Is there anything more difficult than figuring out the 100 greatest guitar solos of all time? The guitar has been the definitive instrument of rock and roll for more than 50 years, with virtuosos of different eras, differrent styles and different countries all leaving their mark on the guitar landscape.
Where, then, does one begin with a list? Do you start with Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"? Would you consider Marty McFly's loving rendition of the same in "Back to the Future" a worthy entring on the list of 100 greatest guitar solos? Or would you prefer to head straight to the most recognized virtuosos, the likes of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani?
So you see, it's not the easiest list to make. It's not even the easiest list to think about, because guitar solos have a way of effecting different people in disparate ways. I may love David Gilmour's chops as shown on "Money," but someone from a more technical point of view would never list that particular solo in his or her top hundred. It's a very personal thing.
I spent a lot of time thinking about the 100 greatest guitar solos when I was in my "Pearl Jam" phase in the mid-90s. "Alive" comes readily to mind. Since then the guitar solo has not precisely gone away, but it's played less of a central role over the last fifteen years of music. Luckily there are still guitar gods like Jack White of The White Stripes, whose 7 Nation Army reminds us all of the raw power and emotional impact of the instrument. His driving, thunderous solo is appreciated by guitarists, critics, fans and even anti-fans. Do you know anyone - I mean anyone! - who doesn't recognize Jack White's greatness?
I suppose that, then, is what should come to mind first when looking at the 100 greatest guitar solos. Even if you're not a fan of the song... is it undeniably great? I may not be the biggest Van Halen fan ever, but even I can recognize that Eddie Van Halen's "Explosion" belongs on the list. As do probably half a dozen other solols he churned out over the years.
One solo that I really don't feel belongs on the list is Keith Richards' from "(Can't Get No) Satisfaction." It's an overrated song that's all about a boringly repetitive hook and some lame, grade-school sexual innuendo. And Richards' solo is wholly uninspiring.
Of course, I've waited until the end to mention the two men who will probably show up most often on the list of the 100 greatest guitar solos: Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. Page, of course, was the supercharged dark lord of "Led Zeppelin," and he's solos ranged from the moody and and innovative "Dazed and Confused" to the straight-forward, raw firepower of "Whole Lotta Love." Hendrix, meanwhile, is probably still considered the greatest guitarist ever to wear the axe. And "Red House" is his greatest solo - and for my money, the greatest solo of all time.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Music From The 50s
The 1950s was a time of revolution in the world of music, films and fashion. This was when the Generation Gap really came into being and the music from the 50s played a huge part. The charts and the airwaves were filled with the middle of the road sounds of Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Johnny Ray, Perry Como and Patti Page. The latter half of the decade caused parents to shake their heads in wonder as their teenage children danced to the new Rock 'n' Roll records.
Bill Haley and the Comets burst onto the scene with Rock Around the Clock and Shake, Rattle and Roll and music was never the same again. The music spawned new fashion trends, hairstyles and dance crazes. When Elvis Presley swiveled his hips for the first time on TV, there was an audible gasp from the older generation. Elvis recorded some classic music from the 50s, such as Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog and Blue Suede Shoes. Buddy Holly was unusual for the time as he wrote or co-wrote many of his own songs. He wasn't flamboyant like Elvis and he looked like the boy next door with his trademark spectacles. His hits included That'll Be The Day, Everyday, Peggy Sue, Oh, Boy, Brown Eyed Handsome Man and True Love Ways. His tragic death in 1959 in an air crash at the age of 22 sent his fans into shock.
Holly was an enduring influence on the songwriting of the groups that followed in the 1960s, including the Beatles. Don McLean's great hit, American Pie, pays tribute to Holly. The music of the 50s laid the groundwork for all that was to follow. In bedrooms across the United States and Britain, young people practiced their chords and tried to memorise lyrics from the hits. One of the most significant events was in 1957, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time. They shared a passion for Elvis, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and other Rock 'n' Roll greats and the rest is history.
In 1954, one Leo Fender produced the Fender Stratocaster, guitar of choice for so many guitarists over the years. Buddy Holly was the first to champion it and the instrument had an enormous influence on guitar playing music from the 50s. Jerry Lee Lewis however, was king of the Rock 'n' Roll piano. He astonished fans with his dexterity on the keyboards and had massive hits with Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On and Great Balls of Fire. Later, Jerry Lee devoted himself to country music. Johnny Cash's country music gained respect from musicians across all genres. His 1950s hits include Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line and Little Drummer Boy.
