So the Flu has come to the Armory; a strain that causes cough and fever! Not the puke and crap variety. So here is a post with no time/calendar relevance. Its been in "the can" so to speak, enjoy stay healthy...'cause being sick blows.
A couple of years back for like 15.00 bucks an hour and all the overtime you could physically handle, I was doing my bit for The Man of The Man, The IRS! I’d open tax returns and file them according to their code, i.e.; 1040, 1040EZ, etc. etc. A trained monkey could do it but they prefer to dehumanize…er…humans instead, so there I was 10-12 hours a night every Friday, Sat. and Sun. for 3 months!
Most of my ”co-workers” had their IPods to past the time and prevent themselves from going IRS-tal and attacking a permanently sedentary member of the fulltime know it all bunch! But I had no such device at the time so had to resort to my cell phone’s radio…sheer hell until I discovered a two hours show on Sat. night on Kvet. Kvet is the country station in these parts that for the most part blows, hard, Toby Keith, Reba, crap like that, but this show did the red dirt sound, the name was just starting to be used to describe what is now mostly known as Red Dirt.
Singer-songwriters in the mold of Willie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff or David Allan Cole; songs with story lines, some comedic, some tragic, but all stripped down from the Nashville sound. So I was introduced to what to me was a new sound that was happening right here in the I-35 Corridor! Though Oklahoma seems to be the epicenter, we Texans have allot to say about the sound as well.
I am a metal-head but have always had an open mind and ear, as seen and heard on ESG my taste swings wildly. Some of what I was digging was Kevin Fowler, Cross Canadian Ragweed, The Randy Rogers Band, Hayes Carl, Josh Abbott, and Jason Boland. Also re-introduced to stuff I heard when I first got to Austin back in the early 90’s, Steve Earl, Robert Earl Keen and Bruce and Charlie Robinson.
The two hours show increase to three than four, pretty soon the show was on 6PM to 2AM on Sat. and I was exposed to some really good stuff. It just so happen that the dude,( Greg Combs of Live Oak Decline) I sat next too was/is a guitar player and did session work or sat-in with allot of the bands I was just getting into and he was a wealth of knowledge as well.
So here is a some tunes I dig from this type of sub-genre of Country. If you have access to Pandora try Cross Canadian Ragweed station and they play allot of what I'm talking about.
If you dig it cool, if not cool.
I don’t like Lady Gaga or Katy Perry ( though Russell Brand is a genius)!
Hayes Carll - "She left me for Jesus" ( I usually go with live tracks, but this video is hilarious!)
Filmed down on S.Congress too...."I don't tell you how to do your job..."
Jason Boland - "Comal County Blues" ( just when you thought people didn't write 'em like they used to!)
Kevin Fowler - "I Ain't Drinking Anymore" (this dude is known for his more comical tunes but he does some ballads and I think has a great voice).
My lovely wife Mrs. Tank got me an acoustic guitar a couple of months back....now I can really attest to the fact that all these cats make it look allot easier then it is! I can't even image singing at the same time!
If you happen to read the comments after many ESG posts you'll notice a theme, the banter of mutual respect, admiration and love. This is a bond between brothers that was forged in hot smelly kitchens, warehouses and factories. Where long hours, hard work, little pay and the days off meant listening to jams,chasing girls and drinking lots and lots of beer, all these factors helped to mold two boys into men.
Mr.666 has been a constant in my life since about 13 years of age when he "made me a tape" and has turned me on to more great music than I could ever repay. We worked in kitchens ( he got me a job) and in plastic's factories ( I got him a job). One thing that these places have in common, besides our sorry asses slavin' away for "the man", was the boom box in the corner. Usually just a radio some other poor bastard left behind when they finally got fed up and quit. The radio could either be the bane of our existence or a much needed escape from the grind, the heat, the impossibly loud machines of industry churning out plastic pieces of shit for some bigger plastic piece of shit. It is in these environs that musical tastes were challenged, developed, crushed or discovered, and it is where I found the Blues or did she find me?
We all have the blues, we've all heard the blues, if you don't get it than you simply haven't lived long enough or haven't had to deal with life's real bullshit yet! Not to say that one must be depressed to enjoy the blues, hell I'm one of the happiest people I know, but give me a dude singing with heart, blazing solos, a steady rhythm section and I'm feeling it all... the pain, the joys, highs and lows!!
