by The Stone Roses

~ THAT is a guitar riff ~

Some asshole at the record company actually released a radio edit that completely truncates the instrumental first “verse” of this song, and I hope he was not just fired but sent home without getting a chance to clean out his desk and that someone gave him a wedgie on the way out the door. I get why you would edit this for the radio, but sometimes you’ve got to shove it down radio’s throat in order to help jack up the quality of the product.

John Squire had an acrimonious split from the rest of the band and it’s too bad because songs like this really make the whole group stand out. John provides the rock & the rhythm section provides the roll, and the lead singer has the good sense to know when to stay out of the way.

But good God, that opening slide riff just really tears the roof off and launches a thousand air guitars. The build at the end of the song where the band just starts a repeated drive underneath the coda takes the end of the song to a great crescendo and the higher end of Squire’s guitar playing makes a great appearance here too, as the different layers of the production all continue to build to what’s a great climax to an incredible guitar tune.

by the Electric Angels

~ Yes, I’ve played this one live ~

When you’re the one booking all of the bands for the long concert outside a couple of dorms in college, you get to book yourself as one of them. We put together a short four song set, with two guys in the rhythm section that I played with off and on quite a bit and a lead guitarist who lived in my suite and was way better than you would expect for an 18-year-old.

He and I had practiced up in my dorm room for the better part of three weeks going into the show, and the bass player sat in with us a few times. I had played with both the bassist and drummer many times on different gigs, and including some bad four-track recordings of a few songs I’d written.

But what was most memorable about this live gig was after soundcheck as we’re getting ready to count in the opening number, I turn around and see the lead guitarist and the drummer introducing themselves to each other & shaking hands because they never actually met at a rehearsal and our first full gig as a four piece was that live show in front of several hundred people

You know what? It all worked out and everyone had a good time.

by The Jayhawks

~ Songs from commercials ~

I remember The Jayhawks from their appearance on the Sweet Relief benefit album back in the early ’90s. They were sort of an alt-country band before Wilco and Old 97’s made the format more generally acceptable. There were a couple of songs I liked but then they dropped off the map for a few years and I didn’t go looking for them.

Then VH1 had a series of commercials promoting the channel’s attempt to get back to actually showing videos, which, in the days before YouTube, was kind of needed. One of the songs was “Grazing in the Grass”, but unfortunately for VH1, Old Navy was using that song in an ad campaign of their own and they sort of canceled each other out.

One of VH1’s other commercials was this one, which used the chorus about “gonna be a big star” over a variety of lesser-known acts. I recognized the singer’s voice, but it sounded a little too peppy to be The Jayhawks and I was surprised to find out that it was in fact them.

by Trigger Hippy

~ Hang on, now who’s singing? ~

Ok, nice guitar groove to open up. Good funky little drum track too, which you would expect from Steve Gorman.

Strong Southern rock male voice lead vocal for the opening line. Got it.

Next line is so deep in borders on self parody? Uh, ok.

Third line of the song and we’re up to our third singer? What the hell is going on here?

What’s going on is that Steve had to rebuild Trigger Hippy after Jackie Greene went back to a solo career and Joan Osborne didn’t want to move to Nashville. So we lost one of Southern roots-rock’s supergroups after only one album and you’ve got the former drummer for the Black Crowes left trying to regroup as his current band is breaking up and his old band is trying to get back together. So he and his bassist go out and give their second guitarist more of a singing role (even if he doesn’t quite have Jackie’s guitar chops) and find a gal who can wail, and package it all together into a whole new band with the name everyone already knew.

by The Beastie Boys

~ A flute? Yes, a g-d flute ~

People forget how groundbreaking the Beasties were. Sure, some drunk idiot wearing his frat pin at 53 is going to talk about the crunchy metal guitars on their debut, but that’s because he didn’t know about all the samples & cuts they pulled in from everywhere they could on Paul’s Boutique. To say there’ll never be another album like it is no exaggeration: they changed the copyright laws after it was recorded and it would be insanely, prohibitively expensive to ever consider making a record like that again.

So they pivoted – again – and started playing more of their own instruments, like the churning bass on “Sabotage”.  On this album, they ended up blending a bunch of ’70s-style synthesizer sounds with some ’80s club beats on a live drum kit. There’s some stray guitar here & there and the usual rolling basslines, but there’s also off-the-wall instruments throughout the album, which is how you get one of the catchiest hip hop riffs of all time being played on a flute. Yes, a g-d flute.