How British Rockers Bankrolled Monty Python’s Career

26 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: , ,

British comedy troupe Monty Python including (left to right) Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman (1941 – 1989), Terry Gilliam, and John Cleese, lounge about at the site of their filmed live show at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California, 1982. Chapman and Cleese smoke pipes. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

(via LAist) By Marialexa Kavanaugh with Jonathan Shifflett & John Horn

Eric Idle co-founded legendary sketch comedy group Monty Python. While writing and rewriting his new biography, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Idle realized the story he was telling was much larger than just him.

“You don’t really know what part of your life is interesting,” Idle said. “I discovered finally after three or four drafts that the book was actually about my generation, people growing up in our post-war England, rationing and poor. And that these kids who were born in the end of the war invented rock and roll.”

Monty Python is widely considered to have the same level of influence on the comedy world that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones did on rock. British rock and comedy had their own symbiotic relationship through the ’60s and ’70s — including financing Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

“I mean it was Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull — they all pitched in money so we could make the film,” Idle said…

Read more: How British Rockers Bankrolled Monty Python’s Career: LAist

The Greatest Prog Guitarists: An Essential Top 25 Countdown

25 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: , ,

Whether they’re the mastermind of the band or keep the cosmic flights well-grounded, we pay tribute to the best prog guitarists of all time.

(via udiscovermusic) by Brett Milano

Think of progressive rock and what immediately comes to mind is caped keyboard players navigating a sea of wires connected to their Moog. Yet many of the pivotal players in prog rock have been guitarists, and there are easily as many earth-shaking guitar solos in prog as there are in hard rock or metal. Sometimes those prog guitarists are the leader and mastermind of their band, sometimes they’re the player who keeps those cosmic flights well-grounded. This list pays tribute to some of prog’s landmark ax-slingers.

25: Steve Rothery (Marillion)

In both the Fish and Steve Hogarth incarnations, Marillion was always an unconventional prog band. They avoided instrumental prowess for its own sake, preferring slow and stately pieces built largely around the vocal. Steve Rothery can be a model of restraint, playing mood-enhancing textural parts, but he can also deliver a solo as dramatic as the one on “Easter,” Hogarth’s lament for Northern Ireland.

24: Franco Mussida (PFM)

Italy’s premier prog band, PFM absorbed some influence from their peers. Listening to Franco Mussida’s leads you can detect traces of Steve Howe, Robert Fripp, and Al DiMeola – all with a strong European classical influence. The latter came out when Mussida played acoustic, which he did often: PFM’s “Jet Lag” may be the only prog classic to open with three minutes of pure acoustic guitar. But he could also do a ripping electric solo; witness the live showpiece “Alta Loma Five Till Nine,” with a solo that keeps ramping up the power…

Read more: The Greatest Prog Guitarists: An Essential Top 25 Countdown | uDiscover (udiscovermusic.com)

What happened the night Jethro Tull beat Metallica to a Grammy Award

24 Feb 2021 2 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(via Classic Rock) by Johnny Black

When prog rockers Jethro Tull pipped Metallica to win Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Recording award in 1989, most in the audience started laughing. Some of them haven’t stopped

n 1989, in an attempt to show they were at least attempting to be ‘down with the kids’, the Grammys introduced a new category: Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Recording. All good so far.

However, on February 22, when Metallica, Iggy Pop, Jane’s Addiction and the year’s other major contenders in the new category showed up for the Grammy Awards ceremony at The Shrine in Los Angeles, none of them could possibly have expected that, when award presenter Alice Cooper opened the envelope and began “And the winner is…” the award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Recording of 1989 would go to a folksy, flute- fronted prog rock band: the decidedly non-metal, far from hard-rocking Jethro Tull.

Yes, you can laugh. Many there on the night certainly did…

Read more: What happened the night Jethro Tull beat Metallica to a Grammy Award | Louder (loudersound.com)

On Music…

17 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

Radio Garden Offers a Fun Way to Explore Stations of the World

16 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Best of the Blog, General Posts Tags:

(via digitaltrends) by Trevor Mogg

Imagine looking at Google Earth and seeing thousands of tiny green dots all over the map, with each one representing a playable radio station. That’s pretty much Radio Garden, a mobile and web app offering a fun way to enjoy live radio from around the world…

Read more: Radio Garden Offers Fun Way to Explore Stations of the World | Digital Trends

Radio Garden – Search

The Best Steely Dan Songs, Ranked

29 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(via uproxx) by Steven Hyden

One of the strangest (and most heartwarming) developments in recent years is the hip-ification of 1970s snarky jazz-rock institution Steely Dan. Once the butt of endless “graying ponytail” jokes by insufferable indie dweebs, Steely Dan has somehow become part of the indie dweeb canon, a turn confirmed by numerous indie music sites writing thoughtfully and enthusiastically about the band’s nine studio albums released over the course of 31 years.

Some have claimed that this embrace of The Dan is “revisionism,” but that’s not exactly right. In the ’70s, Steely Dan was widely regarded as one of the top American bands of the era. They were commercially successful and critically acclaimed. It’s just that subsequent generations for decades didn’t seek them out like they did Fleetwood Mac or even The Eagles. This was partly a function of how Steely Dan songs work — a spotless veneer of impeccable musicianship and complex music progressions act as a kind of slow release capsule for the humor and perversity that lurks inside. The whole point of this band is to grab the ear immediately, but not reveal what is actually going on until many listens, and even many decades, later. That’s not revisionism; that’s just taking a very long time to “get it.”

Read more: The Best Steely Dan Songs, Ranked (uproxx.com)

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Editorial note: While I solidly disagree with many of the the author’s choices/placings (and don’t share his understanding of what the song “The Fez” refers to) I applaud an informative and thought-provoking article on one of my favorite bands.

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