Led Zeppelin

[Muszka]

Cosby & Nash... I have only one song, 'The Milkyway tonight', but I really like it.
I like some of Madonna's songs also, but I don't agree, that her shows to be at the height of PFloyd's.
The Band... I'm not crazy after them..., but I was listening Dylan in the past 2 days and I can't get enough of his 'nasal folk'.

[Jolly Joker]

Weeeelll. I got the ELP records, yes, until the Welcome Back live triple album, but Keith Emerson is too dominant for me to really like that stuff. You had to have it somehow, because it was so virtuous, but Punk draw a big line under them for me.
For Neil, I think he's best when he's, well, furious, you know, angry, angry and sarcastic. Crime in the City would be a great example for that. Rockin' in the Free World, of course. Or just
Ain't singin' for Pepsi
Ain't singin' for Coke
I don't sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note's for you.
Yeah. Simple and great.

But the strangest thing is your view on Madonna - because I have a healthy RESPECT for her. In my opinion she's a great artist and a hard worker. I have the Immaculate song collection, and I like the odd song of her, like Music or Secrets or Hollywood because they GROOVE or are simply nice tunes. I didn't see her really live, but watched two shows of hers in the telly - good shows, really.

[Muszka]

I have a healthy RESPECT for her. In my opinion she's a great artist and a hard worker

Same here. Even more after I saw the movie of her life.

[ByteBandit]

Her music has really evolved from teenybopper music to almost bodering on Nine Inch Nails. She seems to be no longer wanting to appeese to music critics, but rather her own artistic drive. Like Trent Reznor, she could care less what critics say. A sign of a true artist. Would be something if these 2 hooked up and did an album together.

[Jolly Joker]

Hmm. Actually that's not a bad idea, I think. Would be interesting.
I got me the DVD by NIN, err, Beside you in Time or something. Pretty good. Interesting guy. Interesting films he (or NIN) is featuring in: The Crow, Final Destination, Seven, you name it. Gave Marilyn Manson his first contract as well.
MM I saw as well; involuntarily. Was the hero of my daughter; it was her first concert and I had to go with her. I wasn't too enthusiastic, but Peaches played before him which was quite funny. Although, she got a lot of booing from the audience.

[ByteBandit]

Time will tell for Peaches, I guess. I'm not familiar with Peaches. I say time will tell, because when my brother first saw Aerosmith when they started out, they got booed. Hard to believe now, but yeah.
A band I wish I could've seen was the original line up of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Freebird is perhaps the best guitar duel song out there. And not many people know that on the song Sweet Home Alabama, Neil Young was supposed to sing and play on it. But, due to contract commitments for a tour somewhere, at the last minute, he could'nt make it. Or else he would've. This was in response to Neils' song Alabama from the album Harvest. Actually, all the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd admired Neil Young and had regular contact with him. They even planned on touring together one time, but scheduling got in the way for both.

[Jolly Joker]

Yeah, Lynyrd Skynyrd were pretty good. Didn't Ronnie van Zandt die in a plane crash or something? I mean, instead of an overdose or so.

[ByteBandit]

He died in a plane crash, yes. Along with a few other band members. It was by pure mistake that Eric Clapton did'nt die in that plane crash. They were touring together at the time. Eric wanted to fly with Ronnie van Zant on that particular flight. But the plane was full, or something like that, so Clapton flew on the second plane instead. The original album cover, on their last album together, had flames in the background. But after they died in the crash, MCA picked a different album cover.

[Jolly Joker]

*Shudder*
Clapton certainly could have died a couple of times over, especially in the time after Cream and the Layla album and Pete Townshend digging him out again for the Rainbow concert (that George Harrison played as well) and him making 461 Ocean Boulevard. He was pretty far gone on H, and everyone was expecting him to be the next headline of the type "dead rock star found".
Instead he did get to marry Patti Harrison (whom he wrote Layla for) and hooked on alcohol twice after that.
When Stevie Ray Vaughn died 1990 in a heli crash, he was on tour with Clapton - and the heli was for Clapton and should have been taken by him!
That makes you wonder a bit about his son falling out of the skyscaper window a couple of months later. I mean, every horror movie would make it look like Death's revenge or something: Eric so often cheated Death that HE took the life of his son instead or even a worse interpretation of the facts.
As a musician Clapton played a lot of crap in the 80s as well, that's for sure.

