Don Felder-Rams Head OnStage. Annapolis,Md

Ex- Eagles guitarist Don Felder brought his current tour to the Rams Head on Stage in Annapolis, Md. 

Vinyl Exam- Big Bam Boo "Fun Faith and Fairplay"

One of the benefits of working at a record store or a record distributor was getting free albums (or in this case , cassettes).

Big Bam Boo's "Fun Faith and Fairplay" was one such item I procured.

Released in 1989, an era when Crowded House had just hit it big; & The Proclaimers were starting to make some noise. These two guys are in that vein. They probably deserved a better fate...

                                        "Fell off a Mountain"

                                       "Shooting From My Heart"

                               
                                                  "if You Could See Me Now"

                               This one reminds me of Adrian Belew (and the Bears)
                                   "what's bigger than Life"

http://open.spotify.com/album/26g0M2blWx50WodXB7fVSj



The guys appear to be still be involved with music

"Shark" does an interesting, cool version of
 Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up"

Looks like he's stayed busy : 

http://www.sharkandco.com/Recordings.html




Simon Tedd is now "Simon Scardanelli" (his given name maybe?)

http://www.scardanelli.com/

I plan to try and catch up on the work of these guys.

5 good Roger Daltrey solo songs

Roger always seemed the most aggressive and macho member of the WHO, so it would seem a little strange that his early solo career started with him covering Leo Sayer songs..
 Having said that, Roger has done some underrated solo albums over the years.

Here's 5 good tunes from him

5 tunes: BOC, Novo Combo, THE WHO...

5 tunes I really like. Hope you do too..

Some Mid Atlantic/Baltimore bands of the 80's...

Attending a reunion last night of some local Baltimore bands from the 80's triggered some memories of the music of these bands....

Quality hard rock and the influence of Free/Paul Rodgers

Free were one of the greatest hard rock bands of all-time. Everyone knows "All Right Now", but they have a lot of great songs. 
If that was not enenough ,upon their demise, lead singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke went on to form the even more successful Bad Company. 
How Free and at least Bad Company are not in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame I will never understand...

more random tunes, new and old...

Great story about how Pete had to call up Dave Wakeling to ask him what the tuning was for this song. When Wakeling tells it, he couldn't believe Pete called him! He was in shock. 

A real cool version on Pete's "Deep End Live" cd and Video

Pete Townshend "Save it for Later"

Lowell George was really part of that 70's California sound with Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, etc.
As the leader of Little Feat, they achieved some success but were never quite as popular as some of those other folks. 
This is from his only solo album. I believe he had left Little Feat and was touring on his own when this came out and he unfortunately passed away at 34.

            Lowell George "Twenty Million Things"

Neil Young and Crazy Horse have just released their SECOND album of this year (they released "Americana" in June) . This one is of original material and the songs fit in well with the Neil and Crazy Horse catalog.


    Neil Young and Crazy Horse "Walk Like a Giant"

               


Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora has just released his third solo album. This one is pretty eclectic. i hear the influence of Jimi hendrix, Stephen Stills, and on this track more modern groups like the Foo Fighters. The music is less calculated than a lot of Bon Jovi's stuff. Shame this album won't really get a chance. I think it had only sol about 5K copies in it's first week or two.

                            Richie Sambora "Nowdays"

Some of the Aerosmith ballads are not bad. Overtime they seem to grow old, but I usually kinda like em intially. (except (I don't wanna miss a Thing"). Anybody who's ever had a breakup can usually relate to ballads like this. regrets, lost opportuniteies, etc....
I could easily see the Eagles, Poco or some other country rock outfit performing this.
                                   

               Aerosmith "What Could Have Been Love"

jennie abrahamson and Linnea Olson (Peter Gabriel's backing singers)

These ladies opened for Peter Gabriel last night and then were his backing singers. Very talented.
I believe they are Swedish.
They performed Jeannie's music. They played just enough and didn't wear out their welcome. It was sparse but catchy and had some dynamics.

