Old Rockers never die, they just get more wrinkly?


Check out Keith Richards.... Lol.

Seriously to the topic in hand.

I am like many here I suspect in that I grew up listening to 60,s & 70,s rock music.
For me being in England it was bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd yada yada yada, you get the picture.

Now I have embraced streaming and via this medium I have found much new to me music that I thoroughly enjoy but......

Can't shake them roots!

Nothing is guaranteed to put a huge silly grin on my face quicker than cranking out the old rocker tunes.

Like last night, streaming some jazz fusion which was ok but then clicked on Outsider by Uriah Heep.

Oh yes, feet were shuffling, hands were twitching and ready to break out the old air guitar!

So what REALLY moves you?
128x128uberwaltz
Every once in a while I put on Styx Equinox. Suite Madam Blue, no matter how it starts out, cannot be played loud enough. Loved it in the 70’s when as a student I got the metaphor. For some reason its even better now. Oh yeah, I know the reason! The chorus!
AMERICA! America america america!AMERICA! America america america!AMERICA! America america america! AMERICA! America america america!
Whoa! Head rush!Didn’t know it then, but know it now: mastered by Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab.Sweet madam blue, gaze in your looking glass, you’re not a child any moreSweet madam blue, the future is all but past, so raise up your heart, make a new start, lead us away from here
As it once was. So shall it ever be.
Back in the day (mid-60s). The Beatles & The Rolling Stones were IT. No others need apply. But of course, there was room for more...

For me, of the Brit blues-rock bands, Cream was the best (regardless of what bdp thinks of ’em). If not "best" in an objective sense, my favorite. Something like 40 years later, they only improved based on the Royal Albert Hall reunion which I think was 2005.

Can’t leave out Led Zeppelin. High school study hall with friends playing their first over and over on one of those portable one speaker record player boxes.

I remember people raving in ’70/’71 about Deep Purple’s "In Rock" well before DP became a "household name", as it were.

On the US side of the ocean: Leslie West & Mountain. The first two: Climbing & Nantucket Sleigh Ride.

Always had a soft spot for MC5 (Kick Out The Jams).
Another bdp fave.

Allman Brothers Band - a little late picking up on them: Beginnings and At Fillmore East (probably ’72/’74 before I heard them).

Back to your side of the ocean. Rory Gallagher though I was really late to that party. I do remember owning Tattoo (released in ’73).

I’m guessing I’ve got 10 years more of wrinkle time than you, U ;-)

With the possible exception of MC5, I can listen (and do) to all the above and think they are fantastic.




Ghost
Just turned the big 60 last week!

I guess I am really just enjoying delving back into my past via music and the memories a song can bring back.
And the emotion and reactions to my first deep musical loves!

Miller.

Our preferred Styx album was The Grand Illusion blasting out over the student common room stereo!
Come Sail Away indeed!
Ah memories ..........
U - A belated "Happy Birthday". 
Live to see many more in health and happiness.  

(truth be known, closer to 20 on you...but who's counting).

One of my fondest memories of college was people rocking out with their windows open, sometimes even with a speaker pointing out, blasting music all over the place. This was back when there was music good enough to be worth doing this with. Music everyone actually wanted to hear. This was 76-80 and so you could be walking along and hear the classic sax hook from Gerry Rafferty Baker Street all over the place.


"We need to be thinking about what kind of world we're leaving for Keith Richards."
"We need to be thinking about what kind of world we're leaving for Keith Richards."
I thought only Katie used that line.....😁
I grew up on a lot of the same stuff plus a healthy dose of Def Leppard, Judas Priest, AC/DC and a few others.  

All this talk about Styx reminds me of taking a bus to one of our high school football team's playoff games.  Come Sail Away came over the speakers and the entire bus started singing it, like the scene in Almost Famous where they were on the tour bus and started singing Tiny Dancer.
I still love the music I loved as a teen in the late 60s -early 70s.I was obsessed with Frank Zappa who unfortunately did pass away.Help I'm a Rock!

The first live music I saw and heard (apart form my first concert in the Summer of ’64: The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium, with Brian Wilson still playing bass and singing lots of falsetto parts) was in the wake of the British Invasion. Like every other town in America, there was a group practicing in a garage on every suburban street in the Santa Clara Valley starting in late’64/early ’65.

That Spring and Summer, those San Jose garage bands started playing out, and I saw them all: The Chocolate Watchband, People, The Syndicate Of Sound, The Trolls/Stained Glass (they changed their name when they went from a quartet to a trio), The Jaguars, The Otherside, dozens of others. When I saw The Beatles at The Cow Palace in S. San Francisco that Summer, I was slightly underwhelmed and disappointed.

We all got heavily into The Yardbirds, Kinks, Stones, Animals, Manfred Mann, etc., the harder, Bluesier British bands. Then the debut Paul Butterfield Blues Band album came out, and the bar had been raised. The American musicians in Paul’s band were much more authentic Blues players than the Brits (and Paul had Howlin’ Wolf’s drummer and bass player!).