[ByteBandit]

The only stuff I liked by Eric Clapton was songs he covered by my all time favorite writer of music: J.J. Cale. Cocaine, After Midnight and a few others. Other than that, I could care less for Clapton stuff.. But J.J. Cale is the man! Real Bluesy bar room style to the max. Southern as Hell too. (Lynyrd Skynyrd did one of his songs: Call me the Breeze.) The guy can't sing, he can't play guitar worth a damn. But his songs. His songwriting. I always loved his music before Clapton picked up on him. And, of course, recently Clapton called J. J. Cale out of retirement and is touring with him. I would go to see J. J. first! And J.J. Cale is one of those kinds of musicians that you will only run in to him at a local bar playing his stuff. He never has ever really done big menus. He likes playiing in the bars only. And that's where his music belongs. The clunky keyboards, beat up drums, bad guitar work and smoky rooms. It does'nt get any better than that. His musicians are studio musicians. The most famous of which backed up the original Blues Brothers in their movie. All of them have backed up J.J Cale at one time or another. Every song he writes is catchy. And simple. Nothing complicated. Easy to play. My vote for best songwriter in the 70's and 80's goes to J.J. Cale. Period. I have played many of his songs in small time bands as drummer and lead singer. All for fun. Nothing serious. J. J. Cale!

[Jolly Joker]

Too quiet for my liking. Which doesn't of course say anything about the songs as such, only about the arrangement of them.
If you arrange very sparsely, and that's what he does, it's no wonder people cover the songs because they will see a lot of potential for "more" in his songs. He's delivering "raw" and "simple" songs without much ado. I have to say, though, since I know both versions, that I don't think Clapton has significantly contributed to Cocaine with his version.
I have the "5" record of Cale, but I never dug deeper into him.

[ByteBandit]

J.J. Cale IV, I admit, was'nt his best. Troubadour, Shades, and Grasshopper, and the one with Crazy Mama, his first album, were ones I listened to all the time. True, he's not for everyone. But for me, it was'nt an aquired taste to enjoy. I envy his simple songwriting. And, like you say, when you hear his work, you just want to improve on it. Much like Robert Johnson, from the 1930's. You say, "I know I can do this song better!" And you find out when you try, it just sounds horrible. And I like Cales' version of After Midnight more than Claptons. Even though it is slower, true. The Piano hooks me note for note.
The Guess Who also was another band I grew up on that sounded much like Zepp. True, later on, they split up with half belonging to Bachman Turner Overdrive, which was another band I grew up on. Not Fragile was real Heavy for it's time. The 8 track was awesome!

[Jolly Joker]

Wow, I just found an awesome video on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y3xrZ_ZJIg

The guy who posted it, put the video to the song.
The song is of course "Balloon is Burning" from the Pretty Things who had two brillant albums: SF Sorrow, one of the first concept albums (from which Balloon is Burning is) from mid 1968 and Parachute from 1970 which I bought as a CD two or 3 years ago because of the bonus material.
Rolling Stone magazine named Parachute best album of 1970, by the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmTpl2Q- ... re=related
A rendition of Sickle Clowns from the album.

I have Rockin' by The Guess Who and Not Fragile by BTO as well.

[Jolly Joker]

Got the R'n'RA CD.
Ok, White Light/White Heat is outstanding. Brillant version.
For the rest I'm not sure, and I can even explain why. As such there is nothing wrong with the general guitar play on the album. On the contrary. But in my opinion Lou Reed writes his songs the same way as JJ Cale: sparsely. The arrangement is sparsely, and that's what makes the VU songs so great. Heroin, for example, is a very simple song that becomes outstanding due to the acceleration of the song when the text describes the rush that comes with administering the drug. Simple and easy.
White Light is the amphetamine song and that one just works fine.
All in all I think that the band is just too good for the song material. :)EXcept White Light which is exactly right.
Now don't get me wrong here. Very good record.