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rick replied:
in some instances, silence is a crime

i respond:
argh, dag nab it! i was afraid you were going to say that. cuz sometimes i really feel i am making a fool of myself... and should just shutup about what i know. and every time i do... a song starts playing in my head:

Supertramp "Crime of The Century" Lyrics

      Now they're planning the crime of the century
      Well what will it be?
      Read all about their schemes and adventuring
      It's well worth a fee
      So roll up and see
      And they rape the universe
      How they've gone from bad to worse
      Who are these men of lust, greed, and glory?
      Rip off the masks and let's see.
      But that's not right - oh no, what's the story?
      There's you and there's me
      That can't be right

Supertramp... i was just thinking about when i met them... how nice they were to me.

i was trying to think of anyone else like that... that i've met. the first one to come to mind was peter gabriel.

funny how they both came up in conversation today... nursery crymes... crime of the century... hmmm... makes me wonder.

Hmmm... Peter Gabriel.

now that i've thought a bit... i should add... that i mean not only peter gabriel himself. he is great. but, his band, too.

i'd guess of any single person of "fame" that i've met... that was the nicest to me... it might be tony levin... peter gabriel's bass player... and king crimson's... and john lennon's... and....

Heehe... thinking about all these memories sure makes me laugh. i can't even remember some of the "nice guys" names. there was this keyboard player from Grand Funk Railroad (autographs). he kept playin' round with us. then, during the break, he went to the second floor balcony and "shot us the moon". Heehe... i can still remember his smilin ' face (with gold tooth.)

here are some other "nice" bands that have come to mind include:
genesis (road band included... chester thompson was quite kind)
crosby & nash
patrick moraz (moody blues/yes, etc.)
eddie money
nazareth
zebra and robert hazard probably put up with more crap from me than anyone i can think of

Steve Morse Sound Lesson (Real Player Video)

Steve Morse's Big View (Real Player Video)

Steve Morse Vista Grande (Music Video)

sorry... but now i can't stop thinking about the nice guys. it's a lot more fun... plus i'd feel bad knowing i've left someone off the list.

steve morse

i suppose i under appreciated what he did for me... now that i think about it.

(steve morse is a guitar player... pilot... friend of steve howe... founding member of the dixie dregs... has been in kansas and deep purple)

a couple years ago he was in town with deep purple. that day, he took the afternoon off to hangout... with about a dozen of us.

ernie ball was doing the business side of it... and i remember steve morse saying... that the only way he would do it as a promotional gig is if it was free, and he didn't get paid.

then, he.... and his bass player, dave larue... played and hungout with us for a couple hours

that was awful darn nice of 'em

thinkin' about all these nice people on such an ugly day... sure is helpin'

at the same time, i've been thinking how much i should thank all of you... for all that you do for each other. many of you do not even now each other. so, i was gonna write up some nice stuph that i know about each of ya... but it was tooooooo much. there wouldn't be enough time nor enough computer memory.

plus, it would be nice if the thank you could be shared with the world... and you guys don't wanna be famous?

instead, why not think of all the famous people that have helped us... and make sure we remember to thank them?

i remembered some more and started a draft for our Thank You Note

mireya replied:
You guys talk about musicians most people don't know.

I say:
hehee... for now the list was based on people... that went out of their way to help us. so, it only mattered that they know one of us.

mireya asked:
I mean I know who Peter Gabriel is...love his stuff. And I assume Genisis is Phil Collin's Genesis. I have heard of Eddy Money, but I couldn't tell you what he looks or sounds like.

I suppose i can get the music of these people to find out more about them. But it strikes me as odd that all of these people are old...sorry, older. Is there no good to be found in my generation of musicians?

i reply:
hehehe... some are not only old... some are even dead (but, their friends/families have helped us.)

to kinda answer you question...
yes and no. i hadn't thought about the ages of the people that helped... only that they had. when i look over the list... i see people that peaked in their fame... in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's through to today.

on the other hand... now that you mentioned it... there does seem to be something about the older ones

i don't know if it is because of when/how they were brought up or, that as you grow into an adult, you tend to lose your natural niceness... but, perhaps... you reach a point... as you get older, you start to get nicer... as you realize you ain't all there is... and you ain't the most important of what there is?

that reminds me...

