Song of the Day: Sweet Child o’ Mine (Guns N’ Roses)

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Arleigh

As a child of the 1980’s it would be difficult to come up with a greatest guitar solo ever list and not make mention of the work of one Slash. The man with the top hat, who played a mean Gibson Les Paul would become part of what the 80’s called “The Most Dangerous Band” in Guns N’ Roses.

“Sweet Child o’ Mine” would become one of the band’s biggest hits and, ultimately, their most recognizable. This is quite an impressive considering this is the band that came up with quite a bit of classic tunes in the short time they all played together. It’s also the song where Slash truly made his mark by creating not just one of the most recognized opening hard rock riffs, but also one of the best guitar solos.

For a band that was seen and who saw itself as “the most dangerous” they also came up with a power ballad that combined not just genuine emotions, but the hard rock sensibility one expected from a band such as Guns N’ Roses. It’s a power ballad worthy of past great power ballads such as “Stairway to Heaven” and “Free Bird”.

Sweet Child O’ Mine

She’s got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky

Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I stared too long
I’d probably break down and cry

Sweet child o’ mine
Sweet love of mine

She’s got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I’d hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain

Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I’d hide
And pray for the thunder and the rain
To quietly pass me by

[3x]
Sweet child o’ mine
Sweet love of mine

(guitar solo)

[4x]
Where do we go?
Where do we go now?
Where do we go?
Sweet child o’ mine

Great Guitar Solos Series

Song of the Day: Bohemian Rhapsody (by Queen)

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Arleigh

Who hasn’t heard and sung with Queen’s most iconic song ever. I know I can’t think of anyone that I know of.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” has become a staple of many best ever rock lists. It’s a song that’s been paid homage, imitated, parodied and copied by so many artists both music, tv, film and video games. This song has become synonymous with that most epic of all rock shows: arena rock. It’s an amalgamation of rock power ballad that bridges over to rock opera then into straight hard rock before circling back to a gradual softening of a coda.

One would think that all that wouldn’t mesh very well together, but with Freddie Mercury (arguably one of the greatest rock frontman) on vocals (who also wrote the lyrics), Brian May on lead guitar, John Deacon on bass and Roger Taylor on drums the song ends up not just great, but a gamechanger in how hard rock and heavy metal would be seen since it’s release.

Every hard rock and metal band worth their name would attempt to have their very own “Bohemian Rhapsody” to different degrees of success (I’ve always thought that the power metal bands like Blind Guardian have become successors in this endeavor). The song has become so ingrained in the general public’s pop DNA that just hearing a snippet of the song sans lyrics and people probably would know what song it was they just overheard.

Oh, it also has a killer guitar solo by Brian May which occurs after the ballad section and acts as a bridge into the operatic section of the track.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go
A little high, little low
Anyway the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me, to me

Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooo
Didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body’s aching all the time
Goodbye everybody – I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooo – (anyway the wind blows)
I don’t want to die
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all

(guitar solo)

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning – very very frightening me
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo Figaro – magnifico

But I’m just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go – will you let me go
Bismillah! No – we will not let you go – let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go – let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go – let me go
Will not let you go – let me go (never)
Never let you go – let me go
Never let me go – ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no –
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
for me
for me

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh baby – can’t do this to me baby
Just gotta get out – just gotta get right outta here

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters – nothing really matters to me

Anyway the wind blows…

Great Guitar Solos Series

Song of the Day: Hotel California (by The Eagles)

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Arleigh

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!

(guitar solos)

Great Guitar Solos Series

27 Days of Old School: #22 “Here I Go Again” (by Whitesnake)

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Arleigh

“An’ I’ve made up my mind, I ain’t wasting no more time
but here I go again, here I go again.”

Previous entry to our 27 Days of Old School I mentioned something about how hard rock and metal music videos were mostly the realm of hair metal bands. Videos all about loud, over-the-top costumes and personalities. bands such as Motley Crue and Poison just to name a few. Other bands would mimic the long, over-teased and hairsprayed look which gave hair metal it’s name. Coming in at #22 is a rock band from England that took on the look of your typical hair metal band, but had some deep roots in old school blues rock.

“Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake is a great song of the 80’s and part of it was due to an even more awesome video which included a young Tawny Kitaen, white lingerie and the frontman’s Jaguar XJ. Yes, the car used in the video is David Coverdale’s own car. Kitaen would later marry David which just took the whole thing full circle.

While Whitesnake and Coverdale made sure to take advantage of the hair metal look of the 80’s he definitely channeled Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant more than he did Vince Neil or Bret Michaels. And for that the world was and continues to be grateful.

27 Days of Old School: #16 “Gimme All Your Lovin'” (by ZZ Top)

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Arleigh

“Gimme all your lovin’
All your hugs and kisses too,
Gimme all your lovin’
Don’t let up until we’re through.”

I didn’t know what blues and blues rock was when I first heard it on the radio and then watched it on MTV. I did know that they had a real unique sound that was very much like rock, but also had a sort of country vibe to it.

One of the first bands of blues rock that I really ended up being a fan of was ZZ Top and it was mainly due to their three videos for three singles off of their Eliminator album. The first one that I saw was for the track “Gimme All Your Lovin’“.

The video itself was just very cool. It had everything a young boy was curious about. Cars, girls and rock and roll. Well, mostly it was the girls and the video to this song introduced the “Three ZZ Girls”.

It was much, much later in high school that I went back to listening to ZZ Top and their songs and realize that they were pretty much singing about sex, sex and more sex to the tune of Texas boogie blues. I ended up loving the band even more then.

27 Days of Old School: #15 “You Shook Me All Night Long” (by AC/DC)

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Arleigh

“Taking More Than Her Share
Had Me Fighting For Air
She Told Me To Come But I Was Already There”

You shook me all night long! Yes, on the KTSL charts at No. 15 is just one of the greatest rock songs ever. Hyperbole and all that, but this song is just awesome times awesome equals awesome.

AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” first appeared in their mega-blockbuster album in 1980, Back In Black. It wasn’t until 1986 when it was re-released as part of their Who Made Who album. It was during it’s re-release that I first heard and first saw the new video that accompanied the song. I think every teenage boy ended up glued to their TV’s whenever this video came on. They probably ended up taping the video for further repeat viewing.

As is their style, the song was just full of double entendres and the video itself just played up on the song’s lyrics. This video and song was just hard rock at it’s most 1980’s excess and debauchery and it was great.

27 Days of Old School: #13 “Alone” (by Heart)

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Arleigh

“How do I get you alone”

Early last year I posted one of my favorite songs from my youth and it was by the band Heart. That song was “These Dreams” and still continues to be a favorite of mine to this day. My second favorite from this band is their power ballad from their 1987 album Bad Animals.

“Alone” is actually an even better song but “These Dreams” was just the song that first introduced me to the Wilson Sisters, Ann and Nancy. Where the earlier song was more folksy in it execution with “Alone” we get a full out power ballad that includes Nancy doing a guitar solo near the end. Ann Wilson crushes this song and just reinforces the fact that she remains one of the best, if not the best, female rock vocalist to ever belt out a song.

Oh, I still have a major crush on Nancy Wilson right up to this day. She’s definitely the first lady of rock.

27 Days of Old School: #5 “Welcome to the Jungle” (by Guns N’ Roses)

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Arleigh

“Welcome to the jungle. We’ve got fun n’ games.”

Quite the extreme reversal from #4 to #5 but then my taste in music between junior high and high school was pretty much all over the place. I could be listening to the latest teeny bopper, LAtin-freestyle dance track one month then I’m picking up that hard rock or metal song that I knew my parents would never approve of (especially my mom).

Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” was one such song though I was surprised that my Dad actually liked it as much as I did. My first memory of ever hearing “Welcome to the Jungle” was watching the latest and last Dirty Harry film with my dad. It was The Dead Pool and this song was used as a sort of soundtrack in the fake horror film in the film. I’m not sure if my dad liked the song because it was in a Dirty Harry flick or he just liked it because he grew up in the 60’s and 70’s listening to hard rock.

I don’t think my dad was too keen on the Guns N’ Roses look though. Even then he knew the hair metal, glam look was no bueno.

So, “Welcome to the Jungle” was my initial introduction to Guns N’ Roses and pretty much opened up my ears to a whole new spectrum of music. I never abandoned the R&B, dance pop and freestyle songs from junior high and even years later, but hard rock and metal soon joined the LP (and later CD) rotation.

