LED ZEPPELIN - VIVA MUSICA!!

The Battle Of Evermore

The band of geniuses! Each of them is complete musicians in their own right. I feel like I’m not authorized to write about them. Plant, Page, JPJ, Bonham – the ultimate line up.

Hey, I am not yet able to start writing about them. Forgive me if this doesn’t come out good, I jus can’t come to write about them without stopping their music stopping in my heart.



Hell no, I’m not writing. You better hear each and everyone of their songs. See the live videos, not the studio recordings!! Stairway to heaven, Montreux, Moby Dick, Darlene, Achilles Last Stand, Kashmir, every single song!! Then you’ll understand why I’m saying so!

 

The Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

THE BEATLES

I hated it the first time I saw it! Girls swooning at some guys standing like jerks! The next time I saw it, I changed the channel. So it was not until I got a cassette of John Lennon’s greatest hits that I discovered Beatles. That one album changed my perception of them as boy band wonders to real genius. After that, it was a search for other albums. I wanted to know more about them, heard the interviews and all, anything that came in TV. Surely, this was not what my first impression gave me!



Then I got their white album, not bad. Some of the songs were really good. But then, John and Paul had already got their stamp of approval, especially John. I loved his songs more than anyone else’s. His voice had everything. From longing to melancholy to hard core rock ‘n roll, that voice had a mark of genius. Paul’s voice was okay to me. My favorite song of his is ‘Say Say Say’. I can hear it as many times I want. Until I heard ‘My guitar gently weeps’, George was just a member of the great band. This one song took him above the other two and equal to John. I wept with the song, abstractly speaking! It was one of those songs which make you regret not learning the guitar! And what more Eric Clapton, man standing next to guitar god, was on the track! I can not say much about Ringo but since the band decided to take him as a replacement to Pete Best, he must be good.



So what are you waiting for, don’t fall for their specs or cheeky quotes (John on Jesus!), fall in love with their music!

 

The Guitar and The Pen

The Guitar and The Pen

Another great line-up! This one has the kind of temperamental geniuses I love! Daltrey, Moon, Townshend and Entwistle.



I’ll take them one by one, starting with my favorite Keith Moon. It was not his drumming skills that made me love him, but his approach to music. He took music as fun. A thing of beauty to be enjoyed and not overdone! He was larger than life on the stage, giving the impression of an elf sitting on mushrooms. His drum skills are legendary. Few drummers will say that they were not influenced by his virtuoso skills. He had such speed coupled with great sense of sound. His drumming was never too loud for the music they played (But loud enough to cause partial hearing loss of Pete!).



The multitalented Pete Townshend, equally at ease with piano and guitars, though he was better on guitars. He and John were childhood friends and played a lot of instruments. He was the tour de force behind the lyrical beauty of The Who. His prowess could be seen in My Generation (Sound familiar? Limp Bizkit!). His stage crashing antics became trademark of The Who.



Roger Daltrey’s voice always had a kind of meaty sting to it. He had mastery over his voice, kind of range which could keep up with extraordinary speed of Keith’s drumming or Pete’s sudden twists of hand. Unlike other three, this handsome man could have the girls swoon over him. Ideal front man, with the magnetism to hold stage with such extraordinary musicians of the likes of Keith, Pete and John. His voice is best in The Guitar and The Pen and Who Are You.



The extraordinary man in the band, John was the rest put together. His lyrics were exquisite in construction. To me only one person is greater than Cliff Burton, it is John (No. don’t bring JPJ into this). For all his theatrical antics on stage, he is always admired and never ever will be imitable. It’s funny to note that he was once quoted to have said in an interview, "The Who hasn’t a proper bass player."



I still haven’t got Tommy. One day, that deficiency will also be taken care of.



PS: You might be wondering why I haven’t put the replacements in this group. For me, The Who without Keith would not be The Who rather it would be…... WHO?

 

Down The Waterline

Dire straits will always be Mark Knopfler. From the beginning Mark Knopfler’s strong guitar sound and his slightly held back vocals has defined the music of Straits. From the gigs in pubs in London to the high profile tours around the world India>, it has been really great going. Few bands have done music like Straits – right from the heart. They had none of the on stage antics nor did they go for off stage gimmicks. They jus played... on and on.

Dire Straits always had a clear idea on what their path was. Their songs had a meaning for the listeners, kind of a search for the meaning along with the band. It is a wonderful experience!

Songs always takes the prime place for Dire Straits, so it is also not proper for me to write about them. I am therefore sticking to their songs.

Some songs of Straits are my personal favorites – Brothers in Arms, Telegraph Road, Tunnel of Love, Sultans of swing and Romeo & Juliet.

‘Brothers in Arms’ was written at the time when Mark’s brother, David, quit the band following personal differences. The song has that feeling of time, kind of a reaching out. This song however cannot be heard in repetition at same time.

