Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon

I just watched Stevie Nicks singing this song with Taylor Swift on the Grammy Awards so had to find a good version.So here is Fleetwood Mac back in 1976 on "The Midnight Special" with a fantastic version of Rhiannon (Stevie is unbelievable) the story of a Welsh witch. Nicks discovered Rhiannon through a novel called Triad, by Mary Leader. The novel is about a woman named Branwen, who is possessed by another woman named Rhiannon. Nicks bought the novel in an airport just before a long flight and thought the name was so pretty that she wanted to write something about a girl named Rhiannon. She wrote "Rhiannon" in 1974, three months before joining Fleetwood Mac, and has claimed it took 10 minutes to write..."lay back and groove".

Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen

Best version of this song ever done and hard to believe she was 60 years old doing this, she definitely does not look her age. A great performance and her voice sounds as good as ever along with a tight band and very visual stage show.
Stevie is best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and has sold nearly 120 million albums. She has been noted for her ethereal visual style and symbolic lyrics.
To this day Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album from 1977 is still one of the top 10 highest selling albums of all-time and one of my personal favorites..."lay back and groove".

Today in Rock n Roll History

2007: An unreleased poem written and recorded by Jim Morrison titled Woman in the Window was set to music & given to Global Cool to raise awareness of global warming.

1998: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, & Southside Johnny performed at the Come Together benefit concert to benefit the family of Sgt. Patrick King, a police officer killed in the line of duty. This concert also turned into an impromptu E Street Band reunion.

1991: Jane’s Addiction began a sold out four night stand at the Universal Amphitheatre outside of their hometown of Los Angeles drawing a combined amount of over 25,000 fans. Nine Inch Nails opened all of the concerts.

1985: John Fogerty performed in public for the first time in fourteen years at the Chaplin Stage in Hollywood, CA.

1979: The Clash kicked off their first North American tour in Vancouver, with Bo Diddley as the support act throughout the tour.

1970: The Grateful Dead were arrested for possession of LSD and barbituates in New Orleans. This event would later inspire their song Truckin’.

1959: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & the Big Bopper played at The Armory in Duluth, MN. Seventeen year old Robert Zimmerman was in attendance & became inspired to become a musician after attending this concert. He’s better known today as Bob Dylan.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS
1946: Terry Kath guitarist for Chicago
1951: Phil Manzanera guitarist for Roxy Music
1954: Adrian Vandenberg guitarist for Whitesnake
1956: John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) singer for the Sex Pistols

Happy Birthday -->Johnny Rotten - Sex Pistols and The Muppets - Friggin' in The Riggin'

John Joseph Lydon aka Johnny Rotten born 31 January 1956, is a British singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the punk rock group the Sex Pistols during the 1970's, and of the post-punk group Public Image Ltd. in the 80s and 90's.
Lydon became notorious and controversial figure in the media during the 1970s as a figurehead of the punk movement, and for his stance against the musical establishment, class system and the British monarchy.
The origin of the stage name Johnny Rotten has had varying explanations. One, given in a Daily Telegraph feature interview with Lydon in 2007, was that "he was given the name in the mid '70s, when his neglect of oral hygiene saw his teeth turning green". Another story says the name was allegedly given to him by Steve Jones, after Jones saw his teeth and exclaimed "You're rotten, you are!"
In 1977, the band released "God Save the Queen" during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. The song was a hit, but caused so much controversy that Lydon was attacked in the streets by an angry mob. They stabbed him in his left hand, his leg, and nearly gouged out his eye with a beer bottle. Since then, he has not been able to properly make a fist with his left hand..."lay back and groove".

Beatles Rooftop Concert 1969

It was on this day in 1969 in Rock n Roll history that The Beatles along with Billy Preston sitting in on keyboards,performed in public for the last time when they played a rooftop concert above Apple Corps headquarters. The show was stopped by the police after neighbors complained about the noise (if they only knew then that they were hearing history). It had been 2½ years since the Beatles had played Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on August 29th, 1966. In my opinion John, yes you and the band did pass the audition..."lay back and groove".

