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Like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of "The House of the Rising Sun" is uncertain. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads such as the Unfortunate Rake of the 18th century and that English emigrants took the song to America where it was adapted to its later New Orleans …
Continue reading "“The House of the Rising Sun” recorded in 1934….really?"
All Along the Watchtower...can a remake, copy, be as good of better than the original? Innovation is not always about creating something entirely new. This is a great story--when you read what Bob Dylan had to say about Jimi Hendrix and what he did to the original version...two very different artists with incredible respect for …
Continue reading "All Along the Watchtower what was Bob thinking? Heck… what was Jimi thinking?"
Wow… who does not love this song? It peaked at #71 on the UK singles chart, and was an elegy for Neil Young's first car, a 1948 Buick Roadmaster hearse. This was apparently a different hearse than the one Stills spotted Young driving around Los Angeles in 1966 which led to the formation of Buffalo Springfield. Neil's beloved Pontiac hearse, "Mort" (a.k.a. "Mortimer …
Continue reading "Neil: Talk to me…. Long May You Run? DeMarco Banter"
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors, as well as a poet. Following The Doors' explosive rise to fame in 1967, Morrison developed a severe alcohol and drug dependency that culminated in his death at the age of 27 in Paris. He is presumed to have died from a heroin …
By J. William DeMarco I hate to admit this, but the other day I was in the gym and a song by Katy Perry came on..."The One that Got Away.” Now, I am NOT a fan (it was forced on me...I was in the gym), but there is a line in the song...”...us against the …
The Byrds were an iconic band when I was growing up, although they were well before my time, the music is in a sense timeless. The song Eight Miles High was always one where there seemed there was this confluence of a million things all happening at once and as I did some “research” I …
The massive military bureaucracy is daunting to any junior or mid level solider, marine, airman, sailor dare we say—any person working in a bureaucracy—giving way to an entirely different form of innovation. If an Airman on a flight-line has a problem or a solider in field finds or discovers a new tool—it can take years …
Continue reading "Bootleg Innovation in the Military–or what happens when Punk Rock goes Mainstream"
This has been one of those songs we have loved since day one. It did an incredible job of capturing not only the issues of the day, but also drew an awesome linage of how we got there. Its lyrics are made of rapid-fire brief allusions to over one hundred headline events between March …
Continue reading "We didn’t start the fire… The History Lesson"
It is probably just me...but ever since 1983--I seem to hear Bono's words...ever single New Year's Day...and does anything really change...on New Year's Day? "New Year's Day" is a song by rock band U2. It is on their 1983 album War and it was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven …
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