Tag Archives: YouTube

If You Think Amazon’s Alexa Is Ruining The World, You’ll Love This Song

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Alexa (Can You Hear Me?) – Beans On Toast’s Brilliant Song

Beans on Toast, a British musician came up with what I think is the best song (at least lyrically) in the last year.

Here is the video for Alexa —

In late 2014 a scandal emerged when Samsung’s Smart TV voice command recorded and shared everything within earshot, when the feature was activated. Samsung’s privacy policy (which almost no one read) warned, “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party,”  Some people were outraged.

Yet soon after, millions of people began to voluntarily install a true digital spy in their home, Amazon’s Alexa. It is sheer madness that people are willing to be monitored, quantified and algorithimed, but are not alarmed by the ultimate repercussions of the loss of privacy.

About Beans On Toast

Beans’ real name is Jay McAllister who hails from Braintree, Essex.  Since 2009 McAllister has annually released an album on his birthday, December 1.  Alexa is off of McAllister’s tenth  studio album, 2018’s, “A Bird In The Hand.”  Continue reading →

Why Hip Hop, Rap And Pop Crap Has Replaced Rock ‘N’ Roll

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An Analysis of Fifty Seven Years Of Pop Chart History Shows The Decline Of Rock ‘N’ Roll

A Provoking & Insightful Video By David Bennett

Led Zeppelin on stage stage photographer unknown

Led Zeppelin on stage circa 1970. photographer: unknown

Normally we don’t repeat opinions or commentary of other people or websites. But on a rare occasion we’ll stumble upon an argument made elsewhere that has merit and should be shared with a wider audience.

That is the case with David Bennett, a young musician who analytically examined the decline of rock ‘n’ roll over the last 60 years.

According to Bennett rock music disappeared in 2010 and possibly will never return, at least to the pop charts. The short entertaining video of when and why rock disappeared from the mainstream, is worth a few minutes of any rock fan’s time.

Here is Bennett’s theory.

As pointed out before, David Bennett is an extremely gifted musician, so he’s not just another numbskull spouting an opinion on YouTube. Here is a link to his other videos. If you watch any, I believe you will be impressed.

Barring Greta Van Fleet, Royal Blood and some other youthful lads Continue reading →

The Beatles Leave London To Invade The U.S.A. – February 7, 1964

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It Was 55 Years Ago Today – The Beatles Came to The USA

beatles feb 7 1964

Feb 7, 1964 – The Beatles Leave London For New York – The Beatles singing group is shown at London airport this morning prior to departing for appearances in New York. From left are Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. AP wirephoto via cable from London

Our headline (thank you, Sgt. Pepper) points out that remarkably it has been 55 years, not 20 years ago today that the Beatles left London for New York City. The British Invasion was underway. The world would never be the same, not just musically, but in fashion and pop culture.

If you want to get a sense of what Beatlemania was like when the Fab Four first arrived in New York, there is a forgotten little film Continue reading →

The Brooklyn Home Of Actor Edward Everett Horton (and His Interesting Life)

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Famed Actor Edward Everett Horton Was Born & Bred In Brooklyn

Everett Edward Horton home BrooklynImagine living in a home that is old. Over 150-years-old.

If you’ve ever lived anywhere that has a long past, you’ve probably wondered who previously occupied the space before you. What were the people like who once lived there? What celebrations and heartbreaks happened there?

When passing by, no one would take a second look at the building at 316 Carlton Avenue in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. It’s just another tidy single family, four story brick home in a row of similar 19th century houses. Continue reading →

Will Rush Be Reuniting? Geddy Lee Video Interview December 2018

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Realistically, Rush Will Probably Not Reunite – But Geddy Lee Says Making Music With Alex Lifeson Is On The Horizon

Geddy Lee of Rush Aug 1, 2015 Photo: Rich Fury/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock

In a December interview to promote his new book Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass, Rush’s lead singer quashed any talk of a Rush reunion. Rush is officially retired as of 2015.

Geddy Lee spoke with New York’s WAXQ-FM Marc Coppola and Shelli Sonstein and put to rest any notion that drummer Neil Peart would record and perform with his bandmates.

Lee told Coppola that, “The idea of seeing Neil, Alex and myself on stage or on record together is not realistic.” Continue reading →

1970s Rock – Foghat Shows What A Great Live Band Could Do

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Foghat Gives An Incredible Live Performance – 1974

Why is it that the 1970s produced dozens of incredibly talented rock bands?

Certainly one reason is creative singer-songwriters proliferated and produced songs that have stood the test of time.

Foghat members Tony Stevens, "Lonesome Dave" Peverett, Rod Price, Roger Earl

Foghat c. 1974 standing: Tony Stevens, front l-r “Lonesome Dave” Peverett, Rod Price, Roger Earl photo: London Features

Foghat was one of the many bands that came from England and triumphed in America. Today it has been forgotten that Foghat was among the top grossing live bands of the 70s. Even with one double platinum and eight gold records, Foghat today have been mostly bypassed in rock history as a novelty boogie rock band.

Throughout the 1970s their albums and live performances won praise from music fans. Foghat was constantly heard on FM stations. Radio staples like Slow Ride and Fool For The City are still played today.

And boy could they put on a live show. Foghat were simply beasts on stage in front of an audience.

