Song of the Day: Mr. Crowley (by Ozzy Osbourne)

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Arleigh

Why is it that those with creative talents that border on genius tend to die young and much too soon. This has become almost synonymous with the premature passing of some of the greatest musician of the last 50 years. Most seem to be from the rock and metal corner of the musical landscape. Some has been due to the very lifestyle led by these musicians. A lifestyle of libertine excess that catches up to their talent way too soon.

One such individual who went before his time yet made such an impact on the music scene that he’s considered one of the greatest metal guitarist of all-time (I say one of the best guitarist in or out of metal). His name was Randy Rhoads.

Only 25 when he passed away not due to a life of excess (he was actually quite responsible a rock star in his era where sex, booze and drugs were commonplace) but to a tragic accident that didn’t need to happen.

While some always point to his guitar work on the Ozzy Osbourne song “Crazy Train” from his solo debut album, I always thought one of his best guitar work was on another song from that debut album. The song I speak about is “Mr. Crowley”.

The song itself is one of those songs that drove parents crazy when they first heard their young teenage sons listening to it. I mean it’s a song about self-proclaimed Anti-Christ, libertine and sex magick user Aleister Crowley. Yet, it’s not Ozzy’s vocals that make the song memorable. It’s Rhoad’s lead guitar performance with special focus on the two guitar solos which rise up in the middle of the track and closes it out.

Mr. Crowley

Mister Crowley
What went down in your head?
Oh, Mister Crowley
Did you talk to the dead?

Your lifestyle to me seems so tragic
With the thrill of it all
You fooled all the faithful with magic
Yeah, you waited on Satan’s call

Mister Charming
Did you think you were pure?
Mister Alarming
In nocturnal rapport

Uncovering things that were sacred
Manifest on this earth
Oh, conceived in the eye of a secret
Yeah, they scattered the afterbirth

(guitar solo)

Mister Crowley
Won’t you ride my white horse?
Mister Crowley
It’s symbolic, of course

Approaching a time that is classic
I hear that maiden’s call
Approaching a time that is drastic
Standing with their backs to the wall

Was it polemically sent?
I wanna know what you meant
I wanna know
I wanna know what you meant, yeah!

(guitar solo/outro)

Great Guitar Solos Series

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: Fade to Black (by Metallica)

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Arleigh

Metallica.

Love them or hate them there’s really no middle-ground when it comes to one of the Big Four of thrash metal. You either love the band even through their dabbling into hard rock and the Bob Rock-era or you hate them for the perceived selling out and the Bob Rock-era. You ask any Metallica fan and they would pretty much agree that their third album, Master of Puppets, was the band at it’s peak. There would be some debate on whether the Black Album was where the band began to alienate some of it’s earliest fans, but that’s not what we’re here for.

We are here for the latest “Song of the Day” and it’s from their second full-length album, Ride the Lightning. The song is the band’s very first power ballad and follows the album’s theme and exploration of death. Where the album’s title took on the concept of death by electric chair the song chosen this time around is about the band’s exploration of the concept of suicide.

Yes, this was the song that the band had gotten into hot water for it’s suicidal lyrics which purportedly led to teens offing themselves after listening to it constantly. What critics of the song failed to realize was just how much teens at the time the song came out saw the song as therapeutic. They related to the song and used it as an outlet for their own alienation and depression.

Just like it’s subject matter it begins with a melancholy melody that gives a glimpse into the singer’s mindset. It’s not the typical fast playing many have associated with thrash, but that arrives soon enough as the song finishes off it’s vocals with a fade out that leads into Kirk Hammett’s 2-minute guitar solo that ultimately fades out as well…

The song that critics of metal gets wrong then and continues to even now is the classic “Fade to Black”.

