And The 2nd Greatest Rock and Roll Song Ever - The Beach Boys' Good Vibrations

Beach Boys mid 70s publicity photo
The band was never the same after the passing of Dennis Wilson (top right)
And his brother Carl Wilson (bottom right)

I knew exactlty the time and place I heard that President John F, Kennedy was shot, I knew exactly where I was when man landed on the moon.  I knew where I was and what I was doing on the morning of 9/11. It's funny how the mind works when it is touched by a memorable event

And I new exactly where, when, and what I was doing the first time I heard gentle opening chords of Brian Wilson's and the Beach Boy's Good Vibrations, a song that at the time, was the most expensive recording ever made at some $100,000 in 1966.

I heard it laying in a bathtub with my faithful transistor am radio nearby (somehow ignoring the fact that electrical devices and water do not make a good combination but hey - I survived). To this day, the haunting lyrics (which are surprisingly about a dog) and swirling musical accompaniment make me stand up and take notice. It is a song of rock and roll royalty.

It's a pity that the Beach Boys couldn't remain a consistent viable musical force through the years though they certainly had their moments of greatness, Egos, insanity, drugs, and even death plagued the band from the get go but when they hit things just right, man......  they were really, really, good.

What Is Rock and Roll's Greatest Song?- #1 By A Landslide

They've been getting after it for more than 50 years with more substance and style than you can shake a stick at. Someone once asked Keith Richards how he would like to die. "Just let me play Jumping Jack Flash one more time and I be a happy man." was the paraphrase. Yep. The classic Jumping Jack Flash is the best rock song ever and even the disputes would be minor and a stretch.

What a better way to start a song than "I was born in a cross-fire hurricane"

Jim Morrison - Hey... Smile a Little Bit

Sure the L.A. based band The Doors have about 10 great classic songs but that doesn't stop my own personal opinion that Jim Morrison was probably the most pompous, overrated, self-indulgent performer in rock history. Anyone ever seen him smile just once? He seems to have thought a lot of himself and little about the world going on around him.

Force Multiplied's High Octane Video

So Mrs. DisneylandTraveler's son plays in a band. How good are they?  I've heard them play Led Zeppelin and Ted Nugent covers and thought they were pretty good.  I have also heard them play and I turned to Mrs DLT and said, "can we get out of here now?"  That's kind of how it goes.  Playing in a band is his dream.  My dream is for him to get a job.  But who knows, maybe he'll get lightning in a bottle, hit it big, and allow me to retire to a quiet villa in Granite Bay or something like that.  

Below is I think their second video.  It is well produced whether you like the music or not.

This is the cover from their first CD they released.  I think we bought a copy.  Not sure.

They're big on graphics and logos.  Actual sales, not so much although they have played at venues like the Sunset Strip Music Festival, the Roxy in L.A. along with the infamous Whiskey A-Go-Go. Tonight they are summer in Stockton helping a biker group with their holiday canned food drive. There could be a lot worse ways to waste your time. 

The Death of Lou Reed - Rock and Roll and Sweet Jane

Lou Reed - Getty Images

Rock and Roll legend Lou Reed died yesterday from complications stemming from a liver transplant that was performed last May. I can't say I was a huge Lou Reed fan. I remember having a copy of the first Velvet Underground album when I was a kid. I remember nothing about the album itself which is kind of sacrilege to scores of Reed fans.

And I remember through the years hearing through the grapevine and in various print media that Reed was something of an arrogant jerk - a pridefully arrogant jerk who was a complete music original and immensely influential in a subversive kind of way. And Lou Reed was totally cool without even trying.

What I do remember about Lou Reed's music (outside of his one hit record, the eclectic Walk on the Wild Side) was there were never two better tracks on a live album (Rock N' Roll Animal) than the Intro - Sweet Jane track followed shortly by Rock N' Roll . Soaring guitars and way cool vocals led to about 18 minutes of classic rock, forever memorable. Play these two cuts back to back and you have heard the essence of gut sucking rock music.

It's not true of course but Lou Reed uttering the offhanded refrain "her life was saved by rock n' roll" is something that strikes my brain out of the blue at least once a week. So long Lou.

Linda Ronstadt and the Sad Silencing of a Beautiful Voice

Linda Ronstadt at home in San Francisco - 2013
SF Chronicle Photo

I remember being captivated by that song back in the late 60's (actually 1967) when I was just a kid as AM radio was first giving way to the more progressive sounds of FM. A primarily folk based group based out of L.A. called The Stone Poneys released a cover of a Mike Nesmith (of the Monkees) song Different Drum. The band, well, it didn't last long. The song, the voice, the singer - Linda Ronstadt - that is a different story altogether. Her voice was smooth, alluring, and pitch perfect. It was also unmistakable and once you heard it, it could never be forgotten. And so a career was launched for a singer better known for her recorded vocal craftsmanship rather that her live performances which were often less than riveting because of extreme stage fright. I saw Ronstadt perform at a Day on the Green concert in the late 70's with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. You could hear her voice but onstage it was the larger than life personality of Parton who stole the performance. 

Through the years Ronstadt released a catalog of beautiful songs and albums in a variety of genres as she explored the craft of singing. Many of her recordings met with massive critical and popular success making her a pop music icon. Her career was nothing short of amazing as she continued to stretch and reach.

But I said 'her career...was amazing'. This week numerous stories were written about Ronstadt as she released an autobiography that focuses on her career as a singer rather than a pop icon. Yep, a book promotion for a singer, a singer who can no longer sing. It was unknown until the last couple of weeks that Linda Ronstadt, now 67 years old, has Parkinson's Disease, a degenerative muscular disease that also affects vocal muscles. Ronstadt has not sung publicly since 2009 and in story after story newspapers from New York to San Francisco wrote she readily admits in interviews that she can't sing a note. She also needs to use braces to walk.

So a beautiful voice has been silenced by a disease, and an incurable disease at that. It's really kind of sad. Or is it? For almost 50 years, Linda Ronstadt was able to achieve the kind of success that allowed her to do exactly what she wanted to do in pursuit of her singing craftsmanship. As a singer, she was an artist in every sense of the word, painting pictures in music that touched the soul. Even now, crippled by disease, we should all have a life so fortunate as hers.

The other things that intrigues me about Ronstadt's life is that now, in basically forced retirement, she could live anywhere she wants (though it was stated that the writing of her autobiography was partially done for income - her wealth was primarily based on recordings and performances, neither of which she can do any longer - Ronstadt wrote very little of her own material so she does not receive the songwriter's royalties), Ronstadt chooses to live in the city of San Francisco where she has lived off and on for several years but is not a native. As a person born and raised in San Francisco myself, I get some measure of satisfaction seeing someone I genuinely admire make the city their home when there are countless more popular options. For someone like Ronstadt, living in San Francisco makes perfect sense away from the world of TMZ, paparazzi, and prying eyes.  In general, people in San Francisco are not caught up in other people being a 'celebrity'. You can live a normal life in a great American city which I'm sure she is perfectly content with.

NY Times Photo

My favorite Linda Ronstadt album - Mad Love. A harder, edgier sound