The Coolest Allman Brothers Tribute I've Ever F*cking Seen...

Brett Underhill...I don't know who you are, but I like the cut of your jib. This is absolutely fucking brilliant. Great job with this video. You absolutely nailed all the looks in all the periods. The little things, too: Oakley nodding his head, Derek Trucks slide hand working it's magic...all killer. Love the nods to different songs and album covers: 'Liz Reed, Dreams, Ramblin' Man, Eat a Peach. The montagne of Gregg with the house lights on him was damn good. 

I love this because a fan took the time to do it. That is what we fans are for. We didn't make the music, but we write about it, we create around/with it, we talk about it, we listen to it incessantly and then we share it with other fans.  

Inspiring and just plain cool...

I'm a massive Allmans fan and love all the nuances in here and appreciate the time spent against this. Can you spot all the hidden bits?
Tagged Allman Brothers Cool Fan Vids

Lunch Break Lacquer: The Fatman and The Ragmag (I found my thrill with some Fats Domino vinyl and vintage Rolling Stone mags)

Scroll through the gallery to see pics of the mag with Gregg & the Boys

 

Another beautiful day in London meant getting out of the office on my lunch break to claw through record bins in the eternal search for bow-down vinyl. I stopped into "On The Beat" records to see if anything jumped out at me. Something did...but it wasn't a piece of vinyl. Actually, it was a pile of old papers that got my big toe to shoot up in my boot.

 
In "On the Beat", aside from the crates of vinyl and other memorabilia, there are handfuls of New Music Express, Melody Maker and old Rolling Stone magazines hanging from the walls. The Rolling Stone mags are the coolest; most of them are in their original tabloid style, paper format.
 
There two that jumped out at me. One had an article from Hunter S. Thomson (see the post below for details and pics). The other I recognised straight away due to the image (illustration) of Gregg Allman on the cover. HA! YES! I found it!
 
I always have a list of "finds" when I go out looking for nuggets of buried treasure in shops like this.  The list includes pictures, books, vinyl, DVDs and yes, particular copies of Rolling Stone magazine. One of the items on my "List of Finds" was Rolling Stone, issue 149 from 3rd December, 1973.
 
This issue is important to me because of the cover story on the Allmans. Why? This was Cameron Crowes first "cover" that he wrote for the magazine...at 16 years of age! This is his "Almost Famous" based on a true story experience. I am a massive fan of the movie and admirer of Crowe. He was the right kid, at the right place, at the right time...(envious).  This one is going to go up on the shelf right next to my CC signed copy of the Almost Famous script. 
 
I took some pics of the mag and the article. 
  • Check out that full page spread of Gregg and the band in the middle of the article (reminded me of the scene in Almost Famous where Stillwater got their first t-shirt: Jeff Bebe, "How can you tell? I'm just one of the out-of-focus guys.").
  • Gotta love that pic of Dickey getting a tattoo
  • On the inside cover of the mag, there was a blurb on how the illustration of Gregg that graces the front came to be
  • And then there is last pic in the set from the mag. This appears at the end of the article. Wow. 16!
If you can get your hands on any of these "old 'Stones", do so. It is a trip to read through and get a feel for the times and happenings. 

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot. I did pick up a new slab of vinyl. I found me a good fats Domino album to help round out the collection: "Getaway with Fats Domino".  This is not the Fats album that is on my "List of Finds", but I couldn't help myself. 
 
p.s. the very last picture in this set is from the actual "On the Beat" shop.
Tagged Allman Brothers Cameron Crowe Fats Domino Hunter S. Thompson London Lunch Break Lacquer Music pics Record Shop riffs Rolling Stone Magazine The List of Finds Vinyl

The first tix of my Spring Gigs have arrived! Clapton & Winwood, 21st May @ Wembley Arena

Ah...Clapton & Winwood. I've seen Clapton twice and once was on his Blues tour supporting the "From the Cradle" album.    

I have the recent Clapton/Winwood MSG live set. I was surprised how good it was. Actually, I was surprised how good Clapton was. In my opinion, Clapton now needs someone to push him...push him to play to his abilities...not God-like, but guitar-hero like.  In recent years, the "push" has brought him to Claptonian peaks: Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary, Clapton & Jeff Beck, Clapton & Winwood, Clapton & The Allman Brothers, Clapton and Derek Trucks, Clapton and Buddy Guy...

