themusicaddict's Greatest 90's Country Songs

Hello,

This is based on Rob Fee's "The 100 Greatest Country Songs of the 90's" at thoughtcatalog.com and Leigh Wagner's 90's Country playlist at Rdio.com. The #1 song on Rob Fee's list is the incredibly sappy "The Dance" by Garth Brooks. This blog doesn't have room for such sappy songs.

I'll start off this blog by without a doubt the hottest country singer of the 90's, Shania Twain. I remember the first time I saw this video, I didn't care about the name of the song. What I wanted to know is who is that babe? "Any Man of Mine":

Someone who's not as hawt as the lovely Miss Twain, but nonetheless has a hell of a song. Travis Tritt's "Any More":

Perhaps the greatest voice I have ever heard live, the amazing Wynonna and "No One Else On Earth":

Patty Loveless' "Blame It On Your Lyin' Cheatin' Heart":

Lorrie Morgan's "Something In Red" (another fantastic voice):

She never became as a big of a star as her Dad, but Pam Tillis did have the sublime "Maybe It Was Memphis":

Michelle Wright's "Take It Like A Man";

Let's bring back the men, Doug Stone's "In A Different Light":

Kenny Chesney's "How Forever Feels":



Diamond Rio's "Meet In The Middle":



David Lee Murphy's "Dust On The Bottle":



Aaron Tippin's "Ain't Nothing Wrong With The Radio":



Mark Chesnutt's "Bubba Shot The Jukebox":



Joe Diffie's "Third Rock From The Sun":



Lonestar's "Amazed":



I'm going to close out with the ladies, first up a couple from Trisha Yearwood. "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)":



"She's In Love With The Boy":



A couple from Faith, do you really need a last name?



One of the most joyous songs ever, "This Kiss":



I'll close out with the amazing Dixie Chicks, who will probably eventually get at least one blog for a Greatest CD of All-Time. "Goodbye Earl":



"You Were Mine":



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Selected Greatest Hits of Alan Jackson

Hello,

For my last blog I wrote about Garth Brooks "No Fences" CD, without a doubt one of the greatest CDs of All-Time. However I was put off by how little of his music is on Youtube, there's only one reason for that- pure greed. You know because Brooks hasn't made enough money already. That made me want to give some love to another country music star of around the same time, the first name that came to mind was Alan Jackson. He has two or three very good CDs, but sadly he doesn't have a greatest CD of all-time. "Here In The Real World" is probably his best CD, which I'm enjoying now on Rdio.

Since he doesn't have a greatest CD of all-time, but has a lot of great songs I decided to do a greatest hits type blog. Now all of his great songs wouldn't fit on one blog, which is why I'm only including selected greatest hits.

Four songs from "Here In The Real World", starting with the title track:



One of my personal favorites, "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow":



"Chasin' That Neon Rainbow" (Live):



"Home" (Live):



"Short Sweet Ride":



Other assorted and great Alan Jackson songs:

"Dallas":



"Gone Country":



"She's Got The Rhythm and I Got The Blues":



"Drive (For Daddy Gene)":



"Midnight In Montgomery":



"Chattahoochee":



"That'd Be Alright":



"Livin' On Love":



"Don't Rock The Jukebox":



"Who's Cheatin' Who":



In case I missed any of your favorites, here's an Alan Jackson concert "Aquapalooza":



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs Of All-time: Garth Brooks "No Fences" (Finished On June 27th, 2014)

Hello,

With Garth Brooks looking like he's making a slow comeback, I thought this would be an appropriate time to write about one of the greatest CDs of all-time. It's not just one of the greatest country CDs of all-time. I'm not going to declare it the best country CD of all-time, but one could make a reasonable argument for just that classification.

On August 27th, 1990 Garth Brooks released his second CD, "No Fences". It shipped 17 million copies in America alone and remains his biggest selling CD. Following his self-titled CD from the previous year, "Garth Brooks" which has such famous songs as "If Tomorrow Never Comes". Other popular songs include the puktifying "The Dance". It also features "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" in which he mentions Chris Ledoux. It seems that led to a friendship between the two until the way too early death of Chris. Probably my favorite song on that CD is "Nobody Gets Off In This Town", a very hilarious deadpan song.

Along with an upcoming world tour, Garth recently released "Blame It All On My Roots", a 6 CD, 2 DVD collection. It was released exclusively through Walmart on November 28th, 2013, "Roots" has 77 songs and 33 videos. I don't know how good the sales were, but every time I go to Walmart there are always still a few left.

Jay Leno says that Garth still has "got it", but he doesn't really have it here. Let's hope he was sick or just had a rough night here before many people pay a lot of money to see him in concert again. Garth Brooks singing "Night Moves":



After playing a 4 year residency in Las Vegas, just him and his guitar, on this tour he'll be bringing a full band. I love Garth Brooks, but just him and a guitar? I think that would be damn boring. I saw him open for the Judds on one of their farewell tours and he was amazing. (Thanks to Wikipedia providing much of the biographical information, all opinions are mine.)

Garth Brooks talking about Kiss, family and his 2014 Tour.



