3."The Beatles For Sale"-The Beatles
Between "The Beatle's" first two albums,"Please,Please Me" and "Meet the Beatles"in
the U.S.A. and "With the Beatles" in the U.K., which both catch the Beatles composing and recording mostly in the style known as Merseybeat and the Soundtrack Albums to "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help" came 1964's "Beatle's for Sale",the "The Beatles" least talked about album.With 5 of "The Beatles" best cover song recordings,plus "No Reply" and "Eight Days Week"- the two best known Beatle's penned songs on the album-"Beatles for Sale" is by far the most underated and least listened to Beatle album.Perhaps that's why it's the funist Beatle album to listen too."No Reply";the lead-off track-is one of the Beatle's greatist recordings and
one of John Lennon's best lead Vocal Performances.Lennon also does a great take of Chuck Berry's "Rock 'n Roll Music".The medley -"Kansas City/Hey,Hey,Hey,Hey" sung by McCartney
is one of the Beatle's hardist rocking recordings."Eight Day's a Week","Every Little Thing" and
"What You're Doing" are all indicaters of The Beatles future sound wnich emerged on"Rubber Soul" and "Revolver".Two of Carl Perkin's songs-which in the Beatles live shows were allway's
sung by George* show up on the album as well-with Ringo singing the Lead Vocal on "Honey
Don't" while George keeps his Lead Vocal Position on "Everybody's Trying to be My Baby".
*On at least one setlist from The Beatles day's performing in Hamburg-George is designated
as The Lead Vocalist on the largest number of songs ! Since he was the youngest member of
the band he apparently became the workhorse ,Vocally,of the band.
Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-All Rights Reserved
Friday, March 12, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Greatist Recordings of All-Time
#60-"Symphony No. 6 Op.104"-Jean Sibelius
Departing this earthly realm the same year i entered it-1957-Jean Sibelius is a thouroughly
modern composer who held steadfastly to the "Symphonic Form" long after most of his contempor-
aries left it for Schonberg's 12 note system of composition,or "Les Six of Paris" who were pushing
the boundries of classical music form;with "Tone Poems" and other neo-classical devices.Igor
Stravinsky is a good example.
While Sibelius's 7 Symphonies do include traits of tone poem composition-they also clearly
show evidence of the influence of "Contrapuntal Sonorities" of the early masters of the Symphonic
form;yet they are assembled and presented in a unique modern style that only Sibelius was able
to master.Though many considered the Finnish Composer's music old-fashioned-in the early 20th century.Now-his music is seen in a totally differant light.Various modern composers have
all had words of great praise for Sibelius in modern times.The english composer George Benjamin called one of Sibelius's compositions "unprecented in it's approach".French composer
Pascal Dusapin regarded Sibelius as "This Gigantic Master" and German composer Detlev Glanert said Sibelius "is undoubtably one of the Giants of Music".
By uniting the best of the older musical orders with the best of the new-Sibelius was
able to become a popular composer in own lifetime and he has also become a figure of great
admiration for the modern composers of today.This is the Great Achievment of a man who
was not a follower but a leader.He has earned a large and permanent place in the world of
Classical Music.Just listen to "Symphony No.6" and you'll know why.
referance notes:Sibelius-The Complete Symphonies and Tone Poems-album notes-
Edward Clark-2001
Written by Pete Holly-2010-Copyright-All Rights Reserved
Departing this earthly realm the same year i entered it-1957-Jean Sibelius is a thouroughly
modern composer who held steadfastly to the "Symphonic Form" long after most of his contempor-
aries left it for Schonberg's 12 note system of composition,or "Les Six of Paris" who were pushing
the boundries of classical music form;with "Tone Poems" and other neo-classical devices.Igor
Stravinsky is a good example.
While Sibelius's 7 Symphonies do include traits of tone poem composition-they also clearly
show evidence of the influence of "Contrapuntal Sonorities" of the early masters of the Symphonic
form;yet they are assembled and presented in a unique modern style that only Sibelius was able
to master.Though many considered the Finnish Composer's music old-fashioned-in the early 20th century.Now-his music is seen in a totally differant light.Various modern composers have
all had words of great praise for Sibelius in modern times.The english composer George Benjamin called one of Sibelius's compositions "unprecented in it's approach".French composer
Pascal Dusapin regarded Sibelius as "This Gigantic Master" and German composer Detlev Glanert said Sibelius "is undoubtably one of the Giants of Music".
