music

  • Music History August 18

    On August 18.1969, Rolling Stones front man was shot. This was not by a criminal or by a deranged fan, but while shooting a film about an Irish outlaw in Australia ‘Ned Kelly’. A pistol loaded with blanks, which he was using at the time, backfired to drive the metal into his hand. Maybe that’s…

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  • According to legend, as a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Robert Johnson had a tremendous desire to become a great blues musician. One of the legends often told says that Johnson was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation at midnight. (There are claims for at least…

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  • MacArthur Park

    August 15th was Jimmy Webb’s 76th birthday. Rather then going into Jimmy’s life, I will focus on one of his many songs, ‘MacArthur Park’ .One of my favourite songs. It doesn’t happen that often the 2 versions of a song are equally as good. The 1st version was by fellow Limerick man(although I am just…

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  • Lucky Escapes

    Sometimes something which looks very unfortunate and frustrating can actually be a blessing in disguise. On 21 December 1988 Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, had a meeting which not go as scheduled. Holly Johnson and his manager were scheduled to arrive in New York for final negotiations about his break with Frankie Goes…

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  • If Elvis is the King of Rock and Roll, and if Michael Jackson is the King of Pop, then surely Ronnie James Dio must be the King of Heavy Metal. Not only was he the front man in bands like Rainbow, Black Sabbath,Dio and Heaven & Hell, he is also the one who popularized the…

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  • Born Richard Starkey, Ringo got the first half of his nickname while playing in bands with Eddie Clayton and Rory Storm. They called him Ringo because he wore multiple rings on both of his hands. As for the second half of his name, Starr seems to be just a slight shortening of Starkey. However, the…

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  • Instrumental Tunes

    This is going to be a bit of a deviation from my usual heavy historical blogs. It will all about music in this one. A great tune doesn’t always need to be accompanied by lyrics, sometimes the music itself does all the talking. These are just some of my favourite instrumental tracks.

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  • So you are young musician. You have had some success thus far ,but you are still struggling to get that all important first number one hit, that first megahit. You want to put your stamp on Rock and Roll, You just saw Elvis performing and you know he is the guy to beat when it…

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  • Growing up in the Netherlands there was a tradition on Good Friday. Every year on Good Friday the Dutch radio would play the ‘Top 100 of all time’, basically the greatest songs ever recorded. The majority would be rock songs. The top 4 would always be ‘Child in Time’ by Deep Purple; ‘Stairway to Heaven’…

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  • Music is not just a few notes strung together to create a tune, often accompanied by lyrics. Music is much more then that. It is therapy. It gives hope where there is despair. It gives joy where there is grief. It can transport you back to the days of yore, when time was complicated. It…

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