It seems Garth is one of those that doesn't allow his music on Youtube as do most others. It looks like for most of these videos, I'm going to have to go with other people singing Garth's songs. Although he likes to play the humble aw shucks country boy, I don't believe it for a second. What he's hiding below that exterior is a steely (greedy?) businessman. That would explain him being a tightwad and why he allows very little of his music on Youtube. However no one can discount the greatness of "No Fences". Every song is amazing and a masterpiece. Although Garth a piece of advice, you may want to let your versions of your songs be on Youtube. The people covering your music for the most part are terrible!!

Here's Terry Fator and his Garth Brooks impression (by the way one of the better impersonators):



1) "The Thunder Rolls" (MusiqLuck's cover):



Garth Brooks impersonator Dean Simmons live cover of "The Thunder Rolls":



Tanya Tucker's cover of "The Thunder Rolls":

"Embedding disabled by request." This is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzY0_ObhZes

Jet Black Stare's rock cover:



2) "New Way To Fly" (sung by Ray Montanna):



3) Garth, here's one of the better versions of this song available on Youtube, most of the versions are much worse.  This is Brennan Barrier's cover of "Two Of A Kind Workin' On A Full House":



4) "Victim Of The Game": For this cover we'll go with his wife's version. She does a good enough job, but it's not quite as good as the original:



5) "Friends In Low Places" (A Garth impersonator for this cover, Tribute Guy):



6) "Wild Horses" (Mike Cantwell's cover):



7) "Unanswered Prayers" (I didn't realize there were so many Garth Brooks impersonators. Dean Simmons' cover of this amazing song.) This is my favorite song on the CD:



8) "Same Old Story" (Dino Nardelli's cover of this song.)



9) "Mr. Blue" (For this cover, we'll go with the original version by the Fleetwoods.):



10) "Wolves" (This video seems very appropriate for the lyrics.) :



After hearing these less than inspiring cover versions, I'm going to have to listen to the original CD on my iTunes.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Review of the TNT TV Show "The Last Ship" (Small spoilers)

Hello,

This is my review for the TNT show "The Last Ship". It stars Eric "McSteamy" as Commander Tom Chandler and Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb!) as his second in command Mike Slattery. It also stars the USS Halsey and the USS Dewey as the $3 billion ship the USS Nathan James. Appearing in the random eye candy role is Rhona Mitra as Dr. Rachel Scott. She happens to be a paleomicrobiologist who is in the right place at the right time. She's conveniently on board the last ship and she can find the cure to the pandemic.

I've watched the first episode so far, "Phase Six", the title refers to the virus spreading over the world. Or as Dr. Rachel Scott says very frightfully, "Global pandemic". At first I was incredulous that someone that could save the world just happened to be on board. However the show handles that and explains how that happened well. The government knew all about the virus before sending Dr. Scott and her assistant on board the USS Nathan James. I like the plot point of the crew being under four months of radio silence, that made some of the other plot points a bit more believable. It's a very good story telling trick.

With the Russians being the bad guys I'm wondering are we back to the Cold War? Other bad guys include the person who "weaponized the virus, you're Patient Zero"- Dr. Scott again. The Russians no longer have a functioning government which we find out from the current acting American President. She used to be the Speaker of the House. The President and Vice-President died within a week of each other a few weeks previous. The American government is barely functioning, the ship received orders that were five days old. What's a captain to do?

At the end of episode one we see someone who's obviously communicating with someone other than the US Government. That cliche wrinkle isn't needed in this show. It doesn't bring anything to the show and frankly it's lazy storytelling. If Dr. Scott's assistant, Quincy Tophet, is communicating with the Russians, which quite likely he is, that would be extremely disappointing. Let's hope "The Last Ship" can rise above a tired cliche.

This is one of the trailers:



Produced by Michael Bay, which usually indicates action over story. After the first episode the action/ story mix is okay, to make a truly classic series story is more important than action. (For instance, the Sundance show "Rectify" has relatively little action, but along with "Lost" and "Homeland" it had one of the best first seasons of any show ever.) In a smart combination of action and story the crew of the USS Nathan James has a nifty fight with the Russians, which involve snowmobiles, butt kicking helicopters and the ship itself. It's exciting, but slightly unbelievable. Although the presumption is the Russians are trained military, why do they have such poor accuracy when shooting? They need to find other ways to make this more exciting besides poor shooting soldiers. Obviously that's completely unrealistic and hopefully has been remedied by episode 2.

One of the first things that "The Last Ship" reminded me of was the alleged submarine thriller "Last Resort". "Last Resort" started out okay, but quickly ran aground. From reading comments on EW.com, I'm not the only one that makes that comparison. Nearly every one of those commenters made the same comparison. I'm hoping the producers and writers learned from "Last Resort" how to make a smarter and more believable thriller.

"The Last Ship" has a 10 episode season and we know the 10th episode title is "No Place Like Home". That seems to be giving away the ending, although it could be meant to lead us astray. Likely these will be all 10 episodes for this show. We already know that the crew will save the world, maybe that shouldn't be broadcast so early? Perhaps there should be some question about if they do save the world. Since this is fiction, it's perfectly okay that they don't save the world. Just whatever happens should be as thrilling, intelligent and unpredictable as possible.

While writing this blog I realized I like more things about this show than dislike. I give this a show a probationary B- after one episode, I will continue watching it. In fact I'll probably even watch it almost live, something I do with very few shows.

(Thanks to Wikipedia, Youtube and EW.com for clarifying things and providing details that I didn't remember.)

