Released on Fleetwood Mac’s seminal Then Play On in autumn 1969, “Rattlesnake Shake“–a Peter Green ode–instantly took its place as a defining cut for the group. A groove-heavy excuse for wide-ranging, lengthy improvisation, the song featured as an increasingly vital part of the live sets and allowed for arguably the best exhibitions of the musicians’ […]
The first song that Steven Tyler and Joe Perry wrote together (while sitting on a water bed at the band’s Boston apartment), “Movin’ Out” remains a standout cut on Aerosmith‘s debut album (1973). Steeped in blues themes and well-paced instrumental progressions, it also happens to represent a sorely underappreciated facet of the group’s sound. Introduced […]
AEROSMITH 1979 The Aerosmith that shipped off to tour North America in early 1979 represented, more so than a reinvigorated, galvanized musical entity celebrating its survival in the face of stupidity, a very fortunate group of musicians who were sufficiently conscious to appear before paying crowds. Having consumed a lifetime’s worth of drugs and other […]
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s In Concert (1979): Overshadowed by 1974’s Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends…Ladies and Gentlemen and recent releases of Cal Jam (1974) and Nassau Coliseum (1978) shows, the abridged In Concert favorably documents ELP‘s ill-fated 1977-78 tour with orchestral accompaniment. The standout opener, Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme” epitomizes […]