Rock Show (link) Track and Show Commentaries Commentary Index Shows 1 - 3 I’m doing extra commentary here, may differ/in part from that of the shows! It’ll take me some time to catch up on all of the rock shows so far with the extra commentaries! Rock Show 1 The funny thing with rock is that some of the very best rock tracks either haven’t been released as singles or if they did, never got near the charts - and many tracks were considered too long to release as singles. A very quick word on rock music itself. Rock music has a strong driving beat and an upbeat tempo, often with a snare drum used on the back-beat. It came from a melding of Afro and Caribbean music using British instrumentation, in the Southern States of the USA in the 40s and 50’s, first using saxophone and the trombone, and later very dramatically the electric guitar, accompanied by drums and later bass. This came about from large settlements of African or Jamaican people, and from the blues and R & B music, beat music or early rock came into being. Some of the main rock styles over the years are Blues , Gospel , Folk and Country Rock, Rhythm and Blues or R & B, Electric Rock, Heavy Metal, and now there’s Punk , Pyschedelic Rock, Grunge, Alternative, Indie and New Wave. I’m not going to get too technical with nearly 200 sub types of rock music! Elvis tops the charts for no 1’s followed by the Beatles. But who had more UK top 20 hits than the Beatles? Well -- If--- you said Ronan Keating, you’d be right, surprisingly enough! Cliff Richard has had the most top 40 hits. Paul McCartney (in his various groups, including with the Beatles) has the longest time spent in the charts, and his band Wings are 11th in overall sales. The Shadows have the most hits for a group, followed by Status Quo. The top female artist in the charts is Madonna, followed by again perhaps surprisingly by Diana Ross and the Supremes. “Stairway to Heaven” from the 1971 Led Zeppelin IV album - love it or hate it, is one of Led Zeppelin’s greatest tracks, and Led Zeppelin take some beating! Never released as a single but has more air playtime than any other rock track! “A Hard Day’s Night” - from the 1964 film and album of the same name, good hard driving rock that took The Beatles many years to better! Single released after the album! Beatlemania had already set in! In just over seven short years, the Beatles completely changed the course of Pop and Rock history! The Beatles started recording in 1961 and had their first hit in 1962. They had 49 top 40 hits, well over half of which were top ten hits in the UK or US, before folding in 1970. The only Beatles film I've seen in the cinema! A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles. “Gimme Shelter” from the Stones 1969 album Let It Bleed - was never released as a single, but was a staple part of Stones' concerts. Originally worded Gimmie, common usage now has it as Gimme Shelter. One of the very best Rolling Stones’ tracks. The Rolling Stones formed up in 1962 and have gone on to become one of the world's most recognized and enduring bands. They are still together 49 years on with much the same lineup! Jefferson Airplane were the first San Francisco psychedelic rock band to gain national and later international recognition. “Ride” sometimes titled “Ride the Rodeo” was only ever played Live on stage by Jefferson Airplane and is to be found on an Italian release only, Live compilation album Through The Looking Glass where it is titled Watch Her Ride. Nevertheless it’s a rousing bluesy southern rock number! Lucky for posterity we have a recorded copy! “We’re Gonna Rock Around The Clock” wasn’t the first rock and roll record, nor the first successful record of the genre (Bill Haley had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and in 1954, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart). Haley's recording of this 1954 song “We’re Gonna Rock Around The Clock” though became an anthem for rebellious Fifties youth and is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around the world. “Blue Suede Shoes” is another rock and roll standard by Carl Perkins from 1955 and with its bluesy, country and pop style is considered the first rockabilly track (rock + hillbilly = rockabilly!). Elvis Presley did a notable cover version. Johnny Cash told Carl of a black airman he had met while serving in the military in Germany who had referred to his military regulation air shoes as "blue suede shoes”. Carl had replied “How can I write a song about shoes?, but he did, the rest being history! "Ride My See-Saw" was written by Moody Blues bassist John