Rock Music

Seven Wonders of Rock n’ Roll-complete with helpful map.

~ Cave_Guy ~ 3 Comments

seven-wonders-4

Seven Wonders of Rock (or my personal Rock n’ Roll bucket list)

This is my best seven. I will attempt to defend my selections. Defend them like an angry dog guarding a shoe-you better bring some treats and a deft touch if you want to pry them away from me!

My goal is to do this whole list. Complete with lots of pictures and insightful writing to share with you all.

1. The Robert Johnson Crossroads, Clarksdale, Mississippi

https://caveoffame.com/2013/05/19/the-seven-wonders-of-rock-n-roll-1-the-crossroads/

The legend of the man who sells his soul in order to play guitar like the devil-this is the genesis of Rock Music. It does not matter if it is true; only that this changed everything.

2.Sun Studio, Memphis, Tennessee

https://caveoffame.com/2013/05/21/the-seven-wonders-of-rock-2-and-3-the-studios/

Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins– And that just scratches the surface of the greats that scratched history in vinyl right here.

3. Abbey Road Studios, London

https://caveoffame.com/2013/05/21/the-seven-wonders-of-rock-2-and-3-the-studios/

The iconic Album cover of the Beatles walking on that zebra crossing is burned into the consciousness of every true rock fan in the world. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon being recorded here is enough of a kicker to get this in.

4.Jim Morrison Grave, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

https://caveoffame.com/2013/05/25/the-lizard-king-rests-wonder-4/

Has become a pilgrimage for rock music fans. There is a special mystique that summons us here. If you make it to Paris, you have to answer this call.

5. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio

https://caveoffame.com/2013/06/06/cleveland-rocks-alan-freed-ian-hunter-me-frozen-like-a-chipmunk/

Yes-this city wanted it more than all the other sexier cities that toyed with the idea. Cleveland made it a reality and made it fit. They also made it work…people care if their favorite band gets in or not. And thankfully unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame-they don’t keep you out for drug use.

6.Woodstock Festival Site, Bethel, N.Y

https://caveoffame.com/2013/07/02/thank-a-hippie-today/

Here is one that I have checked off the list-If you mention this event, everyone knows what you are talking about- Peace, Love and Music. A simple triple threat of power for the soul. This is a great visit with a fine museum and performing arts center on site. And always a few original hippies hanging around (some never left).

7. Red Rocks, Morrison, CO

https://caveoffame.com/2013/07/14/wonder-7-my-band-is-playing-__________-o-k-we-are-something-now/

A true natural wonder set in a mystical place of beauty. The Beatles played here and it did not sell out.  Jimi Hendrix played here. It is somewhere that great rock music happens right now! It is where every big name band wants to leave a mark (and maybe record a DVD). I want to go here at least one time a see a show! Yes…bucket worthy.

s-w--sketch-44

I created a little map to help me on my quest-

Led Zeppelin.Immigrant Song

~ Cave_Guy ~ 16 Comments

Immigrant Song

My favorite Zeppelin song changes for reasons I can’t fully explain. It could be the seasons or moods or just the way we all evolve with the passage of time.

This one has got me now

It makes me feel like a Viking…the rain is dripping off the horns on my helmet-the wind is numbing my rough and weatherworn face. I taste the salt of the cold northern sea as waves crash against my wooden vessel, there is no safe coastline in sight.

“Hammer of the gods; drive our ships to new lands”

The yelling and screaming keeps me at my oars-it is compelling me to destiny.

The rhythmic guitar riff is like the wind and lightning of the storm that rages.

The baseline is the beating of the rain.

The drums are coming up from the frothy depths to smash the fragile planks underfoot; ready to take me with any misstep.

I FEEL THIS SONG!

And enjoy

It’s not Rock n’ Roll- but I like it.

~ Cave_Guy ~ 5 Comments

I am stepping out of Rock music to highlight a few pieces “out of genre” that cut me right to the soul.

Talk about old school

Let’s take it back to someone who received a few more dabs of the stuff that makes man the image of God than the rest of us. Or if you don’t go for that- “The accidental combo of D.N.A that evolved by pure chance from the primordial soup and a dash of comet dust to create a perfect music producing specimen.” This is a one in [however many humans have ever been born] shot. What is that? About one in 4 trillion or something?