They both sound very influenced by Kate Bush

                           jennie abrahamson- Hard to Come By

                Linnea Olsson - Dinosaur

Linnea sang harmony and played her cello backing Jeannie.

RUSH- Jiffy Lube Live 9-9-12

Last Sunday was such a beautiful day, weatherwise.  I knew Rush were playing at Jiffy Lube Live in Northern Virginia. I had recently checked to see if there were any good seats left to tempt me to buy one. Well, on Sunday they did release some excellent Orchestra seats. I was able to snag one about 12 rows back and made the commitment to make the drive.

The Family return as "FDeluxe"

Sometimes people tend to romanticize things that disappear and never return. ..
                "The Family" might be one such case.

     Formed/organized by Prince in 1985 after the break up of the Time, the band revolved around the vocals "St. Paul" Peterson and Prince's then-girlfriend Susannah Melvoin ( twin sister of Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin). Sax player Eric Leeds and former Time members Jellybean Johnson and Jerome Benton rounded out the group.

my little red car: the day I found out life can suck

I think I was 2 years old. My brother wasnt born yet so I was an only child. We lived on the outskirts of Baltimore City, not far from the county, in an old, working class neighborhood. Not bad, but on a busy enough street that you really didn't go out to find other kids to play with. I was obsessed with cars. I loved my Hot Wheels and especially my Matchbox. cars. There were so many cool American cars all with different designs. Fords were distinctly different from Chevys or Pontiacs. I could recognize them all by their shapes. 

buying physical cd's vs. streaming & downloads...

It is obvious that not as many physical cds are sold as even 10 years ago. No young people are buying stereos and cd players. The PC (or laptop) is the stereo of today.

a closer look: Paul Butterfield Blues Band "East-West"

The great thing about having SiriusXM is I get to discover older music that even I am not familiar with. I'd certainly heard of Paul Butterfield and remember he was one of the guest for the Band's "Last Waltz" concert, but I had never listened to any of his albums.

Can You Dig it?: 15 songs that would be great to hear on the Monkees2012 Tour

Amazingly , the 3 surviving Monkees have announced a 12-date late Fall Tour of the US. This is the first time Michael Nesmith has toured the US with the band since 1969!

I thought it would be fun to examine some possibilities for the setlist. 

Original vs Cover- "Come Back and Stay"

Time for another edition of "Original vs. Cover". The challenge of picking which version is the superior. 

Tonight we will look at the song "Come Back and Stay" written by Jack Lee; a hit for British singer Paul Young in 1983. Young also covered two other Lee songs for his debut, "Sex" and "Oh Women"

Cheap trick and Styx restore my faith in Rock n Roll-Delaware stateFair 7-22-12

This past Sunday night I was energized by a positive powerful injection of classic Rock n Roll!
An excellent double-bill of Cheap Trick and Styx at a good price ($44 +$6 fair admission).

new music roundup...

As bad as pop radio is and even a lot of the "rock" music that comes out these days is not very good, there has been some good music coming out lately. I'm in my 40's and am happy to see many musicians I liked when I was a teen are still active and creative, still trying to release quality music.

7 New albums coming this summer from older acts...

I admit most of my musical taste were formed by the time I was 21. I do occasionally like a new band, but I can't get too excited about a new album by say, Jack White or whoever the latest critics darling is, ie: Alabama Shakes, etc....
I am still interested when a
"heritage" act actually makes the attempt to release "new" material.


I know a lot of people do not feel the same especially if the band in question already has enough "hits". I think Van Halen is a successful example of an older band releasing new music. Their latest cd was a success and I actually was excited to hear some of the new songs in concert. Ok so recent Rolling Stones albums have been extremely spotty. I still at least want to hear what these bands put out.

a random roll of five...

random roll of five , 

When Rockers went "Disco"- 5 respectable examples

Since we just lost two legends of the disco era recently, Disco is kind of back in the news. That made me remember when even rock bands tried to get in on the action and crossover.
 Sometimes it was embarrassing (Rod Stewart "Do you think I'm Sexy", etc.) but sometimes it worked out pretty good. Here are five successful disco songs by rockers tunes that are "good" to even "great".

