56 posts
I was listening to the Temptations, Smoky and the Miracles, Chuck Berry, Elvis, The Dubs, the Flamingoes, all the fifties stuff. So about the time I turned about 21 or so we started singing a-Capella on street corners on the Jersey Shore. The group I started with was just Rod Hood my best friend, and Lambert Chauncy Smith, another local friend. I was the high tenor, Hooder was the second tenor, and Lambert was the baritone. We had no lead singer so all we did was three part harmonies imagining the leads. Some of our friends would sit in from time to time and sing lead.
One day the premiere a-Capella group in town the Soundmasters broke up, and we hooked up with the high tenor Fat Smit, Hooder was again the second tenor and my (now) brother in law Jimmy (fat) Smith was the best high tenor, so I dropped down to baritone. Lambert had hatted out of town for some mysterious reason, and we never saw or heard of him again.
Later on Fat Smit's brother the late Kenny Smith came on as lead singer.
One day Kenny disappeared and went off to the Height Ashbury scene to see what was happening there, leaving us without a lead singer. We kept on going however with some pretty awesome sit ins from North Jersey. But we all missed Kenny.
One summer day Kenny comes walking up the street with Hendrix style hair. His eyes were all bugged out and he whips out this blue vial of "Qwsley" he called it, we had been doing some 'erb a little bit but nothing serious at the time. So we all looked at each other and wondered what had happened to our good bud out there in California. (It did not take long before we all looked and acted like Kenny). Who by the way was one of my most favorite people I ever met in this life (RIP amigo).
The story of how I started playing guitar is as follows; One day we decided to take a road trip inland to visit a friend who had moved inland. In the back seat with me was the late Jay Suhm another baritone who seconded as the bassman in the Soundmasters after I joined and who had preceded me in the Soundmasters some years before.
Jay took out this bag of pills that had a peace sign on one side and he said I have some "Owsley" here. Who wants to do some? No one? Then I will do it all myself. So I took one of the blue colored ones. I guess we were on the road for an hour or so to the house we were going to visit. As I was peeking, Jay sneeked up behind me and clapped a set of headphones on my head. On the Stereo was playing Crossroads by the Cream. At the time I was listening to the Temptations and the do wop groups of the Northeast. Motown and all that stuff.
That night I heard music like I never heard it before. The guitar work seemed to be in motion. It moved from place to place in time with the groove like I never heard music before. (even though I had heard the thing on FM previously). I was still not convinced to change my preference to the Rock scene at the time, since I was a member in good standing to the a-Capella scene.
The very next morning I went out and bought a Stella Guitar which I tried to play for a few weeks, then I bought my first Telecaster from a friend and a Blackface bassman from one of the second hand music stores in the area. It was not long before I quit the Soundmasters after trying to get them to learn an instrument, which they just did not want to do.
So after about 46 years or so, here I am still pickin happily, and I never looked back on the a-Capella scene, and never missed it even a little bit.
Nowadays I can make finished productions all by myself without any other humans involved, using backing track generating programs, or inputting the BT's in MIDI through a MIDI keyboard and rendering it to audio using samples and synths.
I absolutely love making music even if it is never ever heard by any other human......
I always had a knack for making noise (music). Parents got tired of me raiding the cupboards for pots, pans, and tupperware to make a poor man's drum set.
So they bought me the damn drums. Toy drums. Not worth a damn. BUT at 3 they were bitchin' to me.
My mom's father always bought me a guitar for my birthday when I was little. I hated the guitar then. Drums were all I wanted. It wasn't until I was in 6th grade that I started both drums in band at school and guitar on the side in private lessons. I wanted an electric guitar. That acoustic just sucked balls as is typical with many kids. I played OK but never got serious with it because drums I took to naturally.
I ended up taking private lessons on drums in the 7th grade through 9th grade and got really really ridiculous on them. There were no limits.
Found out in high school that you get more cooch with a guitar than drums. Still played the drums. Started dabbling in guitar.
Kid across the street had a very musical family. Many instruments in the house. I managed to steal their dad's Ovation guitar for weeks on end. Wore out the song "Love Song" by Tesla. Very popular song at the time and the first song I learned note for note.
Me and the older brother started playing religiously. Him on guitar. Me on drums.
