I'M CHUCK BERRY, F**K YOU VERY MUCH!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  ROCK JOURNALIST

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Before there was Keith Richards, Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Joe Perry or Slash...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  ... There was Chuck F**king Berry!!! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Chuck Berry invented Rock 'N' Roll guitar attitude and every axeman who has ever strapped on a six-string and put on a show has stolen something from  Mr. Berry.  The argument about who invented Rock 'N' Roll will rage on forever but no one can deny that Chuck Berry was the first Rock Guitar Hero in an era that was rife with pretty boy singers and Gospel-influenced piano players.  Borrowing from Charley Patton, T-Bone Walker and others who liked to put on a show, Chuck Berry was the brown-eyed, handsome man with a process and a slick suit who made middle-class white girls touch themselves under the covers.  He didn't go up onstage like Elvis or Ricky Nelson with the guitar acting as a silly prop, he actually played the motherf**ker ...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  And did it well, thank you!!!  His guitar riffs, intros, outros, turnarounds, slurs and bends are part of every Rock guitar player's bag of tricks, whether they know it or not!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  He did time in prison more than once for various offenses and nasty habits and spent much of his life as a bitter, mean old f**k who felt the music business screwed him over.  He once punched Keith Richards in the face without getting stabbed in return, was known to play shows with bands put together at the last minute, play sloppy and out of tune, hit on everyone's old lady and leave without even meeting the band.  He was the consummate Rock 'N' Roll asshole, was Punk before before people wore mohawks, and was heavy before there was Metal and oh, did I forget to mention ...  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  He ain't dead yet!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  He turns 90 years old today and he's still playing that big, Gibson guitar in your face ... too bad for you!!!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Hail, Hail, Rock 'N' Roll and HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHUCK BERRY!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!

bluejames61@hotmail.com

ADVANCED BLUES 101: PUTTIN' THE "UNK" IN FUNK! NASTY RIFFS YOUR MAMA DON'T ALLOW IN THE HOUSE!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  GUY WHAT PLAYS FUNKY

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  These riffs took me a lifetime to learn properly and the only reason I'm sharing them with you is 'cause I don't hear them much anymore in today's music! 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  And when you do hear them they've been sampled (stolen) by some DJ trying to make people think they came up with that s**t on their own!

JIMMY NOLEN

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Long before CREAM, HENDRIX, ZEPPELIN, AEROSMITH AND ZZ TOP started playing funky blues riffs, there was JAMES BROWN.  JB is a legend in his own right but he also had a guitar man in his band named Jimmy Nolen who practically invented the Funk riff in the mid-60's as part of Brown's band.  I ain't no music theory expert but people have told me this "chicken scratchin'" sound was created by using partial 9th and 7th chords and doing inhuman play and mute sequences against the fretboard which nobody can teach you ... you just have to Feel The Funk!  Other funky, soulful cats what played this kind of guitar included, Cornell Dupree, Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper.  Also, when not using crushing distortion, fuzztone and wah pedal, Jimi Hendrix was a total master of this style and you can hear it all through his legendary recordings.  In the 70's,  there was a slew of bands that used this technique to great effect:  TOWER OF POWER; EARTH WIND AND FIRE; THE COMMODORES; THE AVERAGE WHITE BAND; THE OHIO PLAYERS; KOOL & THE GANG; THE ISLEY BROTHERS; PARLIAMENT/ FUNKADELIC and a whole lot of booty shakin' others!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Get The Funk Out Ma Face!!! ( BROTHERS JOHNSON).

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Modern Bluesmen have incorporated this technique with great success into their music and you can hear it in the recordings of guys like Robert Cray, Bernard Allison and the great Stevie Ray Vaughan.   I started using this technique when I started messing around with chord chart books (there was no Internet or online lessons back then) and found that you could make things sound all sorts of funky by throwing in these chord shapes instead of using simple barre chords.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Don't try to get all technical ... you only know three chords!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Three chords will get you there and back!  Here's one funky chord:

  

Here's a 'nother chord:

Here's an octave run where you play the same note an octave apart on adjacent strings (used a lot in Funk music):

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Oh, S**T!!! Trying to get all Wes Montgomery on us!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Since video examples never play right for me on Blogger, I will put a link here to my facebook page where you can see me go head-on and play two funky riffs first in normal song mode and then in hyperspeed, James Brown nuclear breakdown mode.   https://www.facebook.com/jim.cota.92/videos/1762651204003171/The first example is played in the key of C but could easily be played up and down the neck in any key.  The second example is played in the key of E and is best played in that key to take advantage of the whole neck and some open strings.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Dude!  Don't pretend you know that theory s**t!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The guitar is an '89 Fender American Standard Strat with the pickup switch set to neck/middle position although at a certain point you hear me bump the switch to middle position and the Strat starts quacking like a duck.  The amp is a 100 watt Marshall MG Series combo amp on full gain but with the volume just barely cranked so you hear all kinds of pick and string noise and was recorded on my Dell tablet so I don't want to hear all kinds of audiophile a**hole comments about EQ.  The idea was to demonstrate the technique and I think I did that ... in yo' face!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Dude!  Why don't you clean that Strat?