The Disco beat featured the bass drum playing on all four beats of a measure with the snare drum on the 2 & 4 beats with some opening and closing of the hi-hat cymbal.

5 Good Bee Gees songs

 Of course the passing of Robin Gibb has brought the music of the Bee Gees back in the spotlight.

a quick 5 for the morning...

it's off to work. Happy Friday to you!

Album Spotlight- Michael White Self-titled 1987

In 1987 I  was working in a sweltering hellhole in Baltimore City that was a Record Warehouse/distributor. If it sounds like a cool job, It wasn't!. There was no air conditioning, many of the employees belonged in a psych ward (hell, at that point I probably did too!). The customers were often annoying record store owners of some foreign decent,  buying the latest rap 12"s.
The only perk? Free records. One of them I got that some was on Atlantic Records by a guy named Michael White.

Unsung Heroes of Rock: Russ Ballard

 I would bet you've heard many of the hits Englishman Russ Ballard has written and may even have a couple on your IPod. 
His specialty was writing in a genre that became known as "melodic rock" or "AOR" (album oriented rock). Some also call it "Arena Rock". Very catchy melodies often blending keyboards with hard rock guitar. Oddly enough, it was a genre dominated by Americans
When I was young, I just liked these songs, I didn't realize he wrote them. I thought he had a real gift for writing in this genre.



 

Unsung Heroes of rock-Randy Jackson and Zebra

I like to try and spotlight some talented, maybe not as well known people, "The Unsung Heroes"
 of rock n Roll.


What do you get when you have a guy who can sing like Robert Plant and play guitar like Jimmy Page? You get Randy Jackson. No not THAT Randy Jackson ,dawg (although believe or not he is an unsung hero of rock as well..)

The Go-Go's-Rams Head Live 5/8/12 Baltimore

I was fortunate enough to win free tickets to the show. Figured it would be a nice chance to see some 80's icons and I like all kinds of music.I'm not completely familiar with their catalog but always appreciated their spunky energy and melodic charm.  Many think of the Go-s Go's as being a pure pop band but they started as a punk band and evolved from there. I hear the influence of surf music in aspects of their music like the guitar solo on "We Got the Beat". They were signed to IRS records, considered an eclectic and hip label ,that also had the likes of REM, Wall of Voodoo, Oingo Boingo, the English Beat and Let's Active on their roster. 

5 "Closer" songs

 Everyday day is an effort to refine your life. Get the "hang" of this life, if you will. "One step forward, two steps back?"

Squier Classic Vibe 50's Stratocaster- gear deals

The Best Buy near me is closing. They had a nice little instrument section. I paid a visit there yesterday. They had a cool Korg synth there last week on clearance but that was gone. Actually everything was (and is, they close May 12th) on clearance. 



I started looking at guitars and basses. The best deals seemed to be on the Squier line. The "Classic Vibe" series came out a couple of years ago to much acclaim. I tried out a  Stratocaster a couple of years ago and was impressed. The street price then was $279. I've noticed the street price has gone up to $379. 
 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Squier%AE+-+Classic+Vibe+Stratocaster%AE+-+2-Tone+Sunburst/9328756.p?id=1218087594805&skuId=9328756&cmp=RMX
Apparently the retail price is $579!
 http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0303000503

review :
 http://shimla.hubpages.com/hub/Fender-Squier-Classic-Vibe-50s-Statocaster 


 The 50's style Strat reminds me of the 1956 Strat Eric Clapton started playing on his first solo album and the Derek and the Dominos album. I think he called it "Brownie"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_%28guitar%29 

 

Of course, this is some of my favorite music so it's right in my wheelhouse. Best Buy had the $379 tag on it. It was a floor model that I had seen there before. I always thought if it got down in the $250 range I might consider getting it.