Telegraph road’s lyrics are really good. It gives the feel of 18^th century America, in all its goodness and splendor; it evokes the image of the ‘Pioneers’ who set out to the new world, impervious to the perils ahead. I heard this one in repetition.

To me love songs always hold a special place. Not the cheese and cake ones but the real ones, Romeo and Juliet and Tunnel of love fall in this category. While R&J takes a cynical take on the eternal love story, Tunnel of love makes us fall in love with the first girl you meet after hearing it! For me, it always will be the same girl! I see her each time I hear it.

Lots of their other songs have been on my mind when I’m writing this. I’ll leave it for some other time or perhaps someone else to write.

Comfortably Numb

My favorite band! It all started when my brother bought ‘Delicate sound of thunder’ to my house. That was when I was in fifth or sixth grade! I heard it umpteen times. At that time, I didn’t know that much about lyrics. Never really cared, but then later on the lyrics caught up with me. Now I had to hear it more, to get the feel of music with the lyric. I’ve not heard any other band’s songs like this. Pink Floyd actually made me realize the lyrical value. I guess if it were not for Pink Floyd, I wouldn’t have heard Simon and Garfunkel.

Some time back, I read a book called ‘five point someone’. A good read but nothing new. It was what we were doing in college. In it, there is a reference of Pink Floyd as a company to vodka. I never needed vodka, though!!

My favorite member of Pink Floyd is Syd Barret, always will be. I was shocked to hear news of his demise. It took some time to sink in. Each of his stories made him a larger than life person to me. One especially struck me his genius. Syd came with a new song he wrote and started teaching the rest the chords, but they couldn’t ’cos he was changing the chords each time they learnt it. And when they came to realize, there was a grin on his face!

Syd ain’t Pink Floyd though. It’s the five of them that makes it complete. Even though Dave Gilmour came later, it seems like he have been in it from start. Wright, Waters and Mason all together make the band they are. Some of the music by them represents a whole era in the music. They seemed to be a side of a polygon which stands apart from other parts, but without them the polygon would just be incomplete. Dave’s influence on the band made the band change more into progressive rock from its psychedelic start. Though the imagery was still there, the music had changed after Syd left. The friction between Waters and rest of the band is still a sorry happening.

I am speculating this but I have to say, I think the rest of the band let Syd go on deeper into LSD so that he would be more creative. They never knew where the red line was. If they had checked on it, I wonder if the music would have been the same. Not just the PF, but the whole world. The enigma that was Syd still grips the mind so forcefully that not just the band but everyone still finds themselves groping in the dark.

Dave Gilmour once remarked that their audiences nowadays don’t listen to music as in their beginnings. Well, some still hear the way music has to be heard, I can assure you that, Dave!

So for me Pink Floyd will always be vodka not companion to vodka!

John Mayer... No other title will do!

John Mayer!!

Considering all the bands I love, sometimes I wonder what does John Mayer has to make me love him! One thing is that I never knew anything about him, and still don’t know anything other than what’s given in wikipedia, except his music!

I loved his music from the beginning. Each of his songs is done with heavy lyrics and smooth guitar. I can’t express the feeling I got when I saw the video for ‘Waiting for the world to change’ {Funny that I’m hearing ‘Music must change’, Right now}. The video really felt like a part of the song. Loved it to the core!!!

Music wired and shorted!

Music for me isn’t represented by a single genre or band or song. So it is obvious that I can write a lot about music, provided I CAN write!! So far, I am writing in my blog which no one can stop!

As everyone, I love certain bands but for me I’ve lots more than others. To me they are ultimate grass, I’m on high each time I hear them. Depending on my mood, I hear Hindustani or Rock or Grunge or whatever.

So for my bands, I toast to you!!

Music ’n me!!

I’ve been interested in music for long… There had been a time when I used to run to my room when TV was switched on. The same I, now sits glued to the TV or so it seem to those who see me. For I never view it, I hear it. Whatever I see gets registered in RGB while I hear everything to the last note, amplified to perfection in my mind.

I see music!!

Greatest Album Cover!

VH1 says it is Rolling Stones cover designed by none other than Andy Warhol himself. Lets give it to them, its a great cover - it embodies everything that Stones was...and is, their new song, Rain Falls Down rock. This cover also featured the Flaming Lips (also by You-Know-Who). The Zipper worked the magic!!

All the top covers were excellent, but I liked KORN album cover of ISSUES best. Its so much melencholic and issues the message right away. Another one is the FLEETWOOD MAC cover with Stevie Nicks and . Not to mention my favorite band's - Pink Floyd. To me each of their cover is excuisite. I got the inner book of the final cut - that was truly Floyd!

Check out RS - A Bigger Bang at official site.

First Job Done

I had to find a good template. Though its black, I liked it. Only problem is the highlighting when cursor is on a link - it should not blur, or I like it that way.

Aside that, this guy has done a great job.