"BLUE" JIMMY:  If I got time, I can either clean it or play it ... I choose to play it!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  If you got a studio we can record in, contact us and let's get it on!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!

bluejames61@hotmail.com

THE '83 US FESTIVAL: THE LOUDEST DAY IN HISTORY

"BLUE" JIMMY:  '83 US FESTIVAL ATTENDEE:

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE"  JIMMY:  The 33rd Anniversary of the '83 US FESTIVAL is this Memorial Day Weekend.  I was there and all I got was a lousy T-shirt!  Come to think of it, I didn't even get a T-shirt!  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  I got a case of the s**ts!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  But unlike some folks, I got clear memories of that day and I can share them with you here.  Of course, when I say '83 US FESTIVAL, I'm talking about Sunday, May 29, 1983 (Also known as HEAVY METAL DAY).  My first memory is that it was hot.  Like, Africa hot.  You wanna know how hot it was?  In the 2003 DVD release of Triumph's performance at the festival, you can see me in the crowd scene when the front gates open and I'm running towards the stage trying to get a good spot wearing mirror shades, no shirt and daisy dukes!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  What a fag!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  That's how hot it was.  First up on the bill was QUIET RIOT.  I remember early ads had Joe Walsh opening the show but someone must have decided he wasn't METAL enough so they switched him to rock day and added QUIET RIOT at the last minute.  QUIET RIOT sent their prize guitarist Randy Rhodes to play with OZZY a few years earlier, played the Sunset Strip under the name DU BROW for awhile, and then snagged former SNOW guitarist Carlos Cavazo to reform QUIET RIOT.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  And he don't Google that info ... he knows that s**t from memory!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Yes, they rocked!  And ironically, after barely making it to opening band status, they were the first Heavy Metal band in history to have a #1 album and a #1 single on the charts simultaneously, with "Metal Health."

BLIND DOG OZZY:  "Bang Your Head ... "

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Next up was MOTLEY CRUE!  Sorry, but my keyboard doesn't allow me to use umlauts to spell their name properly.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Now everybody is looking up the word "umlaut" ...

"BLUE" JIMMY:  I had seen MOTLEY CRUE on the Sunset Strip many times in their early days and I thought they were great but I doubted a band with that look, attitude and sound could really make it past The Whiskey in an era of post "Saturday Night Fever" and new wave teen idols.  But when I saw their shameless, Satanic, S&M imagery and heard songs like "Shout At The Devil" and "Looks That Kill" from their yet-to-be-released second album, I thought, "Oh, f**k! ... This band is going to be huge!"  I was right.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  OZZY!  OZZY! OZZY!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  I love the sun, but it was around this time that I noticed there was no shade ANYWHERE in this godforsaken cow pasture in San Bernardino.  Unlike Woodstock, where there was plenty of mud for filthy hippies to frolic in, here there was dirt and a feeble attempt by the promoters to plant grass which by concert day, had turned into pathetic piles of scarecrow stuffing which people were trying to sit on to avoid the hot dirt.  I didn't have money to go sit it the nice, cool, beer garden so seriously, the only place you could escape the sun was behind the port-o-johns where there was a few feet of shade behind each sh*tter!  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Nothing like 100 + degree heat and a tank full of fragrant raw sewage to make your day!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  I knew OZZY was about to come on but without Randy Rhodes who had recently died in a plane crash, I thought I would sit this gig out and stay in the shade.  How good could they be without Randy and who was this Jake E something who was trying to take his place?  Yeah well after two songs, I had fought my way to the front, mesmerized by Jake E Lee and his attempts to rip the frets off a modified Strat like no one I had ever seen.  At one point, I was crushed against the retaining wall and had to press my feet against it and push the headbangers back like a dude using the hack squat machine in the gym.  The only thing that made it worth it was getting blasted in the face by OZZY with a water cannon! 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  OZZY!  OZZY!  OZZY!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  After surviving that, I had to endure a set by JUDAS PRIEST!  Yes, there is that legendary entrance onstage by Rob Halford on a Harley Davidson but also an incredible set list that was heavy on songs from recent albums like "British Steel" and "Screaming For Vengeance."  All done in scorching heat dressed in black leather.  I don't usually have "exotic" tastes but to this day, I have fantasies of Rob Halford jumping off stage and stepping on my balls with those big, black boots!  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Ok, that's just ... weird.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  By this time, the favorite pastime of all the dudes in the festival was to squirt fine chicks with spray bottles and "cool them off."  Of course, when their tube tops and little running shorts were drenched with water you could see ...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Everything! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  When the sun was just starting to set on this loud and magical day, we got TRIUMPH!  Some say that TRIUMPH was not as crushingly heavy as the other bands on the bill but I remember that hearing inspiring songs like "Fight The Good Fight" and "Magic Power" right at sunset made me get chills and tears in my eyes.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Me too but I think it was the "ceremonial herbs" that were being smoked!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  What can you say about SCORPIONS?  Drawing on albums like "Lovedrive," "Animal Magnetism" and "Blackout," they destroyed the crowd with an energetic and acrobatic stage show, sexy Euro charm and an in-your-face sound which had many saying they stole the show.    