I asked the guy if there was anything off. He said it was down to $190! I wanted to play it first so I plugged to a nice Fender amp, dialed in a little reverb and it sounded great. It's got some dings from being a floor model and I notice a slight bit of fret buzz on the high E string but it sounds cool.  The guitar is lightweight (Gibson's are too heavy) and I love lacquered necks. I was sold.

Six months, no financing and I'm out the door. I've got my own "Brownie". lol

They also had the Telecaster model for the same price. Tempting but 1 is good for now. They had some decent Acoustics on sale too. There were some Epiphone's and I was surprised they had a Fender acoustic for $99 that sounded quite good.




Some "Brownie" tracks that I love


                                                   "Blues Power"

                                                 "Layla"

"I Looked Away"

                                



                                                               "It's Too Late"

5 Reggae tunes

So I just watched the "Marley" documentary. It was long but pretty good. There wasn't much interview footage with him in the 2 1/2 hrs. What was used was mostly from audio interviews and was good. Lots of interviews with friends, family and bandmates. Worth checking out to remind you that he was more than a "brand" . It gets nauseating seeing the constant overkill of the sale of Marley T-shirts, etc. It has overshadowed the music. And the music itself is often overplayed and reduced in stature.

RIP Adam Yauch

I have never been a fan of rap. In fact I hate it. To me when the Beastie Boys came out they seemed like spoiled Jewish kids goofing off on their parents dime. That may have been why they became a big hit in 1987 with the college crowd doing the same thing; sort of a phony, protected rebellion...
 I hate trends and in 1987 the Beastie Boys were very trendy ...


Then something happened. Kids did as they always do, they moved on to something else. When "Paul's Boutique" came out in 1989 the kids did not come out in droves. It was a collaboration with producers The Dust Brothers and veered away from their work with Rick Rubin. No guitars from Slayer this time...
I worked at a local chain record store during that period and believe me, it did not sell to the kids of suburbia. One of those kids worked with me an he played it. I admit I did lol when I heard the line  "I got more hits than Sadaharu Oh". To name drop the Japanese all-time home run leader was a scream... 

5 tunes for today's mix...

today's mix... 5 tunes

5 tunes covered by Willie Nelson- Happy birthday Willie!

Hard to believe Willie Nelson is almost 80. I guess smoking all that weed is not that harmful!


Willie has one of most unique voices in music. His nylon-string guitar tone is also instantly recognizable. I would never claim to be well versed in his catalog , but like Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, and BB King, he is an American treasure.

He still does more road dates than musicians half his age. He plays a sold out show at the 9:30 Club this coming month.

my new camera....Sony Cybershot HX9V

I've been kind of a photography hobbyist since I was a teen. In High School I took Photography and enjoyed it. I wasn't particularly gifted with it and was probably a "C" student. Same for community college where I took Photo 1 & 2 (!). Oh sure, I still remember the "Rule of thirds" for composing and framing a picture, but I'm not sure if I ever saw much improvement.

today's random mix : 5 tunes

Today's random mix

In praise of Michael Nesmith (and the Monkees too)

I became a Monkees fan in 1976-77 watching the reruns on local UHF TV. My favorite Monkee usually went back and forth between Peter and Micky. Mike (of course with his wool hat on in the 1st season) kind of stood back a bit a took in the proceedings; sometimes dishing out some words of wisdom near the end of an episode. He always seemed the smartest and wisest one; the calming influence. Of course, this was a TV show ABOUT a band as the men who played "The Monkees" always say. But of course, it became more. The guys battled that age old dilemma of "commerce" vs. "Art" and took over the reigns of their own musical destiny, getting Don Kirshner fired off the project.

