FLASHBACK SONG OF THE DAY

FLASHBACK SONG OF THE DAY – ‘Big Bottom’ by Spinal Tap (1984). Today’s word on this rainy day? Lazy. Besides watching movies all day, the only productive thing I’ve done so far is my nails. Throughout the day, I’ve peeked over at my laptop and said, “I have to get moving and get songs ready, run to the supermarket, clean my ass up, maybe get some writing done…but what song to do today?” So I just shut the TV off and on goes the iPod (always on shuffle)…and this is what came on. So I’m straightening up and walking around my apartment when I realize I’m singing along to “Big Bottom” like it’s a serious song! Ha! This is such CLASSIC! On occasion, Soundgarden used to play this song during their concerts back in the day (see below for a link to what I found on YouTube. It’s very funny to hear a grunge version ;) When musicians like Jimmy Page, Steven Tyler and Eddie Van Halen, just to name a small handful, watched “Spinal Tap” and failed to see the humor in the movie because it hit too close to home! Eddie Van Halen supposedly said “Everything in that movie had happened to me!” Some bands were even ready to sue the producers of “Spinal Tap” because they thought the movie was based on them and that their invasion of privacy had been violated. There were so many bands back then that didn’t get necessarily pissed off about the movie like Eddie VH and Steven Tyler but rather cried with laughter at the movie such as The Edge of U2 and Glenn Danzig because funny scenes like not being able to find the stage were so true to real life! Imagine?! I think it’s pretty amazing that a satire or “Mocumentary” about the rock ‘n’ roll biz has turned into a complete and totally respected rock icon. Too cool. Enjoy this laugh! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qDgCmzh5ao&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah_SvTH_Uv4&feature=related – Soundgarden FLASHBACK SONG OF THE DAY - ‘Poles Apart’ by Pink Floyd (1994). I posted this about a year ago and feel it’s time for a repost to finish off Pink Floyd week. As much of a diehard Pink Floyd fan as I am, I’ll be perfectly honest with you, this is not one of my favorites…at all. BUT, in the last minute and a half or so of the song, the guitar solo is what made me put “Poles Apart” in my most played iPod playlist. I don’t play the guitar, never did and probably never will but the way David Gilmour, and I think this is guitar lingo, “bends” the string(s?) up just gets me and causes me to close my eyes, raise both eyebrows, throw my hand up to my heart and let out a desperate “Uhh!”. All of you guitar players can stop laughing now. ;) It’s one thing to sing with emotion but I truly envy guitarists who can make the instrument show such emotion, and especially, extract an emotion from within the listener. “Poles Apart” is one small example…Gilmour is obviously one of the greatest guitarists of all time and just about all of his work is goose bump inducing. “Poles Apart” was off of The Division Bell which was the final studio album under the Pink Floyd name minus Roger Waters. Good album, not great, but good. What I did like about The Division Bell was that every song has an ethereal feel to it and has almost an echoing concert sound to it. If that was deliberate, then it was a genius decision because the songs performed on the Division Bell tour sounded EXACTLY as they did on the album. We fans like that. I read a couple of interviews about “Poles Apart” and they all said the same thing - the first half of the song is Gilmour speaking to the founding member of Pink Floyd, the late Syd Barrett and the second half is Gilmour speaking to Roger Waters…guess the lyrics pretty much speak for themselves. The “bending” of the strings that move me so much (in this video) is between 6:34 – 6:36. Unreal… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-7dnkXG4IM FLASHBACK SONG OF THE DAY - ‘Moby Dick’ by Led Zeppelin (1969). Can you believe it’s been 31 years today since the world lost Bonzo? Crazy. I read that according to John Bonham’s wife, Pat, “Moby Dick” was originally titled “Pat’s Song” but then a little Jason Bonham would ask his daddy to play “The Long Song” and the name of the song was officially changed in the Bonham household. When asked why Jason called it “The Long Song”, he said because it was long and big, like Moby…and then the name of the song officially changed again, and for good, to “Moby Dick”. Bonham used just about every method of playing drums on “Moby Dick” during live concerts…his drum solos would sometimes last close to a half an hour and he would bleed from going so far as to playing the drums with his hands. Immediately following Bonham’s death, rumors circulated that Phil Collins, Roger Taylor (of Queen), among a ton of others would replace John as Zeppelin’s drummer. I’m sure this speculation was just the fans trying to find the best drummers at the time to fill the large shoes. But it didn’t take long for the remaining members of Led Zeppelin to announce that they couldn’t continue as Led Zeppelin without Bonham. Most of the very few Zeppelin reunion performances over the past 30 years took two drummers to make up for John Bonham’s fierce power, or they’d get the next best thing, Jason Bonham filling in for his dad. Jason Bonham has been on tour for the last 2 years or so performing The Led Zeppelin Experience to honor the 30 year anniversary of his dad’s death. What I like about Jason is that he never tried to outdo his father’s talents. He knows his father was the best and simply keeps his talents and spirits alive. I’ve seen Jason’s show twice in the last year and the whole thing was just amazing but “Moby Dick” was the best part. Jason Bonham was on stage kicking off “Moby Dick” while a big screen (with audio) behind him then brings footage in of John Bonham also playing “Moby Dick”…they were playing in sync. It was BEYOND phenomenal. The link attached is from one of Jason Bonham’s shows...so powerful…and even brought tears to my eyes. RIP Bonzo… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cceVKKeCB2Y