Tag: XXX

The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History…Honourable Mention Song #21: Oowatanite by April Wine (as Nominated by Allister Matheson)

This countdown is inspired by lists published by radio station KEXP-FM from Seattle in 2010, as well as the latest poll taken in 2021 by Rolling Stone Magazine. For the most part I will faithfully countdown from their lists, starting at Song and going until I reach Song . When you see the song title listed as something like: Song (KEXP)….it means that I am working off of the official KEXP list. Song XXX (RS) means the song is coming from the Rolling Stone list. If I post the song title as being: Song (KTOM), it means I have gone rogue and am inserting a song choice from my own personal list of tunes I really like. In any case, you are going to get to hear a great song and learn the story behind it. Finally, just so everyone is aware, I am not a music critic nor a musician. I am a music fan and an armchair storyteller. Here is the story behind today’s song. Enjoy.

KTOM: The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History.

Honourable Mention Song : Oowatanite by April Wine (as Nominated by Allister Matheson.

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Allister Matheson and I both went to Morrison High School in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. At the time we were not best friends or anything but we knew of each other. More importantly, we knew many of the same people and as such we swam in the same social waters and have many of the same type of memories from our teenage years. Even though we may not have fully known it at the time, both Allister and I shared a love of music. So, today’s post is about the music of the day, how we listened to it and why it mattered.

The first thing to know is that back when Allister and I went to high school, there was no Internet, no YouTube or any streaming services such as Apple Music or Spotify. In fact, the digitization of music hadn’t happened yet, either, so there were no iPods or wireless earbuds or anything like that. For us, if we wanted to listen to music, we needed to do so in person to a live band or else we had to take our music with us, physically, in the form of albums, 45s, 8-track cartridges or cassette tapes. If we were playing our own tunes, we did so in our homes on stereos with speakers the size of small refrigerators. In cars, the most important thing was the depth and clarity of the bass. In those days, for most guys, the bigger the home or car stereo you could afford, the better it was. Music was everything! Volume was king!

For those who may not be up on their geography, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia sits directly on the coastline that meets the Atlantic Ocean. Fishing and coal mining were the major industries in Glace Bay during my high school days. Glace Bay wasn’t a fancy town but it was a great place to grow up. For most of us, our access to music from away came from local radio stations and from television. But, the opposite side of that coin is that the cultural foundation of Glace Bay lay in the form of Celtic musical, as well as, a hybrid of Country, Rock and Blues. It was not hard to catch local bands in some of the watering holes around town. Consequently, whether it was Celtic music or something else, Allister and I both grow up knowing talented performers such as Matt Minglewood, Bruce Gouthro, John Allan Cameron, Buddy McMaster, The Men of the Deeps (our singing coal miners) and of course, the Queen of Cape Breton herself, Rita MacNeil. Our teenage years were spent listening to local bands in person while listening to bands from away on our stereos. Every once and awhile our two worlds would align and a big band from away would tour down our way. Those times were always very exciting. One of those bands that graced our local stages on a consistent basis was April Wine.

April Wine was a Canadian band that formed in Halifax as the 1960s were drawing to a close. In the early 1970s, they moved to Montreal and signed a record contract. Throughout the next two decades, April Wine was one of Canada’s most successful and prolific bands. They had a steady string of hits including “Could Have Been a Lady”, “Tonite Is a Wonderful Time To Fall in Love”, “Roller”, “You Won’t Dance With Me”, “Say Hello”, “I Like To Rock”, “Just Between You and Me”, “Sign of the Gypsy Queen” and the subject of today’s post, “Oowatanite”. April Wine won several Juno Awards and had 8 Gold and Platinum albums. They also had several hits in the US market and achieved Gold and Platinum status there as well. The classic April Wine line-up consisted of Myles Goodwyn, Brian Greenway, Jerry Mercer, Jim Clench and Steve Lang. While April Wine became headliners and toured the country many times on their own, they began as opening act for some of the biggest bands in the world. The most famous opening experience the band ever had occurred in Toronto at the famous El Mocambo Night Club. One night they found themselves opening for a group that was listed on the bill as The Cockroaches. But come show time that band turned out to be The Rolling Stones. Both April Wine and the Stones ended up recording live albums from the El Mo show.

