Everybody knows Eddie Van Halen invented a two hand guitar technique widely known as ‘tapping’. All one has to do is call up a video of Eddie shredding the neck of one of his iconic guitars and it is likely he will employ tapping in a solo. What is tapping exactly? According to Gunnar […]
Who is Bill? You know, Bill Szymczyk. Who? Bill Szymczyk (pronounced ‘/simzik/’ if you are wondering). Never heard of him? Maybe not by name, but if you have listened to recorded work by B.B. King, The James Gang, Joe Walsh, Eagles, The J.Geils Band, JoJo Gunne, Jay Ferguson, The Winter brothers (Edgar and Johnny), […]
Here is a rock ‘n’ roll chemistry problem for you. Mix two members of the popular Canadian band Streetheart with a singer from another well known Canuck band, Moxey, stir in an up and coming producer named Bruce Fairbairn and what do you get? One of the most successful AOR (Album Oriented Rock) bands of […]
When I first joined a band called Cloudy and Cool, the other three guys in the band were all in the Air Force and stationed at K.I. Sawyer AFB just outside of Marquette. The lead guitarist / vocalist, Ray, was a Sargent and through his connections at the base, C&C were the house band […]
When was the first time you became aware of KISS? Did you hear them on the radio? Perhaps their (kind of) ghoulish make-up staring off the cover of their first album (released February 18, 1974) caught your attention. Maybe you were one of those in the MTV generation who heard and saw them on […]
Remember Rodney Dangerfield’s most famous catch phrase? Rodney built entire routines around the phrase, “I don’t get no respect.” Catching up with guitarist Brad Whitford on the eve of Aerosmith’s ‘Peace Out’ world tour, the phrase kept popping into my head. I am not saying Whitford is disrespected by his bandmates. No, the negative […]
Alrighty then. What do Britney Spears, Max Martin, Backstreet Boys, Denniz PoP, Kelly Clarkson, and N’Sync have in common? If you ignored my imaginative spelling in the title (done as an homage to Mr. PoP), then you probably already guessed ‘hits’ as in ‘hit records’. I could have tried to get you off track by […]
Holly Knight’s rise from a wanna-be rock musician to a respected songwriter was addressed in this space in FTV: Holly the Songsmith (11-8-23). Telling her story only took us up to the first major hit she and her publisher, Mike Chapman, wrote for Pat Benatar in 1983, Love is a Battlefield. Digging further into […]
Holly Erlander was a struggling musician trying to catch a break with her band Siren. The New York City music scene, much like its counterpart in Los Angeles, had a lot of bands trying to get noticed so her story isn’t exactly unique for the late 1970s. Holly had a knack for getting to […]
There are bands that simply play music. While some engage with their audiences, others are what are referred to as ‘shoegazers’. ‘SGs’ are bands that don’t make eye contact or go out of their way to make small talk with their fans – they just play. Rick Wakeman is a peg that does not […]