MLT Club Member Tim Arnold
MLT Club MemberForum Replies Created
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Here’s a performance I remember watching on TV the night it aired. The Kennedy Center honoring among others the classic rock band Led Zeppelin. Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson from the band Heart were there to play Stairway To Heaven with the US president and first lady in the audience as well as the three living members of Led Zeppelin and deceased member John Bonham’s son Jason playing drums. No pressure at all. Ann Wilson was 62 years old when she delivered this epic performance.
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Here’s a great performance of the band called The Band. Best name for a band ever. I always liked Levon Helm’s singing and he could certainly do it live.
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I love The Hollies and I think my favorite song of theirs is Long Cool Woman. It has one of the coolest rock n roll beats ever. Here is a live version from the U.S. television show The Midnight Special. I believe, at least the first few years, the bands that appeared on the show were required to play everything live. I believe singer Allan Clarke left the Hollies not long after this appearance.
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Jung, I just started a forum thread on live performances and started with an Elton John performance and then I seen this one of yours started with an Elton John song, Lol. I guess we were both on the same cosmic wave length today. Anyways I do love sad songs, especially the ones that could make your heart cry. It’s because of these songs that I love Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. They were more known for their novelty songs like The Cover of the Rolling Stone but their best music was the gut wrenching tear jerkers that were mostly album cuts. They played mostly country music but would never get played on country radio because they had long hair and didn’t conform to the Nashville standards. They did clean up their act and had quite a few pop hits later in their career but to me their best stuff was their early gut wrenching country stuff. This was their first major hit and I bought their first album because of it. I’ve been a life long fan ever since. That lap steel guitar in this song is so hauntingly beautiful.
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I like this one too. Just a nice relaxing feel to the outside venue. I believe this was done on Martha’s Vineyard. An enormously talented singer and a great song.
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David that’s pretty awesome, I think everyone in America fell in love with the Osmonds, so much talent. I remember seeing them on just about every variety show on TV. Yeah, these four boys are very young in this clip and to think there were a few more talented siblings to follow including a sister, little Marie.
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That sounds amazing, I never seen him live but I believe you. I’ve watched a lot of Elton’s live performances on You Tube and I do like them more than his studio recordings even though he’s had a lot of great records. Just a major talent. It’s fun to be at a show like that when it’s so good it affects you emotionally. I’ve been at a few that were more than just a band playing on stage, they were events. Willie Nelson and Family played our county fair one year and there about 8,000 people there. Families, kids, teenagers, farmers , bikers and old hippies like me. Everyone singing and little groups dancing together. Everyone just having a great time. It was easy to see Willie and the band was enjoying it too. They were passing a jug around onstage and played for over 2 hours, just so much fun.
John Fogerty played at Freedom Fest in La Crosse one year. It’s an outdoor venue at the airport and part of an annual airshow and raises money for the Freedom Flight program that pays for veterans to fly to D.C. to visit the war memorials. Anyway when John played that night it seemed the whole crowd was singing every word to every song, especially the old CCR songs. Many times he would start a song and never sing a word, the crowd was singing them for him. He just played and smiled and you could tell how proud he was and how moved he was that his songs meant that much to us. One of those special feelings you can only experience at a live show.
My wife was a fan of the country singer Martina McBride. We bought tickets to see her at our county fair opening for Merle Haggard. It so happened Merle had a heart attack and had to cancel. They moved Martina to the top billing and the Bellamy Brothers opened for her. Martina is a tiny lady with a powerful voice and icy blue eyes that can burn a hole in your heart. She only had a couple minor hits at the time but she sang some classic songs everyone knew and sang a few great Merle Haggard tunes in tribute to Merle. Not a real big crowd either as a lot of people turned in there tickets after Merle cancelled. We had great seats but I had a camera and wanted to get closer so ended up in front of the stage standing 10 feet directly in front of her, mesmerized by those gorgeous eyes and that golden voice. I was so in awe I forgot to take any pictures. Here’s a video of a new song she introduced that night. Her signature song Independence Day. Imagine her standing 10 feet in front of you singing this song and looking directly at you. I still get chills thinking about it.
