Tonight, the long-awaited Elton John and Billy Joel Face To Face tour makes it to Seattle. Two shows slated for early November 2009 were postponed when Elton fell ill. Tonight, the rescheduled shows begin at Key Arena.
I am a huge fan of both Elton and Billy, so I am beyond excited for the concert tonight. I haven’t seen either one of them live before, so it’s a big night for me.
To celebrate tonight’s dream come true event, there are TWO songs of the day!
Billy Joel has the first slot with the 1980’s classic “Uptown Girl.”
And of course, the other song of the day comes from Sir Elton! Here’s a vintage clip from a 1970 performance of “Your Song.”
What makes a performer a legend? 1 Great song? 1 Great band? A Built in mythology? Possible alien lineage? Well, one man has more than one of the above, and he’s also got a dancing fool comrade. Mr. Shaun Ryder. Originally the leader of Happy Mondays, legends in their own right, he also went on to front Black Grape in the midst of Britpop hysteria. Co-existing while simultaneously taking shots at bands like Oasis, Pulp & Blur.
It being a World Cup year, as well as nearing the MLS season opener, let’s have another;
and if it’s cool enough for Joe Strummer, it’s cool enough for you!
So, by the early 90’s i’d developed my style to the point that i was a mixture of all my prior influences, with a dash of youthful energy and rage. What it ended up sounding like was something very similar to Jimmy Chamberlin, drummer for Smashing Pumpkins. This was unintentional as i hadn’t even heard of them till ‘93 or so. That’s not to say that i was anywhere near as badass as Jimmy, just that our styles were similar, which is why when i finally heard his playing, i was so excited by it. Here was someone coming from the same place as i, but was 100 times the player i was. Another benchmark to reach for…
Wow! How 90’s was that? It’s hard these days to separate The Billy Corgan Show from the band know as Smashing Pumpkins, but once upon a time, they were a force to be reckoned with…
Enter the 90’s and England’s 2nd of 3 great movements; ‘Shoegaze‘. The best of these bands, and yes, better than MBV, was RIDE. They were the perfect band at the Perfect Time, and they had a secret weapon in their drummer; Loz Colbert. RIDE’s music was full of melody & angst, and Loz contributed just enough chaos to bring it all home. Imagine Keith Moon without the crazy…
Amidst the beauty and the noise, you can hear hook after hook! This next song taught me the ride/crash/ride/crash technique that i still love to use…
Sadly, RIDE broke up and for some reason refuse to reunite! One guy went solo, another joined Oasis, another quit music and Loz joined indie-Gods The Jesus & Mary Chain…
So I could not let the day end without mentioning that it is Steve Perry’s 61st birthday. 61 years old! Though he left the band in 1987 (and again in 1998 after a short three-year reunion) Steve was the lead singer of Journey during their heyday.
Whether you’re a Journey fan or not, you have to admit that Steve has some serious pipes. He’s certainly one of the best vocalists of all time. To honor Steve’s birthday, today’s song of the day is my favorite Journey song. It’s the song I believe features Steve’s best vocal performance, “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).” The video is also totally cheesy and unintentionally hilarious! Watch how Steve gets so into the lyrics, he’s nearly doing a literal interpretive dance. Enjoy!
In the late 80’s, something wonderful was happening in the UK. I’d always been a fan of British music growing up, but now my Anglophilia was being cemented with 3 distinct movements on the horizon. The first was what would later be termed “Baggy“. Lazy journalism is what coined such a term, but living in the states it did make a nice little package. The first of the “Baggy” bands that i’d heard and fell in love with was The Stone Roses. At the onset, i loathed this band. The first thing i’d seen or heard was the video for ‘I Wanna Be Adored‘, and my first reaction was “what a bunch of arrogant _______!” Somehow though, i got sucked in and when i bought their now classic self-titled LP, that was it, i was hooked.
