After work, second shift, at the Kohler Company I would return home to my house in Sheboygan and go upstairs to party with my roommate Gregg and some friends, all of whom worked second shift at various locations. On the turntable the usual finds were Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes and tonight's feature, Genesis.
This was in the early 70's while Peter Gabriel was still with the band. In keeping with my trend to lose interest as bands began to acquire pop status, so too I lost interest in them when Peter left. Not that they didn't create some good music with Phil Collins in the lead singer position, but I still feel they were most creative with Peter at the helm. My interest instead followed Peter in his early solo career, waning as he also became popular.
Therefore the videos I have selected for this evening feature those from Peter Gabriel's tenure.
Website - Primarily links to the sites of individual band members. Bio Wiki
So, I've finally gotten around to this band. I don't know why it took me so long to get to them. I was blown away the first time I heard them and have been a fan ever since. I did lose some interest in their later works, preferring their early blues/rock fusion sound, but still found nuggets in their later works.
Perhaps the following can explain them better than I can:
After the [Yardbirds] break-up, Jimmy Page was left with little more than a series of concert obligations. He started jamming with John Paul Jones, a session player, who had collaborated with likes of the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits and Dusty Springfield. The duo discussed forming a new group, but ended up delaying their plans to back Donovan on his Hurdy Gurdy LP.
After hearing of Pages' intention of starting a new band, vocalist Terry Reid suggested he hear Robert Plant. When Page got a chance to check Plant out, Jimmy not only ended up liking his voice, but also his stage presence. Plant, in turn, suggested they recruit John Bonham, the drummer of his old Birmingham group, Band of Joy. The foursome clicked so nicely that they toured Scandinavia during October 1968 under the name the New Yardbirds.
By 1969 the group changed their name to Led Zeppelin, recorded, and released their first self-titled album. Within two months the album reached Billboard's Top Ten.
......
The group broke up after the tragic death of drummer John Bonham. He died from what is medically termed as asphyxiation: inhaling his own vomit during sleep after a drinking binge. His hard-hitting style has so integral to the bands sound that the remaining members decided to call it quits. Without Bonham there could be no Led Zeppelin.
The mighty Zeppelin has experimented with several musical styles over the bands reign. Their sound began with Blues and thunderous Heavy Metal, softened to mystical Folk and tumbled into the realm of Funk, Psychedelic Rock, and the fusion and integration of all these styles. [source]
After a short delay I am here this evening to jazz things up a bit with another musician who asked to be friends through YouTube. Gianni Bardaro, composer and musician grew up in Italy and later moved throughout Europe studying the Jazz Saxophone while winning much acclaim as a band leader as well as a sideman to various other musicians.
So sit back and enjoy a change of pace here with this too short list of jazz musings of Gianni Bardaro.
My record collection consists of many early obscure albums of various artists. To a great extent I shied away from the Pop Culture stuff and tended to lose interest in bands once they claimed commercial success. Don Van Vliet was no exception.
It was 1969 and I was at a friend's house when he brought out an album with a pink cover featuring a person with an odd hat and a fish mask. The title was Trout Mask Replica, although the fish looked more like a Koi. The artist called himself Captain Beefheart. My friend informed me that the album was produced by Frank Zappa, another favorite of mine, therefore I was eager to hear it.
Upon the first play I was dazed and confused by the seemingly chaotic nature, similar to some of The Mother's of Invention's works, but even further out there. Upon subsequent listenings it grew on me as the chaos gave way to the complexity of it.
Van Vliet's style was a blend of Blues, Rock, Experimental and Psychedelic with vocals sung in his unmistakable gravely voice and is considered to have "greatly influenced" New Wave artists such as David Byrne of Talking Heads, Blondie, Devo and The B-52s.
Tom Waits' shift in artistic direction, starting with 1983's Swordfishtrombones, was, Waits claims, a result of his wife Kathleen Brennan introducing him to Van Vliet's music. "Once you've heard Beefheart," said Waits, "it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee or blood."
Captain Beefheart and Magic Band went on to record a number of albums which, although gaining critical acclaim, never gained a large following or commercial success.
Performing with various configurations of the Magic Band through 1982, he left the music scene to concentrate on his artwork.
