Ok, I have to say, you’re right. My apologies, the tone of my previous few posts has been out of line. I know I’m a guest, and it’s exactly because unsourced claims don’t fly here that I’ve enjoyed participating in the discussions, and find myself constantly coming back for more. Don’t know what I was thinking. :smack:
What I meant to say was: based on stories told by musicians very close to that particular scene, who had either played with him briefly or studied with some one who did. I know this kind of info is less then trustworthy, and I cannot provide a source.
I’d like to add some more interesting information about Wes that can be substantiated in a book found here.
So it makes me think he used this particular technique because it best allowed him to express his musical ideas. I’m guessing, that his children and neighbors didn’t even factor into his choice. I apologize for propagating myth!
It’s probably all true. Greenwood probably did regularly do that when he wanted to test his guitar/speakerswhatever. It’s probably what he reverted to when he was fed up with the song for whatever reason (supposedly becasue it was too slow). And so he did it to try and sabotage the song, or at least those takes and the band probably heard it and said, “Yeah, that works, let’s keep that.”
Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi played air guitar for one Jethro Tull performance. After Mick Abrahams quit in 1968, and before Martin Barre joined Iommi got an invite to play with the band. You can see him “play” on Song for Jeffrey on the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus film that was released a few years back, but he’s miming along to a backing tape.
The guitar player on Joe Cockers version of With a Little Help From My Friends was Jimmy Page, who was a hugely in demand session player before forming Zep.
That Henry the VIII was recorded as a lark. It was a deliberately found commercial followup to a hit song.
Back to trivia. On Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” a background voice chants “quite rightly.” That’s Paul McCartney.
Donovan also wrote “Fat Angel” which has a line “fly Jefferson Airplane, they’ll get you there on time.” The Airplane loved this so much they started playing the song in concert.
Now for trivia’s trivia. What is the only album after the breakup of Steely Dan in 1980 to feature both Walter Becker and Donald Fagan’s playing before they reunited in the 90s? The terrific and terrifically obscure Zazu, by Rosie Vela.
Jonathan’s Schwart’z opening theme songsup[/sup] since his start at progressive rock station WNEW-FM in 1968 through his Sinatra / Jazz programs on XM and WNYC-FM of today is a great little acapella / scat riff by done other than childhood friend; Carly Simon.
Black Sabbath’s “Warning”, which is incorrectly credited to Iommi/Ward/Bulter/Osbourne on their debut album; Black Sabbath; is in fact a cover version of an Aynsley Dunbar’s Retaliation track from 1967.
Elton John’s Candle in the Wind is the only song in history to have charted on Billboard’s Hot 100 (Airplay or Sales) 3 times…
… Each time in a different decade
… Each version different than the other two
… Each version more popular than the one before it
It charted in 1974 (1975?) in the Airplay charts (it wasn’t released as a single) and would’ve been on the “Top 40” if the rules for “top 40” admittance were different (there’s another thread on this phenomenon).
The second version was in 1987-88, was from a live recording in Australia, and featured a music video with Elton performing the song in some snazzy Mozart getup.
The third version came a decade later and, at the time (and could still be, for all I know), was the biggest selling single of all time, the version he wrote for Princess Diana’s death.
Near the end of “Long Long Long” on The Beatles’ White Album, there is a section where they stop on one sustained note, that has an odd effect in the background, as they make a crescendo of other noises. That odd noise was the sound of a wine bottle vibrating on the top of the cabinet of a Leslie organ speaker. They discovered that when a certain note was hit at a certain volume, it caused the bottle to vibrate and make a sound. So they replicated it, and used it on the record.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this were true, based on another incident that Sting himself described in The Police Around the World. The last time I saw the video was 20 years ago, so I might remember the story wrong, but here’s what I remember: In the middle of a concert (in Germany, I think) Sting was rapidly losing his voice and knew there’d be no way he could hit the high notes in Roxanne. The band was afraid the crowd would riot if they didn’t close with that song so they asked the staff to pull the plug and fein a power outage. Of course after the abrupt end to the show the crowd rioted anyway, but Sting’s voice was saved.
Which lines up with a story I heard about Sting - sorry no cite: I think his first solo album came out close to the movie Spinal Tap. As all true music lovers know, that film features a bit where the the Tap’pers are doing their song “Stonehenge” and there is supposed to be an 18-foot model of the stones lowered to the stage - but their crew blew it and made an 18-inch version - and hilarity ensues.
Sting had a song on that first album called “Fortress Around Your Heart.” In the spirit of Spinal Tap, on the last show of the tour, his crew build an itty-bitty fortress which they lowered onto the stage during the song. Hilarity did NOT ensue - Sting apparently threw a fit, fired the crew and swore they’d never work in music again…
The Nightfly was a Donald Fagen solo album released in 1982, two years after Gaucho. I don’t think Becker played anywhere on it. One of the great concept albums of all time, BTW.
Christine Perfect was dating Spencer Davis and the two were scraping a living out playing guitars on buses when the two wandered into a pub for lunch and discovered a 15-year-old blues piano player. Davis immediately started the Spencer Davis Group with the prodigy named Stevie Winwood. Christine Perfect had to settle for being the only woman ever to win the Melody Maker Best Female Vocalist award two years in a row - both before she joined Fleetwood Mac.
He does in fact sing backup vocals, and play keyboards, on a number of the Project songs.
ISTR reading that, while he’s an award-winning vocalist, he hardly ever sings. But given what he can do as a producer, both on his Projects and his later, non-Project albums, I can forgive that.
On the Beatles’ “A Day In the Life”, for the final sustained note (which is noted in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-held note in recorded music history), the studio speakers were turned up so loud, you can actually hear the hum of the studio’s air conditioners.
Patti Boyd had 3 of the most beautiful love songs written for her:
[ol]
[li]Something by then-husband George Harrison of the Beatles[/li][li]Layla by then-husband’s George Harrison of the Beatles’ best-friend and future husband Eric Clapton[/li][li]Beautiful Tonight by then-husband Eric Clapton[/li][/ol]
You can hear lots of stuff during that note - pages of sheet music being turned and falling to the floor, chairs creaking, and probably some other things.