With that history in mind, you can imagine how exciting it was to make the half-hour or so drive from Glace Bay into neighbouring Sydney to see April Wine play at the old Sydney Forum (which was a hockey rink back in the day). The willingness of a major Canadian band like April Wine to come down and see us on Cape Breton Island was always appreciated by people like Allister and me. As a result, we always supported April Wine in absentia by buying their albums and blasting their tunes in our basements and in our cars. One of the tunes that sounded best, especially coming out of quality speakers, was “Oowatanite”. This song came from an album called Stand Back which was released in 1975. “Oowatanite” is one of the most distinctive songs in the entire Canadian musical canon because of how it starts: with the loud clanging of a fire station warning bell which, after a few seconds, is joined by an awesomely loud electric guitar, then the vocals kick in and away we go! Never mind this more cowbell stuff from Blue Oyster Cult or Saturday Night Live! We wanted more fire station warning bell in Glace Bay! Even today, Allister and I both still smile when we hear the opening to “Oowatanite”.

For me, one of the very best things to come out of doing this musical countdown is that I have gotten to know Allister a lot better. We love sports, we love music and we both love Cape Breton Island and are proud to have that background as part of our personal heritage. Part of being a Cape Bretoner or Caper, as we call ourselves, is having a love of all kinds of music. Allister and I are just as proud of our local music stars such as The Barra MacNeils and the Rankin Family as we are of our favourite bands from away such as The Rolling Stones or Canadian bands such as Trooper and April Wine. Music formed a big part of our high school years. I think I can safely speak for Allister when I say that we wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world. Thanks Allister for all of your comments and stories that you shared throughout this musical countdown of ours. I have loved hearing about them all, as I am sure many other readers have as well. Your input made this journey far more interesting for me than it would have been otherwise. For that I am most grateful.

So, without further delay, set your volume on high and get ready for one of the best openings to any Canadian song ever! Here is April Wine with “Oowatanite”. Enjoy!

The link to the video for the song “Oowatanite” by April Wine can be found here.

The link to the official website for April Wine can be found here.

The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History….Song #10: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. (KEXP)

This list of songs is inspired by lists published by radio station KEXP-FM from Seattle in 2010, as well as the latest poll taken in 2021 by Rolling Stone Magazine. For the most part I will faithfully countdown from their lists, starting at Song and going until I reach Song . When you see the song title listed as something like: Song (KEXP)….it means that I am working off of the official KEXP list. Song XXX (RS) means the song is coming from the Rolling Stone list. If I post the song title as being: Song (KTOM), it means I have gone rogue and am inserting a song choice from my own personal list of tunes I really like. In any case, you are going to get to hear a great song and learn the story behind it. Finally, just so everyone is aware, I am not a music critic nor a musician. I am a music fan and an armchair storyteller. Here is the story behind today’s song. Enjoy.

KEXP: The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History.

Song #10: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

Here we go with the first of ten great songs that all could be depending on your point of view. Today, we start with one of the most original and magnificent songs of them all….”Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. “Bohemian Rhapsody” was the lead single from the Queen album, “A Night at the Opera” that was released in 1975. The song became Queen’s first hit and was their breakthrough hit in America. But, as popular as the song was when it was released and still is today, there remain many questions as to the scores of references sprinkled liberally throughout “Bohemian Rhapsody”, as well as, what the song is actually about. So, in the rest of this post, I intend to walk you through the context in which this song was written, how it was structured and stitched together, what some of the odder references mean and then, finally, give you my take on what “Bohemian Rhapsody” is all about. So, make yourselves comfortable…this is going to be quite a story because, after all, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is quite a song. Here we go!