The Captain passed away yesterday at the age of 69 due to complications from multiple sclerosis. May he rest in peace...
Tonight I bring you a collection of his live performances followed by a documentary on his life and works and then wrap it up with a 14 minute performance with Frank Zappa. A song which I used to visualize as pertaining to the mid-evil days but now realize speaks of our current government as well - The Torture Never Stops.
A several months ago I received a friend invite through YouTube from an Australian musician by the name of Matt Gresham. I took a cruise over to his YouTube channel and was impressed by his song "Jack & Jill" which he was running on his channel at the time. So I added Matt as a friend at my channel and tonight I bring you a selection of tunes from Matt. Please bear with Matt as he performs at a number of rather rowdy bars!
Last weekend I was cruising through the channel guide looking for anything on the TV worthwhile of my time. I came across a PBS pledge drive show featuring an artist I had never heard of. I figured it was worth at least a few minutes of sitting through their begging for funds while waiting to see what this artist was all about.
To make a long story short, when he opened with the percussive guitar piece titled Mombasa,I was immediately blown away and hooked! I stayed for the entire show, suffering through the pledge drive drivel. It was well worth it!
Tonight I bring you Tommy Emmanuel from Australia. The first five selections are from his early years when he played electric guitar with a band. The sixth piece is Mombasa, the number that swept me off my feet. Mombasa and the rest of the show are all from his acoustic catalog.
After taking the summer off here at the Vault, I've returned with music to celebrate this Thanksgiving Holiday. Today I honor not Columbus nor the Pilgrims, but rather those who lived on this great land before the Illegal Immigrants arrived.
This is a collection of Native American music, most with modern interpretations accompanied by various slide shows. After you have stuffed yourself with turkey sit back and drift off to what once was the beauty this land offered.
Be sure to click either the photo or link above for an eye-opening look at this day we celebrate.
Tonight I pay tribute to the folks living on and near the Gulf Coast in their battle against the oil being poured into the Gulf of Mexico, their marshes and upon their beaches.
Still struggling to recover from the damages done by Hurricane Katrina, they are now faced with the specter of a dying ocean, loss of wages and jobs due to the pollution of the the fishing and shrimping grounds of which 19% are currently closed.
I begin with a sampling of Cajun and Zydeco music and then I'll take you down to New Orleans for a sampling of New Orleans Jazz and Blues as performed by various street musicians.
One Saturday afternoon in 1968 I went downstairs at Steiner Hall, my dorm at WSU - Stevens Point, to visit my friend Ray. Ray brought out a new album he had bought titled Music from Big Pink. It was by a group with the odd name of The Band and featured a painting by Bob Dylan on the front and the title in big block letters with picture of a pink house on the back.
Before the first song, Dylan's wrenching Tears of Rage, was over, I was hooked. The sound was raw and rough, a departure from the highly polished works popular at the time. The guitar work of Robbie Robertson was my main draw.
Over the years, after The Band gave us their Last Waltz, I seem to have lost track of Robbie. I can no longer afford to cruise record stores as I used to and radio is pathetic, so I was unaware of his recent works.
Then a couple weeks ago my friend 99 featured one of his videos at her site and I was once again hooked!
Tonight I begin with a number of his works from Robbie Robertson and The Red Road Ensemble's Music for the Native Americans followby a number of Robbie's works with the band and other works over the years.
Tonight's show is dedicated to my friend, the eminent Agent 99.
Born in Chicago, 1949, Gil Scott-Heron's parents divorced and he was sent to live with his grandmother in Tennessee. Soon racial tensions at school caused him to move back with his mother who had moved to the Bronx and later to the Chelsea neighborhood.
By the age of 13 he had already written a book of poetry and later wrote a novel entitled "The Vulture" after leaving college.
He released his first album 'New Black Poet: Small Talk at 125th and Lennox' in 1970. It contained the spoken word song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - a response to the Governments interference with the media at the time. (My how things have changed!)
Gil followed it the next year with "Pieces of Man" featuring John Coltrane and Lady Day and a more toned down political slant.
Gil's spoken word pieces are often attributed as the origin of Rap.
Tonight I first bring you a one hour documentary on Gil followed by a number of his works.
