roclamation!

"Run to the hills. Run for your lives!" - Bruce Dickinson

2010-06-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

http://alonetone.com/vincewelsh/playlists/mondo-demos-1989-90

Here's the single...plug your ears.

2010-06-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

A-Side
http://alonetone.com/vincewelsh/tracks/road-to-lebanon

B-Side
http://alonetone.com/vincewelsh/tracks/dream-6

My Current Top Ten Favorite Rock 'N' Roll Guitar Players. In no particular order:

2010-01-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

1. Audley Freed
2. Mike Campbell
3. Jerry Cantrell
4. Jon Herrington
5. Jack White
6. Nick Curran
7. Joe Bonamassa
8. Sonny Landreth
9. James Hunter
10. Doug Pettibone

The History of Rock 'N' Roll In Five Bullet Points, Vol. 2: Al Kooper

2009-12-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

Five Things You Need To Know About Al Kooper:

1. He played guitar for the Royal Teens, who hit the Top Five in 1958 with “Short Shorts”.

2. He wrote Gary Lewis and The Playboys’ number one hit “This Diamond Ring” – a record which has been played more than three million times since 1965.

3. He founded Blood, Sweat and Tears.

4. He discovered and signed Lynyrd Skynyrd, and produced their first three albums - spawning about a dozen rock ‘n’ roll classics in the process, including the anthems “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird”.

5. He played with the Rolling Stones on “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, with Bob Dylan on “Like A Rolling Stone”, with Jimi Hendrix on “Long Hot Summer Night” and holds the distinctive honor of playing with the three surviving Beatles on George Harrison’s 1981 single “All Those Years Ago”.

The History of Rock 'N' Roll In Five Bullet Points, Vol. 1: Bruce Johnston

2009-12-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

Five Things You Need To Know About Bruce Johnston:

1. He was a late 50’s studio wunderkind, working with future legends Ritchie Valens and Eddie Cochran, and arranging and playing on Sandy Nelson’s “Teen Beat”, which hit the Top Five in 1959.

2. He (along with partner Terry Melcher - as The Rip Chords) had a million selling hit with 1964’s “Hey Little Cobra”.

3. He joined the Beach Boys in 1965 - just in time to sing on classic hits like "California Girls", "Help Me Rhonda", "Barbara Ann" and "Good Vibrations".

4. He wrote Barry Manilow’s number one hit “I Write The Songs”, and won a Grammy for record of the year.

5. He sang background vocals on Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Elton John’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”.

Know Your Classic Rock Guitarists:

2009-12-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

Here's the answer key to my wildly popular classic rock guitar hero quiz:

Robin Trower - Procol Harum
Peter Frampton - The Herd (or Humble Pie)
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (Steely Dan, The Doobies) - The Ultimate Spinach
Lowell George (Little Feat) - The Mothers of Invention
Eric Stewart (10cc) - Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders
Elvin Bishop - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Jim Messina - Poco (or The Buffalo Springfield)
Walter Becker (Steely Dan) - Jay and The Americans
Ed King (Lynyrd Skynyrd) - The Strawberry Alarm Clock
Andy Summers (The Police) - Eric Burdon and The Animals

Take the Vince Welsh Wednesday morning (or Friday night, whatever) classic rock guitar hero quiz:

2009-12-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

Match the legendary 70’s guitar hero with the semi-legendary 60’s band they started out with:

The Players:

1. Robin Trower
2. Peter Frampton
3. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
4. Lowell George
5. Eric Stewart
6. Elvin Bishop
7. Jim Messina
8. Walter Becker
9. Ed King
10. Andy Summers

The Bands:

1. The Ultimate Spinach
2. Eric Burdon and The Animals
3. Poco
4. The Mothers of Invention
5. The Herd
6. Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders
7. Jay and The Americans
8. Procol Harum
9. The Strawberry Alarm Clock
10. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Cold Turkey Has Got Me On The Run

2009-01-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

Today I feel like my life is one long outtake from the "Cold Turkey" sessions.

Tales From The Forkin' Road...

2009-01-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

Elderly Canadian expat channels John Lee Hooker cum LaGrange in postmodern AARP economic sandstorm.

This rocks, and his timing is impeccable:

http://www.neilyoung.com/forkintheroad/forkintheroadvideo.html

Jody Reynolds: 1932-2008

2008-11-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

Jody "Endless Sleep" Reynolds died November 7th in Palm Desert, California.

A man who took his membership in the 50's one-hit wonder club in stride, Jody was a musician's musician and could shred (old-school style) with the best of 'em - whether he was onstage with Roy Orbison or runnin' around Hollywood with cats like Duane Eddy and Al Casey.

In the course of one of my attempts to satiate my obsessive desire for firsthand information on the early history of rock 'n' roll, I contacted Jody to bug him about the old days.