I've touched before on the fact that my old man was a DJ for quite sometime on the local college radio station back home. He played Hot Dixieland and early Swing once a week from mid morning to noon. It was a treat to be working in the kitchen and hear my pops talking about stuff that few know anything about and spinning Louis Jordan for " the kitchen crew" as we were know in radio-land. I grew up on this music and it was familiar to me, the old Mexican dudes ( who just so happen to cook the best Chinese food) dug the jazz too. It was the only time we could all agree on what to listen too. Trust me when I say one can only listen to "rancheros" and "cumbias" for so long without hurling a chicken or a steam pan across a crowded kitchen!
After my dads show (or was it before) there was a Blues shows, this dude played it all, electric blues, Chicago horn-based, Memphis sound, acoustic stuff, old n' scratchy, new and slick, black and white. I read somewhere that the blues never goes away but has a resurgence every ten years or so. Well in the mid 80's there was big time resurgence George Thorogood, Robert Cray and of course Stevie Ray Vaughn being the most well known. Blues player are always good about giving credit to the greats before them, most by "covering" classics, in the Blues realm it is seen as respect to copy a song or style. Stevie was the most humble and always knew he was just part of the bigger picture his recording with Albert King are some of my favorites! Speaking of, we had our favorites back in the kitchen and Mr. 666 led the charge, he'd be on the horn requesting this or that, making the DJ work! Sometimes it was Roy Buchanan , Etta James or one of "the Three Kings" probably Albert! But it was one guy that really stood out for me back then and he happens to a.) be Mr.666's freakin' idol b.) lived the life c.) epitomizes "cool" and most importantly d.) he can play the living shit out of the electric guitar. It's his birthday ! The one and only Johnny Winter!! Happy Birthday Johnny!!!
Johnny's been around since the 60s, played Woodstock, the Filmores (East and West) you name it. Born Feb. 23, 1944 he first played the ukulele before moving on to the guitar and developing a sound and style based on the great blues men before him Robert Johnson, Johnny Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins,and of course Muddy Waters, with whom Johnny would later produce records for and win a Grammy with.
Johnny has seen some dark times, his battle with the Big H has been the most obvious, robbing him of many years and tons of money. During the blues resurgence of the mid 80's Johnny put out some blazing hot shit records that should be required listening! This is when I first heard him ( not counting the FM radio staple "Rock-n Roll Hoochie Koo")...84's Guitar Slinger, 85's Serious Business, 86's 3rd Degree and 88's Winter of'88 aremind blowing and totally Kick Ass! That this skinny, frankly ill-looking white haired man could wail like that, his voice is made to sing the blues, his playing is simply up there with whomever you care to name, words do him no justice.
My brother and I were lucky enough to see him at Antone's in either '01/'02. He was regulated to sitting for most of the set but his fingers still did what he asked and his voice is/was filled with soul and passion that cannot be faked. As a bonus Hubert Sumlin ( Howlin' Wolf's longtime partner)sat in, and let me tell you the man had the best tone I've ever heard, playing his gold Les Paul and mostly doing rhythm, the contrast with Johnny's piercing solos on his Erlewine Lazer was life altering. Many local players also sat in and the whole show had a jam session feel. The Black Crowes were playing a show that same night down the street and knowing their roots stopped by to pay homage to Johnny Guitar himself!
Here is some stuff I found there is so much good Johnny Winter! I highly suggest you look for his music, it so easy now with Youtube, Itunes, etc. to find great music...not to long ago if you were lucky your best friend would "make you a tape"...maybe the old way of getting music is better, you might make a friend for life.
"Flank mooor steeem lice!!"
You can smell the grease from here! Could this have been 25 years ago!
Johnny & Jimi... nothing more to say...
1970 w / Tommy Shannon and the late Uncle John Turner
As chronicled here on ESG, as a youngster I ate, drank, slept and bleed Led Zeppelin, I was a walking encyclopedia, tour dates, studio sessions, vacations, kids, cars, wives, girlfriends you name it!
If that was how I was with Zeppelin than I shot-up, snorted and chain- smokedBlack Sabbath!!!
You see Sabbath was always harder to grasp, they weren’t magazine cover boys, they kept their partying and debaucher on the down low, and frankly though still a working band at the time I discovered them, Ozzy was on the outs and popular-popularity had waned, but the music, oh that shit is timeless. They have their radio songs, "Paranoid"," Iron Man", even "Sweet Leaf" saw heavy rotation but give me "Hand of Doom"," A National Acrobat", "The Wizard"!
