Ian Robins Dury was born in Harrow, West London on 12th May, 1942. His mother, Margaret “Peggy” Walker, was a health visitor and his father, William “Bill” Dury, was a bus driver and chauffeur. Married in 1939, his parents separated after the end of the Second World War and Ian and his mother relocated to Cranham in Essex to live with Peggy’s two sisters Elisabeth and Mary, and Ian’s cousins Martin and Lucy.
At the age of seven, he contracted polio during the 1949 polio epidemic. In 1964 he studied art at the Royal College of Art under British artist Peter Blake, and from 1967 he taught art at various colleges in the south of UK.
He rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer of Ian Dury and the Blockheads and before that of Kilburn and the High Roads.
Dury was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1996 and underwent surgery, but tumours were later found in his liver, and he was told that his condition was terminal. Upon learning of his illness.
In 1998, his death was incorrectly announced on XFM radio by Bob Geldof, possibly due to hoax information from a listener. He did eventually die of metastatic colorectal cancer on 27 March 2000, aged 57.
Happy Birthday Ian, I hope you are having a great party in Rock Heaven.
In 1984 he also appeared in the video of Roger Daltrey’s ‘Walking in my sleep’
There is no tow ways about it, Ritchie Blackmore is one of the all time greatest guitarists. Today is his 77th birthday.
This is just a compilation of some of his music. Starting off with a little known gem by an artist called Heinz, the song is ‘Just like Eddie’ Ritchie Blackmore played guitar on the tracj
It is not often that all versions of a song are great. However, Whitesnake’s -Here I go again certainly has 3 great versions of the song.
“Hang on” I here you say” Are there not only 2 versions of that song> The 1987 album version and the radio edit version?”
No, the original version was actually released 40 years ago in 1982, it was on the album Saints and Sinners. The lyrics are even slightly different, In the 1982 version they use the word hobo instead of drifter.
“Here I Go Again”
I don’t know where I’m going But I sure know where I’ve been Hanging on the promises In songs of yesterday
And I’ve made up my mind I ain’t wasting no more time
Here I go again Here I go again
Though I keep searching for an answer I never seem to find what I’m looking for Oh, Lord, I pray You give me strength to carry on
‘Cause I know what it means To walk along the lonely street of dreams
Here I go again on my own Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known Like a hobo I was born to walk alone
But I’ve made up my mind I ain’t wasting no more time
Just another heart in need of rescue Waiting on love’s sweet charity I am gonna hold on For the rest of my days
‘Cause I know what it means To walk along the lonely street of dreams
Here I go again on my own Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known Like a hobo I was born to walk alone And I’ve made up my mind I ain’t wasting no more time
But here I go again Here I go again Here I go again Here I go
And I’ve made up my mind I ain’t wasting no more time
Here I go again on my own Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known Like a hobo I was born to walk alone ‘Cause I know what it means To walk along the lonely street of dreams
Here I go again on my own Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known Like a hobo I was born to walk alone I have made up my mind I ain’t wasting no more time
But here I go again Here I go again Here I go again Here I go Here I go again.
When you think of the first Rock N Roll stars, you think of the names of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and Chuck Berry. Yet none of these rock giants could claim that they recorded the first Rock N Roll hit.
That honor actually goes to Ike Turner.
“Rocket 88” was first recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, in March 1951. The recording was credited to “Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats”, who were actually Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. The single reached number-one on the Billboard R&B chart.
In 1951, Ike Turner walked into Sam Phillips’ studio in Memphis and, along with his band, helped create a sound that still echoes through history like thunder across the sky. The original song they recorded, Rocket 88, may well have been the first rock ‘n’ roll record, and in the years that followed, innumerable music reference sources, from The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (“frequently cited as the first rock & roll record”) to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (“widely considered the first rock and roll record”), have backed up that title.
In 1991, after a great deal of debate, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognized this as the first rock and roll song ever recorded. Turner was in jail at the time for cocaine possession, so his daughter accepted the award.
The song was a hymn of praise to the joys of the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 automobile which had recently been introduced, and was based on the 1947 song “Cadillac Boogie” by Jimmy Liggins. It was also preceded and influenced by Pete Johnson’s “Rocket 88 Boogie” Parts 1 and 2, an instrumental, originally recorded for the Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records label in 1949.
