I saw Joe Lynn Turner perform once

 https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/joe-lynn-turner-years-fronting-160000218.html

I was reading the above link and the man said, "My wife is too young to have even seen a Rainbow concert."

This reminded me that I was 16 when they played Madison Square Garden on their "Straight Between the Eyes" tour. Just a kid with zero money and no means to go anywhere when I saw the ad for the concert in one of the rock music magazines I bought religiously or at least every chance I got through high school.

And then one day, I found he was playing at a local supper club called The Coach House and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get tickets. He sang all of the hits and some of his new songs, too. 

I dreamt Freddie Mercury was singing this to his cats in the morning.

https://www.onlinepianist.com/virtual-piano

Chorus

Today is gonna be a good day

A#3 c4 d#4               F4     D#4  C4 A#3

Today is gonna be a good day

Today is gonna be a good day

Today is gonna be a good day!

I woke up... six feet above the ground

to the sunshine, some coffee, and my cats all around!

And my friends, they called me on the phone

telling me the show last night was the best they've ever known <--work on this?

I'm so Bleu

 

I found Bleu by listening to NPR one night driving home from work during a long commute. Then I found his bleutopia website online and was surprised when he replied back.

He issued three albums before moving to California:

1. Headroom (2000)

2. Redhead (2003)

3. Bing-Bang Holiday (compilation)

Bleu Concerts attended:

1. At a bar in the Mission District in San Francisco when he moved to California. I think this is when I bought the red sock t-shirt. August 2006.

2. King King in Los Angeles

3. Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles ( L.E.O.)

4. Silverlake Lounge (lost some hearing in my right ear over this concert)

5. Zoom Online  - record release party for 6-Tape.

6. 20-year anniversary of Redhead - Livestreamed from Boston.

09/08/2020-I bought guitar stands/had a dream/nightmare.

I bought two guitar stands:

Yesterday was a day I cruised the Facebook Marketplace at work and while doing so, found two guitar stands like the ones I was looking for online to buy. $10 each was hard to beat. And the communication exchange with the seller was not perfect, but we got the deal done and then he gave me the address for the pick-up after (I get off of work) at 5PM. 

I wanted to know exactly where I was going for this trip after work, so I break out the google maps and see that the address is a brewery/bar. And I'm confused because I thought all of the bars were closed and my mind starts worrying about the worst things that can happen and wondering why this guy would ask me to meet him at a bar.

 As I'm walking to my car in the parking structure, for my personal safety in case this transaction goes down badly, I tell myself, self, I should text the address I'm going to for the pick-up to my son so he at least knows where I'm going if I don't make it home. He would have that address to give to the police. 

Anyway, the pick-up location is not that far away from work, so I'm able to take surface streets there. I get to the address and the parking is terrible on the street, so I opt to park in a private lot and dare the tow truck to come hook-up my rig and ferry it away. I'm trying to be a careful person and be concerned for my personal safety, so I only take my keys and the cash to pay for the purchase trying to avoid a purse snatching. I find the address and no one is waiting. He said he would be at home all day when I texted him, but low and behold, he's not home. 

I walk down this dead end street noticing that there seems to be cameras on every building (which is kind of creepy to me and whether they work or not, I don't know.) to find that there's an automatic gate at the back of a large apartment complex and so now I get what he was saying about controlled access to the complex was making sense. I text the Facebook Marketplace seller to find out that he's now at a buddy's house restringing a guitar and he has to text his girlfriend to get me the gear and meet me at the gate.

OK, so now I feel I can just wait without all most of the horrible fear scenarios that are swirling in my head by this time, but it still doesn't change the fact that I'm a woman standing by my self at the end of a dead end street waiting for god knows what to happen, but all I want is the guitar stands.

The exchange is made, no problem, and then I shuffle my ass to my car parked in that private lot with all the cameras as quickly as possible. I see a guy on his cellphone at the driveway entrance and if this is supposed to be security calling for the tow truck, buddy, you're out of luck. I'm on my way home with two guitar stands after a somewhat nerve-wracking experience.

I also had a dream/nightmare:

So the address that I was provided for the pick-up being at a brewery/bar was the trigger point for my head to spin numerous scenarios into overdrive. Then the dream/nightmare happened that night...