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Review of Dean Koontz's "The City"

Hello,

Special thanks to Dean Koontz, NetGalley.com and Random House Publishing Group-Bantam Dell for allowing me to read this book before it's publication day. "The City" is due to be released on July 1st, 2014.

Set in the late sixties, during one of the most violent and unstable time in the history of America. The Vietnam War had turned into a fiasco, women were fighting for their rights, some men were doing what they could to get out of the draft, political upheaval, assassinations of many of the era's leading lights, etc.

"The City" is about a two year period in the life of young Jonah Kirk, a boy on the verge of puberty. The story roughly covers the time from when Jonah was 8 to 10. Although it's a work of memory, this book is essentially Kirk telling this story over 45 years later.

The story has a bunch of talented musicians at it's core. Along with Jonah, who's a great piano player, we meet his Mom the lovely Sylvia Kirk. Sylvia is quite a singer, working side jobs in hopes of finding her big break. Sadly as a single woman, people think they can take advantage of her. We also meet Malcolm Pomerantz, Jonah's lifelong friend and a talented saxophonist.

We also meet Jonah's grandfather, Teddy Bledsoe. A man of great character and a pianist of great skill that played with many of the breaks many years previous.

Sadly Jonah's father isn't much to shout about. He has no music in his soul and ends up doing a great amount of damage. He's an anarchist fighting for the Cause, although we don't exactly know what cause he's fighting for. We only know that his cause is anti-government.

We also meet The City itself. Both the actual physical parts of the city with Amalia Pomerantz as his tour guide. Amalia is Malcolm's older sister and the object of Jonah's first crush. We also meet The City who comes to meet Jonah in human form, a personage that Jonah nicknames Pearl. Pearl is Jonah's benefactor, guide and she helps prepare him for the upcoming challenges. She introduced Jonah to two characters in dreams before he actually met them in person.

My favorite character is Mr. Yoshoika, Jonah's former neighbor and fellow investigator in mysteries going on in the city. After finishing the book, my appreciation for this character grew exponentially. The end of his story was handled with great poignancy.

Koontz is usually a good author, but the quality of his work varies. Some of his books are amazing, I highly recommend "Lightning". But some of his books are less than stellar. But "The City" is one of the better books, he introduces us to Jonah and gets us to care about him. We know that Jonah is black, but this point is irrelevant as he's such a universal character. Most of us have survived puberty, which makes these types of coming-of-age novels so appealing. (Stephen King's "The Body" is a master work for coming-of-age stories. "Stand By Me" is the movie based on the story and is also of high quality.)

Overall I'd have to give this book a B. While I loved the first 90%, the end was a bit too tidy. Teddy being in the right place at the right time, how everything worked out for everyone. A ending like that is great, but it doesn't stay true to the realism tone of the novel. A minor complaint on what's a very good book, a less sappy end would made this book even better. But thank you Dean for introducing to all these great characters.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict Would Like To Know Whatever Happened To The Donnas?

Hello,

Yesterday I enjoyed rocking out to the female led band The Pretty Reckless, which led me to Sahara Hotnights. The Sahara Hotnights certainly have some good songs although it seems they were a short lived band. They got me thinking about other female led bands or bands that were all women. I realized we haven't heard from the Donnas in several years. So I looked up their Wikipedia page. The following information is highlights from that page, with some commentary from me and some of my favorite of their songs. All opinions are mine.

The Donnas formed in 1993 to play at a "Day On The Green" show. All their original members were born in 1979, Brett Anderson, Allison Robertson, Maya Ford and Torry Castellano. Unfortunately Castellano had to leave the band in 2009 due to tendinitis. I saw The Donnas with Miss Castellano play a couple of times, she was a hell of a drummer. She was essentially John Bonham in female form, a ferocious drummer. Castellano was replaced by Amy Cesari in 2009. Don't feel too bad for Miss Castellano, she's gone on to school at Stanford and Harvard. Along with being a hell of a drummer, she obviously is very intelligent as well. (Thanks to Wikipedia for information on The Donnas.)

Like I said I did see The Donnas play twice, both times at Lollapalooza when it was a touring festival. I saw them in Atlanta and Salt Lake. I was a fan before seeing them in concert, so I knew what they were about it. They were very good in concert, although the sameness of their songs sounds stands out when played live.

The Donnas never really had any "hits", but they have a lot of great songs. They didn't break much new ground, but they brought fun to rock and roll. They didn't take themselves seriously at all and are as far from being pretentious as its possible to be. Both times I saw them in concert bassist Maya Ford told the same Michael Jackson joke.

They turned the whole male preying on women sexuality cliche on it's head. Although that's a theme of many of their songs, it's played with tongue firmly in cheek.

Their last album of all new material was "Bitchin'", although they released a greatest hits album in 2009 "Greatest Hits Volume 16", the 16 is in honor of the album being released the year of the band's 16th anniversary. I'm listening to this CD now on Spotify, thanks Spotify! (This is why I'm glad there's multiple streaming music services. I went to Rdio first, but they don't have this CD available there.)

According to their Wikipedia page, in 2012 The Donnas were working on their 8th CD, even premiering a new song "Tramp". Yep, that sounds like a song title they'd use. Also according to their Wikipedia page, they are currently on hiatus.

