Stevie Ray, having purchased all of his albums by that time and had also seen him in concert twice within the past year or two.  How could this have happened to a guy who just a few years prior had gotten sober and was absolutely ON FIRE with his performances?  The guy seemed to have turned a corner and was seemingly headed for an even brighter future until that fateful evening of August 27th, 1990.

One of my best friends was an immense Stevie Ray fan.  I had called him with the news of Randy Rhoads’ tragic death years earlier and was unfortunately the one to break this news to him as well.  He and I reminisced about the man and his music for a few moments until I hung up the phone.  My friend Steve had played guitar for years and would love to mess around with “Lenny” or “Riviera Paradise” while warming up for one of his gigs.  He’d drag me up on stage with him to run through “Cold Shot” or “Voodoo Chile” with him on occasion-  always a great time.

For those of you unfamiliar with Stevie Ray Vaughan, check out some of these clips below.  SRV blended his influences (Hendrix, Albert King, Lonnie Mack, Kenny Burrell, brother Jimmie Vaughan, etc) to create a guitar style that is unique in its own right, often played with such fiery tone and intensity as if his life depended on it.  The guy always seemed to hit all of the right notes.  I read a very fitting quote today about the man –  he played like he was wrestling his guitar away from a demon.  Watching some of these videos?  That sounds about right 🙂

Thank you Stevie Ray.  And to my friend Steve –  while you’re up there, track him down and have him show you how to play “Mary Had A Little Lamb”!

Did anyone know that there was a VMA awards last night?  Does anyone remember what VMA stands for?  Let me refresh your memory…  Video Music Awards.  You do remember what channel is responsible for the VMAs, don’t you?  You don’t?  Come on, it’s easy… it’s the channel that plays videos by your favorite artists 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  No, wait a minute…  it only plays maybe four hours of videos a day now?  You’re kidding me, right?  You’re not???  And you’re also telling me that MTV no longer stands for Music TeleVision??????

I realize that I am far past the sell by date of the hip younger crowd of today but back in the Spring of 1983 I was HOOKED on a budding new channel called MTV.  Cable was finally coming to my very small town and I’d heard from many folks elsewhere about this cable channel that was playing NOTHING BUT VIDEOS all day, all night, all week…  literally HEAVEN for a budding music junkie like me.  Sure, the local radio stations were still fairly cool and magazines like Hit Parader, Creem, and Circus were the mags to read to catch up on the tunes and bands of the day but seeing your favorites in performance mode was another thing entirely.  I’d caught a brief glimpse of the channel during the Winter of ’82 at a family friend’s house (I seem to recall it being a snippet of “Run To The Hills” by Iron Maiden but that’s well over 30 years ago now!) and couldn’t wait for us to get cable so I could plant myself in front of the TV and see what the hubbub was all about.

The WOW factor that day and ensuing weeks was a bit like Christmas day.  Videos on top of videos on top of videos, music on top of music on top of music…  not every single thing great but so much overwhelming stuff to sift through, good and bad.  Naturally, the artists I was most familiar with were the ones I looked forward to the most (AC\DC, Pat Benatar, The Who, Billy Squier, Cheap Trick, etc) but there were so many other artists to pique the interest of this music nerd that it was hard to tear myself away to eat dinner or even do my homework.  The Fixx?  ABC?  The Producers? The Vapors?  Madness? Missing Persons?  The Human League?  I wasn’t hearing this stuff on the radio so this was totally different but at the same time, very fresh and very cool.  And when those hot summer days rolled around?  The heck with playing ball outside, I’m going to sit in the A/C and watch MTV all day!

There is an excellent book out called I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Video Revolution that describes the early days of MTV (approximately 1981-1992) and its impact on pop culture and the world that I highly recommend to anyone who grew up during this period or has an interest in the history of music video.  Although it is almost 600 pages long, it is a fairly quick and easy read that is broken down into short interview segments with various people associated with MTV from the VJs, artists, directors, producers, executives, and others broken down into detailed chapters discussing the creation of the channel, hiring of the VJs, making of various videos and television shows, etc etc etc.  A fantastic read that is well worth the money.