Then it happened. I started hearing music in my head. Original stuff. I had no good way to communicate my ideas to him on what to play. I had to learn guitar to teach my guitarist his parts.
Next thing you know I start giving his little brother drum lessons and he ends up a fucking virtuoso. So it made sense to stay on guitar. And that set the stage.
We jammed in that garage for years, constantly experimenting with sounds. We would never play the same thing twice. We would just jam. Whatever came out you had to keep up. We never thought to write anything down. If you couldn't remember it....then it must have sucked.
We recorded everything. I remember (at the time) thinking that we were the shit. Years later we found some of those tapes and laughed our asses off at how much we sucked.
All I know about improvising I learned jamming with those guys. It's always been hard for me to be like Howie and do all that note for note stuff. I can't do it. It's how a different guitarist talks. I can't talk that way so I do it my way for better or for worse.
Cool story Matt,
One of the bands I was in was completely improv even on stage. The bass player was a killer bottom guy who was into Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Jordan and those guys. John Mc Laughlin too, and he could go from 4/4 to any number of time sig's in a heartbeat and change from jazz to country and rock in a few measures. After a bit we learned each others schtick so well I could anticipate his movements before they happened we had several drummers with that band all of which could follow that bass player through his changes. I could follow right along playing lead only very rarely did I do rhythms but I was good at those in another band earlier.
Back in the early 70's we actually had paying gigs with that Band "The New Children of Jazz" we called it. Previously the bass player from the New Children and I formed a band that did songs with vocals in it The Brant Beach Blues and Boogie band, that one we did the songs pretty much the same way each time. Those were the only two bands I ever performed out with.
Fenderbender — Oct 01, 2013
All I know about improvising I learned jamming with those guys. It's always been hard for me to be like Howie and do all that note for note stuff. I can't do it. It's how a different guitarist talks. I can't talk that way so I do it my way for better or for worse.
I can relate amigo. That is the way I do things to this day, only I have to learn my licks after I record them improvising which is of course easier than learning other folks licks, since I did them in the first place using my own little tricks learned over time improvising.
I was born a poor black child.
Oh crap, it's late and I don't have time to tell all this tonight. More later!
I always knew you had some color in you Howie. ;D
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 01, 2013I was born a poor black child.
Oh crap, it's late and I don't have time to tell all this tonight. More later!
Cool stories Dave and FB! :)
Mine's FAR more boring. I would always try to play any instrument I saw when I was young, but my parents couldn't afford to let me take band. Eventually my friend got a guitar in Junior High and I just had to get a $99 cheapo Hondo (but it LOOKED exactly like the Les Paul that Page was playing at the time :D). We kept pushing each other to learn things until we both ended up making noise with others ("noise" being a pretty accurate word here). The best we did was taking second in the talent show in High School. We played Suite Madam Blue from Styx and lost to a guy playing Chuck Berry's Johnny Be Good (complete with behind the back solo). Oh well...
Hanging around with friends far better than me (and NOT having as much ambition so they never felt threatened) got me playing with a couple of bands including a six-week stint with a band called Foolish Pleasure with Craig Goldy (of Guiffria and Dio fame - he's about a year older than me and grew up three streets over) and Michael Grove (a killer drummer friend I went to school with who went on to play with Mickey Ratt but, sadly, died very young right before they shortened their name to Ratt).
The band before that we had one drummer get hit and killed while crossing the street and another who committed suicide using sleeping pills and booze. Spinal Tap was right on about drummers! One last "name" to drop was our replacement drummer for a little while. Ever heard of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly? Well that was written by Doug Ingle and our drummer was also named Doug Ingle - his son who was in my grade for both Junior High (now called "Middle School") and High School. He left soon after because he really wanted to play keyboards like his dad.
Things were looking up and I even joined a friend's band playing at a nightclub for a Billy Idol song when, later that night, I broke my arm being stupid (on my fretting hand side) and it took months for the nerves to regrow out. That ended my guitar playing for a few years while my career took off and I started making electronic music instead. I still can't trill my fingers like I should, I can feel things kind of click inside...