By uniting the best of the older musical orders with the best of the new-Sibelius was
able to become a popular composer in own lifetime and he has also become a figure of great
admiration for the modern composers of today.This is the Great Achievment of a man who
was not a follower but a leader.He has earned a large and permanent place in the world of
Classical Music.Just listen to "Symphony No.6" and you'll know why.
referance notes:Sibelius-The Complete Symphonies and Tone Poems-album notes-
Edward Clark-2001
Written by Pete Holly-2010-Copyright-All Rights Reserved
Friday, March 5, 2010
The #1 American Pioneer of Jazz and Pop Vocal Stylization
Billie Holiday
by Pete Holly
Everything about Billie Holiday was unique.She was the first Black Vocalist to
be the lead vocalist for several of America's Top Touring Orchestra's in the 1930's.
What Billie had that made these orchestra's seek her out;Despite the racial uproar
they knew would follow was something so special,so completely new that Billie and
only Billie could deliver.She a brand new way of singing lead vocal parts.It was sleek,
elegant,and the essence of cool.Instead of starting right on the first beat of a phrase-
Billie would hold out for just a second-wait-and then in the coolist way possible come
in later and make it sound right on time ! No-one had ever sung like this before.It
took people black and white by total surprise-but in the best way possible for it
became this cool new style that America and eventually the whole world fully
embraced as "the way" to sing both pop and jazz music.No-one in pop or jazz ever sang g the same way again for once Billie's recordings became available and she toured all across
America.Every singer working at that time started to work as much of Billie's cool style
into thier own style as they could manage-including the biggest singing stars of the day-Frank
Sinatra-Dean Martin-You name a singer and Billie influenced them;even as late as 1970 you
can hear some of Billie's Style in Led Zepplin's Robert Plant's delivery and even Elvis-The Man-
The King-had that little hesitation right before blew the audience completly away-that was pure
Billie Holiday style.
It's hard to say where or how Billie learned to sing the way she did.She had an extremly
rough childhood and had allready been around the block a time or two before she became America's Star Vocalist.Everyone then and everyone now take's something from Billie's
deceivingly casual delivery.She is the template for all Rock,Pop,and Jazz Vocal sound's.Without
Billie there would be no cool.She invented it.As Frank Sinatra said "She's the Greatist Female
Vocalist of All-Time".
Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-All Rights Reserved
by Pete Holly
Everything about Billie Holiday was unique.She was the first Black Vocalist to
be the lead vocalist for several of America's Top Touring Orchestra's in the 1930's.
What Billie had that made these orchestra's seek her out;Despite the racial uproar
they knew would follow was something so special,so completely new that Billie and
only Billie could deliver.She a brand new way of singing lead vocal parts.It was sleek,
elegant,and the essence of cool.Instead of starting right on the first beat of a phrase-
Billie would hold out for just a second-wait-and then in the coolist way possible come
in later and make it sound right on time ! No-one had ever sung like this before.It
took people black and white by total surprise-but in the best way possible for it
became this cool new style that America and eventually the whole world fully
embraced as "the way" to sing both pop and jazz music.No-one in pop or jazz ever sang g the same way again for once Billie's recordings became available and she toured all across
America.Every singer working at that time started to work as much of Billie's cool style
into thier own style as they could manage-including the biggest singing stars of the day-Frank
Sinatra-Dean Martin-You name a singer and Billie influenced them;even as late as 1970 you
can hear some of Billie's Style in Led Zepplin's Robert Plant's delivery and even Elvis-The Man-
The King-had that little hesitation right before blew the audience completly away-that was pure
Billie Holiday style.
