The Greatist Recordings of all Time

46."Shayla"-Blondie

A lesser known track but one of "Blondie's" best songs shows why todays artists
still long for and sometimes get that magic technicolor sound of analog tape.The intro
is a magnificent tease of guitar and keyboard sounds before a the very real sound of
live drums comes crashing in to propel the songs "cosmic energy".
"Shayla" is bittersweet-but who can deny it's ethereal beauty and compelling
artistry-that is Blondie at thier best.Shayla is a masterpiece and truelly deserving
to be included as one of the greatist recordings of all time.

THE GREATIST RECORDINGS OF ALL TIME

45."Jump into the Fire"-Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson was a pop songwriters pop songwriter.His way with words and melodies
attracted nearly every big pop rock act from the 60's and the 70's not only as his fans
but as his friends;including "The Beatles". He wrote hit's for other artists,"One" for
Three Dog Night and used his big multi-octave voice to propell song's like Badfinger's
"Without You" and songwriter Fred Niels "Everybodys Talken'" from the film Mid-
night Cowboy to the top of the charts.
"Jump into the Fire" employs an extremly catchy bass line,with a deep infectious
groove,accented by rocking guitar riff's into one gigantic unstopable mass of pop/rock
energy.It was Harry's only foray into the harder rock arena;but it was an unforgetable
one that became one of Harry's trademark songs.

Written by Pete Holly-copyright-2009-all rights reseved

THE GUITARS ANCIENT HISTORY

When we think of the guitar we tend to think of it as being modern or at least
more recent than the instruments of a modern orchestra.This is not the case.The fore-
runners of the guitar,the gitern from the middle east{with 5 strings}reached spain when
the muslim empire was at it's peak and had grown to include the southern part of spain.
This explains why the 6-sring guitar evolved out of spain somewhere between 1600-1700
The piano and the modern canon of orchestrial instruments were just starting to take
thier final shape and be perfected.So in differant forms the guitar had allready been
around for 4 or 5 hundred years;and that's much earliar than the instruments of a
modern orchestra.The only instrument older than that of the gitern and various
lute type instruments-which go way,way back in time-is the flute.Complex flutes
have been unearthed which date back at least 30,000 to 40,000 years-indicating
the important relationship between the the modern human mind and music.

Written by Pete Holly-Copyright-2009-all rights reserved

THE IMPORTANCE OF EMILY DICKENSON

The recognition of Emily Dickenson's genuis didn't come until long
after her life had ended.Of coarse,in Amhearst,Mass. people in her family-sister-
brother-and even her Mother and Father-knew that Emily possessed a mind superior not
only to thier own-But to anyone else they knew or even knew of.In later years,
after her parents had both passed away and emily became the head of the Dickensons
large home in Amhearst and she became more reclusive and took to wearing only
white clothing,the people of Amhearst all had heard something about Emily's
brilliant mind and she became known as simply "The Myth".Why the Myth?
Because while it was plainly clear to Amhearst's resident's that emily's mind was
of an order far beyond thier own in Power-Intelligence- and Insight,it was
so far beyond thier own faculty's that it was impossible for them to understand
the kind of genuis that was Emily Dickenson.So she became "The Myth" and was
able to write in near total peace in the Dickenson home of which she was head of.
In Emily's mind there was activity an astounding nature.Thou people sensed this-
it was only after her death-when all her packets of poetry were discovered by her
younger sister-that the true scope of Dickenson's amazing mind was truely revealed.
It was quickly decided that a group of Emily's poems should be published.
It was so successful another quickly followed and the publishing of and noteriety of
Emily Dickensons poetry was revealed to a fasinated world.
Finally all her Poem's were collected into one large volume;"The Complete Poems of
Emily Dickenson".The book contains an astounding 1775 poems written in Emily
Dickenson's lifetime.In all of american letters and indeed the entire worlds-you won't
find a more penatrating and perceptive mind at work.Emily Dickinson's Poems in thier
entirity make for by far the most amazing book ever produced by a single mind in the
entire history of creative thought and writing.As Emily said in verse "I choose just a Crown".
With the publication of her entire body of work Emily now wears that crown-for Eternity.