It is important to start our journey with a reminder that Queen was a prog. rock band when they first started out. On their first two albums, they produced songs with a mythological basis to them. Prog. rock was popular at the time, with bands like early Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes and Rush all releasing many albums heavily laden with weighty songs containing weighty lyrics and lengthy solos. It wasn’t until Queen released their third album, “Sheer Heart Attack” in 1974 that they began to take a turn toward more Pop-oriented, theatrical music such as “Killer Queen” *(which you can read about here). So, when it came time for their fourth album, “A Night at the Opera”, Queen were poised to continue exploring songs with a cabaret-type feel to them. The biggest of which was a song called, “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was billed, not as a rock opera, like Tommy by The Who but, instead as a mock opera. Freddy Mercury had been dabbling with the idea of creating a Pop song using the five-part operatic story structure format for some time prior to formally writing “Bohemian Rhapsody”. In those earlier days, Mercury had scraps of song segments, as well as an overall structure mapped out that contained an opera part in the middle. The very first part of the song to be written was the line, “Mama! I just killed a man. Put a gun against his head. Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead.” When Mercury brought the idea for “Bohemian Rhapsody” to the band and played a rough sketch of the song on piano for them, they all thought it had the potential to be a hit. Little did they know the contortions they would end up twisting themselves in when it came time to properly attempt to record all of the many voices and style changes that populate this song. In order to appreciate what the band went through and what they managed to accomplish in the end, let’s first take a look at the five parts to this song and walk through what sort of play we are witnessing as the song rolls along.

Five-act plays were quite common in English theatrical history. Shakespeare is the most obvious example of this structural format. So, when Freddy Mercury constructed “Bohemian Rhapsody” he simply followed in the footsteps of those who’d come before him and made a five-act song. Here are those five acts:

Act : The song begins with an a capella verse that questions whether this is real life or simply fantasy.

Act : The song then transitions to a ballad section in which the narrator confesses his sin to his mother. That sin is that he has killed a man and that he is sorry for the sadness he is about to cause her because he knows the authorities will catch him and he will probably be punished by death.

Act : This is the operatic section of the song. In it, the narrator descends into Hell……..seriously, he does! If Beelzebub (the Devil) is mentioned here, where else would he be?! In any case, a battle for his soul ensues in which the narrator calls upon Bismillah to save his soul *(Bismillah is a term from the Qur’an and means, essentially, “in the name of Allah”).

Act : This is the rock section that emerges out of the Hell scene. The narrator has survived, albeit, in a changed form but has emerged stronger and more defiant for the experience in Hell.

Act : This is the quiet CODA section at the end where the narrator sings in a whispery voice that “nothing really matters, nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me……anyway the wind blows. This is the section that finds the narrator at peace and unafraid of who he now is and what awaits him in the future.

***As a bit of trivia for you, the references to Galileo that precedes the Opera section, is a tip-of-the-hat to guitarist, Brian May, who has a university degree in Astro-Physics. The reference to Scaramouche is a nod to a famous cowardly character in Italian dramas of the past.

When Queen came together to record the song, they did so one Act or section at a time. In the case of any section that possessed harmonies and/or choir-type singing…..those segments were the hardest to record. Regardless of what section they were recording, there were always only four men singing and yet, at times, it sounds like a church choir filling every square inch of space with the sound of their voices. Because the mid-1970s was not yet a time of digital recording, all tracks were recorded on tape. In the case of the opera segment…..each band member recorded themselves multiple times…..together as a foursome, as duos, and individually and then, again, at different octave levels. The final effect was to give the sense that sounds are coming at the listener from all directions and at multiple octave levels, all at once. That Queen had to do this while recording on tape meant that they were constantly having to splice small tape segments together, play those to create a new, shared sound, splice that newly taped segment again and add a new layer of sound to it, play it again, record it again, add to it again and so on and so forth. In the end, there were almost 200 overdubs used just on the opera section alone! The complexity of the recording process resulted in “Bohemian Rhapsody” being the most expensive song ever to record (at the time), as well as being a song that was virtually impossible to reproduce live. Thus, the studio version has ended up being the deluxe version of the song while, on stage, Freddy Mercury tended to sing all of the choral parts on his own for the sake of simplicity.

So where does such an original song idea come from and what is “Bohemian Rhapsody” really about? Well, Freddy Mercury took that secret to his grave. All that he would ever say about what the song meant was that it was about relationships and silly rhyming lines for fun. The remaining members of Queen….Roger Taylor, Brian May and John Deacon…..have all said that the band had a rule that stated it was up to the writer of the song to discuss its’ meaning and since Freddy Mercury wanted the meaning to remain unsaid, they were going to honour his wishes. So, they have shed no light on the mystery, either. However, one clue was revealed by the man who became Freddy Mercury’s partner during the last decade of his life. That man was named Jim Hutton. In an interview, Hutton stated that “Bohemian Rhapsody” was Freddy Mercury’s way of coming out and announcing that he was Gay.

I don’t know if that is true but, if you re-examine the song lyrics with “coming out” in mind, the song reads differently and certain aspects of it seem to actually make more sense. For the sake of some context, let’s remember a couple of things about Freddy Mercury’s life prior to 1975, when “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released. First of all, it is not always easy being Gay today, let alone back in the 1970s…..pre-AIDS, pre-Stonewall Riots, pre-Pride flags and parades, pre-straight/Gay Alliance spaces in schools, pre-same sex marriages…..in fact, homosexuality was still against the law in many areas of the world in 1975. So, even though Freddy Mercury always knew he was Gay, he did what many Gay men did at the time, he hid it by dating a woman named Mary Austin. Add to this by remembering the fact that Freddy Mercury was not actually British. He was born in Africa…..Zanzibar, to be specific. While in Africa, he was raised in a religion called Zoroastrianism, which is an ancient Persian-influenced religion. Without going into a big essay on the history of Zoroastrianism, suffice it to say, homosexuality was not condoned.

So, in 1975, publicly announcing that he was Gay was a move that was fraught with life-changing implications for Freddy Mercury. In doing so, he was turning his back on his heritage, he was shaming his parents and family and he was striding into a world where being Gay was a dangerous thing to be and for which there were few public role models to emulate. So, let’s examine the song again, Act by Act, with the underlying concept of this song being Freddy Mercury’s coming out announcement.

Act : the a capella questioning of whether this is the real life or is this just fantasy, takes on a whole new meaning here, if you believe Freddy Mercury is announcing that his public persona was just a facade up until this moment and that now, he was about to make his real debut.

Act : the confessional “I just killed a man” section takes on new meaning if the man being killed is the old Freddy. That he confesses to his mom indicates how important her absolution was in real life when he came out as being Gay. Having a supportive home environment is so critically important for any young person who comes out so, it is not surprising that this scene is filled with angst and sadness and sorrow and fear of shame.

Act : the descent into Hell. Having announced that he is Gay to his family in Act , Freddy Mercury now has to enter the court of public opinion. He knows that his news will be received with charity by some segment of the population and will be met with ridicule, threats and scorn by others. This casting of ethical judgement plays out in the back-and-forth battle for the narrator’s soul.

Act : The defiant rock n’ roll segment is a statement that Freddy is making that he will stand by his decision to go public and will be fitter, stronger and happier as a result of becoming the person he was always meant to be.

Act : the quite CODA of whispery singing about “nothing really matters….” is the breath he takes after all is said and done. The hoopla over his announcement is over. The blowback from those opposed, has been absorbed. Now he is surrounded by his true friends who value him for who he really is. With that comes peace.