And I know time and upbringing and all manner of other things had to work together to make this genius happen. It did happen and he was a rock star for his time!

Mozart taps into the very essence of the joy of being human.

Miles Davies is cool

This sounds like walking deserted streets on a summer night with no fear because you know the town and it knows you- mixed with a complex and overwhelming feeling of loneliness. Refined to an actual entity so we can all join in and be alone together. I actually feel like I am part of one of those dime store detective novels when I hear this.

Country music does hold some amazing talent

This guy makes great music and I am not even sure if most country music fans really like him? He polishes the ridiculous into the sublime. This song works like Procol Harum’s Whiter shade of Pale. It grabs you and takes you on a cosmic journey. A sort of Texas psychedelic trip complete with ponies and Tonto telling the Lone Ranger to “kiss his ass”. This is just one favorite in a huge catalog of great songs.

Tupac is a legend

He was not around for very long and I totally get why they brought him back as a hologram. I love this song because it always makes me dance and lifts my spirits. This is not a great video so I would skip ahead to 1:18 and get to the start of the tune. Pure rock fans can argue all they want about how terrible hip hop music is but I do not agree. No genre of music is inherently bad.

All good music is derived from the same well of inspiration and there are many rivers to drink from and swim in.

Wonder #7- “My band is playing Red Rocks!!, O.K we are something now!”

~ Cave_Guy ~ 3 Comments

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Wonder #7- “My band is playing __________!!! , O.K we are something now!”

I started this list with a somewhat obscure beginning point for the origin of rock music that is as much a fable as it is truth -The Crossroads in Mississippi. And I am good with that.https://caveoffame.com/2013/02/20/the-devils-music/

I wanted to finish with a music venue that is alive and well and where rock lives right at the moment I hit the publish button.

It has to have 3 things:

1. Credibility from the past- History of Rock music supporting it.

2. Credibility right now-A band practicing in a random garage anywhere in the world might dream that one day they will play there.

3. “It makes me wonder”-It has to be a destination that makes you want to visit and worth the effort no matter if you are a fan or a musician. It holds the weight of true wonder.

There have been many places rock music has been alive…from the to the Royal Albert hall to Budokan and everything in between like: The Hollywood bowl, The Fillmore East, Monterey Fairgrounds, CBGB’s, Central Park, The Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo, Madison square Garden and The Cavern Club in Liverpool- to name a few from a large list.

You can argue if you want but this is my page and I am first to attempt this so I give you:

RedRocks
RedRocks (Photo credit: Slithy)

Wonder of Rock #7 Red Rocks

History:

The Beatles played here in 1964 and it did not sell out!

Jimi Hendrix played here.

This place truly rocks-it has rocks in its name and it is made out of rocks.

Right now:

Rolling Stone just named it best concert venue in the U.S.A

The Rolling Stones have not played here, but they are still going so it could happen.

Robert Plant played here last week.

Wonderness:

This place is friggin’ awesome (O.K I have not got here but that is how it holds in my brain!)

U2 picked this place for a concert movie/album and put it on the map for us non-believers to behold.

There is this whole ancient mystic thing…something that a place holds by itself and can’t be added in by developers.

There is a natural beauty about the setting that would make it a cool place to go even if there was no music.

Nanook.Ingerlaliinnaleqaagut Music is the universal language!

~ Cave_Guy ~ 5 Comments

Nanook.Ingerlaliinnaleqaagut

I was looking through all the countries that have visited the cave on my WordPress stat thingy and noticed this big area of Greenland with no hits at all…. So I figured I would take a visit myself and found these guys

This sound is both enchanting and comforting. It is like The Lumineers with some special ethereal Artic-ness added in. But I don’t want to call this band a knock-off of anything else because they are unique.  They just seem to fit into this Nuevo folk music revival going on all over the world. I have no idea what they are saying but I know they sing truth because I can feel it. This dude takes regular notes and gently lifts his voice to a higher range flying to the heavens to produce a delightful resolution. This is pure magic. Maybe part of it is the language? I know French and Italian are called romantic but this language of Greenland is made for acoustic guitars and a gentle folk beat.