Fade to Black

Life it seems, will fade away
Drifting further every day
Getting lost within myself
Nothing matters no one else
I have lost the will to live
Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free

Things not what they used to be
Missing one inside of me
Deathly lost, this Can’t be real
Cannot stand this hell I feel
Emptiness is filling me
To the point of agony
Growing darkness taking dawn
I was me, but now he’s gone

No one but me can save myself, but it’s too late
Now, I can’t think, think why I should even try
Yesterday seems as though it never existed
Death Greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye

Bye…

(guitar solo)

Great Guitar Solos Series

Song of the Day: Powerslave (by Iron Maiden)

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Arleigh

It took me awhile to get into Iron Maiden. I listened to them somewhat during the 80’s but it wasn’t until later in life that I truly appreciated the band for what they were and that was one of the great metal bands of all-time. “Powerslave” continues the mini-series in the “Song of the Day” series as another song with a great guitar solo section.

It’s a song steeped in Ancient Egypt imagery and mysticism and one written by band front man Bruce Dickinson. From the fifth and album of the same name, “Powerslave” is over 7 minutes of classic Iron Maiden that spoke not just to its headbanging followers, but to another group that was pushed even farther into the fringes of society when the album first came out: nerds.

Iron Maiden’s songs have always been more about lore, mysticism, history and classic literature than it was about sex and drugs the way 80’s metal (hair and glam metal movement) in the U.S. focused on. These things spoke to the geeks and nerds who spent time on AD&D and reading ancient and military history instead of parties, sports and the high school social scene.

The has two competing guitar solos that come midpoint in the song’s playing time with both Adrian Smith and Dave Murray getting a chance to shine and show-off their guitar skills. And yeah, Bruce Dickinson’s vocals were pretty amazing, as well…

Powerslave

Into the Abyss I’ll fall – the eye of Horus
Into the eyes of the night – watching me go
Green is the cat’s eye that glows – in this Temple
Enter the risen Osiris – risen again

Tell me why I had to be a Powerslave
I don’t wanna die, I’m a God, why can’t I live on?
When the Life Giver dies, all around is laid waste
And in my last hour, I’m a slave to the Power of Death

When I was living this lie – Fear was my game
People would worship and fall – drop to their knees
So bring me the blood and red wine for the one to succeed me,
for he is a man and a God – and He will die too

(guitar solos)

Now I am cold but a ghost lives in my veins
Silent the terror that reigned – marbled in stone
A shell of a man God preserved – for a thousand ages
But open the gates of my Hell – I will strike from the grave

Great Guitar Solos Series

Song of the Day: Comfortably Numb (by Pink Floyd)

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Arleigh

David Gilmour.

That name seems to come up quite often when the subject of best guitar solos come up. His guitar work on Pink Floyd’s single “Comfortably Numb” might not be the technical wonder of a John Petrucci guitar solo or the blues throwback to the blues greats like Duane Allman, but his two guitar solos in this song has been hailed by many as the greatest guitar solos.

Such a thing has always been subjective. What one might call the best ever might be seen as just good, but not great. The same cannot be said about Gilmour’s guitar solos (the midpoint and the outro solos in the song) on “Comfortably Numb”. There’s soul in this man’s playing. I say playing since shredding would seem such an uncouth term to describe his two solos.

Pink Floyd rightfully earns their place amongst the elite of the elite on the rock gods pantheon, but I wouldn’t be out of line by saying that David Gilmour had such a huge hand in making sure they got and stayed there.

Comfortably Numb

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Come on, Come on, Come on, now,
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well, I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I’ll need some information first.
Just the basic facts.
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child I had a FEVER My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I’ve got that feeling once again
I can’t explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am.

I have become comfortably numb.
(guitar solo)
I have become comfortably numb.

O.K.
Just a little pin prick.
There’ll be no more aaaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe it’s working, good.
That’ll keep you going through the show
Come on it’s time to go.

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
but I have become comfortably numb.

(guitar solo)

Great Guitar Solos Series

Song of the Day: Texas Flood (by Stevie Ray Vaughan)

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Arleigh

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

Great Guitar Solos Series

Song of the Day: Stairway to Heaven (by Led Zeppelin)

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Arleigh

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.

And she’s buying a stairway… to heaven.

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

Song of the Day: That’s the Way Love Goes (by Janet Jackson)

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Arleigh

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