yipes... i forgot friends of Janis Joplin on the list. i remember leroy n' linda telling me... how she drove a tombstone cross-country... in the front seat of her "flower power painted" porsche... to put on the unmarked grave of a great singer who had died and been forgotten... what was her name? bessie sumpin'? when Janis was finally able to locate the grave, she cleared it of the garbage and debris... and marked it with the headstone.

leroy replied:
bessie smith

i asked:
do i have the info. right?

leroy replied: linda said, correct - the guy at the cemetary helped janis clear the grave and put the tombstone on the ground...

i asked:
wasn't the grave around here somewhere?
i'd love to go there with you and linda if possible?

leroy said:
yes, near the highway near the airport
we went years ago

The Greatest Blues Singer in the World Will Never Stop Singing

JJ had the tombstone carved and drove it
Linda and JJ planned it from the 60s

Bessie Smith (Mount Lawn Cemetery; Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania).

sidd sayz:

flower power in german is
blumenkraft

thus ewige blumenkraft means eternal flower power

(a-vee-gay bloom-en-kraft = eternal flower power)

rick replied:
"John Cipollina's friends"............hmmm I remember well Quicksilver and the amazing tremolo he applied to his playin' . Case ya didn't know, John was a founding member of the group Zero with Steve Kimock on lead guitar. Yes, Cip was content to just play rhythm in the band. Guess he had his musical ego surgically removed...good stuff here....lot's of good music and memories

i say:
thanx! wally is the one directly helped by "chippy"... when we started up kingarthur's jet engines... wally sought out his guitar hero and asked the estate. they replied to his initial inquiry:

from steve:
Having been John's manager for the last 7 years of his life, I have continued to be the family spokesman. I am in constant touch with his sister. So, any idea you have, I'd appreciate it if you would run it by me... and, I will let John's sister, as well as his brother and other sister know what's up.

If it's easier to discuss this on the phone, call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

wally replies:
can i get your comments about john in regards to the following points? "Cippy" was....

- a consummate musician
- not a greed monger
- treated like crap by record companies
- an all around great man

thanks,
wally

steve wrote back:

Hi Walter,

The family would love to have John's name added to your site.

John was in fact the consummate musician. He played with bands covering various styles from rock to blues to jazz. In the 80's, he was a member of 6 different bands at one time. Sometimes, he'd play a set with one band, then shoot across town to play the 2nd set with another band!

He was very unselfish, and always wanted to be sure that all the musicians on stage got their solos. Very modest person. And, for all the love the world showed him, John never had a chip on his shoulder. He was just a regular guy with a great talent, and always treated everyone as an equal.

Regards,
Steve

Since there seems to be some interest in the "nice n' true life" stories about musicians and bands, i will attempt to relay another one.

i went to someone else who has met almost those we've been talking about. mind ya, we've only been talking about the nice... not the naughty. sad to say, the ratio of nice:naughty is not so good. making me guess the total number of names to choose from would be in the hundreds.

i mentioned no names and asked:

Q: of all those bands and people that you met, which one stands out in your mind as the "nicest"?

A: The ones that took us into their home -- Nazareth

So, Nazareth was not only tied at the top for me... it was the first to be remembered by another.

And, the reason was the same... because I couldn't believe they took us into their home, either.

For those who don't know who Nazareth is, they are one of the pioneers of "hard rock." Almost 100% of what has turned into "metal" and "heavy metal" came out of a half-dozen or so bands from the tail-end of the 1960's and into the early 1970's. It wasn't called metal back then, because they hadn't invented it yet. Songs like Helter Skelter and some of the material from bands like Jimi Hendrix and John Kay & Steppenwolf (where they say the term "heavy metal" originated) turned into bands like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Kiss, AC\DC, Blue Oyster Cult and Nazareth.

One of my favorite Nazareth songs is "Beggars' Day / Rose In Heather." I'll attach the lyrics below. They also have one of my favorite albums titles of all time, "Malice In Wonderland."

Heehe. This is fun. I just went back and dug up some handwritten notes and pictures.

This is how the story goes...

On the album, "Play'n'The Game," after the last song, there is the sound of smashing glass. As a sound recording sort-a guy, I was intrigued and had to listen to it over and over. What was it? It is so clear and crisp. It must be a large light bulb?

Certainly, it must have been done with some high tech. recording equipment. Something way to expensive for me to replicate in my home studio. But, I just had to know.

