It’s difficult to do any sort of greatest ever guitar solo list and not include this latest entry for our “Song of the Day” series.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a musical talent who was taken too soon. Stardom was finally his after years and years of toiling as a sessions guitarist for other bands and singers. His guitar playing brought back memories of other greats of the past like Jimi Hendrix, Albert King and Muddy Waters. He was both a god in the two worlds of rock and blues.
“Texas Flood” will be SRV at his best and no matter how much others try to cover and replicate what he did with a Fender Stratocaster he will always and forever be king.
Texas Flood
Well theres floodin down in texas….all of the telephone lines are down Well theres floodin down in texas….all of the telephone lines are down And Ive been tryin to call my baby….lord and I cant get a single sound
Well dark clouds are rollin in….man Im standin out in the rain Well dark clouds are rollin in….man Im standin out in the rain Yeah flood water keep a rollin….man its about to drive poor me insane
Well Im leavin you baby….lord and Im goin back home to stay Well Im leavin you baby….lord and Im goin back home to stay Well back home I know floods and tornados….baby the sun shines every day
The latest in the Song of the Day for the greatest guitar solo series is the power rock ballad of power ballads. Straight from their untitled fourth album, Stairway to Heaven is a mixture of acoustic-folk music and anthemic hard rock. The fact that this power ballads of all power ballads have stood the test of time, ridicule and countless covers (both serious and comedic) says much about the power that Led Zeppelin had over rock music. Even 30 years since they broke up the band still influences musicians to this day.
Stairway to Heaven to me best exemplifies the gradual shift of the band from a down and dirty blues-based hard rock band to the proto-metal/progressive rock which would dominate the band’s sound from the mid-70’s until the band’s break-up after the untimely death of drummer John Bonham in 1980. The song puts to light Jimmy Page’s growing attraction for the esoteric as the song’s lyrics conjures up images of the fairy folk of the Welsh countryside. The acoustic guitar arpeggios which begins the song soothingly brings the listener in. Each section brings in more of the modern to the Renaissance-like intro. This build-up reaches a crescendo at the mid 5-minute mark when Jimmy Page begins a guitar solo which finally leads to a climactic hard rock finish to the song.
The song was the most requested and played track over the radio and became a staple of the band’s sets on their many tours during the 70’s. Like any piece of artistic work extremely popular with the masses the song reached such a popularity that a backlash just as extreme followed as the band broke up in 1980. The fact that this backlash didn’t diminish the song’s appeal to future generations of fans and to the legions before them shows just how important this song has become to rock music history.
While other epic power ballads have come and gone since Stairway to Heaven they will never supplant Led Zeppelin’s epic mystical anthem of fairy folk, magical lands with progressive hard rock. Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven was first and to many will always be First and The One.
Stairway to Heaven
There’s a lady whose sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
When she gets there, she knows if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
’Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there is a songbird who sings:
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it makes me wonder.
Theres a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who standing looking.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, really makes me wonder.
And it’s whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow,
Don’t be alarmed now,
Its just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by but in the long run
Theres still time to change the road you’re on.
And it makes me wonder.
Ooooooh…
Your head is humming and it won’t go,
In case you don’t know:
The pipers calling you to join him.
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow,
And did you know:
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.
(guitar solo)
And as we wind on down the road,
Our shadows taller than our soul,
There walks a lady we all know.
Who shines white light and wants to show…
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard the tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all, yeah, to be a rock and not to roll.
Time for the latest “Song of the Day” and this one has grown on me with each passing year: “Hotel California” by The Eagles. It also continues an impromptu mini-series of songs with some of the greatest guitar solos. The previous entry, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”, gave us an extended triple guitar solo that never seems to end.
I must admit that the group was never a favorite of mine growing up. I rarely listened to them and when they came on the radio I used to change the station. But as the years passed I began to give them more of a chance. I think part of it comes from the fact that this band is one of my Dad’s favorites. So, I gave them a chance in my advancing years. I guess with age does come wisdom since I began to really dig the band that I’ve dismissed as typical “adult contemporary” music in my youth. This just goes to show that the adage that sometimes “youth is wasted on the young” has some truth to it. My Dad’s probably looking down at me right now wherever he is and giving me that smirking smile that says “I told you so.”