Buckingham/Nicks - Frozen Love

Great song by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks before they joined Fleetwood Mac. I really like the vocals and Buckingham is a very under-rated guitar player with a great sound and some tasteful licks.
Buckingham Nicks is a 10-track LP by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. The album, produced and engineered by Keith Olsen, was recorded in 1973 for Polydor Records, right after Buckingham and Nicks disbanded their long-time band, Fritz. It was released that September and proved to be a commercial failure. Since the album was reissued in 1976 shortly after Nicks (whose name is misspelled as "Stevi" on the record.) and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac, the album has since gained cult status..."lay back and groove".

Happy Birthday -->Phil Collins - Drum Solo

Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins born 30 January 1951 is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. On Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer. The first full album with Genesis that featured Collins as the vocalist is on of my favorites from 1976 called "A Trick of The Tail".
Here is Phil featured in a good drum duet with Chester Thompson who has toured with Genesis quite a lot since 1977..."lay back and groove".

Happy Birthday -->Sarah McLachlan - Possession

Sarah Ann McLachlan born January 28, 1968 is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter.
She is known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range. As of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and eight Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians in the late 1990s.
This song is from my personal favorite album of hers called "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" which was released in 1993. In 1994, McLachlan was sued by Uwe Vandrei (psycho), an obsessed fan from Ottawa, Ontario, who alleged that his love letters to her had been the basis of "Possession". This lawsuit never came to trial as the plaintiff committed suicide. In an interview in Rolling Stone three years later, Ms. McLachlan added, "And this one person wasn't the only guy ... there were a lot of letters from other people saying the same kind of thing ... Writing the song 'Possession' was very therapeutic"..."lay back and groove".

Kseniya Simonova's Amazing Sand Drawing

This video shows the winner of "Ukraine’s Got Talent",
Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on
an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were
affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her
talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.
The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the
audience to tears and she won the top prize of about £75,000.
She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but the warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.
It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives
and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears. She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.
In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man
standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.
The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.
Kseniya Simonova says: "I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment."

Pink Floyd - One of These Days

A great PF video showing off the drumming skills of Nick Mason, taken from the "Live at Pompeii" which was 1972 film featuring Pink Floyd performing six songs in the ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii, Italy. This was filmed between October 4, 1971 and October 7, 1971. Watch around the 5:00 mark of the song when he loses on of his drum sticks but still does not lose a beat..."lay back and groove".

Happy Birthday-->Nick Mason - Pink Floyd - Speak to Me/Breathe

Nicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason born 27 January 1944 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England is the drummer for Pink Floyd. He has been the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1964. He also competes in auto racing events, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"Speak to Me" is one of only a couple of PF songs that is solely credited to Nick. The only times Mason's voice has been included on Pink Floyd's albums are "Corporal Clegg", the single spoken line in "One of These Days" and spoken parts of "Signs of Life" and "Learning to Fly" (the latter taken from actual recording of Mason's first solo flight) from A Momentary Lapse of Reason..."lay back and groove".

Pigeon : Impossible

This is great animation, thanks to my buddy Rob for sending me the link.
A rookie secret agent is faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase..."lay back and groove".

Happy Birthday -->Eddie Van Halen - Eruption Guitar Solo

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen born January 26, 1955. Happy B-day Eddie. Not only is he a pretty fair guitar player he was also married to my early childhood crush in the 70's Valerie Bertinelli from "One Day at a Time" who by the way sang back-up vocals on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" while Eddie played the guitar solo..."lay back and groove".

Judas Priest - Beyond the Realms of Death

I had to save this video as this is what is called an album kids and this is the way we used to listen to music back in my day. This is perhaps the greatest metal album ever and one of the coolest covers ever. I am sure that me and my good friend Chris Graham must have worn out a couple of copies each of this album back in the late 70's/early 80's. The good old days of vinyl, I miss them and they are ever so slowly making a return. Am I too old to start another record collection and where would I find the milk crates? LOL!!..."lay back and groove".

Sleep - Dragonaut

LOVE the way this video was done and as for influences on this band can you say Black Sabbath boys and girls. Wikipedia notes : Sleep was a stoner doom metal band from San Jose, California. Active during the 1990s, Sleep earned much critical and record label attention from early in their career. Critic Ed Rivadavia describes them as "perhaps the ultimate stoner rock band" and notes they exerted a strong influence on heavy metal in the '90s. However, conflict with their record company had contributed to Sleep's breakup by the end of the decade..."lay back and groove".

