Dashing through the plains
With a zebra on my back.
Over the dirt I go
Its Quanza in Africa.
Humanitarian aid
Making spirits right.
What fun it is to hunt and ride
On my barefoot feet tonight.
O hunting bells, hunting bells
Hunting all the way.
What fun it is to hunt and ride
On my barefoot feet tonight.
Music is an old friend for me.
A friend whom I can talk whatever to.
A friend who helps me heal the wounds.
I started playing piano when I was five.
Yes. I fell in love with it at the moment I met it.
And when I heard the voice for the first time, I felt that I would die for it.
I dreamed there would be one day,
one day that my fingers could dance with the keys.
That was the purple touch.
I touched them with curiosity but also fear.
Then I began to know it.
The majority of you have probably never heard of a man named Sixto Rodriguez. Neither had I until a couple days ago.
Sixto Rodriguez was born July 10, 1942, in Detroit, Michigan. His parents, immigrants from Mexico, named him Sixto because he was the sixth child in his family.
Little did he know, his upbringing as a part of the inner city poor would influence his life in more ways than he could imagine.
Rodriguez, who worked construction, was performing in a bar one night when he was discovered as an American folk singer. He signed with a small label named Impact, and produced the single “I’ll Slip Away.”
A couple years later, Rodriguez signed with Sussex Records, and produced both of his albums, “Cold Fact” and “Coming From Reality.” For some reason, most likely because of his Hispanic heritage, Rodriguez’ career in North America flopped.
Sussex Records dropped him, two weeks before Christmas, a premonition which came true from his song “Cause.”
Little did he know, Rodriguez was a super star in conservative South Africa. The story goes that an American girl came to South Africa to visit her boyfriend, with “Cold Facts” in tow. What proceeded from there was boot-legging and importing of copies.
When the copies ran dry, Australian record company Blue Goose Music bought the rights to his back catalogue, and released his two albums.
Rodriguez had become an icon of South African culture. Children ran around on the streets singing his songs. His music opened their eyes to something else, with songs like “I Wonder” helping along the realization that there was a way to fight the South African government: through music.
After almost two years since her last album Speak Now, my favorite American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift FINALLY released her fourth studio album called “RED” on October 22, 2012 through Big Machine Records.
I have been waiting for so long for this brand new album. And there are 16 songs in this album which are led by the lead song – “We are never ever getting back together”.
The song soon became a worldwide commercial success and the top of the iTunes charts all over the world and sold sold 623,000 copies in the first week!!
“I wrote a song called ‘Red,'” said Swift. “Thinking about what that means to me and all the different emotions that are written about on this album, they’re all pretty much about the kind of tumultuous, crazy, insane, intense, semi-toxic relationships that I’ve experienced in the last two years . . . There’s nothing beige about any of those feelings, so I called the record Red.”
In one of my last blogs I mentioned one of my Desert Island albums. Desert Island albums are the albums you would take with you if you were stranded on a desert island and only had a record player (for some reason).
Firstly, there are a couple of rules. You only get six (I don’t know why it’s six. Why not?), and you can’t take any greatest hits.
Well, you’re reading this post so I’ll tell you what my five would be.
1. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys (1966)
Everything about this album flows. The harmonics are perfect, as well as the instrumentals. The first time you hear it, everything on the track just sounds like ts one beautiful voice. Then you listen to it a bit closer and realize how much of a genius Brian Wilson is because there are honks, rattles, squeaks and all sorts of other noises that rocket this album into my desert island list (little side note, track number two is in running for the greatest song of all time).
2. High Voltage, AC/DC (1976)
Well, first of all, there are no words for how much I love AC/DC. So we’ll just leave that at that. If this album were a book, it would be a bible of some sort. Every single song on it just oozes rock and roll. These guys get it. All of it. Seriously, they aren’t leaving anything out. If you claim to love rock and roll and don’t have this album dipped in gold and set on your mantle piece…you crazy.
3. Super Blues, Bo Diddley/Muddy Waters/Otis Spann/Little Walter (1967)
Right there, in big yellow letters, on the front of the album-“JOIN FORCES”. Well, they certainly did. And in a big way. Four of the biggest names in 60’s era blues decided one day that they wanted to try and bring an end to space and time by creating the greatest blues album in the history of…well, everything. They almost succeeded. Luckily, someone had the balls to tell them that they should split their tremendous talents into two albums (See Super, Super Blues). This is another one of those must have albums. It’s blues at its finest. Go get it. Please.
4. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones (1972)
Did you go get Super Blues? Good. Well, if you’re done trying to figure the album cover to “Exile” out, you can stop. You never will. Besides being the sound track for every awesome movie ever, the songs on this album are timeless (in that, they will never be unappreciated). Rocks off, Ventilator Blues, Rip This Joint, Happy, Shake Your Hips…you’ve all heard these songs. How could you not? Anyone with a brain loves the Rolling Stones and this is their greatest album (sorry all you beggars)
5. The White Album, The Beatles (1968)
I’m fairly sure I don’t have to say anything to justify this.
6. De Stijl, The White Stripes (2000)
Lastly, and most controversially, is De Stijl. I’m sure this is kind of an edgy pick and that there are plenty of better albums out there, but hey…it’s Jack White. And, as we all know, he’s just the best. He brings everything to the table. He manages to take hundred year old blues songs, new punk songs he’s written, new blues, new rock, new country and just make it work. Other than being one of my favorite musicians ever…..I’m not really sure how to end that sentence. He’s simply the best. And hey, Meg can hold a tune too. In her own way.
