Friday, May 14, 2010

envy on the coast covers jimi hendrix's all along the watchtower

Jimi Hendrix, has been a noticeably talented artist since the beginning of his career in the 60's. After leaving the military in 1962, Hendrix began his rock and roll career. In 1968, he released an album called Electric Ladyland, which included one of his hit songs, All Along the Watchtower, which was actually written by Bob Dylan. Many other artists have covered this song, including a punk band by the name of Envy on the Coast.

The modern punk rock band, Envy on the Coast, began their career in 2004 with former band members from three different underground Long Island bands. On the album Punk Goes Classic Rock, which was just released on April 27, 2010, Envy on the Coast covered Jimi Hendrix famous song, All Along the Watchtower. Although they are the same songs, the two different artist's songs sound extremely different from one another. In Envy's cover, the lyrics stayed the exact same as Hendrix's lyrics, with no changes, but the music itself, including the beats, is a lot more upbeat than Jimi Hendrix' version. At the beginning of the song, when Hendrix plays the guitar at the beginning, he plays it solo, whereas Envy on the Coast's cover has a lot more going on, where more than one instrument is included at the beginning. Envy's cover song has more of a hardcore side to it. Although their version is slowed down compared to Hendrix', the singing is a louder along with the instrumentals. Jimi Hendrix, on the other hand, has a lot more of a relaxing, laid back voice. His instrumentals, especially his guitar parts, are a lot faster, yet still quite soft-sounding. Both artists show their own way of playing the song, without making it sound bad.

Jimi Hendrix, Classic Rock artist, and Envy on the Coast, punk artist, both play Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" song in their own point of view of music genre. Although the song was started off as a classic rock song, Envy on the Coast was able to pull it up to a more upbeat, punk rock-like sound. It is very agreeable that Hendrix' version is a lot more respected and known, but Envy did a great job covering the song in a more 21st century form of it.

Friday, April 9, 2010

legend of robert

Legend #1: The legend of Robert Johson selling is soul to the devil has many things behind it. Johnson's legend is that he went to the crossroads at midnight and began playing the guitar at relatively the same tones. He did this so that he could become the best bluesman in the history of blues. When he walked by the crossroads, he ran into the devil. The devil told him he would give him the ability to play the guitar if he sold his soul to him. Johnson agreed on this and the devil then told him to keep playing and playing until his fingers were able to play songs. After this legend went about, Johnson later died and people believed that it was due to "selling his soul to the devil."



Legend #2: Ozzy Osbourne, famous musician who was once in the band Black Sabbath, has done many twisted things that people may have never even thought of doing. After awhile, Sharon helped him start his music career again. At one of Ozzy's shows, she planned for him to release three doves as a sign of peace. Since Ozzy was very intoxicated, when he released the three doves, instead of letting them fly free, he grabbed one of them and bit the head off of it. It was a very disturbing sight and showed no sign of peacefulness like Sharon was aiming for. Also, at one of his concerts, many of his fans brought all different living animals such as cats, frogs, chickens, snakes, etc, and they would throw them up onto the stage with Ozzy. Many of the animals were slaughtered due to Ozzy's demonic stage on state. During the "Bark of the Moon Tour", somebody threw a bat onto the stage and Ozzy grabbed the bat and bit the head off of it, just like he did the dove. Since, this time, it was a wild animal, he was required to get two weeks of rabies shots. Ozzy's twisted mind caused him to do wild, uncalled for acts on the stage.

