Well, I’ll be damned. I like Yes. It’s almost shameful, but after finding the complete Yes discography… in the forest… I must say that I’ve listened to a hell of a lot of Yes lately, and they don’t suck. They’re a little hoity toity, and they don’t seem to be affiliated with heroin, Satan, or Aleister Crowley (although I’m pretty sure Rick Wakeman eats babies), but… they’re amazing musicians with a unique take on rock.
It’s nostalgic especially because this blog is a place where friends from almost 30 years ago keep in touch with me, expressing their love by questioning my sexuality and correcting my Spanish. Lo Siento, the Gus.
This clips is hilarious. It’s a Led Zeppelin Name That Tune contest but amazingly funny. Youdopians, this humor transcends whether you love Led Zeppelin, or merely like them a lot. I hope you enjoy the ha ha.I think Meth Minute 39 is a series I shall watch again.
I had to take down the Queermo Christmas. One of the participants got antsy. Lo ciento.
Michael Lee, who drummed for Page and Plant on all their reunion albums, and tours, died on the 24th of November. That’s a bummer because he was a joyous drummer who really brought fun to the Page/Plant tours. He played great with Jimmy Page, and they had nice chemistry. This clip is from the Bizarre Festival in 1998. It was broadcast on German television (hence the great quality) and it is fucking great. Check the tightness at 5:59. Yes, I’m a geek, but I’m right. This is an absolutely amazing of Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, and Jimmy plays the hell out of the solo. It’s tight tight tight. The ending is as brilliantly tongue and cheek as a supergroup would ever dare. I love live music.
Sorry, Michael Lee. My experience of you was 100% positive. Youdopia mourns you as Valhalla’s gates open.
Vale, Youdopia. I’m not much of a prog rock fan, although I certainly had my share of Yes albums in high school. I really dig Rick Wakeman’s keyboard playing, still. I came across this on Youtube today, and I listened to it a billion times on headphones, but this time without the weed. It’s still great. The chord progression is unique, the bass playing of Chris Squire is excellent, Steve Howe is an amazing guitarist (Mood For A Day is one of the most beautiful classical pieces I’ve ever heard), and Rick Wakeman is a keyboard virtuoso.
Listen to the bass build the tension and then release by sliding to the root, in time for the keyboards to take over with the mellotron chorus. Good stuff. And then when Rick Wakeman comes in with that amazing solo. I am not a progressive rock fan, as a rule. I don’t dig songs about the not to distant future, or hope, or sunrise, but… I like Yes. And the last section of the Starship Trooper cycle is The Coolest Shit Ever.
So here I stand at 40 saying that Yes is/was and awesome band that I like twice yearly. It must be that time of year. There’s no video to this, only the album cover, and you just hear the last segment of the song (Wurm), but it’s live and it’s fucking amazing. And hey, it’s not about Led Zeppelin or cancer, or fucking lolcats.
Chris Squire and Alan White got together with Jimmy Page in 1981, after their respective bands went belly up, and recorded some tracks, all of which were used later by one or the other on different projects. Their project was called XYZ, for Ex Yes, and Zeppelin. w00t.
Here’s a shorter version of the same song, but with some video. The sound quality isn’t as good, which is odd because it’s an official release.
You know something, Youdopia? I saw this beauty of a story on (one of my) guilty pleasure, Egotastic. I like celebrity nipple slips. There. Happy? Anyhoo, beehive train wreck Amy Winehouse got videoed while at a “crack den”. She sings a racist song. And… A picture of her nipples, as promised. I didn’t say they were hot.
This one’s all for Daddy. It’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones jamming with the Foo Fighters. When was this? Oh, yesterday. Yup. gotta love video cell phones, and the internet… and Led Zeppelin. All Hail.
Much as I have done to her with Led Zeppelin, Kiki has done the same to me, only with Coldplay. After years of being innundated/saturated with Coldplay… I started to like them. Now I like them on my own, but I would probably never listen to them again without the influence of my beloved Kiki. However, They are awesome live, and they really play, and they’re actually good musicians, so whatever. This is a funny ha ha from Jimmy Kimmel. I believe it aired June 4th.
Tom Waits Week continues. I remember when this album came out. It was 1984, and I was working at my second real job, in the Books and Records Dept. at Caldor. I remember being drawn to the album cover. I didn’t listen to that album for eight years, and then I was hooked. Vagabond burlesque.
