It was a busy weekend for Aerosmith, who were honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on Saturday and performed to close the show, before reuniting with Run DMC to redo their joint '80s hit "Walk This Way" at the Grammy Awards ceremony.
Cheap Trick played at the event. While fans hope Aerosmith patch up their differences with drummer Joey Kramer as soon as possible, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick go way back with the Aersomith and they couldn't help talk a little bit about the current situation, too. (That band split with their original drummer, Bun E. Carlos, back in 2013, in a situation that seems similar to the Aerosmith-Kramer spat).
Zander: “I love those guys, they’re my favorite rock band. Their producer became our producer – Jack Douglas, of course. They really were instrumental in bringing us about and we became friends. And wish they’d stop fighting.”
Petersson: “We don’t know what to say about them, so. They’re out of control.”
Nielson: “It’s like saying something nice about your older brother – ah, I’d rather not.”
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason celebrates his 76th birthday today (January 27th). He says "Time" has gotten more relevant with time. Released in 1974 as a double A-side single with "Us and Them" to follow up the number-13 single "Money," it fell short of making the Hot 100, peaking at number-101. It was on the album The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973 written by David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright.Nick says as he's gotten older, he's developed a deeper appreciation for the lyrics of The Dark Side of the Moon album, and that the song "Time" is an example of why.
"Relistening to it, I'm really struck by the relevance of the lyrics. What I find is that a lot of the content of the lyrics is probably almost more relevant to a 50-year-old than a 20-year-old. It's sort of curious, but you take a piece like "Time," it's about life running away from you, which is perhaps even more relevant as you get older than when you're a kid."
Aerosmith will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year tonight in Los Angeles. Steven Tyler plays many instruments but this would be the strangest (or the best, depending) On "Rag Doll" from their 1987 album Permanent Vacation. Singer Steven Tyler tells what they called it and what it actually was.
“Flesh bongos. Flesh bongos are the buttocks of young female strippers in Vancouver. I was watching them and these girls were so sexy, I mean, they were serious. I thought to myself, ‘We need something else on this album that’ll be like a clincher, something I can carry on and tell my kids that I once did.’ So what the hell, right? I asked the two, ‘You want to be on the album? We’ll give you credit.’ I don’t know if they thought they were going to sing or whatever, but they came in and they were buns up and kneelin’ and I was wheelin’ and dealin’. [Pounds out rhythm] If you listen real hard to ‘Rag Doll’ you’ll hear the flesh bongos.”
Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander celebrates his 67th birthday today (January 23rd). They wanted to hear their songs on the radio. Specifically the song "Surrender" The band knew it belonged on an album and had to get tough with their label to make it happen. The record company said NO but they won that fight and it became the first Cheap Trick song to chart on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, it only reached number-62, but received lots of airplay for two consecutive summers, and has been a staple ever since Robin Zander explains that the band had to fight to get it on that album.
“We thought that after two albums radio should be playing more of our music. We were really kind of pissed off about it. And ‘Surrender’ was one of our favorite songs that we had had around since our first album that nobody at the record company thought was deserving to be on either one of our first two records. It was a joke, and finally we just kind of put our foot down and said, ‘This song is going to be on the record.’ And it was. And it was a radio hit for two summers. And it still is played to this day. It holds up after all this time.”
Steve Perry celebrates his 71st birthday today (January 22nd). The Journey song: "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" was Journey's first Top 20 hit, it peaked at number-16 on the Billboard Hot 100 . It was one of the few Journey songs that singer Steve Perry wrote totally on his own. But that still isn't going to make him come clean about what inspired it.
"'Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin’ is a true story. That's the only thing I can tell ya. That is a true story and the people shall remain nameless to protect the innocent here.”
The Byrds "Eight Miles High" was actually a protest song about an ill-fated tour of England. Written by Gene Clark, Jim (Roger) McGuinn and David Crosby, It peaked at number-14 on the Billboard Hot 100. It became one of The Byrds' signature songs. Frontman Roger McGuinn explains what inspired it.
“’Eight Miles High’ was a song we wrote after coming back from an ill-fated tour to England. It was out first trip to England and we were real excited about going over there and we met The Beatles and everything, but I got the flu and we weren’t performing very well and the press was very caustic and tore us to ribbons. And we were young kids and we didn’t know how to take it and roll with it. So we got upset and we came back and wrote ‘Eight Miles High’ as kind of a protest of that tour to England. That’s what it was all about.”
Paul Stanley (Stanley Eisen) celebrates his 68th birthday today (January 20th). The KISS song "Beth" is a song even non-KISS fans could appreciate.It was on Destroyer in 1976 written by Peter Criss, Stan Penridge and Bob Ezrin. It was KISS's highest-charting hit at number-seven on the Billboard Hot 100, it was also ranked the number-three power ballad of all time by VH1.
KISS singer and guitarist Paul Stanley doesn't play or sing on the band's hit power ballad "Beth." Drummer Peter Criss was the only band member in the studio with the piano and orchestra that backed him. Nevertheless, Stanley says it's definitely an important piece of the group's catalog.
“I kind of felt that ‘Beth’ was a real special song in that a lot of people know the song and never realized it was us. It’s one of those interesting songs where if you meet people who really don’t like KISS music, they say, ‘Well, what have you done that I would know?’ And I go, ‘Beth.’ And they go, ‘What’s Beth?’ And then you sing and they go, ‘That was you?’”
Former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor turns 71 years old today (January 17th). He was only there for a few years but did a lot of great work. There were lots of rockers but their ex-guitarist considers Angie on Goat's Head Soup, one of the band's best ballads. Although session piano player Nicky Hopkins plays the lead instrument on it, former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor has fond memories of their classic cut "Angie."
“Well, that’s kind of Mick Jagger in a ballady kind of mood, isn’t it? That’s a lot of people’s favorite Rolling Stones song, which is kind of surprising, ‘cause when you think of The Rolling Stones you don’t think of ballads. But you know, they have written some good ballads, too. That’s probably the prime example of a good Rolling Stones ballad.”
45 years ago today (January 16th) Paul McCartney and Wings arrived at Sea-Saint Studios in New Orleans to begin sessions for Venus and Mars, their follow-up to the chart-topping Band on the Run album. The song "Band on the Run" was built up like a sculpture. Paul already had the idea for a song titled "Band on the Run" when he, Linda and Denny Laine left for Lagos, Nigeria to record the album that would become Band on the Run. He describes how the song was created in the studio.
“It’d be me on drums and probably normally me and Denny’d start it off with a couple of acoustics just to get the song down, like you would for a demo, and then we’d just build it up like a sculpture. And the song, in writing itself, sort of then came to that phrase ‘band on the run’ and I thought, 'That’s nice, ’cause if it makes it as a recording it will be a great album title.’”
The late Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant would have turned 72 years old today (January 15th). By all accounts (including his mother) he was a mean drunk but he could sing and write songs. He wrote about real life incidents like the time how Ronnie Van Zant once avoided getting his ass kicked...or worse with the song "Gimme Three Steps". Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington was with the late Ronnie Van Zant the night of the events that led Ronnie to write "Gimme Three Steps." He says it's all true, though some small changes were made for dramatic effect.
“The bar that we were at was called WD West Tavern. It was in the west side of Jacksonville. That actually happened to Ronnie. The words say it all. He was dancing with this girl, and this guy comes in that wanted to fight him. He wasn't gonna shoot him, just fight. But they did fight over her, and Ronnie won, actually, but we just made the story up from there. The guy had a knife, not a gun, but it was all really true. It's just taken from a real story and we just kinda did a song from it.”
