Happy 85th birthday Matt "Guitar" Murphy

RIP Famous Dave's Blues Club

Today I got the bad news that Famous Dave's in Uptown will no longer be having be having live music. I knew something was wrong when they stopped having the annual blues festival downtown . Then to make matters worse they raised the prices on their menu in 2013

 and ditched the blues paintings on the wall to make way for some TV's so that they could play football. Famous Dave's Blues Club was my go to place to hear live music. Over the years I was able to place to see Blues greats like Johnny Winter and James Cotton at the club. I also got to see amazing blues guitarists like Guitar Shorty and Coco Montoya. It was also my go to spot for local Minneapolis blues and soul acts like The Butanes, Soul Tight Committee and The Lamont Cranston Band. The festival they had downtown was my first real exposure to the blues. There I was able to see three members of Muddy Waters band Mojo Buford, Willie Big Eyes Smith and Pinetop Perkins. I also got to see blues legends like Charlie Musselwhite pictured above with Dave and Lonnie Brooks. Now they will nothing but a sports bar. Unless they reverse their decision I will no longer be setting foot in any of their restaurants and will take my business elsewhere to places like Minnesota Music Cafe and Wilebski Blues Saloon.

Rock on Joe and Bobby

Joe Cocker 1944-2014

Ten Artists who should have been in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Green Day

Well I am happy that Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble that was largely overshadowed by the fact that of there are dozens of 50's 60's and 70's bands that deserve to get in and they choose Green Day. So here is my list of the top ten artists who should have been inducted before Green Day.

10.  Blue Oyster Cult

9. Chicago

8.  Danny and The Juniors












 


7. Jethro Tull

 
6. Johnny Winter

5. Steppenwolf




















4. Link Wray














 3. Yes

2. The Moody Blues

 

1.  Deep Purple

RIP Small Faces and Faces guitarist Ian Mclagan

RIP Bobby Keys the wildman of rock of roll

Yesterday we lost legendary saxophonist Bobby Keys at the age of 70.  I was lucky enough to meet him before The Stones concert back in 2005 and then again in 2011 at The Parkway theater. for the showing of Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. I was only twelve and don't really remember that meeting. I was also just getting into Rock and Roll and and I didn't know a thing about Bobby or how big of a deal he was in the music world. 6 years later we met again. Before the showing of the film told some stories including meeting Buddy Holly in Texas and spending the night in jail with Harry Nilsson. Afterwords I went to introduce myself and tell him I was Kent's nephew. He said that we should call uncle Kent and tell him that we were stuck in jail and that we needed money. Now that I look back I wish I would have called him. 

Keys was primarily known for his more then 40 years with the Stones he also played with all four Beatles including 3 album with John and 2 with Ringo. He was  friends with Harry Nilsson and played on 4 of his albums. He also played on Eric Clapton's debut solo album , Lynyrd Skynyrd's Second Helping, Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen and also on Sheryl Crow's Globe Sessions album. The later which my uncle also played on. My uncle had told me when he was hear back in October that Keys had been to sick to tour and was being replaced with Lenny Kravitz sax player Karl Denson for the Australia and New Zealand leg of the 14 On Fire tour.  He was a really nice man and a legend in every sense of the word. He and his contributions to rock 'n' roll will never be forgotten.

Happy 70th birthday to Wings and Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine.

Jack Bruce 1943-2014

50 artists who should be in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Link Wray, Dick Dale, Boz Scaggs, Gene Chandler, Cliff Richard, Ry Cooder, Warren Zevon, Joe Cocker, Rick Darrenger, Harry Nilsson, The Cars, The Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Styx, Bad Company, Blood Sweat and Tears, Canned Heat, The Monkees,Paul Revere and The Raiders, Paul Anka, The Belmonts, Bobby Vee, Journey, Yes, Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Thin Lizzy, Hubert Sumlin, Three Dog Night, The Zombies , Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Jethro Tull, Electric Light Orchestra, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple, Danny and the Juniors, Blue Oyster Cult, Chicago, Steppenwolf, Pat Benatar, Steve Miller Band, John Mayall, The Grass Roots, ELP, Foreigner, Dire Straits, The Del Vikings, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Stray Cats, The Moody Blues

Over the past month I have been following KISS and their induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. The KISS fans or what is known as KISS Army have fought for years to get the band inducted into the hall while members of the committee including loud mouthed music critic Dave Marsh have fought equally as hard to keep them out because of a hatred of the band and their music. You would think the fans and the band would be happy about this having honor. But when the hall announced that only Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons would be inducted as part of the band. This would mean exuding members from other line-ups such as Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent, Bruce Kulick, Mark St. John and the two current members Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer who have both been with the band since the early 90's. This angered both Simmons and Stanley who said that they would not perform because of this. When the fans heard this many of them were angry with Gene and Paul thinking that were screwing over the fans. At first I sided with the fans having not looked into why KISS was not performing. This was until I realized that the hall was bending the rules for other groups. On the hall's Facebook page the group "Inducted: KISS 2014 inductee into The Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame" had posted a long statement which they had taken from the Facebook page of former nomination committee member Jeff Tamarkin.  Here is just part of that statement: 

