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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 21, 2022 12:50:43 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021 # 63 - Illegal Smile - John PrineThis was the opener on Prine's 1971 debut album and it made it clear that Prine was something entirely new on the music scene. Not only with his clear prowess as a songwriter but with a sense of humor that permeated so many of his songs. But he wasn't a novelty song writer. There's incredible depth in all his work and this little ditty about getting a little smoke to feel better is no exception. I like this live performance and regret that I never managed to see him perform live.
God Bless John Prine. I think I shared my personal Prine story somewhere back in this thread.
-EDIT-
Nope, I guess I didn't share it here, but on another forum. So for posterity (otherwise I generally hate cross-posting), here is what I posted immediately after his death:
"This one hits close to home for me for personal reasons.
Back in the mid-late '90's, one of my bands (The Secret Commonwealth) had a residency at a British pub in Nashville. I call it a British pub because it was indeed founded and owned by a middle-aged British expatriate couple, and they ran it like a genuine traditional public house, with authentic cuisine, British style draught pull taps, a couple of dart boards, a rickety old piano in the corner, and yes, a traditional pub time bell ("Time gentleman, please!"). Unlike most so-called "pubs" in the US, this was not a tarted-up sports bar, as the only sports you ever saw on the lone television were football (soccer) and the occasional cricket or rugby match via satellite. Anyway, it was quite a cozy venue, and we played as the house band on the last Saturday of every month for several years.
Unknown to us, John Prine showed up one evening, sitting way in the back of the room. After the first set, I took my leave of the Gents room during our break, and as I walked past his table, I didn't even notice him. Coming back out of the restroom he leaned out from his table and said: "I'm really enjoying your band. What do you call yourselves?" Only then did I realize who was speaking to me. I introduced myself and told him the band's name, and explained that we had been together for about 5 years. He responded: "Well it sounds mighty fine. You don't hear many bands blending Irish and American music around Nashville... it's different! Say, how often do you play here?" I told him, and he smiled and said: "Well, I'll try to get out to see you here again in the future!" I took that as a compliment, but didn't really expect him to follow through on it. As a working musician, you hear stuff like that from time to time and tend to take it with a grain of salt.
I returned to begin the second set, telling a couple of fellow bandmates who, like myself, were fans of his. Thankfully, nobody did anything stupid like calling attention to his presence. In Nashville, that's just not something you do, unless you expect that person to sit in with you on a song or two-- even then, it's usually done with pre-consent. We played our 2nd set, and he discreetly left the pub midway through the 3rd and last set of the evening.
On my way home that evening, I thought to myself about how honored I felt-- that somebody who had entertained me for years with his music and wit-- I had been given the opportunity to return the favor and entertain him for an evening.
To my surprise, John actually DID show up at several of our shows at the pub after that. So he wasn't bullshitting me after all. This was about 2 years before he had his bout with cancer and his subsequent surgery. We didn't see him after that, but we all understood.
So in memory, here's one for Mr. Prine-- in his own words:
"When I die let my ashes float down the Green River, Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin', Just five miles away from wherever I am"
Rest in peace, John. I'll miss you for sure."
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Post by impulse on Jan 21, 2022 15:18:59 GMT -5
The hairspray is important. To be a great 80's guitar player, you need a garish paint scheme on your guitar, a high gain amplifier, and a case of Aquanet. You are not alone on your Squire Strat, there are some great ones that have the wonderful Strat neck feel. You could always throw a single coil sized humbucker in the bridge position if you wanted to (or just replace the whole pickguard with a humbucker loaded one if the guitar underneath the pickguard has the "swimming pool" routing), but honestly, sometimes traditional strat sounds are great for heavier music as well. John Norum from Europe regularly gets great tone from them. But yeah, humbucker loaded superstrats definitely have a lot of beef to them, the whole marriage of a Fender's awesome neck feel with the thick tone of a Gibson. Oh it has to be Aquanet or you're a poser. Yeah, I manage to get a pretty nasty tone out of it. I was struggling until I threw a tube screamer in my signal chain, and that was just the secret ingredient I needed. Well, a modern Joyo remade that swears they have the original chip. It works for my living room setup in any case.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 21, 2022 15:46:08 GMT -5