Lodge and is one of his signature high-energy rock and roll songs, sometimes regarded as his most popular composition for the Moody Blues, alongside "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)". It came out in 1968 as a single and on on their In Search Of The Lost Chord album. "Ride My See-Saw" was also another piece of recording history. It was one of the first rock singles ever to be recorded on 8-track tape multi-track recording (only used previously for albums but not for singles!). "Johnny B. Goode" was a major hit in 1958 among both black and white audiences, and was partly autobiographical by Chuck Berry. it came out as a single and on his Chuck Berry Is On Top album of the same year. Chuck reworded ‘colored boy’ in his original script to ‘country boy’ to ensure radio plays. It has a tremendous blues riff, but what isn’t generally realised is that the introduction is virtually a note-for-note copy off the intro on Louis Jordan's 1946 "Ain't That Just Like a Woman". Chuck berry and Johnny B Goode. “Changing Tracks” is a strong and haunting rock song and has the line “God speed and help from below” with the chilling implications of the second part! Certainly makes me shiver! Cracking good track by Wishbone Ash from their 2002 Bona Fide album! Probably their very best hard rock track! “Thoughts of Mary Jane” from Nick Drake's 1969 Five Leaves Left album is a delightful and lyrical track with a great melody. We can only speculate what might have been had Nick Drake found more success while he was with us, but posthumously his music has found the success and recognition it deserved. It might be that he wouldn’t have been able to cope with the pressures of success and going performing Live, but then again neither could he cope with the pressures of seclusion and isolation. I certainly like to think that losing him so early on in life was a tragic accident rather than anything self-intended by him, and we can only guess at what might have been had he lived and continued recording. Love the 'Journey to the Stars' part of the lyrics! Thoughts of Mary Jane, Nick Drake. Rory Gallagher was noted by the great Jimi Hendrix as being the next best guitarist to Jimi himself! Rory sadly didn’t survive a liver transplant after years of heavy drinking. Seeing him perform live myself, he always seemed to have a bottle of whiskey in hand from which he drank copiously, but it didn’t affect his fantastic guitar playing! He was Irish and wrote and sang mostly his own compositions. “Shadow Play” from his 1978 and seventh album Photo-Finish is a tremendous track of his, a heavy rock number with a great melody! And the guitar playing! like - Wow! Jimi Hendrix had more than a fair number of great hits, but the pressures of doing 300 concerts a year were immense. “Are You Experienced” was written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience for their 1967 debut album Are You Experienced. The song was recorded in 1967 at Olympic Sound Studios in London, England along with two other tracks on the same day. The recording combined backwards and forward recorded guitars and drums. The lyrics refer to experience beyond that of this world, not relationships-wise! Jimi Hendrix with Are You Experienced. "I Don't Know Where I Stand", by Fairport Convention is a slightly rocked-up cover version of a Joni Mitchell Song - found on Joni’s 1967 Clouds album and here from Fairport's 1968 (1970 in the US) self-titled debut album.. Some very nice guitar work about half-way through Fairport’s cover version! How many have set off to find romance, not knowing what to expect, some lucky or very lucky, some - less so! “Basket of Light” from1969 and by Pentangle was my very first purchased LP album. I wasn’t then as well into rock as in later or is that sooner years! I certainly haven't been sorry though to have this LP in my collection, over the years as it has some great, and quite a mixed selection of, tracks on it. I was well into folk music at that time and spent about an evening a week at Newport and occasionally Cardiff folk clubs. “Springtime Promises “ is one of their finest original tunes and has a very impressive vocals by Bert Jansch who is also responsible for half the guitar work. Pentangle and“Springtime Promises “ Right let’s get on with some Status Quo with the second highest number of hits of any group. And what better one to get us really rocking than the ‘Wild Side of Life’ which is a Quo cover of a country song by Hank Thompson, believe it or not, originally from 1952, and came out as a Quo single in 1976. It wasn’t released on any Quo album