I love this song. This version is live, but it’s from that era, and… it is great. I understand if you don’t like Tom Waits. I’m not asking you to. I’m just presenting a pie slice of my persona, and a little of the wheres and whys. Also, it’s a great way to lazily post every day.
It Will Always Come To Find You, It Will Always Hear You Cry
This song, with Keith Richards for added legitimacy, is one of my favorite ever. Again, Tom sings in myths, he hums like a detuned radio. Dear God, there’s so much of me that’s lain dormant.
You say that it’s gospel, but I know it’s only church.
Many miles away, something crawls from the slime, at the bottom of a dark Scottish loch. It’s a great song. It gets to me the way the Pogues can, sometimes. Ah, well. So, I’m a bit maudlin. Swaha.
Tom Waits Week continues with Temptation, a ditty from Frank’s Wild Years, which was the follow up to Rain Dogs, and the last in the trilogy which includes Swordfishtrombones, and Rain Dogs. I understand, Dear Reader, that Tom Waits is kind of a binary fella. You either like him , or not. If you don’t, that’s ok. I’m not proselytizing, merely blogging. Enjoy.
I don’t love Tom Waits, per se. I love an era of Tom Waits’ career. I love from Rain Dogsthrough Bone Machine. This particular swath of Tom’s career really speaks to the addict in me. The Irish. This song is from Bone Machine.
One look in his eye, and everyone denies ever having met him.
This song is pure Storyteller mythology. Tom is a pure genius. I will say that. I don’t like his barfly music of the 70’s, nor his clip/clip megaphone noise of latter day material, but that’s my problem, not his. Tom Waits is the hood ornament of the pink Caddy that Elvis drove out of Hell on Halloween night. You don’t have to like his voice. Listen to the flow of words, the rhythm, the cadence. Listen to the goddamn words themselves. He tells a story without once revealing who the subject is. Those wings of which he speaks… are they feathery or leathery?
I remember this from the good old video days of MTV. If I recall correctly, the director/editor cut out every fifth frame (or something) to give the video that herky jerky look. I don’t know whose idea it was to make Neil look like a transient. Probably his. Great song. Great mono mix. Great video. Tap them toes. It ain’t armegeddon yet.
You probably know by now that I have a fondness for the Zep. I also have an extreme fascination with bootlegs, and illicit recordings, of any nature. I love it that almost every show performed by my favorite band has at least some sort of document it. This little gem is great, because it consists of two separate media, and recorders, spliced into a seamless whole. Apparently the band themselves oversaw/approved this little video. It is from LA 3/25/75, and it is a super 8mm film of the boys performing Over The Hills And Far Away. The film was shot from the front row, or even the security pit, and since Peter Grant is shown grinding the filmer into a fine powder, one must assume that the filmer had the ok of the band. Thus, the footage is of excellent quality, with Jimmy in frame throughout. Yay.
The audio is from the excellent stealth recording made by the legendary Mike “The Mic” Millard. He was a taper who used a wheelchair to get moved up to the front and center of almost every LA show, in the 70’s. He built high end microphones into the chair, and had a battery pack, and a top end Nakamichi tape deck built under the seat. There wasn’t handicapped seating back then, so all the gimps got slid up front and center, just like at a Benny Hinn revival. His work is so good, it’s Zep used it as the menu music for their DVD set. It’s the Song Remains The Same. That song is from Mike, and was taped on (if memory serves it was 6/21/77). Legitimacy.
So, Mike the Mic was able to get stunning quality with his rig. Great stereo separation, and a clarity unrivaled in the non Grateful Dead taping world. The guy’s a legend. So, the Zep camp used this great silent footage and great audio (all low generation or master) to make this wonderful little video of a song from 33 years ago (also known as one Jesus). The song is great, the performance is great (ignore Robert Plant. I have for 20 years), and the fact that it’s reconstructed from two different illicit sources… is priceless. The underground is so alive. As Tom Waits sang, “There’s a world going on underground.”
I really like OK Computer, and Kid A, but so does everyone. I have quite a few lives shows of theirs, and … I like the OK Computer and Kid A stuff. I try, but… I guess I’m just too white. It’s like liking CSI, LOST or any other piece of shit mind leech show (unlike the shows I like)….
I guess I have to admit defeat. I always want to appear current w/ the stupid noise the kids call “music” these days, but… I hate it. I like what I like, and getting me to give something new a try is like blowing up the Death Star. You need skill, grace, and the help of the enlightened dead.
