AC/DC Week, Live Wire…LIVE!

Posted in AC/DC, Youtube Favs on July 12th, 2011 by Willie

For today’s AC/DC tribute, I got “Live Wire” from 1975’s T.N.T. and it’s LIVE…in London!  This is a GREAT video performance.  AC/DC were fantastic because they could easily recreate the energy from all their recorded tracks live.  It’s no surprise that they achieved massive international success.  All they had to do was show up, turn the amps to 11, and proceed to rock..hard.  On top of that, Bon Scott was a born rock star.  He  was always having a blast.  At times he tries to project masculinity and toughness with his stage presence, but he can never help his smiling because he is filled with so much joy doing what he’s doing.  And why not…AC/DC songs maybe hard rock, but it’s more like hard rock candy.  All their songs are catchy, buttoned up, and fun.  At their best, they are never really menacing and dark.  It always has to be fun first.  STICK THIS IN YOUR FUSE BOX (best line.)

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AC/DC Week, It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)

Posted in AC/DC, Youtube Favs on July 11th, 2011 by Willie

AC/DC week rocks on with their 1975 hit “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock n’ Roll) from High Voltage. Great title, great lyrics, great song.  The entire song is a musical orgasm of rock and roll simplicity topped off with an excellent bagpipe solo from Bon Scott himself.  This is probably my favorite AC/DC anthem because of the universal truth of the words.  Indeed, it’s near impossible to climb to the top of the rock and roll world without getting your soul scooped out and your body killed.  As we would learn, once Bon reached the top, it did end up killing him.  Too sad because this guy was one in a million.  Rock and roll heaven to follow with a mouse click on that play button below.

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AC/DC Week, Girl's Got Rhythm

Posted in AC/DC, Youtube Favs on July 9th, 2011 by Willie

AC/DC week…why the hell not.  AC/DC is one of my guiltier pleasures.  Adored by a fan base that never understood that they were probably a parody band, AC/DC took rock and roll to a comical level of extremeness.  The Young brothers who founded the band were very talented rock and roll artists, but were also performance artists.  All you have to do is look at Angus’s school boy suit to get the idea.  They sing about Satan, extreme sex, hardcore drinking, and breaking the law, but they do it with tongue firmly in cheek.  Their music is all about boiling rock and roll down to its philosophical essence, sex and drugs, and then juicing it into overdrive.  Musically, its a stripped down, bare bones, and highly electric attack, but very fun.  Lyrically, its confrontational, sophomoric, and dark minded, but very funny.  They created this persona of what a hard rocking band should be singing about and doing, thus influencing the creation of heavy metal, but it was all based on the simple well-worn formula of making sure to have catchy driving songs.  Even though it was all an act, they did really live a crazy life, especially original front man Bon Scott who drank himself to death.  Perhaps he was the spiritual embodiment of the band’s crazy attitude, perhaps he was just a fuck-up, either way, he was quickly replaced by Brian Johnson, who helped take the band to even higher commercial heights in the 1980s.  More on Johnson later.  Right now I have a classic Bon Scott era song, “Girl’s Got Rhythm,” from their 1979 album Highway to Hell.  Like all great AC/DC songs, it rocks your bones and that’s all that matters.

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My Top 100 Youtube Favorites, a Retrospective, Part 4

Posted in Youtube Favs on June 30th, 2011 by Willie

Sex sells!  I want to thank this “Drunken Angel” above and Tal Wilkenfeld from yesterday for drawing a few extra clicks to my humble little site.  Before anyone accuses me of perversion or lechery or something, I’d like to defend myself a bit by saying this is one of the better lists of rock and roll you are gonna find on the internet.  So, in that spirit, lets close it out right now with clips 24-1 and put this beautiful list to bed once and for all.

#24.  Bob Marley, One Love/People Get Ready – It’s Bob’s version of “All You Need is Love,” and its basically just as good.  Whatever melody making power the Beatles had, Bob had too.

#23.  Bob Dylan, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll – I wish I had more Dylan on my list, but I couldn’t find too many choice clips of him playing my favorite Dylan songs.  This is an exception, one of the greatest Dylan videos you are gonna find on ole youtube. Read more »

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Jeff Beck and Tal Wilkenfeld, Freeway Jam + Blue Wind

Posted in Jeff Beck, Tal Wikenfeld, Youtube Favs on April 21st, 2011 by Willie


In part 41 of my youtube countdown, we take a look at some prodigies. One is an old prodigy by the name of Jeff Beck, the guitar virtuoso of the guitar virtuoso factory known as the Yardbirds (Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page.) The other is the opposite of old, a sexy 24 year old bass whiz by the name of Tal Wilkenfeld. Here, the two team up for a killer jazzy jam with the highlight being a 4 handed bass solo which looks as weird as it is cool. While its an amazing feet that I’m sure was staged, it still looks like Jeff just can’t keep his hands to himself, and that Tal was doing just fine without him. Anyway, its still awesome, and yes we’re all jealous of Tal’s already legendary life on the road.  Enjoy.

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The Atlantics, Come On!

Posted in The Atlantics, Youtube Favs on February 23rd, 2011 by Willie

Part 7 of my favorite youtube videos countdown continues with The Atlantics!  Hailing from Australia, The Atlantics started out as Sydney’s answer to the Beach Boys…except, they didn’t sing.  They were a surf rock instrumental band who churned out the local hits “Bombora.”  Looking to change their image a bit, they collaborated with lead singer Johnny Rebb in the mid 60s and produced “Come On” in 1967.  Written by drummer Peter Hood, “Come On” is considered one of the all-time long lost classics of garage punk rock.  Its a brash, highly charged electric party highlighted by a killer chorus and a bass line accented with Eastern mysticism.  This video is funny because we get to see Johnny Rebb’s gorgeous toupee, and moves strait out of Elaine Benes’s school of dance.  Enjoy!

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