When you're feeling kind of lonesome in your mind....

Read on Layla's blog about the inductees for this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony...

Was surprised about Donovan... who lately had been quite forgotten from the media..

I reckon his contribution to popular music, from folk to psychedelia has been great..

So unfair he's remembered for his particular relation with Dylan.. the criticism over the style similarities,... while they were only strumming a guitar and singing on top..

Or so it seemed. Thousands of Dylan fans voiced their anger at me at his shows. Dylan mentioned me in his song "Talking World War Three" and his audience jeered my name. Backstage, Dylan told reporters: "I didn't mean to put the guy down in my songs. I just did it for a joke." In their turn my fans were just as vocal in championing me. It had obviously got out of hand.

Excerpt from 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man' by Donovan Leitch
the independent

Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light ....

Or just another lost angel...

Mojo is my favorite mag...

And this month (link) they celebrate the 60th anniversary of my favorite record label; Elektra Records...

Where Love, The Doors, Tim Buckley, The Stooges, MC5, Queen, Metallica and some other once were signed...

All because of Jac Holzman who could discover such diamonds in the rough ..

So... Happy Birthday Elektra... and thanks for providing such great artists.. (their website is great, check link)

And this one done by Andy Finney ... it's extremely documented with all the record covers, serial numbers, and details.. a must see.. link



Again Jimbo is on my blog... this time because of the wordplay between his anagram and Mojo Magazine..

Mr. Mojo Risin',
gotta keep on risin'
Risin', risin'

I really love you and I mean you...

I can imagine when Syd Barret sings a song like Terrapin strumming his guitar, people couldn't be able to stop and listen to him.

Even most of the time his lyrics are cryptic, full of metaphors..

He's playing with words and their sound on his songs as well as the meaning..

like a child's game...

Syd is my favorite bizarre crazy artist ever.. along with Salvador Dali… Sometimes they are blamed for trying to make a fool out of everyone... but I don't think they were doing that, they were exploring through expression..

Time puts everyone on its place... and after all these years, the legend over him has never diminished... even he choose to retire from public eye and stopped giving interviews long ago..

He died as a regular guy three years ago... but his contribution in taking pop music and present it as a supreme art form is far from being ordinary..

I really love you and I mean you
The star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

I wouldn’t see you and I love to
I fly above you, yes I do
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
The fins aluminous fangs all ’round
The clam is dark below the boulders hiding all
The sunlight’s good for us

’cause we’re the fishes and all we do
The move about is all we do
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
The fins aluminous fangs all ’round
The clam is dark below the boulders hiding all
The sunlight’s good for us

’cause we’re the fishes and all we do
The move about is all we do
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

I really love you and I mean you
The star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

train kept a rollin' all night long !

In case you need a definition of what a rock band should be.

This picture talks so much...

Jimmy Page is capturing the attention in it.. even he was just the bass player in the band..

Everybody's pretending to make a picture of him.. without knowing he would become the most legendary guitar hero, composer and producer icon in a few years..

Everybody but one.. Jeff Beck is the only looking at the camera.. with a non so pleasant face..

The love/hate relation between the two guitarists .. is very well known ...

Since their competitive actions in the late 60's both with the Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin...

The controversy over Beck's Bolero composition and the strange coincidence of both covering You Shook Me at the same time...

May you stay forever young ...

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.

Some people say my love cannot be true ...

Some people say Heavy Metal was born when:

1- a riff first drove a song.. that would be You really Got me by The Kinks.

2 - Big drum rolls were recorded ... Then should be Keith Moon in I Can See for Miles.

3 - Distorted melodic guitar lines .. Then The Beatles with Helter Skelter.

4 - Lyrics related with Evil nature.. then The Rolling Stones did it with Sympathy for the Devil.

5 - Long and complex guitar solos .. Then that would be Jimi Hendrix with Voodoo Child.

6 - heavy guitar sound and high pitched vocals... then it must be Led Zeppelin I.

7 - Violent attitude... Then The Stooges with I Wanna Be Your Dog.

8 - Heavy Metal on the lyrics.. SteppenWolf with Born To Be Wild.

9 - Heavy in the record title - Iron Butterfly with Heavy.

