Today being Sunday, I thought I'd listen to the works of long- and recently departed artists. Here's my playlist (deceased artist name in brackets)
The Prodigy (Keith Flint),Firestarter. Note: Never been to a rave? Crank it up and you'll know (sort of) what it's like. Not surprisingly, Keith was an avid motorcycle racer. He had the adrenalin for it.
Pink Floyd (Sid Barrett),Wish You Were Here. Note: Sid had no role in recording this track, but he was the subject of it. A grateful band's tribute to a lost member. A very classy thing to do.
Warren Zevon (ibid),Werewolves of London. Note: Lively and full of wit. Too bad Warren ignored the signs of a serious illness before it was too late to change the outcome. He didn't get weepy about it though... just played out his last hand and left his music behind.
D ick Dale (ibid),Scalped. If you want to know what it feels like to look at the break on a big day before paddling out and taking a long drop into a 10' wave, this is it!
Devo (Bob Casale),Secret Agent Man. Those drums with changing time signatures... like wow, man. The moniker "Human metronome" doesn't come close to describing Casale.
AC/DC (Bon Scott),Ride On. Bourbon at last call... or more culturally accurate, Bundy and coke.
Black Sabbath (Ronnie James Dio),Children of the Sea. Everyone thought Sabbath was dead when Ozzy left, Dio proved it wasn't. Iommi, as always, provided the support.
David Bowie (ibid),Is There Life on Mars? The recording engineer placed the mics over ten feet back from Bowie for the vocal track, forcing him to extend his vocal intensity. Genius. Performance was... soulful.
James Brown (ibid),Night Train. An oldie reimagined in Motown era, from the hardest working showman in music.
Chicago (Terry Kath),I'm a Man. Too much to say about this one. Let the instrument solos (especially Terry's guitar) tell the tale.
The Doors (Jim Morrison),LA Woman. West Coast cool like only Jim could do.
No hidden meaning in the order, just played them as I browsed my music server's contents.
RIP, dudes. Your music lives on!
