I’m not sure what your taste is like or what your goals are, but I would recommend starting with an electric, not an acoustic because 1) electrics are easier to play since the action is lower, and 2) acoustics are for pussies, amirite?!
Both Fender and Epiphone have starter packages that include an amp, cable, and tuner. If you live in a house with old wiring, consider going for the epiphone because it will have humbucking pick-ups (the single coil pickups on a fender sound great but can be accompanied by an annoying hum).
Once you’ve messed around with it enough to know that you are probably going to stick with it, consider getting an entry level modeling amp. I was morally opposed to these initially, and I still think that if you advance far enough you should eventually get a nice classic tube amp, but if you are still fairly new at it, there are a bunch of different options for less than $150. They all will replicate the classic Fender, Vox, and Marshall tones and will have plenty of effects built right in. My son has the Fender version and it is a fun practice amp.
It can be a bit frustrating at first but once you know how to play D-A-G, you will be able to play hundreds of songs, Throw in Em and Am, you probably know more chords than Neil Young.
Mr. Mod, while you are on your Turtles jag I’m on a DC5 one. Did anyone see the recent PBS special on them? Very interesting but weird. Lots of 10 second live clips of Glad All Over, Bits & Pieces, Do You Love Me, etc but also lots of bits of songs I wasn’t familiar with but many of which were very good, especially some late period (’67-’70) psych songs.
Also strange was the time frame. Interviews strung together from all different time periods. The most recent that I could identify were from Tom Hanks’ R&RHoF induction in 2008. But there were also interviews with Laurence Olivier (who died in 1989) and Freddy Mercury (1991).
Anyway, enough good music to make me go looking to supplement my History of DC5 2 CD greatest hits set. Of course, there’s nothing out there (Macca, in an interview, and others hailed him for being a genius ahead of his time in owning his masters but what’s the point of that if you aren’t going to make them available) but I did find a torrent of 19 LPs that I grabbed and have been listening to.
I’m reading an Allman Brothers book, an oral history, which is really good and makes me want to try listening to that band again. Anyhow, this morning I read a funny passage with Gregg Allman talking about what he experienced that got him over his childhood feeling that acoustic guitars were for corny, Nashville wussies.
This is cool news, MrHuman. One thing I would recommend is that you actually practice and try to learn how to read music. I hated practicing, used to figure out stuff by ear as best as I could in the hours leading up to my weekly lesson, then pretended to read the music when my teacher was there. One day he flipped the page when I wasn’t paying full attention and called bullshit on me for continuing to play the song I was playing when the sheet music had changed.
There are 19 DC5 LPs?!?!? That’s hard to fathom, but since you recently went back and listened to all those Lou Reed albums you never liked, you may be the man for this job. We will need a report.
I missed that show. I’ll have to catch it down the road. Andyr saw it and expressed some similar oddities.
Beside their 4 or 5 great songs, all I’ve ever heard by them is the standard greatest hits album that my close, personal friend Sethro once bought. I remember the “psych” stuff being horrible, like the canned British music hall numbers Davey Jones would have performed during later-day Monkees espisodes. I’ll have to check that stuff out again. I’ve long carried around a concept for a song called “Greasepaint and Elephant Droppings,” based on my memories of hearing those 1967-era songs.
Well, as far as the psych songs went, remember these were 10 second snippets I heard and with psych a little can go a long way. We’ll see when the marathon is done.
I’m working my way through the DC5 catalogue chronologically and am only 4 albums in so far. Gotta say, it’s much preferable to Lou Reed. I like the way it sounds!
Some of you may recall that in recent years I have journeyed to Syracuse University to sit in on a Beatles class they have there. This started in 2011 when my daughter was a student there and took this class. It’s a one credit class partly geared toward the business end of the Beatles. The professor is a wonderful guy if for no other reason than he has welcomed me to sit in whenever I want (which is infrequent only because SU is 4+ hours from me). He clearly has some great connections with people in the music/Beatles world.
