So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Basvarken]

Two members of one of my all-time favorite bands (=Cry Of Love) have been playing with Sheryl Crow for quite a few years; Audley Freed and Robert P Kearns.
Here they are with fellow Sheryl guitarist Peter Stroud. And Keith Gattis and none other than Ike Stubblefield.

[uwe]

Suzi and some other Detroit/Flint dude from an American Band or such.


Farner sure hasn't lost his pipes.

[uwe]

Not a great singer, even then, but she had attitude.

[uwe]

Three blissful blasts from the early 80ies ...









I saw Billy Squier open for Whitesnake in Europe in 1981/82 (Whitesnake were very much bigger here) and, man, did he give David Coverdale and his men a real run for their money. Incredibly tight and with Kenny Aaronson on bass prowling the stage and playing all these stunning little licks with great aplomb (just watch My Kinda Lover at 01:52). And at the end of the tour, Billy even had the chutzpah to attempt to poach Jon Lord and Ian Paice from WS! Coverdale wasn't amused ... 

[gearHed289]

Not a great singer, even then, but she had attitude.

You must have seen this on the sidebar too.  [Uwe's edit: So true!] I watched some yesterday. Ah, Debbie... She helped me get through 8th grade. 

[gearHed289]

Three blissful blasts from the early 80ies ...



I saw Billy Squier open for Whitesnake in Europe in 1981/82 (Whitesnake were very much bigger here) and, man, did he give David Coverdale and his men a real run for their money. Incredibly tight and with Kenny Aaronson on bass prowling the stage and playing all these stunning little licks with great aplomb (just watch My Kinda Lover at 01:52). And at the end of the tour, Billy even had the chutzpah to attempt to poach Jon Lord and Ian Paice from WS! Coverdale wasn't amused ... 

Squier had a good "pop Zeppelin" thing going on in the early 80s. Talented guy, real good band. That's hilarious about Lord and Paice! Can you imagine?

[uwe]

Given that during the recording of the next album (Saints & Sinners) following that tour, DC basically disbanded the then Whitesnake line-up for a period of self-contemplation and strife with the management, only to then rehire just parts of the band going forward (Jon Lord and Micky Moody, but not Ian Paice, Neil Murray and Bernie Marsden), I'm not so sure whether Jon and Ian might not have regretted negotiating good contracts with Billy! Because even Jon Lord must have had second thoughts when he found out later that Cozy Powell was on a higher wage than him with the new Whitesnake line-up. You don't do that to ex-DP rock royalty! 

Ian Paice didn't want to reconquer the US from the ground up - he had done that with DP already, endless tours of DP opening for The Faces etc. DC was still hungry though (and would eventually achieve his goal of course). Billy Squier's busy US touring schedule might have been an issue, but in the early 80ies he was easily the more established and hopeful act who could offer higher grade gigs for British rock royalty. Musically, I could have seen it work, but of course Billy's band mates were no slouches either. The late Bobby Chouinard as Billy's then drummer especially had quite a reputation. But both Ian and Jon were adaptable musicians, they could have slotted right in. (Jon wasn't always happy with his role in WS, the constant twin-guitar-attack gave him a lot less freedom than with Ritchie in Purple, the latter leaving a lot of space for Jon due to his sparse rhythm guitar playing.) But of course, Coverdale was a fellow-Brit and a former band mate turned band leader - that provided for some glue within WS.

When after the DP reunion in 1985/86 a journalist at a WS press conference innocently asked whether Coverdale had "contributed anything" to the Mk II reunion (at that point he hated any mention of his DP past), a suitably irritated DC snapped: "Yes, JON LORD !!!" 

[Ken]

Revisiting Aphrodite's Child.  Vangelis had a rock band.

[Dave W]

Recorded 69 years ago today.

[uwe]

And to this day my favorite 50ies rock'n'roll song. I know, Bill Haley wasn't Elvis or Little Richard or Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis, he had none of that edge to him, there wasn't that sexual undercurrent to his music and no perceptive lyrics of American teenage life, but I always thought that number exquisitely played and recorded. And it isn't that easy to replicate well with the Western Swing it has, everybody covered Chuck Berry numbers to death, but Rock Around the Clock? More a hard one to get right.

When he toured Germany in 1958 he was among the first rock'n'roll artists to do so, German youth was starved for this music (and of endlessly hearing from their parents: "You didn't fight in the war ..."), and do I need to tell you how those Krauts went apeshit?! Riot round the clock !!!

[uwe]

Revisiting Aphrodite's Child.  Vangelis had a rock band.

Indeed. With prog rock god Demis Roussos. 



Hey, I have a soft spot for Greek easy listening!

[Ken]

Indeed. With prog rock god Demis Roussos. 



Hey, I have a soft spot for Greek easy listening!

I love the bass line in this one.  Demis was quite a good bass player I think.

[uwe]

You must have seen this on the sidebar too.  [Uwe's edit: So true!] I watched some yesterday. Ah, Debbie... She helped me get through 8th grade. 

Can we mention Blondie here without mentioning the one and only Wendy James of Transvision Vamp? We certainly can't, ACHTUNG CLICKBAIT !!!

[uwe]

My funeral song. Laura's original version, written when she was a teenager, is effing brilliant.

[uwe]