LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-NOV 23, 2019…ELEVEN YEARS AGO METALLICA CAME OUT WITH ‘GARAGE INC.’ THE ALBUM WAS A COMPILATION OF COVER SONGS AND B-SIDES AND FEATURED SONGS BY ARTISTS THAT INFLUENCED METALLICA. WITH THIS RECORD THE BAND MADE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO GET BACK TO THEIR ROOTS. ACCORDING TO LARS ULRICH: “We haven’t really f*#@ed with cover songs for a while,But we just did the two Load albums more or less back to back, so it just seemed like a good time to do some, from both a time point of view and a creative point of view. Just shake that off a little bit and come back to something a little looser and a little kind of sillier. There was just a renewed interest in f*#@ing with some other stuff.”

THE ALBUM WAS FUELED BY TWO HUGE SONGS. A COVER OF THE BOB SEGER ‘TURN THE PAGE’ AND THE THIN LIZZY TRACK ‘WHISKEY IN THE JAR.’

‘GARAGE INC.’ TO DATE HAS SOLD OVER SIX AND A HALF MILLION COPIES. HERE’S A FANTASTIC RENDITION OF ‘TURN THE PAGE’

LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-NOV 23, 2019…ON THIS DATE FORTY YEARS AGO PINK FLOYD RELEASED ‘ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART(II)’ HERE ARE QUICK FACTS SURROUNDING THIS EPIC TRACK:

-ROGER WATERS WROTE “PART II2” AS A PROTEST SONG AGAINST RIGID SCHOOLING, PARTICULARLY BOARDING SCHOOLS

-THE SONG APPEARS IN “THE WALL” MOVIE. DURING THE ‘PT(II)’ SEQUENCE CHILDREN ENTER A SCHOOL AND MARCH IN UNISON THROUGH A MEAT GRINDER. IN THE SCENE YOU SEE SHADOWS OF HAMMERS POUNDING AWAY AT THE CHILDREN UNTIL THEY BECOME PERFECT MODEL CITIZEN “PUTTY FACED CLONES.” THE KIDS SUCCUMB TO THEIR TEACHERS RANTS BEFORE THEY EVENTUALLY RIOT AND BURN DOWN THE SCHOOL

– THE PRODUCER BOB EZRIN SUGGESTED ADDING ELEMENTS OF DISCO TO THE TRACK

– DAVID GILMORE RECORDED THE GUITAR SOLO IN ONE TAKE

-WHEN EZRIN HEARD THE SONG WITH A DISCO BEAT HE KNEW IT WOULD BE A HIT RECORD BUT FELT IT NEEDED TO BE LONGER WITH TWO VERSES AND CHORUSES

-WHEN HE BROUGHT THIS UP TO THE BAND THEY SAID “NOPE, WE RELEASE ALBUMS, WE DON’T DO SINGLES.”

-ROGER WATERS WAS SO SET AGAINST THE IDEA OF RELEASING IT AS A 45 HE TOLD EZRIN “GO AHEAD AND WASTE YOUR TIME ON SILLY STUFF.”

-WHEN THE BAND WASN’T IN THE STUDIO, EZRIN EDITED THE TAKES INTO AN EXTENDED VERSION, AND HAD THE STUDIO ENGINEER RECORD CHILDREN SINGING THE CHORUS

-THE CHILDREN’S CHORUS WHICH SANG ON THE TRACK CAME FROM A SCHOOL THAT WAS CHOSEN BECAUSE IT WAS NEXT TO THE SCHOOL. IT WAS MADE UP OF 23 KIDS BETWEEN THE AGES OF 13-15. THEY WERE OVERDUBBED 12 TIMES MAKING IT SOUND LIKE THERE WERE MANY MORE KIDS.

-IT TURNS OUT THE KIDS WEREN’T PAID ANYTHING FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION. THE SCHOOL RECIEVED A SINGLE PAYMENT OF $ 1,000 POUNDS ( APPROXIMATELY $ 1,300 U.S.). THE KIDS DID RECEIVE TICKETS TO A PINK FLOYD CONCERT, AN ALBUM, AND A SINGLE.

-RUH-ROH ! IN 2004 THE GROWN UP SCHOOL CHILDREN FILED A LAWSUIT AGAINST PINK FLOYD WANTING TO GET PAID. THE SUIT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL.

-WHEN ROGER WATERS HEARD THE FINISHED PRODUCT, ACCORDING TO BOB EZRIN “there was a total softening of his face, and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record”

-THE BAND WAS CONVINCED THAT THEY SHOULD GO AGAINST THEIR POLICY OF NOT RELEASING SINGLES FROM THEIR ALBUMS. WHEN THE BAND RELENTED AND DID RELEASE ‘PT(II)’ IT BECAME THEIR ONLY #1 SONG ON THE BILLBOARD TOP 100.

-‘ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART(II)’ IS RANKED #375 ON ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE’S GREATEST SONGS OF ALL TIME

-THIS SONG WOULD TURN OUT TO BE THE FINAL #1 SONG OF THE 70’S

-TO DATE, ACCOUNTING FOR STREAMING, DOWNLOADS AND PHYSICAL RECORD SALES ‘ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART(II)’ HAS SOLD THE EQUIVALENT OF 16,700,000 COPIES.

AND HERE’S THE VIDEO THAT WAS PLAYED ON VH1 (6 MINS WORTH )

LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-NOV 22, 2019…FIFTY ONE YEARS AGO JIMI HENDRIX RELEASED HIS VERSION OF ‘ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER’. LEGEND HAS IT WHEN BOB DYLAN HEARD JIMI HENDRIX’S VERSION OF ‘ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER’ HE CRIED. DYLAN WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH JIMI’S VERSION THAT DYLAN PLAYED IT THE WAY HENDRIX RECORDED IT FOR MANY YEARS LATER. IN A PANEL CONDUCTED BY “TOTAL GUITAR” MAGAZINE, THIS WAS VOTED THE BEST COVER VERSION OF ALL TIME. HERE’S HENDRIX WITH A LIVE VERSION FROM 1970

LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-NOV 22, 2019…FIFTY ONE YEARS AGO TODAY, THE BEATLES RELEASED THE EPIC DOUBLE ALBUM ‘THE BEATLES’. IT’S BETTER KNOWN AS ‘THE WHITE ALBUM.’ THIS WAS THE NINTH STUDIO ALBUM FROM THE GROUP, AND ITS PLAIN WHITE SLEEVE WITH NO GRAPHICS OR TEXT OTHER THAN THE EMBOSSED “The BEATLES” WAS INTENDED TO CONTRAST THE VIVID ART WORK OF SGT. PEPPER’S. DURING THE RECORDING OF THIS ALBUM YOU STARTED TO SEE PROBLEMS WITHIN THE BAND, WITH ARGUMENTS BREAKING OUT IN THE STUDIO BETWEEN MEMBERS OVER CREATIVE DIFFERENCES. JOHN LENNON WAS QUOTED AS SAYING “the break-up of the Beatles can be heard on that album.” DESPITE ALL THE TENSION, THE LP WENT #1 FOR THE GROUP AND SPENT A TOTAL OF 186 WEEKS ON THE BILLBOARD TOP 200 ALBUM CHART. TOTAL SALES FOR ‘THE WHITE’ ALBUM INCLUDING DOWNLOADS, STREAMING, AND ACTUAL ALBUM SALES CURRENTLY SITS AT OVER 28 MILLION COPIES SOLD.

HERE’S McCARTNEY PERFORMING ‘HELTER SKELTER’ LIVE ON “THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN.