Song of the Week #206

If you’ve had enough of Channel 9 butchering the Olympics then you’ve come to the right place. Why do you think they would show footage of people sitting around watching the swimming while the women’s cycling road race was finishing? Morons.

Here’s a blast from a guitar legend. Buddy Guy played early on with Muddy Waters – that’s serious credibility folks. I remember becoming aware of his playing via Stevie Ray Vaughan. That and I really liked the title of one of his songs…here it is:

Buddy Guy – Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues - http://youtu.be/ag6LtrFR3g0

Some days I have the blues, it seems that this week has been particularly difficult on a number of levels. Good music and hard training keeps me going. Music like this…put some “boogie in your ear”….

Motorhead – Born To Raise Hell - http://youtu.be/8VXy4Z6IkWQ

There was some awesome news this week however. Billy Bragg will be playing in Canberra later in the year. Tickets go on sale on Monday – I’ll be online and on the phone to make sure I get some. Billy’s music is extremely important to me. It’s honest, stripped back and very real. Ben Elton described the Australian Flag as “Britain by night”, here’s Billy’s take on a similar topic.

Billy Bragg – Take Down The Union Jack - http://youtu.be/HPhlP6AfptY

Tribute albums have been appearing on my newsfeed this week as Metallica announce their part in one for Deep Purple. The timing is pretty fair as well with the passing of DP keyboard player Jon Lord. I remember really enjoying his tale of how he plugged keyboards into a Marshall amplifier to get that gritty sound. Tribute albums are hit and miss. There is a great Iron Maiden one put out by Metal Hammer magazine a few years ago as well as “KISS my ass” from the 90s. Hopefully the Deep Purple one won’t just be slow, dodgy acoustic covers. Here’s one of my favourite ever tunes from a tribute record…

Yothu Yindi – Jailbreak - http://youtu.be/qozz1VzrsKU

I’ve been watching the TV series “Sons of Anarchy”. It is pretty disturbing in parts but as the series moves on there is more and more humour evident. What I didn’t realise is that Henry Rollins stars in the entire second season. How did I miss that little gem? Well, he’s cast as a rather intense neo-Nazi and does a very convincing job – he has the thousand yard stare down to a fine art. Ron Perlman (Beauty and the Beast/Hellboy) is in the show as well as Katey Sagal (Married With Children/Futurama). Katey sings a lot of the tunes on the soundtrack which is worth a listen.

Katey Sagal – Son of a Preacher Man - http://youtu.be/YTDBI2EZ-tQ

I was into this band called Petra when I was at high school. They were unashamedly pushing a religious message but that didn’t really fuss me – I just liked the way they sounded. Fast forward to quite recently and they reformed and put out a new album and did a tour. I got the CD, it was pretty good. And then I watched some live footage. Wow, these guys can still rock! But, the audience in the footage is almost dead and the guitar player has had a dead animal frisbeed onto his head. If I was at a show this good I’d at least be singing along and pumping my fist in the air once in a while. Sheesh. Anyway, I always thought that KISS borrowed the track “God Gave Rock ‘n’Roll To You” from Petra but I was mistaken. It’s from a band called Argent and really after a quick look I really don’t like the original. But I do like this…

Argent – Hold Your Head Up - http://youtu.be/o-6v4H4BtWI

DJ BenEE sent me a link to this song during the week. It’s one of those ones with lyrics that nobody quite knows. But it’s a great tune! Explanations of the lyrics are most welcome.

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Blinded By The Light - http://youtu.be/lcWVL4B-4pI

Scottish record company Temple Records publish some very cool stuff – a wide variety of Scottish music. There are some awesome special deals on their website just now so check them out at http://www.templerecords.co.uk . I’m on their mailing list as they are the Battlefield Band’s record company.

I was going to say a lot about “keyboard commandos” this week. That’s people who troll the internet making inflammatory comments and hiding behind a screen name. I’m a member of a couple of internet forums that sometimes get choked up with these idiots. We all know they’re sitting at a keyboard in their stained y-fronts eating cheese balls but they annoy us nonetheless. Life’s too short people – get outside and get a life.

I’ll finish with Tony Joe White. He’s a fantastically soulful guitar player and singer. Swampy blues rock would be a fair description. Here’s a song from him about flower power…

Tony Joe White – Soul Francisco - http://youtu.be/ptPGMXoRAyw

Have a great weekend…give someone a hug…but not me, hands off the merchandise.

DJ Rob