So I'm driving along, got the MP3 player on shuffle and this kick-ass blues tune comes on.
"Wow," says I to myself, "this sounds almost like it could be the Allman Brothers Band, but not quite, good guitar-playing, though..."
So I get to a safe place where I can take my eyes off the road, briefly to see what's playing...
"Keys to the Highway" by Derek and the Dominos
Doh!
You know that bizarre advertising campaign that LloydsTSB is currently running, with that melancholy music with the annoying high-pitched female voice on it?
I've just come across the original version of the music for it on Napster, no voice, just piano and violin. And it is sublimely, transcendentally gorgeous. It is a tune called "Eliza's Aria" and it was composed by a woman by the name of Elena Kats-Chernin, an Australian composer originally from Tashkent.
I'm now listening to the entire album, 2005's "Ragtime and Blue". Wow...I can't say anything except how beautiful the music is.
I love when I get turned on to something different like this. So much so, that I'm off to buy the CD itself from Amazon...
A band formed by Mike Estes, who played guitar for Lynyrd Skynyrd in the nineties, and Dave Hlubek from Molly Hatchet (who’s since re-joined Molly Hatchet), Skinny Molly, played here at a local pub.
They
played loads of Skynyrd songs, a few originals, a respectable cover of
Copperhead Road, and a rock-n-roll version of Dixie. Kicked major ass,
and my wife got to observe me in my full redneck glory.
Made me feel homesick...
I was just going through organising the MP3s into playlists when I re-discovered a classic tune that gets me going every time: the live version of Green Onions by the Blues Brothers. Yes it is an instrumental, but Elwood Blues (Canadian Dan Aykroyd) goes on a fantastic speech over the music...you gotta love it:
All right people. The rest of the hard working all star Blues Brothers are gonna be out here in a minute, including my little brother Jake.
But right now, I'd like to talk a little bit about this tune you're hearing. This is of course the Green Onions tune. It was a very big hit in the early sixties in this country. And of course it was composed and recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, right here in the United States Of America.
You know, people, I believe that this tune can be equated with the great classical music around the world. Now you go to Germany, you've got your Bach, your Beethoven, your Brahms... Here in America you've got your Fred McDowell, your Irving Berlin, your Glenn Miller, and your Booker T & The MG's, people. Another example of the great contributions in music and culture that this country has made around the world.
And as you look around the world today, you see this country spurned. You see backs turned on this country.
Well people, I'm gonna tell you something, this continent, North America, is the stronghold! This is where we're gonna make our stand in this decade! Yeah, people, I've got something to say to the State Department. I say Take that archaic Monroe Doctrine, and that Marshall Plan that says we're supposed to police force the world, and throw 'em out! Let's stay home for the next ten years people! Right here in North America and enjoy the music and culture that is ours.
Yeah, I got one more thing to say. I'm just talking about the music, people, and what it does to me.
And that is, as you look around the world, you go to the Soviet Union or Great Britain or France, you name it, any country... Everybody is doing flips and twists just to get into a genuine pair of American blue jeans! And to hear this music and we got it all here in America, the land of the Chrysler 440 cubic inch engine!
Kick Ass!
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