Many years later a work friend wanted to stop by a Guitar Center during lunch to pick something up and they were advertising a big "bring in your unused gear to sell to others" event for that weeked. So I brought in my '76 Sunburst Les Paul and got far more than I was expecting for it. Needless to say, the money never did leave GC (LOL!) and I came home with a new Les Paul Double-Cut along with a new amp, cables, picks, etc. Heh...
This blossomed into a full studio with about $130k worth of gear that almost all disappeared when the financial institutions decided that my money was actually theirs. Now I just noodle occasionally but, once I can get what's left of my studio set back up, I've got several ideas I want to work on. Everything's just for fun now, I doubt I'll ever play for more than a couple of people again.
It's a pretty simple story. I wanted to get girls. Little did I realize that girls eventually end up hating the guitar, and the bands you are in... but that was the original reason.
I'm not sure if that post was serious or joking. There has to be more to it than that, doesn't there?
in the beginning, my mom left her yamaha folk acoustic out in the living room... I was about 3... and so, obviously, I started playing guitar. after a few weeks and, thus, having mastered it (as a percussive instrument), I moved on to our piano. I entertained the whole household for hours with prolific compositions, all based on the magical sustain pedal... after a couple years of this I was offered (required) to take lessons. I never liked lessons, and only played music when attending said lessons for the next 10 years, much to the irritation of every instructor. this period included the oft lamented first experience with electric guitar... where I was encouraged to learn elanor rigby. I encountered the xylophone and recorder at this time but loathed both.
by 1986, everyone in america played guitar, so, I returned to it. I got a yamaha electric. there was some fun here, but lessons were again involved... so I soon "gave it up". I would play this guitar every now and then but never seriously.
then, while hopelessly bored in my dorm room freshman year, something that had never happened before came to pass. I was without a musical instrument! there wasn't a single guitar, piano, xylophone, recorder... nothing. there was clearly only one way to overcome this deprivation - I played along with EVH and the guys on a yardstick.
the following summer, I acquired a "real" guitar and amp. an ibanez. wow, floyd rose-ish trem, genuine ibz pickups! laney tube amp! kickass!! found an ovation 12-string at a pawn shop... I was in business. after that, just a history of gear, riffs and leaving sonic destruction in my wake... much as it was in the beginning.
this is the very guitar that started it all, btw:
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 02, 2013I'm not sure if that post was serious or joking. There has to be more to it than that, doesn't there?
Why? That's why I started playing music. Certainly if you've heard me play you know I took it much further than that and along the way, many wonderful things happened, and there was much rejoicing. But that's definitely the reason I picked up guitar.
I played in bands, played clarinet in marching band, learned to read music, had a piano in the house, but spent literally years dissecting metallica, megadeth, coroner, anthrax, slayer, maiden, and sepultura albums. played in a few bands, mostly playing very progressive, very heavy music. now I play in a band that does kids music, a rock band, and an ethnic music band. For probably ten years I've been doing a weekly jam on Thursdays with some buddies, as a consequence I now play drums, bass, keys, and kazoo.
None of it really worked to get me girls.
charger — Oct 02, 2013
None of it really worked to get me girls.
Funny the difference, I actually got laid almost every night that I played out. And I never did a thing to make it happen. Of course that was during the heyday of the hippy era, late 60's. Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll, (that is not just an empty phrase it was reality).......... I was the only one in the band that had an empty van, so guess who got to schlep the equipment home, I can't count the many times I did the wild thing on top of the road cases....... 8-) Sometimes I got laid during the breaks outside the bars in that van.
desertbluesman — Oct 03, 2013[quote author=charger link=1380599703/0#13 date=1380739003]
None of it really worked to get me girls.
Funny the difference, I actually got laid almost every night that I played out. And I never did a thing to make it happen. Of course that was during the heyday of the hippy era, late 60's. Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll, (that is not just an empty phrase it was reality).......... I was the only one in the band that had an empty van, so guess who got to schlep the equipment home, I can't count the many times I did the wild thing on top of the road cases....... 8-) Sometimes I got laid during the breaks outside the bars in that van.
Man I could relate to that. Show up at a bar.....I'm just any other guy trying to score a piece of ass. Strap on that guitar and jump on stage...Katy bar the door section C was full of whores. College was a FUUUUUN time.
ah, these are the stories you'll be telling your grand children some day....
