Music Talk Radio

      The song "Songbird" was written by Christine McVie, the keyboardist in Fleetwood Mac, in the middle of the night. According to onstagemagazine.com , she wrote the song in about half an hour and stayed up all night so she wouldn't forget it before it could be recorded. Can you imagine? Today, just pull out your smartphone and boot up the recording app. There you have it: a rough recording so nobody forgets anything. We have it so good today!      "Songbird" is absolutely beautiful. It's from one of the most iconic rock albums of all time, " Rumours,"  recorded in 1976 and released in 1977.       Here is the cool part,  onstagemagazine.com also states that due to the personal nature of the song  "Rumours,"  producer Colbie Callait suggested that Christine record it alone in an auditorium setting.  So that's what they did. They booked the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, California. Callait had the...

     Ok, so lead singer, guitarist, and writer of Creedence Clearwater Revival, or CCR, John Fogerty wasn't "Born on the Bayou." He was born in California. I'm not a big CCR fan, but I like them.      The swampy-sounding Kustom amp and the vibrato/tremolo effect make the tune convincing. There is no big write-up here. It is a great tune and very well written and arranged. Who can miss Fogerty's voice? It is powerful and gritty in this song. I can only listen to Fogerty's voice in small doses.      Kudos for the great songwriting, but make no mistake: Fogerty wasn't born on the bayou. Then again, Ed Cobb, the producer for the Standells who wrote "Dirty Water," didn't live in Boston either; he was just mugged on the Charles River bridge while visiting Boston. He was also born in California. Somehow, that turned into the song "Dirty Water." How creative and imaginative the mind can be! Born on the Bayou on Spotify.

      In 1952, Les Paul collaborated with Gibson guitars to produce and release one of the most iconic guitars in Rock 'n' Roll, the "Les Paul" model. The Les Paul was a solid-body electric guitar, and very few solid-body electric guitars were around in the early 50s.      In 1951, there was the ever changing named Fender Broadcaster/Nocaster/ Telecaster (Bruce Springsteen's guitar that's on the cover of "Born to Run" and countless country players), followed by the Fender Stratocaster, think Jimmy Hendrix's guitar or modern-day Eric Clapton's guitar.  The "Strat," as it's called, is the most famous guitar in rock 'n' roll and was released in 1954.       It's impressive that the Gibson Les Paul design still exists. A testament to the model's greatness. Thousands of musicians worldwide still play the Gibson Les Paul. The model has been copied by countless guitar companies like ESP and Tokai, to name just a coupl...

      Media has changed drastically since the 1970s, as has how we consume it. Today, we can access bands and artists through Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Podcasts. We have so much info readily available to learn about and be exposed to the artists and bands we love.   Right now, I am watching YouTuber Rich Beato interview Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of Tool. The interview made me realize just how easy it is to humanize artists. Teenagers today never enjoy the mystery of a band or artist's image.     In the 70s, though, media, or lack thereof, allowed the mystery and band image to grow.  For instance, there was a whole mystique about Led Zeppelin and who the members were as "real" people. We didn't have social media at the time. We didn't even have the internet to look them up. So, band management could represent a band or artist's image how they wanted to. It was easier to sell the band's image, and, as consumers, it was easier...

      To be honest, at sixteen, I was in a haze at the end of the crazy, bell-bottomed, experimental 70s.  Even so, The Car's self-titled debut album stuck out like a sore thumb. That I even noticed was saying something in my case. I was hanging on to the end of Led Zeppelin's reign.     There wasn't anything like this type of "New Age Rock," or very little at the time. This was a breakthrough album for the soon-to-be genre. Rock and roll, for the most part at the time, was struggling, and the end of disco was beginning. This left a gap for The Cars to step in. Perfect timing!     The production on The Car's debut album was polished, the songwriting was succinct and tight, and the arrangements were refreshing. The use of synthesizers in particular. Of course, you had Ric Ocasek's voice, which lent itself to the quirky, catchy, rock-laden tunes. Ocasek didn't look like anyone else either. He was acceptably odd.        The C...

     It was news to me that two guitarists came in to record and write quite a bit of the guitar parts on 1974's " Get Your Wings ." Aerosmith's second album. According to Sam Roche from guitar.com , Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner were called in by Producer Jack Douglas simply because he didn't feel Joe Perry or Brad Whitford could write or play the guitar parts needed to give the record a professional sound. Neither guitarist Perry or Whitford were happy about it, but they acquiesced to keep their record deal after almost being dropped when their self titled debut effort didn't do well.      The guitarists brought in by Douglas were  Steve Hunter, who had played with both Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, and Dick Wagner who also played with Alice Cooper. So, Alice Cooper's guitarists.      In a conversation with Brad Whitford, Matt Parker of guitarworld.com quotes Bradford as saying that Steve Hunter plays the solo on "Train Kept A-Rollin." Hu...