LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 4, 2020…PUT 48 CANDLES ON A CAKE TODAY FOR MIKE DIRNT OF GREEN DAY AND CELEBRATE HIS BIRTHDAY. HIS REAL NAME IS MICHAEL RYAN PRITCHARD. HIS NICKNAME IN SCHOOL WAS “DIRNT” BECAUSE HE CONSTANTLY PLAYED AIRBASS AND MADE THE SOUND “DIRNT DIRNT DIRNT” WHEN PRETENDING TO PLUCK THE STRINGS. DIRNT CAN BE SEEN IN THE ABOVE PICTURE WITH GREEN DAY STALKER BABY HUEY ANXIOUSLY WAITING FOR SECURITY TO REMOVE “THE HUE-STER” FROM THE RESTRICTED AREA. HERE’S THE ENTIRE SET FROM GREEN DAY WHEN THEY PERFORMED AT GREEN DAY IN 1994. IT STARTS OFF WITH DIRNT GIVING ONE OF THE GREATEST CONCERT INTROS I’VE EVER SEEN.
photo-Baby Huey-certified Green Day Fan And Stalker
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 3, 2020…TWENTY SEVEN 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 TRACK 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 failure to communicate…”.
IT’S ALSO INTERESTING TO NOTE THIS WAS THE ONLY SONG ON BOTH ‘USE YOUR ILLUSION’ ALBUMS TO FEATURE STEVEN ADLER ON DRUMS. EVERY OTHER TRACK HAD MATT SORUM, WHO REPLACED ADLER IN THE GROUP.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 3, 2020…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. HERE’S A LIVE VERSION OF ‘BACK IN THE SADDLE’
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 2, 2020…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 THE 16TH SONG OF THE EVENING ‘HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS’.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 2, 2020…HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY TO THE ORIGINAL LEAD SINGER OF FOREIGNER LOU GRAMM. GRAMM WAS THE SINGER ON ALL OF FOREIGNER’S HITS AND AS A RESULT WAS ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ROCK VOCALISTS OF THE LATE 1970’S AND 1980’S. 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 1, 2020..ON THIS DATE IN 1967 JIMI HENDRIX RELEASED HIS FIRST SINGLE ‘HEY JOE’ IN THE U.S. ( IT WAS RELEASED FOUR MONTHS EARLIER IN THE U.K.). THE SONG IS ABOUT A MAN WHO IS ON THE RUN AND PLANS TO GO TO MEXICO AFTER SHOOTING HIS UNFAITHFUL WIFE. IT WAS RECORDED BY NUMEROUS ARTISTS BEFORE HENDRIX RELEASED THE SONG, BUT HENDRIX’S RENDITION BECAME THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE VERSION. JIMI’S VERSION IS LISTED AS #201 ON “ROLLING STONE” MAGAZINE’S LIST OF “THE 500 GREATEST SONGS OF ALL-TIME.” A LITTLE TRIVIA, ‘HEY JOE’ WAS THE LAST SONG HENDRIX PERFORMED AT WOODSTOCK IN 1969 AND AS A RESULT WAS THE FINAL SONG PLAYED AT THE FESTIVAL. HERE’S HENDRIX WITH HIS VERSION OF ‘HEY JOE’
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 1, 2020…GREAT DAY IN METALLICA HISTORY. ON THIS DATE IN 2003 METALLICA PLAYED THEIR FIRST GIG WITH ROB TRUJILLO ON BASS. THE SHOW WAS AT SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON. TRUJILLO IS AN INTERESTING DUDE. HIS FULL LEGAL NAME IS ROBERT AGUSTIN MIGUEL SANTIAGO SAMUEL PÉREZ DE LA SANTA CONCEPCIÓN TRUJILLO VERACRUZ BAUTISTA. TRUJILLO WENT TO JAZZ SCHOOL WHEN HE WAS 19 WITH THE INTENT OF BECOMING A STUDIO MUSICIAN. HE WAS ALSO A MEMBER OF OZZY OSBOURNE’S BAND IN THE MID TO LATE 90’S. HE RECEIVED 1 MILLION DOLLARS FROM METALLICA FOR JOINING THE GROUP. HIS AUDITION AND HIRING, AS WELL AS HIS MILLION DOLLAR PAYMENT OFFER CAN BE SEEN IN THE METALLICA DOCUMENTARY ‘SOME KIND OF MONSTER’.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MAY 1, 2020…FIFTY ONE YEARS AGO JOE COCKER RELEASED THE EPIC ALBUM ‘WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS.’ THIS WAS COCKER’S DEBUT ALBUM IN AMERICA. THE TITLE TRACK WAS WRITTEN BY PAUL MCCARTNEY AND JOHN LENNON AND APPEARED ON THE BEATLES ALBUM ‘SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND’ BUT THE BEATLES NEVER RELEASED IT AS A SINGLE. THE BEATLES WERE SO IMPRESSED WITH COCKER’S RENDITION HEY SENT HIM A TELEGRAM OF CONGRATULATIONS AND PLACED AN AD IN THE MUSIC TRADE PAPERS PRAISING COCKER’S VERSION. COCKER’S ‘‘WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS’ HAS BEEN INDUCTED INTO THE GRAMMY AWARD HALL OF FAME AND THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME. WHEN COCKER DIED IN 2014 AT THE AGE OF 70, PAUL MCCARTNEY ISSUED THIS STATEMENT REGARDING COCKER’S VERSION OF HIS SONG: “It was just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem, and I was forever grateful for him for having done that.”
HERES COCKER WITH HIS LEGENDARY PERFORMANCE OF ‘WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS’ AT WOODSTOCK
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-APR 30, 2030…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. The album has sold more than 55 million copies worldwide. Up until today when I posted this, I had never seen the official video for the song “MONEY”. It’s a good one.
LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-APR 30, 2020…FORTY FOUR 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 !!