Okay, those are my picks. What are yours?
This past week I have completed my 3rd time working with a film crew producing a fashion show for a major shoe company based in Santa Barbara, CA.
My father works for a local Carpinteria company called Venture Visuals. It is a small company in Carpinteria, CA, specializing in branded entertainment.
They do work for Specialized Bicycles, local musician Dominic Balli, and many other local and non local people and companies.
I have worked for VV many times, usually just as a Production Assistant, but I have been given the opportunity at a young age to operate cameras on a few of the shoots.
This is a career I have looked into, but I do not think it will be the one for me.
I really do enjoy working in the filming industry, but it isn’t a stable career for the most part, and I have first hand experience of this.
My Dad, when I was younger worked in what most people would call “Hollywood,” but it wasn’t really in Hollywood.
He worked on many movies such as Welcome to Collinwood, The Contender, Mimic, and Cherry Falls.
He also worked on TV shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as the line producer, and on CSI:Miami as the head producer.
While he worked life was great, we lived large, and had enough money that we didn’t have to worry, but when the jobs were over, there was often a dry spell, and it was always up and down.
My mother tells me a story of a day when she didn’t have money to buy a coke at the gas station, but the next day we had more money than we knew what to do with.
So while I won’t be pursuing it as my life career it is something I can work on through college for money, and right now.
I have started early and am learning quickly.
This past week I worked at the Bacara Resort in Goleta, CA at the fashion show as a PA.
Here is a video of last year’s fall show.
My ears are full of screaming and my arm just couldn’t stop waving with other people.
My eyes are obsessed with the colorful lights and my heart just couldn’t stop beating to the same rhythm as the music.
This is surely an unforgettable night – Nov. 3rd, 2012.
BIGBANG is a popular Korean K-Pop singer group from Korean Entertainment company “YG Family(link)”. The group is made of 5 energetic young boys, they are G-dragon(link), T.O.P, Taeyang, Seungri, and Daesung.
BIGBANG is one of the most popular singer groups in Asia. They just released their new album “Alive” this spring, and they are now bringing the new album to a concert tour around the world starting this March in Korea.
In the past, I’ve blogged about all-time greatest guitar player Robert Johnson. But I mean, its pretty hard to cover the blues in just one blog. In this one, I’ll try to go over just a few of my favorite blues players.
Firstly, I want to just bring up Sister Rosetta Tharpe. If you could, picture Chuck Berry as a Baptist woman. Except instead of an ES3-35, she had an SG. Yeah. Like this guy.
It’s pretty hard to get much cooler than Angus Young or Sister Tharpe. Set your sights high kids! Don’t believe me?
Now, I always think about what my “desert island” albums would be (5 albums I can take to be stranded on a desert island with), and they always change. But one constant is Super Blues.
Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Little Walter and Otis Spann. I really don’t see what else needs to be said about this album. If you don’t have it, go get it. Well, I mean, only if you like music I guess.
Okay, one last person, but just because his new album just came out. Gary Clark Jr. takes the cake for one of the best NEW blues artists going right now. Blak and Blu came out on Oct. 25th, and, consequently, is the only album I’ve ever pre-ordered. Clark has some serious soul in this album, swinging between R&B to old school blues. Go get it, but here’s a taste (at the Crossroads festival no less).
You have to hand it to them, country music singers can say some pretty stupid stuff.
That right there is one of my favorite clips on youtube. When even the three stooges on Fox and Friends make weird faces at what you say, you know you’ve got some problems.
But other than the F-150-driving, ‘Murica-loving xenophobes like Hank Williams Jr. and Toby Keith country has some pretty awesome musicians. Hank Williams SENIOR, Jimmie Rodgers and even, to a point, Johnny Cash know how to carry a tune. As far as the greatest songs of ALL TIME go, I’m so lonesome I could cry is up in the top three. TB Blues makes it up there too (just go listen to the slide on that song).
As far as “new” country goes (I put new in italics because it’s not really new), BR5-49 takes the cake as the best. This type of country can be enjoyed by every Prius driving, Cafe Late drinking xenophobe who likes good music. Just…forget about Hank Williams Jr. and listen to some good country.
It’s safe to say I was born into the wrong decade.
If I could pick a time to grow up in, it would be the 1920s-30s. My favorite music comes from around then.
The king of blues, and pretty much music, was around in the twenties and thirties. Robert Johnson, or the greatest and most influential guitar player to date recorded most of his music in 1936. When you hear him play, you hear just how ahead of his time he was. This is either because of how good he was, or because everyone has copied his style. Even Cream capitalized on his success. If you ask any successful guitar player who influenced them, you can trace it all the way back to Robert Johnson, because he started it all.
My other favorite blues guitar player from around then was Robert Johnson’s old friend Son House. Son House…was Son House. He kind of just recorded what he wanted when he wanted. Screw rhythm, Son House is playing. “Grinnin’ in your Face” is basically just him clapping around the beat and singing off key and tempo. But, it’s still a top twenty five song…ever. Death Letter Blues combines is stomping, clapping and singing with some slide guitar. How bad could that be?
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