Donald Fagen and Walter Becker meet at the Bard College in New York in 1967. Fagen, a piano player, hears someone playing blues guitar in the student lounge and decides he must introduce himself. He discovers Becker playing a red Epiphone guitar and finds that they share the same interests in music and ironic senses of humor. A partnership is born.
They form several college bands including “The Leather Canary” (which fellow Bard student Chevy Chase sat in with a couple of times) and “The Don Fagen Trio.” Fagen and Becker also start to write songs together.
Fagen graduates Bard in 1969 with an English degree. Becker also leaves Annandale. The two of them move to Brooklyn, New York and decide to peddle their songs at the famous Brill Building in Manhattan. They don’t meet with much success, but they make an important early connection with Kenny Vance of Jay and the Americans. Vance helps them record some demos of their early material and gets them some odd jobs including doing the soundtrack for the low-budget Richard Pryor film “You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It.” Vance also gets Becker and Fagen gigs as back-up musicians on Jay and the Americans’ 1970-71 tour. Jay Black disaffectionately labels Donald and Walter as “Starkweather and Manson.”
Fagen and Becker also meet another aspiring producer, Gary Katz, in New York. Shortly afterwards, Katz gets a job as staff producer at ABC Records in Los Angeles and also secures two staff songwriter positions for Fagen and Becker. With the hopes of making it big as songwriters, Donald and Walter move to L.A. in November 1971.
But their songs are too sophisticated for the other bands on the label, such as Three Dog Night, and Dusty Springfield, so they secretly put together their own band a long with an other guitarist, Danny Dias.
But what to call them?
Well, having a sense of humor, they decided to name the band “Steely Dan”, after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch“.
This is the day
Of the expanding man
That shape is my shade
There where I used to stand
It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass
At ramblers
Wild gamblers
That’s all in the pastYou call me a fool
You say it’s a crazy scheme
This one’s for real
I already bought the dream
So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and say goodbye
I’ll make it this time
I’m ready to cross that fine lineI’ll learn to work the saxophone
I’ll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon BluesMy back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance
Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations
Sensations
That stagger the mindI crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
I’ll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I’ll make it my home sweet homeI’ll learn to work the saxophone
I’ll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon BluesThis is the night
Of the expanding the man
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I’ll be what I want to be
I’ll learn to work the saxophone
I’ll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues
Alice in Chains is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1987 by guitarist Jerry Cantrell and vocalist Layne Staley.
In 1986, the band Sleeze disbanded and two of its members, vocalist Layne Staley and bassist Michael Starr met up with guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell at the Music Bank — a Seattle werehouse that was illegally being used as a flop house and practice studio for several bands that later became the major “grunge” bands of the late 1980s to mid-1990s.
Staley grew up in Kirkland Washington and had formed the original band Alice N’ Chainz while in high school, a band which he said “dressed in drag and played speed metal”. After meeting up with Jerry Cantrell, he revived the name with the variation to become Alice in Chains. They found a drummer, Sean Kinney, who was dating Cantrell’s sister at the time and together began writing original material and performing at various clubs in Seattle.
In 1990, they released their first album, Facelift which reached number 42 on Billboard and was probably one of the anchor albums that started the “grunge” scene. The single, “Man in the Box” reached number 18 and even got play on MTV. RIAA rated the album gold in 1990, and they went on the Clash of the Titans tour with Anthrax, Megadeath, and Slayer, closing the year with Van Halen.
Between 1990 and 1998, Alice in Chains release a whole slew of great songs. In 1992 Michael Starr left the band due to a serious heroin habit and an arrest at the Denver airport for shoplifting. He was replaced by former Ozzie Osbourne bassist Mike Inez.
There were several periods of hiatus — one being in 1995 when Staley hooked up with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready to tour in a band called Mad Season. In 1996 Alice in Chains got together to perform for MTV’s Unplugged. Their last concert with Layne Staley would be on July 3, 1996, in Kansas City, Missouri.