That would have been right when I was there, and I'm trying to place them. I don't exactly remember (things have blurred over the years a bit for me), it is very possible though. It reminds me though that sometimes we couldn't get into all the venues, we were still really young back then and it was sort of hit or miss who would let us play. We totally had the right image and pretty good playing skills for a brash group of kids dreaming of stardom, but were literally still in our teens (I actually played my first gig at 14). Didn't slow us down though, we played our tails off. I think it was '89 when we kind of "matured", we took the summer off and the bass player and drummer went to a summer Berklee music college program, and they got MUCH better. I was practicing probably at least 7 hours a day at that point, so I made good use of my time as well. The singer didn't do jack, but he looked awesome and would bring a crowd. Another band that I saw once or twice in Boston back then was the Heavy Metal Horns. They seem to be back together in recent years.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2022 15:53:07 GMT -5
That would have been right when I was there, and I'm trying to place them. I don't exactly remember (things have blurred over the years a bit for me), it is very possible though. It reminds me though that sometimes we couldn't get into all the venues, we were still really young back then and it was sort of hit or miss who would let us play. We totally had the right image and pretty good playing skills for a brash group of kids dreaming of stardom, but were literally still in our teens (I actually played my first gig at 14). Didn't slow us down though, we played our tails off. I think it was '89 when we kind of "matured", we took the summer off and the bass player and drummer went to a summer Berklee music college program, and they got MUCH better. I was practicing probably at least 7 hours a day at that point, so I made good use of my time as well. The singer didn't do jack, but he looked awesome and would bring a crowd. Another band that I saw once or twice in Boston back then was the Heavy Metal Horns. They seem to be back together in recent years. Yes! I had to look them up to rejigger my memory, but I thought I remembered them. I remember them touring with Extreme at one point as well.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 21, 2022 17:41:26 GMT -5
I know, I had plenty of issues of that mag, but never owned a "superstrat". By the time the hair metal era rolled around, I had already moved on to more "serious" music. I think the last two albums of that genre that I bought new were Twisted Sister's "Come Out and Play" and Keel's "Final Frontier" in 1985... the year I graduated from college. So yeah, I was probably phasing out of it as you were phasing in. Don't get me wrong, MTV was still a thing back then and I still watched a lot of it right up to the grunge era when they stopped being a music channel. So I was still exposed to a lot of metal-ish bands from that era, it just really didn't interest me any more. This may sound like sacrilege, but I never got into Motley Crue or Metallica, mainly because they were hitting the scene about the time that I was getting bored with it.
Oh, and please don't make me post guitarporn pics... I'll be here all week. Literally. For gear, yes, I am totally asking you to post pictures, I know you have quite the collection! I've sold off a fair amount of my guitar collection over the last few years (it was a little out of hand at one point, and I wasn't making good use of the nice Fenders and Gibsons), but I still love searching for rare stuff. Honestly, it has probably been the pandemic hyperinflation of prices (much like comic books and most everything else) that has slowed me down on growing the collection again. I'll leave you with one more I still have though, this little classy number I bought from one of the guitar players in Warrant many years ago: Ok, don't say that I didn't warn you.
I'll try to keep most of the pics small or lo-res to speed up page loads. This will probably be done over the course of several posts.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 21, 2022 18:12:28 GMT -5
Tartanphantom's Guitar Roundup, Part 1-- At the request of @jaska I will post a series of "guitarporn" pics of a large number of instruments currently in my stable. All of these are in gig-worthy condition, as I simply don't believe in "wall-hanger" instruments. Some get played more than others, some are used for specific studio needs, and some are in regular gig rotation. I'm not going to post pics of every instrument that I own, and believe me, by the end of this you'll be thanking me for abbreviating the collection. First, I'm going to show a group of my mid-'60s Japanese weird guitars. As most guitarists know, "made in Japan" used to be a derisive term in guitar circles... and some of these instruments illustrate the reason why-- The Japanese builders at the time were just beginning to learn their craft and experimented with all kinds of designs to capture a piece of the low-budget end of the booming US guitar market. These guitars were built in a post-Beatles/Ed Sullivan era when just about everyone had a garage "combo" or knew someone that had a "combo" (we call 'em "groups" today).
1965 Silvertone WG2L-- a Sears exclusive short-scale version, made by Teisco- all original.
1966 Kingston "Chess" model-- all original. Yes, that pickguard is real. Not only that, it's NOT painted on...it's actually extruded in that design-- which goes all the way through the celluloid. Today, the cost to reproduce that pickguard alone would exceed the original price of the guitar threefold.
1967 Teisco ET-220. Original rebuild with some OEM replacement parts. When I bought this guitar, it was completely dis-assembled, and was missing the tailpiece and bridge. I sourced original replacement parts and put it back together.