It's hard to say where or how Billie learned to sing the way she did.She had an extremly
rough childhood and had allready been around the block a time or two before she became America's Star Vocalist.Everyone then and everyone now take's something from Billie's
deceivingly casual delivery.She is the template for all Rock,Pop,and Jazz Vocal sound's.Without
Billie there would be no cool.She invented it.As Frank Sinatra said "She's the Greatist Female
Vocalist of All-Time".
Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-All Rights Reserved
The Greatists Albums of the 20th Century
#2-"Born in the U.S.A."-Bruce Springsteen
If you heard every song on this album separetly and not as a whole you
might not figure it was Bruce's best work.,let alone the 2nd Greatist album of
the 20th Century.But the grand sum of "Born in the U.S.A." adds up to so much
more than it's individual parts that it's impossible not to notice how every song is
set up so perfectly for the song before it and the song that comes after it.Though
never formally called a concept album,Springsteen's masterpiece is a near perfect
reflection of the state of America in the 1980's-it was released in 1985.The Frus-
tration,the impossibility of of figureing out who the enemy was that was earasing
"The American Dream","The Middle Class" and "The Strong Independant Individualist" that all had built our Great Country.It all seemed to be fading away and at a very
rapid pace.Springsteens album frames this do or die moment in American History Perfectly.
As an artist that was and is Springteens job but he really pulled out all the stops on this album
and as a total album it is devastatingly Real and right on the money.It doesn't get any better than this.When it comes to writing songs about America Springteen has no equal.In fact nobody
else comes even close.
Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-All Rights Reserved
If you heard every song on this album separetly and not as a whole you
might not figure it was Bruce's best work.,let alone the 2nd Greatist album of
the 20th Century.But the grand sum of "Born in the U.S.A." adds up to so much
more than it's individual parts that it's impossible not to notice how every song is
set up so perfectly for the song before it and the song that comes after it.Though
never formally called a concept album,Springsteen's masterpiece is a near perfect
reflection of the state of America in the 1980's-it was released in 1985.The Frus-
tration,the impossibility of of figureing out who the enemy was that was earasing
"The American Dream","The Middle Class" and "The Strong Independant Individualist" that all had built our Great Country.It all seemed to be fading away and at a very
rapid pace.Springsteens album frames this do or die moment in American History Perfectly.
As an artist that was and is Springteens job but he really pulled out all the stops on this album
and as a total album it is devastatingly Real and right on the money.It doesn't get any better than this.When it comes to writing songs about America Springteen has no equal.In fact nobody
else comes even close.
Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Greatist Albums of the 20th Century
#1-'Marquee Moon"-Television
Released in 1977 at the peak year of punk rock and new wave "Marquee Moon" was
the first punk rock album many punk fans ever heard-imcluding me.Television's style
was the complete antithasis of what we were told punk rock was.Thier songs were
razor sharp and the title song was long in length and had both Verlaine and Lloyd
reaching for the stars in the greatist duel guitar attack of all time.It was Transendant.
There regular sized songs possessed a whole new rock language which Verlaine called
"Be-Bo talk".The record was not a commercial success yet it inspired more musicians
Than any other record from the 20th Century ! Ric Ocasek and Benjerman Orr
of "The Cars" took thier vocal cues from Verlaines unique delivery and his penchant
for unusual non-sequiters,allthou "The Car's" non-sequiters weren't quite as unique
and clever as Verlaines.In essence-"The Car's" took the sound of Television and mixed it with classic rock-and took the proceeds to the bank.
The Band that started it all "Television" along with "The Ramone's" inspired a million
bands including my band "The Look's" despite never selling many records.
Thier sound was so unique and powerful that you can still hear it in today's popular
Rock bands.
For a while Tom Verlaine enjoyed a good ammount of success in England as
a solo artist.Selling far more records there than he ever sold in the state's.All of
the solo records Verlaine released during this time are really great and worth going
out of your way to find.The best of these is "Dreamtime" which i was tempted to
choose over "Marqee Moon" for it too,is a must have for any budding guitarist out
there seeking inspiration and Greatness.
If Eric Clapton is God then Tom Verlaine is every God in every Universe known
to man and then some.He's that great of an electric Guitarist.
Released in 1977 at the peak year of punk rock and new wave "Marquee Moon" was
the first punk rock album many punk fans ever heard-imcluding me.Television's style
was the complete antithasis of what we were told punk rock was.Thier songs were
razor sharp and the title song was long in length and had both Verlaine and Lloyd
reaching for the stars in the greatist duel guitar attack of all time.It was Transendant.
There regular sized songs possessed a whole new rock language which Verlaine called
"Be-Bo talk".The record was not a commercial success yet it inspired more musicians
Than any other record from the 20th Century ! Ric Ocasek and Benjerman Orr
of "The Cars" took thier vocal cues from Verlaines unique delivery and his penchant
for unusual non-sequiters,allthou "The Car's" non-sequiters weren't quite as unique
and clever as Verlaines.In essence-"The Car's" took the sound of Television and mixed it with classic rock-and took the proceeds to the bank.
The Band that started it all "Television" along with "The Ramone's" inspired a million
bands including my band "The Look's" despite never selling many records.
Thier sound was so unique and powerful that you can still hear it in today's popular
Rock bands.
For a while Tom Verlaine enjoyed a good ammount of success in England as
a solo artist.Selling far more records there than he ever sold in the state's.All of
the solo records Verlaine released during this time are really great and worth going
out of your way to find.The best of these is "Dreamtime" which i was tempted to
choose over "Marqee Moon" for it too,is a must have for any budding guitarist out
there seeking inspiration and Greatness.
If Eric Clapton is God then Tom Verlaine is every God in every Universe known
to man and then some.He's that great of an electric Guitarist.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Where's the show Tonight ?
by Pete Holly
Before "The Look's" ever existed-i performed as a solo singer-songwriter and
that really was what i aspired to be.More early Dylan,than the Beatles.Someone
gave me a big oversized book of Dylan's lyrics and i read it over and over.What
struck me about it was the simplicity of his lyrics and of his music.Also the number
of songs that were written in four line bars-as hymn's are-and followed the straight
12-bar blues structure.I tended to prefer his songs where he didn't follow that template
and instead ventured out into unknown territory."I Want You",the biggest hit Dylan
ever had as an artist was a favorite of mine.I had it down to a Science-the lyrics-the
harmonica part-i even took on Dylan's nasel singing style.But i soon realized that
while my study of Dylan was a good lesson in song and especially lyric writing-i had
to let it go and find my own style.
So i tossed all the dylanesqe mannerisms in vocal and lyric style away and started
my songwriting career anew.There were but a few places to play in Boise for Folkies
but i played them all.I played a four set show as a solo artist at "Desmond and Mollies"
where later i recorded one of the Look's shows that's The Live recording i released of the look's.But it gives you a good idea of just how many songs i knew even at 18 and 19 years
of age.I Allway's seemed to run into strange circumstances that gave me a chance to play solo.
One time when i lived very near Boise State i could hear a rock band playing in the distance,By
the time i got there they were having some sort of major technical problems and since it was going to take at least a half hour to fix-the guitarist who i knew-and he had heard me play asked
if i could get my acoustic guitar and fill in for awhile to stem the tide of people leaving.I got my
guitar and stepped right up on the stage and the guitarists i knew gave me a very flattering introduction. I lauched right into the heart of my original songs and the reaction was fantastic.
So just keep playing,with nobody leaving,in fact more people were arriving and suddenly i had
a huge audience-the biggest crowd i'd ever played for-about 500 people.They were giving me
great ovations of applause and for a while the audience was there to see and hear me-not the
Rock Band i was filling in for.The guitarist keept spurring me on-cause i was keeping the crowd
and actuallty made it bigger-plus i could tell he really was a true fan of my original songs.He loved them and kept telling me how great i was.as if in awe.Finally they started to get some of
the equipment back on line-but before i left i asked my guitar player friend if i could take a pass
on his les paul thru a huge amp-of coarse-he said-go for it-there's still a little time before we'll
have everything up and running-go for it ! I picked up the "The Paul" cranked it up and blasted
through David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream"-Mott the Hoople's-"Jerkin' Crokus" and T-rex's-
"Bang a Gong" and things got real exciting as my guitarist friend thanked me for filling in on such shoet notice-and the crowd which was really big now-gave a huge round of applause.