For more info on this band go to their website   http://www.nanook.gl/bio.html

And give this a listen!

Joe Bonamassa this and Joe Bonamassa that

~ Cave_Guy ~ 6 Comments
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

He is a virtuoso guitar player and evangelist of the blues- I have an unnatural and possibly not quite legal love of the blues myself.

I should love this guy and all he stands for.

He is from Upstate N.Y where I call home…and not just “everything 12 miles north of NYC” Upstate but close enough to me in Upstate that his town gets on my local weather map.

I should love this guy and all he stands for.

There he is with his Sunburst Les Paul playing with Eric Clapton. Wow, the classic tool of the trade and how cool is that to be sanctified by slow hand himself?

I should love this guy and all he stands for.

I can’t watch or listen- he is too close.

If he was from Mongolia, I would love him…I picture him riding his horse over the grassy plane to meet the tribe leader who happens to be his Dad to tell him that he is done herding Yaks and going to N.Y to follow his dream –“Dad, I will play a searing blues guitar that will make beautiful women scream and strong men cry.”

Then I would listen.

If he grew up on the streets of a post-industrial working class city like Pittsburgh, Cleveland or maybe Newcastle and was full of angst and rage that needed an outlet, then like the proverbial oyster forging a pearl, he transformed that pain into reverberated and distorted beauty that would conjure the ghost of Jimi.

Then I would love him.

Even if he changed his name to some kind of alter image- Like Johnny Ace or Joe Bomb or Alice Samobon. Anything to remove him from that regular guy down the street image of him stuck in my head.

Then I would love him.

So when I flip channels and find Joe Bonamassa live in Vienna as a P.B.S special- I should be all over it. I should be clicking to it and cranking it up. I should live and die with each perfectly sustained bent string of gleaming purity that emanates from this master of his craft. I should be almost to tears before the first pledge break.

But alas- he is too close to me and I cannot separate my preconceived feelings about him and just enjoy the show.

Joe Bonamassa this and Joe Bonamassa that, I get it but I can’t go there.

This is my problem.

 

 

 

Wonder #6, Woodstock, Thank a Hippie today

~ Cave_Guy ~ 7 Comments

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By the time we got to Woodstock we were in White Lake in Bethel.

Woodstock is not the home of the famous Woodstock- The actual site is in Bethel, N.Y- but how cool does Bethel sound? “Hey man, everyone is going to Bethel this summer”.

And maybe not all of the 480,000 concert goers in 1969 were hippies…but they damn sure started it!

Wonder #6 -The site of the original 1969 Woodstock

Monument at original Woodstock location
Monument at original Woodstock location

Quick recap:

Two young guys with lots of money and zero music industry experience wanted to put on a rock show. They chose Woodstock because famous musicians like Bob Dylan and the Band lived there.

The town of Woodstock would not allow them to do it.

They were in big trouble finding a spot – Before the thing completely collapsed- a farmer in Bethel, N.Y named Max Yasgur allowed the use of his dairy farm for the event.

Max Yasger's farm
Max Yasger’s farm

They had to make it free or risk a riot.

There was rain that made mud. They ran out of things like food.

There was also political strife, free love, drugs and great music. Thank the hippies for keeping it peaceful enough to happen. No other group in any other generation could have made history without serious trouble, especially considering the overwhelming strain on limited resources they faced.

Every big outdoor music festival after this is compared to this. This is like Michael Jordan to basketball or Babe Ruth to baseball- Much bigger than the game itself. It transcends its genre to become an iconic cultural moment in time.

Thank you Hippies!

Flowers and fence looking down to stage site
Flowers and fence looking down to stage site

There were two original hippies guarding the monument and graciously dispensing information when I made a visit to this shrine of Rock n’ Roll. They pointed me in the direction of the original stage site where I went with my family to take a few pictures.

The museum on the site is also worth a visit. Great trip for all.

My son jumping at the site of original Woodstock stage
My son jumping at the site of original Woodstock stage

Thank you to all the original hippies for changing the way we think about music.

monument close up
monument close up

And Peace to all

How to end up handcuffed backstage at a REO Speedwagon concert.

