A.A. RockBlog

The death of a celebrity, such as a rock star, always gains attention. However, no death is more surprising then that of Free lead guitarist Paul Kossoff. My decission to write this post emerged from a history review the other day on my local rock station. The story surprised me so much, that I decided to take it upon myself and look deeper into it. Below, we discuss the details: Paul Kossoff & Free:  Kossoff was the lead guitarist for the British Invasion band Free who had a mega worldwide hit in 1970 with All Right Now  (#2 UK, #4 US) whose riff was recycled seven years later for the Steve Miller hit Rockin' Me . Free disbanded in 1973, but veterans frontman Paul Rogers and drummer Simon Kirke formed Bad Company, which had a string of hits between 1973 and 1983. His Death: Kossoff died on March 19, 1975. Two months before that, his heart stopped at a London rehab facility and he had to be revived. It was wrongly assumed that he was dead the day his heart stopped; h

There've been nunerous songs whose meanings have ranged from politics, to relationships, and even to  modern day schooling . But there is perhaps one song that is rather cryptic in its meaning if I may say so myself. Which song is that? Of course the smash hit by then Van Halen-lead-singer-to-be Sammy Hagar. It's  this song  that exposed Mr. Hagar to a wider audiance. On his past seven albums, he was essentially a cult artist and really only made mainstream with his VOA  (1984) album. But the big question is WHAT THE HELL DOES IT MEAN? Good question! I always thought it was about drivig a '55 car (a la the old, retro cars); however, it turns out that it is the speed limit. A word on the speed limit: For quite some time, the speed limit on American highways was rather high (about 125 mph). However, as more people began driving, so did more accidents occur. The government concluded that the majority of these accidents could have been prevented by reducing spe

In the history of popular music, there have been many subjects: politics, relationships, but perhaps the most peculliar of them all is schooling. While the Fab Four mention schooling in their song Getting Better  from their critically-acclaimed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band  record I used to be cruel in my school/The teachers that taught me weren't cool , Alice Cooper's School's Out  is perhaps the earliest example of school being the subject matter in rock. Of the album's title track, Cooper once said that the slowest three minutes of his life were the last 3 minutes of the last day of school. Well it sounds rather cheery, the lines No more teachers' dirty looks , and Out for summer out till fall/We might not go back at all tend to slightly allude to the concept of corporal punishment, which would be revisited by other artists. In 1973 was the next school-themed song. One-hit-wonder Brownsville Station's Smokin' in The Boys' Room  basic

Many classics get your attention, but some are especially enduring such as The House of The Rising Sun . An original blues classic, let's explore the deeper idea behind it. The Song Itself: Contrary to what many may believe, the song was NOT originally recorded by The Animals. In fact, it is an old blues song whose origins date back to the 1930s. It was in September of 1933, during the Great Depression, that two blues artists - Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster recorded a song by the name of Rising Sun Blues Who exactly wrote the song is still ambigious. From the early 20th century, many iron workers claimed to know a version of the song with these opening lyrics: There is a house in New Orleans It's called the Rising Sun. It's been a ruin of many a poor girl. And God, I, for one. Three decades later, The Animals recorded their version in 1964 which is well known. It is one of the versions, Their version, like some others, includes a verse after the

Yesterday Ginger Baker of Cream and Blind Faith fame celebrated his 80th birthday. In this blog post, we go in brief on his life. He was born Peter Edward Baker on August 19, 1939 in London. His mother held a tobacco shop and his father was a bricklayer employed by Baker's grandfather. Ginger Baker began playing drums at the age of 15, but at twenty started taking former lessons. In 1962 he started his own group, The Graham Bond Organization with future Cream bandmate Jack Bruce and Baker's future Air Force bandmate Grahm Bond. In 1965, the Graham Bond Organization split. Baker and Bruce hooked up with legendary guitarist Eric Clapton of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers fame and made four records with them: 1966's Fresh Cream , 1967's Disreali Gears , which contained their signature song, Sunshine of Your Love  1968's Wheels of Fire  featuring their signature hits White Room , Crossroads , and Born Under a Bad Sign - whose riff Goran Bregovich adopted in his b

August is notable for many things. It's the month where most people get married, you experience the so-called "dog days of summer," and it's when the growing season usually peaks. But August is known for something more than all this stated in the opening paragraph. For between August 15 and 18 1969, there was a triumphant music festival in rock history - Woodstock! What is Woodstock? Woodstock was a music festival that was held in mid August and billed as "Three Days of Peace and Music." The festival attracted 400,000 spectators and was held at Max Yesgur's 60-acre farm in Bethel, NY There IS a town called Woodstock nearby where virtuoso Bob Dylan lived at the time, but he declined.  Performances: Woodstock had a lot of performances. The show usually ran for an average of 15 hours, and htere were 32 acts. To avoid making an intensely long post, I will only list the most significant of the performers: Santana: This is regarded by ma

I do not go on many concerts very often, but when I do, I always have high expectations. Last night, I had the pleasure and honor of seeing The Rolling Stones as part of their No Filter  tour.  The Stones announced a rescheduling of their North American tour dates that were originally cancelled.  In this post, I elaborate on some of the key takeaways. The View: Folks, this has got to be perhaps THE most important part of attending concerts. Despite buying tickets late, I had the advantage of a rather bird's eye view. Even so, the band on stage looked more like ground forces as seen from a helicopter. The picture below shows the stage before the show, as you can see, it is rather narrow. Now here is a picture of the full stage with the band playing. The Sound: Another important concept of a concert venue is its overall sound. Being an outdoor show at at sports stadiumm, the audio was rather good. You can always expect a slight distortion during the guitar solos

It's been a while since we've had a "birthday boy" be the subject of a posting, but it just so happens that this week, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame has turned 70. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Knopfler was raised near Newcastle-upon-Tyrne, England. In 1977 he hooked up with his younger brother, David Knopfler on rhythm guitar to form Dire Straits. For the two decades that they were around, Dire Straits made a name for themselves being one of the best selling bands in the world selling over 120 million records. During the late 70s through the mid 80s, the band had a string of hits such as their signature hit, Sultans of Swing  (1978), Romeo and Juliet (1980), So Far Away , (1985) Walk of Life  (1985), and another one of their signature hits, Money for Nothing (1986), which features Sting of The Police fame, who in the background ad-libs "I want my MTV" in the melody of The Police hit Don't Stand so Close To Me . Their 1985 record, Brothers in Arms ,

Rock bands from the 60s and 70s were mostly all the same - guitars, a bass, drums, and possibly keyboards. There were several branches such as the symphonic rock of the Moody Blues or Electric Light Orchestra, but one of these was particularly interesting - Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull. What made them different from the rest? First, unlike many artists of the day who played either guitar or piano, Ian Anderson actually specialized in the FLUTE. He bought a cheap, second-hand flute after moving to London and practiced with it day after day. In his own words, and I quote, "Ever night on stage was like a flute practice session." Regarding his decission to play the flute, Ian Anderson further said, and again I quote, "I wanted to play the guitar, but then I noticed Eric Clapton was playing guitar. I didn't want to be yet another third rate guitariest. I didn't want to sound like every other third-rate guitarist. I wanted to do something that was a bit more idi