The bitch is back

Not a post about Elton John thankfully, but an announcement to readers of this blog (all 5 of them) that after an extended summer hiatus, I am back and bringing the gospel according to Jon with me.

Band of Gypsys

After The Jimi Hendrix Experience disbanded in mid 1969, Hendrix hastily formed a group to honour a commitment to play at Woodstock in August of that year. Noel Redding had left, replaced by Hendrix's old Army buffy Billy Cox on bass but Mitch Mitchell stayed on drums and would remain involved for the very short life of the band. At the Festival, MC, Chip Monck (great name!) introduced the band as "The Jimi Hendrix Experience", but Hendrix quickly corrected this to "Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, for short it's nothin’ but ‘A Band O’ Gypsies" and launched into a two hour set, the longest of his career. Two further performances and it was the end of Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows.

Exit Mitch Mitchell. Enter another friend, Buddy Miles to take up drumming duties in the new look, sounding band titled 'Band Of Gypsys'. For 10 days they were locked in Baggys Rehearsal Studios, to prepare for a 4 night stint at the legendary Fillmore East venue over the New Year period. The first track I have for you today is taken from those rehearsal sessions, captured in a rare bootleg album titled 'Baggys Reharsal Sessions'. For 10 days practice, they sound absolutely brilliant! Inspired by the film, but not on the soundtrack, here is 'Ezy Rider', the studio recording of which would eventually make it onto some of the posthumous releases in the following years.

Please turn this one up, it deserves to be listened to loud!




The second track would also appear on some of the albums released after his death, but this is taken from the performance at the Fillmore on Jan 1st 1970 and is available on the 'Live At Fillmore East' album

Slowhand

It's been a while I know... so might as well come out all guns blazing!

And what better gun to blaze (please forgive me for that one!) than Mr Eric Clapton. The man that influenced a million guitarists, and with one of the more complicated upbringings I've ever come across. In summary: his dad, a Canadian serviceman, sodded off back home after the war, leaving baby Eric and his mum with her parents. Clapton grew up thinking his mum was his older sister.... Sounds like a soap opera!

The young Eric started out busking around the Kingston and Richmond area getting the odd gig here and there. Eventually he joined the Yardbirds in 1963 helping them achieve commercial status and himself becoming one of the most talked about guitarists in the country. In 1965, after getting disillusioned with the increasingly commercial route the Yardbirds were taking he moved on to join the critically acclaimed John Mayall and his bluesbreakers. At this point I should point ouy that all of his bands have been of note and probably deserve a post to themselves at some point, but I will skip on from these two earlier groups, to when (I think) it gets more interesting.

Cream are probably the one band people most associate Clapton with, and were dubbed the first 'supergroup', a classification Clapton would end up hating! Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were more renowned for their Jazz backgrounds which would explain the jazz tinged sound that Cream would produce, but with Clapton on board they would spearhead the UK rythym & blues movement. I've taken one of their more famous tracks for the first song of this post. The short sharp radio friendly 'Strange Brew', taken from the 1967 classic 'Disraeli Gears'

After Cream split due to internal tensions between Bruce and Baker in 1969. Clapton moved onto Blind Faith, another supergroup formed by Ginger Baker (again), the outrageously gifted Steve Winwood and bassist, Ric Grech, both from Traffic. Success was short lived and after seven months and one album and tour, they all went their seperate ways. However the one album was a bit of a hit. Taken from the self titled 'Blind Faith' here is 'Had to Cry Today'

In a concious effort to take a more backseat role, Clapton then joined up with rock duo Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and their imaginatively titled revue called 'Delaney, Bonnie and Friends' who had supported Blind Faith on their US tour. I'd heard of them but had never heard them, until I researched for this post and was pleasantly surprised with what I found...

Check out this performance, this is 'Coming Home' from the live album 'On tour with Eric Clapton'. Not only does it feature a watertight rythym section an absolutely killer performance by the brass section in the middle eight, and even the promoter quite brilliantly telling the audience that its the best live performance they've had in Croydon for quite a while...... South London never had it so good!

Following on from his short lived involvement with Delaney and Bonnie, Clapton grouped together with their backing band to form Derek and the Dominos, another attempt by Clapton to stay out of the limelight as a member of the band. Although they were joined for the majority of recordings by slide guitar king Duane Allman (yes! of the Allman Brothers). Sadly, they only released one album during their time mainly down to tensions between several members, but WHAT an album it was! 'Layla and other assorted love songs' was Claptons ode and declaration of love for his good friend George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd. It spawned one of rock musics greatest ever songs in the title track (the name Layla is taken from a 12th Century Persian poem titled Layla and Majnun, a story of unrequitted love). The album has a host of gems on it, and I have selected the excellent 'Keep on Growing' for your aural pleasure. Enjoy!



