Happy Birthday to Mick Ralphs!

Mick Ralphs (of Mott the Hoople and Bad Company) turns 65 today!

Did you know... that Bad Company was the first group signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records? Yup, the record label launched in May of 1974 and that June Bad Company's debut album was released on it.

I want to share a video with you of "Bad Company" by Bad Company, written by Bad Company (i.e. Paul Rodgers and Mick Ralphs)! :)
Very cool song, by the way!

Happy Birthday to Eric Clapton!

Eric Clapton turns 64 today!

I know this is the second post in a row about EC and you're all sick of hearing about him, so I'll shut up.
However, I suggest you take 10 minutes to listen to an EC song of your choice today. Just in honor of him being him. And still being alive and well. :)

P.S. That dog isn't doing what you think he's doing. Well okay, he is... but from reading this article, I don't think EC would mind much anymore anyway.

Love Triangle

This day in 1979, Eric Clapton married Pattie Boyd (ex-wife of one of Clapton's close friends, George Harrison) in Tucson, Arizona. Apparently the wedding ceremony was conducted in Spanish. Hmmm.

Of course, Boyd was the woman behind the songs "Layla" and "Wonderful Tonight" -- a more in-depth look into the writing of these songs is explained in Clapton's autobiography (which I highly recommend).

Without furthur ado, here's "Layla" from about a month ago when Clapton was in Japan touring. He'll be turning 64 next week, but after all the drugs and alcohol and life crises, the old man has still got it!! Can't wait to see him live this summer! (I suggest you click on the "HD" button on the Youtube video so you get a better picture.)

Happy Birthday to Elton John!

Elton John turns 62 today! He's currently out on the road with the piano man, Billy Joel. Anyone catch their show? I've heard it's pretty awesome!

I leave you with "Tiny Dancer":

Wowzers!

Congrats to Rock and Roll on winning the contest!!
You sure do know your guitars and guitarists!

Please e-mail your physical address to me at classicrockforthesoul@yahoo.com so I can mail out your 3 CD set and magazine redemption form to you ASAP!

Nothing too exciting happening today in rock and roll, so I will be back tomorrow :)
Again, congratulations to R&R!

I'm back... with a CONTEST!

Hey guys!
Sorry I've been MIA for the past few days -- I got home for spring break and just took a few days off. But I'm back in action... with a CONTEST!!!

Here are the rules:
1. You must be a U.S. resident.
2. It's more fun if you don't cheat. :) I don't think you'll need to, but don't be tempted.
3. You must submit your answers by posting them through the comment section on this blog entry.
4. The deadline for this contest is Friday, March 20 at midnight central time zone. I will post the winner on Saturday morning.

Here's what you have to do:
Properly match the guitars pictured with the guitarist. Simple as that. You don't need to tell me the band, but if you want to, then be my guest. :)

You may be asking yourself "What's in it for me? Why do this?"
Here's what you'll receive via mail if you are the first person to correctly match the guitar with its guitarist:
1) a brand new, unopened 3 CD set presented by Rolling Stone magazine called "The Greatest Hits of Classic Rock" which contains 40 hit songs from the greatest genre of music ever! Examples of some of the songs:
~ "All Right Now" - Free
~ "Long Distance Runaround" - Yes
~ "Peace of Mind" - Boston
2) Along with the 3 CDs, you will receive a Redemption Certificate for 12 FREE issues of Rolling Stone magazine. That's right, I said FREE! There are no strings attached. You pay nothing for a year. If you wish to keep your subscription after that, then they will bill you.

Good luck and remember to post your answers as soon as possible! :)

Watch & Be Amazed

Lindsey Buckingham is an underrated and underappreciated guitar player.

Check out this video of his guitar solo in "I'm So Afraid" from last night in Boston:
(It won't let me embed the video, so just CLICK HERE to see it!)

How awesome is that?!?
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Other news for the day:
- Happy birthday to James Taylor who turns 61 today! Can't wait to see him in June :)
- Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman this day in 1969.
- The Allman Brothers begin recording on their album "Live at Fillmore East" this day in 1971.
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I'll be going home tomorrow afternoon and can't wait to watch some concerts and check out what's on VH1 Classic!
Have a great day!