10- All together ... then it happened when Ozzy met Tommy Iommy who met Geezer Butler who met Bill Ward..

They’re locking them up today ...

Forever Changes... who hasn't heard about this legendary album ?

There are so many good songs in it ..

I particularly love the Red Telephone...

The best example of psychedelia,

and the prediction it carried...

They’re locking them up today
They’re throwing away the key
I wonder who it’ll be tomorrow, you or me?
We’re all normal and we want our freedom
Freedom...
freedom...
freedom...
freedom

Arthur Lee would end up for some time with his bones in the jail and through several bad mental times...

That's the thing with records that exceed the creators expectations...

If I say I don't need anyone...

This is the best guitar tone ever...

The riffs, the dynamics, the drum pattern .. !!

Just listening to the intro.. How did they get to create such masterpiece from scratch ?

Appetite For Destruction is the best selling debut album of all time ..

After this beginning, who could expect this band to last any longer ?

I started playing guitar just after listening to this record.. So it will always be in my heart..

Svefn-g-englar

Not so long ago I realized that my alarm tone was such an annoying and disturbing thing... I just linked it with the fact of waking up.. and didn't care too much..

The thing is that it was the worst sound ever...

So I firmly resolved to change it, and started to search in my cellphone for some less aggressive and hostile melodies..

Checking there I arrived to a Svefn-G-Englar by Sigur Rós ... A song which had been there for no more than a week or two...

Since then waking up is another experience… it’s like being in heaven or in the middle of an open field.. that’s the first thing I think of now… every morning.

…Things happen for some reason and Svefn-G-Englar, casually means Sleep Angels in Icelandic.

It would be great if each person could take 10 minutes away from their daily obligations.. and give a present to themselves by listening to this piece...

Svefn-g-englar

Ég Er Kominn Aftur
Inn I Þig
Það Er Svo Gott Að Vera Hér
En Stoppa Stutt Við
Eg Flýt Um I Neðarsjávar Hýði
A Hóteli Beintengdur Við Rafmagnstöfluna Og Nærist
Tjú Tjú
En Biðin Gerir Mig Leiðan - Brot Hættan Sparka Frá Mér
Og Kall A - Verð Að Fara – Hjálp
Tjú Tjú
Eg Spring Ut Og Friðurinn I Loft Upp
Baðaður Nýju Ljósi
Eg Græt Og Eg Græt – Aftengdur
Onýttur Heili Settur A Brjóst

Og Mataður Af Svefn-G-Englum

Sleep Angels

I’m back
inside of you
it's so nice to be here
it's just a quick stop
I fly around in underwater
on hotel connected to Electrical Tables and feeds

tju tju

but waiting makes me sad

fragile kick
and calling

have to go

help

tju tju

I burst out and the peace is in the air
bathed in new light
i Cry and I cry -unlinked
unused brain put on a breast
and feeds of Sleep angels

reflected in the eye of the dead man on the beach...

let's play some songs based in books...

For instance.. Killing an Arab which was inspired
by The Stranger by Albert Camus..


The song is great.. the book is superb..

This is one of the first books I read from my parents library.. just because it was a short one..

And while reading it I notice I was growing up..

exposed to some situations which were not supposed to be read by a kid..

but it did affect my way of thinking...

Then when I recorded my first demo.. my sister's boyfriend.. told me that it remind him of the Cure.. and gave me his Cd's from them... Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Pornography, ....

Some years later I realized he said that because their first album is as raw.. as a demo..

The best analysis of the song is by Sean K. Robb from Chart Attack "...a short three-minute burst of metaphysical angst that is meant to question the meaning of existence "

Killing an Arab

Standing on a beach
With a gun in my hand
Staring at the sea
Staring at the sand
Staring down the barrel
At the Arab on the ground
See his open mouth
But hear no sound

I'm alive ... I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an Arab

I can turn and walk away
Or I can fire the gun
Staring at the sky
Staring at the sun
Whichever I choose
It amounts to the same

Absolutely nothing

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an Arab

Feel the steel butt jump
Smooth in my hand
Staring at the sea
Staring at the sand
Staring at myself
Reflected in the eyes of
The dead man on the beach

The dead man
On the beach

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing an Arab

...What reasons do you need ?