That may have been the biggest crowd i ever played too,nearly 1000 people, and it all happened completely by accident.See i told you the Music Business is strange ! but it's also
pretty cool sometimes-one good guy in the music business-can make all the differance in the
world-and that day the good guy was just a nice guy who i didn't know very well-but he gave
me "Free Riegn" during my time on stage because he had alot of confidence in me and even
admiration.Believe me things like this happen rarely-but it happened to me and my friend
and i'm sure i'll,nor he ever forgot it-or the crowd.It was really something to see and hear !
Written by Pete Holly-copyright-2010-all rights reserved
Before "The Look's" ever existed-i performed as a solo singer-songwriter and
that really was what i aspired to be.More early Dylan,than the Beatles.Someone
gave me a big oversized book of Dylan's lyrics and i read it over and over.What
struck me about it was the simplicity of his lyrics and of his music.Also the number
of songs that were written in four line bars-as hymn's are-and followed the straight
12-bar blues structure.I tended to prefer his songs where he didn't follow that template
and instead ventured out into unknown territory."I Want You",the biggest hit Dylan
ever had as an artist was a favorite of mine.I had it down to a Science-the lyrics-the
harmonica part-i even took on Dylan's nasel singing style.But i soon realized that
while my study of Dylan was a good lesson in song and especially lyric writing-i had
to let it go and find my own style.
So i tossed all the dylanesqe mannerisms in vocal and lyric style away and started
my songwriting career anew.There were but a few places to play in Boise for Folkies
but i played them all.I played a four set show as a solo artist at "Desmond and Mollies"
where later i recorded one of the Look's shows that's The Live recording i released of the look's.But it gives you a good idea of just how many songs i knew even at 18 and 19 years
of age.I Allway's seemed to run into strange circumstances that gave me a chance to play solo.
One time when i lived very near Boise State i could hear a rock band playing in the distance,By
the time i got there they were having some sort of major technical problems and since it was going to take at least a half hour to fix-the guitarist who i knew-and he had heard me play asked
if i could get my acoustic guitar and fill in for awhile to stem the tide of people leaving.I got my
guitar and stepped right up on the stage and the guitarists i knew gave me a very flattering introduction. I lauched right into the heart of my original songs and the reaction was fantastic.
So just keep playing,with nobody leaving,in fact more people were arriving and suddenly i had
a huge audience-the biggest crowd i'd ever played for-about 500 people.They were giving me
great ovations of applause and for a while the audience was there to see and hear me-not the
Rock Band i was filling in for.The guitarist keept spurring me on-cause i was keeping the crowd
and actuallty made it bigger-plus i could tell he really was a true fan of my original songs.He loved them and kept telling me how great i was.as if in awe.Finally they started to get some of
the equipment back on line-but before i left i asked my guitar player friend if i could take a pass
on his les paul thru a huge amp-of coarse-he said-go for it-there's still a little time before we'll
have everything up and running-go for it ! I picked up the "The Paul" cranked it up and blasted
through David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream"-Mott the Hoople's-"Jerkin' Crokus" and T-rex's-
"Bang a Gong" and things got real exciting as my guitarist friend thanked me for filling in on such shoet notice-and the crowd which was really big now-gave a huge round of applause.
That may have been the biggest crowd i ever played too,nearly 1000 people, and it all happened completely by accident.See i told you the Music Business is strange ! but it's also
pretty cool sometimes-one good guy in the music business-can make all the differance in the
world-and that day the good guy was just a nice guy who i didn't know very well-but he gave
me "Free Riegn" during my time on stage because he had alot of confidence in me and even
admiration.Believe me things like this happen rarely-but it happened to me and my friend
and i'm sure i'll,nor he ever forgot it-or the crowd.It was really something to see and hear !