Looking forward to this go-round with Winwood.  Winwood knows Clapton and what buttons to push and knobs to turn. He does it from behind the organ and from behind the guitar. Winwood can play, dammit. His six string work is phenomenal. I ask you, if you are unfamiliar with Winwood's guitar playing, to watch this eight minute Traffic vid from 1972. Hot Damn!

My good mate, The Kingfish (owner of Mojo Music in Sydney...my fave record shop), sold me this entire set on DVD. We watched it three times straight over a couple dozen beers. This isn't the beers talking...Winwood takes flight.

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Speaking of Clapton needing a push...here are two songs from Clapton's guest spot with the Allman's at last year's Beacon run. Little Wing is jaw-drop material and wait until you hear him solo'ing in the middle of a Trucks/Haynes Fret Sandwich. Extra mustard, please.  
Go to this link and download them. Oh what fun it is to be triple-whammied by the Clapton/Trucks/Haynes Trilogy...picking out who's who is the fun part.  Tell me what you think: 
Here is the entire Clapton part of the set list from that show:
  • Key to the Highway (Clapton vox)
  • Stormy Monday 
  • Dreams
  • Why Does Love Have to be so Sad
  • Little Wing
  • Elizabeth Reed (you will be paralytic after this)
  • Layla (Clapton vox)
If you want the set, let me know and I will upload it. 
Tagged Allman Brothers Derek Trucks Eric Clapton gigs live music Music riffs Stevie Winwood Tune Tags vids Warren Haynes

Stolen Melodies, Copped Riffs and Royalty Robberies: What do T-Bone Walker, Chuck Berry & Keith Richards Have in Common? (The RIff)

My wife is nowhere near the music fan that I am. She does not know (or care to know) a fraction of what I do about the songs and the story behind them are concerned. She does, though, have quite an ear for music. 

She regularly surprises me when she will say, "hey, this sounds exactly like such-and-such". She asked me one time, "don't these people get mad when someone else plays their song and claims it as their own"? 

Oh, boy. That is a can of worms I'm not sure I want to open up?! On second thought, why the hell not...

The history of recorded music is full of various stories about stolen melodies, copped riffs and royalty robberies. Some of the stories are legendary:

John Fogerty was sued (unsuccessfully) by his old CCR label, Fantasy Records, for sounding too much like himself! Fantasy said that "Old Man Down the Road" sounded too much like "Run Through the Jungle" and that Fogerty was plagiarising himself. What a joke. Fogerty had to go to court to defend his style. Hear for yourselves:

In an even more maddening example, Neil Young was sued by Geffen Records for not sound like himself enough.  How can anyone say this about Ol' Neil?!  They way the man shifts musical directions, you'd think the moon is controlling him as it does the tides (I love Neil for this reason). When Neil put out "Everybody's Rockin", Geffen sued him for making "uncharacteristic and uncommercial records". Ok, ok, maybe "Ol' '80's Cantankerous Neil" wasn't trying to break new ground with this one, but to be sued by his label...?  Here is a little ditty from that album:

And then there is this story about the Aussie band, Men at Work, that is making the headline news.  You all remember their 80's hit, "Land Down Under", right? How could you not remember that jaunty, lilting, flute melody in it?  Larrikin Music Publishing managing director, Norm Lurie, remembers it to...from his childhood. Larrikin is now suing Men At Work for back & future royalties on the song. They claim the flute part comes from the refrain of an old Aussie children's song, the "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree".  

Check out this link to see/hear the similarities between the two. When done watching, please proceed to vomit in your lap. This lawsuit is a joke, too. Post Script: I lived in in Sydney for five years...Vegamite sandwiches are good.

Crazy stories, hunh? Can you imagine if the guy that wrote "Happy Birthday" had it copyrighted!?! We'd all be in court!

There are many, many, MANY other examples like this.  Sadly, most of them are about money. What I want to do is celebrate influence.  A few months ago I wrote a post about artists wearing their influences on their sleeves.This may be a quasi-Part II to that one. In that post I quoted two people: 

Neil Young: "It's all one song". (read here for the story behind that quote)
Hunter S. Thompson: "I've been plagiarising all my life.  Its called learning". 

And that is exactly what it is, isn't it...learning. You like/listen to someone. They have an impact on you. You are influenced by them. You take on some of the characteristics in your own playing. You develop your own sound from this. Is this stealing or is this influence?