“Hotel California” is my favorite of all the songs The Eagles have ever made. It’s not just catchy but the song also plays out like some sort of tale being sung by bards of old. Well, bards of old until we get to the dueling guitar solos by Don Felder and Joe Walsh which forms the climactic finish to the song. Guitar solos that I must say earns its place in rock pantheon as one of the best. That’s fact and not hyperbole.
FACT.
Another reason why this song of The Eagles is a favorite of mine is just the sense of the ominous just below the surface of the song. The lyrics does play out like a story, but a story tinged with a sense of malice and just a hint of the supernatural. It’s no wonder some of the more religious-minded fans of the song consider “Hotel California” as a song that details a time spent inside the Anton LeVay purchased San Francisco hotel called Hotel California which was converted into what would become the Church of Satan.
Lastly, I just plain love this song for the fact it paints my home state of California as something more than just a place to live and work in, but a place half in and out of reality. Maybe the song will convince Lisa Marie that California isn’t that bad of a state to be in.
Hotel California
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim I had to stop for the night There she stood in the doorway; I heard the mission bell And I was thinking to myself, ‘this could be heaven or this could be hell’ Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say…
Welcome to the hotel california Such a lovely place Such a lovely face Plenty of room at the hotel california Any time of year, you can find it here
Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the mercedes bends She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
So I called up the captain, ‘please bring me my wine’ He said, ‘we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’ And still those voices are calling from far away, Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to hear them say…
Welcome to the hotel california Such a lovely place Such a lovely face They livin’ it up at the hotel california What a nice surprise, bring your alibis
Mirrors on the ceiling, The pink champagne on ice And she said ‘we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’ And in the master’s chambers, They gathered for the feast The stab it with their steely knives, But they just can’t kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door I had to find the passage back To the place I was before ‘relax,’ said the night man, We are programmed to receive. You can checkout any time you like, But you can never leave!
I think if the United States ever decided to change it’s national anthem then I propose they just use Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic arena power ballad Free Bird. It’s already considered by many as the unofficial anthem. There’s something about this song that is just so Americana. I know that the band itself has been accused of being racist because of their support for the historical legacy of the South and the Confederacy, but I don’t go for such nonsense. Lynyrd Skynyrd was just one of the best southern rock bands during the 70’s and probably would’ve reached Led Zeppelin status if a tragic plane crash hadn’t killed almost a third to half of the band.
It’s very hard not to get into this power ballad. A song which band front man Ronnie Van Zant would use to personally memorialize his fallen friend and colleague, Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers band who died from a motorcycle accident just a few years before. This song was always the most requested song by concert fans to be played by the band and play it they did and extending the triple guitar solo in the end from the usual 3-4 minute to as long as 10. It was this extended triple guitar solos with Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Ed King which would be the highlight of any live performance of the song (one of my favorite solos)
It has also become a favorite amongst those who compose and pick music for films of late. Rob Zombie used it to highlight to great effect the nihilistic ending to his grindhouse film The Devil’s Rejects. The latest to use this song in a very inventive manner was Matthew Vaughn in the surprise hit of 2015, Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Even with most of the band either dead or retired the song still gets massive play when the current band tours and is still a favorite staple with most rock stations. Everytime I hear it come on or I play it on my mp3 player I feel like pulling out my Bic lighter, flicking it on and waving it in the air in tune to the song. FREE BIRD!!!
Free Bird
If I leave here tomorrow Would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on, now ‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see
But, if I stayed here with you, girl Things just couldn’t be the same ‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now And this bird, you’ll can not change Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
And the bird you cannot change And this bird you cannot change Lord knows, I can’t change Bye, bye, baby it’s been a sweet love
Yeah, yeah Though this feeling I can’t change But please don’t take it so badly ‘Cause the Lord knows I’m to blame
But, if I stayed here with you girl Things just couldn’t be the same ‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now And this bird, you’ll can not change Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
And this bird you cannot change And this bird you cannot change Lord knows, I can’t change Lord help me, I can’t change Lord I can’t change
A late Happy Valentine’s for those who celebrate it and for those who do not, well the day is almost over.
What better way to close out another Valentine’s than to go back many years to one of the classic ballads to come out of the early 90’s. This one comes courtesy of one Ms. Janet Jackson. It was the lead single in her 5th full-length album and became a signature song for her.
Whenever people my age say that they don’t make music like they used to back in our days then I can honestly say that this song, “That’s the Way Love Goes”, is a prime example of a song done right back in my days.
