LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 3, 2019…ON MAY 3 1976 AEROSMITH RELEASED ARGUABLY THEIR BEST ALBUM. IT WAS THE GROUP’S 4TH STUDIO ALBUM AND CAME ON THE HEELS OF THEIR BIGGEST SUCCESS UP TO THAT POINT ‘TOYS IN THE ATTIC’.
THE GROUP RECORDED THIS ALBUM A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. INSTEAD OF GOING INTO A RECORDING STUDIO THEY USED A MOBILE RECORDING UNIT AND BACKED IT UP TO THEIR WAREHOUSE PRACTICE PLACE IN AN EFFORT TO CAPTURE MORE OF A LIVE FEEL TO THE RECORD. IT FREAKIN’ WORKED. ‘ROCKS’ SMASHED THROUGH THE TOP TEN ALBUM CHARTS, PEAKING AT # 3. THE ALBUM WAS DRIVEN BY 4 TOP 40 SINGLES, ‘BACK IN THE SADDLE’ ‘HOME TONIGHT’ ‘LAST CHILD’ AND ‘SICK AS A DOG’.
BRAD WHITFORD HAD THIS TO SAY ABOUT THE ALBUM:
“That’s probably my favorite Aerosmith record,I liked it because it was basically live and very little production or overdubs on it. It was just Aerosmith kind of in the raw, and that’s the way I always wanted Aerosmith to do it, but of course we got involved in some pretty serious production and stuff like that, which I wasn’t a big fan of. You know, some of it’s cool. But Aerosmith, just on its own, is such a powerhouse. I always thought that’s how it should be. That’s how I thought it should be done, just like Rocks.”
ACCORDING TO JOE PERRY:
“The cover showed five diamonds, one for each of us. We saw the record as a jewel, the culmination of all our angst and anger and excitement and joy as go-for-broke rock and rollers. Rocks was the ultimate soundtrack to the party we were throwing for our fans at every one of our live shows.”
’ROCKS’ IS ONE OF AEROSMITH’S BEST ALBUMS, AND IT HAS GONE ON TO SELL CLOSE TO 8 MILLION COPIES WORLDWIDE.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 3, 2019…JAMES BROWN, THE GODFATHER OF SOUL, WAS BORN ON THIS DATE IN 1933. TODAY WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS 86TH BIRTHDAY. BROWN DIED ON DECEMBER 5, 2006. THE SADDEST ASPECT OF BROWN’S DEATH WAS IT TOOK 76 DAYS FOR HIS BURIAL, AS HIS BODY WAS DISMEMBERED AS PART OF A PATERNITY SUIT. HIS BODY WAS ACTUALLY RELOCATED 14 TIMES BECAUSE OF FAMILY INFIGHTING.
THIS IS VINTAGE JAMES BROWN FROM A 1974 APPEARANCE ON THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 3, 2019…TWENTY SIX YEARS AGO MARKED THE WORLDWIDE RELEASE OF GUNS N’ ROSES’ SINGLE ‘CIVIL WAR’.
THE SONG ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON A CHARITY ALBUM RELEASED IN 1990 TO BENEFIT ROMANIAN ORPHANS ‘NOBODY’S CHILD:ROMANIAN ANGEL APPEAL’, AND THEN ON THE GUNS N’ ROSES ALBUM ‘USE YOUR ILLUSION 2’.
THE SONG IS A PROTEST SONG AGAINST WAR.
DUFF MCKAGAN EXPLAINED WHERE THE SONG CAME FROM IN A RADIO INTERVIEW:
“Basically it was a riff that we would do at soundchecks. Axl came up with a couple of lines at the beginning. I went in a peace march, when I was a little kid, with my mom. I was like 4 years old. For Martin Luther King. And that’s when: ‘Did you wear the black arm band when they shot the man who said: ‘Peace could last forever?’ It’s just true-life experiences, really.'”
THE SONG TOUCHES ON CIVIL RIGHTS, THE VIETNAM WAR, AND HAS AN ENTIRE VERSE ABOUT PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S ASSASSINATION
THE SPEECH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SONG IS FROM COOL HAND LUKE:
“What we have here is a failure to communicate…”.
