Tuesday, May 21, 2013

R.I.P. ANGEL OF DEATH

"BLUE" JIMMY:  HEADBANGER

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  I had to say few words about the passing earlier this month of Jeff Hanneman of the band Slayer, or as hardcore fans say, Slayyyyyyyyyerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!

BD OZZY:  Mas Chingon!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  And it's kind of silly to say that Jeff passed given the nature of his career in a thrash metal band that sang about the most extreme, vile subjects you could imagine.  I should say, He dropped dead, hit the ground and his beer soaked body was split open by maggots as he descended into the flames.  

BD OZZY:  There Jeff.
"BLUE" JIMMY:  His death hits closer to home than I like to think about.  When Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Bon Scott, John Bonham and SRV died they were larger-than-life people who lived in faraway places.  Jeff and his Slaymates lived down the boulevard from me here in South East L.A.  Although I never actually met Jeff,  I saw him and Slayer since the earliest days when they were playing backyard keg parties and VFW halls here in the neighborhood.  Their beer drinking was the stuff of legends.  My friend had a homemade video of Jeff at Tom Araya's parent's house shotgunning beers and then showing the band going to the store to get more suds.  

BD OZZY:  Tell them about the show!  

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Then there was that show at The Hollywood Palace in the late 80's where Satan himself showed up and rabid Slayer fans got a little too perky and ripped the place to shreds and the LAPD had to call the riot squad to clear the block.

BD OZZY:  Someone stepped on my tail and puked on the back of my head.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  You were lucky!  I remember walking out of the place with my mouth bleeding from the mosh pit, beer bottles flying everywhere and the LAPD helicopters flying overhead.  My friends left me and I had to take refuge in the building across the street where I had a friend who worked at a late night phone sex place.  The next day I had bruises in the shape of hand prints all over my body.

BD OZZY:  I slept under a bus bench.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Slayer always seemed to bring out the dark side of people but for all their occult trappings and imagery, you have to remember that they weren't a group of Satanic witches sacrificing babies on a foggy moor in Scotland.  They were L.A. DUDES who liked to pound beers, listen to metal and punk in their parent's garage and crank up the amps to meltdown level whereupon, they invented a type of heavy metal that people in the early days, thought had gone way too far.

BD OZZY:  When the "SHOW NO MERCY" album first came out, it scared the s**t out of me.  I thought the tape player had got stuck in fast forward and I'm pretty sure I heard The Devil calling my name.  

"BLUE" JIMMY:  He was probably talking to the other Ozzy.

BD OZZY:  How did Jeff die?  They say it was a spider bite.

"BLUE" JIMMY:   I heard a voodoo priest put a spell on him because other guitar players thought he was playing too fast and too hard and they could never live up to that standard.

BD OZZY:  !!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Whatever happened to Jeff, he went way too soon and Metal will be a little less heavy without him.  Drink a beer in his honor and thank him for destroying your eardrums!

BD OZZY:  And your soul!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BD OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!
















Friday, February 8, 2013

DROP D DAMNATION!






"BLUE" JIMMY:  FLATPICKING FOOL & TRAILER PARK CASSANOVA

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA


"BLUE" JIMMY:  I was drinking a cheap beer and listening to the new Aerosmith album today and I was enjoying the s**t out of it ("Music from Another Dimension").

BD OZZY:  Hard rock, bluesy guitar riffs, sweet ballads, Joe Perry & Brad Whitford power rushes -- there's a little something for everyone in this package.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The only thing missing is some rambling acoustic guitar for dessert.  I remember when every hard rock album had at least one track of acoustic guitar breakdown boogie to add texture to the mix, mostly because back in the 60's, all those skinny white boys in Great Britain wanted to be Big Bill Broonzy when they grew up.