As relayed in one of my first ESG posts, it began with that Paranoid cover, first glimpsed in the faint light of my brother’s room in the holiest of holies, his record collection. The cover was cool/weird (the pink and purple sword wielding dude all fuzzy ’n shit). But that inside picture is still one of my favorite images of the band. Ozzy on the right side of the gate fold with his hands on his hips and that big cross, Bill, Geezer, and Tony on the other side just looking into the camera as if to say, “let’s party”! No mad-dog stare, make-up or spandex, just dudes that could rock you into a coma…Kick Ass!
I became obsessed with their stuff, my brother had copies of Vol. 4,Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Technical Ecstasy, Never Say Die,Masters of Reality, & Sabotage these along with Paranoid became my nightly sojourn into mysticism, earthly vices and plain weirdness. ( You may notice that the essential first album is absent from this list, I didn't get my hands on it until 7th grade when a new kid joined our class and turned me on to it! He had a friend who taped it for him, this friend of a friend turned out to be my brother from another mother, our very own MR. 666!)
Lyrically and vocally I think BS and Ozzy are both greatly under appreciated, when Ozzy plainly and painfully sings, " Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry..." you feel his pain or "I've lived a thousand times…I found out what it means to be believed” pair this with Iommi’s bluesy solos and crunching riffs, Bill Ward’s intricate beats with mind-blowing fills that created a swirl around the unmistakable-remarkable bass lines of Butler and we are talking about writers and players of the utmost degree!
Black Sabbath are credited with development of the whole Metal genre and while their sound was different, de-tuned, slow ( some songs) and heavy, I think they were more of an off -shoot of the hard/psychedelic rock that was being played in England and stateside, post summer of love on through the early 70s.
Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge, Alice Cooper, MC5, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, some Zeppelin, The Stooges, Amboy Dukes of course Uriah Heep are just a few examples off the top of my head that were loud, fast or slow, heavy and strange!
The ingredient that makes Black Sabbath a more likely candidate for creating Heavy Metal was probably less about playing ability and more about image.Unsolicited advances and appreciation from the Neo-pagan circles, the detuned guitar, a result of Iommi’s factory accident that took his finger tips, (de-tuning made the strings easier to bend). The album covers with fairly obvious nods to the darker side of the human condition and perhaps a carefully cultivated P.R. machine that saw a niche’ in the very crowded music scene that needed to be filled.
There is also the Devil’s Interval a.k.a. the tri-tone, the augmented fourth or diminish/flat fifth…, a tone, cord progress that many a Sabbath song uses; intro. riff of “Paranoid” or “Into the Void” are prime examples. Lyrics for sure helped add to this demonic image on, “N.I.B.” the song’s protagonist is The Devil in love with a human! That Iommi and Butler are very secretive, for being two of the most important rock musicians in the history of rock n roll just adds to the image and frankly they don’t try to quell any rumors of occult interests. Ozzy Osbourne’s legendary antics are mostly post Sabbath and a by product a wacky personality along with drug and alcohol use. Bill Ward (like friend John Bonham) is the epitome of the hard drinking, gentle giant, local lad done good. So the whole devil worshipper out to corrupt your kids is a little over played but the band is named Black Sabbath, not unlike another of my favorites, Judas Priest, not real subtle!
And so as an impressionable 11 year old a fervor was created in me only matched by my devotion to LZ, Black Sabbath became part of my live. As the 80s began Ozzy was out Dio was in, Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules are two of my favorite records ever, Dio’s writing is in my wheel house, wizards, witches and Knights that stuff has always been a favorite subject of mine. Bill is on H&H but gone for Mob but Tony and Geezer were obviously inspired and the playing is some of their best work. Dio left, Ward came back and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame entered for the vastly underrated Born Again. Gillan may very well have been the best pure vocal the band ever had, the album is dark and heavy but this line up was short lived, after this I lost track...Geezer even left for a while leaving Iommi to create Sabbath without his right..er left hand man!
I finally saw Black Sabbath in 1999 on their reunion tour ( Pantera and Incubus ( the metal band) opened) words alone cannot do them justice, suffice it to say they were KICK ASS!