Staley’s health was an issue — he was getting deeper and deeper into heroin and cocaine. The death of his fiance in 1996 pushed Staley over the edge. He lost the will to live, and became a recluse. The last interview he gave he said, “I know I’m near death. I did crack and heroin for years. I never wanted to end my life this way.” He also said, “Don’t try to contact any Alice in Chains members. They are not my friends.” Layne was found dead in his University District condo, the cause of death being heroin and cocaine overdose.
The band officially disbanded after Layne’s death, but in 2005 Cantrell, Inez, and Kinney reunited for a benefit concert and in 2006 they officially got together and found a new lead singer, William DuVall formerly of Comes With Fall.
They tour with Velvet Revolver and plan on releasing a new album in 2009.
It’s alright
There comes a time
Got no patience to search
For peace of mind
Layin’ low
Want to take it slow
No more hiding or
Disguising truths I’ve soldEveryday it’s something
Hits me all so cold
Find me sittin’ by myself
No excuses, then I knowIt’s okay
Had a bad day
Hands are bruised from
Breaking rocks all day
Drained and blue
I bleed for you
You think it’s funny, well
You’re drowning in it tooEveryday it’s something
Hits me all so cold
Find me sittin’ by myself
No excuses, then I knowYeah, it’s fine
We’ll walk down the line
Leave our rain, a cold
Trade for warm sunshine
You my friend
I will defend
And if we change, well I
Love you anywayEveryday it’s something
Hits me all so cold
Find me sittin’ by myself
No excuses, then I know
Sugarloaf was a Denver, Colorado based rock and roll band in the 1970s featuring Jerry Corbetta.
The band was originally known as Chocolate Hair. They changed their name to Sugarloaf, named after a mountain outside of Boulder, when they received their first recording contract.
They are best known for two songs: “Green-Eyed Lady” in the autumn of 1970, and “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” in 1975. Other songs were “Mother Nature’s Wine” (1971), “Tongue in Cheek” (1971), and “Stars In Our Eyes” (1976). In addition, “West of Tomorrow” and “Myra Myra” were not hit singles, but received modest airplay at the time of their release on album rock radio stations.
Greeen Eyed Lady, lovely lady
Strolling slowly towards the sunGreen eyed lady ocean lady
Soothing every wave that comesGreen eyed lady, passion’s lady
dressed in love she lives for life to beGreen eyed lady feels like I never see
Setting suns and lonely lovers free(Organ solo)
(long instrumental break)Green eyed lady, windswept lady
moves the night the waves the sandGreen eyed lady ocean lady
child of nature, friend of manGreen eyed lady passions lady
dressed in love she lives for life to beGreen eyed lady feels like I never see
Setting sons and lonely lovers free
Neil Diamond is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor.
Neil Diamond was born into a Jewish Russian-Polish family, the son of a dry-goods merchant. He grew up in several homes in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, attending Erasmus Hall and Abraham Lincoln High Schools. At Erasmus Hall, he took part in SING! and sang in the school choir with Barbra Streisand, who then spelled her name “Barbara.” At Lincoln, the school from which he received his high school diploma, he was a member of the fencing team. He later attended NYU on a fencing scholarship, specializing in épée. In a live interview with TV talk show host Larry King, Neil Diamond explained his decision to study medicine. He said: “I actually wanted to be a laboratory biologist. I wanted to study. And I really wanted to find a cure for cancer. My grandmother had died of cancer. And I was always very good at the sciences. And I thought I would go and try and discover the cure for cancer.” However, during his senior year a music publishing company made him an offer he could not refuse to write songs for $50 a week and this started him on the road to stardom.
Diamond spent his early career as a writer in the Brill Building, and had an early success writing “I’m a Believer”, “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow),” and Love to Love which were recorded by The Monkees. There is a popular misconception that Diamond wrote and composed these songs specifically for the “Pre-Fab Four.” In reality, Diamond had written, composed and recorded these songs to release himself, but the cover versions were released before his own. The unintended, but happy, consequence of this was that Diamond began to gain fame not only as a singer and performer, but also as a songwriter. “I’m a Believer” was the Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966. Other notable artists who covered early Neil Diamond songs were Elvis Presley, who interpreted “Sweet Caroline” and “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”, the English hard rock band Deep Purple which interpreted “Kentucky Women”, Lulu, who covered “The Boat That I Row”, and Cliff Richard, who released versions of “I’ll Come Running”, “Solitary Man”, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”, “I Got The Feelin’(Oh, No, No), and “Just Another Guy”.
