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.”
55 years ago today (January 14th), Bob Dylan began the two days of recording that would be used on his groundbreaking Bringing It All Back Home album, which included "Mr. Tambourine Man." Less than a week later, The Byrds recorded their own chart-topping version of the song. Why? If you wanted lyrics as good as Bob Dylan's, you had to record a Dylan song. Original Byrd David Crosby says there was a good reason they chose to record Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" for their first single -- and why Byrds lead singer Roger McGuinn continued to record Dylan songs throughout the band's career.
“We were into Dylan songs because they were the best songs and we didn’t know anyone else who could write words like that. We knew we wanted to play electric and Roger, who was the essence of The Byrds, had a flair for translating Dylan into something accessible and something floaty and magical. And he did it, and we sang it, and there it was. I still think that that was a milestone in terms of putting really good lyrics on popular radio.”
Steel Mill, the New Jersey club band featuring Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Danny Federici, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez and two others, played its first West Coast show, at the Matrix in San Francisco, 50 years ago today. (January 13th). The late E Street Band organist Danny Federici thought the song Blinder By the Light was too fast for people to dance to. It was recorded for the album Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey It didn't even chart, though a cover by Manfred Mann's Earth Band topped the charts four years later.
Danny Federici recalled in a 1990s interview that Bruce didn't really have a band when he recorded Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey. When they finally took songs like "Blinded by the Light" on the road, they weren't exactly easy to play.
“Bruce had most of the songs intact on that record, he used a lot of different players. And by the time he called us back, basically, the material had been recorded and he needed people to play on tour. I always thought they were fast. ‘Blinded by the Light’ was like ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka. I don’t know, it’s kinda hard to dance to and it always seems we had to keep the tempo back or it could run away with itself. But it was exciting. It was steady jobs. We had bookings. We were, like, in the van and on the road. This is a fantastic thing, to be able to work steadily.”
Donald Fagen celebrates his 72nd birthday today (January 10th). The first Steely Dan song they actually heard on the radio, which Donald Fagen says was "definitely a mindblower." was Do It Again fro the album: Can't Buy a Thrill It made it to number-six on the Billboard Hot 100
Technically, "Do It Again" wasn't Steely Dan's first single. Before their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill, came out they put out a 45 titled "Dallas," which sunk without a trace. But "Do It Again" was the first one off the album and even more importantly, the band's first major hit. Singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen recalls what it meant for him to hear it on the radio for the very first time.
“We were making albums more quickly then, so it was maybe four months after we had recorded it. We heard it on the radio in Los Angeles where we were living, driving down the freeway there. And it was definitely a mindblower to hear something that you’d actually created playing on the radio.”
Jimmy Page celebrates his 76th birthday today (January 9th). Led Zeppelin has been accused of stealing riffs sometimes rightfully; sometimes not. The song : "Livin' Lovin' Maid (She's Just a Woman)" was a dig at a groupie via an Eddie Cochran-inspired riff.It was on Led Zeppelin II written by Jimmy page and Robert Plant. It was the B-side of Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" single (which got to number-four on the Billboard Hot 100), it actually reached number-65 due to the amount of airplay it received on its own.
Jimmy Page says his music for "Livin' Lovin' Maid (She's Just a Woman)" was inspired by -- but not a copy of -- the song "Nervous Breakdown" by '50s rocker Eddie Cochran. He also says Zeppelin's previous "Breakdown" song -- "Communication Breakdown" -- has nothing to do with the Cochran number.
"Curiously enough, 'Livin' Lovin' Maid,' that's the one that actually came from 'Nervous Breakdown.' I loved Eddie Cochran -- 'Something Else,' 'Summertime Blues,' yeah, no -- real Eddie Cochran fan, no doubt about it. That was an initial source, it has nothing whatsoever to do with it at the end of the day. And that's how Zeppelin stuff could arrive, you know, through the ether."
AC/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young would have turned 67 years old today (January 6th). When Bon Scott died the band wanted a to do a tribute but many disagreed with what they came up with. The song and album was to be called "Back in Black" but guitarist Angus Young says they had to stick to their guns when it came to using "Back in Black" as a title for a song -- and an album -- that saluted their late singer Bon Scott.
“That was our way of saluting Bon’s thing. We didn’t want to drudge out a tragedy, so we figured that was the best tribute we could do. So we made it black as the mark of respect when somebody passes away. That was the idea of it. There was a lot of people, actually, at the time, when we first said what we wanted, y’know, they were all saying, ‘You can’t do that. People don’t like that. Black, it’s negative thing.’ But for us it meant something and that’s what we stuck by.
8 years ago today Van Halen announced their 2012 tour with David Lee Roth. In the song: "So This Is Love?" from "Fair Warning" there is a question mark at the end of the title. According to David Lee Roth, "When someone says, 'I love you,' that's actually a question," David Lee Roth explains (through him laughing) why the song's title ends in a question mark.
“Well, love is a collect call [laughs]. And just remember that when someone says, ‘I love you,’ that’s actually a question [laughs]. And with that firmly in mind [laughs], a lot of us arrive at some point in a relationship going, ‘So this is love?’"