Turner wasn’t the lead vocalist on Rocket 88 — his saxophone player, Jackie Brenston was — and the record was released under Brenston’s name. Exactly who wrote the song, Brenston or Turner along with the band, is a matter of dispute (Turner has said his name was left off because he had another record coming out). The only thing that’s certain is that it took many people to create the song, including the canny, visionary producer Phillips.
Time published this review of the record:
“Rocket 88 was brash and it was sexy; it took elements of the blues, hammered them with rhythm and attitude and electric guitar, and reimagined black music into something new. If the blues seemed to give voice to old wisdom, this new music seemed full of youthful notions. If the blues was about squeezing cathartic joy out of the bad times, this new music was about letting the good times roll. If the blues was about earthly troubles, the rock that Turner’s crew created seemed to shout that the sky was now the limit.”
It is a pity that Ike Turner is now mainly remembered as Tian Turner’s abusive husband. But I suppose sometimes you have to separate the art from the person .
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee better known as Meat Loaf died last night ,Thursday January 20. He was an American singing Legend and actor. He was known for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy—Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose—has sold more than 65 million albums worldwide. More than four decades after its release, the first album still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually and stayed on the charts for over nine years, making it one of the best-selling albums in history.[
His amazing career spanned 6 decades that saw him sell over 100 Million albums worldwide and star in over 65 movies, including “Fight Club”, “Focus”, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Wayne’s World.”
My favourite song on the first Bat out of Hell album is the epic rock anthem “Paradise by the Dashboard light” It is basically a song pf a couple having or attempting to have sex in a car, it could have been done within a minute but the album version lasts for 8.28 minutes.
Jim Steinman, the composer and writer of the song, had stated that he wanted to write “the ultimate car/sex song in which everything goes horribly wrong in the end.”
The song is a duet with Ellen Foley, however it is Karla DeVito who is in the video with Meat Loaf, Karla also went on tour with Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf where she performed the song live.
Ending this tribute to the legend that was Meat Loaf with another duet he did.
I know I am a bit early, it is only early October so why talk about November Rain. I am of course talking about the epic song by Guns N Roses with the title “November Rain”
Slash states in his autobiography that an 18-minute version of “November Rain” was recorded at a session with guitarist Manny Charlton (of rock band Nazareth) in 1986, before the recording sessions for Appetite for Destruction began. There were actually a few demo versions of the song. A 10 minutes Piano version.
It was also tried out as a far shorter acoustic guitar demo, lasting just over five minutes.
Neither version made the cut to get on to “Appetite for Destruction”. It would take another 5 years before the song would be released. It was released as a single in 1992 from their third studio album, Use Your Illusion I (1991).
At 8:57 minutes long, it is the second-longest song on the album, the longest being the 10:14 “Coma”. It is the third-longest song by Guns N’ Roses, behind the 9:24 “Estranged” from Use your illusion 2
It is the longest song ever to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. The song’s composition was influenced by Elton John’s 1973 opus “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”
The music video, directed by Andy Morahan,[17] portrays Rose marrying his then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour and later grieving at her funeral, intercut with a live performance in Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater.[18] It is one of the most expensive music videos ever.
With a budget totaling around $1 million, the “November Rain” video ranks among the most expensive music promos ever made. While it might not have had the same career-boosting impact of the “Welcome To The Jungle” video, at the time of its release, “November Rain” quickly became MTV’s most-requested video of all time.
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2 ,however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thanks
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the paypal link. Many thanks
The career of Michael Lee Aday aka Meat Loaf, has been a turbulent one, to used an understatement. It went from filling huge stadiums with adore fans, to barely getting people to see him perform in small community halls in Ireland, and back to stadiums.
His most iconic song though has to be “Paradise by the Dashboard light” written by Jim Steinman. It was released in 1977 and was taken from the album “Bat out of Hell”
“Paradise by the Dashboard Light” is one of the longest songs to be released uncut on one side of a 45 RPM record. The only difference between the single and album versions is that the single version fades out almost immediately after the final line is sung. Jim Steinman had stated that he wanted to write “the ultimate car/sex song in which everything goes horribly wrong in the end.” The album version of the song lasts 8.28 minutes, which is probably a lot longer then the car sex he envisaged.
