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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | moteeko@telerama.com |
| Subject | The "Musician Look" |
| Date | Tue, 05 Aug 2003 07:45:07 -0400 (EDT) |
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This was in the latest Pittsburgh Guitars weekly e-mail. Thought that some of
the list musicians might get a kick out of it!
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I saw Shania Twain on the Today show this morning. She had her usual
band of good-looking guys standing behind her, wearing headset mics,
and "singing." Although bands play live on these morning shows, it's
really hard to tell what "live" is anymore. In Shania's case you
could clearly hear more instruments than were on stage. My guess
for this morning? Her mic was live. Beyond that it's hard to say...
But it did sound EXACTLY like the record.
Last weekend I saw a friend of mine, Weird Al, down at the
Post-Gazette, IC Light, Magic 97, Bob's Farm-Fresh Catfish Casserole,
Chevrolet Amphitheater. In Al's case, they play along with some of
his video parodies shown on big screens, so they have to use a
click-track in their ear monitors to stay in sync with the video.
But at least they were actually playing their instruments.
I remember once years ago, Steve Hansen (famous morning DJ) wanted to
sing a song with my band (The Flashcats) and he said he was most
excited about being able to give the "musician look." I asked him
what he meant, and he said it was that subtle head nod that one band
member gives to another to indicate "take another solo" or "one
more chorus" or "the song ends now!"
Famous bands don't get to give the "musician look" anymore.
Sometimes I miss those days of classic rock & roll. Like when you'd
go to see The Kinks and they'd play one of their new songs and mess
up the chords in the bridge...
Speaking of classic, we have some extra classical guitars in stock.
We're featuring them this week. Don't you need one so you can play
Willie's version of "Blue Skies"? (Now THERE'S a guy who wouldn't
play along with pre-recorded tracks!)
<SNIP>
PS: One time I saw The Kinks open the show with "Victoria" and the
band started vamping on the opening chord and Ray came dramatically
running out on stage and pulled a harmonica out of his pocket and
started to play... and it was the wrong key! He had to run back off
stage and grab a harmonica in the correct key. That's why I love
them.
PPS: And don't get me started on NRBQ! When Terry starts a song
sometimes the rest of the band doesn't even recognize it till he
sings the first line... We have to get them back to Pittsburgh...
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