A.A. RockBlog

E.C. has become a guitar legend through the years. Having a career that spams about five and a half decades, he penned a lot of great hits throughout his lifetime,  including his signature song and one of the greatest of all time . But it's not his string of hits that's been such a mystery through the years. It's actually how his nickname - Slow Hand, came about. So, how did it happen? Chris Dreja of the Yardbirds once recalled that Clapton would stand on stage and try to fix a guitar string if it broke where the crowd would do a slow-hand clap. Brits tend to associate the "slowhand" with boredom or impatience. There are three possible theories presented with how Clapton got his nickname. 1985 Interview Circa 1985, Clapton told his official biographer, Ray Coleman, and I quote.  “My nickname of 'Slowhand' came from Giorgio Gomelsky. He coined it as a good pun. He kept saying I was a fast player, so he put together the slow handclap phrase into

October 25 marked Jon Anderson's 70th birthday, and even though he is no longer with Yes, the legacy he has left behind is worth going through. How did it all come in the first place? It all started "way back when in '67," when the late Chris Squire and Peter Banks joined Clive Bayley and Bob Haggart in a band called Mabel Greer's Toy Shop. For as much exposure as possible, they played in London's club circuit mostly at the Marquee Club. It was one fateful evening that Jack Barrie, owner of the nearby La Chasse club and bar, came to see the band and brought over his employee, Jon Anderson. Anderson and Squire quickly found a thirst for vocal harmonies in the likes of Simon & Garfunkel and in their first week of knowing each other, they composed the song Sweetness , which made the cut on Yes' self-titled debut record the following year. During this time, Peter Banks temporarily left to join the flickering Neat Change, but was dismissed from there

In the history of rock music in the former Yugoslavia, there have been many successful artists. During the 1980s came the  so-called New Primitives Movement , preceeded by the punk scene. It's during this former New Primitives movement that one of the greatest bands with a singer ever popular as all its members combiend came to existense (perhaps the band itself being greater than the greatest ). The band we're talking about...Crvena Jabuka (The Red Apple). How it all began: It all began in the early 80s when eighteen-year-old Drazen Richl (Z pronounced like "S" in "Risotto), hooked up with sixteen-year old Zlatko Arslanagich to form a short-lived band called Ozbiljno Pitanje (The Serious Question). Naturally the band fell apart before anyone knew them, and Richl went on to become lead guitarist/backup singer with Elvis J. Kurtovich and His Meteors. Now we come to 1985 and Richl, dissatisfied with Elvis J Kurtovich, decided to up and leave the band and t

There have been many bands that have made it big in the world in terms of hits, successes, and history; however, there are a handful of bands that may have been given more attention than they deserved and really sort of "came and went." Last night I was at a party singing karaoke, and on the way home, I got to wondering if the American band Toto are overrated. I particularly took into the consideration that the band's hits only get rotation on classic HITS and not classic ROCK stations (although I have heard Hold the Line on some RARE occassions on classic rock stations - more frequently about ten years ago). A Quick Background: What became Toto started out with a group of session musicians. These musicians backed popular artists of the day such as Boz Scaggs, Steely Dan, Seals & Crofts, etc. During the summer of 1977, they came together to make some demos. Now to distinguish themselves from other artists, keyboardist David Paich wrote "Toto" on the b

So far in this blog, we have covered several facets of former Yugoslav rock music such as  the New Primitives Movement , which took off in the late 70s/early 80s. But there's more... ...in the height of the era, especially in the 1980s, another influence came about, the traces of the British Invasion. To elaborate, the British Invasion is considered the era of popular music in the 1960s where British bands such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Free, and the Zombies were big in the US. Twenty years later, there was a so-called "Second British Invasion," less popular than the original one. So what does this all have to do with Yugo Rock? Excellent question. Actually quite a bit. Perhaps the most notable band to have benefited from the British Invasion was Crvena Jabuka (the Red Apple), who, it is believed, got its name as a tribute to the Beatles' Apple Records. The initial members consisting of the songwriting partnership of Drazen Richl and Zlatko A

A brief disclaimer: These songs are not all neccessarily rock. They are, however, an important part of our pop culture. It's easy to think that some songs are by the original artist given their popularity, but truth be told, what you may not understand is that some of these songs are actually COVERS of original songs! Let's take a look at some of these, shall we? I Love Rock'n'Roll - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Yes, Ms. Jett DID make this song famous (sorry Britney), but even before that, there was a British band, called Arrows with a young Alan Merrill on vocals who covered the song in 1975. In January of 1976, Jett saw Arrows perform in England and was thrilled. She recorded a 1979 demo version with Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, but two years later made it big with Here it is. #2 Tainted Love Soft Cell OK, I know. I say "Trainted Love," you say Soft Cell. What you don't know is that the British synthpop duo that made the song famous (re

Last Friday, I discussed  Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Bckingham and his bipolar disorder . So this Friday let's talk about another member of Fleetwood Mac fame, Stevie Nicks. When did that song originate? Stevie Nicks wrote Edge of Seventeen  around 1978 - during her time with Fleetwood Mac. While some of the songs written in that time period made the cut for her 1981 solo debut, Belladona Cove , many were used for Fleetwood Mac's 1979 double album, Tusk . What's it All About? While it has become accepted that the title was derived from Tom Petty's then-wife, Jane (Petty and Nicks were good friends), there is more to the story. Basically, Nicks asked Jane how she made Petty, and Jane explained that she met him at the age of seventeen; Nicks however misinterpreted the way Jane said "age" (Southerners have a special accent), as "edge." There's more to it... ...In an interview, Nicks explained that she dedicated the song to John Lennon