 "As much as I despise KISS, Paul Stanley is actually correct when he says that the R&R Hall of Fame bends its rules at whim. He cites the Grateful Dead's induction and his take on that is 100% accurate. I was on the Hall's nominating committee when the Dead were being inducted. Jon Landau, Bruce's manager and one of the big shots at the Hall, asked me to find out from the Dead which members they wanted included. The word came back from their spokesman: "all or none." And so Robert Hunter, their chief songwriter who was never an official band member, was inducted along with, I think, 11 or 12 others. That even included Vince Welnick, who had only been playing keyboards with them for several years."

Like one of my earlier posts where the hall decided to induct the backing bands of some artists but not others this just shows you how screwed up they are. If Tom Petty gets his backing band inducted then so should Bob Marley and Frank Zappa. The same is true for The Grateful Dead. If the Dead gets all their members included then so should KISS and Fleetwood Mac. I chose Mac because they are one of the more well known cases where this has happened. Here is a link to an article about Bob Welches snub during Mac's 1998 induction ceremony. 

 http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2012/06/rock_and_roll_hall_of_fame_snu.html   

While I don't consider my self a huge fan of KISS or their music I think that what the hall is doing to them and what they have done to other bands is a huge disgrace and makes their organization look bad.

 

10 worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performances in no order

I have only decided to pick ten but because there are so many horrible performances it will be hard to pick only ten.

10.  Led Zeppelin and Neil Young

This is one of the few times the band got back together. It really sucks to say the least. Neil Young does not belong he was out of tune and adds nothing to the performance.  Then to make it even worse Plant randomly picks up a guitar half way through and plays a god awful solo.



9. Mick Jagger and a bunch of other people

I have no idea what the hell is going on here. You have a stage pack with random musicians like Paul Shaffer, Little Richard, Keith Richards, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen. Since there is no room for anyone to play most of the musicians are just standing around.  Mick is the only one really doing anything and he briefly lets Tina join in. Although the whole thing is a mess the worst part is at the beginning when Shaffer tries to sing the guitar intro.


 8. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock

 This would have been a great performance but Kid Rock has to come along and just ruin it completely. He is flopping around on stage and sings even more then the band being inducted and Johnny barely gets a word in.


7.  Neil Young and others

 

The title of this video is very misleading because it says Jimi Hendrix Experience performs at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1992 which is not true. The two members are barley seen as Paul Shaffer invites Neil Young on stage for yet another horrendous version of a classic song. Young's vocals are not the right fit. Jimmy Page was clearly drunk which is why his solo sounds like crap. The real reason this sucks so bad is because there are too many guitar players on stage which makes it sound like someone killing a cat.

6. Aerosmith and Kid Rock

Once again Kid Rock ruins another performance  and proves to the world yet again that he has no talent.



5. Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards and others

For starters the mics are screwed up which makes Jerry sound like crap because you can barley hear his singing or his piano. And once again Neil young adds nothing to the performance. The Everly Brothers are also on stage standing around doing nothing as is Paul Shaffer. But the real question is why is Chuck playing a fender?

4. Booker T. & the M.G.'s and others

This is really awful. First off the group of musicians was put together by Paul Shaffer who also tries to conduct this mess of guitar players and other random musicians crammed together on stage. I think Paul is even worse here then he was in the Mick Jagger video because he will not shut up. The sound is so messed up that you can barely hear Booker T's organ or the guy on the harmonica. I have no clue what Johnny Cash is doing there and it appears that Little Richard, Lyle Lovett, Phil Specter and a host of others are just standing around adding nothing to the performance.






3. Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony

Now one would think that if you only have the bass guitarist and second lead singer at induction the ceremony that you should not perform. There is not even one Van Halen brother present. But they do perform and come off sounding like a cheap Van Halen cover band.




2.  George Harrison, Ringo Starr and others

For starters the title of this video Beatles perform at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1988 is very misleading. This because Paul is not even present and George and Ringo are barely seen in the video. Paul Shaffer is back adding nothing to the song and Bob Dylan and Jeff Beck don't look like they want to be there. Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen do a terrible job at singing.