Case in point: where would we be without T-Bone Walker, Chuck Berry and Keith Richards?  My guess is the insane asylum from having to listen to Pat Boone for a decade longer than we should have.

Let's have some good ol' music fun with influence using these three R&R behemoths.  

T-Bone Walker was an early pioneer (in the truest sense of the word) with the electric guitar sound. Once he plugged it in, he made that fiddle squeal and sing out like no one had ever heard before.  Surely that would influence young hot-shot guitarists; and it did. Hendrix stated that T-Bone was a big influence. Even more importantly, Chuck Berry sites T-Bone as one of his two biggest influences (Louis Jordan being the other). We all know Chuck's sound, right?  Yes, but was it really Chuck's in the first place?  Listen to this T-Bone cut, "T-Bone Boogie", that predates any Chuck recordings:

"WOW", right? Chuck has bitched and moaned for years about how he got robbed by people stealing his sound. Most famously, he sued the Beach Boys for stealing the riff from "Sweet Little Sixteen" and won (check out this cool site called, "Sounds Just Like" for a Berry/Beach Boys comparison).  Yeah, Chuck, I guess you were influenced by T-Bone. Have a listen to one of Berry's Great 28, "Bye, Bye Johnny". Sound a little like, "T-Bone Boogie"? Hell, yes.

Now we all know that there are a lot of "Chuck's children out there playin' his licks" (thanks for that lyric, Bob Seeger), none more famously than Keith Richards. Keith is an unabashed Chuck disciple. Keith has said that all he wanted to do when he started out playing was, "to sound like Chuck Berry". Chuck's riffs are found all throughout Keef's playing with the Stones and with his solo band, the X-Pensive Winos.  Here is a track off his first solo album, "Talk is Cheap". Listen for those Chuck riffs like they "were ringing a bell". Also, Johnny Johnson, Chuck's long-time pianist is on this track pounding out on the 88's. 

There are way too many Chuck/Keef stories to talk about here.  You should watch the most excellent movie, "Hail, Hail Rock & Roll" to get a feel for the relationship Master and Pupil had.  Here is a clip of the two Gunslingers "learning" how to play "Carol". 

There you have it: influence in all it's rock and roll glory. It is cool to listen to those three songs in succession to see how that guitar riff has evolved. Can you think of any other great cascading riff lineage?
_____

Bonus Cut:
While we're at it, here is one last example: the Bo Diddley Beat. Bo's Beat was the new sliced-bread and may never be topped. Here is an early Bo classic and a song by the Allman Brothers from the same name: 

Tagged Allman Brothers Bo Diddley Bow-Down Post Chuck Berry Happy Birthday Hunter S. Thompson influence John Fogerty Keith Richards lawsuits Men At Work Music neil young record labels riffs Rock and Roll royalties T-Bone Walker

The Ballad of the Music Fan and the Stolen Mix Tape (Part 3): Sometimes you can't make it on your own...

Before you check out this post you should have a read of parts 1 & 2 of this story. This way you will be in the know and can follow along with part 3:

When we last left our hero, Mix Tape Guy, he was off to see the Allman Brothers courtesy of a couple free tickets from yours truly. He and the friend that he took along had an as advertised great time at the show. They got there early enough to enjoy the tailgate scene and left late enough to hear the last notes echoing off the trees around the arena and out into the late summer night's sky.

The set list was filled with old-time used-to-be's and some rabbit-outta-the-hat cover tunes. Have a look:

08/29/09 - Comcast Center (Great Woods), Mansfield, MA

Don’t Want You No More
It’s Not My Cross To Bear
One Way Out
Midnight Rider
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Stand Back
Dreams
Can’t Find My Way Home
Statesboro Blues
Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad? (rabbit-outta-the-hat cover tune!)
Black Hearted Woman 
Mountain Jam
Dazed and Confused (rabbit-outta-the-hat cover tune!)
Mountain Jam
Encore: Whippin' Post (ode to our "Mutual Friend")
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Mix Tape Guy's antennae are always up for great gigs. But when U2 comes to town he needs not rely on an aerial to tell him to tap out a few tickets on the interweb. This past Sunday night (20th September), U2 played Foxboro Stadium located right outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Mix Tape Guy and another Concert Crazy Classmate from Keene, New Hampshire went to the show. 

