Not wasting any time to act on information, law enforcement officials have decided to re-open the investigation into the death of Rolling Stones founder and guitarist, Brian Jones.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090831/ap_en_ce/eu_britain_rolling_stones_death
In the digital age, this is already old news. But I was out all day and didn’t see confirmation of this until the last few minutes. Nevertheless, the news is that Noel Gallagher has issued a statement on the band’s official website that he has left Oasis. His statement reads:
Dearly beloved, it is with a heavy heart and a sad face that I say this to you this morning.
As of last Friday the 28th August, I have been forced to leave the Manchester rock’n’roll pop group Oasis.
The details are not important and of too great a number to list. But I feel you have the right to know that the level of verbal and violent intimidation towards me, my family, friends and comrades has become intolerable. And the lack of support and understanding from my management and band mates has left me with no other option than to get me cape and seek pastures new.
I would like firstly to offer my apologies to them kids in Paris who’d paid money and waited all day to see us only to be let down AGAIN by the band. Apologies are probably not enough, I know, but I’m afraid it’s all I’ve got.
While I’m on the subject, I’d like to say to the good people of V Festival that experienced the same thing. Again, I can only apologise – although I don’t know why, it was nothing to do with me. I was match fit and ready to be brilliant. Alas, other people in the group weren’t up to it.
In closing I would like to thank all the Oasis fans, all over the world. The last 18 years have been truly, truly amazing (and I hate that word, but today is the one time I’ll deem it appropriate). A dream come true. I take with me glorious memories.
Now, if you’ll excuse me I have a family and a football team to indulge.
I’ll see you somewhere down the road. It’s been a fuckin’ pleasure.
Thanks very much.
Goodbye.
NG.
As an avid Oasis fan, I hope this isn’t true. It’s certainly not the first time a Gallagher brother has walked away from the band. Will it be temporary? Only time will tell.
If Oasis is done I can live with it so long as Noel goes on making music. He’s the reason I listen in the first place.
Laying on the floor, side by side, looking at the day’s newspaper, out popped out that week’s TV Guide. On the cover were four shaggy-haired men, a familiar look in the mid-70’s. “Mom, who are those guys?” I asked. “They’re the Beatles. They were really popular when I was a teenager.” I don’t remember where the conversation went from there, but I’ll never forget the picture or that moment. From then on I was fascinated by the Fab Four. I was no more than 5 years old, maybe 4.
My mom would shop in the Federal store or in Montgomery Ward and turn me loose in the music section. I would thumb through record-albums, spending most or my time in the Beatles section, dreaming of owning their albums, really having no clue about most of the music. But I knew they were good. Damned good. It was as if I sensed it. Eventually, for birthdays and Christmases, I got their records and 8 tracks from hip relatives. Their music was like a drug. I couldn’t get enough.
But it was this image, that graces the cover of this month’s “Rolling Stone” magazine, that really started it all. After seeing these 4 guys on that TV Guide — Lord knows why they were on it — music for me was never the same. Life, in fact, was never the same.
Looking for some Rolling Stones tunes on youtube, I stumbled across this user, WABC77. He has a really interesting approach: he plays great old songs on vinyl, recording the removal of the disk from the sleeve and it spinning/playing on the turntable. More interesting than his gimmick, if you will, is the amazing sound of the vinyl. I’ve not heard music on vinyl in a decade at least. I don’t profess to be an audiophile. So the crispness, clarity and warmth of these records really took me by surprise. The Stones’ song, “19th Nervous Breakdown” is one of my favorite among his collection.
If you’d like to check out the rest of his youtube videos, look here.
This might be one of the cooler guitar licks of the 1960’s. It’s a great rock tune. Too bad it never gets airplay, even on “oldies” and so-called “classic rock” stations. Enjoy it here.
I think I’m a little caught off guard by this Japanese Oasis.
On that day, the Beatles gathered for their last group photo session. It was all over but the “divorce” as Lennon described it. As much as they were at each others’ throats, the managed a few smiles.
From the Beatles' last photo shoot
Lots of people love the Beatles. Most people that like rock at all at least appreciate them. In my experience, except for the most die-hard Beatles fans, their work before 1967 gets little or no recognition for it’s greatness. I still see or hear people call the early Beatles a “boy band” or “bubble gum pop,” but that notion is seriously flawed.
I just read this bit in the August 2009 edition of The Word magazine, from an article called “Why the Beatles are Underrated.” About the Beatles work between 1963 and 1966, the writer says:
While that second three-year career (1967 to 1970) is not without its delights, the first period was actually when their collective genius was operating at full tilt. To fully appreciate it from the vantage point of 2009 we have to shrug off our infatuation with fashionable gloom and shed the illusion that true artists are all complex and impenetrable. We must accept the fact that the greatest pop group of them all didn’t consider it beneath them to make their records for 14-year-old girls. When they made their classic records the false opposition between rock and pop hadn’t been invented. This wall between the two has been the refuge of scoundrels and snobs ever since. To appreciate why we still underrate the Beatles you have to shrug off that prejudice and travel back to 1963, when they were far from a done deal.
That about sums it up. The Beatles were a pop band, but all that meant is that they played popular music, as opposed to classical, jazz, pure blues, you name it. Rock was (and is) a form of pop music. Rock was pop. Pop was rock. The Beatles were rock. Get it? It’s that simple.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090813/ap_en_ce/us_obit_les_paul
Sadly, guitarist extraordinaire and creator of arguably the greatest guitar ever (mass) produced, Les Paul, died today at age 94.
If you can, watch some videos of him playing. He was an amazing guitarist. More than his play, he’s probably known for his pioneering work on the electric guitar. Les Paul model Gibson and Epiphone guitars — to say nothing of all the knock offs — have been played by some of the greatest guitarists in music history.
Les will be missed. We were lucky to have him for as long as we have.
The Sound of the Pounding 