Guilty Pleasure No. 17: Girls, Girls, Girls (by Mötley Crüe)

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Arleigh

“Long legs and burgundy lips.”

For some this is the height of hair metal at it’s raunchy. Some even call this song one of the best metal songs out there (though that’s stretching the term metal like it was Plastic-Man). I, for one, call this one of the guiltiest pleasures to come out of the hair metal scene of the 1980’s.

I’ll just let the lyrics speak to the cheesetastic and raunchirific pleasure this song was and remains (especially in strip clubs) to this very day.

Girls, Girls, Girls

Friday night and I need a fight
My motorcycle and a switchblade knife
Handful of grease in my hair feels right
But what I need to make me tight are those

Girls, girls, girls
Long legs and burgundy lips
Girls, girls, girls
Dancin’ down on Sunset Strip
Girls, girls, girls
Red lips, fingertips

Trick or treat, sweet to eat
On Halloween and New Year’s Eve
Yankee girls, you just can’t be beat
But you’re the best when you’re off your feet

Girls, girls, girls
At the Dollhouse in Fort Lauderdale
Girls, girls, girls
Rocking in Atlanta at Tattletails
Girls, girls, girls
Raising hell at the Seventh Veil

Have you read the news
In the Soho Tribune?
Ya know she did me
Well, then she broke my heart

I’m such a good good boy
I just need a new toy
I tell you what, girl
Dance for me
I’ll keep you overemployed
Just tell me a story
You know the one I mean

Crazy Horse, Paris, France
Forgot the names, remember romance
I got the photos, a ménage à trois
Musta broke those French’s laws with those

Girls, girls, girls
At the Body Shop and the Marble Arch
Girls, girls, girls
Tropicana’s where I lost my heart
Girls, girls, girls

Vince: Hey Tommy, check that out, man!
Tommy: What Vince? Where?
Vince: Right there, man! Hey baby, you wanna go somewhere?

Girls, girls, girls
Girls, girls, girls
Girls, girls, girls

Girls, girls, girls

UNCENSORED

Previous Guilty Pleasures:

Song of the Day: Whole Lotta Love (by Led Zeppelin)

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Arleigh

I missed a couple of nights with a post leading up to Valentine’s Day. So, I shall make it up with a quickie, but definitely a classic choice for latest “Song of the Day”.

In what has to be one of the sexiest and raunchiest songs to explode from that little supergroup called Led Zeppelin in late 1969. Everything about this song oozes sex from Robert Plant’s performance to the silky riffs by Jimmy Page right up to the rhythmic pounding by Bonham on drums.

The song I speak of “Whole Lotta Love” and considered a favorite amongst fans of the group. Enough talk and just listen. I’m pretty sure there’s a sizable number of people who visit this site and go on the many social media outlets that owe their existence to their parents having this song on.

Whole Lotta Love

You need coolin’, baby, I’m not foolin’
I’m gonna send ya back to schoolin’
Way down inside, a-honey, you need it
I’m gonna give you my love
I’m gonna give you my love, oh

Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love

You’ve been learnin’
And baby, I been learnin’
All them good times
Baby, baby, I’ve been a-yearnin’, ah
A-way, way down inside
A-honey, you need-a
I’m gonna give you my love, ah
I’m gonna give you my love, ah

Oh, whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
I don’t want more

Ooh, just a little bit
Ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, hah, hah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
No, no, no, no, ah
Love, low-ow-ow-ow-ove
Oh, my, my, my

You’ve been coolin’
And baby, I’ve been droolin’
All the good times, baby, I’ve been misusin’
A-way, way down inside
I’m gonna give ya my love
I’m gonna give ya every inch of my love (Ah)
I’m gonna give you my love
Yeah, alright, let’s go

Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love
Wanna whole lotta love

(Way down inside) Way down inside
(Way down inside, woman, you) Woman
(Woman, you) You need it
(Need) Love

My, my, my, my
My, my, my, my, oh
Shake for me, girl
I wanna be your backdoor man
Hey, oh, hey, oh
Hey, oh, ooh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Hoo-ma, ma, hey
Keep a-coolin’, baby
A-keep a-coolin’, baby
A-keep a-coolin’, baby
Ah, keep a-coolin’, baby, ah, ah-hah, oh-oh