~ Cave_Guy ~ 15 Comments
The Essential REO Speedwagon
The Essential REO Speedwagon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I need some kind of rock n roll diploma to hang by my computer to justify me as a blogger of rock music; so I will tell this story from 1982.

My taste in music is not always as good as I think- now or in the past

Case in point:

 I once was an REO Speedwagon fanatic.

I am not proud of this but I admit that I may still own the entire REO Speedwagon catalogue. (at least up until the incident in the title)…yes, even those obscure records before Kevin Cronin took over as lead singer-And it gets worse:

I proudly wore a R.E.O belt buckle that I bought at the county fair. Back in the good ol’ days when copyright infringement was not farmed out to Asian countries; we made quality fake stuff right here in the U.S.A!!

While my friends were listening to Pink Floyd and Kiss- I was way ahead of the curve on pure grain-fed Midwestern formula paint by numbers watered down blues. (In my defense- “You can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish” is not a bad record)

And then R.E.O abandoned their  rock n’ roll roots and became the biggest pop/rock band in America with the release of Hi Infidelity.  

This was the biggest selling rock album in America In 1982.

And that is when I met my heroes in a bar…and ended up in handcuffs backstage at their sold-out show.

And you probably won’t believe this story.

I had connections that got me great seats to concerts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in N.Y

On my list of shows that year was R.E.O Speedwagon.

I had planned to take a girl friend but that required finding a girl and having her remain in “active girl friend status” at the time of this show- I had two months to make this happen but as an awkward, nerdy and slightly weird young adult- fate was stacked against me- I had great seats and no date a couple days before the show. I sold my tickets to some happy couple for no profit.

Plus the band was a riot of popularity as mega stars and my infatuation with them was rapidly fading. I told myself they had sold-out.

On the night before the show I am sitting in a bar in downtown Saratoga Springs- It is 1am and the bar band is playing- there are maybe 12 of us in there and the owner of said establishment has stopped collecting the 2 dollar cover charge.

Who walks in but Kevin Cronin, Gary Richrath and one other dude from R.E.O (maybe the drummer?- I guess I need help from one of the other eleven in the bar that night to help me remember?)

They walk to the stage and rip into “Johnny Be Good” with a couple members of the bar band- They did play a couple more songs before departing and I remember slapping Kevin Cronin on the back and saying thanks as they walked out (BTW-he does not like that- just in case you get in range)

But how cool is the biggest band on the planet just going back and playing for fun?

I should have left it right there, but:

Night of the show I am hanging outside the gates at the Performing Arts Center because I have no tickets…some go jumping over the fence and I join them to sneak in.

A security guard chases me and I run away—I am fast but the guard is faster and tackles me in a spectacular dive which could have made the top ten on Sports Center. The crowd loved it!

I am handcuffed and put on a golf cart with other criminals to be processed. They do the processing backstage at the show—which is kind of ironic because that is closer than any of us dreamed of getting.

One scary dude handcuffed to a locker and is yelling obscenities and insults at me largely because I am dressed like a geek. I realize 3 things at that moment:

  1. I am a geek and even getting arrested with people does not automatically make me “cool” with those people.
  2. I am going to be calm and make good decisions from this point forward so that I don’t end up going to jail.
  3. Damn, that guard was fast! He must do a 4.1 time on the forty yard dash!

Thankfully- I was issued a ticket and released- It was a 50 dollar fine.

Soon after this I would get seriously in to more underground music.

And 30 years later I would start a blog.

Any questions?

Frank Turner.I Still Believe

~ Cave_Guy ~ Leave a comment

Frank Turner.I Still Believe

I have posted this before and will probably post it again.

This song says in a few short words what my blog is trying to say in a bunch of long words over an extended period of time at a rate of about twice a week.

Music -for the people, by the people and of the people. (sorry and thank you to Ben Franklin or whoever wrote that first)

And by people –I mean all people-even people that grow up with the stain of privilege like Mr. Turner. (Seriously dude, Eton college with Prince William?) Not the expected training for a post-punk folk revival demi-saint  of music. But -So What, welcome and thank you!