Guitarist Randy Bachman (Guess Who and Bachman-Tuner Overdrive) explains how one of the most distinctive opening chords in popular music that most people will recognize immediately (at least those above a certain age) was constructed. You can read more about how it was done in the description to the video by clicking on the ‘share’ link here.
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Here he is dancing to the music of Dustbowl Revival’s Never Had To Go. I hope I am as active and full of fun as he is when I get to be 89 years old, assuming that I even get to that age.
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The last week has seen the deaths of singers Ben E. King who used to sing with The Drifters and died at the age of 76, and Jack Ely, lead singer of The Kingsmen, who died at the age of 71.
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For no reason whatsoever, here is one of my favorite songs, Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress by The Hollies, released in 1972. The song had a great beat and music but the lyrics were hard to decipher by just listening to them, and reading them later did not help because they seem to make little sense.
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This song, written by Neil Diamond and performed by The Monkees was their best one, I thought. It is the ideal song, at least the title phrase, for those occasions when one is cheering for one’s preferred team, especially when it is the underdog and fighting back. I don’t go to any sporting events so don’t know if it is actually used for that purpose.
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I found this video of Sandie Shaw singing Puppet on a String that enabled Britain to win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967. The video is interesting but not for the song itself. One reason is that Shaw’s lip-syncing is really bad. Another is that the young people selected to surround her and dance seem to be the most awkward and nerdy group they could have possibly picked, as if the producers went to a nearby high school to round up some students and found that only the chess club was available. Hell, even I could dance better than that and I don’t even dance. The song is a pretty silly one and the one notable thing about it is the tuba line that runs through the entire song, unusual for a pop song.
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The British rock star died today at the age of 70 of lung cancer. No one who has seen it will forget his performance at the Woodstock music festival in 1969 where he took the Beatles’ With a little help from my friends, a gentle song sung by Ringo Starr, and turned into a weird, over-the top, air-guitar-playing, frenzied, incoherent performance that looked like he was having some kind of seizure.
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We need a break from depressing news about torture and what better than some good music?

I love these flash mobs that pop up in public spaces to play the great classical pieces. And there are few pieces more suited to this kind of street art than the last movement from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, a magnificent piece that never fails to move me however many times I hear it. And since this took place at a street fair in Nurenberg, Germany, there was the added bonus that many of the spectators actually knew the words and could join in on the choral parts.
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Here’s a performance of that lovely song It might as well rain until September by the highly gifted singer-songwriter Carole King, creator of so many wonderful songs, alone and with several co-creators including as in this case her one-time husband Gerry Goffin, It was originally released as a single in 1962 and is a song that brings back pleasant memories of my childhood, it being a staple on Sri Lankan radio.
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