That’s the Way Love Goes
Like a moth to a flame Burned by the fire My love is blind Can’t you see my desire? That’s the way love goes Like a moth to a flame Burned by the fire My love is blind Can’t you see my desire?
Like a moth to a flame Burned by the fire My love is blind Can’t you see my desire That’s the way love goes Like a moth to a flame Burned by the fire That’s the way love goes My love is blind Can’t you see my desire?
Come with me Don’t you worry I’m gonna make you crazy I’ll give you the time of your life
I’m gonna take you places You’ve never been before and You’ll be so happy that you came
Oooooh, I’m gonna take you there Oo-ooh hoo-ooh oo-ooh That’s the way love goes Hoo That’s the way love goes That’s the way love goes That’s the way love goes
Don’t mind if I light candles I like to watch us play and Baby, I’ve got on what you like
Come closer Baby closer Reach out and feel my body I’m gonna give you all my love Ooh sugar don’t you hurry You’ve got me here all night Just close your eyes and hold on tight
Ooh baby Don’t stop, don’t stop Go deeper Baby deeper You feel so good I’m gonna cry
Oooooh I’m gonna take you there Oo-ooh hoo-ooh oo-ooh That’s the way love goes Hoo That’s the way love goes That’s the way love goes it goes it goes Oooh that’s the way love goes Reach out and feel my body That’s the way love goes Dontcha know That’s the way Like a moth to a flame Burned by the fire My love is blind Can’t you see my desire Like a moth to a flame Burned by the fire My love is blind Can’t you see my desire? That’s the way love goes
I’ve used this song twice to celebrate my San Francisco Giants winning the World Series in 2010 and 2012 (so shocked they won 2014 that I forgot to post it) that I thought it only fair to use it for the New England Patriots. They are the new champions of the NFL after their thrilling win over the Seattle Seahawks.
It was a game that had our own pantsukudasai56 on the verge of losing it (and he probably did but in a good way and not the bad one I was predicting). The New England Patriots have become like a sort of second NFL team for me because of two people: Tom Brady (local boy made good) and Bill Belichik (the Dark Lord himself). Yes, two people who have their equal share of admirers and haters (probably more of the latter).
These two have now cemented their 4th NFL championship through the modern salary-cap era, adversity (concocted and self-inflicted) and heartbreaking losses. Yet, as much as people would hate on Belichik deep down most would dump their coach if it meant they would have him instead. The same goes for his apprentice in Tom Brady.
So, controversies aside, congratulations to the New England Patriots for winning Super Bowl XLIX.
We Are the Champions
I’ve paid my dues Time after time I’ve done my sentence But committed no crime And bad mistakes I’ve made a few I’ve had my shelves and kicked in my face But I’ve come through
We are the champions my friend And we’ll keep on fighting till the end We are the champions We are the champions No time for losers ‘cos We are the champions of the world
I’ve taken my bows my curtain calls You brought me fame and fortune And everything that goes with it I thank you all But it’s been no bed of roses No pleasure cruise I consider it a challenge before All human race And I ain’t gonna lose
We are the champions my friend And we’ll keep in fighting till the end We are the champions We are the champions No time for losers ‘cos We are the champions of the world We are the champions my friend And we’ll keep in fighting till the end Ooh, we are the champions We are the champions No time for losers ‘cos We are the champions
I think it appropriate to end today with one of the most beautiful and haunting piece of cinematic music in recent years.
Cloud Atlas might have been like Icarus as it flew too high to the sun but only to crash into the sea. The same couldn’t be said about the orchestral score composed by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek & Reinhold Heil. It’s a great piece of film score composing that managed to lend true emotions with every note without a hint of cynicism.
The “End Title” part of the score completely encompasses every piece character motif the three composers came up for each and every vital character in the film. What we get is a song that’s a pure distillation of everything that came before it.
Just like the film, this song marks the ending of one journey and the beginning of a new one for one of us. Fair winds and following seas.
I don’t know about you but I’m still pretty angry about what happened yesterday when the Oscar nominations were announced. Seriously, how could The LEGO Movie not be nominated for best animated film? It’s almost as if the Academy is prejudiced against plastic toys.
*Le sigh*
So, normally, when I talk about The LEGO Movie, I find an excuse to include the video for Everything is Awesome.
But you know what?
EVERYTHING IS NOT AWESOME!
And today’s song of the day — which is also taken from The LEGO Movie — reflects that point. As performed by Will Arnett, here’s Batman’s Song (a.k.a. Untitled Self-Portrait.)