1.  Sam Moore, John Fogerty and Steve Cropper

Although these are not in order I would have to say that this performance is by far the worst. First off you have Paul Shaffer as conductor which never goes well. Some guy carrying a guitar walks across the stage during the performance. Then you have Sam Moore who looks confused reading the lyrics of his most famous song from a piece of paper because he forgot the words. John was also singing from a piece of paper. The only three people performing were Sam, John and Steve Cropper. What's point of having all these different artists on stage if you're only going to let two people sing.





 

After watching these and other videos I'm left wondering why the hall kept using Bill Joel, Neil Young and Little Richard. How could they not find anyone else to do these performances?  You might say Little Richard was an extra since in all the videos since he's just standing around and not even given a singing role. The people who run things would be smart to keep Paul Shaffer and Kid Rock away from the next and all future induction ceremonies.

2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

So recently the Rock and Roll hall of fame relased it nominees list. The artists are The Paul Butterflied Blues Band, Chic, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Green Day, Kraftwerk, The Marvelettes, N.W.A, Nine Inch Nails, Lou Reed, The Smiths,The Spinners, Stevie Ray Vaughan, War and Bill Withers.

My first reaction was a sense of anger. Not only is Deep Purple not in the hall but this year they were left of the ballot completely. This year the hall has decided to nominate more new artists instead of many of the influential artists of the 50's 60's and 70's such as Link Wray, Deep Purple and Yes. Those three who are usually put on the ballot but never inducted were not even put on the ballot to make way for more modern less influential bands.

One of my main problems with the hall happened again this year. It's when the hall inducts only
certain backing bands and not others. This year it's the Blackhearts being nominated and Stevie Ray Vaughan's band Double Trouble being left out. Just this year the E Street Band got after being left out of Springsteen's induction in 1999 but sadly Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici did not live to see the induction which really pissed me off. I will never understand why some backing bands get in with their leaders and others don't.

Some of these artists are not what you would consider rock like N.W.A,Chic, Bill Withers and The Spinners. While I am a huge fan of both Bill Withers and The Spinners and listen to them on a regular basis I don't think they should be in the hall. I'm really getting sick of this genre mixing that is going on. I am also really disappointed that all of these raps acts are getting nominated and inducted before many legendary rock artists like Paul Revere and The Raiders, Steppinwolf, Chicago and Johnny Winter. I would be all in favor of starting a rap/hip-hop hall of fame and taking the artists in this hall and putting them in there.

Well the good news is that Stevie is finally being recognized by Jann, Joel, Dave and the rest of those clowns proving that once in a blue moon they can get something right.
   

Joan Jett & the

Happy 88th birthday to one of the gods of music

Paul Revere 1938-2014

Another music legend is gone.

Listening to these albums to celebrate the births of the Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eddie Cochran

I did not realize that two of my musical idols shared the same birthday. One man helped to change the course of modern blues and the other help to create Rock and Roll. Who knows what more they could have done had their lives not been cut short. May you both rest in peace.

Today AC/DC fans were greeted with good news and bad news.

First we received the news that founding member and rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young would be officially retiring from the band.  Then we got the news going to release a new album. Although we had known for sometime that Malcolm was sick it was unclear weather or not he would be returning. His nephew Stevie Young will be filling in for him on the new album and subsequent tour. He had played with the band in 1988 on the Blow Up your Video while Malcolm dealt  with drinking problems. The new album is titled Rock or Bust and a track from the album titled "Play Ball" is said to be released sometime this weekend. Hopefully now I will finally be able to see my favorite band and one of the greatest bands of all time.
 

RIP Glenn Cornick and Jimi Johnson

In the past few days the rock world has lost two talented musicians from two well-known classic rock groups. On Thursday we got news that former Jethro Tull bassist and founding member Glenn Cornick had passed away at 67. He played on 4 studio albums including This Was, Stand Up and Benefit. Then on Sunday it was reported that Survivors lead singer Jimi Johnson had died at the age of 63. Johnson had been a member of the band since 1984 when he replaced Dave Bickler. Although he did not sing Eye of the Tiger he did sing some of their other big hits including High On You, The Search Is Over and Burning Heart all of which made the top ten. In the 90's Johnson took a break from the band during in which time he wrote and preformed the theme to Baywatch. He would later join up with the band again in 2000 and record two more albums.

Johnny Winter 1944-2014

Happy 70th birthday to one of the greatest men to ever pick up the guitar.

Happy 80th birthday to the great Frankie Valli

RIP Larry Ramos guitarist, vocialist and founding member of The Association.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Larry Ramos. I was lucky enough to see him in 2012 with The Association at the Minnesota State during the  Happy Together Tour. Ramos performed with the band for the last time earlier this year in February.  He was 72.

Happy 99th birthday to the late great Muddy Waters

Walter Trouts health has taken a turn for the worse. Please help him and his family below.

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/walter-trout-needs-a-new-liver-you-can-help-/151911

RIP drummer Joe Lala of The Blues Image

Rembering Alvin Lee on the one year anniversary of his passing.