1967 Norma 4-pickup model-- all original. This one demonstrates some of the excesses of Japanese design at the time... with all the knobs and switches, it looks more at home in a Mercury space capsule than in a guitar case.
1967 Norma "violin" model-- all original. Yet another sign of the times in the Fab Four era. despite it's unorthodox appearance, this one is actually a pretty darn good guitar.
And rounding out the mid-century Japanese guitar explosion is the 1968 Norma 2-pickup model. Just your basic low-budget garage jammer.
I'll post more in another post... but these should at least satisfy the "WTF??" portion of your curiosity.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2022 21:15:04 GMT -5
Ok, right out of the gate you are giving Rick Nielsen a run for his money! So much coolness and "vibe" as the kids would say these days, I love old Silvertones and the Chess model is just killer, and of course the Beatlesque Violin body. But you had me at 4 pickups on that Norma, I love crazy stuff like that. BTW, also related to that specific one, I know there are many flavors of that style headstock from that time, but man it feels like BC Rich later completely nicked that one. Also, I hope this comment isn't sacrilege for how you actually use the Teisco, but (again, being a hard rock guy) I would have a strong urge to set that up for slide guitar and play "In My Time of Dying" as a substitute for the Danelectro Page would perform with. Yeah, I'm geeking out a little already on what you've shared
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,571
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Post by Confessor on Jan 22, 2022 1:45:05 GMT -5
Tartanphantom's Guitar Roundup, Part 1-- Some really weird and wonderful guitars there, tp. It's crazy how collectible those kinds of 60s budget guitars have become -- especially the Danelectros, of course. They look way cool though and you can get some really great sounds out of those kinds of guitars. Myself, I always have a soft spot for 60s Eko guitars out of Italy: they produced some relatively cheap, but really well built instruments. Interesting trivia: did you know that all of session musician Doug Lubahn's bass guitar playing on The Doors' Strange Days album was done on an Eko 995? Rob Grill of The Grass Roots also played one of those. Just like the Norma guitar in your post, the Eko 995 was another "Beatle bass" copy of the Hofner 500/1 that Paul McCartney played. Myself, I don't own any of Eko's electric guitars, but I do have a 1967 Eko Ranger 6-string acoustic that is really well built and lovely to play.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 22, 2022 17:07:05 GMT -5
Tartanphantom's Guitar Roundup, Part 1-- Some really weird and wonderful guitars there, tp. It's crazy how collectible those kinds of 60s budget guitars have become -- especially the Danelectros, of course. They look way cool though and you can get some really great sounds out of those kinds of guitars. Myself, I always have a soft spot for 60s Eko guitars out of Italy: they produced some relatively cheap, but really well built instruments. Interesting trivia: did you know that all of session musician Doug Lubahn's bass guitar playing on The Doors' Strange Days album was done on an Eko 995? Rob Grill of The Grass Roots also played one of those. Just like the Norma guitar in your post, the Eko 995 was another "Beatle bass" copy of the Hofner 500/1 that Paul McCartney played. Myself, I don't own any of Eko's electric guitars, but I do have a 1967 Eko Ranger 6-string acoustic that is really well built and lovely to play. I've always had a thing for the 60's Euro instruments as well. I don't own any, but I'm a fan of EKO, Framus, Hagstrom, Vox, Burns, Hoftner, even the lesser known stuff like Futurama, Egmond, etc.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 22, 2022 19:36:15 GMT -5
Tartanphantom's Guitar Roundup, Part II This section covers additional electric guitars of various marques and makes, including a couple more '60s Japanese jobs that were left out of the last post. circa 1968 (exact year unknown) Rexina 2-pickup model-- I wish I had more information on this one, but I've only ever seen one other example, and nobody really knows about the brand. I suspect it was one of several "house brands" made by either Kawai-Teisco, Tombo Industries, or Ibanez (before they were making the good stuff). The pickups and general hardware appointments all point to Kawai, but again, it's a mystery. Nevertheless, it's got a neck like a baseball bat!
1969 Heit Deluxe 3T-- Heit was another Kawai sub-brand, and these were fairly common until a few years ago.
Up next is 1970 Epiphone 5102-T, also later renumbered as the EA-250 model. In 1970, Epiphone began importing Japanese guitars built by Matsumoku. Mine is one of the earliest examples, and actually has a body label that reads: "Epiphone-Kalamazoo, Michigan", even though it wasn't built there. It's a fun guitar, with a tight 9.5" radius fretboard/neck (guitar nerds know what I'm talking about). This is a full hollowbody, somewhat like a poor cousin to the Epiphone Casino model.