$275 a piece got them tickets in the last row of the lower bowl.  Good seats...if it wasn't for the overhang.  This dang piece of steel and girder interfered with their line of sight to the "claw" stage and, even worse, blocked out half the sound system.  Stadium shows have huge jumbotrons that allow you to see the action.  Fine. When you can't hear the music the way you should, that is a deal breaker.

Mix Tape Guy and Concert Crazy Classmate considered the deal broken and scouted out two empty seats five rows down. They were empty and our heroes were game; off they went to better sights and sound. 

Midway through the show, wouldn't you know it, some Dude comes up and claims one of the seats is his (where the hell was he for the start of the gig?). Mix Tape Guy appealed to the concert lover in the Dude and asked if he would mind if he and his friend (Concert Crazy Classmate) squish-stand in the other unclaimed seat. No problem, says Dude.  

In between songs Mix Tape Guy strikes up some blah-blah-blah conversation with Dude. Dude says he has two club seats for the Monday night show and asks Mix Tape guy if he wants to buy them for $400 a pop (face value $500). Mix Tape Guy and Concert Crazy Classmate fess up and decided the tix were too rich for their blood. No worries. At least they are loving the U2 show they are at. Gig'ers can't be choosers.

Two songs later, out of nowhere, Dude says to Mix Tape Guy, "looks like you are enjoying the hell out of this show...here, you can have the tickets for Monday night". 

Whoa. Repeat...Whoa.

Music-Karma is a strange thing. There is something about music...live music...that makes the fantastic, tangible. Live music is a sweet privilege. Music sometimes translates best live and speaks in native tongues.  It is the kind of language that is primal and brings out a communal purpose of enjoyment in true give and take fashion.  It is give and take with the artists and audience and give and take with each other...the concert goers. 

I'll say it again: Live music is a sweet privilege.  It doesn't matter if you are into U2, Black-Eyed Peas or Megadeath.  That same communal spirit is alive and well in the rhythms and the rapture of the song and the scene.

Needless to say, Mix Tape Guy was floored by the offer.  Dude gave the tickets. Mix Tape Guy took them.  Give and Take. 
_____

The next day was a bit of a mad scramble for Mix Tape Guy.  Prior commitments were getting in the way of his attending the gifted-second U2 show. Concert Crazy Classmate was already a no-go.  Ultimately, Mix Tape Guy just couldn't wrangle free of his prior commitments and would not be able to go to the show. Had Music-Karma hit a dead end? Was this the end of the line for a Good Song-maritan deed?  Not with Mix Tape Guy at the helm. He knew what had to be done. 

If you did not read Parts 1 & 2 of this story, you may be a little lost. A quick refresher for you:

Mix Tape Guy and I have been in a Music-Karma volley for almost two decades. The serves have been few and far between, but when it is in play it is a grand-slam event. Most recently I surprised Mix Tape Guy with a pair of free-of-charge tickets to see the Allman Brothers. Now, Mix Tape Guy is in the same position to pass on the Music-Karma to worthy dedicated music-head.

Mix Tape Guy remembered an old co-worker who fit the bill. He rang her up and laid the big-gig on her. Her response...?

Whoa. Repeat...Whoa.

Job well done, Mix Tape Guy.  His friend and her husband are going to the U2 show tonight (Monday the 21st) and are probably fist-pumping as I type this. Mix Tape Guy would tell you that it felt great to do that. Almost as good as if he went himself (...even better than the real thing?).

Needless to say, the ex-coworker was floored by the offer.  Mix Tape Guy gave the tickets. Ex-Coworker took them.  Give and Take. 
___

I'll say it again: Live music is a sweet privilege...and at times, a glorious gift.

Here is a gift for you. Two live tunes.  One is an absolute Allman's fave of mine. I have stood in many fields on many days and nights listening to the Allmans play this live, while rocking back and forth to it's happy vibe.  Whenever/wherever I hear it I take the the time to stop what I am doing and get carried away with it. 

And, since we talked about U2, here is a classic live U2 song to put your ears on. This is one of my favourite live versions of this song off of Rattle and Hum.  I love the gospel-y background vocals.  I've seen U2 twice and unfortunately I have not yet heard this song.

Tagged Allman Brothers Bow-Down Post friends gigs Mix Tape Guy riffs stories The Lure of Going Around U2
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