Tag Archives: Led Zeppelin

Stairway to Heaven vs Highway to Hell

Stairway to Heaven

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven
There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
You know
There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
That’s you
And it’s whispered that soon, if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
Remember laughter?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah…
And it makes me wonder
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on
Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know
The piper’s calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all is one and one is all, that’s what it is
To be a rock and not to roll, oh yeah
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Robert Plant / James Patrick Page
Stairway to Heaven lyrics © Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.

Highway To Hell

Livin’ easy
Lovin’ free
Season ticket on a one way ride
Askin’ nothin’
Leave me be
Takin’ everythin’ in my stride
Don’t need reason
Don’t need rhyme
Ain’t nothin’ that I’d rather do
Goin’ down
Party time
My friends are gonna be there too
I’m on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell
No stop signs
Speed limit
Nobody’s gonna slow me down
Like a wheel
Gonna spin it
Nobody’s gonna mess me around
Hey satan
Payin’ my dues
Playin’ in a rockin’ band
Hey mumma
Look at me
I’m on the way to the promised land
I’m on the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell
Highway to hell
Don’t stop me
I’m on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell
(Highway to hell) I’m on the highway to hell
(Highway to hell) highway to hell
(Highway to hell) highway to hell
(Highway to hell)
And I’m goin’ down
All the way
I’m on the highway to hell
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Angus Mckinnon Young / Malcolm Mitchell Young / Ronald Belford Scott
Highway To Hell lyrics © J. Albert And Son Pty Ltd.

Rock songs by Non-Rock artists

rock-music

It was 1982, I was a young teenager and I was experimenting with all sorts of music. Although I had already developed a taste for Rock music it was a lady dressed in black leather that sealed the deal for me. The second I saw Joan Jett waking up to that Julebox in “I love Rock N Roll”. I was hooked to the music, there would be no turning back.

118389410

Throughout the years there have been bands who recorded rock songs although they were not Rock bands, often far from it.

Here are a few of them, you might argue with me about the 1st one, but if you listen to the structure of the song there is no denying it is a Rock song.

ABBA-Does your mother know.

“Does Your Mother Know” was recorded in February 1979 and released as a single in April of that year. Written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, the song is something of a pastiche to 1950s/early 1960s-style rock and roll and touches on the subject of a man responding to the flirting of a much younger girl.

“Does Your Mother Know” deviated from the typical ‘ABBA at their most famous’ formula, in that the lead vocals were sung not by the female vocalists (Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad) as was usually the case, but by Björn Ulvaeus. This was one of the few ABBA singles to feature Ulvaeus as the sole lead vocal.

ABBA-Rock Me

Staying with ABBA, this song was used as the B-side to the group’s 1975 single “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do”. However, after “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” hit number 1 in both Australia and New Zealand, “Rock Me” was released as an A-side, reaching number 4 and number 2 respectively. It was also issued as an A-side in Yugoslavia and in 1979. The lead vocals here was also done by Björn Ulvaeus.

The Osmonds-Crazy Horses

The squeaky clean boy band the Osmonds not only recorded a run of the mill Rock song, Crazy Horses can only be described as a Hard Rock song, it even borders to Heavy Metal Jay Osmond said of the 1972 song “The song changed the way we were perceived. Before that, we’d been called “bubblegum”. But suddenly we were getting invited to see Led Zeppelin at Earls Court, to sing Stairway to Heaven with them on stage”

Céline Dion – Think Twice

It was written by Andy Hill and Peter Sinfield. Production on the track was by Christopher Neil and Aldo Nova. The song is rock-influenced and features a guitar solo, one of only a few of Dion’s songs to do so, performed by Nova.

“Think Twice” was released as the fourth single from Dion’s third English-language album The Colour of My Love (1993), on 18 July 1994 in North America, on 10 October 1994 in the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan, and in February 1995 in other European countries.

Donation

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. Thank you. 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.

$2.00

How the Grammy’s turned from a prestigious award into a joke.

award

Whatever happened to music? What happened to the Grammy’s?

Over the last decade or so the music industry has been complaining about the decline of sales figures, and they blamed everything and every one. First it was Napster. Then it was the illegal downloading of music from other websites like ‘limewire’ which was shut down.

limewire-rememberingjpg

Now they are blaming the several streaming services like “Spotify’ and also Youtube.

However they forget to blame the massive elephant in the tiny room. The music industry itself, the music has gone dire as if all songs were thrown into a big blender and came out less then blend. There are still a few exceptions that perform great music but in general the quality is just bad. It is not a surprise that some of the old timers still tour.

If any proof was ever needed how bad the music has become, we only have to look at the recent performance of the EIGHT time Grammy awards winner Fergie at the NBA All star game.

Capture

Fergie won 8 Grammy’s the most prestigious music price in the world. But the Grammy’s are no longer that, they have become a bit of a joke. It has become more of the musical equivalent of the Razzies.

Let’s just have a brief look how it went from a platform of the world’s greatest performers to the manufactured a-musical rubbish nowadays. I will not go though all 60 editions, just a few but it will illustrate the decline of music perfectly.

