Showing posts with label Aerosmith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aerosmith. Show all posts

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Walk This Way ....


I wasn't expecting a great start to the New Year with my walking but the first three days I've passed 40K steps , which is a good return. February will be more difficult as I will need to hit 12K a day and part of me thinks I can't do that, but part of me is determined that I WILL do that.

I was looking It a post I'd done about Tideswell and Litton in 2009 here which contains less than 100 words, and looking at it I'm surprised that there are that many. It is remarkably sparse, although it is my ambition to do a coherent post of maybe ten words, though I am not sure that would be possible. While I can ramble on about something and nothing sometimes I do need to be reigned in to stop me from going off at such a tangent that I fall of the edge of whatever I'm actually doing.

At this point this post clocks in at around 170 words, so the Tideswell post would have probably finished after the first paragraph.

Anyway people will probably expect me to include "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith, a band I missed when they first came round and still don't think I missed much. The only song of their's that I really like is the excellent "Livin' On The Edge" though I am sure lots of people will tell me how wrong I am.

Instead I've been listening to the excellent "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" by Hawkwind a thouroughly enjoyable album from start to finish, but while the opener "Spirit of the Age" is great, my favourite is still "Damnation Alley" based on the book by Roger Zelazny (turned into a rubbish film but it works well as a backdrop for the song) and probably appropriate given Donald Trump's "My Button is Bigger Than Your Button" Shenanigans with Kim Jong Un

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Easter and Seventies Rock



Well there goes the Easter break and it was rather good. Mine started early on Thursday with my youngest daughter's amazing wedding which was just a totally brilliant day , lots of smiling faces , happiness and me renewing long lost friendships.

Maiden Beer Mats
Over the weekend I picked up a copy of Classic Rock magazine because it had some Iron Maiden Beermats and a "Top 100 Rock Albums of The 70s". 

There is a hell of a lot I don't rate such as Aerosmith , I still don't get them , a sort of watered down ersatz Rolling Stones , "Walk This Way" was good and "Living On The Edge" but that's about it , sort of a bit better than Grand Funk Railroad who , thank God ,  we don't hear much.







Powerage by AC/DC was their number one seventies rock album , which I can't disagree with . AC/DC amaze me because every album is virtually the same , every song is virtually the same (have they ever done a ballad? ) but they manage to sound brilliant. I see parallels with Status Quo , who then tried to change their sound (Beach Boys collaboration what a car crash that was) , then recently they went back to basics and started to sound good again.

Anyway this is a short post and an excuse to include "Seventies Rock Must Die " by Lard

Sunday 28 June 2015

Rap isThe New Rock and Roll ? Kanye Believe It?

This is Glastonbury
It's the last day of Glastonbury and the person who has got most publicity out of this is Kanye West. Befor I start Kanye West has never bothered be either , some people enjoyed the set others didn't , He continually self promotes and part of his spiel for this performance was that Rap is the new Rock and Roll and therefor he was the biggest Rock Star in the world. Well there's a classic of moving the goalposts into the next county to fit your argument ....

Prior to the festival , I was continually moved to laughter by the idiots who wanted Kanye West removed from the bill , probably because he's not "Rock" enough . The thing is Glastonbury is not a "Rock" Festival , it is a festival , in fact probably the biggest festival in the world. People don't go for the acts , they go because it's Glastonbury , and there is so much on , that if you don't like something there will something around the corner that you do like. If you work out what you get for the cost of your ticket, you probably are a very good deal. Complaining about Kanye West is like complaining that Harrods stock Tibetan Yak's Milk Cheese in gold laminated wrapping. I made that up but you know what I mean. The Eavis Family could have sold tickets for the festival five times over, it is a huge financial success and that's what you have to remember. So it's pointless complaining about Glastonbury because it's gone beyond criticism. If you want a more grass roots festival , there are thousands on round the country: Here are five:


..and that is barely scratching the surface...there are half dozen happening on Tyneside this year and lots more throughout the country.


Any back to Kanye West positing that Rap is the new Rock and roll. It isn't . When someone says A is the new B they are immediately on the defensive implying their new product is inferior to the old product, you hear it all the time in film , writing and music, and the nearest example of that being true was Bruce Springsteen being described as the new Bob Dylan. Rock and Roll has developed essentially as melody based over , usually , a 4/4 time signature evolving from blues and folk music.

Rap is different in that it is not sung , it is spoken or shouted over a rhythm. If you wanted you could say that Rap is music for those who choose not to sing. This is no bad bad thing. It's a development of spoken word poetry with roots in the fifties Beat Poets developing through the sixties and becoming it's own form utilsed across all cultures. Pop Will Eat Itselm and Eminem are examples of white rap, then you have Goldie Lookin' Chain , Welsh Charver Rap , as well as the roots rappers such as Wu Tang Clan , NWA , Fugees , Wyclef Jean.

I've just dropped a sprinkling of names showing that Rap is not the new Rock and Roll it is it's own beast and it's all the better for it. You get the odd cross pollination such as Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" especially the reboot with Run DMC ,or theElvis.
sanitized but fun "Ant Rap" by Adam and The Ants, but I'd rather Kanye had declared himself the King of Rap , because he can never take the crown from


Sunday 28 August 2011

It's Not Easy Being Green




I recently attended a "Green Champions" course courtesy of my employer , and a couple of things struck me. A lot of people are committed to going good to recycle , use renewable energy and implement changes that will benefit and sustain our life style.

A couple of scary facts were put forward such as the fact that we have less than fifty years of oil left , and slightly longer with coal and gas . While that's enough to see out most of us , the edge is drawing closer. Steven Tyler , Mick Jagger look alike and lead singer with Aerosmith , made a pertinent quote about life which applies the same to our fossil fuell resourses , "Life is like a toilet roll , the closer you get to the end the faster it goes" !! , and that reminds me , one of their songs is perfectly titled for this situation , "Livin' On The Edge"



Anyway we can see that people and businesses will not embrace "Being Green" , unless it's convenient and financially viable!!

Personally , my own bit is the removal of all incandescent bulbs and the installation of an electricity monitor courtesy of my electricity provider.  This has decreased my electricity usage , although my home IT network is probably racking it up , the problem being if I want my music and film available 24/7 from anywhere in the house then the storage needs to be running 24/7 , though I think that solid state storage will help reduce this in the future , but at a cost.

I also do my bit recycling plastic and paper with my blue bin , and organics via the green bin. Paper either goes in my blue bin or is recycled into logs for my wood burning stove (see here).

I'm looking into the solar panels on the roof thing , which was part of my Green Pledge, but again , this is motivated out of a pereived benefit to me  , rather than being a "Green Champion" .  Still the result is the main thing and if I end up being moore energy efficient , then that is one more little action which makes the world a slightly better place , which can't be too bad.