When the lights went down and "War Pigs" began…oh shit… I started to cry! I mean crying like a happy kid on Christmas! Fittingly my big brother was right next to me, fist in the air singing along… the circle was complete.
So where am I going with all this? Tony Iommi’s Birthday! Happy Birthday Tony! Thanks for Kicking Ass!
Born Feb. 19th 1948 in Birmingham, England! Like many of his contemporaries he was influenced by the delta Blues and jazz players (such as Django Reinhart), but developed his own style that has in turn influenced countless players in every genre. Here is some stuff I’ve found along the way…
Did you know Tony was actually engaged to Lita Ford!?!
Never married....so Tony has been were many, many men have been before...including Nikki Sixx....yikes!
Tony's mustache can bench press a Ford!!!
Tony was a member of, get this, Jethro Tull! yep for a short time.
I don't know if this fact makes Tull cooler or Sabbath less cool...what am I saying Tull could never be cool!
( I do like Iron Maiden's Cross-Eyed Mary cover, though...)
I guess the band wasn't big enough for two Flute players..that is because Tony is Sabbath's resident Flutist!
not tony
"let's party"
early and awesome
This looks like a hall or the VFW! crazy man...
tony's sleeves couldn't handle his awesomeness so they took off!
His 'stache couldn't handle his awesomeness either!
where there's smoke.....there's Satan?
geezer,bill, tony and ozzy actually tearing a hole in the space-time continuum!
A Rolling Stones interview; Tony about the recording of Master of Reality 1971….
“Iommi:John Bonham, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones came down to the studio and jammed with us when we were finishing the album. We were friends with John Bonham -- he was "local" -- but Bill would never let Bonham play his drums. He was afraid he'd break them. That time we let him, and he did! There's probably a tape of it somewhere.”
I think the California Jam stuff is really cool Here are a couple...we'll start fittingly with War Pigs
.
Check out Ward absolutely murdering his kit! And Ozzy give us the Hook 'em!
The Vid I had on here has been removed by "the Man" on youtube...
Check out the Paris 1970 show on youtube or better yet buy the cd that is out there...
post script
I saw this cute chick at school a couple of weeks ago, probably 20/21 with a black t-shirt on, in little white letters across her boobs it said..." Listen to Black Sabbath"....I think I can do that!
Kinda, this cat had such an influence on one of my favorite guitar players that I thought it would be a good idea to introduce or re-introduce him before the aforementioned favorite's birthday this week!
As I will undoubtedly unleash a flurry of said favorite's bio, riffs, vids and pics, I want to lay some ground work.
Django Reinhardt ( B.1910 D. 1953) was a jazz guitar player, but could play anything from his native franco-gypsy music to classical and did it all with a significant physical limitation, especially for a guitar player of his great talent, at 18 he lost the use of his ring and pinkie fingers on his left(fret) hand!!
You see Django was a real deal Gypsy and his caravan (trailer) caught fire, he pulled his old lady to safety but got hurt real bad, old world docs wanted to amputate his leg, but Django wasn't going for that shit, so he left the hospital and taught himself how to walk again and also picked back up his guitar. Kick ass!
As you can image his playing was altered and he developed a style that influence all the greats to follow. He jammed with everyone from Armstrong to Ellington and is a certified bad ass. Here are some vids and pics.
Can you guess whom he may have influenced?
Well his birthday is this week and due to his own accident may have single handily created of the greatest music of all ( in my humble opinion)! So stay tuned.
I don't smoke but Django makes it look sooo cool.
Not to dwell, but here is a shot of his injured fingers.
This is a mini-documentary! Django rips it up, man he was a string bender! Check the run at 7:12! Oh shit!
I don't know, but it's always a good idea to stop before you SUCK!
I can think of many bands, actors and writers who may have stuck around too long. It doesn't diminish what was accomplished earlier in their careers. Hell most just don't know what else to do with themselves or they simply need the cash flow! We are all full of piss and vinegar when we are young and don't know any better, we work, create just for the love of it, or for some hidden drive to show what we can do regardless if anyone notices, much less buys it, sees it or reads it.
I know what you are thinking, " Tank! For the love of God, no Clapton in a professor's tweed jacket and spectacles... please no!!!"
Do not fret! I wouldn't post anything that does not KICK ASS! I merely want to point out that we all get older and what we did in the past should never be dismissed, diminished or forgotten even if what we have done lately blows!