Written by Pete Holly-copyright-2010-all rights reserved
Allmost Human
In one of my earlier blogs i made referance to B. Traven and his incredible
skills as a novelist,inspiring one fellow writer to make a strong case that "Traven's"
novel "The Death Ship" is the greatist novel ever written.The article appeared in
the New York Time's Book Review.However,i'd like to make some further points
concerning Traven's more well know work-"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"
which first was a bestselling novel and then became a big hit Movie starring "Humphrey Bogart",Tim Holt,Walter Huston with Huston's son John Huston in the Director's chair.The aspects of the film that make it such a compelling story is the the fact that
Simply by putting gold in the equation-At least one of the charactors,who is normally
just simple honest man,goes insane,by contracting what miners call "Gold Fever".The
character that loses his mind is the one played by Humphrey Bogart who,both in the
novel and the film,is known as "Dobb's".When we first meet Dobb's at the begining
of the story-there's are no signs at all that he is or could ever become insane to the
the degree that he does latter in the film.It's only after the three miners hit a mother-
lode of gold that Dobb's starts to lose it completely.
He becomes so unraveled that he actually ends up murdering one of his friends
{the Tim Holt character}at least he believes he did-actually it turns out that the Holt
character was only wounded and survive's,but Dobb's thinks he's dead.
So in essence what we have here is a story or a legend that is relevent to every-
age-but seems epecially suited to the state we find the world in today.Greed seems to
have takin' hold of nearly every good man,woman and child on earth and it shows no signs
of letting loose.How on earth did the people of this fragile planet get to such a low point
of moralistic behavior.
Unfortunatly there are no singular or simple answers.However reading a book such
as "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" would definatly be a good place to start.At least
then we could have some context to examine why greed has become so rampent in
our modern world.Just because greed is at an all time high now;doesn't mean it allway's
must remain this way.We hold the fate of the whole world in our small hands and in our
in the 10% of our brain that we use.Perhaps someone-somewhere is finding the secret
To unlock the riddle of why we only use 10% of our brain capacity-in the average human.
It could even be that someone has discovered how to switch on the 90% we don't use,
And therefore the answer to why humans are so suseptabile to the power of greed.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking,But,Maybe it's not.
Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-all rights reserved
skills as a novelist,inspiring one fellow writer to make a strong case that "Traven's"
novel "The Death Ship" is the greatist novel ever written.The article appeared in
the New York Time's Book Review.However,i'd like to make some further points
concerning Traven's more well know work-"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"
which first was a bestselling novel and then became a big hit Movie starring "Humphrey Bogart",Tim Holt,Walter Huston with Huston's son John Huston in the Director's chair.The aspects of the film that make it such a compelling story is the the fact that
Simply by putting gold in the equation-At least one of the charactors,who is normally
just simple honest man,goes insane,by contracting what miners call "Gold Fever".The
character that loses his mind is the one played by Humphrey Bogart who,both in the
novel and the film,is known as "Dobb's".When we first meet Dobb's at the begining
of the story-there's are no signs at all that he is or could ever become insane to the
the degree that he does latter in the film.It's only after the three miners hit a mother-
lode of gold that Dobb's starts to lose it completely.
He becomes so unraveled that he actually ends up murdering one of his friends
{the Tim Holt character}at least he believes he did-actually it turns out that the Holt
character was only wounded and survive's,but Dobb's thinks he's dead.
So in essence what we have here is a story or a legend that is relevent to every-
age-but seems epecially suited to the state we find the world in today.Greed seems to
have takin' hold of nearly every good man,woman and child on earth and it shows no signs
of letting loose.How on earth did the people of this fragile planet get to such a low point
of moralistic behavior.
Unfortunatly there are no singular or simple answers.However reading a book such
as "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" would definatly be a good place to start.At least
then we could have some context to examine why greed has become so rampent in
our modern world.Just because greed is at an all time high now;doesn't mean it allway's
must remain this way.We hold the fate of the whole world in our small hands and in our
in the 10% of our brain that we use.Perhaps someone-somewhere is finding the secret
To unlock the riddle of why we only use 10% of our brain capacity-in the average human.
It could even be that someone has discovered how to switch on the 90% we don't use,
And therefore the answer to why humans are so suseptabile to the power of greed.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking,But,Maybe it's not.
Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2010-all rights reserved
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