I have a pretty impressive record collection (at least I think it’s impressive). And I’m talking actual records here. Vinyl. Now I have lots and lots of CDs too and about 19,000 digital tracks on my computer/iPod, so I’m not one of those old dudes who is sitting around griping about how much cooler LPs were than any of that stuff… although they are.

But here’s the thing, I’ve got a lot of stuff in my collection that I never listen to, and I needed to find a way to re-introduce myself to it, this this first in what will possibly be a long-running series.

This morning I was staring at my record stacks and one record kept grabbing my attention, and it’s a real oddball. Continue Reading →

The Rolling Stones, Delaney & Bonnie, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Dr. John, Graham Nash, Humple Pie, Harry Nilsson, The Faces, B.B. King, Barbra Streisand, John Lennon, Carly Simon, Gary Wright, Ringo Starr, John Martyn, Donovan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Martha Reeves, Etta James, Warren Zevon, Leo Sayer, Eric Carmen, Billy Preston, Jim Carroll, Joe Ely, Sheryl Crow & Trisha Yearwood.

That list represents just some of the artists Bobby Keys played his sax with over the course of his career. If there had been no stand-out tracks in that body of work it would still have been impressive. You don’t get the call to play on so many records and perform with so many very talented people without being worthy of that call. But there are not just stand-out tracks, but moments where the hook, the thing that stands out in the song and nudges it from good to great is that amazing saxophone playing Bobby did.

Without the sax, Honky Tonk Woman isn’t the same song:

And John Lennon’s Whatever Gets You Through The Night absolutely hangs off Keys’ sax the way a circus tent hangs off the pole in the middle:

Had Me A Real Good Time, by the Faces, once the sax kicks in, sounds like its name:

If I had to pick one song… if someone said, what was Bobby’s finest moment, I’d give it to the middle break in this song by the Stones:

Rest in peace, Bobby. You will be missed.

It’s that time again. Enjoy and have a fantastic workout week.

We seem, as a culture, stuck in this horrible space where all we care about is the price of things and not the value we gather from them. As far as I can tell a significant number of folks aren’t even aware there is a difference.

I would, for example, never be able to put a price on my health, or that of any of my family or close friends. Priceless doesn’t even begin to describe what health, wellness and well-being means to me. “Value beyond measure” is how I would describe it. Other things are easy to calculate the price I’m willing to pay.
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1. Led Zeppelin issues alternate mix of Rock and Roll – Consequence of Sound

Jimmy Page has been remastering the Zep catalog again, and we’re about to get a new version of Led Zeppelin IV. I’m on the fence about the whole remastering the same stuff for the umpteenth time. One the one hand, I like having crisper, cleaner versions of my favorite tunes to listen to in my car on my iPod. On the other, I worry that this is a bit like George Lucas fiddling with the effects and adding deleted scenes back into the original Star Wars trilogy – something that is flat out yucky at its worst and pointless at best. Continue Reading →