In 2011 I attended two lectures. One was my author Bob Spitz. This was pretty mediocre. When I made the plans to go, the scheduled speaker was Paul’s brother-in-law John Eastman. The other I did attend featured John Branca, Michael Jackson’s attorney. This one was great and fulfilled half of my plan when I decided to attend these two, which was to get the two sides of the story on MJ’s purchase of the Lennon-McCartney song publishing. Both lectures had the added advantage of attending with my daughter and enjoying dinner with her and some friends afterwards.
In 2012, my daughter having graduated, I attended a lecture by Peter Asher. This had been Kate’s favorite the year before and it was, indeed, fantastic. He gave a slimmed down version of a show he apparently performs which is a lecture/slide show/performance of his career. Lots of earlier Beatles stories, of course, as well as later career highlights with James Taylor and others. That night the professor invited me to dinner with a few people including Peter. I ended up sitting next to him and enjoyed some Sinatra stories which he had learned from Nelson Riddle when Riddle worked on albums by Linda Ronstadt whom Asher managed/produced.
Last year I attended a lecture by Ken Scott who was an engineer for latter period Beatles and solo Beatles (most especially All Things Must Pass) and a producer for early Bowie and Lou Reed. His lecture was interesting but nothing special.
On Monday I was back in Syracuse for a lecture by Jeff Jones the CEO of Apple Corps since 2007. This was fantastic. He has had a life that I’d guess many of here at RTH would consider a dream life; surely I do. He’s almost exactly my age and says his life was changed when he saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan on February 4, 1964 (ditto). After high school he went to work at the Harvard Coop bookstore basically stocking racks. Worked his way up to rock music buyer, moved to an entry level job at Columbia, worked his way up, moved around (MCA, Polygram, back to Columbia) working on all sorts of interesting projects (including Dylan’s Bootleg Series) and then Apple.
No real inside scoops (not that I expected any) but some insight into how the company is run, what they are trying to accomplish, working with Paul, Ringo, Yoko, & Olivia, etc. Surely worth the 9 hours driving and $100 in gas & tolls!
My son is also a junior. Next week (his school break) we will be working our way down to DC visiting colleges.
I’m not looking forward to the next 8 months and all the nagging (did you sign up for the SATs? how’s the essay coming? did you do the application?) but am trying to console myself with the fact that this is the last time I’ll have to go through this.
Mr Human, I am going to have to respectfully counsel you to ignore the Mod’s advice about learning to read music. Maybe down the road a bit it will be helpful. But initially, you need some bang for the buck. You should learn D-A-G. Those chords will sound good in any order and should keep you entertained while you build up callouses and finger strength. (Take my advice with a grain of salt though: the Mod did just whup my ass in an old fashioned cutting contest at the recent record release party).
A little googling shows Imagine was released in September 1971 and Band On The Run in 1973. Once this goes viral, we can expect Macca to announce how he actually wrote Band On The Run 3 years earlier and played it for John at the Let It Be Sessions…
Amen. I caught a bit of it and kept thinking, “do these people realize they’re talking about the Dave Clark Five?” Who have, like 3 or 4 decent songs? I’m guessing their reputation will grow as long as their records remain unavailable.
Another lip-synced performance from Turtle Soup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSZTsJaCV6s
That’s right, I’m on a morning Turtles kick. They may have been the greatest dorky hipsters in rock history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru6PJM4ZOF8
So I’m going to start guitar lessons. Any advice?
Philly pride! NOT!
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/Alt-rock_band_sentenced_for_targeting_pawn_shops_with_fake_Martin_high-end_guitars.html
Isn’t DJ Shadow’s real name Josh Davis? THE PLOT THICKENS
That’s great to hear Mr MrHuman.
I’m not sure what your taste is like or what your goals are, but I would recommend starting with an electric, not an acoustic because 1) electrics are easier to play since the action is lower, and 2) acoustics are for pussies, amirite?!
Both Fender and Epiphone have starter packages that include an amp, cable, and tuner. If you live in a house with old wiring, consider going for the epiphone because it will have humbucking pick-ups (the single coil pickups on a fender sound great but can be accompanied by an annoying hum).