AND HERE’S SOME ADDED TRIVIA CONCERNING ‘CIVIL WAR’. IT WAS THE ONLY SONG ON BOTH ‘USE YOUR ILLUSION’ ALBUMS TO FEATURE STEVEN ADLER ON DRUMS. EVERY OTHER TRACK HAD MATT SORUM, WHO REPLACED MATT SORUM IN THE GROUP.
THIS IS FROM A SHOW 3 YEARS BEFORE THE GROUP RELEASED THE SONG
The “Boulevard Of Broken Hearts” video was recorded at Slash‘s sold out live performance at The Eventim Apollo in London back on February, 20th 2019. The music video features the album version of the song overlaid with backstage and live footage from the Eventim Apollo concert. “Boulevard Of Broken Hearts” is from the band’s most recent studio album “Living The Dream.”.
Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators will be at The Warfield in San Francisco on Monday, July 15th.
Watch Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators’ new music video for “Boulevard Of Broken Hearts” below.
Listen to Baby Huey and Chasta’s interview with Todd Kerns and Frank Sidoris from Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators backstage at the 2018 Aftershock Festival in Sacramento.
Listen to Baby Huey and Chasta’s interview with Myles Kennedy.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 2, 2019…HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE ORIGINAL LEAD SINGER OF FOREIGNER LOU GRAMM. GRAMM WAS ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ROCK VOCALISTS OF THE LATE 1970’S AND 1980’S.
GRAMM WAS THE SINGER ON ALL OF FOREIGNER’S HITS. HE ALSO CO-WROTE MOST OF THE SONGS FOR THE GROUP. GRAMM WAS INDUCTED INTO THE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME IN 2013.
GRAMM AND CO-FOUNDER MICK JONES HAD A VOLATILE RELATIONSHIP THAT HAS SEEN GRAMM LEAVE THE BAND THREE TIMES.
IN 2012 HE STRUCK OUT ON HIS OWN AND NOW PERFORMS AS “LOU GRAMM THE ORIGINAL VOICE OF FOREIGNER”.
FOREIGNER WITH LOU GRAMM IS ONE ONE OF THE WORLD’S BEST SELLING BANDS OF ALL-TIME, RACKING UP SALES OF MORE THAN 80 MILLION RECORDS.
HERE’S LIVE FOREIGNER WITH LOU GRAMM HANDLING VOCALS FROM A SHOW CIRCA 1978
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 2, 2019…HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE BEEN AT THIS CONCERT? IT WAS ON THIS DATE IN 1980 BOB SEGER PLAYED A SOLD OUT SHOW AT THE OAKLAND ALAMEDA COUNTY ARENA.
ACCORDING TO SETLIST.COM THIS WAS SEGER SERVED UP:
Feel Like a Number
Travelin’ Man
Beautiful Loser
Still the Same
Mainstreet
Old Time Rock & Roll
Against the Wind
Her Strut
The Horizontal Bop
Fire Lake
Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight
We’ve Got Tonight
The Fire Down Below
Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
Night Moves
Hollywood Nights
Rock and Roll Never Forgets
Let It Rock
HERE’S A VIDEO OF SEGER IN CONCERT PERFORMING THE 16TH SONG OF THE EVENING ‘HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS’.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-APR 30, 2019…Monumental ! On this day in 1988, the album/cd “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd dropped OUT of the album chart after a record 725 weeks. It has re-appeared several times since 1988, and still holds the record now of 861 weeks.
Up until today when I posted this, I had never seen the official video for the song “MONEY”. It’s a good one. The album has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-APR 30, 2019…FORTY THREE YEARS AGO (1976) AC/DC RELEASED THEIR FIRST ALBUM INTERNATIONALLY. THE ALBUM WAS ‘HIGH VOLTAGE’ AND IT KICKED ASS. THE ALBUM SOLD OVER 3 MILLION COPIES IN THE U.S.A. AND WAS FUELED BY TRACKS LIKE ‘TNT’ ‘HIGH VOLTAGE’ ‘THE JACK’ ‘IT’S A LONG WAY T THE TOP(IF YOU WANNA ROCK ‘N’ ROLL)’ AND ‘LIVE WIRE’.
I FREAKIN’ LOVE AC/DC AND I LOVE THIS ALBUM.
HERE’S BON SCOTT SINGING “IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP(IF YOU WANNA ROCK ‘N’ ROLL)”…. BAGPIPES AND ALL !!
