Solos From Olympus, Part I

This song contains two of my favorite guitar solos. The first solo especially, seems to express the character's emotion and mental state so well, as to make the lyrics almost superfluous. David Gilmore is indeed a gifted guitarist, and for me this is his high water mark. The Wall is Pink Floyd's finest hour. Critics will point to Dark Side Of The Moon, but The Wall is as good as any fine book or film. The story begins to unfold with the first notes and the melancholy main character spirals progressively further into madness, until the wall is finally broken down, and he finds some degree of freedom. you feel the character's anxiety and madness grow, until it becomes unbearable, and you feel relief when the wall is torn down, and he is reluctantly exposed. The final moments of the album are as if a painful, puss-filled boil has been lanced. It's not a good feeling and you're happy, but you're glad it's done. You feel relief that the character is to some degree free.

Brent Liles 1963 - 2007

Brent Liles, a former bassist for the 1980s punk rock group Social Distortion, was struck and killed by a truck while riding a bicycle, authorities said Wednesday. He was 43. Liles was hit on Jan. 18. No immediate charges were brought against the driver.Liles, who was from Fullerton, joined Social Distortion in 1981 and played bass on the band's "Mommy's Little Monster" recording two years later. Fed up with turmoil inside the group, he and drummer Derek O'Brien quit the band during a New Year's Eve performance in 1983. Liles went on to play with other punk groups such as Agent Orange.
-- associated press

I was saddened to hear this news, while on the way to the skatepark last night. If you have never owned a copy of Mommy's Little Monster, you owe yourself the pleasure. It's one of the greatest Punk albums ever recorded.

Broken Bones and Smiles

Written Early November '06

On Wednesday, October 25, at the Peoria skatepark, I broke my arm in two places. I've been in quite a bit of pain, and it's been uncomfortable to sleep. I will need surgery, this Thursday, to place a Titanium plate in my arm, This means that two weeks of recovery will be rolled back to zero. I will be left with a pronounced scar on my left arm, and metal anchored to my bone...I am already jonzin' to skate. as an older skater, I've long dealt with the "you're a little old for that aren't you?" type of mentality, but the past few days it's been more overt. Most everything is accepted theses days. Even motorcycles and surfing, once the most outlaw of all underground activities, are acceptable for "grownups" now,but skateboarding is still look down upon...I like that.

Written this morning

I just found This note from early November and I thought I'd update it, and post up the results. I did indeed have surgery and a second cast, that went up past my elbow. I had to keep that cast on until December 20th. There is a new scar on my left wrist, to match the ones on the back of that hand, palm and upper arm. I still have very little range of motion in the wrist, significant pain in my joints, but I am skating. I'm skating and I smile every time I do. Tonight some of the ASC (The crew I skate with) will hit the new skatepark in Goodyear Arizona. There is a peanut pool there with an 11 foot deep end, tile and pool coping. I'll have on a bulky wrist guard, and I'll be nervous on every run, but when I feel that coping under my trucks, I'll smile. I'll grin from ear to ear and know that I'm alive! Now that I am about 75% recovered, some still wonder why I skate. I still hear "you're a little old for that aren't you?", and when I do,,,well I just smile at that too. Skating is a lot like Beethoven. If it has to be explained to you, you'll never truly get it...I still like that

-S

Paying the price


Back on board

Vestal Goodman and Ozzy Osborne

I was talking music and it's importance with a friend today, and why a list of greatest all time rock bands would be so top heavy with British groups. The thought that occurred to me is this. The great Euro bands of the 60s did the same thing that saves and revives Rock & Roll every ten years or so, they stripped it to it's ugly carcase and built it anew. The greatest of the first wave British bands were firmly rooted in the blues, and It gave them a reto-fresh sound that was grittier than the bands Americans had grown accustomed to. It got straight to ones nether regions, and did what music has done for thousands of years, it made them tingle. Music at it's best, bypasses our brain and reaches straight into our soul (Gregorian Chant, Mozart, Keith Green), or our trousers (The Who, The Stones, Prince). Music has always been important in to me. Growing up in the Pentecostal faith, it was our most highly emotional form of worship.

I so clearly remember the two most important musical events in my life. First, I remember the first time I heard Black Sabbath. I had been invited to ride to the convenience store with my friend's older brother. He had a Camaro, and long hair. To us he was a full on tough guy, and I was really excited to get the invite. As soon as he fired up the big V8, I heard the sound of Tony Iommi bending that sinister sounding note, at the intro of Ironman. It scared me, it honestly frightened me. The funny thing was, I didn't have to be told who it was, as soon as I heard Ozzy growl "I am Ironman!" I somehow knew it was Sabbath. I was sure that I was committing a sin, by just hearing it, but I was hooked. Sabbath had bypassed my sense of morality and had struck a down-tuned, note that shook right through my Levi's, and gave the mischievous part of my soul an erection. I was afraid and excited, and I loved it. I've had major reactions to bands sense then. Bands like TSOL, Black Flag, Slayer, The Pogues, Sex Pistols, have all had an effect, but Sabbath was the first, and most palpable reaction I've had to secular music. Toni, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill are with me until death.