Next are a couple of 2002-2003 Danelectro Innuendo models-- pretty much identical except for the finish. This model features stereo output and a few onboard effects, such as overdrive, tremolo, chorus and slap-echo. Truthfully, the only effect in the bunch that is worth a flip is the tremolo circuit... the rest are pretty noisy. But the guitars play quite well and are basically workhorse Stratocasters in Dano clothing. And the last cheeze-ball for this post-- 2008 Stagg G-Force Competition V. Honestly I bought this one strictly for the finish and the bombastic design... oh, and it was dirt cheap too. Notice the "exhaust pipes" on the back... those are stock from the factory. I've still got a long way to go, but I'll start touching on some of the better stuff in the next post.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,571
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Post by Confessor on Jan 23, 2022 7:42:01 GMT -5
Interesting to see that Epiphone 5102-T, tartanphantom. I wasn't really aware of that model. I'm a big fan of the Epiphone Casino, mostly due to the obvious Beatles connection. I used to own a late 90s vintage sunburst model a few years ago, but I sold it because I just don't tend to play electric guitar very much live (both my duos are acoustic acts, and I mostly just sing in The Kynd). What I love about the Casinos (aside from their looks) is that they're very versatile guitars in terms of the types of sounds you can get out of them. For example, you can get a nice jangley Rickenbacker-esque sound out of them, or a mellow jazzy tone, or a great dirty rock sound to name just three that I used to regularly use. How is the 5102-T with regard to the sorts of sounds you can get out of it?
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 23, 2022 23:14:18 GMT -5
Interesting to see that Epiphone 5102-T, tartanphantom . I wasn't really aware of that model. I'm a big fan of the Epiphone Casino, mostly due to the obvious Beatles connection. I used to own a late 90s vintage sunburst model a few years ago, but I sold it because I just don't tend to play electric guitar very much live (both my duos are acoustic acts, and I mostly just sing in The Kynd). What I love about the Casinos (aside from their looks) is that they're very versatile guitars in terms of the types of sounds you can get out of them. For example, you can get a nice jangley Rickenbacker-esque sound out of them, or a mellow jazzy tone, or a great dirty rock sound to name just three that I used to regularly use. How is the 5102-T with regard to the sorts of sounds you can get out of it?
The 5102-T is an unusual bird. The build quality isn't nearly that of a classic Kalamazoo Epiphone, but it is quite acceptable for a budget instrument. Epiphone also made a matching bass model with a 30.5" scale.
As far as comparison to the versatility of the Casino model, the real secret to the Casino's tone were the P90 single-coil pickups, which are quite simple in design, but extremely versatile in application. The 5102-T has humbucking pickups instead. While you can get plenty of different tones out of them, they don't have the clean clarity that P90's do at lower volume settings. Nevertheless, they are not high-output humbuckers, so they are not super dark in tone either. Decent middle-of-the-road sound when played clean, and they can get quite crunchy if you push them.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 23, 2022 23:21:00 GMT -5
It's funny, I hope Slam_Bradley isn't feeling overwhelmed by guitar geekiness, especially after he mentioned elsewhere that he felt a little alone in this thread topic.
So please, Slam, continue to post your song-listening lists. I don't comment on every one of them, but I do read them all, as this is one of my bookmarked threads.
I'll be posting some more guitars soon (a little less than halfway done at this point), so if that is ZZZzzzzzzzz-city for you, please feel free to read some funnybooks instead of the interspersed guitar discussions.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 24, 2022 6:43:13 GMT -5
It's funny, I hope Slam_Bradley isn't feeling overwhelmed by guitar geekiness, especially after he mentioned elsewhere that he felt a little alone in this thread topic.
So please, Slam, continue to post your song-listening lists. I don't comment on every one of them, but I do read them all, as this is one of my bookmarked threads.
I'll be posting some more guitars soon (a little less than halfway done at this point), so if that is ZZZzzzzzzzz-city for you, please feel free to read some funnybooks instead of the interspersed guitar discussions. It’s all good. I’m just not on the inter webs as much on the weekend and it’s usually on my phone which, for me, isn’t conducive to posting links and whatnot. I’m reading the guitar talk as well.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 24, 2022 12:51:03 GMT -5
Most listened to songs of 2021
# 62 - Mr. Bojangles - Jerry Jeff Walker
I talked about this one when JJW passed away in 2020 and in last years list. So what more is there to add. Walker penned an American classic that has worked its way in to the lexicon of great songs.
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