After Derek and the Dominos split in 1971, Clapton fell into a Heroin induced stupor and did not record anything for several years. He made a few appearances at the odd benefit gig, but it took good friend Pete Townshend to break him free of his addiction and persuade him to get back into the studio.

I've taken the final offering from this post from my favourite old music program, The Old Grey Whistle Test. This is the song that really put Clapton back on the map, but it is not his own compostion. Bob Marley released this a year earlier, and there are plenty of live versions of this on the web and on record, but I just love the bands performance here. It has such a groove to it, and its so tight its unreal. Shame its so short.



FACT: Ukrainian band 'Boombox' covered 'I shot the Sheriff' in 2005, but under the track title: 'Who've shitted in the police car'

Steely Dan: "Antiheroes for the Seventies"

I am a big fan of Seventies music, in fact I think its probably the greatest decade for music since, well, ever! So I was surprised to read that Rolling Stone magazine described this band as "the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies.", given that I think they are one of the many champions of the diverse and new sounds that were being produced back then.

I find it odd that during a time where it was important to get out there and promote your material, Steely Dan were predominately a studio only band during their heyday and did not perform live between 1975 and 1993 (okay, they did split up in 81 for 12 years), but still, odd! Walter Brecker (Bass & Guitar) and Donald Fagen (Piano & Saxaphone) got together in the late sixties formed a couple of local covers bands (inlcuding one with Chevy Chase on drums), and eventually going on to back up several stars of the time as session musicians and then eventually on into the songwriting game. When they started to write their own material for other people, they quickly realised that their brand of music was too complex for other artists to perform so decided to do it themselves. The name Steely Dan came from an object known as the 'Steely Dan III from Yokohama', referred to in the William Burroughs novel 'The Naked Lunch' and is in fact a dildo!.... Now that's imagination!

I was listening to my ipod today and a Steely Dan track came on through the magic that is shuffle. I then went back to re-listen to the albums I have, and although there was some definite filler here and there, it's just undeniable that these guys and the army of session musicians they used throughout their career were just incrediby talented chaps. Their legendary eye for detail and uncompromising arrangements, can be heard in every single record.

The two tracks I have selected for your aural pleasure tonight are but a very small, but great example of their unique blendof Pop,Rock & Jazz.

Taken from their 5th Album, 1975's 'The Royal Scam' this is 'Sign in Stranger'. Check out the absolutely amazing piano solo from Fagen.





Following on from this track I went back to listen to a track from their debut album. 1972's 'Can't Buy a Thrill'. 'Reelin' in the Years' has to be one of my all time favourite songs, and definitely features my favourite Guitar solo of all time! It's so good infact, that none other than Jimmy Page maintains that guitarist Elliott Randall's work is his favourite guitar solo of all time. High Praise indeed!






FACT: Becker and Fagen used at least 42 different studio musicians, 11 engineers, and took over a year to record the tracks that resulted in 1980's 'Gaucho'.

Now that's being a perfectionist!!!

Rush! You either love em or hate em

Rush are one of those bands that a lot of people have never heard of. They have however, sold tens of millions of records and have 24 gold and 14 platinum selling records. Impressive! They however are generally more popular with musicians and music aficianados given the extremely high level of competency displayed by each of the members on his instrument. Formed by Alex Lifeson, (guitar) Geddy Lee (bass) and John Rutsey (drums) in Toronto, Canada in 1968, Rush set out as typical garage band, jamming on Cream numbers and the like. After years of practice and honing their talents, it took until 1974 before that they first started to get noticed and soon released their self titled debut album 'Rush'.
A month before they were due to begin their first US tour, Rutsey announced his decison to back out of the band so the race was on to find a new drummer... and what a drummer they found. Enter Neil Peart, aka The Professor. Not only did Peart bring his exceptional skills with a pair of sticks and some skins, he also bought a creative flair that would be the heart of the bands lyrics/songwriting right up to the present day.

Rush are a band that have had several facelifts, starting out as a hard rock/blues band, and currently a straight rock band, with a few guises inbetween. When Peart joined, the band began to take on a more conceptual feel. With epic album tracks, lyrics dripping in Sci-Fi and Fantasy lore, they began to have a more creative take on their original hard rock theme, and were being classed as a Progressive Rock band. When the mid eighties hit, the band reached to what some consider a low, as many older fans did not agree with their new Synth based sound, which to me just sounds very dated these days. My opinion is that only a few of the albums released since 1981/82 have got the odd one or two decent tracks on. Anyway, they just lost such a huge cool factor that existed in their first few albums and became the band of the muso, not cool enough for mainstream, but still impressing many with their skills.