Fats Domino was another piano player and a fine singer. His music from the 50s included classics such as Ain't That a Shame, Blueberry Hill and I'm Walking. Chuck Berry got everyone dancing in the aisles with Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven, Sweet Little 16 and the immortal Johnny B. Goode.
Bill Haley and the Comets burst onto the scene with Rock Around the Clock and Shake, Rattle and Roll and music was never the same again. The music spawned new fashion trends, hairstyles and dance crazes. When Elvis Presley swiveled his hips for the first time on TV, there was an audible gasp from the older generation. Elvis recorded some classic music from the 50s, such as Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog and Blue Suede Shoes. Buddy Holly was unusual for the time as he wrote or co-wrote many of his own songs. He wasn't flamboyant like Elvis and he looked like the boy next door with his trademark spectacles. His hits included That'll Be The Day, Everyday, Peggy Sue, Oh, Boy, Brown Eyed Handsome Man and True Love Ways. His tragic death in 1959 in an air crash at the age of 22 sent his fans into shock.
Holly was an enduring influence on the songwriting of the groups that followed in the 1960s, including the Beatles. Don McLean's great hit, American Pie, pays tribute to Holly. The music of the 50s laid the groundwork for all that was to follow. In bedrooms across the United States and Britain, young people practiced their chords and tried to memorise lyrics from the hits. One of the most significant events was in 1957, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time. They shared a passion for Elvis, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and other Rock 'n' Roll greats and the rest is history.
In 1954, one Leo Fender produced the Fender Stratocaster, guitar of choice for so many guitarists over the years. Buddy Holly was the first to champion it and the instrument had an enormous influence on guitar playing music from the 50s. Jerry Lee Lewis however, was king of the Rock 'n' Roll piano. He astonished fans with his dexterity on the keyboards and had massive hits with Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On and Great Balls of Fire. Later, Jerry Lee devoted himself to country music. Johnny Cash's country music gained respect from musicians across all genres. His 1950s hits include Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line and Little Drummer Boy.
Fats Domino was another piano player and a fine singer. His music from the 50s included classics such as Ain't That a Shame, Blueberry Hill and I'm Walking. Chuck Berry got everyone dancing in the aisles with Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven, Sweet Little 16 and the immortal Johnny B. Goode.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Getting The Most From Your Zune MP3 Player
If you’re one of the many who bucked the trend of the iPod army and picked up Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player, you may be regretting your purchase. Although many of the Zune’s features are pretty exciting, like wireless song sharing with other Zunes in the vicinity, Apple’s much broader software development base and ongoing technical innovation have left the little player that could in the dust. In this article, I’ll give you a few tips that you can use to make your Zune a little bit more fun to use – sure, these techniques may be viewed as “hacking” the device and could end up voiding your warranty, but you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. If you want your Zune MP3 player to really reach its full potential, follow these simple instructions.
The first step in upgrading your Zune is to swap out the hard drive for something a bit more spacious. Let’s be frank – you can always use more storage, and it’s fairly simple to grab a bigger drive for your MP3 player and pop it in. An 80 gigabyte Toshiba drive will work just fine, or you can even rip one from an old iPod. Disassemble the casing of the Zune and install. Now doesn’t that feel a little more spacious?
Are the restrictions for sharing songs on the Zune MP3 player getting you down? If you wirelessly grab a song from a friend, you can only listen to it three times before the Zune’s software deletes it. But there is a way around this annoying restriction. First, download Microsoft’s .NET framework onto your computer, then get a copy of the free ZuneHDPatch software. This enables your computer to recognize the Zune as an external hard drive, not just a media player. With that done, run the Zune software and set it to “syncing” and you can now copy files back and forth to your PC. With the songs that you snagged from a friend, copy them to your hard drive and change their file extensions to .jpg. Add one real JPEG image to the folder and send it to a friend’s Zune. Sync that folder to a PC, change the file extensions back, and move the songs to your Zune and you’ve got permanent copies forever. Pretty slick!
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hacking and modifying the Zune MP3 player – there are dozens of applications out there that let you do things as varied as download YouTube videos automatically to share files of any format. With a little hard work, you can turn that poor sad Zune into a multimedia juggernaut that can go head to head with any iPod in town.
The first step in upgrading your Zune is to swap out the hard drive for something a bit more spacious. Let’s be frank – you can always use more storage, and it’s fairly simple to grab a bigger drive for your MP3 player and pop it in. An 80 gigabyte Toshiba drive will work just fine, or you can even rip one from an old iPod. Disassemble the casing of the Zune and install. Now doesn’t that feel a little more spacious?
