Music, Musicians and Musicals

I've been thinking lately about some of my favorite movies about music, bands or musicians. That ear worm kinda crossed over to concerts and musicals. The movies "category" tend to cross over to video and documentaries. As I started jotting down my favorites the list got longer.... and longer. So without preference to category or ranking I present my "TOP 10" movies/videos/documentaries about music/musicians/musicals/concerts. In no particular order, tomorrow I may pick a whole different list. Please reply with some of your favorites!

• Amadeus: (1984) The story of Mozart like you've never seen before. You're gonna love classical music when this is over! Similar biography types (with liberties) Walk The Line, Ray, La Bamba, Lady Sings The Blues

• Yellow Submarine: (1968) I love animation. I love the Beatles. Not a huge fan of Hard Days Night, Help! or Magical Mystery Tour (except for the music). The Beatles had a commitment to make 3 films and this was a way to fulfil that. They only appeared at the very end of the movie. The voices were actors. But I've always loved the story, the animation and of course the music! Another great animation is Walt Disney's Fantasia, which might be my choice on any other day.

• West Side Story: (1961) One of the earliest musicals that I really loved. Based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It was originally going to be about a Catholic boy and a Jewish girl. But with the influx of Puerto Ricans (and tensions) in New York, West Side Story was born. "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way!". Another favorite here would be Jesus Christ Superstar, or Bye Bye Birdie.

• Almost Famous: (2000) Cute story of a young journalist following a rock band. Just a good fun story. Across The Universe is similar with all Beatle cover songs. High Fidelity might also fit into here.

• Crossroads: (1986) A film about a fictitious musician, but his very real road to fame. This bluesman wanna-be will do just about anything to be the best. It might be a little slow going for some, but in the end... well, you gotta see the end! Music by Ry Cooder, and Steve Vai! Other movies along these lines would be The Commitments, Blues Brothers (I and II).

• Woodstock: (1970) A concert film extraordinaire. It's a miracle it came together. The artist lineups and licensing were a big issue. The event drew massive crowds no one was prepared for. The filming was a mix of adhoc camera and sound engineers along with pros. The final mix had so much footage they used the 2 or 3 panel multi-shot throughout much of the film. Others in this genre might include Concert for Bangledesh, The Last Waltz, Monterey Pop, Gimmie Shelter.

OK, yeah, like I said in the beginning... the list just keeps getting longer. We'll leave it here... please give me some feedback on YOUR favorites.

Merle Travis and Scotty Moore

I've been working on a style of guitar playing known as "Travis picking". Named after Merle Travis. It's a finger-picking style in the right hand that alternate's bass notes and keeps a 1, 2, 1, 2 kind of rhythm, while the fingers pluck out the melody. Piece of cake. I've been playing my whole adult life this shouldn't be a problem. Uh, right, think again junior. Here's how it goes.

So, Merle Travis was a early country and western singer, songwriter, guitarist. His influence ranges from The Everly Brothers to Leo Fender to Chet Atkins. Here's a sample of the "Travis picking" sound on his own song, "Sixteen Tons".

But, Scotty Moore passed earlier this year and that's what really got me recently interested again in this style. Scotty was the guitar player for Elvis during his early years. Scotty is the guitar of  "That's All Right", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Mystery Train", "Blue Suede Shoes", "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock", and many more. It's "Mystery Train" that's really gets me and I'm still working on it.

Here's what it looks like in guitar tablature:

I'm loving the adventure, and humbled by so many great players. Here's a Wiki link if you need Moore. The Rolling Stones' lead guitarist Keith Richards has said of Moore, "When I heard "Heartbreak Hotel", I knew what I wanted to do in life. It was as plain as day. All I wanted to do in the world was to be able to play and sound like that. Everyone else wanted to be Elvis, I wanted to be Scotty."

Scotty Moore wiki

Beatles final album

May 8th is the anniversary of the release of the LAST studio Beatles album. "Let It Be" released in 1970, almost a month AFTER they broke-up and was actually recorded before the "Abbey Road" road album, but released in reverse order. They only recorded as "The Beatles" for 7 years ?!

Also, on January 30, 1969, the "Let It Be" rooftop concert was the final public performance of the Beatles. The audio was recorded by engineer Alan Parsons (yes, THAT Alan Parsons!) and film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg brought in a camera crew to capture several angles of the performance—including reactions from people on the street. The performance was cut short by the police after complaints about noise. The concert came to an end with the conclusion of "Get Back", with John Lennon saying, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we've passed the audition."