There are lots of things one could write about on this album, but it seems that no one really mentions the drumming, which is phenomenal! Even more amazing when you consider that Reni was only using a 3 piece drumkit. Even the “Grunge” and “Indie” poseurs used 4! Add to that, background vocals that are more in tune than the lead vocals, and you’ve got one of the best drummers of all time! Check it out…
Reni’s beats were powerful and innovative, all the while able to make you wanna get up and move…
I spent years in my bedroom playing along to records and honing my skills. It was time to get out and play with some real people. After a couple of false starts in bands with my brother and another with some kids from school, i finally found a band of like-minded souls in Isolation. That’s not to say that musically we were on the same page, but we liked each other and each brought something different to the collective. Now, playing to records and playing with other musicians are two completely different things. It took some time to get to the point where i wasn’t just emulated beats from those records, but eventually i found my own voice and started to realize that a band is a gang. It is your tribe and it’s you against the world! That kind of thinking and approach to music was highlighted by the emergence of Jane’s Addiction.
Thus, Jane’s drummer Stephen Perkins became the idol for the times. I just loved the way he played his whole kit, and in another band it would’ve been too much, but in Jane’s it was perfect. Casting light vs. darkness and hard vs. soft, Jane’s Addiction is my generation’s Led Zeppelin. Check it out…
I was lucky enough to see them a few times in the late 80’s & early 90’s, and thank goodness i did, as i couldn’t figure out what Stephen was doing from the records. This made it easier to cop some licks, as they say…
And of course, i am obligated to show my all-time fave song…
So where was I? Oh yes…
If Roger Taylor taught me how to keep time and make people move, and Scott Miller taught me how to play with passion and channel my angst into drumming, it was Larry Mullen Jr that showed me how to combine the two. Additionally, unlike most drummers and just like Keith Moon, Larry seemed to be listening more to the guitar player than the bassist. It’s different these days with U2, but back then Adam Clayton played more like a lead-bassist, while Larry and The Edge were the rhythm section. Overlooked by most people, Boy George excluded, Larry is truly one of the greats. From his poly-rhythmic patterns and unorthodox style to some of the most tasteful subtleties i’ve ever heard, he is truly an original…
Up until i discovered U2, i’d only ever seen the standard way of setting up your drums. Larry on the other hand added a timbale where the 2nd Tom should be, as well as adding a Floor Tom to his left. Check it out in this video…
Now watch as he beats up his drums in this clip from Rattle & Hum. A song about a serial killer would need a heavy-duty beat, don’t you think? I especially love the off-time cymbal crashes…
Here is one of my all-time fave U2 songs, and the beat has a lot to do with it. It’s nothing spectacular, but this is where subtlety and emotion come into play. It begins with a slow groovin’ laid-back beat, escalates the emotional content of the song during the pre-chorus, then drops back down again. Perfect…
Lastly, another emotional song from the boys. Written about Bono’s dad who was dying of cancer, Larry provides the perfect rhythm for such a song. He’s not playing in the pocket on this one, but rather slightly behind the beat, leaving room for the ghosts. I also love the way he switches from the ride cymbal to the hi-hats mid-chorus…
I was going through my drawer organizing t-shirts this morning and I came across one that I forgot I had. It was a Genesis “Turn It On Again” tour tee. My mom got it for me in Dusseldorf, Germany where she saw the concert. I saw the concert (for free!) in Rome, Italy with my little brother at the Circo Massimo. It was the most massive concert I’ve ever been to with over 500,000 people gathered in and around that ancient dusty hole in the ground. I remember thinking I was going to fall down that slippery, rocky hill into the pit and get trampled. But we ended up being just about smack dab in the middle of everything (safe and sound) surrounded by gigantic video screens and a full out Genesis spectacle.
Check it out!
While he wasn’t a drumming influence on me, as i didn’t know he was a drummer till yesterday, I thought it would be a great reason to write today’s blog about him. My mom used to rock this joint in her Oldsmobile8-Track player, here’s Teddy Pendergrass with ‘Love TKO’…
