instruments anyone?

[lilacwoman]

I'm basically unable to play any instrumnet but I have a tubes wind chime beside the door and get some nice music depending on how fast I open the door.

[Cindy]

You have been closer to a lot of these people maybe.

What does drive the idiocy ?

Is it just drugs and rock and roll? Or what?

You usually have to work damn hard to get to the top in R&R "sorry ACDC" so why throw it away?

I'm perplexed. Particularly now a days when people should realise the consequence of their actions.

Maybe I'm just getting old.

Cindy

[Sweet Blue Girl]

Guitar and bass, piano, armonica, little drum, computer instruments and software... But my best part is not playing such as composing, tough I have a lot of road to do to develope it!

[madirocks]

Yes! I've learned guitar, bass guitar, tin whistle, piano, great highland b->-bleeped-<-ipes (wow, that was a dumb idea), and drums. And, if computer instruments are counted, I suppose those as well!

[tekla]

- Well fame is a hell of a drug, and I've often thought that all the other drugs were just ways of getting through the other 22.5 hours in a day when you're not on stage.

- You have all the money in the world and not a single person around (for long) who will tell you "NO!".

- The drugs are good, not in good vs. evil, but powerful.  They work (and damn few things do these days) 'as advertised.'

- I'd love to have the money, but the fame is garbage, everyone wants a piece of you, everyone is riding your gravy train, and it's hard to put up with.

- It's not just rock and roll, jazz cats were doing drugs long before rock rolled its first joint.  And I work with lots of classical cats too.  They do drugs, not the hard ones, not to terrible excess, but there is a decided hint of green bud in the air at the symphony. 

- Particularly now a days when people should realise the consequence of their actions. -- Oh, don't you know?  The rules are not for them.  Other people get in trouble, not them.  Other people get their lives caught up in it, not them.  They are special, and all the stuff that happens to the 'little people' will not happen to them (they think).

[Sweet Blue Girl]

- Well fame is a hell of a drug, and I've often thought that all the other drugs were just ways of getting through the other 22.5 hours in a day when you're not on stage.

- You have all the money in the world and not a single person around (for long) who will tell you "NO!".

- The drugs are good, not in good vs. evil, but powerful.  They work (and damn few things do these days) 'as advertised.'

- I'd love to have the money, but the fame is garbage, everyone wants a piece of you, everyone is riding your gravy train, and it's hard to put up with.

- It's not just rock and roll, jazz cats were doing drugs long before rock rolled its first joint.  And I work with lots of classical cats too.  They do drugs, not the hard ones, not to terrible excess, but there is a decided hint of green bud in the air at the symphony. 

- Particularly now a days when people should realise the consequence of their actions. -- Oh, don't you know?  The rules are not for them.  Other people get in trouble, not them.  Other people get their lives caught up in it, not them.  They are special, and all the stuff that happens to the 'little people' will not happen to them (they think).

We know that music industry isn't about music anymore from several years. Indeed very few real talents have something new to say, something original, and many just make good music, not the kind that really can change you. It's like there are many street painters overrated, they paint well, but really don't add nothing to your life, few artists, and maybe a picasso or two sometimes.

The fact that artists don't even have the time to improve like Amy whinehouse and do something more that eventually fall in the drug routine or hyper exxagerated consideration ( well if the comparison is with some plastique doll band it's ok ), and never become real artists or maybe who knows that pocasso.

Once it was drug and music

Now it s business and drugs i guess

[tekla]

Yeah, most of the people I know there in the wings grew up hating on the ->-bleeped-<- from the record company who makes $70K a year (back in the 1970s) and wants to be on the guest list, plus 10.  They were walking scum.  If they were not buttering you up with a bunch of fake sincerity they were stealing your wallet, your drugs, and your girlfriend.

However, they did (at least in retrospect) seem to know a lot more about music, and about how to make it good, or better, then the people from Apple, who - if your looking at the bands over the past 10 years, and particular the last 5 - have some of the worst taste in the world.  And at least the old record companies did put some effort into development.

But then again, maybe it's not their fault.  Rock is way, way - WAY past, it's 'sell by' date, by a decade or so.  80% of the people we get through the places where I work (1K, and 2.25K rooms in a major market) are pretty much either has-beens or wantabees.

Oh yeah.  Entertainment has always been a business.  It's the business of doing pleasure with you.  Not all the bands and cool musicians got that, but someone did, and they were the person who ended up with the cash.  'Twas ever thus. 

And since the rock was a given (no matter if you wanted it or not) that leaves 'drugs' and 'sex' (common in showbiz long, long before rock showed up, Franz Liszt laid pipe on just as many babes as any rock star ever did), and of those you really have to pick, as if you do enough drugs the sex ain't going to be happening.  And while the Crash 'N Burn of the occasional Amy gets press, mostly the people are out trying to out kink each other. 

"Hey, yeah, I can get you backstage, ask me how.  And lose the boyfriend.  And bring your mom."

[supremecatoverlord]

I've been playing guitar for about seven years now; I also sing and write songs.

Sometimes I play mandolin and piano as well, but my playing is pretty mediocre...well, at least in my opinion.

