This song by one of the British invasion’s most unusual bands is often cited as the beginning of punk rock. Here Once again I am showing footage from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. I distinctly remember watching this episode with it’s smoke bombs, falling drums and guitar destruction by Pete Townsend. Don’t worry, that’s a prop and not Tommy Smothers’ Guild acoustic guitar. You will hear the first bass solo in the history of rock and roll as played by John Entwhistle.
Over Easter my nephew showed me his new Guitar Hero game. One of the songs that is included is Carlos Santana’s “Black Magic Woman.” Looking around the Tube, I found this clip, from the Woodstock movie, of Santana playing “Soul Sacrifice.” In 1969, their first album had yet to be released and Santana was a completely unknown band, outside of San Francisco. Bill Graham, rock and roll promoter and operator of the Fillmore Auditorium, got them a place at Woodstock.
Contrary to rumors that have been circulating, I was not at Woodstock. My mother wouldn’t let me go.
Happy Easter everyone. Well’ I found something with Easter in the title anyway. According to Zappa Wiki Jwaka the full title of this instrumental piece is “Playing A Guitar Solo With This Band Is Like Trying To Grow A Watermelon In Easter Hay.” Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore and grew up, mostly in Edgewood Maryland, near Aberdeen Proving Grounds, a military facility, where his father worked as a chemist. The Zappas kept gas masks in their house, in case of a chemical accident at the proving ground, where tons of WWI era mustard gas were stored. This may have had an effect on Frank’s music. The Zappas moved to California when Frank was twelve years old.
Watermelon In Easter Hay is one of Zappa’s later compositions featuring a full band, with brass, reeds, electronic keyboard, percussionists, drums, two guitars and bass. It first appeared on his 1979 album “Joe’s Garage.” Zappa shows a high degree of control over the characteristics of his guitar and amplifier. He employs distortion, uses feedback to give amazing sustain to some notes and bends notes with the tremolo bar on this Fender Stratocaster.
One day I was cruising YouTube, playing videos of various guitarists and I said to my wife " I'm just amazed that I can be sitting here watching Doc Watson's fingers for free." It dawned on me that it would be a valuable service to share these gems with other people. The videos posted here are the ones that really caught my eye.
