So, what have you been listening to lately?

[TBird1958]

Ya know....

[uwe]

Amazing how good Van Halen can sound with someone who can actually sing in key and hold a note!

Also goes to show that if you write as many songs in major keys as Van Halen did, you sooner or later end up in Motown territory! 

[uwe]

I'm listening to Steppenwolf's last album for ABC 'For Ladies Only' (1972)



and keep racking my brains what the inner sleeve photo of a car might mean in connection with the album title?


Secrets of the gatefold exposed!

Apparently, the vehicular projectile still exists



and I would deduce from the rather clipped tidied-up car front that it must be an American design, wouldn't you agree?

[gearHed289]

That is f-ing hilarious!

[uwe]

It was their last album before the later reunion, but it could really have been the peniletimate one.

[Dave W]

Joe Ely is 75 today.

[uwe]

Killer song with killer groove, also at the exact limit of how maximum fast I like rock music to be played. Anything faster eludes me, which is why Speed Metal, whether melodic or not, never did anything for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my52k5X2HCY&list=RDGMEMJQXQAmqrnmK1SEjY_rKBGA

[Basvarken]

You must be getting old Uwe. If that's the maximum you can handle.

What about that favorite band of yours?

[uwe]

But I never liked Priest's speed metal stuff even back in the day!  I'm a 120 to 140 bpm wuss. 



Take this boy to a disco, make me feel good! (or: How to ruin your LBO reputation with just one post.)







Ok, with all my heavy metal credibility now shattered forever: With Freewheel Burning I only admired, when it came out, the rapid velocity with which Halford sings/spits out the syllables in the middle part (at 1:54) - that is kind of hilarious -, but that ultra-fast stuff doesn't move me. Highway Star was my limit with Purple even as a teen, Rainbow's Kill the King was already way too fast for me.



Electric Eye's speed is still ok with me. Just about.



My favorite Priest song



was ruined by how rushed they did it live for a while, I could still shoot KK Downing for the way he speeds it up at the beginning!  They took all the grandeur and majesty out of it.

[Basvarken]

From now on we'll call you Captain Slow then.

[uwe]

I could never properly play that stuff either, I'm the world-worst speed metal bassist, I could never play even root note that fast, my right hand plectrum technique simply isn't up to it, it's like I have an inbuilt cruise control. Very embarrassing at auditions if you are suddenly asked to play something thrashy. People never believe me when I say I can't, they think I'm joking given the way I play at mid-tempo.

I'm the king of the fretboard at 120-140 bpm, go much faster and I'm like a Focke-Wulf 190 A above 20.000 feet - lame duck/target practice for Allied fighters.



I've often wondered why that is, in 45 years of bass playing I never really got fast. I can be flashy with what I play, but never with how fast I play it. Kids that play for a few weeks are "speedier" than I am. It's mostly irrelevant in bass playing, but I'm well aware of my limits. Now you know my dark secret.

[uwe]

I never realized how blues-rocky they were live, "In the Summertime" must have been a novelty song for them. That is a very young Bob Daisley playing bass btw.

[uwe]

Bonnet had real charm as a front man - and looked different to any other hard rock singer in 1979, classy.

[uwe]

Meanwhile, on a remote island outside of the EU, spirits remain high ...

[gearHed289]

and looked different to any other hard rock singer in 1979, classy.

His look was really off-putting to me at age 15. I didn't get it at all, and looked at anything "50s" as old fashioned.