While I was looking up an old 1970's coca cola commercial to post to Mama's holiday tunes thread, I stumbled across one of my favorite videos. At 2:46 into the video my life took a dramatic turn and I talked my parents into getting me a guitar. I stopped playing sometime after highschool, but somehow I don't think I'm the person I would have been had I not seen the video. http://youtu.be/-4GZFbCqx18
I first bought a guitar at about 18 when I heard Ritchie Blackmore's solo on this song, which just blew me away. starts from about 4:10. still can't play the damn thing though hehe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jcFTyAPImM"]Child in Time - Deep Purple [Made in Japan 1972]
A kid up the road from me had that record when I was in middle school. I think it was originally his older brother's. I always thought that was a cool solo too.
I play piano and really had not done much of it until a few years ago when I heard this song. I spent all night up learning it by ear. In the morning my son came downstairs and listened to me and the recording and picked up his violin and filled in. My daughter played the off keys on the piano (cords) and also did vocals. Was one of those moments that made me remember how much I loved to play. Music can do that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tplyyjMBsE
Voodoo chile of course, (and really the entire performance) but mostly for me it was Jimi Hendrix's instrumental piece that followed 'Purple Haze' on the Woodstock album. I had been taking guitar lessons for two years and I was 10 years old, 1970. (I traded my skateboard AND bicycle for the record a friend of mine had gotten from his older brother. My parents were a bit dismayed by the trade to say the least lol) Not only the piece itself, but the emotive power of Jimi's performance definitely had a life changing effect on my perception of what music is and can be. Liquid blue magic instrumental blues begins at 6:38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRECFGlM92s"]jimi hendrix performing solo at 1969's woodstock - YouTube
I was expecting something a little more profound from the title of this thread. The girls in the VH video are smokin' hot though.
Yeah, the girls. I was not only talking about the guitar, but also the life that Van Halen represented. I was an adolescent and that one video, the guitar solo, and the teacher transforming before my eyes like some of my real teachers did in my classroom daydreaming. The fact is, it was so powerful to an adolescent like me that I began a life wanting to always take my partying level one step further. Thank goodness those desires were balanced out with my desires to play sports and do well in school. At least as a result of experiencing the video, i wasn't doomed to the boring life that I was predisposed to.
Hey, Pink Floyd warned us of the medias diabolical dissemination of Rockstar-itis... What did you Dream? It's allright we told you what to dream! He dreamed of a big star he played a mean guitar he always ate in the steak bar he loved to drive in his Jaguar... So welcome to the machine! And it continues today in a much more overt form with hip-hop...you don't even have to play guitar, all ya gotta do is wear some bling an flap yer goddamn gums :devil: lol
"Wish you were here" is one of my favorite albums. Yeah, I'm glad I never attained the status of rockstar...actually I sucked at playing the guitar so it's not like I had a chance. I still think the media has tremendous power over us - in many more ways than I could ever imagine. I know that is a worn out topic, I was just in thought of how that one video made such a big change in my outlook on life.
Actually I'm amazed every day at how my brain gets suhlapped across its face upon reading a post on hf and has a new way of looking at things.
We can all read music but I could not locate it that day when I heard it. Probably persistent is more like it. The notes are easy it is the feel that is harder to transpose. My son is faster to play by ear than even I am, it is a great skill to have. My daughter can do it if she can sing it. Music is pretty much a staple around home. Their father is also very musically inclined so that helps.