 

Of course, the recent passing of Davy Jones has put the Monkees back in the spotlight again a bit. I've always felt I've had to defend my love of the Monkees music. You might as well tell people you love "The Archies" or "Justin Bieber" but these same people who scoff have probably never listened to anything beyond the big hits by the band....

Label Spotlight-Rock Candy Records

 On occasion, I want to shine a light on some great record labels. 
 Today we take a look at the Rock Candy Records label.

I'm assuming they've named their label after the classic Montrose song. They are a UK based label specializing in reissuing classic and obscure 70's & 80's AOR. 

5 Rock Instrumentals

Instrumentals are a mixed bag. Some aren't too bad, but most of the time aren't you really wanting a nice vocal melody over top of it?

I do enjoy some work by Joe Satriani; and I am a huge Eric Johnson fan, but a lot of his work includes his very good vocals. Jeff Beck is a master who has also often used vocalist...

Rush's "YYZ" might be the king of all rock instrumentals.

Here are 5 that came to mind today.

15 great tunes from Robbie Robertson's solo career

 

While I knew and liked a bit of the Band's work, I became a fan of Robbie Robertson when he released his first solo album in 1987. 

He had done a bit of quality soundtrack work, even a bit of acting since leaving the Band. I was excited to hear that the album would be produced by Daniel Lanois and feature appearances by the BoDeans, U2, Peter Gabriel and Maria McKee; all favorites of mine at the time.

Some of the guys in the Band may have been upset with Robbie for breaking up the band but he did what he said he was going to do;that is, get off the road and work sparingly. He could have cashed in and assembled a band to play all the old hits, but he didn't. He challenged himself and moved forward.

 His first solo album is a must own and it's follow up, "Storyville" is also great.  

I confess he started to lose me a bit with his next couple more experimental works but his return in 2011 with the excellent "How to become Clairvoyant" was a welcome addition to his legacy; another "must own".

Of course, sadly, the music world just lost the talented Levon Helm this week. It was a reminder that we have to appreciate artists while they are still with us. 

Buy their music, go to their shows; it doesn't last forever. Robbie Robertson is still among us and he deserves to be celebrated.

Here are 15 songs from his solo career .

R.I.P. Levon Helm- 5 tunes from the Band

I would never say I am a Band "expert". I remember borrowing "The Last Waltz" from the library and liking a lot of the guests but thinking the Band tracks were just ok. To a 12-13 boy this wasn't rock like the Stones of the Who. Their music sounded a bit "rural" to me. I guess today we would call it "Americana". Levon and Rick Danko sang most of the songs even though Robbie Robertson wrote them (later a point of contention between Levon and Robbie). A lot of the songs were stories, "period pieces" even! 
Levon was the only member actually from the US, the other guys were from Canada. Odd that a Canadian would write music songs so distinctly "American".

Levon with Steven Seagal in "The Fire Below", actually not a bad movie.

Rolling Stone posted a great interview with Levon from 2000

They also put together a good playlist that has some of the same tracks I recommend

Rx for the Blues?- for me, a visit to the record store..

Was feeling depressed yesterday, as I am prone to depression (hooray!). Decided to go downtown to Soundgarden, one of the only record/cd stores left in town. Hadn't been there in at least ten years (?). It's hard to park in Fells Point especially on a Saturday evening. Thankfully Soundgarden has their own small parking lot.

It was just what I needed. To get lost in flipping through the cd racks. They had some cool shirts (had my eye on a Neil Young Harvest shirt) I want to get when they come back in stock. A good DVD selection. I didn't see much that I can't order online, but I still enjoy the experience. 

I picked up two used cd's for $5 each , James Gang "Yer Album" and Simple Minds "New Gold Dream" (from before they got real big) in a mini-album sleeve. Also got a nice Soundgarden T-shirt for $6.99 on clearance.

my finds from Soundgarden 4/7/12

Check em out sometime:

Soundgarden website

Rolling Stone named them the #2 record store in the country?

