I posted
this video because Tom Petty relays beautifully how he took chances, acted on
opportunities that turned out successful, which turned into subsequent
successes. He was a very ambitious but very ethical businessman. I
think that's why his fans and his bandmates were so loyal to him. I don't
know whether he and others in his circles understood the southern influence of
rock at the time, but the years 1969-1977 were considered the years of southern
rock revival in the United States at the time. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers formed in
1976; his first band formed in Gainsville, Florida, 1974, was called
Mudcrutch. Maybe, Petty knew an opportunity when he saw it.
The southern rock era was essentially
between the years of 1969, when The Allman Brothers Band released their first
album, until 1977 when a tragic airplane crash took the lives of members of
Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.
But it
wasn't just his southern origins of Gainsville, Florida that brought about his
success. It was the fact that his voice sounded like Bob Dylan, that
whiny, rebellious, defiant tone of a defiant poet. But if you listen to
some of Petty's lyrics, the last thing that he is doing is lamenting. In
songs like "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985) and "No, I
Won't Back Down," (1989), "Here Comes My Girl," (1979), and
"Refugee" (1980). Or maybe it was a case that he knew his own talent and
knew how coordinate the time and value of others in the achievement of a
recording contract or an album or a big-time concert opening for a big name or
pulling in a large crowd. He achieved all of it. He ended up
playing with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and other greats.
But the thing that set Petty apart was his music writing talents. He
could put together a bar, a phrase , and a lyric in short order and it would be
a hit. He did this over and ivee again, and it built great loyalty frim
his bandmates who were the beneficiaries of his talents.
Before Keith came along, a drummer was just a guy who sat in the back and kept the beat, and he really was the first person--first drummer--to become a frontman. Pamela Des Barres
Ringo Starr was a great drummer. Charlie Watts was a great drummer. Keith Moon was an octopus. He was all over the place and 'til this day is still the best rock'n'roll drummer of all time. Alice Cooper
I don't know
whether it was that my 3-day fever from bronchitis broke last night or me
reviewing my youthful adventures tagged to the late '70s, 1978 and
the loss of Keith Moon (1946-1978) specifically, that I found myself tearing up as I watched the following biography on
him. Tears came at the loss of youth, at the loss of a raging talent of a man who could very well be the best rock'n'roll drummer.
Toward the end of it, Pete
Townsend commented that
There is something about being in the public's
eye and wanting people to love you, and wanting them to respond to you, to the
things that you do and say and think. When you lose that, you suddenly
wake up one day and say I don't care anymore that people laugh at me, or I
don't care whether they clap. I think that's what happened to Keith, and
he just let go.
That's about how I felt with teaching. Watching that
biography only made me weep for my former life of the mid-to-late-70s. It
made me think of the astounding comfort and love of the album store, Music+, in
Azusa, where I bought my first Elton John record. I miss the optimism of
my life back then. I miss the days of driving up Hwy 2, Angeles Crest Hwy with
Dannette Martinez who went to Bishop Amat with Sean Moore. She lived in La
Puent and worked part-time at Burger King in Baldwin Park. I visited her
one time and she gave me a free meal--Whopper, fries, and Coke. I miss
those days. Toward the end of the video, the song "After the Fire" plays, a tune written by Townsend but sung by Daltrey and released in 1985 as a tribute to their mate, Keith Moon. Wikipedia cites the writers of the song were Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend. That's just Pete Townshend's full name. The strange thing about that biography documentary is that it focuses on Keith Moon's recklessness. But if you listen to a lot of the studio albums, you don't hear a wild, incompetent performer; quite the contrary. He is a standard studio musician. He wouldn't be a member if weren't producing according to specifications. There are a handful of mini-documentaries at YouTube on Keith Moon's life. Clearly, he was well-loved. What I liked about this biography is a segment where Larry Hagman, co-star of I Dream of Jeannie and leading star of Dallas, tells the story of how he was friends with Keith and his girlfriend. In fact, Hagman helped Keith find some rehab help in Santa Monica at St. John's Health Center. The list of celebrities treated at the health center is a formidable one. It's a list of entertaining giants.
the loss of
open-ended days and fantastic vistas of the San Gabriel Valley from its peak
there in Duarte and along the San Gabriel foothills that I found myself
weeping.
Here are the lyrics if you'd like them . . . if you need
them.
nothing's / Gonna stop this gang going wild.
After
the fire, the fire still burns The heart grows older But never, ever learns The memories smolder And the soul always yearns After the fire, the fire still burns
I heard a voice asking "What happens after the fire"? And then the sound of a Breaking window and The scream of a tire
And then the sound of a distant gun
And the cry of a hungry child
The night is hot but nothing's
Gonna stop this gang going wild.
