Part Two of Blues-Rock to Heavy Metal. Sat. 3pm CDT

Part Two of Blues-Rock to Heavy Metal. Sat. 3pm CDT

“Some nice stuff you’ve written.” Man of Music @musical_posts, Orcas Island, Washington State. 16 October 2014. If you’re interested in how blues-rock influenced the hard-rock guitar riff and eventually became heavy metal, check Code Zero Radio, times below. Jeff Beck Group in 1968. Left to right: Ronnie Wood, bass; Jeff Beck, lead;  Mickey Waller, drums, and…

Even Keith Richards loves Malcolm Young. And Keith hates everything

Even Keith Richards loves Malcolm Young. And Keith hates everything

Malcolm Young: one of the world’s best rhythm guitarists. Malcolm also played lead guitar on some AC/DC tracks. UPDATED 30 July 2017. Five months ago, I wrote a piece entitled, “Will Malcolm Young’s doppelganger replace him in AC/DC?” A few days ago, sadly, I had to update this to “Malcolm Young’s doppelganger replaces him in AC/DC” after the…

The first recorded blues vocal is 100 years old today

The first recorded blues vocal is 100 years old today

I started this year banging on about 2014 being the 100th anniversary of the first ever recorded blues, W.C. Handy’s brassy instrumental, “The Memphis Blues”, cut in New York on 15 July 1914, by the Victor label’s house band. These days, it sounds more like old New Orleans jazz than blues, but old New Orleans jass back in 1914…

Billy Jean as you’ve never heard it before … played on beer bottles

Copenhagen’s Bottle Boys first performed on empty beer bottles to liven up a boring party about 12 years ago. What do Michael Jackson and the old-time jug-band genre have in common? Well, take the song that launched the Michael Jackson era in 1983, and perform it, jug-band style, on beer bottles. We’re talking here about…

Remembering Johnny Otis: Greek God of R&B

Remembering Johnny Otis: Greek God of R&B

Updated 26 July, 2019. A young Johnny Otis. He’d give Errol Flynn a run for his money   Writing the previous Leiber-Stoller post reacquainted me with that great rhythm & blues pioneer, Johnny Otis, and Shuggie, his talented multi-instrumentalist son. Shuggie, I believe, stood for ‘sugar’, his mother’s nickname for Johnny Jnr. Johnnie Otis Snr. was a…