Taking influence from Bob Seger’s classic road song “Turn the Page,” Jon Bon Jovi set out to write a song that delved into the lives of both rock stars, and heroes from the Old West, who Jovi greatly admired, the singer sat down one morning and wrote one of the band’s most memorable songs, “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Released on the band’s 1986 smash hit record “Slippery When Wet,”
As the folk music scene grew out of Greenwich Village in New York and began to spread across the country, a single figure rose about the crowd to become the flag bearer of the movement, Bob Dylan. Well before he shocked people by “going electric,” Dylan won his fans over with softer songs, such as the iconic “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
While classical, jazz and now even rock music have all been “institutionalized” over the past century, working their way into university and college curriculum across the globe, there is as least one form of highly-improvised guitar playing that has, for the most part, shied away from these institutions, Flamenco. Possessing a raw energy and folk-like quality that has inspired some of the best guitarists in the world to immerse themselves in the genre, including Paco de Lucia and Adam del Monte, Flamenco has long been an art form that is handed down aurally from generation to generation, and at least up until now has remained that way, which most Flamenco players seem to prefer.
It’s telling that Blind Melon’s 1992 hit “No Rain” made both VH1’s “100 Greatest Videos of All Time” and the “100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders” lists. The song was a huge success for the band, launching them to international stardom, while at the same time identifying the band almost exclusively with the single and accompanying video,
In this lesson we’ll be working on alternate picking. The lesson is very simple, we’ll take a lick from Paul Gilbert, vary it a little bit, and then increase the tempo to get a really great workout from this one idea.
“Let it Be” would end up being one of the most bittersweet songs in the Beatles catalog, or anyone’s musical library for that matter. Released in March of 1970, the song was the last single released by the Fab Four before Paul McCartney announced that he was leaving the band.
Creating music with other musicians is such a touchy subject for some people, because everyone has a different drive to make music. For some it is ego, for some it is money, for some it’s the pleasure of making music they like and perhaps the message it carries, and for some it’s a joy to share that experience with other musicians and the audience. Now, I don’t think that any of those reasons are right or wrong. You can even have all of them. It all depends how you deal with them and what your ultimate musical goal is.
Telling the story of a time traveller who witnesses the apocalypse, before returning to the present day, being transformed into metal and then after being mocked, starting the very destruction he witnessed in the future, Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” is one of the most memorable and covered songs in rock history.
Talking to Sammy Hagar, it’s hard to tell that the prolific guitarist, singer and songwriter has been working as a professional musician for almost 44 years, beginning his career by recording “Reach Out to Find Me” and “Read My Thoughts” in 1967. During the intervening years, Hagar has had several successful solo careers, been a member of the rock band Montrose, and spent a decade with Van Halen at the height of the band’s fame in the mid ‘80s and early ‘90. Throughout it all has maintained an exuberance and excitement for music that is often only found in performers half his age or younger.
Evolving from an earlier song titled “Hey Jules,” which Paul McCartney wrote for John Lennon’s son Julian to comfort him after his parent’s divorce, “Hey Jude” has since become one of the Beatles’ most recognized and best-loved songs. At over 7 minutes in length, it was, at the time, the longest single ever to top the charts.