Would he meet me at the front of the bar; 

or in the bar;

would he buy me a drink and would the drink be laced with roofies;

if I take my purse with me would it be stolen;

when I wake up where would I be;

I don't remember how I get here;

where is here;

I can't seem to talk in clear sentences;

I'm in a room that is covered floor to ceiling in drapery fabric;

I think I put my purse down to hide it, but I don't remember. Maybe a guy slid it off of my shoulder?People keep coming in and checking on me, but I'm so drugged up, it's not a good scene. My head is not clear. Where am I and how did I get here? And how do I get away? Where is my purse? In the background I hear a party going on and music. A lady opens the door, steps one foot in the room smiles and holds out a drink for me. I drink it, the whole thing, quickly because I'm so thirsty from being in this room with all of the drapes, she shuts the door hard, and I have fallen to the floor drugged again and I black out.

This is my mind playing tricks on me, not reality and I have never in my life allowed myself to be so out of control and drunk/drugged like in the dream.

And then I wake up from the dream having slept poorly because my house is so hot being its the end of summer.

 

Fooling Yourself

This is a song that I have loved since it came out in 1977, but there was always one line that eluded me. I guess I could have looked it up on the internet years ago, but by listening to the live versions of Tommy Shaw singing his tune, I finally figured it out. And now I don't have to sing, "You can hide little lamb, put your care in your yam."

(Relax... easy.)

You see the world through your cynical eyes

You're a troubled young man, I can tell

You've got it all in the palm of our hand

But your hands wet with sweat and your head needs a rest

And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it

You're kidding yourself if you don't believe it.

Why must you be such an angry young man

When your future looks quite bright to me

And how can there be such a sinister plan

That could hide such a man, such a caring young man   <-- the elusive line.

[Chorus]

And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it

You're killing yourself if you don't believe it

Get up! (Get up!) Get back on your feet.

You're the one they can beat and you know it.

Come on! (Come on!) Let's see what you've got.

Just take your best shot and don't blow it.

Day 81: Today I discovered Deadland Ritual

I'm on a trail, a path... if you will.

Determined to bring some joy into my life by being able to make a joyous noise, I bought a bass guitar. This was on Friday, May 29, 2020. Combing through Facebook Marketplace, I found a college student who wanted to sell her almost new bass because she's not playing it anymore and is now into playing the cello. Cool! The black 2018 Fender Bronco bass is in Westlake Village... it's an hour and a half drive.

I bring the bass home, inspect it and immediately plug it into my Crate 15W guitar practice amp. And then, I think, am I even supposed to be doing that? It's a bass! You can, but you have to be careful and adjust the equalizer to get a clean tone. And instinctively, I did that. My ear tells me I'm making noise, but it's not the full, rich sound a bass guitar is supposed to sound like.

And then, how to play, how to play, how to play. I'm consuming the stuff that bass players are publishing about their work, their rigs, their style. I'm finding info online from:

Carol Kaye - www.CarolKaye.com (who has teaching tools for sale online. God bless her<3); 

Leland Skylar -  On Youtube (who is giving all who so choose to watch his videos a kind of fly on-the-wall perspective into some of the music he's worked on and artists he's worked with over his career);

And then I begin to remember the bands who I used to listen to as a kid growing up in a house with little joy. And I was listening to Queen (John Deacon), Black Sabbath (Geezer Butler), Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones), ELO (Kelly Groucutt), The Eagles (Timothy B. Schmit), and Heart.

Now I'm looking for a solution to a problem and that problem is I have two electric guitars and one 15Z practice amp and I don't want to get separate amps for each one because: 1) I don't have the space, and 2) it's expensive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5B5r8A9dOw

Manifestation

I'm not really searching this out, it's just now in my face and not in a bad way mind you.

It was kind of brought on by the uke. It's leading me to the bass.

The bass, the bass, the bass.

And now just this week, I've got these bass players the of the extraordinary kind popping up in my youtube, Instagram, and Facebook that I've never really encountered on that level in any significant way before but I'm not searching them out either. And it's cool, but it's also weird.

Leland Sklar - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs5yDeiOgkyRZGZGphlSbIw
and some of his history here: http://guitarcostum23.blogspot.com/2015/01/lee-sklar-bass-guitars.html

Mike Watt - http://www.hootpage.com/

This week, I talked to Kenny (my dad died in 2005 and then Kenny kinda popped up and into my life and he happens to be a musician in his own right) about a jazz guitar that was for sale on Nextdoor. And I thought it was such a shame that the seller didn't know what it was. I thought maybe it was a Washburn due to the "W" on the tremolo bar, but no. Then, because of its shape, I thought maybe it was a Gibson, getting warmer because Gibson does manufacture jazz guitars. But no. And then I finally found a matching photo and figured out this crazy looking guitar was a Barney Kessel Norma after searching the term "vintage guitars". Once I found that out, I was "down the rabbit hole" finding out additional information about who he was, his equipment, what he worked on, who he played with, his videos on youtube, and figuring out how hard it would be to locate replacement knobs for a guitar that might be older than I am.