Again, let me be clear that the afore-mentioned part of this post is purely speculation on my part, based mostly on Freddy’s statement that “Bohemian Rhapsody” was about relationships and what Jim Hutton said after Freddy Mercury’s death, that the song was about him coming out as being Gay. Whatever the case, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is, a musical masterpiece! I place such a tremendous value on creativity and originality and this song has both in copious amounts. Even though this is potentially a very serious song, I think the Joy that emanates from it for so many people symbolizes the Joy and Peace that people feel when they are allowed the freedom to be who they truly are. If “Bohemian Rhapsody” is truly Freddy Mercury’s coming out party then, it pleases me all the more. I have always believed that Love is Love and that all should be free to love and be loved in return in ways that make them feel most comfortable. I am happy that Freddy Mercury found Love and Peace in his lifetime and that he died as someone who was comfortable in his own skin. You can’t ask for much more from life than that. Rest in Peace, Freddy.

So now, let’s get to the videos. I will play two for you. The first will be the classic, “official” video which features the four band members in shadowy light, diamond-posed. This video is very special because it was one of the very first music videos ever made. Up until that time music videos, as promotional/marketing tools, were very rare. The video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” changed that, not just for Queen but, for artists everywhere. The second video will be a live performance. In this performance, you will see how the band had to re-structure the song to simplify it enough so that they could actually play it live. Freddy Mercury turns most of the choral singing into solo singing as performed by himself.

So, without further delay, here is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Enjoy.

The link to the video for the song, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, can be found here.

The link to the video of the live performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, can be found here.

The link to the official website for Queen, can be found here.

Thanks, as always, to KEXP, for supporting artists and bands who dare to be original. The link to their wonderful website can be found here.

The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History…Honourable Mention Song #2: Round Here by Counting Crows (as Nominated by JoAnne Teal) (KTOM)

This list of songs is inspired by lists published by radio station KEXP-FM from Seattle in 2010, as well as the latest poll taken in 2021 by Rolling Stone Magazine. For the most part I will faithfully countdown from their lists, starting at Song and going until I reach Song . When you see the song title listed as something like: Song (KEXP)….it means that I am working off of the official KEXP list. Song XXX (RS) means the song is coming from the Rolling Stone list. If I post the song title as being: Song (KTOM), it means I have gone rogue and am inserting a song choice from my own personal list of tunes I really like. In any case, you are going to get to hear a great song and learn the story behind it. Finally, just so everyone is aware, I am not a music critic nor a musician. I am a music fan and an armchair storyteller. Here is the story behind today’s song. Enjoy.

KTOM: The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History.

Honourable Mention Song : Round Here by Counting Crows (as Nominated by JoAnne Teal).

EDITOR’S NOTE:

It is my hope that, over the course of the next few weeks, you will all be introduced to some of the wonderful people who make up my world. As well, we will learn the back story of some songs that may or may not be famous but, in one way or another, all hold a special place in the hearts and minds of those who nominated them to me for inclusion in our countdown. So, without further delay, here is our second Honourable Mention song….”Round Here” by Counting Crows” as nominated by my friend, JoAnne Teal.

To borrow a line from my boy, E.B. White…..it is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. JoAnne is both.

JoAnne and I first met about eight years ago while involved in a writing community known as Trifecta. As part of this community of writers, JoAnne and I and our peers would respond to weekly writing prompts and create 100-word or 33-word stories. These stories would be posted online in a central location for everyone else to read and to respond to. It was a glorious time because of how we all enjoyed the act of creativity but, more than that, we all got to read really good work by a lot of talented writers each week. One of the best parts of being in a creative environment is the opportunity for personal growth. At Trifecta, it always amazed me how many different ways people would respond to the exact same prompt. The variety of responses always encouraged me to try my best to view life as being filled with a myriad of possibilities, too. But, the thing I took from Trifecta that has enriched me the most is the friendships I made there as a result of all of the interactivity built into the site. It was terrific to be able to comment on the work of others and have my opinions respected. Conversely, it was awesome to have such talented writers view my work and comment in ways that reinforced a belief in myself and/or offered tips on how to be even better at my craft. Well, eventually, all good things must come to an end and such was the case for the Trifecta writing community. Those who acted as moderators decided to move on to other things and those of us who were members went our own ways, too. But, before leaving, I reached out to a dozen or so people from the group and asked to be allowed to stay in touch. And so, in my list of Facebook friends I have a group of folks who I lovingly call My Writer Pals. All of these folks are talented wordsmiths and even more importantly, all of whom are wonderful human beings, too. One of my writer pals that I interact with the most is a lady from Vancouver named JoAnne Teal.

