Skip to main content

Be Good to Yourself

For the last few weeks, I've perused MelodicRock.com thanks to this post. The one feature I keep coming back to is the one that has new interviews with the members of Journey. While I'm in no rush to pick up Journey's new record, Generations, it's cool to read interviews where the band members are taken seriously. Yes, I'm very well aware that I'm talking about Journey, the prototype for corporate rock in the 1970s/1980s, but as I've said before, I still love this band's music.

Even though I often rock out to their Greatest Hits and their last studio album, Arrival, I don't know too much about the band's history (other than what their Behind the Music showed). I did not know that the bassist on the Raised on Radio tour was Randy Jackson of American Idol fame. Yes, the guy who says "Dawg" was in Journey. What else I don't know about this band, I'm sure I'll find out in some tell-all biography some day.

Reading MelodicRock.com reminds me of my days as a music fan obsessed with technical virtuousity. I'm not bashing those days and I'm not bashing those that like that kind of stuff, but I just find a lot of other kinds of rock (underground, over-ground and unavoidable) a little more relatable. I never had the patience to learn guitar solos; I was (and still am) a power chord and funky chord guitarist with no liquid fingers. Yes, there were years in high school when I fancied crazy drum solos but as I brought up yesterday, drum solos are not the best if you want to compliment the song. I gotta respect the people that respect that though.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey, thanks for the link props!

Popular posts from this blog

Go Where You Wanna Go

It's been a year since I moved away from Lakewood, and even though I could relocate to a new place as a newly-single guy, I've chosen to stay where I am. I enjoy living in North Dallas/Richardson given its central location, being not too far away from places I have enjoyed going to in my fourteen-plus years living in Dallas County. Living in Lakewood for nine years was critical for me, but I am glad I don't have homeless people going through my garbage, my street getting shut down like it's Mardi Gras on Halloween night, and I don't have to answer to the not-so-friendly landlords who bought my old place. I have a new housemate moving in at the end of the month and I have many reasons to be excited as he's been a friend for many years. Couple that with a humongous  new record store opening in nearby Farmers Branch , shows to see, and a quick trip to Los Angeles for something very cool (for which I reveal at a later date) and I'm happy to say fall is sha...

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air...

Socials

 Hey, everyone! You can find me on several other platforms: http:/ http:// themeparkexperience.substack.com http:// Instagram.com/ericjgrubbs http:// TikTok.com/@ericjgrubbs http:// threads.net/ericjgrubbs http:// ericjgrubbs.bsky.social Thanks!