After the fire, the fire still burns
The heart grows older but never ever learns
The memories smolder and the soul always yearns
After the fire, the fire still burns.
I saw Matt Dillon in black and white there ain't no color in memories
He rode his brother's Harley across the TV, While I was laughing at Dom DeLuise.
Now I'm cycling all my videotapes, and I'm cryin' and I'm jokin'
I've gotta stop drinking
I've gotta stop thinking
I've gotta stop smoking After the fire, the fire still burns The heart grows older but never ever learns The memories smolder and the soul always yearns After the fire, the fire still burns. Raging through the pain, Blackening the promises the tears and the rain, The fire still burns 'Til the wind begins to turn And it all begins again. After the fire, the fire still burns The heart grows older but never ever learns The memories smolder and the soul always yearns After the fire, the fire still burns. . . . fire still burns . . . . After the fire, the fire still burns The heart grows older but never ever learns The memories smolder and the soul always yearns After the fire, the fire still burns. The Who By Numbers gave me hours of listening pleasure from 1975 onward.
Anyone reading this post might scoff at the claim that Keith Moon was the best rock'n'roll drummer of all time. So the case has to be made, what makes a great rock'n'roll drummer? That's hard for me to say since I am no musician, nor can I read music, or have any kind of a trained ear. But opinions persist. So it would hurt to look at the qualities or techniques that might form the skills of a great rock-and-roll drummer. This gal helps us with a tribute to Ringo Starr. Certainly, Neil Peart of Rush, who recently passed maybe my top nomination.
Lists are selective and not complete, not even accurate or fair. But lists do provide the curious with a start to begin thinking about a subject or topic. They help orient the student. Here is a "Top 10 List of Rock Drummers."
These are all rock-and-roll drummers, but are they the best? What about drummers from other categories? The following producer listed another "Top 10 Greatest Drummers of All Time." Okay, but in no particular order. He leaves that up to the viewer or listener. So I put them in an order that I think he meant, but I do not know how he can place Neil Peart 7th in an all-time list.
According to Bluegrass Today (2017), "Giddens shattered long-held stereotypes. By the time she was done, she had systematically dismantled the myth of a homogenous Appalachia." She studied and performed opera. Thank God, huh? A beautiful Dixie lullaby.
Rhiannon Giddens makes the song beautiful. A little about her:
Giddens is multiethnic in ancestry. Her father was European American and her mother African American and Native American. Her sister Lalenja Harrington is a director for Beyond Academics, a four-year certificate program supporting students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A singer and songwriter herself, Harrington occasionally collaborates with her sister on musical projects.
Giddens married Irish musician, Michael Laffan, in 2007. They have a daughter and a son; however, they are now separated. Giddens is now in a relationship with her musical partner, Francesco Turrisi. She has homes in Greensboro, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee, and Limerick, Ireland.
Hush now, don’t you
wake up We’ll be leaving at first light Mama's buying you a mockingbird To lull you through the night Across the den by morning Here’s a blanket for you to share They’re building down in Georgia Daddy hears he’ll find work there
CHORUS And the mockingbird can sing Like the cryin' of a dove And I can’t tell my daughters All the things that I'm scared of But I am not afraid of that bright glory up above Dying’s just another way to leave the ones you love
No work for the working man Just one more empty mill Hard times in Rockingham Hard times harder still The crows are in the kitchen The wolves at the door Our father's land of Eden is paradise no more. CHORUS And the mockingbird can sing Like the cryin' of a dove And I can’t tell my daughters All the things that I'm scared of But I am not afraid of that bright glory up above Dying’s just another way to leave the ones you love.
My sister stayed in Eden Her husband’s got some land An agent for the county thinks that they might make a stand A hard life for working With nothing much to show It's a hard life of leaving with nowhere to go. CHORUS And the mockingbird can sing Like the cryin' of a dove And I can’t tell my daughters All the things that I'm scared of But I am not afraid of that bright glory up above Dying’s just another way to leave the ones you love. Quite striking to find her playing with Elvis Costello, aka, Declan Patrick MacManus, best known for "Radio, Radio," 1978, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding," written by Nick Lowe in 1974 and released by Costello the same year, "Everyday I Write the Book," 1983, and, of course, "Watching the Detectives," 1977.
"Is it a mystery to live? Or is it a mystery to die?"
"He Will See You Through," 2003. The song was arranged and orchestrated by Camp Kirkland.