BD OZZY:  Listen to the first Humble Pie album man, before they became the bell-bottomed, bootstomping heavy metal boogie men of the "Rockin' the Filmore" album they were sitting cross-legged on the floor smoking a big, fat joint listening to Broonzy, Rev. Gary Davis, Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, John Fahey, Bert Jansch and a host of other buskers who were the coffee house rock stars of their time, slaying droves of hippies with a single acoustic guitar and gritty voice.  Then there's the Stones.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Don't get me started.  One of the greatest moments in Rock is Keith and Mick Taylor banging out "Wild Horses" on acoustic guitars.

BD OZZY:  I wish I wrote that tune!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  I wish I was in the room when Keith and Mick came up with that chorus at three in the morning after a barrage of beer and cigarettes.

BD OZZY:  I got that part down.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Then there was Led Zeppelin III.  When I first heard that album, I thought the band had lost it but looking back, it was pretty ingenious to put out an album of mostly all acoustic material.  Later on, they would insert a whole acoustic set into their concerts and chicks would throw their undies onstage during "Gallows Pole."  

BD OZZY:  I want to learn how to play!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Here's something anyone can do.  Take your low E string and tune it down to D.  This is called dropped D tuning.  Form some chords and move your fingers around so it looks like you're doing a whole lot even tho' you ain't.  Don't forget to hit the dropped D string once in awhile to give your guitar that wide open, sold-your-soul-to-Papa-Legba sound.  You can fingerpick or flatpick.  In this example, I'm flatpicking unplugged on a fancy-ass Dean acoustic -- look at it shine!

BD OZZY:  I gave it to him for Christmas!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BD OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

BOYS! IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS! HOW TO PLAY LEAD AND RHYTHM GUITAR AT THE SAME TIME

"BLUE" JIMMY:  GUITAR SLINGER

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA









"BLUE" JIMMY: You can tell a lot about a bluesman from their guitar style.  
For example, if they play a whole lotta slide guitar, they probably came from the Mississippi Delta or the south side of Chicago or were at least influenced by players from that region.  If they do a whole lotta fingerpicking, they probably hail from the Eastern Seaboard.  If they play a whole lotta jazzy chords and licks, the West Coast was their home.  

BD OZZY:  If they play damn loud through a big amplifier, they probably came up playing in raunchy, disorderly roadhouses where they had to fight to be heard.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  And if they sound like two fellas playing at the same time, they probably spent time playing out on the street for tips with just them and one guitar and no one else to back them up.  Players in this style include Robert Johnson, Lightning Hopkins and Snooks Eaglin, guitar players who sat on street corners and played a mix of blues, old favorites and novelty songs to earn a living while competing with other performers for the attention of people passing by.  If you couldn't play lead, rhythm, percussion and sound effects all at once on one guitar, you didn't get no money.

BD OZZY:  No whiskey and no women!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The example in the video is a Texas shuffle combining riffs from a couple of my original songs.  I could've easily played the whole thing on acoustic guitar but this time around I played it on a Fender Stratocaster through a Marshall amp turned way down so you could hear all the pick and finger and string noise.  I'm playing it in the key of E and I'm using a lot of open string lead licks and sliding partial and full chords to get that street corner sound. If you see me on the street, please throw some change in my guitar case.

BD OZZY:  And a swig of whiskey for me!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BD OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!


Thursday, November 1, 2012

HOW TO PLAY LIKE HOUND DOG TAYLOR



"BLUE" JIMMY:  SLIDEWINDER

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Theodore Roosevelt Hound Dog Taylor was a bluesman extraordinaire who influenced pretty much everyone who put a slide on their finger and tried to make Hawaiian noises on a guitar.  Born in Natchez, Mississippi with six fingers on each hand, he took Elmore James' style of slamming slide guitar, played it louder and harder and put out a series of albums and live shows that drove big Afro and bell bottom audiences into a frenzy mostly in the 70's.