until 1980 when it appeared on their ‘Vertigo’ album! Another group I can’t overlook on my first rock show is Dire Straits. I’m playing ‘Money for Nothing’ from their 1985 ‘Brothers in Arms’ album, one of their very best albums. Money for Nothing was released as a single and as well as being a big hit, had an enormous amount of air-time play! Justifiably so, it’s a really great track! The very best group I ever saw play live, and it surprised me too at the time, was Mott the Hoople. Their lead guitarist wasn’t just good, in fact he was fantastically brilliant! At the time, one of their top records was the ‘Ballad Of Mott The Hoople’ so here goes! As it happens they released a large number of albums in the 70s, but the gig of theirs I went to at Barry just happened to have exactly the right combination of their best rock tracks! Magic! Another band that’s been around for years and have some heavy rock as well as some driving melodic rock are the Groundghogs. I’m putting their track ‘Ship on the Ocean’ on next, it’s a very distinctive rock track from their album ‘Thank Christ for the Bomb’ I’ve got to play an Allman Brothers Track. One of the brothers was eventually tragically killed in a motor bike crash. They were very much one of the top rock bands, and their dual guitar solos are really something to listen to! Here’s ‘Blue Sky’ by The Allman Brothers Blues Band. Really lovely tune and oh so brilliant electric guitars! Well, I’ve got this far without some U2, so here we go with, from 2000 ‘Beautiful Day’ by the very epitome of modern rock! The lyrics are fantastic, and it’s the sort of tune that gets to the hairs on the back of our head or neck. Brilliant! Reminds me of some tracks by The Who another tremendous smash hit band from the 60’s who are still playing today. So I’d better have one of The Who’s numbers let’s have ‘Baba O’Riley’ , perhaps a bit less known than some of their hits, but one of their best! The Who developed a habit of destroying their guitars and equipment on stage, probably very effective then! Another sort of smash hits! I can’t have some rock without some Welsh rock bands. So first (and as a tribute to Stuart Cable) here’s the Stereophonics with their version of Chris Farlowe’s ‘Handbags and Glad-Rags’ Then we’ve got the very great Welsh band Man from the 70s, and I can honestly say I went to see more of their live gigs than any other band, often right up next to the speakers with some cotton wool in my ears! Did I dance and rock some then! I’m playing a slightly edited and shortened version of the epic track ‘Bananas’ by Man which first came out as an extended play single . If you know the tune you’ll know the reason for the edit. More to do with ‘weeds’ than bananas! I’ll finish today with that great lady of rock Madonna with her track ‘Vogue’. This has several versions, including an EP and album version, and it’s the album version played here. This was Madonna’s first multi-platinum single and her tribute to the club dance known as “vogueing”. The original version of the song appears on her 1990 ”I’m Breathless” album and the remix appeared that same year on her greatest hits album, “The Immaculate Collection”. The song was written by Madonna. Rock Show 2 I’m going to start off today with Rory Gallagher’s pièce de résistance ‘Brute Force and Ignorance’. It’s from his seventh album Photofinish, released in 1978 - a great album indeed! And a great stomper this one is! Well back to Led Zeppelin. Formed in England as the New Yardbirds in 1968, the band consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. They are widely considered to be very much one of the most successful, innovative and influential rock groups in the history of rock music. Here’s ‘Communication Breakdown’ from their 1969 debut album, Led Zeppelin. Another great rock classic! The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey (lead vocals, harmonica and guitar) with Pete Townshend (guitar, keyboards and vocals), John Entwistle (bass guitar, brass and vocals) and Keith Moon (drums and percussion). They became known for energetic live performances which often included breaking guitars on-stage! This one is ‘I Can See For Miles And Miles’ also released as a single, from their 1967 album ‘The Who Sell Out’ and is their biggest hit single. A really lovely rock number! Bob Dylan is a very, as in totally famous American folk/rock singer, guitar and harmonica player who’s had a huge influence over 50 years on the folk and rock scene. His 60’s protest songs put him right in the international spotlight, with many of his songs becoming anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. I didn’t play anything by Bob Dylan in my first show, so we’ll put that right now with ‘Obviously 5 Believers’! a really great track from his 1966 album ‘Blonde on Blonde’ Jefferson Airplane put out some very colourful and psychedelic music. They performed at the three most famous American rock festivals of the 1960s—Monterey (1967), Woodstock (1969) and Altamont (1969) as well as headlining the first Isle of Wight Rock Festival. This one is ‘White Rabbit’. It’s one of their two most successful hits, and is from their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow featuring the inimitable Grace Slick, singing lead vocal. It’s about as fantasy and psychedelic as it’s origins in Alice in Wonderland! Bread was a Los Angeles American band from the 1970’s and they produced no less than 13 top ten hits, mostly soft rock. ‘The Guitar Man’ to give it it’s full title was Bread’s third big hit from their 1972 album Guitar Man. Terrific easy listening, this one! Well, we have another easy listening one, this time by Air Supply. The Australian soft rock band Air Supply formed up when the band members to be, met in May 1975 while performing in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice super musical, 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. ‘All Out of Love’ was a top hit of theirs, released as a single, and is of course a really really great love song! Ok, Status Quo - big rock band, big hit list! They founded as the Spectres in 1962 and have over 60 top hits to their name. Not much more to say except that this one rocks and they’re still playing to this day! It’s ‘Wild Side of Life’ which was a UK top ten hit in 1976. (didn’t get played in show 1!) Mott the Hoople formed in 1969 when after many incarnations they were joined by singer Ian Hunter. It’s probably little well known that the band Queen were great friends of three of Mott’s members. This one is Mott the Hoople’s signature tune written incidentally by David Bowie , slightly edited for the show. It’s ‘All The Young Dudes’ and was their biggest hit in 1972 reaching number three in the UK charts. Many people regard ‘All the Young Dudes’ as a hymn to the youth but in fact Bowie wrote it as carrying a much darker message where the news carried by the young dudes was a ‘forthcoming apocalypse’ five years thence; but thankfully we are all here today in 2012.! Watch this space for later in the year!
Bruce Springsteen did some very American rock numbers. He performed from 1965, going on to subsequently record and perform with the E Street band from 1972 on the same record label as Bob Dylan. One of his best numbers is * ‘Born In The USA’ from the 1984 album of the same name. Wouldn’t sound quite the same if it was ‘Born in Aber-dare’, or would it now? He’s one of the top four American pop/rock/country artists, the others being Madonna, Britney and Toby Keith.
One band I’ve yet to mention is Deep Purple. Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock. Deep Purple also have the distinction of being rated the loudest rock band around. They must have some way powerful kit for their gigs! Here’s ‘Mistreated’ from their 1974 album Burn. Unlike most of Deep Purple's hard rock or heavy metal material "Mistreated" is a blues rock song!
Crazy Town (also known as CxT) is a rap rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1995. The song I’m going to play is ‘Butterfly’ which was released in November 2000 as the third single from their album The Gift of Game. The song reached number-one in 15 countries, including in the US. (The song incidentally consists mainly of a short sample from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' song "Pretty Little Ditty" but makes incredibly fantastic use of it!)
Another change of direction again here, this one is by Nick Drake, it’s a mellow and very melodic little number called ‘Saturday Sun’ from his 1969 album Five Leaves Left . You can imagine sitting out in the sun and the warmth of the sun listening to this, really beautiful lovely song!
Then we’ve got the very great Welsh band Man from the 70s, and I can honestly say I went to see more of their live gigs than any other band, often right up next to the speakers with some cotton wool or hankies in my ears! Did I dance and rock some then! To give them their full title, they were known as “The Man Band” and ‘The Ride and the View’ is a track from their 1976 album Welsh Connection. The version played is an edit, one line is not just suggestive, but very explicit sexually and definitely not suited to family listening!