Typing in www.thedonnas.com leads to the purplefeatherrecords.com. As of today that site features a The Donnas logo with "The Shoppe is currently closed for maintenance". The Donnas, of course, have a Facebook page. The website is Facebook.com/thedonnas. Their last message there was a Happy New Year's greeting on December 28th, 2013. Also on their Facebook page Brett Anderson states that she was going to be playing with her "new new band" Alpha/Beta on August 10th, 2013. I posted on their page asking when we would be getting some new music? I don't expect an answer, but will pass it on if they respond.

The sound sucks, but this is said to be their most recent song, "Tramp":



Again terrible sound, but this is The Donnas' take on Kiss's "Strutter", this video features a great guitar solo:



Here's much better sound, but only the audio on their cover of "Strutter":



"Too Bad About Your Girl":



"Take It Off":



"Who Invited You":



"Fall Behind Me":



"Smoke You Out":



"Smoke You Out" (Live):



"What Do I Have To Do" (Live, the sound is very good on this video):



"When The Show Is Over":



"It's On The Rocks":



"Take Me To The Backseat":



"Not The One":



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Best of The Edge's 102.1 Rdio Playlist (Part 2), The Pretty Reckless

Hello,

This list is taken from a Rdio.com playlist, created by a Bryon Thur from The Edge 102.1 FM. This is a great list that has helped me discover a lot of great, recently released rock music. All opinions are mine.

Sevendust's "Black":



Like most bands Pearl Jam will never make as good of music as their first couple of CDs. However I get the feeling that's not their goal any more. They're still making good music and are one of our best active rock bands.

Pearl Jam's "Lightning Bolt":



Of Mice and Men is one of those bands that my oldest son likes, a band that I didn't really get. However I think this is a pretty cool song.

Of Mice and Men's "Will You Still Be There":



I listened to some music from You Me At Six yesterday and I wasn't impressed. They seem like another one of those okay rock bands that doesn't break any new ground. Although I do like this song.

You Me At Six's "Room To Breathe":



The Virginmary's "King of Conflict" was released last year, so this song is a bit older than some of the other songs on this Rdio playlist. This is a band that's breaking new ground. "King of Conflict" is a great CD. Along with the below song, I also quite like "Bang Bang Bang" and a few other songs on this CD.

The Virginmary's "Just A Ride":



It took a few listens for this song to grow on me, it's not quite as catchy as "Just A Ride". Alter Bridge's "Cry of Achilles":



Framing Hanley's "Criminal":



Lacuna Coil's "Die & Rise":



Bleachers' "I Wanna Get Better":



Here's a couple of songs that are very good, but aren't really rock songs. First up Fitz and the Tantrum, I highly reccomend their recent CD "More Than Just A Dream", what a great CD. "The Walker":



An extremely catchy song and I love the Michelle Pfeiffer line. Vance Joy's "Riptide":



I've been listening to a lot of The Pretty Reckless since last night. When I initially listened to their music a couple of years ago, I wasn't very impressed. The lyrics pandered to the lowest common denominator and frankly were quite dumb. They were also needlessly overtly sexual in nature. However in listening to their 2014 CD "Going To Hell" they've matured quite a bit. I have the feeling that overt sexuality will never go away, see the cover and listen to the first few seconds of the song "Follow Me Down". However the lyrics are moving towards to more mature subjects and just not sex and relationships. I get the feeling some creepy, old music executives were telling Taylor what she needed to get to get sales. I'm glad The Pretty Reckless is seeing through this charade now. The thing that sells the most CDs is great songs. That's all you need.

"Going To Hell" has several great songs on it. I love the maturing of Taylor Momsen and her band mates. Not to mention Ms. Momsen has quite a voice. This is "Going To Hell" (I've listened to this CD at least 3 times since last night):



I also quite like their 2010 CD "Light Me Up":



The video for "Going To Hell":



Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go listen to some more of The Pretty Reckless.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Best of The Edge's 102.1 Rdio Playlist (Part 1)

Hello,

This list is taken from a Rdio.com playlist, created by a Bryon Thur from The Edge 102.1 FM. This is a great list that has helped me discover a lot of great, recently released rock music.

Any opinions expressed are my own. Looking at The Edge 102.1's website it seems like they are a real rock music station. Who even knew those were around any more? Sadly they don't have that kind of station in Salt Lake City, that I know of at least. Even if we did have that kind of station I wouldn't listen to it. Corporate radio is full of commercials and way too much talk. When I listen to my CDs I don't hear any of either.

When picking videos I try to pick actual videos made by the band. That way you can see the members of the band and find out more about what they are about. Of course I realize the group's manager, the record company, the video's director and who knows who else has an impact on the video as well. Here's the songs that I like the most from this Rdio playlist.

Are you looking for a fairly recent band that kicks some butt? Then I would highly recommend Pop Evil. If you just wanted one CD to listen to I would suggest "Onyx" over "War of Angels".

Pop Evil's "Torn To Pieces":



Yes, Linkin Park is still releasing good music, I just don't think they'll hit quite the same heights as  "Hybrid Theory" or "Meteora" again. Those truly are two great CDs.

Linkin Park's "Guilty All The Same":



I honestly don't know much about the next couple of bands. However I like both of these songs, thus I'm glad I discovered this great Edge 102.1 Rdio playlist.

