if u thought this was going to be a musical request thread, please go back to watching MTV and figuring out new ways of speaking english;)
a couple of years ago a friend of mine played me a version of ‘Free Bird’, the very thought of which still moves me close to tears (as i noticed on the highway this morning while listening to an old ‘live’ version)
the version i’m talking about was recorded after the plane crash that claimed the lead vocalist (among others)
the band eventually reformed and, if i have my band biog info right, his brother replaced him on vocals
the version my friend played me was a live recording and u can hear the crowd getting the (Free Bird!, Free Bird!) chant going
the vocalist does the time honoured thing and asks “What song is it you want to hear?”
they tell him
as the intro starts up under his voice (to a rapturous response from the audience), he tells them that there was only one man who could sing that song and that he was no longer with us but that the band would play the song and the audience could sing
which they do
word for word
for the next 12 minutes
call me an old sap, but that works for me
i can’t think of a kewler tribute
thing is, i’ve lost contact with the guy who played me this version
(his name is Gerald Priestly and i know he’s in the UK somewhere, just in case)
i have no info about it and prelim Googles haven’t helped much
so i thought i’d come and ask here
does anyone here know of this recording?
does anyone here have this recording?
can u give me a catalogue number for the recording so i can order it from here?
and in my shame i have to admit that i still haven’t gotten around to doing anything about that
it’s a couple of long stories rolled in one
sounds like i’m in the ballpark
i’ve never heard the ‘hat on the micstand’ detail before
that’s kewl
now at least i have an idea of the era i need to look at
yeah, Child In Time it’s not
fortunately/unfortunately there isn’t a single radio station in South Africa likely to play something like Freebird so the only times i’m likely to hear it is when i’m sufficiently in the mood to take the CD into the car with me
and then i’m normally in a ‘crank-it’ mood
Classic Rock isn’t seen as having a big enough listener base to warrant an exclusive station and the individual programmes that used to cater for that market have slowly but surely been phased out by format-happy and affirmative-action-obsessed programme managers
the intransigence of 20-something media planners with their wonder bras and trick pelvises have strangled all the ‘guerilla radio’ stations that would be likely to include classic rock in their play lists
i had the privilidge of working on some of the above and my most bragged about ‘radio-moment’ is probably my ‘In a gadda da vida’-‘Alice’s Restaurant Masacree’ double play
35 minutes of music
Most of my Skynyrd knowledge is from air play or listening to it way to loud at my brother’s friend’s bachelor house 20+ years ago. That was in the days of big amps and monster speakers stacked to the ceiling in a small living room.
I can’t place “Simple Man” but I found the lyrics. Cool song.
Maybe part of my mixed feelings to “Free Bird” is in that same era the local rock station would have a contest at the end of every year for the best rock song ever. It seemed to always come down between “Stairway to Heaven” and “Free Bird”. Both songs got played to nauseum. You can OD on both of them.
Segue…(Thread jack, what ever) I heard this morning that Rolling Stone is publishing the top 500 songs of all time. This is the best article I could find so far. I don’t see Skynyrd or Zeppelin in the top 20; I’d like to see the rest of the list.
The top 20 songs from Rolling Stone Magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”:
“Like a Rolling Stone” Bob Dylan
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” The Rolling Stones
“Imagine” John Lennon
“What’s Going On” Marvin Gaye
“Respect” Aretha Franklin
“Good Vibrations” The Beach Boys
“Johnny B. Goode” Chuck Berry
“Hey Jude” The Beatles
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” Nirvana
“What’d I Say” Ray Charles
“My Generation” The Who
“A Change is Gonna Come” Sam Cooke
“Yesterday” The Beatles
“Blowin’ in the Wind” Bob Dylan
“London Calling” The Clash
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” The Beatles
“Purple Haze” The Jimi Hendrix Experience
“Maybellene” Chuck Berry
“Hound Dog” Elvis Presley
“Let It Be” The Beatles
so i follow the link, find the site, register and post this thread
today i get a notification of a(nother) response to the thread (the others were pretty nowhere)
i get there and it’s Gerald’s wife
i got hold of his email message and am back in touch with one of the ‘dolphin’ people in my life
line i kept hearing in my head wasn’t from ‘Like a Rolling Stone’
it wasn’t untill i was out shopping with the significant/other this weekend and heard New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ in one of the shops, that i realised which song i’d been hearing in my head
Now I understand your pain, your quest, and your ultimate relief. Having a techno song stuck in your head and not knowing what the heck it is, has got to be one of the most cruel forms of turture.
And just to show that these things act like a chain letter that never ends, I fired up the P2P progie and downloaded that song. Now it’s stuck in my head! Damn you! I don’t like techno or dance beats.
Club/Dance would be a better classification. It still fits in a category of music that I don’t really care for. Dance music has no passion and no feeling. It’s a mechanical beat. Music with no passion is not worth listening to (even if it’s worth dancing to).
Since this thread started with a tribute song, my current favorite tribute song is “Hurt” as sung by Johnny Cash. That song has some powerful emotion in it. It has passion. It is real music. Hurt is originally a Nine Inch Nails song, but I now recognize it more as Johnny Cash’s song. It just fits Johnny Cash so much. And Johnny Cash’s video that goes along with the song is powerful too. I consider it a tribute to Johnny’s hurtful side during his career.
A local radio station played Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt the day that he died. I was driving in the car when it was played. I almost had to pull over cause it was hard to concentrate on the driving. If I hadn’t been on a busy highway I would have pulled over. I still have a hard time listening to that song.
Another tribute album that I enjoy is Queen’s Made in Heaven. Dedicated to the immortal spirit of Freddie Mercury.
john, that’s a serious amount of stuff we agree on
i think everybody had better get home before the snowstorms start
(ok, so that’s funnier if u live in a climate where it doesn’t snow)
i loved reznor’s reaction to the video
there’s a duet version of hurt with david bowie and trent reznor
it’s on an official release NIN video somewhere
pretty kewl
That’s the fire that is immortalized in Deep Purple’s song Smoke On The Water.
We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn’t have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, and fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
A funky Claude was running in and out
Pulling kids outa the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But Swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, and fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty cold and bare
But with the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights, a few old beds
We made a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know, I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, and fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
) Avril-baby