-Written by Pete Holly-2009-Copyright-All rights reserved-

WHY THE BLUES ?

by Pete Holly

In american popular music-the 12 bar blues progression both on the guitar and the piano is
the most often used.Also in Blues,Rock 'n Roll,Jazz,Swing, and Country Western it is the most
commonly found musical form.Piece's of it crop up in the strangest places like Elton John's "Rocket Man"{Piano}and Paul McCartney's "Let Me Roll it to You"{Guitar}.Jazz's greatist innovator John Coltrane found a new and very cool way to treat it on the Saxaphone in his classic composition"Equinox".I was inspired by this mutated 12 bar blues form of Coltranes and used variations of it's style,but not exact copy's,in my song's-"Dark Black Night" which appeared on my "Riverside Drive" cd and on the piano song "Like John" on the "The Morrison Center Session" cd.Coltrane's "Equinox" isn't the only 12 bar blues mutation but i believe it is the most Effectual and the most Striking Musically.Why the Blue's? It just works.

written by Pete Holly-2009-copyright-all rights reserved

NO NON-SENSE CHOPIN

BY PETE HOLLY

BOTH FREDRIC CHOPIN THE PERSON,AND FREDRIC CHOPINS MUSIC ARE
NEARLY INSTANTLY EQUATED WITH ROMANTIC IDEA'S.YET BY ALL ACCOUNTS
HE WAS VERY MUCH A NO NON-SENSE TYPE OF MAN.NONE OF HIS COMPOSITIONS
HAVE ROMANTIC TITLE'S-JUST NUMBERS AND STYLES-ETUDES-NOCTURNES-
POLINAISE'S AND 2 CONCERTO'S-ALL STRICTLY IDENTIFIED SIMPLY BY A NUMBER
AND A KEY.THAT'S PRETTY STARK FOR SOMEONE-WHO-BY SIMPLY MENTIONING
HIS NAME BRINGS UP IDEA'S OF A ROMANTIC NATURE.
MANY OF THESE COMPOSITIONS WERE WRITTEN BY CHOPIN ONLY AS PRACTICE
EXERCISES FOR HIS MANY STUDENTS.HE MADE HIS LIVING MOSTLY FROM GIVING SUCH LESSONS.IT'S A DREARY NARRATIVE COMPARED TO THE MYTHIC CHOPIN WE
THINK OF TODAY.IS ALL THIS ROMANTIC THINKING SIMPLY A FORM OF NOSTALGIA
WE HAVE ATTACHED TO CHOPIN'S MUSIC? NOT TRULY HIS LIFE,HIS CLAIM OR GOAL.
MAYBE AND MAYBE NOT.PERHAPS CHOPINS STRICT ADHERANCE TO NUMBERS IS
A BUFFER HE USED TO PROTECT HIMSELF FROM PEOPLE READING TO MUCH INTO
HIS AMAZING DEXTERITY AND THE DELICATE PASSAGE'S PLACED INSIDE HIS
COMPOSITIONS AND FROM THE DARKEST NOTES OF HIS,AT TIMES, DARKLY
MOODED MUSIC.MEN DON'T ALLWAY'S WANT TO DISPLAY THIER INNER WORKINGS TO THE PUBLIC-SO PERHAP'S CHOPIN'S NUMBERS ARE JUST ROMANCE IN DISGUISE.
WHATEVER THE TRUE CASE MAY BE.HIS MUSIC IS BOTH ROMANTIC AND
CLASSIC AND NOT JUST ONE OR THE OTHER.

WRITTEN BY PETE HOLLY-2009-COPYRIGHT-ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

HIPPIE'S VS POLITICAL GROUPS

One of historys most missunderstood times was the hippie culture centered
in San Fransisco and the radical political groups that mostly sprang up from
university campus's.Most people fail to see that these were two totally differant
groups of people.The hippie movement was totally non-political-they hated
radical political groups like the SDS and the weather underground.(so much
for tolarance} they wanted nothing more than for them to completely disappear
which they eventually they did{some of them hid from the law for 20 or thirty years}
The change the hippies wanted came from inside-not unlike a religion.The political
groups wanted change from and on the outside-political change.This was a major
differance which literally put the groups at war with each other.They were
never in agreement on even one single issue.By the end of the sixties the
hippies grew up and eventually became yuppies.The radical political groups
had -shall we say-a more difficult time.