Adelita's Way "Dog On A Leash":



Theory of a Deadman's "Drown":



The always reliable Black Keys "Fever":



I'm a big fan of Redlight King, the below song is from his second CD "Irons In The Fire". While that's a perfectly good CD, it's nowhere as good as his amazing first CD, "Something For The Pain". That CD is one of the best rock CDs released over the last few years. About half of it's songs are on my iPod.

Redlight King's "Times Are Hard":



I've listened to Five Finger Death Punch a few times and haven't been real impressed. They go too far towards the screaming over singing. However I really like this take on the Animals classic "House of The Rising Sun":



Kongos "Come With Me Now":



This is one of my favorite songs on the entire Rdio 102.1 playlist.

Starset's "My Demons":



Black Stone Cherry's previous CD was "Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", it's an amazing CD chock full of great songs. Sadly their recent release, "Magic Mountain", isn't quite as good. This is the best song on the CD.

Black Stone Cherry's "Me and Mary Jane":



There's just something about a woman who's vocals shred through a song. For instance both of the following songs:

We As Human's (featuring Lucy Sturm) "Take The Bullets Away":



This is the full "Rise" album.

Skillet's "Rise":



One of my favorite rock bands released a CD recently. One week ago Rival Sons released "Great Western Valkyrie". I hope to listen to that today, also some of The Pretty Reckless, You Me At Six and perhaps some Royal Blood.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: "Led Zeppelin III" (Finished June 16th, 2014)

Hello,

Led Zeppelin's first 3 CDs were all amazing, but they still hadn't released their best CD yet. "Led Zeppelin IV" (aka "ZOSO") would be released on November 8th, 1971.

"Led Zeppelin III" was recorded between January to August, 1970. This CD showed Led Zeppelin was expanding it's musical palate, they just weren't only a hard rock band. Of course from the opening howl of "Immigrant Song" this CD also shows that Led Zeppelin still rocks. Indeed "Immigrant Song" gives the title of one of the mighty Zep's definitive biographies, Stephen Davis' "Hammer of The Gods". (Thanks to Wikipedia for much of the information in this blog.)

The initial reaction to "III" was less than enthusiastic. Some people didn't like the acoustic songs and some didn't like the heavier rock songs. I'm sorry, but I don't see how this CD can not be considered a classic. Any CD that has "Immigrant Song", "Gallows Pole", "That's The Way" and "Tangerine" is a classic. Even a lesser known song like "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is a great song. Although it's an amazing CD, it's only on a few top albums of all-time lists.

"Led Zeppelin III" was released on October 5th, 1970. It went to #1 in the USA, where it stayed for 4 weeks. It's sold over 6 million copies here in America.

The original "Led Zeppelin III":



This is the bonus disc attached to the June 3rd, 2014 Deluxe Edition of "Led Zeppelin III":



The tracks on the above bonus disc are:

1."The Immigrant Song" (Alternate Mix) Page, Plant 2:25
2."Friends" (Track, No Vocal) Page, Plant 3:43
3"Celebration Day" (Alternate Mix  )Jones, Page, Plant 3:18
4."Since I've Been Loving You" (Rough Mix of First Recording) Jones, Page, Plant 7:16
5."Bathroom Sound" (Track, No Vocal) Bonham, Page, Plant 4:00
6."Gallows Pole" (Rough Mix) Traditional, arr. Page, Plant 5:17
7."That's the Way" (Rough Mix with Dulcimer & Backwards Echo) Page, Plant 5:22
8."Jennings Farm Blues" (Rough Mix of All Guitar Overdubs That Day) Jones, Page, Plant 5:54
9."Key To The Highway/Trouble In Mind" (Rough Mix)  Big Bill Bronzy, Charlie Segar, Richard M. Jones

Here's the original "Led Zeppelin III" track list:

1) "Immigrant Song" 2:26 (Written by Page & Plant)



"Immigrant Song" (Live):



2) "Friends" 3:55 (Page & Plant):



3) "Celebration Day" 3:29 (Jones, Page & Plant):



"Celebration Day" (Live):



Here's the full 2007 Reunion Concert, which is titled "Celebration Day":



4) "Since I've Been Loving You" 7:25 (Jones, Page & Plant)



"Since I've Been Loving You" (Live):



5) "Out On The Tiles" 4:04 (Bonham, Page & Plant)



6) Easily one of my favorite Zep songs: "Gallows Pole" 4:58 (Traditional Arr. Page & Plant)



"Gallows Pole" (Live) the sound quality is poor:



Page and Plant's "Gallows Pole":



Led Zeppelin were a student of the Blues, that's where they borrowed/ stole some of their greatest songs. Some songs like "Gallows Pole", they took a traditional arrangement and improved considerably on it. Nirvana covered Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" for their MTV Unplugged show. This is Leadbelly's "Gallows Pole":



7) "Tangerine" 3:12 (Page):



"Tangerine" (Live):



8) "That's The Way" 5:38 (Page & Plant):



"That's The Way" (Live):



9) "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" 4:20 (Jones, Page & Plant):



10) "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" 3:41 (Traditional Arr. Charles Obscure aka Jimmy Page):



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's review of "Murder In The First"

Hello,

This is my review of the TNT show "Murder In The First", a show that follows a single police investigation from start to finish over 10 episodes. The show premiered on Monday, June 9th, 2014 and I watched it last night.