In this fantastic 1974 version of the Willie Dixon penned blues classic I Just Want To Make Love To You, Foghat makes eleven minutes go by awfully fast. Foghat looks like they are having the best time ever being in a rock band.

This is one incredible exuberant, fun and blistering performance from Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. Unfortunately the narcoleptic audience doesn’t realize what they are seeing regardless of the added applause track.

What constitutes the ingredients of a great live performance? Continue reading →

The Woman in the First Row Behind Home Plate At Milwaukee Brewers Games? It’s “Front Row Amy”

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“Front Row Amy” Gets National Attention Sitting Behind Home Plate During The Milwaukee Brewers Playoff Run

She is there for every pitch – “Front Row Amy”

The Milwaukee Brewers are battling the Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs and the games are being nationally televised. This has led to a discovery for most (male) fans outside of Milwaukee.

Front Row Amy

You’d have to be completely oblivious not to notice there is a woman sitting in the first row behind home plate at the Brewers home games always wearing a low cut blouse.

You may think she is there to distract the opposing team’s pitcher. She is not. She has been going to Brewers games for over 10 years and her name is Amy Williams, aka “Front Row Amy.”

Amy is a die-hard fan. As a season ticket holder she attends around 50 games per year. In 2011 she moved to her signature front row seat and started getting “noticed.”

As she told OnMilwaukee.com in 2011, “What first got people’s attention was probably, well, you know, “the girls.” But, I think what keeps their attention is that fact that I am so passionate about the Brewers. Brewers fans appreciate the fact that I drive an hour and a half to games by myself, that I keep score, and that I really get into the game! The Brewers are my life during baseball season, and I guess that shows when I’m at games. I love them so much it hurts! And baseball is the greatest game on Earth!” How famous is Amy? Well she has a bobble-head available for purchase. I don’t know many fans who have received that honor. She also has imitators at Miller Park, such as this person, “Front Row Andy.” Getting to the ballpark Continue reading →

Boris Kosović, Lead Singer and Guitarist Of Gruhak Is Dead at 40

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Boris Kosović, Multi-Talented Rocker In A Band That Shunned The Spotlight, Dies

Boris Kosović founder, lead singer and guitarist of Gruhak, in an undated photo

(We wrote a story about the amazing Croatian band Gruhak, in 2016 that can be read here.)

Boris Kosović the energetic vocalist-guitarist and sole remaining original member of the band Gruhak died on Thursday, September 20 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He had been battling cancer for a year and a half. Kosović was 40-years-old.

The following was sent to us exclusively from Luka Krmić in Dubrovnik: Continue reading →

Rock Your Baby To Sleep – Literally! Iron Maiden Songs Done As Lullabies

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Iron Maiden Songs Performed As Lullabies

How do you take heavy metal music and turn them into lullabies?

Until the other day I wouldn’t have known.

Still, I’m quite aware, popular music can be given any type of rendition.

Once about 20 years ago at the venerable Strand bookstore, I heard classical music being played over their sound system. I wasn’t paying close attention to the song. But I started listening closer. It sounded familiar, yet I couldn’t distinguish exactly what was being played. After about two minutes it hit me – it was Metallica and the song Harvester of Sorrow! That was the first time I heard Apocalyptica, a classical group comprised of cellists and they had recorded entire albums covering Metallica.

So it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the bright idea of making lullabies out of heavy metal songs. Hence, I recently discovered Iron Maiden tunes done as lullabies. The question you might ask is, why?

Does it matter?

If you like Iron Maiden, this should put a smile on your face, The first song I heard was The Trooper.

I couldn’t help clicking the youtube links Continue reading →

Rarities – The Pure Vocals Of Led Zeppelin, Queen, Boston, Heart & Others

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Hearing Classic Rock’s Greatest Voices  Like You’ve Never Heard Them Before

Rare Audio From 10 Great Rock Bands With The Vocals Isolated

Unlike the garbage pop music that is popular today, the vocalists of the great rock bands of the 60s and 70s did not have an array of modern gadgets to fix their voices. Either you could sing or you couldn’t. In the pre-digital era there was no autotune and multi-track studio trickery was limited to looping and a few other production tricks.

So it should come as no surprise that their were once were musical giants that walked the earth. Bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Heart, Queen, Boston and dozens of others where the vocalists could not only cut it live, but could go into a recording studio and leave pure magic on tape and vinyl.

Without having access to the master recording tapes, some enterprising music fans have made a hobby of isolating each individual part of a band’s recording to see how the song breaks down. The most interesting of these efforts are the vocal isolations.

If you ever had any doubt as to how much talent each of these musicians had, then prepare to be blown away  by these performances.

First up, if Heart’s Ann Wilson doesn’t have the best pure voice in rock n’ roll then I don’t know who does. 40 plus years later Ann Wilson hasn’t lost much of her range. The singing on Barracuda is a careful balance between pyrotechnic raw emotion and incredible vocal control.

There are a handful of people who still dismiss Led Zeppelin and the vocal prowess of a young Robert Plant. For those who think that Robert Plant and Zeppelin were nothing special check out the unadulterated vocals with absolutely no effects from Ramble On off of Led Zeppelin II.

Probably the song with THE single greatest acrobatic vocal performance EVER in rock ‘n’ roll. Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan hits unimaginable heights on Child In Time from 1970. Continue reading →