“Solitary Man” was Diamond’s debut single as a recording artist.
While nominally about young romantic failure, parts of the lyric:
Don’t know that I will,
But until, I can find me
…
I’ll be, what I am —
A solitary man …
Solitary man.
have been closely identified with Diamond himself, as evinced by a 2008 profile in The Daily Telegraph: “This is the Solitary Man depicted on his first hit in 1966: the literate, thoughtful and melodically adventurous composer of songs that cover a vast array of moods and emotions …” Indeed, Diamond himself would bemusedly tell interviewers in the 2000s, “After four years of Freudian analysis I realised I had written ‘Solitary Man’ about myself.”
He recorded two versions of the song. One of them had his harmonic vocal track on the Chorus of the song. The other version was him singing the song alone, without his prerecorded harmony on the track.
A 2005 Rolling Stone retrospective would write, “‘Solitary Man’ remains the most brilliantly efficient song in the Diamond collection. There’s not a wasted word or chord in this two-and-a-half minute anthem of heartbreak and self-affirmation, which introduced the melancholy loner persona that he’s repeatedly returned to throughout his career.
http://djallyn.org/media/SolitaryMan.flvMelinda was mine
‘Til the time
That I found her
Holding Jim
Loving himThen Sue came along
Loved me strong
That’s what I thought
Me and Sue
But that died tooDon’t know that I will
But until I can find me
A girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man
Solitary manI’ve had it to here
Bein’ where
Love’s a small world
Part-time thing
Paper ringI know it’s been done
Havin’ one
Girl who loves you
Right or wrong
We go strongDon’t know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man
Solitary manDon’t know that I will
But until I can find me
A girl who’ll stay
And won’t play games behind me
I’ll be what I am
A solitary man
Solitary manA Solitary man
Solitary manSolitary …. man
Rod Stewart has had a very interesting career starting in 1960, when he was fifteen years old. He ran away to West London to try out for the Brentwood football club, but ended up working as a grave digger. He soon switched to a career in music, traveling around Europe as a street singer, eventually being deported from Spain for vagrancy.
In 1962, he helped to found the Ray Davies Quartet as the lead singer, which later became known as The Kinks. He was quickly dropped from the band because the drummer’s mother complained about his voice, and there were personality differences with the rest of the band.
Stewart went into several other bands over the course of the next year, and hooked up with another group called The Hoochie Coochie Men, who later changed their name to Steampacket, and opened for The Rolling Stones during their 1965 tour. Stewart was starting to become known in the music circles as “Rod the Mod” due to being featured on a BBC documentary on the mod subculture.
Steampacket broke up in 1966 and Stewart joined Shotgun Express with Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green (who later formed Fleetwood Mac).
In 1967, Stewart joined the Jeff Beck Group as a vocalist, and in 1968 they released their first album, Truth, which became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The group toured extensively. The second album, Beck-Ola was also a hit in mid-1969, but the band broke up at the end of the year.
Stewart and former Beck band mate, Ron Wood joined up with Small Faces, which changed their name to The Faces. Stewart also started a solo career, but used The Faces as his band, so many of his hits were listed as being performed by Rod Stewart AND The Faces.
Maggie May was originally the B-side of his minor hit, Reason to Believe.
Wake up Maggie
I think I got something to say to you;
it’s late September and I really should be back at school.
I know I keep you amused
but I feel I’m being usedoh
Maggie
I couldn’t have tried anymore.
You lured me away from home
just to save you from being alone.
You stole my heart and that’s what really hurts.
The morning sun
when it’s in your face
really shows your agebut that don’t worry me none
in my eyes you’re ev’rything.
I laughed at all of your jokes
my love you didn’t need to coaxoh
Maggie
I couldn’t have tried anymore.
You lured me away from home
just to save you from being alone.
