sing a long

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Read somewhere that Rebecca Black had turned 22 this year and is still pursuing a career in music and modeling. Everyone made fun of her song at the time (2011) but it got her a lot of publicity and started a career. Nothing wrong with that. I once heard a cover she did of Miley’s “We Can’t Stop” and thought it was pretty good. They also did away with the “drug” references.

Anyway it got me thinking: “Wonder if my friend Leo has ever covered ‘Friday’?” Turns out he has.

Just hope the Barbies in the video are “over 18.”

(Below is a pic of Rebecca from her Instagram. Dated July 2019, so she’s just turned 22.)

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Hope you like this one. No “nu metal” this time. I promise. From the album “Ultra” released in 1997. This was my first girlfriend’s favorite song. Brings back a lot of good memories.

Best YouTube comments:

“Aquaman brought me here.”

“It’s so good music.....Thanks DM.”

“Groovy...” (Me: Yeah, I guess it is. But this was the 90’s. Not the 60’s… Or is “groovy” coming back? )

“Disco times are remembered by this great song.” (Me: Disco!!! Jesus. That was the 70’s. How old do you think I am? On second thought, maybe you were born after 2000 and the 80’s and 90’s just seem like the 70’s? )

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Shit. You knew it wouldn’t last. Here’s Pantera. Happy Thanksgiving! These guys had a big influence on me and my musical tastes. This album “The Great Southern Trendkill” was released in 1996. Of course I lifted to it and it was one I listened to a lot before games.

This is what Wikipedia had to say:

Being Pantera's most aggressive album to date, The Great Southern Trendkill is known for featuring lots of screaming, most notably on "Suicide Note Pt. II" and "The Great Southern Trendkill" while also featuring some of the fastest tempos and most down-tuned guitars ("The Underground in America" and "(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin" were played in drop G tuning) that the band ever recorded.

“Dimebag” (1966-2004) and Vinnie (1964-2018). RIP

Best YouTube comments:

“Very brutal song off Pantera's best album in my opinion. Love it.”

“Pantera wrote the hardest mid-tempo grooves that make you feel like you're made of pure steel.”

“This song predicted the future of nu metal.”

“I wasn't into Pantera until I heard this album. This blows my mind.”

“Vince’s drumming in this is out of this world.”

(True story: Soon after we met, my now wife and I stopped at a “Dollar General” on the way home after one of our first dates. I made a joke about “The fucking dollar store.” She laughed. She knew what I meant! Not long after, I asked her to marry me. )

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Years before there was “nu-metal” there was this. “Left Hand Path” is the debut studio album by Swedish death metal band Entombed, released on June 4, 1990.

My “introduction” to this style of music came a few years later when an older kid in our neighborhood let me borrow his copy of “World Downfall” by Terrorizer. My parents, especially my Mom, hated this type of music. Even Metallica and Slayer were preferable. So naturally, I loved it.

True story: My friend also loaned me a CD of “Eaten Back to Life” by Cannibal Corpse. I kept this one hidden and was careful not to play it when my parents were around. Still, my Mom found it and threw it in the trash. I had to buy my friend a new CD.

According to Wikipedia, the title of the album refers to the “Left-Hand Path” belief system. Guitarist Alex Hellid found the term in Anton LaVey's book The Satanic Bible. The more melodic, ambient section that comes in at 3:54 of the title track is a cover of the theme from the 1979 horror film Phantasm.

The album is known for defining the style of Swedish death metal by being the first studio album to use the "buzzsaw" guitar tone. The tone was created by heavily detuned electric guitars used with a maxed out Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal Pedal and the DS-1 Distortion pedal into a Peavey amp. The originator of this guitar tone was Nihilist guitarist Leif "Leffe" Cuzner.

"Drowned" was featured in the 2009 video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned on the radio station Liberty City Hardcore.

You learn something new every day…

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“Stormbringer” was from Deep Purple’s 1974 album of the same name. This is the live version from “Made in Europe” (1975). One of my favorite bands from the past.

One of the most striking things was the picture of the tornado used on the cover. We get a lot of them in the mid-west United States. Have seen quite a few since I’ve lived in Indiana. Always wondered if this was “real” or not. Turns out it is. It was taken from an early photo of a tornado that struck Jasper, Minnesota, July 8, 1927 (photo courtesy NOAA).