My initial grade is a C+. It has both good things that will keep you watching and bad things that will turn you off. "Murder In The First" stars Taye Diggs as Terry English and Kathleen Robertson as Hildy Milligan, both are SFPD homicide detectives and partners. Milligan is divorced and raising a 6 year old daughter. English has the more interesting back story. His wife is dying of cancer and there's nothing else that can be done. At a doctor's urging he brings her home to die. If a show is good enough on it's own, it doesn't need extensive back stories. And I rolled my eyes when I found out a character  had a spouse dying of cancer. I thought here we go again. However this show handled the battle with cancer with grace and great story telling. It's also very poignant and moving. Then I thought to myself that I hope this cancer storyline doesn't go on too long. A too long back story can suck the soul out of a show. (I'm looking at you "Longmire", can you please move on from the death of Walt's wife? Please.)

I was relieved when Mrs. English died at the end of the pilot episode. I liked that the show and Detective English allowed his wife to go home to die. Although I was only partially invested in Mrs. England, I felt a loss when she died. I hate to see cancer get another victim, even if it's only in fiction. Again the producers and writers handled this whole story line with extreme grace.

I probably will lose interest in this show if English and Milligan hook up as the trailer hints. That's so cliche now and a very tired story line. "Castle" has handled it fairly well, but that's a rare exception. If the show goes down that road, the murder case better be brilliant.

As for the case I'm not sure it's strong enough to carry the show for 10 episodes. A chief suspect is Silicon Valley visionary Erich Blunt. He's the charismatic leader of up and coming company, Applesn, but he also can be a bit of a jerk. It's almost like he has a split personality. I'm wondering how much Apple and Steve Jobs provided inspiration for this storyline?

Thomas Schlamme directed the first episode. With him involved that means there's going to be at least one character from "West Wing". Sure enough look it's Toby Ziegler, it's always good to see an actor from one of my all-time favorite TV shows. Schiff here plays David Hertzberg, a lawyer of Blunt. He needs to cut that hair at the back of his head though- ugly! Hertzberg gives such good advice as working with people so that they are peeing outside of the tent rather than inside the tent.

Other characters include Lt. Jim Koto, the very good Ian Anthony Dale. He plays his character with both toughness and great compassion for English. At first I didn't like Tom Felton as Erich Blunt. I didn't think he was a great actor. But then I realized the reason I hated his character so much is because of how good of an actor Felton is. Steven Weber also shows up as a pilot for Blunt. There's a few other main characters that we haven't seen in the show yet.



The whole "TNT Drama: Boom!" has got to go though. It sucks! The movie voiced guys doing the promos also have to go, except for Honest Trailers. I loathe the AMC movie voice guy now, it reminds me of how far AMC has fallen since it's glory days of a few years ago.

Anyway I give the show a C+ grade. It's not terrible, but it's also not fantastic. It was good enough that I plan on watching at least one more episode.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: "Led Zeppelin II" (Updated June 14th, 2014)

Hello,

With the reissues of the first 3 Led Zeppelin CDs, the mighty Zep is back in Billboard's Top Ten. Not only are they in the Top Ten, but they have 3 CDs in the Top Ten. At #7 is "Led Zeppelin 1", at #9 is "Led Zeppelin II" and at #10 is "Led Zeppelin III". (For those of you wondering the #1 CD is Miranda Lambert's "Platinum", a CD I wrote about in my May 5th, 2014 blog.)

My all-time favorite band is Led Zeppelin and this is my second in a series of blogs about their greatest CDs. This is also part of my Greatest CDs of All-Time blog series.

"Led Zeppelin II" was released on October 22nd, 1969- which according to Wikipedia is when the first single was released, which doesn't make any sense. Obviously I'm missing something there, I just don't know what. This album also has the mighty Zep's biggest hit "Whole Lotta Love", it peaked at #4. This album is also Led Zeppelin's first album to go to #1. As of now over 12 million copies have been shipped.

"Led Zeppelin II" was conceived and recorded while Led Zeppelin was in the midst of extensive touring January through August 1969. (Which includes the "Don't Mess With Texas" concert below.) Led Zeppelin was never much of a singles band and only 3 singles were originally released from the original version of this album. (One of my sons asked me the other day if Led Zeppelin had many hits, I had to explain to him that they didn't release a lot of singles.)

Interestingly enough the first single from the CD is the John Bonham centered track "Moby Dick". I'm sure when people first heard this on the radio, they were taken back a bit. This isn't the kind of song that's usually released as a single. The second single was "Whole Lotta Love/ Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)." Then "Heartbreaker" was the third and last song released as a single in May of 1970. The "Whole Lotta Love (Rough Mix)" was released as a single on May 5th, 2014.

Also while both "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid" are both on "Led Zeppelin II", originally they weren't paired together as they are typically played on the radio now.

(Thanks to Wikipedia for much of the biographical information in this blog.)

Strangely the Youtube video for the original "Led Zeppelin II" isn't available, but someone has been nice enough to make a video for the deluxe edition bonus CD of this amazing CD. Here's that video:



Thanks to Wikipedia, these are the tracks on that bonus CD.

