11/15/2014
10/25/2014
The Definitive Story Of The Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down A Dream - A Film By Peter Bogdanovich
Everybody used to care, and they don't seem to care. Please, let it matter.
Benmont Tench
(Musical) Health Manifesto
Buy a physical product. Listen to it away from the computer and the Internet. If you order by traditional mail order, choose your records from a physical catalogue, put down the order on paper, place it in the mailbox. Enjoy the extra time it will take for you to get the record. Don't look up information about records on the Internet, build your own opinion. Think hard before you buy a record, do you really want it? Don't buy too many records at once, preferably just one at a time. Don't buy records too often. Don't necessarily buy a record even if you want to. If there are several versions of a record available, always buy the one that makes up the lowest common denominator, that is, the one that contains the core of the material without bonus tracks, alternative takes et cetera. Only listen to what you're prepared to pay for, even if it's available for free. Only buy official products. Never listen to music on your computer or mobile phone. Never listen to music through Internet based streaming services. Neglect YouTube, Spotify, iTunes and all the others. Never listen to compressed formats. Don't buy digital music, always listen to a physical product away from the Internet. Don't do anything else while listening, just listen. The artist is trying to tell you something, that matters. Plant that knowledge into your immediate local surroundings, not some desolate, abstract virtual universe. Let time be as slow as it is, again. Let space be as big as it is, again. Physical, physical, real, physical, physical, feel, physical real. Your mind.
10/23/2014
Some Of The Dharma
I should have been told to stay home, in the sandbank, in the woods, praising Nothingness as I had done that Summer layin' around the grass with dogs and Walt Whitman and grass 'tween my teeth, and I guarantee you there would have been no torrent of suffering - Everything I did as a kid was instinctively right.
Jack Kerouac, 1955
10/11/2014
8/11/2014
Power And Greed And Corruptible Seed - The Piece That Got Tommy Banned From Donington Park
Tommy certainly wasn't afraid to stick his chin out, and here he strikes at the heart of the taboo of taboos in Rock and Roll, greed. The backstage area gets more and more luxurious whereas the audience are supposed to stand in their mudhole without complaints. He also mentions security, and as you probably know, two years later two people in the audience were crushed to death.
7/31/2014
Biff Speaks: Revisiting Encyclopedia Metallica - The Bible Of Heavy Metal (By Brian Harrigan & Malcolm Dome, 1981)
If you're wondering why I, and not some great literary person has been asked to write the forward of this book, it's because myself, and my colleagues in Saxon, we're part of the musical phenomenon that blasted out of this country two years ago - Heavy Metal, Heavy Rock, Hard Rock or just simply Rock. It's obvious to most people that it actually started more than two years ago, but for the sake of details, this was when it first hit the headlines. It's been called many things, some of which were 'Revival' and 'New Wave Of British Heavy Metal'. Quite a few people have tried to pin down and analyse it and have come up with theories as to why it has become so popular again. Even so, bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple etc., have always been popular, and it's bands like ourselves - SAXON, and many others (to whom I apologise for not being able to list here) whom the media call the new bands which have come through. In my opinion this happened because people were sick to death of punk, mod and reggae, - of being told what to like, and the press and radio dominating the country with this type of music. Really, it was YOU who were the phenomenon - the Rock Fan. YOU bought the albums, YOU bought the tickets and YOU demanded the music be played. We were all there ready and just waiting for YOU.
BIFF!?
P.S. Keep the faith.
7/19/2014
Skeletons In The Kloset - Revisiting The Golden Olden Days Of Kerrang!
Saxon, Kerrang No. 31, December 16-29, 1982:
Ozzy Osbourne, Kerrang No. 33, January 13-26, 1983:
Ronnie James Dio, Kerrang No. 44, June 17-30, 1983:
Marillion, Kerrang No. 46, July 14-27, 1983:
7/12/2014
Strictly For Konnoisseurs, Kerrang No. 8, February 1982 - Alan Freeman Picks His Five Classics
- Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1977) - Works - Volume 1
- Barclay James Harvest (1976) - Octoberon
- The Alan Parsons Project (1976) - Tales Of Mystery And Imagination
- Pink Floyd (1975) - Wish You Were Here
- Vangelis (1975) - Heaven And Hell
6/28/2014
Separating The Wheat From The Chaff
Heavy metal is not cool. It is not hip. As a social construction, the facial expression of the member of the metal subculture toward outsiders is a rejection of hip-ocracy. Look at the countenance of those who are into a cool and hip subculture, and you will notice an expression of studied indifference common to the former, and an expression of sneering alertness for the latter. The slack-jawed look is neither indifferent nor alert. It often accompanies the self-described state of being "wasted". If you are wasted, you are not available to the everyday world, nor are you setting an example for it. You are simply out of it.
Deena Weinstein, 1991
Follow-Up Question: How many slack-jaws have you seen recently?
6/25/2014
5/11/2014
5/02/2014
3/14/2014
3/08/2014
2/16/2014
No Way Out
Talking about music... I seem to find no way out of this no man's land that has music by its throat nowadays. I find Spotify and mp3's shallow experiences compared to buying a physical product with a sleeve, liner notes etc. On the other hand, I don't find it very meaningful either to buy CD's when I can listen for free on Spotify... I'm caught right in between and the result is that my musical universe has been destroyed. That's the sad fact.
2/08/2014
Why...
... doesn't anyone use synthesizers this way anymore? This is the way they're supposed to be used in rock music; Sweeping pads and arrangements that carries the music. The pinnacle of the symbiosis between analog and digital.
1/29/2014
A Link In The Chain - Pete Seeger, 1919-2014
Oh, had I a golden thread
And needle so fine
I'd weave a magic strand
Of rainbow design
Of rainbow design
In it I would weave the bravery
Of women giving birth
In it I would weave the innocence
Of children over all the earth
Children of all earth
Far over the waters
I'd reach my magic band
To every city
Through every single land
Through every land
Show my brothers and my sisters
My rainbow design
Bind up this sorry world
With hand and heart and mind
Hand and heart and mind
Far over the waters
I'd reach my magic band
To every human being
So they would understand
So they'd understand
Oh, If I had a golden thread
And needle so fine
I'd weave a magic strand
Of rainbow design
Of rainbow design...
Pete Seeger
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