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 04, 2013ah, these are the stories you'll be telling your grand children some day....
These are stories of the long forgotten past amigo. No need to burden my granddaughters with this kind of tale......;~)
Fenderbender — Oct 04, 2013
Man I could relate to that. Show up at a bar.....I'm just any other guy trying to score a piece of ass. Strap on that guitar and jump on stage...Katy bar the door section C was full of whores. College was a FUUUUUN time.
Man one night as I recall, one gal, a pretty little thing came up to me and said "hi there i just love the faces you make while you are playing". Later that night the van was a rockin and no one came a knockin...... ;D
And I never really knew I made faces while playing, I was just reacting to the tones I was grabbing I guess. She was a really wet one too, the best kind......
Memories..........
Some memories still work in my ancient and cant remember shit diseased brain. ;D
Well, I played really heavy, progressive rock/metal, in weird times, at ear-splitting volumes. Our audience consisted of a bunch of guitar players with Yes T-shirts, standing silently with their hands in their pockets. And now I play mostly kids music, so our fans are, like, 5. So no, not a path to picking up the girls...
Reminds me of someone talking about going to an Accept concert. All you saw there were teenage boys in leather. LOL.
Great reads and stories, nice to put some backgrounds with the names. (=
My dad plays guitar and sings. Around 8 or so I decided I wanted to be like dad.
My Dad played violin, piano and guitar although violin was his main instrument.
I started playing at 8 years old on a ukulele. I used to get wheeled out in front of the old aunts etc when they came to visit to entertain them, mostly playing old 1920's stuff ! - guitar followed a year after that.... a really horrible old guitar with strings about half inch above the fret board, absolute murder to try and play. Eventually got an electric when I was 12....a Woolworth's special sunburst !!!!
lol mine will end up being long and boring...
I grew up in house where music was always being played on the stereo - my Mom would be playing Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, Neil Diamond, John Denver, whatever.... And my older brothers were also into music, and had cassettes and 8 tracks of Deep Purple, the Doobie Brothers, Three Dog Night, etc. I was fascinated with cassettes and the little portable cassette players. I thought it was so cool that i could go climb up a tree and take music with me. lol. So that's where the love of music itself started.
I have a cousin who played drums and had a rock band. He was also my older brothers age (@ 9 years older than me) and he would always be talking about his band at family events like Thanksgiving or whatever.
Flash forward to my family moving to Florida in 1977 when i was 12 years old. I would only see my cousin on family trips back to Ohio, but one of those times his band was in a studio recording, and he took me along. I was hooked! I started pestering my parents about learning an instrument.
Finally when I started high school they had a stage band that had guitar players in it. That was it - kids my age playing Led Zeppelin riffs and Freebird was too much for me. My parents got me a guitar (Memphis Les Paul copy, lol) with the provision that I could have it as long as I took lessons. Well, 3 months of Mel Bay and I had already learned more from the kids in the school band than from the Mel Bay lessons, so I switched to a teacher that one of my friends used and after 3 lessons he inexplicably disappeared but the music store brought in a new guy that was this really excellent jazz player who also had an incredible ear. He really taught me how to use mine and also modal theory. My friends who also played were discovering Rush and Ozzy with Randy Rhoads, and after we all learned how to play the Spirit of Radio beginning it became a friendly competition to figure parts out by ear and show each other. It was really so much fun, there were like 4 of us constantly trying to outdo each other, but in a friendly way, we always shared what we learned and just kept pushing each other. Luckily academics were really easy for me, so I spent a lot of time playing.
By the time I finished high school I was the hotshot and had an ego to go with it. That ego didn't last long when i started college at UM and met Andy Timmons within a couple weeks. he could play circles around me but had no ego at all and was just the nicest most humble guy you could imagine.
Lots more happened along the way but that's the main story.
Ha! my first guitar was a Memphis Explorer copy. Probably a pretty decent axe, made in Japan, heavy as a boat anchor.
Mine will be way too long...