My own personal “glory days of MTV” would probably be up to 1987 or 1988.  The early years were certainly the most fascinating-  where else could you see (or hear!) something like A Flock Of Seagulls “I Ran” followed by Def Leppard’s “Photograph” followed by Duran Duran’s “Hungy Like The Wolf” followed by The Who’s “You Better You Bet” followed by Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health”?  So much diversity in the early days of the channel and because it was music I watched religiously.  Sure, my tastes were starting to run more towards hard rock but I still was a sucker for a good, fun song (who doesn’t like “The Safety Dance“?  Amirite???).  But somewhere along the line all good things must come to an end and MTV started to gravitate towards trends and became too homogenized for its own good.  Things seemed to move from “let’s focus on making a great album with great songs and then maybe make a performance video for a song or two” to “get me a choreographer, a case of hair spray, and teach me to pout before I even think about making my next record”.  That said, I still tuned in for quite a few years afterwards just to check out what was new-  shoulda bought me some MC Hammer genie pants back in the day…  🙂

Oh yeah, trivia question of the day… most everyone knows that The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star” was the first video ever played on MTV.  But do you know who the second artist played was?  Find out HERE and check out the other videos that were played on MTV’s first day of existence, August 1st, 1981.

“And in the end…”

One of the periodic features on this blog will be known as “The iPod Shuffle”.  I’m sure many of you have played this game before on Facebook or the old MySpace days, but what I’d like to do here is shuffle through 5-10 songs in each feature and give you my two cents on each track.  I’ll keep the feedback more centered on the track and less on the actual band or artist as this feature is more “song-centric”.  Who knows, maybe it will encourage some of you out there to pick up something new!  Like I said I’m sure there are a lot of “kindred spirits” out there who want to know about new stuff and see what other peeps like and don’t like out there.

First off, I’ve got just shy of 24,000 songs on my iPod and that ain’t enough as I’m almost out of space.  Need to upgrade to the 160 gb as I’ve got plenty more stuff that I can put on it (and yes, these tunes were ALL purchased legally- no illegal downloading here Internet Police).

And on that note…  is Apple phasing out iPod Classic production?  No more new generations being built out, so we shall see.  Might see that in a “RANT” column 🙂

So just a taster for the future column.  Rolling out the first ten songs on shuffle to give you a taste of the music up for discussion but we’ll skip the track commentary for now.  Track name, artist, and album…

1. End Of The Beginning – Black Sabbath “13”
2. What Do You Do For Money Honey – AC/DC “Back In Black”
3. Trumpets Of Jericho – Bruce Dickinson “The Chemical Wedding”
4. Emotion in Motion – RIc Ocasek “Geffen Vintage ’80s Volume 1”
5. Looking For A Love – J Geils Band “Houseparty:  Anthology”
6. Dangerous Type – The Cars “Candy – O”
7. Ain’t Lost Nothin’ – Delbert McClinton “Room To Breathe”
8. Fight Like A Brave – Red Hot Chili Peppers “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan”
9. Cowboy Joe – UFO “Covenant”
10. The Famous Jane – Arc Angels “Living In A Dream”

Interesting…  skewing a lot of common older artists with different styles of rock.  We’ll see what the next batch brings plus I’ll add some personal commentary.

Goodnight now ladies and gentlemen…

Yep, you got it… ANOTHER music blog out there for all you denizens of the Interwebs.  Why, you may ask?  Well, great question.  Like some of you, I am a junkie, fanatic, enthusiast, and all around nutbag when it comes to music.  Also like some of you, I am considered by some to be either an aficionado or connoisseur of certain music styles, bands, musicians (not by me, but by SOME).  And if you’ve read this far, you understand it’s more of a WE…  a like mind… a kindred spirit… someone constantly on the search of the latest and greatest, something that’s fresh and new, something that may be different from the status quo that is out there already, something that is going to make us bob (or bang) our heads, make us sing at the top of our lungs, dance to our hearts content, make us play air guitar/drums/piano/piccolo…  you name it.  WE ARE OUT THERE…

So I hear you saying…  you didn’t answer the question… WHY another music blog?  A few reasons:

1. Too much is never enough:  one of the cool things about the Internet is the wealth of info out there.  You like a particular style of music and want to find similar artists?  You have a favorite band and want to hear about their influences?  You’ve got plenty of options out there, WHY NOT have another one?
2. Sharing of the passion:  remember the like mind and kindred spirit comment above?  Hopefully this blog may point you to your next favorite song, artist, or band.  I may “wax nostalgic” on something from years gone by or ramble on about something that’s brand new.  
3. No agendas:  No affiliations here with any record labels.  Not a member of a “street team”.  Not getting paid to represent a certain artist.  Not trying to push anything on anybody, just blogging about stuff I like.  
4. Rant, rant, rant:   dig reading about what people like and don’t like.  We all should be free to have an opinion and agree to disagree.  On those rare occasions I need to riff on something, you will see it here.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride 🙂