I learned the term "chickenhead knob". It's similar but different to the part I was looking for.

So I told Kenny my first guitar was a 3/4 guitar with nylon strings. My whole thing is I've got these small hands and I have a hard time playing normal-sized stringed instruments, so I remember having fun playing that guitar and remembering that I was drawn to the ukulele and now the bass. He suggested that I forget the interesting looking jazz guitar, and go find an EB-0 bass because it's my size and might be more playable i.e. more enjoyable.

• The last Gibson EB-0 was made in 1979.
• Epiphone discontinued its EB-0 and EB-3 models just this year (2020).
• Also known as a short-scale bass, Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro

Yesterday, I watched a video of Waddy Waddel talking about his gear and he was saying the same thing about the neck of the guitar. It's gotta feel right and be your size so you can enjoy playing.

John Prine (RIP) courtesy of Aquarium Drunkard 4/13/20

John Prine, "When I Get to Heaven"

When I get to heaven
I'm gonna shake God's hand
Thank him for more blessings
Than one man can stand
Then I'm gonna get a guitar
And start a rock and roll band
Check into a swell hotel
Ain't the 'afterlife' grand!

And then I'm gonna get a cocktail
Vodka and ginger ale
Yeah, I'm gonna smoke a cigarette
That's nine miles long
I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl
On the tilt a whirl
'Cause this old man is going to town

Then as God as my witness
I'm gettin' back into show business
I'm gonna open up a nightclub called
'The Tree of Forgiveness'
And forgive everybody
Ever done me any harm
I might even invite a few choice critics
Those syphilitic parasitics
Buy 'em a pint of Smithwick's
And smothert'em with my charm

'Cause then I'm gonna get a cocktail
Vodka and ginger ale
Yeah, I'm gonna smoke a cigarette
That's nine miles long
I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl
On the tilt a whirl
Yeah this old man is going to town

Yeah when I get to heaven
I'm gonna take
That wristwatch off my arm
What are you gonna do with time
After you've bought the farm
And them I'm gonna go find my mom and dad
And good old brother Doug
Well I bet him and cousin Jackie
Are still cuttin' up a rug
Wanna see all my mama's sisters
'Cause that's where all the love starts
I miss 'em all like crazy
Bless their little hearts
And I always will remember
These words my daddy said
He said, "Buddy, when you're dead
You're a dead peckerhead"
I hope to prove him wrong
That is ... when I get to heaven

'Cause I'm gonna have a cocktail
Vodka and ginger ale
Gonna smoke a cigarette
That's nine miles long
I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl
On the tilt a whirl
Yeah this old man to going to town
Yeah this old man is going to town

Jeff Lynne's ELO at Honda Center, Anaheim, California 06/20/2019

http://www.ftmusic.com/splash_2019_tour/2019_01_dhani.jpg

Jeff Lynne's ELO at Honda Center, Anaheim, California 06/20/2019. The setlist seemed very 2017, but a bit shorter. See: setlist.fm

"Standing in the Rain" was an unexpected opening song for me until I reviewed the setlist for 2017, but the visuals were so stunning, no one seemed disappointed.

It's too bad we can't say the same thing for the visuals for "Livin' Thing" which looked like a poorly lit aquarium set-up placed upon a spinning lazy susan.

Audience participation was limited to clapping from time to time and many didn't at all when encouraged to do so. I could have sworn they were singing though.

Jeff is still so shy, there were no announcements for the songs and little talking. He had his musical director introduce the "band".

Dhani Harrison was invited on stage to help sing "Handle with Care" with Jeff and the band and the crowd roared when George Harrison and Tom Petty appeared on the montage.

The one song so out of place in the set was "Wild West Hero". It was never on US radio. They should have switched it to something else. To like "Birmingham Blues" or "Joker".

Two songs had lasers all over the place and again, visually stunning. I bet the fact that ELO was one of the first to use lasers in their concerts was a fact lost to many who saw the show.

Photo by: @oliver_halfin

Fancy That

So this week, I'm emerging from a period of mourning over the loss of my uncle after having attended his memorial and getting back into town from being in New York for a week. I didn't feel like I was able to go through the grieving process for him while stressed out over my job, so it might have been a good thing that I separated when I did so I could go through and get through what I felt I needed to do in dealing with his passing. Now that I'm feeling better about it, ...

I've got to get a job. Or at least some money going. It's been a little over two months since I've had a paycheck. Going to check out Uber and see what that's all about. But in the meantime...