I also, was brought up in a home where I was constantly surrounded with music. My mother was a great piano player and had been the church pianist since she was 8 years old. My dad was a very good singer, who played trumpet, piano and some guitar. We had company ALL the time and they would go out and sing for hours around our piano. Because they were so into music, they always had a really nice stereo system in the living room. Analog. WITH RECORDS! LOL
Some of our best friends were at our house 2-3 times a week and one was a guitar player. He would always bring his guitar and I always thought it was way cooler than piano. I started taking piano lessons in kindergarten. Because I was surrounded with musicians and "expected" to be good, they pushed and helped me, and I was very strictly made to practice. The only bar I had to judge myself by was this. My piano teacher had over 75 students. The recitals were divided into age groups and within your age group you went from "beginners" to the best. In other words, you played in order of how good you were. By the time I was in 4th grade, I played last at the recital for grades k-8 (jr. High). By 7th grade, I was the only one moved up to the "high school and college" group recital. and by 8th grade, I played next to last in that group. The girl who played before me and the boy who played after me were both seniors in high school. Both got full music scholarships to college and to this day, but are still professional musicians. I was pretty good. But, by 8th grade I was REALLY losing interest and REALLY wanting to play guitar. My parents finally conceded that IF I would continue to play piano, they'd buy me a guitar and I could play that as well.
So, my first guitar came from our friend Rick, mentioned above. It was a Silvertone with lipstick bar pickups, and the amp was a little Gibson tube amp with an 8" speaker. The amp stopped working before long (probably nothing more than tubes) and got thrown out by my mom, thinking it was junk. Rick asked me about a year after that if I still had it and when I told him he said "You know that was uncle Chet's amp, don't you?" I know I've told this before, but uncle Chet was Chet Atkins. I actually owned one of his amps.
My path on guitar was very different than piano. First, I never learned to read music. My ear was so well trained that I could get a new album and within 3-4 days I could play every song on it and in just a couple more days, would have all the solos down as well. This would be about 1974 or so. After a year, I was SO into guitar that I couldn't stand playing piano anymore and much to my parents displeasure, I stopped playing and stopped taking lessons. But rock and roll was in my blood and I just wasn't into piano anymore. I too played Rush, Zep, Black Sabbath, Hendrix, Trower, UFO, etc... I say my path was different because I couldn't read music, but I was pretty decent at playing it.
My senior year of high school my dad asked what I wanted for graduation. I told him a guitar. He said I'd really need a car for college and that he'd buy me a new Sunbird if I wanted that. I said no, I wanted a guitar. We went to Buddy Rogers and I played a strat, and SG and an Ibanez Artist. The Artist was my graduation present and I still have it.
Getting this new guitar opened new worlds for me. So did a new guitar player named Eddie Van Halen. Then Randy Rhoads... I was in college and playing Van Halen stuff and Ozzie and I played a lot back then. within a few years after that is the best I've ever been as a player. And then....
At about 28 years old, I was at my peak of playing and broke my left wrist playing basketball. At that time, I had the Artist, an Am ST. Strat, a Les Paul Custom, a Kramer Baretta (VH Guitar at the time) a Kramer Pacer and an Ovation 84 Collectors series. The break took months to heal and when it healed, it HURT me to bend my wrist. I tried everything including slinging my guitar way up high to not have to bend it so much but it still hurt too much to play. I could play 5-10 minutes before it hurt too much to continue. Within a year I had stopped playing and started selling. I sold everything but the Artist.
10 years later, as I approached my 10th anniversary, I told Amy that I really wanted to start playing again and that I thought my wrist could finally take it. We went looking at guitars and thinking she'd want to spend around a grand, I picked out a very nice Ibanez. I played it, really liked it, and said "yes, this one will do." She said "so that is the best?" I said "no, those are the best" and pointed at the 5 PRS's hanging on the wall. She was immediately in love with them when she saw how pretty they were. She told me to play one. I said no they were too expensive. She said she wanted to get a closer look so I needed to get one down... I did. The second i played a note I knew it was the best guitar I'd ever touched. She could see it in my eyes... Honestly, I KNEW she didn't have that much money saved up for this gift, so I didn't worry about it. Until on my 10th anniversary, I opened the PRS Custom 22!
I started playing seriously again as soon as I got that, with renewed enthusiasm and love for the guitar. And then... Just a few years before any of us met, I was in a car wreck. I got hit broadside and spun 2 1/2 times. My neck got wrenched pretty bad, but I didn't think I was hurt. The result was permanent nerve damage to my neck which goes from my left ear, all the way to my ring and middle fingers of my left hand. I used to have a very fast and very agile left hand. My hand has never been the same since, and so neither has my playing. But, I still love it and have more killer gear now than I deserve, thanks mostly to my wife.