The Irish rock band U2 are of course one of the top bands around today. And ‘One’ is practically their signature number, so here’s the track “One” from their 1991 album Achtung Baby, and it was released as the album's third single in March 1992.
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from Nirvana was their biggest hit and it’s from their second album Nevermind from 1991. Nirvana was an American rock band formed in the late 1980’s, lasting through until 1994, when Kurt Cobain the band’s lead singer/guitarist died in somewhat mysterious circumstances.
The Rolling Stones formed in 1962 and comprise Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor, Ron Wood, and Ian Stewart. They are probably the third biggest influence on rock music after Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. Mick Jagger has his own very unique on-stage strutting style so here is ‘Brown Sugar’from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. It topped the charts in the US but surprisingly, given its huge success over the years, only reached the second spot in the UK charts at the time.
The Groundhogs are a British hard and blues rock band founded in 1963 and very popular in the UK in the early 70’s though they are still around today with some line-up changes. Here we go with ‘Eccentric Man’ ******, another track from their 1970 album Thank Christ For The Bomb. Although going strong, they haven’t produced much new material over the years, resting on their laurels of some really tremendous 70s tracks!
Here’s one by the Fab Four themselves, John, Paul, George and Ringo. Some of The Beatles best rock numbers were written in their later years. ‘Get Back’ is of course from the 1969 single and was written by Paul McCartney not Lennon-McCartney as is often attributed.
Time for an Eagles number I think! The Eagles were one of the most successful rock bands of the 70’s producing very commercial tracks in abundance. They broke up between 1980 and 1994 but have toured since, and they made a new album “Long Road out of Eden” in 2007. Here’s ‘Hotel California’ one of their best known numbers from the 1977 album of the same name. You can check out but you can’t leave!
We’ve a Welsh Indian lady rock singer/guitarist now living amongst us in Pontypridd, and she lists her musical influences as KT Tunstall, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Alanis Morrisette, Sheryl Crow, Katy Perry, Beatles, Pink Floyd to name but a few. She’s released a brilliant single very recently and it’s ‘Question It All’ , by Hina Gajjar available as a cheap digital download. Well worth getting a copy!
Wishbone Ash has had a hugely successful career on both sides of the Atlantic that stretches back over 35 years and includes 12 UK Top 40 albums. Still under the leadership of guitarist and singer Andy Powell Wishbone Ash are considered to be one of the major innovators of twin lead guitar harmony. ‘Surfing on a Slow Wave’ is a great instrumental of theirs from their 2006 album Clan Destiny. Think Jet Harris or Hank Marvin, except it’s Wishbone Ash playing!
Metallica are a great American band formed in 1981, and though much of their music is heavy metal, they also do some more melodic tracks. Their most famous track is ‘Nothing Else Matters’ released as a single in 1991 from their album entitled Metallic. It is playable on the Guitar Hero game and had 40 cover versions by other bands! So the brilliant Nothing Else Matters by Metallica!
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in 1977 and dissolved in 1995. They had a very distinctive style of their own led by singer/guitarist Mark Knopfler. ‘Sultans of Swing’ was first released as a single in 1978, but became a top ten hit here and in the States on re-release in 1979. Very much one of their best tracks! Title track from the album of the same name.
Bachman–Turner Overdrive (frequently known as BTO) is a Canadian rock group from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who had a series of hit albums and singles in the 1970s, selling over 7 million albums in that decade alone. Their 1970s run included five Top 40 albums and six Top 40 singles, one of which is ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ from 1974, which has also featured as a backing track in several good films.
