A.A. RockBlog

There are many bands that don't get much praise or respect in the world of rock, and Britain's Supertramp is a prime example. They came into being in 1969 thanks to Dutch businessman Stanley August Miesages. Sam had provided support to a band called The Joint, but they wre not taking their career seriously. Looking for a new business idea, he approchaed Richard Davies with the idea of starting a band. Davies hooked up with Roger Hodgson, and thus Supertramp were born! Their first two records didn't do that well, but 1974's Crime of  The Century is considered the first of several classic albums. They ultimately hit the top with their 1979 hot seller Breakfast in America . That leads us to this post's subject matter. As part of the Breakfast tour, Supertramp played several nights at the Pavillion de Paris, a venue that once was a slaughterhouse. In the fall of 1980, they released one of the finest  live albums  of all time - naming it Paris, being a change from t

Back in 1967, folk singer Arlo Guthrie released his signature album, on which the title track was his signature song. Alice's Restaurant Masacree  has become a popular Thanksgiving tradition, and given  the recent post on rock and politics , I thought it'd make sense to discuss the subject matter in this blog. What About The Song? Arlo Guthrie penned this talking blues tune as a recounting of his 1965 visit to his friend Alice who lived in Stockbridge, Mass. at the time. The song discusses Guthrie's wanting to take out the garbage for Alice and take it to the dump and then getting arrested for littering because the local dump was closed. However, it gets to the politics when Guthrie has to go in for his physical examination. During ths time, Arlo states that he was arrested and because of his crime, he was not considered moral enough to get drafted into the Vietnam War. At the end of the song, Guthrie calls on the listener to sing a line of Alice's Restaurant  

Rock bands have traditionally been configured in many forms: power trio, power trio with vocals )a la Sabbath or Zeppelin), quintets, and rarely sextets or more. What's even MORE rare is that there are also bands that had something unusual about them. For all intents and purposes, "unsual" does not mean that they did not follow a set path like the traditional band, but had some punch or style to them that deemed them in the unusual category. Jethro Tull: How were they unusual? Two words, the flute. That's right. I wrote an earlier blog post on Ian Anderson's band leadership and also on one of their greatest albums, which plucked them out of obscurity for all to see (or hear for that matter). They also had a unique twist to their style by incorporating folk rock in their music. Also did I mention that in 1988 they won a highly contraversial grammy award? A brief history: Although I touched on Tull a few months ago, I'll go into a quicker version he

Through the years, music has delivered many messages and especially rock songs have been subjects of many things: drugs,  the school system , girls, and wars being one of the most overlooked themes in the history of modern rock. Politics Schmolitics: OK, I know it may not be the best time to be talking about politics - being a sensitive subject with everything going on around us; however, the Vietnam War has been one of the most major subjects of 60s/early-mid 70s rock songs. Vietnam War: Although The Animals' 1965 hit We Gotta Get Out of This Place has been associated with Vietnam, it is generally an overall, anti-war song, being a plea by troops to leave a dangerous place. The same can be argued about Barry McGuire's 1965 hit Eve of Destruction . In the late 1960s to early 1970s, the most notable anti-war act was Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR). John Fogerty has penned about a dozen anti-war songs such as: Fortunate Son, Who'll Stop the Rain? Have You Ever S

The 1970s are remembered for being a highlight of rock music. You had bands with the progressive rock subgenre in the early to mid 70s, there was blues and Southern Rock (a la Zz Top or Lynyrd Skynyrd), and towards the end you had punk rock. But in 1973, came one of the best examples that females can rock too when two Seattle sisters came together in a band that would be commercially successful twice   in their careers - in the late 1970s, and again in the mid-late 1980s. What about the 70s? While it's a knee-jerk reaction to think that Little Queen was Heart's best-selling record - especially featuring their signature song, Barracuda , which fell just short of the top 10, several more of Heart's albums were successful. Their debut album went platinum in the US while Little Queen was 3x platinum (2x platinum in Canada). Their 1978 successor Magazine (issued without permission by Mushroom Records) also whent platinum as did Dog & Butterfly . The feud over Mushroom

Many artists are bound to be successful from day one with their hits, but some have hits that chart much better live than do the studio counterparts. Bob Seger, Turn the Page Before he formed the Silver Bullet Band in 1974, Seger dropped a few records of his own. 1973's Back in '72  features one of the most iconic soungs he penned about the stress and pressures that being a musician can do a number on you. Although I really love the jazzy studio version, it was the live version three years later that got far more attention - this version appearing on his 1976 record Live Bullet and made at Detroit's Cabo Hall. Peter Frampton He's had mutiple songs, so let's cover them now. In 1976 he released one of the most significant  live albums . The album included Baby I Love Your Way that hit number 12 on the US Bilboard Hot 100 and claimed 3rd spot in  Canada. The album also featured Show me The Way , which made #6 in the US, #2 in Canada, and brushed the top 10 in

From day one, rock music has been associated with guys, but what we most overlook, is that even girls can rock. I could count, off my fingers, just how many bands there are with a female member who, more often than not, is the leader: Heart, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Blondie, the Pixies, the Talking Heads, and...The Pretenders! ...and it all started with an Ohio girl... Born on September 7, 1951, in Akron, OH, Hynde was into rock'n'roll as far back as she could remember. She was exposed to records from Elvis, as well as many other novelty rockers. However, when she reached adulthood, she really wanted life to get going (didn't we all?). So what did she d? She made a long trip across the pond to London. Of course, life for young Chrissie wasn't easy. She worked for a then massive department store chain owned by Vivianne Westwood and Malcolm McLauren - the latter of which got her exposed to the rising punk sounds in the area. Hynde also wrote weekly publicatio