Oh, and since we're telling life stories re: music, this one might crack some of you up since practically nobody here knows it. I gig regularly. Yes, you heard me. LOL I play a gig every Thursday night at a local homeless shelter. Ok, not a big gig. One hour to about 20 people. I played one night a week for 10 years at the college. Just a couple songs there, for 30-40 people. But I also play regularly (once a month or so) at church in front of about 1000 people. And I played for a while in a Christian Folk/Rock band (if any of you remember the you tube video I put up a few years back, which is still there, BTW). Want an even bigger shocker? There are MULTIPLE recordings of me playing guitar. Many from church. And even some you tube videos put up by another person I play with. So, for those of you who think I don't really even play, I really do! :)
charger — Oct 08, 2013Ha! my first guitar was a Memphis Explorer copy. Probably a pretty decent axe, made in Japan, heavy as a boat anchor.
When I turned 16, my grandmother gave me $500, the same as she had done for my brothers and cousins. They all spent their money on cars. I had my brother take me to the music store and bought the best guitar I could afford, which was a (obviously used) 1968 Les Paul Custom "fretless wonder". The Memphis was so horrible in comparison i sold it a month later along with my Peavey Pacer and with money I had saved from mowing lawns I bought a Music Man 112 RD.
You had a Les Paul Custom when you were 16??? Ha, I knew you were spoiled! ;D ;D
That's so funny... I went a different route, I had a paper route and saved up all year, $850, went down to the music shop and bought myself a Tascam Porta Two, which is still the best sounding recorder I've ever owned, two Shure SM57s, and some mic cables. That machine was glorious... huge fat sound, 6 faders on the 6 inputs, 4 sweet VU meters, all sorts of weird bouncing and trickery in that box. Everything I learned about recording and mixing and economy of tracking can somehow be traced back to that box. When it broke some ten years later, I ran right out and bought the new replacement portastudio, which was way too clean, precise, and accurate, and I hated it, and it's sitting still in my closet unused. I still watch the old ones on ebay from time to time.
RectoZilla — Oct 08, 2013Yeah but I had no car!
Ah, good point! :)
So Charger, are you saying you got that before you started playing? That interest in recording came before the guitar?
Charger, interesting what you were saying about the portastudio.
I had one of these (the 144).....I actually had the very first one that was imported to the UK.
charger — Oct 09, 2013That's so funny... I went a different route, I had a paper route and saved up all year, $850, went down to the music shop and bought myself a Tascam Porta Two, which is still the best sounding recorder I've ever owned, two Shure SM57s, and some mic cables. That machine was glorious... huge fat sound, 6 faders on the 6 inputs, 4 sweet VU meters, all sorts of weird bouncing and trickery in that box. Everything I learned about recording and mixing and economy of tracking can somehow be traced back to that box. When it broke some ten years later, I ran right out and bought the new replacement portastudio, which was way too clean, precise, and accurate, and I hated it, and it's sitting still in my closet unused. I still watch the old ones on ebay from time to time.
That pic is great! Bringing back memories, I had the same Porta, well, it looked very similar, must've been from the same time period. Same for me, learned a lot on that machine and blew every extra dime on blank tape.
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 09, 2013So Charger, are you saying you got that before you started playing? That interest in recording came before the guitar?
No, I'm saying that when I got a "windfall" I went out and grabbed recording gear--Paul was saying how he got $500 and went and bought a guitar. I still played that Memphis until it just wasn't tenable anymore. I started playing guitar at 13, and bought my 4-track at 16.
Kabala — Oct 09, 2013[quote author=charger link=1380599703/25#30 date=1381287756]That's so funny... I went a different route, I had a paper route and saved up all year, $850, went down to the music shop and bought myself a Tascam Porta Two, which is still the best sounding recorder I've ever owned, two Shure SM57s, and some mic cables. That machine was glorious... huge fat sound, 6 faders on the 6 inputs, 4 sweet VU meters, all sorts of weird bouncing and trickery in that box. Everything I learned about recording and mixing and economy of tracking can somehow be traced back to that box. When it broke some ten years later, I ran right out and bought the new replacement portastudio, which was way too clean, precise, and accurate, and I hated it, and it's sitting still in my closet unused. I still watch the old ones on ebay from time to time.