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Yeah, I am real glad they cleaned up their act before that lifestyle destroyed them. I never seen the band with Dennis. I seen Ray twice, once touring under the Dr. Hook name and once just as Ray Sawyer. Ray was a great singer in his own right as well as Bill Francis who was the tall keyboard player. They really had some great harmonies too.
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Thanks Daryl, Dr. Hook is one of my all-time favorites and I like their 80’s pop records too. They even had a disco hit with Sexy Eyes. But there first 3 or 4 albums were the best, I still go back and listen to them now. Ray Sawyer was a cool dude and toured on his own up until he passed away a few years ago. My younger brother has a copy of The Rolling Stone magazine with their picture on the cover that Ray signed for him and dedicated it to my mother who also loved their music. The majority of the songs on those first 3 albums were written by Shel Silverstein who has quite a biography in his own right. There’s some great videos on YouTube of a time the group spent relaxing on Shel’s houseboat. Having a good time and playing some great music. No matter how influenced they were by controlled substances, when they started playing, they were as tight and dedicated as any band I’ve heard or seen. Here’s a sad song from those houseboat sessions that demonstrates their commitment to a song, incredibly done by lead vovalist Dennis Locorriere.
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Chris, I love the Tumbleweed Connection album as well as Honky Chateau. Here’s my favorite from Tumbleweed called Country Comfort. I actually first heard the song on a Rod Stewart album but Rod’s version was missing the last verse. Maybe he didn’t want to sound too “country”. My brother’s band used to play it a lot. Who knew a song by a British rocker would go over so good in the bars in cow country.
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Thanks David, that’s a great performance. Looks like they were having fun too. I don’t know a lot about the Seekers. I only remember Georgie Girl off the top of my head, I think they sang that one. I’m sure I’ve heard others, I definitely remember the name. It would have been fun to be there in the audience. And, it didn’t look like the fly bothered her at all, that’s a pro.
Speaking of distractions while performing. I don’t know if you remember the hit record of Billy Swan called I Can Help. At the end of the recording you can hear people clapping. The story goes that Billy was recording barefoot and his dog was also in the studio. While he was recording the song, his dog kept licking his bare feet and Billy kept trying to brush him away while not missing a beat. The studio musicians were so impressed they gave him a round of applause. Here’s a video of the song which I believe are live vocals layered on top of the original recording. I’ve heard that was common practice for TV and it sounds like the original music with the clapping at the end.
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Thanks for posting that one Chris, Elton is really one of the all time greats and had so many great songs over the years, some of the best in pop/rock history. Crocodile Rock was the first one I remember hearing and I really liked it and a lot of his early stuff like Rocket Man, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Funeral For A Friend is another great song, especially live.
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Thanks for all the clips Dave, I remember Joni mainly for Big Yellow Taxi but I never listened to her much. She is fun to listen to though and a very good performer. That whole band is talented. Good stuff.
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That’s a beautiful song Jung, I never heard it before. It’s amazing how those simple lyrics can be presented in a way that anyone can understand and that everyone can relate to. It’s funny that when we go through sad times we feel like we go through them alone but the truth is that everyone will go through these same feelings at sometime in their life. I guess that’s why sad songs are so popular, they speak to everyone.
Here’s another song that works the same way, just simple lyrics but words anyone can understand especially if you’ve had your heart broken deeply. I’ve always liked the line ” I’m gonna find a hole in the wall, gonna crawl inside and die” it doesn’t get more real than that.
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Jung, there are a few of the Twins songs that bring a tear to my eye Vincent, Imagine and Wish You Were Here are a few. The guitar playing on Wish You Were Here gets to me, it’s not sad though, it’s just that beautiful. The song that really floored me was Alone. I listened to it four or five times the day they released it in the club and then I suddenly remembered a young girl I knew from work who took her own life because she had been hit with depression from many angles at the same time. She was betrayed by her boyfriend, her boss and her union steward and stabbed in the back by co workers and so called friends. I didn’t realize she was so depressed. I only knew her a short time but considered her a friend and even now wonder if there was something I could have said or done to help her. I can’t imagine how alone she must have felt. I love this song so much but still tear up from it. I’m having a hard time even writing this while the song is playing but I guess that is what a great song is suppose to do, bring out your feelings.