The Beatles official website

Beatles Influences

The Beatles influenced a lot of groups after them, but who influenced the Beatles? Since they grew up in post-war Liverpool (a seaport), the sailors would bring vinyl from the USA. The Beatles were drawn to acts like Chuck Berry (Roll Over Beethoven), Carl Perkins (Honey Don't) and Little Richard (Long Tall Sally). Their vocal harmonies were very much influenced by American Motown groups like The Marvelettes (Please Mr. Postman).

For extra bonus fun, check out each of these songs by the original artist and writer (linked above) and then The Beatles version (linked below).

Roll Over Beethoven

Honey Don't




Long Tall Sally




Please Mr. Postman

The Beatles debut

I want to post a few items about The Beatles. I've been thinking about them lately and just need to share.

Their first album was released March 23, 1963 (in the UK). The oldest of The Beatles at this time was 23 years! Did you know they recorded their debut album in ONE DAY! Because they had so much experience performing live, they just went in the studio and laid it down. It's estimated they had played 1200 live shows before "Please Please Me" album. Lennon-McCartney writing team had many great songs on this album, but it still included several covers, including one written by Carol King (Chains), and another by Burt Bacharach (Baby It's You).

Initially, George Martin had only a morning and afternoon session booked; the evening session was added later. Therefore, at 10:00 am on Monday, 11 February 1963, the Beatles began working their way through their live set song by song, the number of takes varying on each, and finished at 10:45 pm—less than 13 hours later— capturing in essence an authentic representation of the band's Cavern Club-era sound. The day ended with a cover of "Twist and Shout", which had to be recorded last because John Lennon had a particularly bad cold and Martin feared the throat-shredding vocal would ruin Lennon's voice for the day. This performance, caught on the FIRST TAKE!, prompted Martin to say: "I don't know how they do it. We've been recording all day but the longer we go on the better they get." Mark Lewisohn (historian/author) would later write: "There can scarcely have been 585 more productive minutes in the history of recorded music".

The first 3 links below are tracks directly from the album, the last track, Twist and Shout is a LIVE video performance in Sweden in 1963 !

 Please Please Me
 Chains
 Baby It's You
 Twist and Shout

Grammys 2016

It's a great thing that the music/entertainment industry recognizes and supports its own. I watched all of the Grammy's last night and really enjoyed (some of) it. I must say I almost turned off the whole thing when the first award was for "Best Rap Album". Isn't that an oxymoron? I've tried to understand and even enjoy rap and hip-hop, but I just can't. I didn't want to be like "the old generation" that didn't like rock 'n roll and all that gyration. But, alas, I am. So there ya go. Here's what I DID LIKE from the show last night (in no particular order)

• James Bay and Tori Kelly: This performance was possibly the best of the night. The guitars and vocals were amazing!
• 12-year-old pianist Joey Alexander: jaw drop... 
• Winners
• Chris Stapleton Wins Best Country Album
• Alabama Shakes Win Best Rock Performance
• Tributes
• Chris Stapleton, Gary Clark Jr. and Bonnie Raitt in tribute to B.B. King: Bonnie Raitt is sooooo smoooth 
• Lady Gaga tribute to David Bowie: who better to play this role?! Gaga was perfect! And she the last song "Heros" I've had stuck in my head for about a week now! I've got to learn it.
• Eagles tribute to Glenn Frey: the intro/cut to this was terrible, well non-existent, but the performance was moving.
• Hollywood Vampires (Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry): love love love Alice. This is performance music! We actually saw Alice and Motorhead some years ago.
• Commercials
• Lady Gaga + Intel
• No smoking and no cat videos

There was a message from the Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, about supporting and paying artists a true value for music was right on! I do "demo" some music here and there. But if I like it, I'll buy it. I'll buy the vinyl, CD, download or stream. I love music and understand the value of paying the artists and everything required to get that deleivered to me.

“When you stream a song, all the people that created that music receive a fraction of a penny,” Portnow said on stage after a performance by 12-year-old pianist Joey Alexander. “Isn’t a song worth more than a penny?

“Listen, we all love the convenience, and we support technologies like streaming, which connect us to that music. But we also have to make sure that artists grow up in a world where music is a viable career.”