Even though I've previously sworn off pursuing the music scene like I used to, I'm getting into one band that sparked my attention from the Alt radio channel on SiriusXM - The Struts, and I could just kick myself that I missed going to their concert at the Observatory in Santa Ana on 03/29/16. Probably won't ever see $16 tickets for their shows after again after all their touring all over the world.

And in getting acquainted with said band, today, I was perusing the videos they have posted on Youtube.com and I have come to the realization that the one song that has captured my attention on the radio, i.e. "Kiss This", sounds familiar. Really, really familiar.

Listen, I'm no expert, but I am almost twice as old as some members of the band and as time is on my side with regards to a larger catalog of music that I've been exposed to, I couldn't help but searching for the song that sounds, in part, like theirs.

In doing so, I reacquainted myself with the goings on with the popular Swedish duo Roxette. Sadly, their lead singer made the hard choice to cancel the remaining tour in Australia due to the further breakdown of her body after having a brain tumor (see: Roxette Makes a Tough Decision to Quit Tour). At least we have the wonderful catalog of music from the band that spans from late the 1980's to 2016, which is when their last album was released.

When Roxette was first making the charts in the U.S. in , one of their most popular songs was titled "She's Got The Look", or some would just call the song "The Look".

I can even can hear that the phrasing tempo seems similar, even though the actual lyrics are different.

Now, only copyright lawyers and royalty trackers have the ability to sort  out these things out in a court of law if it has to come to that, but there have been recent settlements out of court in the news for this very same thing. See:  https://www.buzzfeed.com/

Now listen to both for yourself and you decide.

And then recently, I found this posted on Variety:
http://variety.com/2016/music/news/ed-sheeran-sued-copyright-photograph-x-factor-1201791603/

Jeff Lynne's ELO

Jeff Lynne's ELO


11/18/2015: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon - When I was a Boy
http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/jeff-lynnes-elo-when-i-was-a-boy/2939815

11/18/2015: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon - Mr. Blue Sky
http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/jeff-lynnes-elo-mr-blue-sky/2939808

11/20/2015: Irving Plaza, NYC
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/livin-thing-jeff-lynnes-elo-triumph-at-first-u-s-show-in-30-years-20151121

11/21/2015: CBS This Morning - Saturday Sessions
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-jeff-lynne-of-jeff-lynnes-elo-joins-cbs-this-morning-saturday/

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-jeff-lynne-of-jeff-lynnes-elo-plays-when-i-was-a-boy/

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-jeff-lynne-of-jeff-lynnes-elo-plays-turn-to-stone/

11/24/2015: The Fonda Theater, Los Angeles

12/14/2015: Jimmy Kimmel Live, KABC;viewable on 12/21st with no login.
http://abc.go.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live/episode-guide/2015-12/14-oscar-isaac-misty-copeland-music-from-jeff-lynnes-elo

New Music from Bleu - It's Not Over ('Til it's Over And Done)

Bleu - It's Not Over ('Til it's Over And Done)

from his upcoming new album "TO HELL WITH YOU"
pending to be released in Feb.2013

The New Business of Old Music

The New Business of Old Music(c) written by JStutz 11/08/2012

1. An old man's indulgence of recording songs he likes that are not his own and calling it an album.
2. A band leader, usually a singer/songwriter, who re-records beloved hits all on his own playing and singing all parts to re-sell and removing any opportunity for royalties going to the musicians on the originally released songs.
3. When songs from your 30-40 year old music catalog get less airplay, you sell your music to the people who make movies and commercials to keep your songs in circulation. And you allow it to be part of other compilations with various artists.
4. The new trend for old music is to re-release it in collectors, special, anniversary, box sets, or vinyl versions. Sometimes re-engineered, sometimes remixed, sometimes not when you don't have the money to do it.

This is the new business of old music.

Initially, I couldn't figure out why Jeff Lynne's new album wasn't getting any attention, but after listening to previews of each song for the first time this morning on iTunes, I figured it out. He perpetrated #1 from the above list. It was released in March in England and in the US on October 9th. It only came to my attention after the promotion of a BBC documentary showing on 11/14 at the Grammy Museum in Downtown Los Angeles. Tickets went on sale 10/31 and now are sold out. I could kick myself.

He also released Mr. Blue Sky - the very best of ELO. On this recording, he perpetrated #2 and #4 from the above list.

I can't say that I've lost respect for the man, but due to his ongoing aggravation from musicians that used to play with him in ELO and of the music business in general, I really can't blame him for his actions.

After all, they are his songs and he is Mr. Blue Sky.