JoAnne is a beautiful writer. I have been a fan of her writing ever since the first time I read her work on Trifecta. JoAnne is a different kind of writer than I am. While I feel my strength comes in the form of commentary or essay-style writing, JoAnne is a truly gifted creative writer. She can create whole worlds out of a single idea. But, the thing that has always really impressed me about her writing is that she tends to favour characters who exist on the margins of our society. She is a realistic writer but, at the same time, JoAnne always gives her characters a sense of dignity and worth that is quite moving. Whenever I meet a new character that she has created, I always leave with the sense that she has created a fully-realized person and that she cares about that character and how they are to be treated. ***At the end of this post, I will include a link to JoAnne’s website so that you can read some of her work, if you feel so inclined. You can even sign up to have her work sent directly to your inbox, just as some of you have arranged with me and this website.

So, when I put out the call for song submissions, it did not surprise me that someone like JoAnne would pick a beautifully-written song. “Round Here” by Counting Crows is from their one really big album called August and Everything After. “Mr. Jones” was the big hit that launched their career into the stratosphere, with “Round Here” being the follow-up release. The crux of this song is about growing up and leaving the people and beliefs of your younger years behind, as you move forward with your life. In some cases, you are better off having discarded ideas and folks who may have been weighing you down. But, life isn’t always as simple as that. Sometimes, the leaving behind becomes hurtful and a sense of loss follows like a contrail. All in all, in our journey through life, we are constantly shedding our skin, as it were and having to reassess whether we now like what we see when we look in the mirror. That, in essence, is what “Round Here” is about, according to lead singer, Adam Duritz.

But, the strength of “Round Here” lays squarely in the poetry and lyrical imagery of its lyrics. The song opens with a scene in which Duritz’s character walks out of a home and leaves behind a partner/parent who has played their part in his journey and is being left behind as he goes forward with his life. In the hands of a gifted writer, that scene plays out like this:

“Step out of the front door like a ghost into the fog

Where no one notices the contrast between white on white”

I could write until the cows came home and never come up with something so concise and image-laden as that opening line. I have always been an admirer of writers who can say so much using so few words. Adam Duritz does this all throughout “Round Here”. The song is lovely. It was released at a fortuitous time because the early 1990s was a time in American music when Grunge was blowing up and dominating the airwaves. So, a poetry-esque story about personal growth and self-worth contrasted nicely with the energy of Grunge. Thus, Counting Crows found themselves with a spotlight all of their own as the 1990s unfolded. Duritz always modelled himself after the Singer-Songwriters of the early 1970s such as Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Brown, Joni Mitchell and so on and, as a result, the music of Counting Crows was greeted with relief by fans who were looking for a calmer, more reflective style of music to enjoy.

So, thank you JoAnne for reminding us all about of a song that is so wonderfully written. I am confident that many who read this post will welcome the chance to hear it again. And, as for you, thank you for your support of this project and of my work, in general. It means a lot to have an ally of your calibre in my corner. For everyone else, I will remind you that the link to JoAnne’s website will be listed below. I will close by sharing a small detail about JoAnne and I that, when you come to think about it, shouldn’t come as a surprise……we are Wordle buddies. Each morning, JoAnne and I and a few other friends take the Wordle challenge and share our results and the strategies we used to solve the puzzle before the puzzle solved us. It is a nice way to begin my day, each day. Thanks, JoAnne. I don’t know if that makes us nerds who love words but, whatever the case, I am happy that I get to spend part of my day with such a wonderful, creative, thoughtful person. I am happy that the rest of you are having the chance to meet her, too.