You stole my soule
that’s a pain I can do without.
All I needed was a friend to lend a guiding handbut you turned into a lover
and
Mother
what a lover !
You wore me out.
All you did was wreck my bed
and in the morning kick me in the headoh
Maggie
I couldn’t have tried anymore.
You lured me away from home
’cause you didn’t want to be alone.
You stole my heart
I couldn’t leave you if I tried.
I suppose I could collect my books and get back to school.
Or steal my daddy’s cue and make a living out of playing pool.
Or find myselfe a rock and roll band that needs a helpin’ hand.
Oh
Maggie
I wish I’d never seen your face.
You lured me away from home
just to save you from being alone.
You stole my heart and that’s what really hurts.
The morning sun
when it’s in your face
really shows your agebut that don’t worry me none
in my eyes you’re ev’rything.
I laughed at all of your jokes
my love you didn’t need to coaxoh
Maggie
I couldn’t have tried any faceyou made a first-class fool out of me
but I’m as blind as a fool can be
you stole my heart but I love you anyway.
Maggie
I wish I’d never seen your face.
I’ll get on back home one of these days.
Barry McGuire started out as a drifter, joined the Navy at 16 and was discharged ten months later as being “under age”.
He got a job singing in a bar, and in 1961 released his first single called “The Tree” that never went anywhere. He joined the New Christy Minstrels in 1962, where he wrote their only hit called “Green, Green”. He left the Christys in 1965 to persue a solo career and recorded the hit “Eve of Destruction”.
In 1971, McGuire became a born-again Christian and has since been involved in several Christian-related bands, each promoting an anti-war message.
The eastern world, it is exploding
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.Don’t you understand what I’m tryin’ to say
Can’t you feel the fears I’m feelin’ today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away
There’ll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
[Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy]And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.Yeah, my blood’s so mad feels like coagulatin’
I’m sitting here just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don’t pass legislation
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it’s the same old place
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace
And tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don’t believe
We’re on the eve
Of destruction
Mm, no no, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.
I know this song will leave a bad taste in the mouths of some of my Right-wing friends who feel the only security in their lives is to have a war blaring on somewhere in the world. But maybe if they took some time and pondered what exactly it is we are doing to perpetuate this continual war-like footing and what it will take to just end it and learn to live with the rest of the world.
Lucas Secon (known musically as Lucas) is a Danish-American Grammy and MTV-Award nominated musician best known for his 1994 song “Lucas With The Lid Off” from his album Lucacentric’. He has helped sell over 20 Million records,receiving many Gold and Platinum plaques from US,UK and ROW in the process. Having many top 5s,top 10s and a number 1 as well.
Lucas’ father, Paul Secon, is perhaps best known as the founder of Pottery Barn. He also worked as a lsongwriter for Nat King Cole, The Ink Spots, and The Mills Brothersand many more.
Spoken: “I’ll be practicing in my mind”
wha-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baaa
Whoa-oh-oh
catch the vibes… the reggae and the ragtime
Whoa-oh-oh
catch the vibes, catch the vibes
Whoa-oh-oh
Cause it’s lucas with the lid off
catch the vibes, catch the vibes
Whoa-oh-oh
Cause it’s lucas with the lid off
Zem, Zem,
daZem, Zem
daZow, ZemWatch me now you hear me now
Watch me go-ohWhatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)I feeeeeel… so good
Zow, zow, zow
Watch me go-oh
Strike the right chord, and I rap, rap my skull cap
Electric, until I blow my top off
I wrap my lyrics right around the globe
I lay lobes and all
Bit by bit I make it fit
Cause I’m here to knit myself together
and whatever split for my format
and after that
I never stay the same
and treat the freak like a doormat
Jump around on it
I’m here to spray poetic confetti already
Open open open up your skull cap
and let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
Let it drainAll the I’m-too-cool-to-have-a-good-time-