Later, I found the same BBC documentary on Paladia and recorded it. It started out good and then went astray. I wish it was more like this website (in Danish) to a point, then interspersed with parts of ELO videos and concert footage. http://www.10538overture.dk/Member%20page/JEFF%20LYNNE.htm

Ukulele Anyone?

I finally did it. I bought a ukulele. While I was at Costco last Friday night, they had a stack of them in the hall near the front door. I checked out the quality and the contents and saw it was real one and not a toy at $89, so I got one. http://kohalaukes.com/ukuleles/kk-c/

I wasn't having much luck with the tuner that came with the uke, so I found this website online and now it sounds nice it's in tune when I play. http://www.get-tuned.com/online_ukulele_tuner.php

The ukulele fits my tiny girlish hands better so now I can play better. It's not hard to play, it's just the chords are different than playing a 6 string guitar.

Resources:
http://ukulelehunt.com/
http://ukuleleunderground.com/
http://thebeatlescompleteonukulele.com/

As my friend Kenny would say, "Rawk on!"

Vacation day 14, October 21st

It's Friday and I'm going to have a full day at DisneyWorld today. I'm getting better situated with what attractions are where finally by using this map:

At 7AM, I was toying with the idea of going off site for breakfast, but I really don't want to hop into my car until it's time to go tomorrow morning.

I ended up skipping breakfast and buying a lunch of fried shrimp with fries and a large light lemonade. Then I made my way over to the other side of Epcot.

On the schedule today, The Orchestra ( http://www.theorchestra.net/ ) starring former members of ELO (Parthenon Huxley [in a black "former member" tee-shirt on guitar and Mik Kaminski on violin) were performing as a part of the "Eat to the Beat" series at the American... They played for exactly 30 minutes.

Set List:

Don't bring me down
Can't get it out of my head
Tightrope
Hold on tight
Telephone Line
Do Ya

Seeing that performance pretty much was the 'cherry on top' to my entire trip.

Cheap Trick Concert 9/23/11

Free tickets to see Cheap Trick play Dream Police in its entirety? Hells yeah. It has some of my favorite Cheap Trick songs, so I couldn't pass it up. I won the tickets from a manager of Wahoo Fish tacos. This was actually the second show I've been to where the artist/band performed their album. The first one was Judas Priest. I guess this goes to show you we're all getting older. Minus the technology glitches (video screens weren't working well during the first 30 minutes), the show was excellent. And I loved the venue. I had never had a reason to go to The Greek Theater before this show. It's located in Griffith Park. I had to drive on Vermont through Koreatown in Los Angeles to get there.

This is cool!

The detours of life

It's the end of summer and a few days away from Labor Day weekend. It was hardly a summer at all. No sweltering, sweaty days and balmy nights in 2010, my friend. It's my opinion volcanic ash is preventing that from happening for awhile. I just wonder what's in store for winter. The warmest winter ever perhaps?

I went to the Pasadena Jazz & Blues Fest for a good chunk of the day last Saturday which was about the most summery thing I've done to date besides maybe BBQ.

I'm in Santa Monica again. And I say "again" within the notion that I was here before for love and now, yes, again, I think. The last time was about 15 years ago.

All this getting to know each other better business has been pretty smooth, really. Surprisingly smooth. I guess part of that is with age comes wisdom. Mostly is compatibility which was very hard for me to to find. But then he found me when I was looking elsewhere. It's almost a relief to find someone who mostly thinks about things in a similarity vein as I do. We are not very careful with our words with each other and most of the time that's o.k., too.

As I'm writing this blog entry, he's over to my left beyond the keyboard serenading me, sort of, playing licks on his Ibanez. Coincidentally, I also own an Ibanez, but when I play it doesn't sound anything like what comes out of his amp. Listening to him play makes me want to trade to get a bass.

Rawk On

It's been one month short of 5 years since I met Kenny Howes and now he's out of here. He's moving to Texas. Dallas, that is. With his girlfriend. He came into my life at a time when I was at my lowest emotional low, right after my dad died. He wanted a redhead and I was a brunette so that was that. I can't say that we were ever good friends, but I can't say we were less than acquaintances either. Oh, those flowing blond curly locks. A free flowing, goof ball of an Aquarius and a crabby, wise ass Sybil of a Gemini were just never meant to be any more than friends. Thanks for The Move, Beatles, ELO and musical equipment discussions. One day, I'm going to make a special edition box to house all your CD's in. One day.

Linda who?

This is just a random list of songs I heard on my favorite rock XM channels and sung to and from work today - second soprano, all the way.

Linda Ronstadt - When will I be loved?
The Carpenters - Sing a Song
Styx - Best of Times