March 27, 2016
This article is a first for me — as I will simultaneously publish it here in the Doctor\’s Inn and also on my Anachronism website in \”Scheff\’s Latest.\”
This 2016 New Year has been a rather frightening one for musicians — prompting my producer (the Mighty Kahn) to suggest that if you achieved music fame in the 70s — that you had better watch your back. Of course George Martin and Keith Emerson were already getting acclaim in the 60s — but David Bowie, Lemmy and Glen Frey saw theirs take off in the following decade. As for me — though I started rockin\’ in\’73 — I\’ve only been famous in my shower…so I\’m safe…
Keith Emerson was every rock keyboardist\’s idol! He was a keyboard God! Never-in-a- million-years could I get my left hand going as fast he did his. I am pleased that I got to see him \”live\” a few times! Anyone who saw ELP at the US Festival also recognized Keith as a Liberace-styled showman — though I doubt Liberace ever played on an elevated, spinning grand piano or stabbed his organ with, with, oh, never mind. I seem to remember Emerson doing the piano \”thang\” with The Nice as well (but I\’m not sure). I do hope we learn what prompted Keith to take his life…I know he did have cancer a-few-years-back…
Bowie\’s Ziggy Stardust album is among my favorites. I have enjoyed much of his oeuvre over the years — but nothing quite spirited me away like \”Moonage Daydream.\” While I don\’t necessarily view David as a creative genius or trendsetter like so many others do (I always felt he copied something already out there and then performed it better than anyone could!) — I have always thought his voice was one of the greatest (his Dodger Stadium concert blew my mind) and his \”Lazarus\” has replaced \”Moonage Daydream\” as my Bowie favorite! I wonder if he waited to hear the reviews of Blackstar before letting himself go — shades of Freddy Mercury…
Many Motorhead fans don\’t know that Lemmy played with Hawkwind before forming Motorhead. Following Lemmy\’s death, I heard (or read) a blurb that he had been thrown out of Hawkwind for doing too many drugs. I find this hard to believe, as Hawkwind legend suggests that the band was arrested at least 3 times for throwing drugs (buckets full) into the audience. While I was never a Motorhead fan — I had to respect Lemmy as a hard liver (definitely a pun), and, truly emulating the rocker\’s highway to hell.
The Eagles were never one of my favorite bands (though many of their songs go down easy) — but I can\’t imagine any rock-and-roller (or any music lover for that matter) not loving \”Hotel California.\” Glen Frey also served as a kind of bellwether for us Michigan boys who sought an escape from the provincial Mid-West to Cali, and, to see what it took to make it in California and not to go back to those Mid-Western brown leaves and gray skies. \”Taking it Easy\” is also a great song — but I think it\’s Jackson Browne\’s…
And as for George Martin, the 5th Beatle as he has been called; well, from what I\’ve gleaned from his posthumous articles — if it wasn\’t for Sir George — the Beatles might never have made it. Legend has it that they were turned away by every other record producer and that George Martin was their last chance. Apparently George heard something he liked in their \”raw\” sound…and the rest became not only music — but world history! It must be getting ever-more-fun to jam in heaven…even for Lemmy…