but-really-I’m-a-muted-trumpet type of talkaway
Hey-ey-ey
move to the front, take it off, take it off,
Catch the vibes
Cause it’s lucas with the lid offcatch the vibes, catch the vibes
Whoa-oh-oh
Cause it’s lucas with the lid off
catch the vibes, catch the vibes
Whoa-oh-oh
Cause it’s lucas with the lid off
Zem, Zem,
daZow, Zow
Skedadle-lah-ooh
watch me now you hear me now
Uh now, now, nowWhatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)I feeeeeel… so good
I feeeeeel… so goodWelcome to my brain, I got the lid off
my chest I got my nut off
the type of spirit that can break your framework
the same by the end will stay the same
hear the voice of summer
Zow za zow zow
but once I gotta hum a melody
that represents the type of flow I kick
when my tongue is swingin’ like a drumstick
of a jazzy type of lick
everybody’s got the lid on tightly
afraid of what might be lurking right behind
and out of safety
so undo yourself and watch my rhyme go
out of my lyrical chimney
but don’t repeat my voice to the beatwhen you hear the track again make up your own words
Cause the rhythm is a conduit to break a split from the homegrown
The well known is on to the unknown
See everyone’s a firecracker like a phone about to get hooked up
and let look up and let look up and let whatever bubbles up
out your head spread the vibes and illuminate the skyCause it’s lucas with the lid off
it’s lucas with the lid off
it’s lucas with the lid off
Come on and take your lid offWatch this
Watch me now you hear me nowtake a solo , take a solo
and spread the vibes kid
I hear that funky tune
now now now now
now now
Whooooooooooo
spread spread spread the vibes
spread it spread it
now-now now-now now-now now-now
watch this
mm-mm
ah bap bap bap bowWatch me now you hear me now
Uh now, now, now
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up… (I feeeeeel)
Come follow me around come follow me now (yeah, yeah-eah)I feeeeeel… so good
I feeeeeel… so good
e lid off
Zem, Zem,
daZem, Zem
daZow, ZemWatch me now you hear me now
Watch me go-
catch the vibes, catch the vibes
Whoa-oh-oh
Cause it’s lucas with the lid off
catch the vibes, catch ta-oh-oh
Cause it’s lucas with the lid off
Zem, Zem,
daZow, Zow
Skedadle-lah-ooh
watch me now you hear me now
Metalica was formed in 1981 when drummer Lars Ulrich posted an advertisement in a Los Angeles paper called The Recycler looking for musicians who were interested in forming a band.
The original members consisted of Ulrich, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine and Ron McGovney. Mustaine and McGovney were later kicked out of the band and replaced by Kirk Hammet and Cliff Burton. Burton was killed when the tour bus skidded out of control and was later replaced by Jason Newsted, who eventually was replaced by Robert Trujillo.
Metalica is considered the pioneer of “thrash metal”, and some critics consider their 1986 release of Master of Puppets to be one of the most influential and heavy “thrash metal” albums.
The following video is from a 1986 Seattle concert:
End of passion play, crumbling away
I’m your source of self-destruction
Veins that pump with fear, sucking darkest clear
Leading on your deaths construction
Taste me you will see
More is all you need
Dedicated to
How I’m killing youCome crawling faster
Obey your Master
Your life burns faster
Obey your Master
MasterMaster of Puppets I’m pulling your strings
Twisting your mind, smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
MasterNeedlework the way, never you betray
Line of death becoming clearer
Pain monopoly, ritual misery
Chop your breakfast on a mirror
Taste me you will see
More is all you need
Dedicated to
How I’m killing youCome crawling faster
Obey your Master
Your life burns faster
Obey your Master
MasterMaster of Puppets I’m pulling your strings
Twisting your mind, smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
MasterMaster, Master, where’s the dreams that I’ve been after?
Master, Master, you promised only lies
Laughter, laughter, all I hear or see is laughter
Laughter, laughter, laughing at my cries
Fix me!
Hell is worth all that, natural habitat
Just a rhyme without a reason
Neverending phase, Drift on numbered days
Now your life is out of season
I will occupy
I will help you die
I will run through you
Now I rule you tooCome crawling faster
Obey your Master
Your life burns faster
Obey your Master
MasterMaster of Puppets I’m pulling your strings
Twisting your mind, smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
Master
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