http://www.av1611.org/rock/ozzy.html



Legend #3: The legend with the Beatle's cover album, "Abbey Road" has many interesting facts behind it. On November 1966, The Beatles were at the Abbey Road studios, where they recorded their music. Paul McCartney left the studio, upset due to an argument he had with his band members. He drove off down and picked up a hitchhiker named Rita, who then somehow caused him to get into a horrible car accident which killed him. Since the Beatles were at the highest popularity of their career, they worried that it would be the end of their career. Instead of coming straight out with Paul's death, they kept it secret and decided to find a lookalike of Paul who could also play his music. Their new singer, William Campbell was able to write very similar music and had the same voice as Paul, too. Once they began getting used to the new guy in the band, the remaining members began feeling guilty. This led them to start putting hints/clue into their music and albums. The main clue of it was the cover, "Abbey Road". The four band members were walking across Abbey Road where John Lennon was dressed in white to symbolize the Church and mourning. Ringo was dressed in black, to symbolize the undertaker. George Harrison was dressed in work clothes to symbolize the gravedigger. Lastly, Paul McCartney was barefoot because when one is buried, they would be barefoot. Also, he was out of step with the other members and was holding his cigarette with his right hand when, in reality McCartney was left-handed. Also, the Volkswagen Beetle shown in the background of Abbey Road, had a license plate that read, "LMW 28IF" which symbolized that McCartney would have been 28 years old now, if he was still alive. All of these symbolization's in this album cover launched many fans to revealing these clues and realizing what the remaining Beatles members were trying to tell everybody.

http://beatlesnumber9.com/dead3.html



Legend #4: Bob Dylan, known for his fine playing on the guitar, made a very shocking scene to his fans at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. Six weeks before the festival, Bob began record some electrified music and started to move away from the whole acoustic music. Since his electric album "Like A Rolling Stone" was only released five days before his show in Newport, not many people heard the new music of his and were very shocked to hear what he brought to them. When he took the stage with his Fender Stratocaster and began playing the electrified version of "Maggie's Farm", the audience immediately began yelling and booing at the band until his music was drowned out by them. Many of his fans felt that he betrayed his outlooks on using only the acoustic guitar and also, the sound quality of the electric guitar sounded horrible. This tragic event marked a great change in the folk scene and many believed that it would never be the same due to Bob Dylan.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/7/25?catId=13

Legend #5:



Legend #6: The mythology of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart album has many symbols in it. For example, on the right of the cover, there is a doll dressed in a red, black and white striped shirt holding a white, toy car. The car in his hand symbolizes the car that Paul McCartney died in. Also, the statue Hindu God, Shiva, standing in front of the "T" in "Beatles" is pointing to Paul's name in the yellow flowers. Also, where the Beatles are behind the drum, all of the members are standing sideways and look 3D except for Paul, who is standing straight forward and looks like a cardboard cutout.

http://www.paulisdeadhoax.com/index.php/sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band/

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Seduction by: Alesana

The song Seduction by Alesana shows many signs of betrayal throughout the song. For example, a quote showing how betrayal is sung throughout the song is "Why have you turned you back on me?" The singer, Shawn is asking the person who betrayed him, why they turned their back on him. The main singer uses objectification in his lyrics by saying, "Beautiful lies pour from our mouth". He makes "lie" seem as if it is a concrete thing, which it is clearly not. Also, an example of personification is "Regret will be your bride" because regret can not legitimately be somebody's bride. Also, there is an example of assonance when he says, "lust, thus we crumble" because there is a repition of the "u" sound. There is also an example of double entendre when Shawn sings, "Ice runs through my veins" because that can mean a few different things, such as having the chills, or a drug-like interpretation. This song uses a fair amount of pooetic devices throughout it.

The Return by: Killswith Engage

In the lyrics The Return by Killlswitch Engage, the singer feels "Once more alone...Frustration consumes me" due to a past relationship. He explains how he always ends up getting hurt by the same person yet, he states, "Desperate I return to you/ Broken I return to you." The lead singer, Howard Jones shows how he has been betrayed and broken many times by the same lover, yet he cannot get over them and continues to return back to them. He feels that, although he is always betrayed by the same person, he thinks, "What will it take/ To escape you." Howard feels hopeless in moving on from his past lover even though they had betrayed him so many times. The tone of this song is depression due to his past experiences.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Betrayal in Metal

Betrayal in metal would be a very extended topic. I like this idea because after going through my playlists on music sites, most of my music is metal. Metal also has a lot of meaning to it. One main topic that metal focuses on is betrayal which is why I feel this would be an understandable theme-genre for me. I already know many songs that may have betrayal in some of my metal music, so this should be a very possible theme-genre.