Music Career Talk H

Okay for the last 7 weeks I have talked about a number of subjects that I hope will help the warriors of the music industry. This week I will take our talk in a different direction and discuss records and musicians, both past and present. First of all I want to mention I had a productive week. Friday afternoon I had a great meeting at the William Morris Agency regarding one of my clients, met with some wonderful folks at NARAS (Grammys)as I try to improve the visibility of indie artists especially in the rock genera which seems to need the most help, I may sign a new band to my label (if all works out)and got the jacuzzi cleaned out!! Just thought I'd share.
On to the music. The first record I want to mention is old (of course and the blues no doubt)that would be "John Mayall's Bluesbreakers". Most guitar players agree this is the shit(sorry about that). Claptons playing is beyond good and is one of the reasons I play guitar today, the other reason is playing guitar was a great boost to my social life!! Next for sheer music and great writing anything by the Beatles, Ray Davies (The Kinks)as a matter of fact and not to take anything away from the bands of America almost every group that came out of the U.K. in that time period was stellar!! You don't have to agree, but I'm right!!
So we move ahead in time to the late 70's. Just two words to mention "Van Halen". Other then Jimi Hendrix (maybe the KING), Van Halen's style, sound, and technique changed guitar playing for ever!! I realize this talk sounds very guitar heavy, I have played with and recorded some of the best drummers, bass players and musicians in the world, but for me guitar is where I live. Each decade of music has had it's greatness as well as it's crap. Music styles seem to regenerate, and appear once again with a new twist to a familiar sound. New and old merge and become the flavor of the present.
Lets talk about Guns n Roses. I saw this band come on in the 80's in Hollywood and grow to be the biggest rock band in the world. Goes to show what sticking to it
can accomplish. Then years later Axl Rose puts out a CD called "Chinese Democracy". This recording took years to make, cost a ton to make, and got some really bad reviews. Well I'm here to say this CD is great. I love most of the songs, the musicianship is outstanding, and the way Axl used his voice was to say the least, "bad ass". There are great new artists today, and that's what the industry needs. Some of today's recordings are over polished, and over produced so what you end up with is ear candy and no substance. I'm a lover of hard rock and blues and at the same time a major fan of Lady Gaga. Next week we'll get back to business, thanks for being there.