"Is that the Beatles?"- 5 songs that sound like the Beatles

Every since the Beatles broke up, everyone had also hoped they would reunite. Once in a while, especially the first few years after they broke up, an album would come out that people would say was the Beatles under an alias etc or Paul McCartney.

Here are 5 songs that are heavily influenced by the Beatles/Paul McCartney

Producer Spotlight: Chris Thomas

Producers and engineers are some of the unsung heroes in music. They craft good songs into sonically pleasing pieces that we know and love.

Look in your collection. I bet you own at least one record produced by Chris Thomas. He's certainly produced some of my all-time favorite albums. The funny thing about Chris Thomas is that I could not say he has a "signature" sound.  He gets good, solid, no-frills sounds. He did help mix "Dark Side of the Moon" which is one of the greatest albums of all time.

His production work with the Sex Pistols is raw and basic. Some of that carries over to his work with the Pretenders. In the 80's he helped Pete Townshend launch his solo career and INXS to reach their greatest heights.

5 "Weekend" songs

Well, we made to the weekend. However you're gonna spend it, Enjoy....

Here are 5 "Weekend" songs.

Original vs Cover: "Jealous Guy"- John Lennon or Roxy Music?

"Jealous Guy" originated as a Lennon demo in 1968; a song inspired by the Beatles trip to India:

                                                

                              " Child of Nature"

Never one to waste a good melody, John re-wrote it as "Jealous Guy" for the "Imagine" album.

Original vs. Cover: "When You Were Mine"- Prince or Mitch Ryder?

"When You Were Mine" is a cool, sparse little powerpop-esque song from Prince's "Dirty Mind" album.

 In 1983 two different artist, Mitch Ryder and Cyndi Lauper, covered it.

Original vs Cover: "Just my Imagination" Temptations or Stones?

Starting a new little feature. "Original" vs. "Cover". 
which is better?

This is one to get! Paul McCartney's "Ram" to be reissued

Very happy to see Paul McCartney's "Ram" getting the deluxe reissue treatment. 

I think it is my favorite solo album of his (well it is credited to Paul & Linda McCartney).

the info from Paul's site:
http://www.paulmccartney.com press release

Artist Spotlight: The Posies

Out of the Seattle area, but never really a part of the Grunge movement, the Posies were more influenced by the combination of  70's power pop and early 80's alt rock.  

I've always felt they've played down their pop writing skills. Almost like they would try to skew away from being too pop. They probably could have been bigger if they would have played to their strengths as pop writers but maybe they didn't want to be the Gin Blossoms (who I think are great). 

 
They went on to do a nice job filling in as members of the reunited Big Star.

5 great power pop songs (vol. 1)

It has been said that Pete Townshend coined the phrase "Power Pop" to describe the Who's sound in the early days. 

If you listen to tracks like "I Can't Explain" and "So Sad About Us" I think that is accurate. You could certainly include some Beatles stuff in the genre as well.

In the 70's The Raspberries , Big Star, and Cheap Trick optimized the sound.

10 more cool Beatles covers. (vol. 3)

I love it when I hear a song from an old band that I have never heard and like it. 

Today on Sirius I heard Journey covering the Beatles 

"It's All Too Much". 

It inspired me to post more great Beatle covers...

"Producer Spotlight" George Martin

Ok, even casual music fans probably know that George Martin was the producer for arguably  the greatest group of all-time, The Beatles.

"In the Heartland Tonight": The Michael Stanley Band: Unsung heroes of rock n Roll

"And this nine to five is just killing time 

And hour by hour trying not to lose my mind

 I know from time to time girl I lose my way 

So I just had to call you From the heartland tonight" 
-from "Rock Me Easy"-the Michael Stanley Band 1986


These lyrics kind of sum up what the Michael Stanley Band were about. Working hard, living in the "heartland", and trying to find some love as a refuge from the daily grind. 
The music wasn't really about changing "the" world, it was more about changing "your" world.