I’m a bit biased in that I do believe that at this very moment whatever film Marvel Studios releases I will probably like it. I’m very close to having drunk the MCU Kool-Aid. Which is a good thing that trashfilguru is here to keep me from drinking that delicious, overly sweetened drink by the liters.
I know that the MCU is not what one would call high-brow art, but I will admit that it’s a very entertaining piece of world-building that we really haven’t seen done in film history. Well, at least not in the scale that Kevin Feige and the creative minds over at Marvel Studios have been attempting (and succeeding) these past 7-8 years.
One film that I highly enjoyed and consider one of my favorites of 2014 (if not one of the best) was the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger. This sequel was a game-changer in regards to the very cinematic universe that Marvel had been building since the first Iron Man. Captain America: The Winter Soldier looked to up-end the very foundation of this universe by making one of it’s bricks become something to not be trusted.
Lisa Marie did a great job in conveying my thoughts about what made Captain America: The Winter Soldier such a good film (I would say great, but again I have that glass of Kool-Aid). One aspect of the film that has been given little to know attention to has been Henry Jackman’s work as film composer for the sequel. In fact, the film’s score has been much-maligned just because the filmmakers made the decision to veer away from the Alan Silvestri musical cues and motifs that had become recognizable as Captain America.
Alan Silvestri did the film score for the first film, but Jackman was tasked with recoding the very musical DNA for the sequel. What we get is a film score that’s very minimalist and supplements well the very paranoia and conspiracy tone the film’s narrative took. This was quite the opposite of Silvestri’s score for the first film mirrored that film’s nostalgic and heroic themes.
The track “Taking A Stand” which scores the David Mack illustrated and Jim Steranko-influenced end credits sequence is a perfect example of why Jackman’s score for Captain America: The Winter Soldier should be put on more “best of 2014” lists.
We’re closing out another year and it’s always time to reflect back on the events the we all experienced.
Here in Through the Shattered Lens we saw a new writer join the ranks with the arrival and addition of Alexandre Rothier. We also saw more and more of our writers grow in confidence with their writing. This didn’t just translate into more writing from them, but better as well. There’s Dazzling Erin with her constant surprise of finding new artists to share. Then leonth3duke who finally made the jump to truly appreciating horror. Leonard Wilson continued to find his voice with each new review he wrote.
I can’t forget necromoonyeti who continues to be my source of all things music and with each new band written I pick up something new to experience. Semtex Skittle showed the world his appreciation not just for the franchise of Final Fantasy but Sailor Moon as well and to that otaku are grateful. Speaking of otaku there’s the site’s own big bear of one with pantsukudasai56 who always brings in his choice recommendations in anime.
Then there’s Dork Geekus giving us his thoughts on things comic book. We also have trashfilmguru gracious enough to take time to share his unique take on horror, comic books both high and low-brow who also keeps the rest of us from drinking the Marvel Kool-Aid wholesale which makes for a better site.
Finally there’s my co-founder and partner-in-crime Lisa Marie Bowman who upped her game as she literally propped up the site at times with her voluminous, insightful and unique brand of writing. I will be forever grateful for her continued support and for becoming one of my closest friends.
I’ve chosen the latest “Song of the Day” as an analogue to what I saw myself and this site go through this year of 2014. I had just lost my father at the tail end of 2013 (it is a loss still felt even today) and then had fallen deathly ill around the holidays. Through it all I was thankful and proud of the work my fellow writers were able to do in my absence through my grief and sickness.
Basil Poledouris remains an artist I’ve admired from the moment I heard his music transform John Milius’ screen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Cimmerian barbarian from just your standard violent sword-and-sorcery matinee piece to something close to a perfect blend of epic fantasy and primal storytelling. Poledouris would go on to make other memorable film scores, but it’s his work in Conan the Barbarian that always remains his most iconic piece of work.
With the final denouement that follows the climax of the film we have a somber piece titled “Orphans of Doom/The Awakening” closing off the film. I chose this piece to symbolize the year Through the Shattered Lens went through. The piece begins on a somber note with the use of a choir adding a layer of the ethereal, but as the piece continues to it’s conclusion it gradually segues into something triumphant with hope for the future.
This song perfectly encapsulates Through the Shattered Lens circa 2014 and it’s my hope that brighter future awaits me and mine as the new year dawns.
Through the Shattered Lens 