Are the restrictions for sharing songs on the Zune MP3 player getting you down? If you wirelessly grab a song from a friend, you can only listen to it three times before the Zune’s software deletes it. But there is a way around this annoying restriction. First, download Microsoft’s .NET framework onto your computer, then get a copy of the free ZuneHDPatch software. This enables your computer to recognize the Zune as an external hard drive, not just a media player. With that done, run the Zune software and set it to “syncing” and you can now copy files back and forth to your PC. With the songs that you snagged from a friend, copy them to your hard drive and change their file extensions to .jpg. Add one real JPEG image to the folder and send it to a friend’s Zune. Sync that folder to a PC, change the file extensions back, and move the songs to your Zune and you’ve got permanent copies forever. Pretty slick!
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hacking and modifying the Zune MP3 player – there are dozens of applications out there that let you do things as varied as download YouTube videos automatically to share files of any format. With a little hard work, you can turn that poor sad Zune into a multimedia juggernaut that can go head to head with any iPod in town.
Tips For Safely Listening To Music
When I was a kid, my mom always yelled at me about my listening to music habits. She warned me that I was going to have problems later on if I was not careful. As I went through school for music production, I got the same warnings. Though I did not take things that seriously when I was younger, those messages did sink in. Because I have been around loud music for so long, I do worry about my hearing. I am more careful about things now. Besides those issues, there are some other habits those that love music should think about.
If you are going to be going to clubs once in a while, you may not have to worry about hearing damage from listening to music at that loud level. However, if you go a lot, you should think about what you are doing. I know that because my husband is in a band, I am exposed more than others. Like me, you should think about listening to music in a club more safely. Make sure you stay away from the speakers, and take breaks by going outside once in a while so that your ears are not constantly bombarded for hours on end.
Those that are in a band are probably listening to music more often than most people who just enjoy it. They have the sound on stage they need to hear what they are playing, and they also have the problem of listening through headphones while recording in a studio. On top of that, because they are so into music, they are probably listening to music all of the time, and they probably listen to it loudly. Try to wear earplugs when you can, and remember to keep the volume down once in a while - like when driving. The smallest things help.
You will know when you are listing to music at too high of a volume for too long of a time when you have constant ringing in the ears when the music has stopped. This can be a huge problem, as sometimes, when this goes on long enough, the ringing will never go away. Once you have fully developed this problem from listening to music, you may not be able to do anything to get it to go away. In this case, prevention is your only protection from hearing problems of all types.
You can find that there are other problems when you listen to music. If you wear headphones while listening to your digital music player, you may not notice things that could harm you. If you are walking and listening to music, you have to keep the volume down and be more aware of what is going on around you. You may not hear a car coming your way that does not see you. You can also miss important clues to safety issues when listening to music too loudly in your car. There is a time and place for loud music, just don’t allow yourself to get hurt because of it.
If you are going to be going to clubs once in a while, you may not have to worry about hearing damage from listening to music at that loud level. However, if you go a lot, you should think about what you are doing. I know that because my husband is in a band, I am exposed more than others. Like me, you should think about listening to music in a club more safely. Make sure you stay away from the speakers, and take breaks by going outside once in a while so that your ears are not constantly bombarded for hours on end.
Those that are in a band are probably listening to music more often than most people who just enjoy it. They have the sound on stage they need to hear what they are playing, and they also have the problem of listening through headphones while recording in a studio. On top of that, because they are so into music, they are probably listening to music all of the time, and they probably listen to it loudly. Try to wear earplugs when you can, and remember to keep the volume down once in a while - like when driving. The smallest things help.
You will know when you are listing to music at too high of a volume for too long of a time when you have constant ringing in the ears when the music has stopped. This can be a huge problem, as sometimes, when this goes on long enough, the ringing will never go away. Once you have fully developed this problem from listening to music, you may not be able to do anything to get it to go away. In this case, prevention is your only protection from hearing problems of all types.
You can find that there are other problems when you listen to music. If you wear headphones while listening to your digital music player, you may not notice things that could harm you. If you are walking and listening to music, you have to keep the volume down and be more aware of what is going on around you. You may not hear a car coming your way that does not see you. You can also miss important clues to safety issues when listening to music too loudly in your car. There is a time and place for loud music, just don’t allow yourself to get hurt because of it.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Michael Jackson
Hi all,
like to send a tribute to Michael Jackson who is a star and has touch the lives of many. A salute to Michael Jackson.
Cheers
like to send a tribute to Michael Jackson who is a star and has touch the lives of many. A salute to Michael Jackson.
Cheers
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