But then Fresh Cream and Are You Experienced appeared, and our little teenage minds were blown. Cream lead us to John Mayall’s first (we had learned after the fact that Clapton was the guitarist on the album), then his second (with Peter Green taking Clapton’s place), which was even better. When we learned The Stumble was originally done by some guy named Freddie King, we headed backwards, to discover the sources.

By that time Bill Graham had started putting on shows at a big old cavernous ballroom in the "Negro" section of San Francisco, the Fillmore district. He brought some of the old Blues guys out of retirement, having them open for the white kids who were imitating them. Let me tell ya, seeing them live was a real education.

In the Summer of ’68 Music From Big Pink appeared, and I didn’t get it AT ALL. I didn’t like the fact that the smartest guys I knew loved the album, but oh well. Life went on, and I discovered The Nice (Keith Emerson’s pre-ELP group)---whom I saw at The Fillmore, Procol Harum (good live), even Vanilla Fudge (I’m embarrassed to admit ;-). Early in ’69 a non-musician I knew said there was an album by a new group that was great. I listened to it in the school library, and instantly detested it. It was the debut Led Zeppelin. Nothing more than fake, corny, Blues cliche’ posturing. I was embarrassed to be white.

Then in the Summer of ’69 my teenage band opened for The New Buffalo (drummer Dewey Martin the only remaining member of Buffalo Springfield, with Bobby’s brother Randy Fuller on bass and harmony vocals), and as I watched and listened to them play and sing, I became confused, disturbed. I could not understand why, though none of the four members seemed to be doing much, they sounded SO good. All of a sudden I had an epiphany: all became clear, and in a rush I understood what The Band was all about. EVERYTHING had changed in an instant.

It’s not that I don’t "like" Cream: they are what they are. Clapton has said that upon hearing Music From Big Pink for the first time (he became obsessed with the album), his reaction was: "Music had been headed in the wrong direction for a long time. When I heard MFBP, I thought: Well, someone has finally got it right." Once again, and this time on the deepest level, the game had been completely changed.

As always Eric, your depth ,breadth and passion for the music leaves me in awe and humbled!
Deeply appreciated my friend!

As to old Rockers, Welshman Dace Edmunds understands Rock ’n Roll as few do. A listen to his incredible 1970 re-imagining of the old Smiley Lewis Blues "I Hear You Knocking" will explain it all.

Lots of Rockers think the music is about the release of energy (a prime example being The Who’s butchering of "Summertime Blues" and "Shakin’ All Over". Daltry’s hoary vocals are unbearable.). Dave’s "IHYK" displays how if you first create an almost unbearable degree of tension, it’s release is much more, ahem, satisfying.

The "Moral Majority" whites in the 1950’s South understood how sexual the new music was, and didn’t want their children listening to no vulgar n*gg*r music. Elvis has been accused of "appropriating" (stealing) black music, which is an over-simplification. His five Sun singles (which witnessed the creation of Rockabilly) had a Blues on one side, a Hillbilly on the other. That was the other reason early Rock ’n’ Roll was banned: it encouraged, promoted even, integration.

The Dave Edmunds Band live in the 1980’s was the best Rock ’n’ Roll I’ve ever seen and heard. Even better than Rockpile, and that’s really saying something. And yes, I saw The Who with Keith Moon live. Twice. And Hendrix. And Cream. And The Stones. And The Dead. And The damn Beatles.

Head East, Never Been Any Reason Save my life I'm going down for the last tiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmme!
It’s Miller Time!
Well a pastiche anyways.😁😁

There I was in good old blighty just knowing we were still the center of the known universe and absolutely the Pinnacle of the musicverse!

We had at the time a weekly rag called NME ( New Musical Express) and one day it had an article all about the new Musical gods from Canada namely Rush, Styx, Mahogany Rush and Lee Aaron.

I was intrigued as they really pushed these guys ( and gal) so what’s a boy to do when you live in a backwater village with just 1200 people.
I mean record stores were all in the big city of Derby, a 2 hour bus ride away.
Heck we still had real live practicing witches covens in the woods! Seriously Google Derbyshire witches.
So off to the big city I went and ordered both 2112 and The Grand Illusion and nearly collapsed at the prices as he had to import them specially.
3 weeks later I had them in my sweaty grasp and rushed to the college stereo ( better than my humble affair) and plonked down 2112.