Orange Goblin - Time Travelling Blues

I don't really know anything about this band but really like this song and they also do a pretty good cover version of Black Sabbath's "Hand of Doom" (youtube it,I really like their sound). This from their website http://www.orange-goblin.com/ : Orange Goblin were voted into the Top 10 Best Bands in the Terrorizer magazine Readers Poll. Healing Through Fire came in at No. 20 in Metal Hammer magazine's Top 50 albums of 2007, was included in the Classic Rock Top 50 albums of 2007, and was voted second-best album of the year on AbsolutMetal.com..."lay back and groove".

Timothy Leary - How to Operate Your Brain

"Purple Haze all in my brain,lately things just don't seem the same".
The natural state of the brain is chaos. We’re dealing with a complexity of in-formation. The first thing to do is to overwhelm your focused mind, your linear mind, by overloading signals, digital patterns, clusters of photons and electrons which produce a pleasant state of confused chaos. This is the state of the brain when it is ready to be informed, that is, to be reprogrammed.

The human brain contains one hundred billion neurons, each neuron is as powerful as a large computer, and each neuron has around ten thousand connections with other neurons. Within our foreheads there is a chaos, inside our brains there is a galaxy of information, which is incomprehensible to our linear minds..."lay back and groove".

Pink Floyd - The Wall of Wonderland

Do I like Pink Floyd? Hell yeah they are my favorite band and here is another great synched video matching "The Wall" album (minus the best song on it "Comfortably Numb")set to the 1951 version of Disney's "Alice in Wonderland". So take the magical trip through Alice's psychedelic dreams and..."lay back and groove".

2001: A Pink Floyd Odyssey

Pink Floyd's "Echoes" set to the ending scene of Stanley Kubrick's 2001:A Space Odyssey,it is a near-perfect synchronization with 2001’s storied finale "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite." Roger Waters was once quoted as saying that they regretted not doing the soundtrack to this movie when they were asked. So did they record Echoes afterward to sync up with it?,you be the judge!..."lay back and groove".

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of Oz

An absolutely brilliant mix of Dark Side of The Moon synced to The Wizard of Oz.If you have never seen this and are a Pink Floyd fan take the time and enjoy it and watch how well it syncs together.This from Wikipedia about it: The Dark Side of the Rainbow, or The Dark Side of Oz, are two names commonly used in reference to rumors circulated on the Internet since at least 1994, that the Dark Side of the Moon was written as a soundtrack for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Observers playing the film and the album simultaneously have reported apparent synchronicities, such as Dorothy beginning to jog as the band sings "no one told you when to run".Another one I like is when "Money" starts as soon as the movie switches from black & white to color and Dorothy first discovers the Yellow Brick Road.David Gilmour and Nick Mason have both denied a connection between the two works, and Roger Waters has described the rumors as "amusing".Alan Parsons has stated that the film was not mentioned during production of the album..."lay back and groove".

Zappa Plays Zappa - Apostrophe

A great version of Uncle Frank's song done buy his son Dweezil on guitar and his band. Good solos are done by the drummer,then bass player and then of course Dweezil lets loose on guitar and is a very good player just like his Dad was. This video was done just a couple of weeks ago at a club in Ft. Lauderdale..."lay back and groove".

The Muppets - Bohemian Rhapsody

Every once in a while another version of a classic song comes along that you just can't help but love and this definitely fits into that category. If you don't think so well I don't care because "nothing really matters but Moi". Oh yeah and Animal RULES!!!..."lay back and groove".

The Beatles - Rock Band Trailer

Although I have never seen or played the game Rock Band this is a pretty cool video that features short clips of all 45 Beatles songs that are on it. I wonder how many future rock stars this game will produce. I may need to give it a try one of these days,are you ever too old to become a rock star?..."lay back and groove".

Jimi Hendrix - Rainy Day, Dream Away - Still Raining, Still Dreaming

With Jimi Hendrix being my all-time favorite guitarist I figure that it is only fitting that the first post be of him since the blog is named from this song..."lay back and groove".