The other moment that shaped my understanding of music's power, took place a couple of years earlier. I was maybe eight or nine years old. It was in an auditorium in San Antonio, that I first saw Vestal Goodman. Vestal, was part of the legendary gospel group, The Happy Goodman Family, and she was a striking woman. Large in every way, she owned any stage that she graced. I was absolutely taken aback by this portly, angelic figure with the stacked, "Pentecostal" hair. and floor length white gown. She seamed to glide along the stage rather than walk, singing songs of faith, love and forgiveness of sins. In my mind, I can still see her tilt back her head, hold up one hand and sing God Walks The Dark Hills. I was enthralled. She embodied matronly, heavenly, unpretentious beauty. She carried a white handkerchief in one hand and when she would tilt her head toward heaven, and raise that hand to hit a high note, it would go right through me. Her music, bypassed my mischievous young heart, and held me in place, it went straight to the part of my soul that ever yearns to know God, and gently kissed it. I'll never forget her. If someone had told me at that moment that she was an angel, I would have believed.

Music is amazing. Behind man, It's God's masterpiece.


Ozzy Osborne and Vestal Goodman

Missing My Dad

I was missing my Father today, and that's nothing new. The old man's been dead a decade now, but seldom a day goes by without my thinking of him, and it's always good when I do. I'm sure that there were a lot of time I disappointed him and many times I let him down, but he never would put things in those terms. Dad was never anything but encouraging. He was stern, but loving. He was a big man, a strong man, but so gentile, that no one ever noticed that. I only feared my Father when I crossed the line, and I had to go a long way to get there. Once over the line Dad's eyes could flash lightning, and his gentile hands could turn to stone, but again it was a long road to reach that place, and I remember getting there but twice. My Dad always called me Doc. I've had many nicknames, but only my Old Man called me Doc, it was just our thing. I always called him Daddy-O. It sounded cool to me, kind of Rockabilly. Dad was convinced that I could accomplish anything I wanted. He never once told my that I was a disappointment or a failure. He never told me that he was ashamed of me, though I'm sure at times, I gave him reason. I still miss you Dad.

-Doc

Duane Peters in '08

Here's a little something to go with yesterday's post

Duane Peters For President

Check out Duane, spreading the stoke in South America. The man is a born statesman, just check out his foreign policy...Duane Peter could lead this country. As all of the Elephants and Donkeys start lining up to suckle the tit of Corporate America, a true American legend steps into the light. My friends, it's time for the common man to take over. It's time for a grass roots movement. It's time for Duane Peters. This message has been brought to you by the committee to to elect Peters

Peters/Parks '08
-Sham

Heavy Metal

I logged on to Yahoo this morning to find the question, "What was the first Heavy Metal song?" posted. Being a music lover, I tapped on the tab, only to read several idiotic replies claiming Cream, Hendrix and Steppenwolf tunes as the first Heavy Metal song. Wow, some people should not be allowed to hit a publish button. Heavy Metal starts with the first notes of Black Sabbath, the first cut, from the first album, of the Band of the same name. To say that any music before Sabbath was "Heavy Metal", is tantamount to calling The Who a Punk Rock band, because they smashed their instruments. The gigs that Sabbath played in the late '60s and the two albums released in 1970 created the genre, and define it to this day. Black Sabbath are the progenitors of a bloodline that leads to bands like Judas Priest in the '80s, Pantera in the '90s, and Slayer, who has been carrying the Metal banner since the early '80s. Heavy Metal was bastardized in the early '80 by an army of fems in ratted up hair and spandex, but Sabbath continued to beat their black wings against the fluffy new dawn, until the quiet Riots and Whitesnakes of the world were subdued and their pretty remains consigned to the darkness. Bands like the aforementioned Slayer, Samhain, Motorhead, Metallica and others, opted out of the group jerkoff that was Hair Metal, and embraced the darker, more heavy handed approach that their heroes practiced. The results speak for themselves. You can listen to any old works from theses bands, and it holds up extremely well, against the lame trends that have come and gone in Hard Rock over the past 25 years. If you try to listen to 99% of the Hair stuff that was produced in the '80s, you just want to laugh. If your Metal makes you laugh, you're not playing it in my car!

-Rock