Happy 70th birthday Roger Daltrey

Nothing better on a Friday then Son Seals

Happy 60th Birthday to Jounrey's Neal Schon

Frankie Sardo- Fake Out

RIP Frankie Sardo Opening act on Winter Dance Party Tour

Hall with Rock and Roll in it's title chooses not to honor pioneers.

It's been a while since I've blogged about the hypocrisy of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So today we will talk about how a hall with Rock in it's title refuses again and again to honor rock music pioneers when they die. This has happened time and time again. I first noticed it last year when inductee and original Comets bassist Marshall Lytle died last may. I went to both their Facebook and Twitter and saw nothing on either about Lytle's passing. Once again it happened on Monday with the passing of inductee and Comets guitarist Franny Beecher. And like last time I went to check their Facebook and Twitter and their was nothing. For a hall that says their rock 'n' roll they sure do a piss poor job of honoring their inductee's when they die.  To the hall I say this If you are going to have rock in your title you should at least have the decency to honor rock pioneers when they die.
   

RIP Franny Beecher 1921-2014

On Monday we lost Franny Beecher at the age of 92. Beecher was the guitar player for Bill Haley & His Comets from 1954 to 1962. Although Beecher did not play on their most well-known song "Rock Around the Clock" he did play on all of their other songs including See You Later, Alligator. He also composed several Comets songs including "Blue Comet Blues", "Goofin' Around", "Week End", and "Shaky". Franny Beecher continued to play in the comets later in life up until the age of 90. Beecher was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania and died in Philadelphia the city in which Bill Haley & His Comets were formed. Of the original Comets only saxophonist Joey Ambrose and drummer Dick Richards are living. A few of my favorite solo's of Franny are "The Saints Rock 'n' Roll" and "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie".

10 most underrated guitarists

1. Alvin Lee
Although Lee played at Woodstock and was popular in his day, he never became a household name like fellow Woodstock players such as Hendrix, Santana and Johnny Winter. On most classic rock stations you will hear only one of his songs.

2. Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson like Lee is an amazing guitarist with an amazing body of work but sadly most people only know one song. Many of them have only heard of Cliffs of Dover because of Guitar Hero. The chances of hearing Johnson on the radio are slim. He is also nowhere to be seen on Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Guitarists.
 

3. Sonny Landreth
Sonny is in my opinion the greatest living slide player today. Although having appeared at every Crossroads festival at having fans like Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler he still very much unknown even among blues fans.

4. Prince

This list wouldn't be complete with him. He was one of the greatest artists of the 80's.But he has notgained as much recognition for his guitar work as he should. His amazing guitar playing is brought out on Let's Go Crazy.

5. Terry Kath
Kath's work with Chicago mainly on their first album The Chicago Transit Authority is some of the greatest playing I have heard in a while. He also shines on The Chicago classic 25 or 6 to 4. Sadly the life of this amazing guitarist was cut to short at the age of 31. Chicago is more known for it's horns but I think Kath made the band what it is.

6. Jimmie Vaughan
Although Vaughan is very well-known in blues circles he never was able to break out of the shadow of his younger brother and is therefor cast aside and often overlooked. He is a fantastic both solo and with The fabulous Thunderbird's.

7. Hughie Thomasson
I think that both Thomasson and The Outlaws who are one of my favorite bands never really got as much attention as fellow southern rockers like Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels. I think he is one of the best guitarists in the Southern Rock genre.  The third best after Duane and Allan Collins.



















8. Rick Derringer
With the career Rick Derringer  has had you'd think he would be more famous. But that is not the case. Even his two most well-known songs "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" and "Hang on Sloopy." the latter which he recorded with The McCoys receive little or no airplay on classic rock stations. Derringer is an amazing yet horribly underrated guitarist.



















9. Walter Trout
Playing with both Canned Heat and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in the 1980's you would think that Walter Trout would go on to be one of the best blues guitarists of the modern era. But sadly Trout would not become a well known name in modern blues. His speed and power are a force to be reckoned, having seen him live I can attest to that.



















10. Ted Nugent
The outspoken Michigan guitarist nicknamed The Motor City Madman is the final guitarist on this list. Although I don't care much for his politics I don't let them get in the way of what I listen to. I think his politics are what keep most people from listening to him. With a career dating back to the late 1960's Nugent has proven himself to be a great guitarist with classics like "Stranglehold", "Stormtroopin" and "Journey to the Center of the Mind" his hit with The Amboy Dukes. But sadly most people only know him for "Cat Scratch Fever". When it comes to rock Ted can Rock.

Of these ten guitarists only Prince is on Rolling Stones list of 100 greatest guitar players. He is also the only one of these ten to have been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.