I was short of time last week so here’s one carried over! I’m playing a slightly edited and shortened version of the epic track ‘Bananas’ by the Welsh group The Man Band which first came out as an extended play single in 19 . Man were a rock band from South Wales whose style is a mixture of West Coast psychedelia, progressive rock, blues and country-rock. Formed in 1968 as a reincarnation of Welsh rock harmony group ‘’The Bystanders’’, Man were renowned for the extended jams in their live performances, and having had numerous line up changes! Their rock style was often funky and even bordering on being jazzy at times. The band sadly wound up in 1976 thlough some members have got back together from time to time. Bananas is one of their better known tracks, and was first featured on their 1972 album “Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day”Rock Show 3 Motorhead’s gigs are legendary, often featuring a life size German bomber replica. They were particularly successful in the early 1980’s and here’s one of their better known numbers Ace Of Spades from their 1980 album of the same name. The album features them dressed as cowboys. The 'Arizona desert-style' pictures were taken at a sandpit in Barnet, London! You wouldn’t think so looking at the album cover! We’ll have another one next from Deep Purple. They famously announced at the start of one of their live gigs, "Could we have everything louder than everything else?" and they’ve very much their own style in rock music. The next one is taken from a true story about smoke on Lake Geneva after a casino burnt down! Someone had set off a flare gun accidentally at a ceiling. Smoke On The Water is an all time air-guitar anthem with some spiffing riffs, and it’s from their 1972 album Machine Head. Lynyrd Skynyrd are an American band from the 60’s, still playing to this day but with line-up changes. They were particularly popular in the 70’s helping popularize Southern Rock. One of their best known numbers is the very excellent and melodic Free Bird which came out as a single in 1974 and it has also appeared in several of their albums, where it is often listed as Freebird. The Rolling Stones have had 65 hits in the UK and US top 40, so we’ll likely have a Stones track most every week! Well, Almost! Jumping Jack Flash is one of their top hits. It’s from 1968 and as well as being released as a single, has featured in many films and Stone’s compilation albums. Persephone was the Greek Goddess who was married to Haides King of the Underworld, but she was Goddess of Spring and new beginnings! In our day, Persephone is a great track by Wishbone Ash from their 1974 album There’s The Rub. It’s a sad and melancholy number mostly instrumental but brilliantly melodic! The guitar is enough to make you weep! Fantastic! Well back to Status Quo. This is of course that very well known number Whatever You Want but will you recognise the song from the introduction? It’s from the 79 album of the same name. This one is in very typical Quo style. Quo only use a few simple chords, but do they get some effect with them! Ok time for an all-time classic, All Right Now by the English band Free from their 1970 album Fire and Water. Free formed in 1968 and headlined the Isle of Wight rock festival in 1970, but had disbanded by 1973, despite showing huge promise as a rock band. Sadly Paul Kosoff their lead guitarist died tragically in 1976, a tremendous talent. - Free with All Right Now! Looking down my list we haven’t had anything by AC/DC yet. AC/DC are an Australian hard rock band, formed in 1973 and Dirty Deeds Done Cheap is from their 1976 album of the same name. Suffice that the dirty deeds are ‘wasting’ someone by one means or another. Fleetwood Mac have probably undergone more line-up changes than practically any other rock band though a good many members of their best line-up have reformed together over recent years. Go Your own Way was a big hit single of theirs in 1976 and then appeared on Fleetwood Macs immensely popular album Rumours in 1977. This is a cracking Mac number! Pentangle are a popular British folk rock band who have been around in various guises since the latter 1960s. Light Flight was released as a single in 1969, and its inclusion on the album Basket of Light made this album the bands greatest ever commercial success. Very melodic! Rory Gallagher the great Irish rock song-writer/guitarist had some really great tracks on his 1978 album Photo-Finish. We’ll play Shinkicker which is the very first track of this album. Another brilliant rock stomper! The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in 1974 who only disbanded in 1996 and had a great influence on the punk scene, here’s one of their best known numbers that is also less punk in style! It’s the very popular Blitzkrieg Bop . It was in fact their debut single, released in 1976. Boston