There are so many examples I could present to illustrate my point but this being ESG I will try to keep it relevant to the music I love. And just to establish something, age has nothing to do with it, I still dig allot of older cats with new material but for the most part age has a direct correlation to the quality of the product, you dig?
Today's case in point ( oh, there will be more installments like this) is a band most would bunch in with the "80's Hair Band" genre, please excuse the popular vernacular, but it too illustrates the point!
Scorpions first formed in the freaking mid 60s!!! The 1960s!
Lead by German brothers Rudy and Micheal Schenker they recruited Klaus Meine on vocals and Lonesome Crow was release in 1972! Mike leaves to join UFO ( thank the guitar gods for this ) so Rudy and Klaus join together with a band call Dawn Road and their hot shit guitar player Uli Jon Roth ( again the guitar gods were looking out for us) they stick with Scorpions keep Francis Buchholz on bass and Jurgen Rosenthal on drums the line up is set, Fly to the Rainbow is released in '74! Rosenthal was a bad ass ( see vid below) but had to quit cause he was drafted in the army! Who knew Germany even had a damn army! So new drummer Rudy Lenners joins for the InTrance ( released '75) sessions. Virgin Killers is recorded and released in '77. Rudy left and Herman Rarebell joined the band,Tokyo Tapes was release in '78. Uli leaves to start Electric Sun and the Scorpions find Mathias Jabs to fill his enormouse shoes, now Mathias is a very complete player and having seen him three times that I can recall really good live, but he is no ULI! Lovedrive comes out in '79 ( Micheal is back for a couple of tracks), Animal Magnetism in '80, Blackout in '81, Love at First Sting ' 84, Jump the Shark in'82...( just making sure you are paying attention! )
Seriously Blackout has some o.k. stuff namely "Dynamite" but 'Sting could be called Jumped the Shark! The band that I first fell in mad love with on Tokyo Tapes was on the fast track to self-parody and laziness not since Van Halen did Diver Down or AC/DC's abhorred Flick of the Switch did a band totally mail it in! The songs with bluesy bass lines, jazzy beats with complex fills, soaring ethereal guitar work surrounding psychedelic or story based-well thought-out lyrics was gone...instead we got generic cords with thumping lazy bass lines and unimaginative drumming that only emphasized the lame ass lyrics! arrrghghhh! "Bad Boys Running Wild"..."Rythmn of Love".....really.
To mention more of their "efforts" through the rest of the '80s until now would be to vilify the very band I am trying to build up! One thing is for certain you can kowtow to the man, the industry and the dollar and be well on your way to sucking, but if you kicked ass once that is all that really counts!
Just don't expect to see your old ass on ESG!
1972 with Micheal Schenker at age 16 or17! truncated version "I'm Going Mad" from Lonesome Crow! Listen to that bass work!
1973 "This is My Song" from Fly to the Rainbowlive this gives me the chills! Uli is soooo good and Rosenthal can straight rip! And even Francis had chops back in the day!
1974 "Speedy's Coming" from Fly to the Rainbow , lip synced, TV but check out those clothes!
1977 "He's a Woman, She's a Man" from Taken By Force and Tokyo Tapes. TV but cool.
"Steamrock Fever" from Taken by Force, TV
"Is There Anybody There" from Lovedrive 1979 with Jabs on lead.
On a personal aside I still have the scars in my knees from hoping the barbed wire fence to get into the show in '82...bled down to my socks! We were mainly there for Iron Maiden!...I think The Rods opened!! Awww the good old days!
or is it the band named after the song.....regardless here are couple of my favorite eponymous tunes...or is it bands? Arghhh, whatever they kick ass and made kick ass songs about the name of their band....or song...or band...
Check that crowd! Di Anno and Stratton good early shit here!
Of course the incomparable Black Sabbath...not to get on too much of a tangent but just remember...
Ozzy was the fucking man once! I love the far out "effects" on this too.
kinda of reach with Queen.
I could have done White Queen, March of the Black Queen or Killer Queen.
Couldn't find Black that wasn't a medley or some cheesy photo shop and Killer is too obvious..so White it is.
May's use of the echo....sublime...sublime...sublime...
Motorhead....Motorhead....now this is a case where the song did come first, with Hawkwind!
Here's a gooder...."No Lord shall stand before myself!"
Deicide- Deicide w/ the Hoffman bros. o.k. sound too.
There are others I'm sure but I can't think of any right now, can you?