Life has never been the same since.......
Rush: Permanent Waves changed my world... forever. Natural Science was the song. It was all over from there. I’m currently in a Led Zeppelin tribute band... that should say a lot right there!
The "old ones"are the survivors . many of the middle-age rockers died
from the drug that is hardest  to your heart, cocaine .
And, one assumes, the most fun. They say it’ll kill you but they don’t say when.
Saturday night at chez dweller: Ripple/Boon's Farm and mother nature. Platters included: Led Zep, Allman Bros, Johnny Winter, Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, Mississippi Fred. Pastures of plenty...
"They say whiskey will kill you but I don't think it will"

I am sure Geoff know where this comes from.  
Only if one doing the assuming is a total idiot and all around fool
So you have met GK then?😇😇
In the Summer of ’68 Music From Big Pink appeared, and I didn’t get it AT ALL.
Big Pink? In 68? I thought it was only recently Victoria's Secret started using the plus-size models? 
 The music I didn't get at all was U2. AC/DC at least I could understand. Didn't care for it then but at least could see why others did. U2 though just seemed the most repetitive thing, same damn chord over and over and over again. 
Now though I put on Joshua Tree all the time. Maybe its my copy, people have told me its flat, but mine is deep and wide and liquid and detailed and just about as good as could be. The Edge guitar I found boring, now I can get that it rings like a bell, or a chime. 
There's a video about great guitarists that shows him playing with tubes or whatever tweaking to get the particular sound he wants for each song. Been long enough now to no longer remember which came first his explanation or my appreciation but either way its there now. U2 used to be like a Jackson Pollock. Now its van Gogh. Only louder. A lot louder.

Evan Johns (three albums on Rykodisc, a bunch of others on assorted labels) was legendary not only for his guitar playing (amazing), songwriting, and singing, but his drinking. When I went to Atlanta for a week in the late-90's to record an album with him, he said to me: "As long as you stay away from the hard stuff, you're okay."

He drank only beer, but a LOT of it. He arrived in Atlanta a day before the band members, and passing by his hotel room door the morning after we arrived, I saw two 18-packs of empty Budweiser cans discarded on the hallway floor. In the studio he chain drank them, opening a new one as he was finishing the last. He ate one meal the entire week.

The album was done, and a supporting U.S. tour was being setup. Then one day back at home (British Columbia at the time) he wasn't feeling well, and went to the hospital. He fell into a coma, the doctor telling his woman he was in the final stage of liver failure, and to make funeral arrangements. He proved the doc wrong, simply sitting up in bed one day a few weeks later!

Turns out this was the third time the exact same thing had transpired. But in Austin in 2017, the end finally came. He was only 60 years old, and quite a character. But how about Jerry Lee Lewis? The hardest drinker of all the Sun Records guys (Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison), and the last man standing, his 85th birthday later this year. I can't believe he is still alive!

The first few things that came to mind were:

1) The bass riff in "Johnny The Fox" by Thin Lizzy.
2) The dueling guitars in the intro to "Warrior" by Wishbone Ash
3) The synthesizer riff in "Round and Round" by The Strawbs.
4) "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin.

Looks like I've got some homework to do............
@mitchagain.....if you're going to dust off an 'oldie' or four....

"The Bomber: A:Closet Queen, B:Bolero C:Cast Your Fate to the Wind"
by The James Gang....

Skip to 3:30 and enjoy a fun cover or two....;)

Extra credit points.....
"Big Block" - Jeff Beck
"Stone Cold Fever" - Humble Pie 
"Homework" - J Geils Band (live version)

Speaking of Humble Pie, has anyone heard their cover version of "Chest Fever" (The Band)? I've been on a quest to find it since the mid 70's, and I'm still looking for it.
@avsjerry.....It was interesting the way that the James Gang incorporated "Bolero" into "The Bomber," despite it being 2 years after the Jeff Beck Group released "Beck's Bolero."

What I found more interesting was the similarity between the guitar riffs of "Rocky Mountain Way" (released in 1973) and "Jet Set (Sigh)," released by Stephen Stills & Manassas in 1972. The fact that Stills combined the two songs on his 1975 live album was pretty cheeky.
Thirty Days in the Hole but by the mighty Warren Haynes and Government Mule....
@bdp24 let’s talk about the book, I sponsor artists, just wrapping up a short film project :-) your writing is fantastic 

and we need to talk RM-9
@mitchagain....*G*  Oh, we (and they) were all just 'fried' and farting around....

"Hey!  Check out this riff! *batdatdatat...bonk....batdatdatat...Bonk..(etc.)*
"?!...Yeah!..."

The rest is hysterical....;)  Everyone was feeding off each other....for what I can remember, and you know how that goes....;)

As I tease the 'newbie hipster sorts' of late:

"Look, son....I helped invent your 'lifestyle' and that hydroponic inhalant you enjoy...so...*hold out thumb & forefinger*.....*suck*....consider this.....*exhale*....'rent'. ;)

I have an excuse....I was born in SoCal...moved north and completed the grain bamage....;)
Pretty sure no English metalhead could pass up a dose of Judas Priest!

Screamin for Vengeance.

Ear bleed time from the time when Rob Halford vocals could nearly shatter glass!