Ritchie Blackmore (guitar) and Ian Paice (no his drums aren’t set up backwards, he’s left handed) especially stand out to me. David Coverdale handles vocals in this line-up. Jon Lord on keyboards, And Glenn Hughes on bass.

“Stormbringer coming. Time to die.” Yep. Sounds like something I would’ve listened to…

(The color picture is from the vinyl re-master of 2009. )

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Fuck yeah!!! Fifty years ago. I don’t know about you, but to me this is the real beginning of what we now call “Heavy Metal.” I’m not sure the term was even used back then. Don’t know what they called it? It’s more extreme than “Hard Rock” or “Acid Rock.” De-tuned and distorted guitar and bass (Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler ). Evil lyrical themes. Unbelievably heavy drumming (Bill Ward ). Love the old “Slingerland” Jazz kit. They used to be made in Chicago, IL. Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa played them. He beats the shit out of it. I’m surprised it didn’t break into pieces. Eventually he would add another bass drum. What else was like this at that time?

Here’s what Wikipedia had to say:

The original title of "War Pigs" was "Walpurgis", dealing with the witches' sabbath. "Walpurgis is sort of like Christmas for Satanists. And to me, war was the big Satan", said bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler. "It wasn’t about politics or government or anything. It was Evil itself. So I was saying 'generals gathered in the masses / just like witches at black masses' to make an analogy. But when we brought it to the record company, they thought 'Walpurgis' sounded too Satanic. And that's when we turned it into 'War Pigs'.

I know the lines “cast the priest into the fire” and “watch them eating dead rats innards” are not in the version from “Paranoid.” So this was even too much for their record company I guess. Today Ozzy is 71 and still going. Although I have read he suffers from Parkinson’s. I have seen them at an “Ozzfest” in the mid 2000’s. They had an air raid siren like on the record. It was loud as hell. I’m glad I got to see them. If I ever were to meet any of them all I could say would be “Thanks.”

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Alice Cooper was born Vincent Furnier in 1948 in Detroit, Michigan. “Billion Dollar Babies” was released in 1973. I was going to post “Eighteen” which is perhaps better known but it was the heavier sound, in particular, the drumming of Neal Smith and bass of Dennis Dunaway as well as the dual guitars of Glenn Buxton and Michael Bruce that convinced me to post this song instead.

One of the coolest sounding drum intros ever. Always wondered how he came up with that. A friend who knows much more about music than I do, told me that “machine gun” effect is actually the bass. He’s picking very rapidly as he slides down the neck. Whatever, it sounds awesome.

Alice Cooper was years ahead of pretty much everything. Experimenting with elaborate stage shows and “theatrical” production. “Extreme” hard rock (especially for it’s time). Sexual lyrics and themes. Mock executions. Snakes. And of course the name “Alice.”

From all I’ve read, the 60’s and 70’s was an era when anyone gay, lesbian, or transgender had to live “closeted” lives much of the time. Doing research for this post I discovered that “Alice” is considered by many today to be one of the first LGBTQ Ally’s. Here is an “excerpt” of an interview with him from 1974:

SPEC: Would you admit it if you were homosexual?
Alice: Of course, and I wouldn’t just admit it, as if it were something you’re supposed to conceal. I’d just be it. I’d be natural about it, and I don’t see where it would be very much different for me, except I’d be making it with men instead of women.

SPEC: Aren’t you even just a little bit bisexual?
Alice: You mean do I mostly like girls, but do I like boys sometimes? No, I only like girls, but if I could have chosen my own sexuality, I think I might have chosen to be bisexual.

SPEC: Do you really mean that?
Alice: Sure—I think in the future everyone will be bisexual. And everything would be so much simpler then—you’d just make love with anyone you liked, and it wouldn’t matter what sex they were, and maybe it also wouldn’t matter what color they were, or what age, or anything, except that you liked them.

The album cover was a green “snakeskin” wallet with pictures of the band as well as a “Billion Dollar” bill folded inside. This one happens to be signed by Alice himself. Pretty cool. You don’t get that with Spotify…