So, we sought them out. They did not know us, nor that we were baring a gift. Thus, we were quite surprised when they welcomed us into their home and warmly accepted our offering. There was no security to be seen. How did they know what our intentions were? How did they know if they could ever get us to leave? These and other questions i still can not explain. Why were they so nice to us?

We hungout for quite a while. I asked Manny Charlton, Dan McCafferty, Darrell Sweet, and Pete Agnew about the smashing glass. Pete Agnew, the bassist, quickly replied by starting to laugh. I couldn't imagine why my question was so silly or funny. I asked again, "what the heck was that... how did you make that sound... and record it? I guessed it had to be a burnt out floodlight bulb?"

When he stopped laughing, he said:

"That was $%&*ed up. We threw a Heineken bottle against a brick wall. But, we couldn't get it to break.

The first four times it just hit the wall, went *plink* and rolled away.

It wasn't until the fifth attempt that it smashed."

Now, I couldn't stop laughing either. (Heehe... even I could try that in my home studio.)

BEGGAR'S DAY

If this is heaven, then I'm in hell

If trust is misfortune, then wish me well

While I think of sadness baby,
Your light shines through,
Your light shines through,
Your light shines through

Because it's beggars' day,
Because it's beggars' day,
Because it's beggars' day

I've lost control of my darker side,
A world all for free, on a nastier ride

And I have crossed myself in anger,
All your mercy can't save me,
All your mercy can't save me,
All your mercy can't save me

Because it's beggars' day,
Because it's beggars' day,
Because it's beggars' day

It's beggars' day,
You know it's beggars' day,
Because it's beggars' day,

See this love, I've stored for you,
Wheel it and deal it, but our feelin's are true

ROSE IN THE HEATHER
(Instrumental)

last evening a young child sent this to the help desk:

Subject: love,love,love

i love u
i hope we do not get hurt in the huracane
love,love and more

help desk replied:
i love you, too
we can weather any weather
as long as we're together

-------------------------snip--------------------

heeehe... i just felt the winds kickin in here from the hurricane

and remembered... what my brother said about nazareth (he had met them years before me, so i asked him what he remembered)

he said, it wasn't so much nazareth being nice to him that he remembered... it was reo speedwagon

i'll try to get more of the story written down... sound like nice guys

they also have a good song for windy days like these: Ridin' The Storm Out

i'll see if i can find the lyrics

----------------------snip-------------------

a funny thing happened

i'd called my brother earlier in the day to ask if he could tell me the whole REO Speedwagon story. last evening, he called back. i thought he was just calling me back and asked him to tell me the story. so, he did.

when he was done, he said, "are you on your way?"

i asked, "what?"

he said, "we're down here. no power. are you going to come help?"

it's 8 hours later... we're still on backup power and under crisis management plans. i was trying to send this email when i found out we were down:

yipes... we're going to diesel power at the main location... a quick note i hope... jotted while he asked about firin' up the china diesel generator:

Wheeling West Virginia
hotel
for the moment, he was feeling O.K. (it was his senior class trip... and one of his first times away from home under these conditions. they didn't stay over night. it was a 5 hour bus ride each way. they were eating dinner at a hotel's buffet.)

Nazareth and Reo
the bands were coming back from soundcheck... he was at a buffet eating mostly bread. he didn't know who the bands were but saw people getting out of limo's. another student told him who the bands were.

nazereth went up to their rooms

reo stayed and played

he didn't know "who was who"... he had only heard the music... never seen them

he thinks he had the nazareth "hair of the dog" 8-track with him. but, missed getting nazareth to sign it. so, when he asked REO to sign it... they said sumpin' like "that's the wrong tape"

and they started to hang:
how do you like kevin's guitar solo... "i don't know kevin's... but i like gary's!"

(kevin's the lead singer... gary plays awesome guitar. it appears they were testin' / havin' fun)

they stayed for a while having a good time...
"gary's real nice"
"kevin, too, giving me extra time"

he remembers...
gary and kevin teasin' him they were gonna give him their demo tape... of the next album ("you can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish)... kevin would start to hand him the tape... and then would pull it away and say... wait... noooo we can't give ya that.

heehe

he can remember the concert.... says it was great... nazareth playing bagpipes... reo rockn' and rollin'.