Although Ellen Foley is recorded on the album, another singer, Karla DeVito, was used for the music video and for live performances.
The single had modest success in the United States, peaking at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Belgium, the single stalled at number 2 where it stayed for 5 weeks, being blocked from the Number 1 position the whole time by “Y.M.C.A.” from the Village People whilst in the Netherlands, the single became Meat Loaf’s biggest all-time hit, reaching number one at the end of 1978, going on to be a hit there again in 1988. In the United Kingdom the song did not chart at all but is well known and is a classic rock staple.
Brotherhood of Man also recorded the song under the title “Let Me Sleep on It”. But that is a cover which probably never should have been released.
It’s a song you have all heard a great number of times. And to those who heard it when it was first released it was probably not like anything you’ve heard before.
Bohemian Rhapsody is probably the most unlikely title for a Rock song and yet it became a classic , if not THE classic Rock song for many generations.
This musical masterpiece lasted 5 minutes and 55 seconds, another reason why it should not have become a hit. Because prior to that, 3 minutes was the magic number for Rock hits. It was first released on Halloween 1975, October 31.
The song is so well known and there is not much I can add to the narrative, except for one little fact which is probably forgotten. Queen held the number 1 position in the UK with Bohemian Rhapsody, maybe they should have followed their own advice and ‘tied their mothers down’ because on January 31,1976,ABBA knocked Queen of the number 1 spot, with Mamma Mia. In a way that was the most logical take over, There were only 2 super groups to emerge from the 70’s Queen and ABBA.
Leaving you with the 5.55 minutes opera called “Bohemian Rhapsody”
As you can see I renamed October to ROCKTOBER- Throughout the month I shall be posting classic Rock songs and the stories behind them. Starting with Deep Purple’s “Child in Time”
It is the 3rd track on the a side of Deep Purple’s classic 1970 album “Deep Purple in Rock”
Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan has said that “Child in Time” is based on It’s a Beautiful Day’s psychedelic song “Bombay Calling”.
It’s a Beautiful Day in return borrowed Purple’s “Wring That Neck” and turned it into “Don and Dewey” on their second album Marrying Maiden (1970). The song started with organist Jon Lord playing “Bombay Calling”, which the band then re-arranged and changed the structure. Gillan had never heard the original song, and created lyrics about the Cold War to fit the music, later saying it “reflected the mood of the moment”. The band then worked out instrumental lines to accompany this.
With themes of war and inhumanity, the song is regarded as a heavy metal anthem and an example of art rock.
A staple of the Deep Purple live concerts in 1970–73 and later after their initial reunion tours of 1985 and 1987–88, the song was not featured regularly at concerts after 1995. It was re-added to the setlist for the band’s 2002 European tour, with its final appearance in Deep Purple’s live set was at Kharkiv’s Opera Theatre’s scene in March of that year.
A live version later appeared on the 1972 live album Made in Japan.
Ian Gillan said in an interview in 2002: “There are two sides to that song – the musical side and the lyrical side. On the musical side, there used to be this song ‘Bombay Calling’ by a band called It’s A Beautiful Day. It was fresh and original, when Jon was one day playing it on his keyboard. It sounded good, and we thought we’d play around with it, change it a bit and do something new keeping that as a base. But then, I had never heard the original ‘Bombay Calling.’ So we created this song using the Cold War as the theme, and wrote the lines ‘Sweet child in time, you’ll see the line.’ That’s how the lyrical side came in. Then, Jon had the keyboard parts ready and Ritchie had the guitar parts ready. The song basically reflected the mood of the moment, and that’s why it became so popular.”
Lars Ulrich of Metallica cites this as one of his favorite songs of all time. He says that when he was 9 years old, his father took him to a Deep Purple show, and it changed his life. “This is their most iconic moment,” he told Rolling Stone regarding the song. “I’ve heard it 92,000 times, and it never sounds anything less than great.”
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2 ,however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thanks
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the paypal link. Many thanks
History of Sorts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.