Neapolitan

Just write about what you know and like now. And don't worry about what you don't know, no one knows everything about music.

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Neapolitan

I thought I would restart my journal. I didn't feel like I abandon it as much as I was side-tracked at first by computer problems, and then plug.dj and a bunch of other reasons. I didn't want a theme other than to talk about what I like, and I thought something as simple at that it would make it possible to make daily or weekly entries... but then again the plans of mice and men.

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Neapolitan

It is hard to just jump in a do a journal after so much absence. But I want to pay a little homage to a Phil Everly. I feel a little out of place going on about an artist from the early days of Rock n Roll. So I thought I might talk a little about a song he sang with his brother. It kinda connects The Everly Brothers to 70s Rock - which I am also a little apprehensive to talk about...

...before I really got to know The Everly Brothers' music I was familiar with a cover-song of theirs "Love Hurts" by Nazareth, which at the time didn't know that the EB did the original recording. And it just so happens Nazareth's version appears in one of my atf movies Dazed and Confused. I love the way Nazareth guitar player, Manny Charlton, approaches this song. His interpretation of the song is just perfect. His arpeggios are slow and meaningful, his playing is articulate and the sound of his guitar is very chorusy. His guitar solo just soars, it has a e-Bow like quality to it, though he could be just using his volume control on his guitar. It is timeless classic, one of the best cover-songs of all time. (...forgive me for sounding trite, journal writing is kinda new to me and maybe not my thing, but in this case I felt it had to be said.)

The original is pretty good too. I am certain the guitar player on EB version is Chet Atkins, his style is unmistakable. At some time Chet's career he had a tone/volume pedal that affected both tone & volume...naturally. It was somewhat similar to a Wah-wah effect, (though it isn't a true Wah-wah - and I think that effect Chet had predates the Wah-wah). I'm not 100% certain, but the way his guitar sounds sounds like he is using it on this recording. I am familiar with some Everly Brothers material and I always found it cool to hear Chet playing in the background. I became a Chet Atkins fan via Steve Howe who mentions Chet as one of his major influence.

Love Hurts was written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, they also wrote other songs for the Everly Brothers like Poor Jenny, Rocky Top, and list of other hits like the sentimental classic Devoted to You.

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Neapolitan

I thought of adding a special feature in my journal. I call it "Jazz for Trollheart." (If for any reason you don't think it's a good idea I'll put the kabosh on it.) Today in plug.dj/musicbanter/ we were talking about what would be a good start to get Trollheart into Jazz. (I thought about doing this idea months ago but I want someone to blame.) In a way I am curious to why he's not, because there is Jazz (among other types of music) in the whole Prog mix of things. Now he doesn't have to get into Jazz that is entirely his prerogative but if he willing to give it a try...

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Neapolitan

After some thought I began to feel the title Jazz for Trollheart shouldn't be use. I don't want to put him on the spot if he doesn't like it he then he doesn't like it. I am sure there are things he likes that I probably can not find myself getting into... So this is the second and last installment (which I hope would had been a periodical piece through this journal. It will be reinvented under another name but the same goal to introduce Jazz to wider audience, but only for those who are slightly interested in it. (only because it is a subject I don't know much about.)

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Neapolitan

This is for Pete Seeger. I didn't know much about him or his music. Other than the fact Pete Seeger would play a long-neck banjo usually with a capo. But I do remember seeing him on dvd(s) and in movies (or a movie) that I would often watch. There were two things I remember about him the most:

One was when Elizabeth Cotten tells Pete the story who she came to know his family, the Seegers, when she found his half-sister, Penny, lost in a department store, then later went on to work the Seeger family. That story always amazes me how lucky a chance they got to meet, other-wise the world probably wouldn't have known about her.

Another one was in the movie, Alison's Restaurant, when Arlo goes to visit his father in the hospital. Pete was already there visiting Woody Guthrie, with his long-neck banjo and singing him some tunes.

I wish I do better that this, but seeing him on film probably tells more about his kind nature personality than I could.

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Neapolitan

I purposely don't read the journals of other people, so not to pull a Briks, and steal or at least subliminal infringe upon another member's ideas. I thought I would look around and see how things are done by looking at older defunct journal, the last one on the last page now (until it gets bumped) is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nger-blog.html . I was curious, so I scan through it and seem like an interesting idea, I like the ease of the journal and especially the theme. I like to (well use to like) to read Urban's Journal of Stuff. I see he's tackling an new project 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die. However while reading it I see he totally dis one of my atf songs. (atf = all time favorite - I got that acronym from Paul. I like to credit where credit is due...when I remember.)

So in the book there is a main list of primary 1,001 songs you must hear, and a matrix of related song to look up hence the 10,001 songs to download. Which I thought was illegal to do, I thought that the limit was set at a 10,000 downloads. I can't remember and I tried to look it up, but I thought RIAA would go after someone who actually would download ten thousand songs. But then again I haven't seen the book so I don't know if the guy is recommending to legally or illegally download songs. If Someone pays 99 cents a download you would spend $9,900.99 just to do that, which doesn't seem feasible. And if you average the songs to a 3 minute a song, or at least listen to 3 minutes of each song on you can listen to them for free say youtube it would take 20 days, 20 hours and 3 minutes to listen to them all. If it was a full time job (40 hours a week) it was be at least 12 & half working weeks to hear 10,001 three minute songs. I can't imagine how long it would take to listen to the 10,001 in their entirety. For the main list (again if you average it out to 3 minutes per song) it would take 50 hours and three minutes to listen to 1,001 songs.

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Neapolitan

...I am dusting off this old journal in preparation of my David Bowie review, which I will eventually post. I thought up a rough sketch of it and the last thing to do is type it out, post it and wait for approval. In the meantime I thought I would post three of my favorite Bowie covers as a precursor to it. There is something about a band doing a Bowie cover that draws me in to be a fan of theirs. I think they can't be all that bad if they are fans of Bowie. The first time I heard each of these songs it was like a Eureka moment for me where I felt stumble across something that is one of the best thing I ever heard. Bauhaus knocks it out of the ballpark with their guitars.The Wallflowers do a respectable Heroes cover. And Kevin Barnes' vocals are otherworldly. It's if they tapped into some kind of comic coolness.

Bauhaus - Ziggy Stardust


The Wallflowers - Heroes


of Montreal: Starman

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GuD

oooo

I didn't see this before I will definitely be skimmin through here lookin for tunes.

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I spit bullets in my feet
Every time I speak
So I write instead
And still people want me dead
~msc

Neapolitan

Well... a few things put a damper on it, and it didn't pan out the way I expected. I also started a new journa here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...dern-rock.html

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