BD OZZY:  Together with his band The Houserockers, made up of Brewer Phillips on second guitar and Ted Harvey on drums, they literally rocked houses down and were a huge influence on George Thorogood, whose band The Destroyers were modeled after Taylor's band.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  His buck-toothed grin and between-song jive made him a favorite with the audience even though no one could understand a word he was saying.  Then he would take a sip of Canadian Club, put a slide made from the leg of a kitchen chair on his finger and peel the paint off the walls with a cheap, pawn shop guitar through an amp about to melt down with ear-splitting distortion.  The example in the video is played on an Eastwood electric/resonator guitar through a 100 watt Marshall MG series amp on full gain using a tapered, heavy brass slide and a thumb pick.  I'm not sure what tuning Hound Dog played in but the example is in open E tuning which will always give you that electrified delta sound.

BD OZZY:  Skull and glass a whiskey optional.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Copy it as best you can and then take it somewhere with your own style.  That's how Hound Dog would've told you.

BD OZZY:  Maybe someday they'll write on your gravestone what Hound Dog wanted on his:  "He couldn't play s**t, but he sure made it sound good!"

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BD OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!


Monday, August 6, 2012

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON: BLUESMAN OR EXORCIST?

"BLUE" JIMMY:  BLUES SCHOLAR AND GENTLEMAN

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  One of the most mysterious figures in the history of The Blues is Blind Willie Johnson.  If you ain't never heard Blind Willie Johnson, there's probably a piece of your soul that's never been moved yet.

BD OZZY:  Pretty much everything that's known about BWJ was researched and written about in a book published in 1959 by a man named Samuel Charters entitled "The Country Blues."  It's acknowledged as the first scholarly work ever written about The Blues.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  BWJs scary, otherworldly slide guitar playing with perfect pitch and intonation has never been equaled -- ever.  When God done made BWJ he said, "that's enough!"  His total recorded output is only about 90 minutes but that's all it takes, brother.  

BD OZZY:  Tracks like "Nobody's Fault But Mine" (where have you heard that before) and "God Moves On The Water" (about the sinking of The Titanic) were enough to make BWJ a legend,
 but then he done and made "Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground)", three minutes and twenty seconds of pure, recorded exorcism!  If you got a bad spirit living in your home, play this tune and your house will be cleansed!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Amen!  These old, scratchy recordings make you realize that The Blues comes from a life lived hard and nasty. BWJ roamed the streets of Beaumont, Texas playing for pocket change most of his life, getting messed with by the cops and then when his house burned down he slept on a wet mattress in the ruins until he got sick from pneumonia and died because the local hospital wouldn't admit a black, blind man"Blind folks has a hard time ..." his wife said after he died.

BD OZZY:  Que Gacha!

"BLUE" JIMMY:   Next time you think your life is too hard, listen to the recordings of Blind Willie Johnson and realize how good you got it with your comfortable life.  Blind Willie didn't play The Blues -- He lived them.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BD OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!

 


Sunday, July 8, 2012

LAY OFF THE WEED!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY: SELF-RIGHTEOUS, POMPOUS, HARD MUSIC CRITIC

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:   I was miles away, playing some serious late night blues on Friday night when I glanced up at the TV and saw some dirty, bearded, old hippie howling into a microphone on Jay Leno.  I hit the mute button out of curiosity and realized I was seeing Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes with his latest project called Chris Robinson Brotherhood.  Good Christ on his Holy Throne of Glory!  What happened to you brother?  

BD OZZY:  Is that the guy always picking up cigarette butts behind the liquor store?

"BLUE" JIMMY:  No man, The Black Crowes; the band that played loud, Classic Hard Rock and partied while the rest of the world were clutching their Nirvana albums and cutting themselves --  That's their singer.

BD OZZY: No way, guey!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Yes, way, guey,  I couldn't believe it either.  T'was a time when this man could sing like Rod Stewart singing Paul Rodgers at Steve Marriot's birthday party.  There he is, looking like a guy tossed out of a Grateful Dead show for being too stoned, singing mild jam rock boogie and pretending to play guitar.  Compare this to the Black Crowes "Sting Me" performance (on youtube) from '92 on Jay Leno.