--------------------snip------------------------

flash forward to right now:

yoweee... the arms of the hurricane came rappin' at my door... then they came some more... faster and harder... lights a'flickerin'... hehehe... that ain't no time for bickerin'

better together forever?

i was thinking back to when i saw REO Speedwagon sing "Ridin' The Storm Out" in concert. they would start with an interactive period with the audience.

it's a true story of their plane going down... have to tell ya more later after we regain power. aaargh. dag nab it. too late... have to fire up the generator.

lyrics:
Ridin' the storm out, waitin' for the thaw out
On a full moon night in the rocky mountain winter.
My wine bottle's low, watching for the snow
I've been thinking lately of what i'm missing in the city.

And i'm not missing a thing
Watchin' the full moon crossing the range
Ridin' the storm out

Ridin' the storm out.
My lady's beside me, she's there to guide me.
She says that alone we've finally found home.
The wind outside is frightening,
But it's kinder than the lightning life in the city.
It's a hard life to live but it gives back what you give.

rick asked:
please add Bela Fleck to your good guys list... very charming and self effacing. gracious to a fault... met at the Keswick several years ago and enjoyed a nice meal with him backstage... just a regular guy with incredibly enormous talent

I remembered:

When it comes to socially conscious and genuinely nice beings, Graham Nash keeps coming to mind. The night that I met him was a great learning experience for me. It also shattered some of my rock n' roll illusions.

Hmmm... I can't recall what year it was, but it was many years ago... on a hot summer night. Crosby, Stills and Nash had just played a wonderful set under the stars. We were waiting backstage hoping to meet the band. As it turned out, so was Pierre Robert, a local disc jockey for radio station WMMR.

Pierre has long been a fixture of Philadelphia radio. He promotes the environment and social concerns. Graham Nash was often mentioned as being a favorite of Pierre. So, I wasn't too surprised that he was there trying to get an interview.

While we were waiting, we hung out with the rest of road crew and backstage crowd. There was a nice spread of food and beverages. The problem -- no bottle opener for the Heinekens. Pierre's girlfriend was very different looking... way different than anything this country bumpkin had ever seen. So, we had been avoiding her. But, when she saw us distressed trying to get the beer bottles open, a giant smile came across her face. She pulled up her rat-tattered purse and brandished a bottle opener. From that moment on, our two girl friend's bonded... spending the rest of the night in conversation. Rock n' roll lesson number 1 -- don't judge a rocker by her wrapper.

Left out of the girl's discussion, I started talking with Pierre and the road crew. After just witnessing songs like "Teach Your Children" and "Our House," I found it odd that the Crosby, Stills and Nash camps all seemed separated. That is when the roadies explained to me that they all traveled on separate tour buses. What?!?!?! How could these guys not be in love with each other? How could they not be a team... a band? According to the roadies, Stephen Stills is too mean and David Crosby is too whacked on drugs... too much of the time. Rock n' roll illusion #2 -- working together in the music business doesn't mean you like each other.

A few minutes later, Graham Nash came into the room. He was charming and gracious and spent quite a bit of time with us. Pierre had a small tape recorder with him and Graham agreed to an interview. Wow! It was like being in heaven sitting next to Graham and Pierre watching and listening to the interview go down. The next day on the radio Pierre played the interview. It is hard to explain rock n' roll illusion #3. But, sitting there listening to the interview on the radio after having watched the real event... was a strange feeling... wondering what other people were imagining... wondering about the thousands of other's rock n' roll illusions.

rick replied:

"Willy" as close friends know him as, has always been an accessible gentleman, immersed in photography and is rumored to have one of the best photography collections in the world.

Crosby at the very first concert CSN&Y had at the Spectrum in Philly kept chastising the crowd for being "too noisy" and "not appreciating" the subtle quality of the music being created. Shit, they were a rock band with a social message and people wanted to have fun. arrogance

Stills was probably still (no pun here) smarting over losing the Monkees audition out to Peter Tork. Peter in earlier days had introduced Buffalo Springfield w/Stills at the Monterey Pop Festival. Young had quit the band about a month earlier to go solo. ego ego ego

And Pierre Robert came out of the closet in the late 80's or early 90's that he was gay. Pierre is still one of the premier radio voices in Philly with an incredible knowledge and appreciation of rock history. He counts many in Rock Royalty as personal friends.

Thank You!

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