I found him to be open and generous, sharp and funny. Whether he was reminiscing about recording alongside Eddie Cochran and Ritchie Valens at Gold Star in '58, or talking about his experiences working with Alan Freed* in the 60's - he was a treasure trove of great stories. The guy made and lived rock 'n' roll history.

Jody was aware of and embraced his legacy, had a genuine passion for rock 'n' roll and was accessible to his fans. For people like me, deeply interested in the early days of rock 'n' roll, he was a National Treasure. His coolness cannot be overstated. Thanks Jody, and rest in peace.

* Freed left Jody his personal stash of 45s - ones that (I gather) he was spinning during his last couple of stints on the air (KDAY, WQAM). Jody gave me a few - they will always be among my most prized possessions.

For more on Jody Reynolds: http://www.rockabillyhall.com/JodyReynolds.html

5513 Woodcrest Road: Curtis Loew

2008-04-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

Sandwiched in between rows of dilapidated shotgun shacks and rusted out mobile homes, 5513 Woodcrest Road in Jacksonville is an unlikely address of distinction but a unique part of Florida's rock n' roll legacy.

For a bunch of poor kids growing up on Jacksonville's west side in the 1950s, Claude's Midway Grocery (as The Woodcrest Market was then known) was the center of local after school activity - a place to hang out with friends, flip bottle caps at passing cars or pick up some extra money cashing in old soda bottles. It was also just a short walk from the boyhood home of one Ronald Wayne Van Zant, who would go on to fame and fortune as the leader of the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Claude's Midway Grocery and its proprietor are immortalized in one of Skynyrd's best known songs, "The Ballad Of Curtis Loew", a swampy country blues that tells the tale of a great unknown front porch picker who would "play all day" for the price of a bottle of cheap wine.

The main inspiration for "Curtis Loew" was Claude H. "Papa" Hamner, owner and operator of Claude's Midway Grocery and lifelong friend and mentor to Van Zant. Hamner spent countless hours teaching the youngster the blues on a guitar that he kept behind the counter.

Hamner and his guitar kept Ronnie Van Zant out of trouble, at least temporarily, but certainly long enough to expose him to a world of music that would carry him out of the Jacksonville slums and into rock n' roll history.

Claude's Midway Grocery is long gone - Hamner passed away in 1985 - and by 2002, when this photo was taken, the building had fallen into a fairly advanced state of disrepair. The property was for sale, so the future of what was once Claude's Midway looked uncertain. Ronnie Van Zant's father Lacy lived in the original family home a few doors down (at 5419 Woodcrest) until his death in 2004.

For more on Lynyrd Skynyrd: http://www.lynyrdskynyrd.com/

508 Park Avenue: Traveling Riverside Blues

2008-04-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

In 1937, the third floor of this rather ominous looking brick building was the distribution warehouse for Vocalion Records, and it was here that legendary blues man Robert Johnson’s final recording sessions were held on June 19-20, 1937.

The sessions produced some of Johnson’s best-known songs, including "Traveling Riverside Blues," (later covered by Led Zeppelin) and "Love in Vain Blues” (covered by the Rolling Stones on Let It Bleed).

This location again made music history on April 30th, 1941, when the Jay McShann Band (with 20-year-old saxophonist and future jazz legend Charlie Parker in tow) showed up in their zoot suits to cut "Hootie Blues" for the third floor's new tenants, Decca Records. Little did they know the record would become a touchstone of jazz history - marking the first solo Parker ever put on wax.

The building is now abandoned, and may very well fall to the wrecking ball as part of downtown Dallas' overall urban renewal efforts. The third floor ought to be crated off and shipped to the Smithsonian.

For more on Robert Johnson: http://www.deltahaze.com/30/rj.html
For more on Jay McShann: http://www.colindavey.com/BoogieWoogie/articles/jmi.htm
For more on Charlie Parker: http://www.cmgworldwide.com/music/parker/index.php

Wortham Black Cemetary: See That My Grave is Kept Clean

2008-04-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Blind Lemon Jefferson was the most popular male blues recording artist of the 1920s. He made 79 records for Paramount that sold over 100,000 copies each. That's a lot of shellac. In today's sales terms, he was the Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks and Eagles' Greatest Hits of his time.

Sometime during December of 1929, he died in a snowstorm on the streets of Chicago. Paramount Records took some of that money he made for them and paid to have his body put on a train and returned to his hometown of Wortham, Texas for burial.

Wortham is a one stoplight town located roughly 80 miles south of Dallas on Route 45. The Wortham Black Cemetery (as it is known) sits in what used to be a cow pasture about 1000 yards off the side of Route 15, just beyond a rusty gate in the middle of an open field of knee-high grass.

Lemon's grave is located at the very back of the cemetery, along an old wire fence bordering a cattle ranch. The red clay between the tufts of grass was unusually soft and the thought of sinking down far enough for Lemon to get a hold of my leg and pull me the rest of the way under crossed my mind more than once.

For more on Blind Lemon Jefferson: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/JJ/fje1.html