I'll probably flesh this post out with a few other tracks later on, but I had to share this song with you as its such a rarity. Recorded 1 month after Peart joined, at a venue in Cleveland, Ohio. This is taken from a bootleg recording of this gig and it is an absolutely brilliant representation of their early formative years. Never mind the odd mistake here and there, what do you expect after only a month of practice? I think it adds to the overal feel of the performance, plus, its the only time you will ever mistakes such as these from a Rush concert, such is their musicianship.

Anway, enjoy 'What You're Doing' released on their debut, but taken here from the bootleg album 'The Fifth Order of Angels'. I think it really captures what a power trio these guys are/were!

Jons Rock on a Stick will return

Next topic:

"Rush - Is Progressive rock really that bad?"

Rory's bumper book of blues

I think I may have mentioned this in an early post, but Rory Gallagher is by far and away my favourite guitarist that ever breathed. Massively underrated in his time, and to this day is more of a footnote in a budding guitarists list of great axemen, it wasn't till his death that more people sat up and took note of his jaw dropping, amazing skill. I could not find the stats but I could imagine a large amount of the 30million albums he sold were sold after his untimely death in 1995, aged 47.

Born in County Donegal in Ireland in 1948, but growing up in Cork, the young Rory began playing the guitar and quickly began performing at the age of 17 in various Irish showbands playing popular songs of the day. He first came to prominence with the band 'Taste' an R&B trio, formed in 1966 who split up in 1970 after the Isle of Wight Festival. A performance so entertaining that they were called back 5 times to perform encores such was it's quality.

The first track is taken from Tastes second album 'On the Boards' and is the opening number.




Gallagher began touring and recording under his own name, but lost nothing of the trademark sound that Taste had been so popular for, namely Rory's playing. His first album was the self titled 'Rory Gallagher', and introduced a softer, jazzier feel to compliment the raw blues he had been renowned for. There are some incredibly beautiful songs on this album. The gentle 'Just a Smile', the ubher chilled out 'For the Last Time', and my favourite track, the brilliantly arranged 'Can't Believe It's True'

However, the selection I have chosen from this album is the haunting 'I Fall Apart'. Check out the Instrumental..... Just fantastic! Music just does not get any better than this!



It was the 70's where Rory did arguably his best work, releasing 10 albums including two live records. I could share a track from each one with you, but there is one song that for me is the most important, which is the song that got me into him in the first place. My first ever post on this blog was the performance of this song on the Old Grey Whistle Test. From the 1973 album 'Blueprint'... 'Walk on Hot Coals'



Following up 'Blueprint' and his next studio album 'Tattoo' was the imaginatively titled 'Irish Tour' live album. This really showed Rory at his peak in my opinion, and his performance of the McKinley Morganfield (AKA Muddy Waters) track 'Wonder Who' just demonstrates his obvious joy of playing the blues, and showcases one of the best live Guitar Solos I think I have ever heard.



The next song choice is from the 1976 album 'Calling Card' and again it's another wonderful demonstration of Rory's devotion to his art. A very laid back, swinging blues number with a superb piano performance matched by some very effective guitar parts. Also worth checking out the tune 'Jack-Knife Beat', very cool indeed.



Last up, and its a song taken from the 1979 album 'Top Priority'. To be honest I am too scared to go any later into Rory's back catalogue as this album is beginning to sound a little dated in its general production and I am too worried I will dislike anything he recorded afterwards. However this song has got to have one of the coolest guitar hooks ever, not to mention the use of an electric sitar in the solo! Check it out!



I hope you've enjoyed this very small slice of a musician that I really do think should still be popular today. He influenced so many people, but you hear nothing about him and you never hear his stuff played on the radio, well I don't, but I do generally only listen to Talk Radio :)

When he died of an MRSA infection after a liver transplant (to help alleviate an alcohol and drug addiction), countless musicians came out to pay tribute. Jimmy Page, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and even the Edge all eulogised about him Even Brian May claims he owed Rory Gallagher for inspiring his very own unique sound.

However my favourite quote about him came many years before he passed away. A certain Mr James Marshall Hendrix was asked what it was like to be the greatest guitarist in the world.

His Reply?

"Don't ask me, ask Rory Gallagher"