Once you’ve messed around with it enough to know that you are probably going to stick with it, consider getting an entry level modeling amp. I was morally opposed to these initially, and I still think that if you advance far enough you should eventually get a nice classic tube amp, but if you are still fairly new at it, there are a bunch of different options for less than $150. They all will replicate the classic Fender, Vox, and Marshall tones and will have plenty of effects built right in. My son has the Fender version and it is a fun practice amp.
It can be a bit frustrating at first but once you know how to play D-A-G, you will be able to play hundreds of songs, Throw in Em and Am, you probably know more chords than Neil Young.
Good luck and keep us posted!
Mr. Mod, while you are on your Turtles jag I’m on a DC5 one. Did anyone see the recent PBS special on them? Very interesting but weird. Lots of 10 second live clips of Glad All Over, Bits & Pieces, Do You Love Me, etc but also lots of bits of songs I wasn’t familiar with but many of which were very good, especially some late period (’67-’70) psych songs.
Also strange was the time frame. Interviews strung together from all different time periods. The most recent that I could identify were from Tom Hanks’ R&RHoF induction in 2008. But there were also interviews with Laurence Olivier (who died in 1989) and Freddy Mercury (1991).
Anyway, enough good music to make me go looking to supplement my History of DC5 2 CD greatest hits set. Of course, there’s nothing out there (Macca, in an interview, and others hailed him for being a genius ahead of his time in owning his masters but what’s the point of that if you aren’t going to make them available) but I did find a torrent of 19 LPs that I grabbed and have been listening to.
Thanks so much! Will do.
I’m reading an Allman Brothers book, an oral history, which is really good and makes me want to try listening to that band again. Anyhow, this morning I read a funny passage with Gregg Allman talking about what he experienced that got him over his childhood feeling that acoustic guitars were for corny, Nashville wussies.
This is cool news, MrHuman. One thing I would recommend is that you actually practice and try to learn how to read music. I hated practicing, used to figure out stuff by ear as best as I could in the hours leading up to my weekly lesson, then pretended to read the music when my teacher was there. One day he flipped the page when I wasn’t paying full attention and called bullshit on me for continuing to play the song I was playing when the sheet music had changed.
There are 19 DC5 LPs?!?!? That’s hard to fathom, but since you recently went back and listened to all those Lou Reed albums you never liked, you may be the man for this job. We will need a report.
I missed that show. I’ll have to catch it down the road. Andyr saw it and expressed some similar oddities.
Beside their 4 or 5 great songs, all I’ve ever heard by them is the standard greatest hits album that my close, personal friend Sethro once bought. I remember the “psych” stuff being horrible, like the canned British music hall numbers Davey Jones would have performed during later-day Monkees espisodes. I’ll have to check that stuff out again. I’ve long carried around a concept for a song called “Greasepaint and Elephant Droppings,” based on my memories of hearing those 1967-era songs.
Well, as far as the psych songs went, remember these were 10 second snippets I heard and with psych a little can go a long way. We’ll see when the marathon is done.
I’m working my way through the DC5 catalogue chronologically and am only 4 albums in so far. Gotta say, it’s much preferable to Lou Reed. I like the way it sounds!
The Beatles in Syracuse, the fourth in a series.
Some of you may recall that in recent years I have journeyed to Syracuse University to sit in on a Beatles class they have there. This started in 2011 when my daughter was a student there and took this class. It’s a one credit class partly geared toward the business end of the Beatles. The professor is a wonderful guy if for no other reason than he has welcomed me to sit in whenever I want (which is infrequent only because SU is 4+ hours from me). He clearly has some great connections with people in the music/Beatles world.
In 2011 I attended two lectures. One was my author Bob Spitz. This was pretty mediocre. When I made the plans to go, the scheduled speaker was Paul’s brother-in-law John Eastman. The other I did attend featured John Branca, Michael Jackson’s attorney. This one was great and fulfilled half of my plan when I decided to attend these two, which was to get the two sides of the story on MJ’s purchase of the Lennon-McCartney song publishing. Both lectures had the added advantage of attending with my daughter and enjoying dinner with her and some friends afterwards.
