Humble Pie was one of those great bands from the late 60s/early 70s. Featuring Steve Marriott from the Small Faces (he was the guy who sang Itchycoo Park) and Peter Frampton (who went on to super-stardom in the mid-70s), Humble Pie rocked.
I couldn’t find 30 Days in the Hole, my favorite Humble Pie hit, but I did find Black Coffee, featuring incredible backing vocals - wow.
I heard on the radio that today is Keith Richard’s birthday – so here we go – happy birthday.
“Only Rock n Roll” is classic Stones, with funky time changes and an acoustic guitar breakdown in the middle. Dig the video, it features bubbles, sailor suits, and the Stones in drag – I mean wow.
Jimi was the best. Purple Haze is the first song Hendrix song everyone hears and it does rock. Dig the distinctive E7 #9 (the sound that gives this song its edge).
Jimi is loose in this video and even tunes his guitar himself, something rock stars don’t do any more. (I think someone took this from the Isle of Wright concert – but I am not sure.)
Continuing my fascination with everything Black Sabbath/Deep Purple, check out this extremely early Deep Purple live oh so sixties version of Hush. Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice and John Lord are in the band, they sound great (dig the killer organ solo) but the best part is the groovy dance people – how did these fashions ever leave us?
I am not sure I understand the Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow connection – but it is there. Ronnie James Dio, who went on to a great solo career after replacing Ozzy as the front man for Black Sabbath, started out with Rainbow – the band Ritchie Blackmore formed after leaving Deep Purple. The personnel with these bands was lucid, Ian Gillian also sang for Sabbath, other members of Deep Purple would join Rainbow, as would guys from Ozzy’s solo bands. Other bands also got in the loop, most famously Tony Iommi’s brief gig with Jethro Tull.
Rainbow was classic, featuring Ritchie Blackmore’s great guitar playing, great songs (some of which even became hits), and a host of great lead singers and sidemen. I found this old live clip of the “Man on the Silver Mountain” – I think it was their most famous song (though not their biggest hit).
In an earlier post I mentioned what I think is common knowledge, Ozzy made his name as the front man for Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath were the first and certainly most famous of the proto-heavy metal bands that hit the scene in the late sixties and early seventies. Although they sound nothing like Led Zeppelin, they are often lumped together and presented as the ying to Zeppelin’s yang. Whether or not this is true I guess is up for debate, personally I couldn’t care less – each band is amazing and I have both their catalogues on vinyl - can anyone beat that?
I found this wild old clip of Paranoid from English TV – the first two minutes have nothing to do with the music, but are pretty funny.
I am sure it is common knowledge that Ozzy got his start as the lead singer for Black Sabbath and after leaving Black Sabbath went on to mega-superstardom as a solo artist. What people probably don’t know is that Ozzy discovered guitar legend Randy Rhodes, who was responsible for changing heavy metal guitar.
Randy Rhodes, besides from being a virtuoso, invented a new approach to rock guitar and made classical music cool. He borrowed harmonically from the classical world and very rarely relied on the standard pentatonic blues riffs that are germane to the rock world (and made Ozzy famous). He was a new and innovative voice in a world dominated almost exclusively by Eddie Van Halen until his untimely death in a plane crash while on tour with Ozzy. (After his death, the Ozzy guitar spot became the most coveted gig for heavy metal guitar players.)
I am pretty sure this clip is from an early 80’s late night rock show and the band is playing live to the cameras. The bass player is Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot – after Randy’s death he left Ozzy to return to Quiet Riot (they had a few hits and then disappeared) – Randy Rhodes also played in Quiet Riot before landing the Ozzy gig.
Charlie Daniels has been around the music scene forever, though the first song I heard was his massive country, southern-rock crossover hit “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” – arguably the greatest fiddle song ever recorded. Dig the groovy bass line during the “devil’s” jam section – it comes back at the end for a flash as well.
In 1968 the Rolling Stones put together the “Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus” for BBC TV. A handful of bands – including the Who, the Stones and John Lennon – spent the night in a circus tent performing and recording. In the end, the Stones pulled the plug on the entire project and the “Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus” became a much talked about but unheard part of rock history. (Clips of the Who from that night were in the film “The Kids Are Alright”).
The clip here is the band John Lennon put together for the Stones’ aborted TV show and includes Eric Clapton on guitar, Mitch Mitchell (from the Jimi Hendrix Experience) on drums and Keith Richards on bass*. The song is “Yer Blues” from the White Album – also dig the introductory interview.
*Keith Richards often played bass with the Stones in the studio.
Leslie West and Mountain had a huge hippie hit with the megaton in-your-face Mississippi Queen. The live version here lacks the blistering guitar leads from the studio cut, but the vocals are absolutely incredible. The last I heard of Mountain was a stint opening for Van Halen a few years ago – bring them back!