1.	"Whole Lotta Love" (Rough Mix with Vocal)	Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant	5:38
2.	"What Is and What Should Never Be" (Rough Mix with Vocal)	Page, Plant	4:33
3.	"Thank You" (Backing Track)	Page, Plant	4:21
4.	"Heartbreaker" (Rough Mix with Vocal)	Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant	4:24
5.	"Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)" (Backing Track)	Page, Plant	3:08
6.	"Ramble On" (Rough Mix with Vocal)	Page, Plant	4:43
7.	"Moby Dick" (Backing Track)	Bonham, Jones, Page	1:37
8.	"La La" (Intro/Outro Rough Mix)	Jones, Page	4:07

Here's a concert from about that time, this is titled "Don't Mess With Texas", the concert is taken from the Texas International Pop Festival on August 31st, 1969. I love the guy that introduced the band referred to them as The Led Zeppelin.



1) "Whole Lotta Love" This is my all-time favorite Led Zeppelin song and one of the greatest songs of all-time.



Nina Persson with Soundtrack of Our Live's cover of "Whole Lotta Love" with Plant, Page and Jones in the house. I love Persson's husky voice:



2) "What Is and What Should Never Be":



For being such an influential band I find it strange how few people have covered their music. As I'm looking for covers, I'm finding a lot of covers. However not many of the covers have broken out into the mainstream. Here's one of the few famous covers I can think off right off the top of my head, Haley Reinhart's cover of "What Is and What Should Never Be":



3) "The Lemon Song":



Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes singing "The Lemon Song" live:

Adrenaline Mob's cover of "The Lemon Song":



4) "Thank You":



"Thank You" (Live):



Chris Cornell singing "Thank You" live:



5) "Heartbreaker":



The 2014 release of "Heartbreaker" (Rough Mix):



"Heartbreaker" (Live):



The Distributers singing "Heartbreaker" (Live):



6) "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)":



The kids have some chops, the students of Oak Park School of Rock:



7) "Ramble On":



Robert Plant is one of the greatest vocalists ever, he's up there with Frank Sinatra and a few others. However there's just something magical about a woman singing a Zep cover. I love this cover, Amanda has an intriguing voice. Amanda Lee Peers and the Driftwood Sailors singing "Ramble On":



8) "Moby Dick":



"Moby Dick" (Live):



The sad news of John Bonham's death, which happened a few years after the recording of this CD:



9) "Bring It On Home":



"Bring It On Home" (Live):



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Review of Jessica Verdey's "Of Monsters and Madness"

Hello,

I was able to read Jessica Verday's "Of Monsters and Madness" before the book's actual publication date. My thanks to the nice folks at NetGalley.com and EgmontUSA. This book is due to be published on September 9th, 2014. A second book, "The Ballad of Annabel Lee" is scheduled to be released Fall of 2015.

From NetGalley.com: "A romantic, historical retelling of classic Gothic horror featuring Edgar Allan Poe and his character Annabel Lee, from a NewYork Times best-selling author."

"Of Monsters and Madness" begins with a very gruesome scene involving Edgar and Annabel Lee. Edgar is one of her father's two assistants, the one who helps him with his gruesome experiments. This gives us an idea of what's coming.

The main character of this book is 16 year old Annabel Lee. She lived in Siam, which is now known as Thailand, for about 10 years with her Mom. Annabel Lee's Mom dies. Before she dies she sent a letter to Annabel's father in Philadelphia. Her parents have been estranged for several years. When Annabel's Grandpere (her grandfather) received the letter he sent for Annabel and her mother. Annabel's mother died before they can travel.

Annabel was very independent and self-sufficient while living in Siam, she served as her mother's assistant. Her mother helped a doctor with his patients. She learned a lot about medicine by helping her Mom. After being self sufficient for so long she arrives in Philadelphia and is introduced to a life of luxury with her father and grandfather. She has a dressing maid, a tutor who attempts to teach her to act with proper "decorum" and they have other servants.

But she also is introduced to a house full of secrets and a city with a serial killer. At her new house in Philadelphia she sees a raven, which in Siam which is considered a bad sign. It's also a "portent of secrets being kept". There are a lot of open secrets in this house, which everyone seems to know except for Annabel Lee. But Annabel has a lot of curiousity and isn't to be turned away from finding out what's going on. She goes to nearly any end, even risking her own life, to find out what's going on.

Among the things going on are a series of murders that are happening near the area she lives. Although nearly everything says this house and the people in it are very respectable, there's a not very well hidden air of mystery and something evil going on.

Obviously Edgar and Allan are the same person, why does no one else notice that? About the halfway point I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen in the book.

What are the experiments her Father is conducting. Why do Allan and Edgar have so much in common, but we never see them together? Does Annabel want to find out the truth. These and other questions are answered in this book.

Unfortunately the best review I can give this book is a lukewarm review. I'd give this book a C, that almost feels generous though. Although this book ends with a cliffhanger, it's not something I'm dying to find out what happens.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-time: Led Zeppelin 1 (Completed June 4th, 2014)

Hello,

I'm writing this blog In honor of Led Zeppelin releasing the mastered versions of their first 3 CDs, "1", "II" and "III". All 3 CDs will come with extra tracks, but the CD I'm most excited about is "1", that's because it includes a 1969 Paris concert, when the band was just starting out and at it's hungriest. A thought that can make even the grinchiest Zep fan's heart fill up with joy. There's still no word on when the remastered "Led Zeppelin IV" will be released, only that it will be released.