"We were cool on craze…” The night we “Wang Chunged” -May 1984

Anytime I get together with my old friend "Whitey", we tend talk about old times and have some laughs. It’s only natural. Dave (his first name) and I had been out of touch for 9 years before we reconnected just over a year ago. It happens..A lot has changed for him . He’s a husband, a Dad and a business owner. So we don't have as much in common anymore, but I’m really glad for the way things have turned out for him.

We recently went to the Van Halen concert together so it’s natural that we would reflect on other shows we went to together. 

Song Spotlight- "Between a Laugh and A Tear" John Mellencamp w/ Rickie Lee Jones

I always thought this was a good album track that kinda got buried on the "Scarecrow" album
  

 It's somewhat of a duet with folkie/jazzy singer Rickie Lee Jones. 

I always thought the lyrics were really good .
The lyric that comes to mind a lot for me is

"I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past..."

10 "Friendly" songs

Friends. no not the sitcom... 

The most important people in your life besides your family. Sometimes you are closer to them then some of your family members. Ya need friends in this world. 

Some friendships are based on basic things: a common workplace, a love of sports or music,etc. Some go deeper...

 





Sometimes it's not a word you like.  Someone you are interested in romantically may tell you they just want to be "friends". Or someone may breakup with you and say they "still want to be friends"

Friendships often need to be maintained to last. Social networking has become a great way to keep in touch with friends. 

Regardless, here are 10 "Friend" songs....

Producer/engineer spotlight-Rhett Davies

Today I want to spotlight Producer/Engineer Rhett Davies. Probably best known for his work with Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry. Most of his productions feature a lush, esoteric sound to them. He does great recordings. The records have a sophisticated feel to them. Featured below are some examples of his work.

Van Halen - Wells Fargo Center 3-5-12 Phila, Pa.

Well, as they sing in their new song “China Town”, “It’s all happening downtown” and in Philly last night it was. The Van Halen show was the place to be.  I was lucky enough to secure 8th row floor seats during the presale. 
It was a chance for us 40-somethings (and 50-somethings) to let loose and remember our youth. The sound of Van Halen is eternal summer, blasting music from a Camaro at a parking lot party....
 

                               

10 Steely Dan covers

Most Steely Dan songs aren't easy to play.

 Here are some interesting covers. 

I couldn't find Better Than Ezra's version of "Dirty Work" or Pat Travers version of "Black Friday", two other good ones. 

The Farrelly Brothers must be Steely Dan Fans as they had a number of artists cover Steely Dan songs for their movie "Me Myself and Irene"

Certainly not one of their jazzier songs. I've only discovered this one in the past year. One of their best

Ben Folds Five "Barrytown"

 

  Tommy Shaw from Styx and Jack Blades from Night Ranger put out a great cd of covers in 2007

                                                  Here's "Dirty Work"

                                   




Brian Setzer might seem unlikely to cover Steely Dan, but this one works

                                                        "Bodhisttva"

       
                 





 Local Baltimore band ,Hectic Red, do a great job covering SD.

                                                           "Pretzel Logic"

Another one from "Me Myself and Irene" soundtrack

                                                Wilco "Any Major Dude will tell You"

I must admit ,I don't know this one, but Joe Jackson covering Steely Dan makes sense to me

                                               "King of the World"

Here's a weird one. Apparently this band covered the entire "Aja" album! Quite a different take on it...

                                                 The Darcys "Peg"

                                     


     Here's one you have to stream, 
Butch Walker & Marvelous 3 "Reelin in the Years"
                           Marvelous 3 -Reelin in the Years


         If you are in the Baltimore/DC/Annapolis area, this tribute band plays around

                                            Technicolor Motor home "My Old School"

                 
     http://www.technicolormotorhome.com/Home.html


                            another one from Technicolor Motor Home


                                           "Don't take me Alive"

        

The guys will be playing live in Annapolis on May 25th:

                   Rams Head Live Tickets