In 2012, my daughter having graduated, I attended a lecture by Peter Asher. This had been Kate’s favorite the year before and it was, indeed, fantastic. He gave a slimmed down version of a show he apparently performs which is a lecture/slide show/performance of his career. Lots of earlier Beatles stories, of course, as well as later career highlights with James Taylor and others. That night the professor invited me to dinner with a few people including Peter. I ended up sitting next to him and enjoyed some Sinatra stories which he had learned from Nelson Riddle when Riddle worked on albums by Linda Ronstadt whom Asher managed/produced.
Last year I attended a lecture by Ken Scott who was an engineer for latter period Beatles and solo Beatles (most especially All Things Must Pass) and a producer for early Bowie and Lou Reed. His lecture was interesting but nothing special.
On Monday I was back in Syracuse for a lecture by Jeff Jones the CEO of Apple Corps since 2007. This was fantastic. He has had a life that I’d guess many of here at RTH would consider a dream life; surely I do. He’s almost exactly my age and says his life was changed when he saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan on February 4, 1964 (ditto). After high school he went to work at the Harvard Coop bookstore basically stocking racks. Worked his way up to rock music buyer, moved to an entry level job at Columbia, worked his way up, moved around (MCA, Polygram, back to Columbia) working on all sorts of interesting projects (including Dylan’s Bootleg Series) and then Apple.
No real inside scoops (not that I expected any) but some insight into how the company is run, what they are trying to accomplish, working with Paul, Ringo, Yoko, & Olivia, etc. Surely worth the 9 hours driving and $100 in gas & tolls!
I may have to convince my college-investigating son, who’s a junior, to check out Syracuse and enroll in this class!
My son is also a junior. Next week (his school break) we will be working our way down to DC visiting colleges.
I’m not looking forward to the next 8 months and all the nagging (did you sign up for the SATs? how’s the essay coming? did you do the application?) but am trying to console myself with the fact that this is the last time I’ll have to go through this.
And Syracuse is about the same distance from Philly as it is from Hartford. Four hours is manageable to sit in on a class or two!
Mr Human, I am going to have to respectfully counsel you to ignore the Mod’s advice about learning to read music. Maybe down the road a bit it will be helpful. But initially, you need some bang for the buck. You should learn D-A-G. Those chords will sound good in any order and should keep you entertained while you build up callouses and finger strength. (Take my advice with a grain of salt though: the Mod did just whup my ass in an old fashioned cutting contest at the recent record release party).
This is surprisingly excellent (well, maybe not so surprisingly)…
http://twentytwowords.com/a-fast-imagine-and-a-slow-band-on-the-run-fit-together-perfectly/
Excellent and a little eerie.
A little googling shows Imagine was released in September 1971 and Band On The Run in 1973. Once this goes viral, we can expect Macca to announce how he actually wrote Band On The Run 3 years earlier and played it for John at the Let It Be Sessions…
Here’s a fun tale of a first hardcore show:
http://tapewrecks.blogspot.com/2014/04/black-flag-meat-puppets-nig-heist-in.html
THIS MIGHT MAKE UP FOR “RIDE A ROCK HORSE” DEPT:
http://www.universalmusic.com/news/detail/2725
LET’S ALL CHIP IN AND BUY MOD SOMETHING NICE DEPT:
https://www.ebbets.com/category/Authentic-Flannel-Baseball-Jerseys
Found this by accident and thought you might like, it, Mr. Moderator.
I can’t decide whether I like the Tacoma Amocats or Decatur Commies the best.
Can The Inconsiderate Lumps be our new band name?
I saw some of that show, but got bored about the fifth time they said how ahead of his time Dave Clark was.
Amen. I caught a bit of it and kept thinking, “do these people realize they’re talking about the Dave Clark Five?” Who have, like 3 or 4 decent songs? I’m guessing their reputation will grow as long as their records remain unavailable.
In fairness, they were mostly talking about how he controlled the DC5 masters and bought up some live music TV shows before they were erased.