Feel Like Makin' Love

Alright, well this is my favourite Bad Company song. Whenever I hear this song, I always think of Homer Simpson, a character from the popular series The Simpsons doing his rendition of it ( http://download.lardlad.com/sounds/season12/snow14.mp3 ) and it brings back the nostalgic feeling of being a child again, what a great television program that used to be. Anyways, this song was recorded on their second album, Straight Shooter, and was released June of 1975. This song was declared number seventy-eighth best hard rock song ever by VH1, a short-lived music television program that was pretty much MTV, except based on older music, oh yeah, and they were actually about music. Now if you listen to the chorus, you might notice (if you like The Who) that the riff is almost exactly the same as The Who's Sparks, an instrumental that was released six years earlier. I found this to be quite intriguing, as instrumentals are quite beautiful, but they have no lyrics, meaning that the notes and chords are everything, and if someone copies a riff off an instrumental, it seems more like a slap in the face than sampling a riff from a song with lyrics, but hey, that's just my take.

Rebel Rebel

Bowie's going of glam, his farewell, his acknowledgement of the end of an era. Rebel Rebel is a David Bowie song released in 1974 on Bowie's eighth studio album, Diamond Dogs. This is currently the most covered Bowie song, and was the last of his glam-rock songs, his trademark, his stamp. The first thing to notice when listening to this song is the intro riff; the most beautifully-haunting riff you'll ever find, always leaving a slight smirk at the corner of my mouth. If you consider the meaning of this song, a few things will come to mind. In my opinion, it's about the end of the glam age, the finality of the era where one could dress as the opposite gender and it would be perfectly acceptable in numerous situations; that's what it's all about, free love and not caring who knows.

Paint it Black

Alright! Well next Monday in my elective, we will be listening to Stones! This is an amazing song, full of intricate symbolism and beautifully woven instrumental parts. Paint it black was released on The Rolling Stones' fourth album, in 1966, Aftermath, under the title of "Paint it, Black". The song originally had no comma, but Decca, the record label, added one, I prefer it without one. This song peaked at number one in both the UK, and the US on the Billboards top 100, and was the first top track to feature sitar, which in my opinion, really makes the song. Mick Jagger quoted saying that Paint it Black was about a funeral, but there are many people who think it's about internal struggles between the good and bad sides, some believe it's about going through puberty, and some declare it's about the war in Vietnam. When I first heard the song, however, I was pretty young, so I envisioned Jagger going around with a paintbrush making everything back, I had a fairly innocent childhood. Hope you enjoy the song!

Since I Don't Have You

Well, I was listening to Guns N' Roses, and this song came on, it's on of my favourites. However, this is the original, written by The Skyliners and released in their 1958 album under the name of their band. Jimmy Beaumont is now seventy-one years old, as of Saturday, and still plays with the band, even though he is the last remaining original member. This song is considered to be one of the greatest "heartbreak ballads" and is a wonderful example of before Beatles rock and roll, as they changed everything. The Guns N' Roses version  was released on their fifth album, The Spaghetti Incident? in 1994 and is the last album to feature Slash or Duff McKagan, two original members, as well as drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Gilby Clark, and has the most recent music video of theirs to date. The subject of the song is simple, it's about a man who's gal has left him, and she was his everything. 

Rock of Ages

Alright! Well I teach a basketball and rock & roll class, and on Monday, we're listening to Def Leppard, and this is my favourite Def Leppard song, so I'm going to blog about it. First, off, the intro is not what people think, it's not a German phrase or anything. The producer, Mutt Lange, was a huge perfectionist, so they did dozens of takes of every song, and he grew tired of the classic rock count in(1,2,3,4), so he began to just spout gibberish, this was a take of said gibberish, which is NOT s phrase in German, it's just some German-esk pronunciation. This song was released as on Def Leppard's third album, Pyromania in 1983, which sold over ten million copies, certifying it as diamond. The name of the song came of a book of Christian hymns, which Joe Elliot observed, and proceeded to write a song about it. In my opinion, this song is about the long lasting rock and roll spirit, and how rock and roll will never die!