That pic is great! Bringing back memories, I had the same Porta, well, it looked very similar, must've been from the same time period. Same for me, learned a lot on that machine and blew every extra dime on blank tape.
Yep, I was constantly on the hunt for the right tapes in bulk packs... Maxell XLII, TDK SA, etc.
Charger,
Just curious. There are two separate references above, to you playing heavy prog. If you played that and liked it, what bands did you play? You don't have to like Dream Theater just because i do. But, they are widely considered the top heavy prog band, so I'm just curious as to why you don't like them if you like heavy prog. I ask because you don't seem to just not like them or even "dislike" them. Every time I bring up something about them you really bust on them. Not just "I don't like this or that," you go down the line and pick apart individuals, songs, parts of songs.... I mean, you REALLY don't like them at all it seems. Hence my curiosity... There are bands that play a style of music I like whom I don't like, but I usually don't to such lengths to hate on them whenever they are brought up. You have pretty much slagged DT since day one. I'm just curious as to what about them brings such negative comments.
Also, I know you like catchy, more pop-ish tunes (your love of the Beatles for example) so maybe it is just the complexity. Not sure. For a heavy prog player though, you sure seem to really dislike them a lot.
Or it is just because you get sick of seeing "DreamTheaterRules" every time you log in? LOL
ha, same tapes I bought when I had my Tascam! Especially the SA's Have bunches of them. I even have some still of stuff I recorded, and of course no way to play them now that the player is gone.
Maybe he just prefers bands like Amon Duul II, Gentle Giant, King Crimson or Hawkwind to Dream Theater Howie! :)
If I said I played hard rock and heavy metal, but completely bashed Metallica every time one of you mentioned them, you would ask why too. Especially if it wasn't just "I don't like Jame's voice" or "I think Lars mixes the drums to hot." His comments above about "look at me, I'm important" indicate a deeper dislike than my examples. In fact, that's the only reason I asked. A similar thread a couple years ago, Charger not only disliked the song I put up, but went into a whole thing about writing complex music just for the sake of complexity, how it was easier to write than a good simple song (assuming the complex music was not good), and more or less that they wanked just to show off and not to create great music. He really let them have it. And that wasn't the first time. Again, I asked not because he dislikes them, but because he seems to REALLY dislike them, as opposed to just not liking the music. And it's just a discussion about music so curiosity is just part of the discussion. No different than if he asked me why I do like them so much. ;)
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 09, 2013If I said I played hard rock and heavy metal, but completely bashed Metallica every time one of you mentioned them, you would ask why too.
wait... "too"?! you didn't use "to" or "two".... preserving this! ;D
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 09, 2013Charger,
Just curious. There are two separate references above, to you playing heavy prog. If you played that and liked it, what bands did you play? You don't have to like Dream Theater just because i do. But, they are widely considered the top heavy prog band, so I'm just curious as to why you don't like them if you like heavy prog. I ask because you don't seem to just not like them or even "dislike" them. Every time I bring up something about them you really bust on them. Not just "I don't like this or that," you go down the line and pick apart individuals, songs, parts of songs.... I mean, you REALLY don't like them at all it seems. Hence my curiosity... There are bands that play a style of music I like whom I don't like, but I usually don't to such lengths to hate on them whenever they are brought up. You have pretty much slagged DT since day one. I'm just curious as to what about them brings such negative comments.
Also, I know you like catchy, more pop-ish tunes (your love of the Beatles for example) so maybe it is just the complexity. Not sure. For a heavy prog player though, you sure seem to really dislike them a lot.