is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that formed in 1974 and achieved its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s. Don’t Look Back from the 1978 album so named, is one of their greatest hits. Boston played it as a tribute to Brad Delp their lead vocalist after his death in 2007. The Swinging Blue Jeans were a four piece 1960s Merseybeat band that only had some notable hit-singles in 1966, most noted of which is the famous Hippy Hippy Shake . You shake it to the left... you shake it to the right, You do the hippy shake shake... with all of your might... Ok you know how it goes! I was born in London a good many years ago, but I’ve only ever visited it very briefly since! But London certainly has it’s attractions. The Clash were an English punk rock band that lasted from 1976 to early 1986. Their album London Calling was rated the best rock album of the 1980s and here is it’s title track London Calling, describing some of London’s attractions! Catchy number! The Beautiful People is a very heavy metal track from Marilyn Manson’s album second full-length album Antichrist Superstar , released as a single in 1996. Marilyn Manson is an American rock band from Florida. Formed in 1989, they are renowned for changing their musical style frequently. They were first known as Marilyn Manson and the Spooky kids and built up an early cult following which subsequently developed into International acclaim. So here’s Marilyn Manson with The Beautiful People. I won’t be playing too many tracks by Jefferson Airplane but they did perform some real gems of tracks. Comin’ Back To Me is one such track and it’s from their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It has quite a long intro - Enjoy! One of the most melodic numbers you can imagine! The American rock band Journey formed in 1973 in San Francisco from some former members of Santana. Don’t Stop Believin’ is a popular song of theirs, originally released as a single from their 1981 album Escape. Don’t Stop Believin’ was a top ten hit in the States at the time. But it took until it’s 2009 re-release to become a hit in the UK! The Groundhogs never found much further acclaim after a good deal of success in the 1970s, I think in part because they rested on their laurels and played many of their earlier successful tracks in concert or on subsequent albums, not because of any lack of greatness. They continue to tour, with some line-up changes. Pastoral Future is a great number of theirs released as a single in 1976 and also appears on their album Black Diamond. In what must have been by far the biggest clanger in music history, Decca Records turned down The Beatles saying guitar music would never last! Ouch! The Beatles occasionally ventured into psychedelic music and here is Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Paul McCartney said the initials of the title did stand for something, but John Lennon who actually wrote the song always insisted that that was not the case, saying it was to do with a coloured sketch by a childhood friend! Nick Drake went through different phases where he had more or less confidence as a singer, but when he was good, he was great. Time Has Told Me was from his 1969 album Five Leaves Left. Nick wrote and performed all his own material. Beautiful song! Led Zeppelin quite probably the greatest rock band ever. Despite being an English band, the track Darlene was recorded at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden during the In Through the Out Door sessions in November 1978. However there wasn’t room on that album, so it eventually went on Led Zeppelin’s 1982 album called Coda. So let’s have Darlene by the inimitable band Led Zeppelin Jimi Hendrix has to be world’s the greatest electric guitar player ever and here’s his great track Foxey Lady from his 1967 album Are You Experienced. Foxey lady is slang for a sexy lady. Funky heavy stuff! Jet Harris and Tony Meehan topped the charts in 1963 with the single Diamonds, having previously left The Shadows for solo careers. It’s a great instrumental! They didn’t have many more hits though before disappearing from the music scene, so they must have been sorry not to have stayed on with Hank Marvin. Anyway, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan with Diamonds! The Darkness were an English band that lasted from 2000 to 2005, though there is a planned reunion for the 2012 Isle of Wight Festival. I Believe In a Thing Called Love was first released on an EP in 2002 and re-released as a single in 2003 when it became a big hit in the UK. Probably their best known song! Pink Cream 69 are a German rock band formed in 1987 with two British members in the band. The band are often referred to as ‘The Pinkies’! Here I Am is a fantastic track from their 2004 album Thunderdome. Fantastic hauntingly beautiful heavy rock number!
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