Every Monday life starts again...

Then why don't we like them ?

Probably because the strength of laziness wins the battle to initiative..

So from now on I will take good care with Mondays, because they are the best days for taking the greatest decisions...

What are you going to do for the rest of the week ?

Even my current-new-found-consideration for the 1st day of the week... I still love the Boomtown Rats classic... "I don't like Mondays"

Which turned out to be the ultimate chronicle of a lovely teenager shooter girl... so bad..

I guess is all about a praise on boredom, low self-esteem and going to school another dull Monday morning ...

I almost forgot to mention ... this song contains the coolest hand-claps in pop history..

so give me Coffe and Tv...

This is one of the best videos I ever saw...

They could even make a movie with the Milky, the milk Carton...

It was created by Jim Henson's company.. which also created some years before The Muppets ..

ohh such nice memories..

Do you feel like a chain-store
Practically floored
One of many zeros
Kicked around bored
Your ears are full, but you're empty
Holding out your heart
To people who never really
Care how you are

Chorus
So give me coffee and tv
Peacefully
I've seen so much, i'm going blind
And i'm brain-dead virtually
Sociability
Is hard enough for me
Take me away from this big bad world
And agree to marry me
So we can start over again.

Do you go to the country
It isn't very far
There's people there who'll hurt you
'cos of who you are
Your ears are full of their language
There's wisdom there you're sure
'till the words start swirling/slurring
And you can't find the door

Some people think they're always right...

The guitars and the beats and the bass and the words...

These are the things that make the Strokes the best rock band out there ...

They don't even have competitors mixing bitter melodies, sharp lyrics, edgy guitar harmonies and tight drumbeats..

You Only Live Once which opened their last record.. First Impressions of Earth

It shows ... no need for the ultimate effects pedal, wall of sound.. or tricky guitar solos ..

Again.-.. all about the feeling...

the only way it can be done..

LINK TO NME REVIEW

Think of a number, divide it by two..

Another amazing record from 1977..

this time WIRE...

Pink Flag, great record cover

One of the most forgotten punk bands..

this tune with 1:24 shows all the cards that now the new age revival are revisiting..

Franz Ferdinand, Artic Monkeys, Gossip, etc...

Well.. Elastica ripped it off straight away with their single Connection..

10 over 10 in pitchfork media

Three Girl Rhumba

Think of a number,
divide it by two,
something is nothing,
nothing is nothing.
Open a box,
tear off the lid,
then think of a number,
don't think of an answer.
Open your eyes,
think of a number,
don't get swept under,
a number's a number
A chance encounter you want to avoid,
the inevitable, so you do, oh yes you do the impossible
Now you ain't got a number,
you just want to rhumba,
and there ain't no way you're gonna go under
Go under

... What are you so afraid of?

In Q's issue of August different artists choose their top ten songs of the moment..

I was checking Bruce Springsteen's list and he mentions a song by Ron Sexsmith..

Even his name is familiar, I never found the moment to listen to him...

So I went to his first record which had the following critic ..

"Ron Sexsmith is so anti-cool that this may actually be one the coolest albums you hear"

Secret Heart reminds me a bit of Roy Orbison's fragility, and the musical logical sense of Brian Wilson and McCartney..

Regarding the question he throws.. We are afraid of rejection and feeling small .. I guess he already knows..

I know what it means but ...

When the Who were trying to find their way through auditions for recording labels back in 64..

One of the A&R told them they were a great band but needed to write their own songs..

“You just really got to do it. ..so way we walked on… Everybody looked round .. and who’s gonna write ? …And me being an art student.. being able to say long words.. like uh.. perspicacity.. which I heard on the Spike Milligan album.. uhh … was elected to do the job.. and about eight, ten weeks later.. the song I had written “I can’t explain” was number 8 in the chart… it all seem so automatic and easy for me”

PETE TOWNSHEND interview 1974

but you're innocent when you dream...

And is very true... when you dream..

When you're asleep and is the time to rest.. and inside your head..

all those things start to get up from the ground ....

all your hopes... the faces of people you once saw..

the places you can't forget .. and the things you never dared to do...

they gather together on a trip that happens every time you close your eyes..