Or it is just because you get sick of seeing "DreamTheaterRules" every time you log in? LOL
To be honest I never listened to them at all, except when their videos would come on the headbangers ball or something. I guess I didn't get the memo that "they are widely considered the top heavy prog band." When I was coming up it was all Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Anthrax, Maiden, etc. But then the bay area thrash scene started to take off, and all sorts of weird bands rose up around it that played thrash, funk, and all things in between... we took a lot of influence from Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Yes, Primus, mixed that with Slayer, Epidemic, Sepultura, and a bunch of bands you've never heard of that we grew up around, like the Champs (later renamed the Fucking Champs), Kyuss, the whole math rock movement with bands like Slint, Tortoise, Trans Am, etc. It wasn't music that got girls and it was hard to find on radio or anywhere but in traded tapes, tapes you bought at shows, and sometimes on college radio. We played in weird times at ridiculous tempos with huge piles of amps and speakers, I had an Ampeg V4 at one point with a 4x12 and the other guitarist had a Sunn 300 with a 6x12 cab! If I played it for you you'd probably hate it.
I maybe have heard three or four Dream Theater songs in my life and they didn't do anything for me. That's not to say anything personal about Dream Theater... I happen to love Joe Satriani, he's a bay area guy, my friend Jon Luini works with him and is a personal friend of his, and yet I haven't liked much of anything I've heard from him after "flying a blue dream"--and I've always hated Steve Vai's music... and my best friend is a huge Vai fan... I just don't blanket like or hate anything... I respond to the music.
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 09, 2013If I said I played hard rock and heavy metal, but completely bashed Metallica every time one of you mentioned them, you would ask why too. Especially if it wasn't just "I don't like Jame's voice" or "I think Lars mixes the drums to hot." His comments above about "look at me, I'm important" indicate a deeper dislike than my examples. In fact, that's the only reason I asked. A similar thread a couple years ago, Charger not only disliked the song I put up, but went into a whole thing about writing complex music just for the sake of complexity, how it was easier to write than a good simple song (assuming the complex music was not good), and more or less that they wanked just to show off and not to create great music. He really let them have it. And that wasn't the first time. Again, I asked not because he dislikes them, but because he seems to REALLY dislike them, as opposed to just not liking the music. And it's just a discussion about music so curiosity is just part of the discussion. No different than if he asked me why I do like them so much. ;)
Did you ever consider that maybe I have been there? We once had a song in 11/8 that was so hard to play we literally had to practice it three times a week for a month before we could play it live. And we kept adding runs and lines... it was hard to play, but easy as crap to write, because we didn't care if it was good or listenable or magical or emotional, just that we could pull it off.
Try to write a pop song that rivals anything by the Beatles, though.
It's pretty easy for me to judge which is harder.
Maybe if you listened to a Dream Theater record on a $10,000 stereo system played using a tri-dimensional unobtanium needle then you'd appreciate them?
:D
BTW - "Unobtanium" is my new favorite word thanks to Charger. ;) ;D
I guess I didn't get the memo that "they are widely considered the top heavy prog band."
Every time I read an article about them in GP, PG, GW etc. it mentions them as the, or one of the, biggest bands in heavy prog rock. Based on tour and album sales I suppose.
wait... "too"?! you didn't use "to" or "two".... preserving this! Grin
I meant "as well." ;D
To be honest I never listened to them at all, except when their videos would come on the headbangers ball or something.
Ok, that's fair. Makes me wonder why you didn't check out more of them, but I guess if you didn't like anything you heard that is not hard to understand either. Just seems like more than once you have gone off on them pretty good as if you really disliked them.
For those of you who do like them, I like them to! ;)
DreamTheaterRules — Oct 09, 2013 I guess I didn't get the memo that "they are widely considered the top heavy prog band."
Every time I read an article about them in GP, PG, GW etc. it mentions them as the, or one of the, biggest bands in heavy prog rock. Based on tour and album sales I suppose.
wait... "too"?! you didn't use "to" or "two".... preserving this! Grin
I meant "as well." ;D
To be honest I never listened to them at all, except when their videos would come on the headbangers ball or something.
Ok, that's fair. Makes me wonder why you didn't check out more of them, but I guess if you didn't like anything you heard that is not hard to understand either. Just seems like more than once you have gone off on them pretty good as if you really disliked them.
For those of you who do like them, I like them to! ;)
GP? PG? GW? Damn Howie, you sure do need to drop lots of "in the know" type stuff to define yourself! ::)
As for DT? Yes, I like them two. ;)
RectoZilla — Oct 09, 2013Craig, your to much...
trying to process that actually hurts my head....