Winners at the 1st Grammy awards in 1958

Frank Sinatra,Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Perry Como.

 

Winners at the 10th Grammy Awards in 1967.

The Beatles,Glen Campbell,Chet Atkins, Duke Ellington

 

Winners at the 20th Grammy Awards in 1977

The Eagles,Barbra Streisand,Steely Dan,Al Jarreau

 

Winners at the 30th Grammy Awards in 1987

U2,Paul Simon,Sting, Whitney Houston

 

Here we take a small detour to the 33rd Grammy awards in 1990. You will not find any records of this ‘band’ on the Grammy website because it caused a major scandal and embarrassment because this band won the award of best new comer by miming or lip syncing. The band was of course Milli Vanilli.

AAEFB227-93EA-4116-BD7C-211A18FFA42F_w1023_r1_s

But the damage was already done and  the rot started to kick in at the Grammy’s

Winners at the 40th Grammy Awards in 1997

R.Kelly,Backstreet,Radiohead,Puff Daddy(or P.Diddy or whatever he is called nowadays)

 

Winners at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2007

Kanye West,Justin Timberlake,Rihanna,Ne-Yo

 

At the last Grammy’s in 2017 the pendulum slightly swung back to award real musicians/,singer/songwriters  even though Bruno Mars was the biggest winner. I do actually like Bruno Mars but as a show man or entertainer. As a singer he does not stand out.

Winners at the 60th Grammy Awards in 2017

Bruno Mars.Ed Sheeran, Foo Fighters, Leonard Cohen

 

NEW YORK, NY – JULY 06: Ed Sheeran performs on NBC’s “Today” at Rockefeller Plaza on July 6, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

If you look at the winners of the last 15-20 years or so and you compare them to artists who never won a Grammy, you can’t help but think the Gammy’s have become a joke.

Artists who never won a Grammy.

Bob Marley,Jimi Hendrix,Joe Satriani,Led Zeppelin,Queen,Guns N Roses,Ramones,Journey,The Who,The Kinks,Iggy Pop,Talking Heads,Velvet Underground and Chuck Berry.

chuck-berry-most-surprising-artists-to-never-win-a-grammy

 

grammy

Donation

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. Thank you. 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.

$2.00

Resource

Grammy

Rolling Stone Magazine

 

Famous bands that changed their names.

golden_earring_-_toppop_1974_7

Starting off with probably the best known band from the low countries”Golden Earring”. Their name change was very subtle, they were formed in 1961 as the “Golden Earrings” they dropped the S in 1969.

gn4_dat_6478563-jpg-the_cranberries_to_return_for__summer_shows__in_2016

The next name change is a bit less subtle but still subtle enough “the Cranberries” started off as “the Cranberry Saw Us” in 1989. When their male lead singer left and was later replaced with the one and only Dolores O’Riordon history was made as Limerick’s biggest ever Rock act. Sadly Dolores O’Riordan passed away a few years ago.

.

1957,Liverpool a group of teenagers called themselves “the Quarry men” after they had tried names like ‘The Blackjacks, Johnny and the Moondogs, Japage 3’ However this skiffle band eventually became known as “the Beatles”. You may have heard of them.

mammoth-van-halen-608x456

Continuing on a Dutch theme with Van Halen. Eddie and Alex Van Halen formed their first band with three other boys, calling themselves The Broken Combs, performing at lunchtime at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena, whereEddie Van Halen was in the fourth grade. Eddie Van Halen would later say that this was when he first felt the desire to become a professional musician.In 1972, The Van Halens formed another band, originally called “Genesis.” The name was changed to “Mammoth” when they became aware of the English progressive rock band of the same name. Mammoth consisted of Eddie Van Halen on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Alex on drums and bass guitarist Mark Stone. Mammoth had no P.A. system of their own, so they rented one from David Lee Roth,a service for which he charged by the night. Eddie Van Halen became frustrated with singing lead vocals, and decided they could save money by adding Roth to the band.Michael Anthony later replaced Mark Stone on the bass guitar. The band opted to change its name because Roth suggested that the last name of the two brothers “sounded cool.”

u2-mojo-254-770

U2 Ireland’s biggest band. I can hear you say “What’s the Hype?” and you’d be correct. What is the Hype? That would be U2. The Hype started off as a 5 piece band. The Edge’s older brother,Dik Evans, used to be part of the band. After he left the band was renamed U2.

Even though they were called V2 on the posters for their first gig in the UK. About 6 people showed up.

This is the Dublin 4 in my hometown ‘Geleen’ in 1981.

led-zeppelin-bbc-album-review-fb72cd94-408c-4600-a911-f5a4f5d4730c

Led Zeppelin were not always called Led Zeppelin, in fact the had several incarnations.The first one being “the Yardbirds”. The band that included 3 of the world’s best guitarists ever. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and the man musicians refer to as “God” Eric Clapton. Jimmy Page was actually the bassist.

In 1968 the Yardbirds played their last gig and “the New Yardbirds” were born with Robert Plant on vocals.However the name ‘the New Yardbirds’ didn’t stick, it went down like a lead balloon or even a Led Zeppelin.

Donation

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. Thank you. 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.

$2.00