BLIND DOG OZZY:  "Blackout ... I really had a Blackout ..."

"BLUE" JIMMY:  That leads us to the mighty VAN HALEN!  Never in my life have I heard such passionate, divergent opinions about what happened on a concert stage.  Some say they were drunk, sloppy, disrespected their audience and disgraced themselves.  Others say they were drunk, sloppy, disrespected their audience, disgraced themselves and put on the best Rock 'N' Roll Show they've ever seen and heard ... I tend to subscribe to the latter opinion.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  "F**k the concert, let's go across the street and get a drink!" -  D L  Roth.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  There you have it.  Close to 400,00 people, (a single-day record at that time), oppressive, nudity-inciting heat, 100 arrests, 35 drug overdoses, reports of abductions and Satanic rituals (seriously!), only one murder and me almost taking a dump in my shorts waiting in line for the restroom during Edward Van Halen's guitar solo!  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Let's do it again!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!
bluejames61@hotmail.com

ADVANCED BLUES 101: HOW TO COP THE EARLY CLAPTON / PAUL KOSSOFF / LESLIE WEST SOUND

"BLUE" JIMMY:  GUITARIST

"BLUE" JIMMY'S SWEET, TRANS-BLACK LES PAUL

 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The history of Rock and Blues is full of classic guitar tones and today we're going to explore the sound of three Les Paul destroying legends named Eric Clapton, Paul Kossoff and Leslie West.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  OH, S**T!!!  I'm not worthy!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Eric Clapton of course, is in the pantheon of Guitar Gods, along with Hendrix, Page, Richards, Beck, Santana, SRV and a few select others who made millions of young boys leave home and forsake a normal life in search of guitar nirvana.  He played with The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, Derek and the Dominos and has had an extremely successful solo career.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Paul Kossoff is more of a cult hero for guys like us who would scour the cutout bins for obscure records that other people were too stupid to notice!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Dude!!!  Paul Kossoff was a British guitarist who played on countless studio recordings by totally forgotten artists, but was best known for his playing in the Blues infected Hard Rock band known as Free.  Their hits such as, "All Right Now," "Wishing Well" and "Fire and Water" are still covered by Hard Rock bands to this day and their long, bass-heavy jam, "Mr. Big" knocked many stoned, festival-going hippies to the mud.  After Free, he formed his own band called Back Street Crawler ... 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Nice! ...

"BLUE" JIMMY:  ... And played some scorching guitar but sadly, produced no real hits and he died from heroin-related medical problems in 1976.  That brings us to Leslie West ... 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Make some room!!! ... 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Leslie West says he was inspired after doing Acid and watching Eric Clapton and Cream play at the Filmore East in 1968.  In 1969, he did Woodstock with his band Mountain playing a legendary performance that saw him making a Les Paul Jr. look like a toy in front of his massive frame, playing riff after riff of primal, loud-as-hell, Hard Rock. Legend has it that at some point, West was asked to join the Rolling Stones but bowed out of the offer.  After Mountain, West formed West, Bruce and Laing which featured Cream bassist and singer, Jack Bruce.  Afterwards, West started a long solo career that continues to the present.  His precise, gut-wrenching string bends and vibrato have been imitated by many but never equaled.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  What was behind the killer sound of these three gentlemen?

"BLUE" JIMMY:  All used firebreathing, powerful amps like Marshalls, Sunns or Oranges cranked up to pain-inducing levels through Gibson Les Pauls or any guitars with high-output humbucking pickups.  Any stompboxes or effects they may have used (such as Clapton's use of a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster) is inconsequential -- all three guitarists could have gotten their signature sound on a cheap, pawnshop acoustic if they wanted.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  It was all in the fingers!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  If you wanna know the real secret -- all three were influenced by pure Blues guitarists like Albert, B.B. and Freddie King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins and musta spent hundreds of hours putting the phonograph needle down in the grooves trying to cop those incredible bends and soul-stealing vibrato.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Hey, hey! ... The Blues is alright!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sorry, young boys!  There ain't no shortcuts to getting this kinda sound!  You gotta feel it in your soul and there ain't no way to fake it.  There's no software you can download or app on your phone that can give you this sound ...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  You can't buy The Blues on Amazon!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!

bluejames61@hotmail.com