For now, let’s get to JoAnne’s choice of songs…..here are Counting Crows with their hit, “Round Here”. Enjoy.

The link to the video for the song, “Round Here” by Counting Crows, can be found here.

The link to the official website for Counting Crows, can be found here.

The link to the official website for JoAnne Teal, writer extraordinaire, can be found here. ***Btw, writers often gain inspiration from other writers so, once you find out what JoAnne calls her website you will see why I chose to call mine what I did. 🙂

The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History: Song #475…Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix (RS)

This list of songs is inspired by lists published by radio station KEXP-FM from Seattle in 2010, as well as the latest poll taken in 2021 by Rolling Stone Magazine. For the most part I will faithfully countdown from their lists, starting at Song and going until I reach Song . When you see the song title listed as something like: Song (KEXP)….it means that I am working off of the official KEXP list. Song XXX (RS) means the song is coming from the Rolling Stone list. If I post the song title as being: Song (KTOM), it means I have gone rogue and am inserting a song choice from my own personal list of tunes I really like. In any case, you are going to get to hear a great song and learn the story behind it. Finally, just so everyone is aware, I am not a music critic nor a musician. I am a music fan and an armchair storyteller. Here is the story behind today’s song. Enjoy.

RS: The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History.

Song : Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix.

Over the whole of modern music history, there have been many excellent guitarists. There have been accomplished Bluesmen like B.B. King and Muddy Waters, Heavy Metal shredders like Steve Vai and Tony Iommi, along with rockers like Eddie VanHalen and Carlos Santana. All of these folks are/were masters of their craft and are held in high esteem by fans and by fellow musicians for a reason. However, few would argue with the assertion that the greatest guitar player of all time was Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix packed a lot into his 27+ years of life. He was a prodigy on the guitar in the same way that Mozart was a prodigy on the piano. Hendrix did things with a guitar that had never been done before and have rarely been done since. His playing style was primal and theatrical and displayed an easy virtuosity that is amazing to see, even all these years later. He was a powerful, musical force. Hendrix had many hit singles including, “Purple Haze”, “All Along the Watchtower”, “The Wind Cries Mary” and, today’s song, “Foxey Lady”. He was the star attraction at the original Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. He was a first-ballot Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame selection in 1992. His three albums Are You Experienced?, Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold As Love have all been deemed by Rolling Stone Magazine as being among the Top 100 Albums of all time. The same magazine ranked Hendrix as the Greatest Guitarist of all time and the sixth Greatest Performer ever, too.

Jimi Hendrix began his career playing with Little Richard, The Isley Brothers and others but, his virtuosity made it difficult for him to maintain a backing role on any stage. He was a star from the moment he began to play. I confess that I do not possess the musical knowledge to accurately describe his playing style in precise technical terms. Instead I, like you, am left to watch his performances and marvel at the ferocity of his playing. In this video for “Foxey Lady”, his guitar style seems almost sexual which is, I presume, in keeping with the seductive nature of the lyrics to this song. Whatever the case, he is obviously a man who is supremely confident in his gift.

Jimi Hendrix died when he was just 27 years old. He asphyxiated after an overdose of barbiturates. Along with Jim Morrison of The Doors, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Amy Winehouse and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones (who all died at age 27, as well), Jimi Hendrix died way too soon and left us all to lament what more he might have been able to give us musically. But, what he did give us musically while he was alive was phenomenal! Jimi Hendrix was unlike anyone who has ever played the guitar. If you have never watched him play then, you are in for a treat. If you have seen him play then, get ready to relive the magic that he brought with him to the stage. Regardless of what you bring to this post/video, you are about to watch the greatest guitar player of all time doing what he did best. That is treat enough for this day.

The link for the music video to Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix can be found here. ***The lyrics version can be found here.

The official Jimi Hendrix website can be accessed by clicking on the link here.

Thanks to Rolling Stone Magazine for honouring the music of the past, with as much fervour, as they do the music of the present and the future, too. A link to their website can be found here.

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