"Led Zeppelin 1" was originally released January 12th, 1969, it's the debut CD of the greatest band that has ever walked the earth. The lineup featured studio wizard/ amazing guitarist Jimmy Page, the solid backbone of John Bonham's drums, the all around virtuosity of John Paul Jones and and of course the killer vocals of Robert Plant. All of which combined to be the "Hammer of the Gods" which is Stephen Davis' excellent book about the band. (I still haven't got around to reading Mick Wall's "When Giants Walked The Earth" or Davis' "(LZ '75) The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin's 1975 American Tour". I  own both and will read them eventually.)

"Led Zeppelin 1" was produced by Jimmy Page and engineered by Glyn Johns. Page said that the record was recorded live, although there are some overdubs.

From wikipedia.org:

"Led Zeppelin's front cover, which was chosen by Page, features a black-and-white image of the burning Hindenburg airship. The image refers to the origin of the band's name itself:^[10] when Page, Beck and The Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistlewere discussing the idea of forming a group, Moon joked, "It would probably go over like a lead balloon", and Entwistle allegedly replied, "...a lead zeppelin!"^{[citation needed]"} (I had heard the first part of that previous statement many times, but I'd never heard of the John Entwistle part of it. Not only did Led Zeppelin not crash like a "lead zeppelin", but they went on to be the greatest band ever.)

Rolling Stone magazine, which I love but rarely agree with, ranks "Led Zeppelin 1" the 29th album in their 2012 Top 500 CDs of all-time. I agree mostly with that, but them having 3 Beatles CD in their Top 5 that drives me a tad crazy. Give me Led Zeppelin any day! Here's a quick run down of themusicaddict's Top 1 CD of all-time, the monster known as "Led Zeppelin IV".

(Thanks to wikipedia for much of the above information.)

1) "Good Times Bad Times":



Dave Matthews Band attempting "Good Times Bad Times" (the sound is terrible):



2) "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You":



"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (Live in Denmark 1969, featuring very polite applause.)



Here's Robert Plant and his band in 2013 singing "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You":



3) "You Shook Me":



4) "Dazed and Confused":



When Led Zeppelin wanted to jam, many times they chose to do so on "Dazed and Confused". This is from the concert movie "The Song Remains The Same":



Here's the almost 10 minutes version of "Dazed and Confused" (This is explicit): (I don't want to say I'm old, but music really was a lot better back in the day.)



5) "Your Time Is Gonna Come":



6) "Black Mountain Side":



"White Summer/ Black Mountain Side" (Live):



7) "Communication Breakdown":



"Communication Breakdown" (Live):



8) "I Can't Quit You Baby":



"I Can't Quit You Baby" (Live):



9) "How Many More Times":



This seems to be what's on the live bonus disc, Live from Paris, 1969:



The songs on the above live CD are:

1) "Good Times Bad Times/ Communication Breakdown" (3:52):
2) "I Can't Quit You Baby" (6:41):
3) "Heartbreaker" (3:49):
4) "Dazed and Confused" (15:01)
5) "White Summer/ Black Mountain Side" (9:19)
6) "You Shook Me" (11:55):
7) "Moby Dick" (9:21)
8) "How Many More Times" (11:14)

Here's a bonus concert, this is the Mighty Zep at Royal Albert Hall in 1970:



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Review of Micol Ostow's "Amity"

Hello,

"Amity" is scheduled to be released August 26th, 2014. Thanks to EgmontUSA Publishers and NetGalley.com I was able to read this book prior to publication. This novel is recommended for fans of Stephen King and fans of "American Horror Story". (I'm a big Stephen King fan, but have never seen "American Horror Story"). If I were to compare it to another book, it reminds me more of the very good novel, Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves". It also does share a bit with "The Shining".

"Amity" is the story of a living, breathing house and two different families that lived in it 10 years apart. The families are very similar in many ways, both families only lived in the house for 28 days before being forced out. The stories revolve around the two oldest kids of each family. The first family is the Webbs, their story is centered around 17 year old Connor and Jules (aka Julianne and Annie), who are twins. One difference between the two families is the Webbs have a 3rd child, Abel. He's 11 years younger than his older brother and sister. The family previously had a dog named Butch, but once he died he was not replaced. Connor ran over Butch's tail, which Connor claims was an accident.

The family came to Amity in an act of desperation, their Dad had to sell off his Ford Dealership quickly due to shady financial dealings. They came to the small town of Concord because they liked it being a respectable town and Amity came cheap.

Ten years later the Hall family came to Amity. Again the story centers around the two kids, Gwen and Luke. Luke is one year older than Gwen. This family fled to Amity to get away from bill collectors chasing their father. Neither kid like their father, who's a jerk. Both families and stories are limited to only a few members. Aunt Ro is one of the other characters mentioned with this family. However for the Halls, we also meet Murray, who loves Luke. He loves Luke until Luke has a transformation, which leads to the book's finale.

After living at Amity both Connor and Gwen end up in an asylum. Amity took advantage of some of the mentally weakest members of the family to sink it's teeth into.

To give a sense of the atmosphere of this book, here's a sample of Ostow's spooky writing. "This was a burial ground, I know. It was where the witches hid, and where the crazies were locked away. It was lots of things, and Amity shows me them all. But the truth is, this space- it's more than any of these stories. It's the rotted, black heart of Amity herself."

Overall I would give this book a B, Ostow looks to have a bright future as a writer. While this was a good book, I expect her to grow leaps and bounds from this book.

themusicaddict