BD OZZY:  &%*@!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Let this be a lesson to you, young boys, keep to the beer&whiskey and lay off the weed, or you'll wake up one morning and find yourself selling incense and veggie burritos at a Phish parking lot.


"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!


BD OZZY:  Wow! Wow!





Friday, July 6, 2012

FENDER STRATOCASTER: THE DEVIL'S AXE

"BLUE" JIMMY: Fender Bender

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Neurotic Chihuahua


When Leo Fender and his cohorts invented the Fender Stratocaster guitar, they probably never envisioned Jimi Hendrix making outer space noises with it or Ritchie Blackmore launching it like a Zulu spear across the stage or Yngwie Malmsteen ripping through scales intended for virtuoso concert violinists or Stevie Ray Vaughan wielding it like a sawed-off Texas shotgun.

BD OZZY:  But when they invented that badass plank of wood they threw in some extra mojo to insure that it would be wrecking speakers and ears well beyond the 1950's.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  And it looks great -- shaped like a big-leg nude woman!

BD OZZY:  Que Rico!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Unlike other guitars, when you strap on the Strat, it forces you to play hard and funky and nasty -- like you got no choice.

BD OZZY:  I chewed on one once.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  And it still has teeth marks, mutt.  But there ain't no way I could write a whole history of the Strat in this small space.  If you want that, check out "The Stratocaster Chronicles" by Tom Wheeler with forward by Eric Clapton.  It's 280 pages long and has color photos of every kind of Strat plus every player in history who ever busted a high E on a Strat.  

BD OZZY:  Leo Fender was smart but the real genius was the guy who invented replacement guitar strings -- there's where all the money is!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  What I wanna do here is just share some of my favorite Strat moments on recordings.  This is just a sampling, man:
  • "The Wedge" and "Miserlou" by Dick Dale
  • "Jam on a Monday Morning " by Buddy Guy
  • "All My Love" by Otis Rush
  • "Space Guitar" by Johnny "Guitar" Watson
  • "Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield
  • "Band of Gypsies" album by Jimi Hendrix
  • "From the Cradle" album by Eric Clapton
  • "Irish Tour" album by Rory Gallagher
  • "Bridge of Sighs" album by Robin Trower
  • "Highway Star" (Made in Japan version) by Ritchie Blackmore/Deep Purple
  • "The Sails of Charon" by Uli Roth/Scorpions
  • "Far Beyond the Sun" by Yngwie Malmsteen
  • "See the Light" album by Jeff Healey
  • "What's the Word?" album by Jimmy Vaughan/Fabulous Thunderbirds
  • "Porchlight" by Robert Cray
  • "Fear of the Dark" by Iron Maiden
  • "Texas Flood" album and "Little Wing" by Stevie Ray Vaughan

Some of my favorite onstage Strat tricks include: hitting a pick harmonic and pressing behind the nut; rolling the knobs for a wah pedal sound (stolen from Rory Gallagher); overdriving the neck pickup to make it sound like a vintage Les Paul (stolen from Clapton); picking behind the nut and shaking the whammy bar (stolen from Guitar Shorty); picking two strings in unison; bending the high E string all the way to the low E string (stolen from Buddy Guy); shimmering an entire chord with the whammy bar (stolen from Dick Dale); switching from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup in the middle of a solo (stolen from Ritchie Blackmore); bending the neck for divebomb effects (stolen from Jake E Lee); hitting a note and dragging the toggle switch back and forth to create echo; pounding the Strat's body and manipulating the feedback with the whammy bar (stolen from Hendrix).  Well, I could go on for days about the Fender Stratocaster but this is a blog not a book.  Have an unsafe and insane Fourth of July weekend and check out the photo of me torching myself with fireworks!
"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!


BD OZZY:  Wow! Wow!