[Lacey Lynne]

Cindy James:

Girl, there are many, many, many people who would agree with you about Slowhand being #2.  Remember the slogan in the 1960s:   Clapton is God?   Eric certainly was capable of some righteous craftsmanship on the axe.  Gotta agree with Tekla that his work with Cream and Derek and the Dominos was tops for him.   What about with Blind Faith (just one album though)?   Honey, I LOVE Eric to this very day, but I prefer his work from the 1960s.  Agree with you all the way about Jimi.

AMAZING that you actually met him!!!   I've read many accounts saying he was shy and withdrawn in real life.   Imagine that (given his histrionics on stage)!   That is SOOO amazing!   WHAT an experience!   This is before you emigrated, no doubt.   That majorly rocks, Cindy!!!           

Tekla:

Hey, man, MANY people agree with you about Jeff Beck!   Most accounts I've read about him have him at #2 after Jimi, but it comes down to personal taste anway.  Everything you say IS true, by the way.  Jeff was ALWAYS clean, crisp, controlled ... and masterful!   Very cool that The Strat and The Marshall Stacks were the tools of choice for both Jeff and Jimi.  Of course, they were from the same era.   To this very day, I'm a HUGE Jeff Beck fan!   I knew a guy in the 1970s (college) who agreed with you all the way and had Jeff at #1.   

Everybody:

There WAS another electric guitarist of the first rank ... a little ole boy from Texas ... who does not get nearly the credit he deserves.   He's a personal fave of mine.  I rate him shoulder-to-shoulder with Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.   Just my personal preference, but I say THIS guy should, likewise, be considered a Rock Guitar God:




Peace       Lacey

[tekla]

Not to be too picky, but SRV was not exactly much of a rock player - he was good when he got around to it, but it wasn't his bag.  But I have no trouble listing him as one of the top white blues guitar players of all time.  And that's good, because blues was never about originality, but about playing with feeling, which he did very well.  He also used the thickest guitar strings I've ever seen on an axe outside of Dick Dale.

Yeah Jeff likes the '57 strat body with a '62 neck.  He has an awesome guitar tech, for sure on that.

And yeah, Blind Faith was what?  About 69, with Layla and Other Love Songs in 70.  Then what.  Even if I give you Slowhand, that's '77 - and then what?  35 years with not much?  That's a lot of not much.

But look at Beck.  From the Yardbirds, to his own band with releases in 68, 69, 71, and 72. Truth^* and Beck-Ola still sound great.  Then he gets together with what was left of the Vanilla Fudge and did Beck, Bogert & Appice in 73.  Then in '75 (this is right where Eric is starting to just go through the motions), he did another solo record, Blow by Blow with the awesome 'Cause We Ended As Lovers.  Now this was different.  It was not blues like the earlier stuff, it was much more jazz orientated - so, right there as 'jazz fusion' is being invented by Miles and other jazz cats, Beck is just about the only rock musician to go the other way.  Then he did the Upp deal, a little funky (as is befitting the person that Stevie Wonder wrote Superstition for.)  Then in '76 does Wired with Jan Hammer, one of the better fusion records, to be sure.

Then he does 10 more records between 1980 and today.  At least 5 of them (that's half) won Grammy Awards.  One was a tribute to Gene Vincent, and one that was more electronic, and then last year the tribute to Les Paul which is just a damn good, super listenable concert. 

And it's that dual threat of constant performances over 45 years, and a really diverse recorded output^** that helps Jeff rise above the rest - at least for me.  That, and he - not Eric or even Jimi - seems to be the pick for all the really good guitar players I know.


* - Truth is considered by many as one of the first and most influential records in the creation of Heavy Metal.

** - Hell, I didn't even list the people he did guest work for, including Roger Waters, Stevie Wonder, Morrissey, Kelly Clarkson, Kate Bush, Paul Rodgers, Stanley Clark, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, John McLaughlin, Mick Jagger, Jon Bon Jovi, Herbie Handcock, and Buddy Guy - among others.  They rehearsed him for both the Rolling Stones and Guns 'N Roses.

'Cause We Ended As Lovers, by Stevie Wonder.

[Cindy]

Fantastic clip Tekla,

Lacey  Lynne

It was a total accident. I was at Uni and got involved with the people who organised the Saturday night bands.  At that time (and it may still be true) the UK  Uni's were very big on the circuits and bookings were keenly fought over. I happened to be a friend :embarrassed : of the guy who ran the bookings, so I ended up going to some awesome parties. Many I have little memory of, but I survived.  To put it into perspective we had Floyd, Who, Wings (who gave us 48hrs notice and  we had to cancel someone, luckily a small act), and  Zepplin in the same term. How I got a degree I do not know.

Cindy

[Cindy]

Kat,

I do know these arguments get futile, and a lot is based on the style of the music.

Slash is probably the greatest riff maker, but then you listen to Keith Richards. He writes some awesome riffs, which I think people find surprising as most people think he is brain dead. And he uses some beautiful tunings.

Dave Gilmour is a personal favourite. He has a style, and a look , that is cute to my ear.

I hope this doesn't sound like laments from an old cow, but there seems a lot less emphasis on musical ability now. You do it in a studio, where the computers take over.

I'm sure I'm wrong, are today's groups and musicians as good?

As good as what? The R&R.

I really think modern music needs a big enema. 


Cindy

[justmeinoz]

Just to confuse the issue I'll throw the name of the late Tommy Bolin into the mix.   

As for the enemas Cindy, there'll be another Aussie pub-rock band along like the EasyBeats, AC/DC, INXS  or Jet soon enough to flush out the system.