A Book Review - "Conversations with Tom Petty"

Last week, I finished "Conversations with Tom Petty" -- not an autobiography, but close to it. Author Paul Zollo conducted a series of interviews with Petty and the book is in a Q&A format (with the As by Tom Petty comprising the main chunk).

I thought it was a fun read. The first part of the book discusses Tom's life: from his upbringing in Gainsville to the experiences of working with his first band, Mudcrutch.
The only thing I wasn't really interested in were the stories about the Heartbreakers... sorry, but I bought the book to read about Petty. I know his band is vital to him and his music, but I just scanned past the parts about managers and bandmates.

The second part of the book focuses on each album and its' songs: how they written, who wrote them, where they were written, etc.

I wouldn't say the book had any really shocking information in it that had never been heard of until published (in 2005). All in all, I give it 4/5. It was interesting, but not a favorite.

Other books on musicians I've read that are really great:
-Clapton: The Autobiography ~ Eric Clapton
-Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles ~ Don Felder
-Stone Alone ~ Bill Wyman
-To the Limit: Marc Eliot

The first three are GREAT reads... very interesting! (I suppose since they're directly from the horse's mouth!)

Have you read any musician biographies lately? Any recommendations?

Happy [Belated] Birthday to Randy Meisner!

Randy Meisner (of Poco and, most famously, The Eagles) turned 63 years old yesterday!!

Now if you aren't a big Eagles fan, you're probably wondering who the heck Randy Meisner is. He was a part of the original lineup (Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy), most notably singing "Take It to the Limit". Nowadays Glenn sings this song live in concert, and while it's not the same without Randy's awesome vocals, I'd rather have Glenn sing it than it not be played at all.
Randy left the group around 1976 after the release of Hotel California and after the HC tour.
Fun fact: Timothy B Schmit had replaced him in Poco when he left to form the Eagles, and then when he left the Eagles, TBS replaced him again!

On a side note... I won the contest that Layla was having! WOO! She'll be sending me this nifty t-shirt so I'm pretty excited about that. Thanks, Layla!
Again, stay tuned for next week as I do some sort of contest/giveaway.

Have a great Monday! Only 4 more days until I get to go home for spring break :)

"Storms" in concert!

For the first time ever, Fleetwood Mac has decided to add "Storms" to their set list for this tour.

Here it is, sung for the first time ever in concert, on their first night of the Unleashed tour from March 1st:



What does everyone think?

It obviously is a slow, long song... I'm wondering how the audiences are reacting to it. Most people nowadays have such a short attention span that they can't appreciate music if it's over three and a half minutes no matter how great it is.

Happy Birthday to David Gilmour!

Yay! Today is David Gilmour's 63rd birthday!!

So I encourage all of you today to listen to "Comfortably Numb" turned up real loud -- especially during that guitar solo we all know and love. That solo is #4 on Guitar World's 50 Greatest Guitar Solos (after #3 Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird", #2 Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption" and #1 Led Zep's "Stairway to Heaven").
Me and my dad always joke that the mini-solo after the first chorus could easily have put him in the top 10. (In the video below, the "mini-solo" starts at 2:16. The big momma starts at 4:39.)

Here's a video from that Bluray/DVD I was telling you all about, Remember That Night, which is absolutely spine-tingling. However, I am still on the fence about having David Bowie singing the verses... not sure if he does the song justice, but Gilmour's guitar work makes up for it :)

Contest coming up!

Hey guys!

I've been thinking about having a contest/giveaway, and it's going to happen the week of March 16th (my spring break)! I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to be doing yet... but stay tuned because it's bound to be fun. :)

As for now, Layla is having a contest of her own. Whoever can name all the artists in her new header win a free t-shirt!
I know the majority of them... but there's a few that I'm still trying to figure out. I really want that shirt though, it looks cool!

As for some classic rock news... just heard the other day that Styx, REO Speedwagon and .38 Special are teaming up for a summer tour. Says Tommy Shaw, they've got their "own personal rock & roll stimulus package" with tickets as low as $13.50.
I guess they're trying to get some rock fans out to listen to some good music this summer without having to take out a second mortage. Perhaps The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, etc should take a lesson from them!

Anyways, stay tuned within the next week or so for my contest announcement! And once again, I appreciate all of your comments! :)

Happy [Belated] Birthday to Roger Daltrey!

Roger turned 65 yesterday!

Later this month, The Who will start a short tour of New Zealand and Australia.

And here's an old school video of The Who for ya: