Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage

[MarkydeSad]

I saw this on Facebook

I think it's amazing

[blue2blue]

I can't listen to "Stairway to Heaven" by anyone, I don't think. I listened to it one day in the 80s when I was dubbing it onto tape so I could flip the tape to get to the bottom of the 'backwards masking.' (My take is definitely that it was unintentional, but, hey, who knows, some of those lyrics don't make much sense, even for a Led Zep song ostensibly about Hermeticism -- about like "I Wanna Booglarize You, Baby," is about undying love.)

I then tried listening again once in the 90s. I'm not sure I made it all the way through.

Mind you, I like the song. Dumb lyrics or not, it's a heck of a studio construction. (And a trainwreck live from recordings I've heard -- as well as that dumb live film from the mid-70s.) But then Page is a studio creature, he doesn't seem to be able to bring it to the stage.)

I just don't ever need to hear it again. It's burned into my brain. But my brain has tried to heal over it. Probably leaving some nasty scars.

[MarkydeSad]

I think you'd enjoy this version, blue. There's a choir!

[blue2blue]

Only for you, Saul. Only for you. But I'm not promising I'll make it all the way through. Is it too late to say that I really hate Heart's music? Not the band, they seem like nice gals. But I was trapped on a three day weekend in Mexico with a couple pals and one of them had the Heart Album with "Barracuda" and "Magic Man" on it, the only cartridge he had for his portable 8 track player. I started out on Friday evening kinda liking "Barracuda" -- which was already entering heavy rotation in LA radio. (The same heavy ro' that killed "Stairway" for me.) By Sunday, I had 'accidentally' left his player on with the sound off and run down the batteries in order to escape the incessant Heart-marathon. ("Yeah, Gary, I don't think they have D-cells in Mexico, I'll buy you a set when we get back home.")


Now, keep in mind, I'm turning off Ali Farka Touré in order to hear "Stairway to Heaven" by Heart...

[MarkydeSad]

I love "Barracuda". I'm sure it influenced Zep's "Achilles' Last Stand"

Everyone keeps calling me Saul or Nads. In your capacity as moderator, could you change my moniker back to Saul T. Nads?

[blue2blue]

Boy, the video format mismatch (the round CBS 'eye' comes out as a vertically squashed oval on my US-formatted system) is the opposite of the old 'anamorphic' 'skinny-lens' they used to use for Nancy's video appearances.

Her voice is smooth and nice. The reveal on the expanded choir is a nice touch. She can still do a pretty good Bobby Plant imitation. I was typing as I listened to the last verse and I thought for a couple seconds that Plant had joined them on stage.

I know I'm supposed to know who a lot of the folks in the audience are and some looked vaguely familiar, but the only ones I really recognized were Barry & Michelle.

That was... big.

Very well done, all in all.

[xuyenviet01]

qua? di?nh

[blue2blue]

Originally Posted by MarkydeSad

I love "Barracuda". I'm sure it influenced Zep's "Achilles' Last Stand"

Everyone keeps calling me Saul or Nads. In your capacity as moderator, could you change my moniker back to Saul T. Nads?

No. Then I'd have to start calling you Marky.

(It takes an admin to change a name. I'd just like to say that I vote for you not going back, myself, even if I occasionally might want to teasingly refer to you as Saul. As I think I said before, you probably never realized it, but when you pronounce your old handle, it sounds like it has nasty connotations. I know a polite young English businessman wouldn't know about such sordid stuff. I'm just sayin'...)

[MarkydeSad]

Originally Posted by blue2blue

No. Then I'd have to start calling you Marky.

(It takes an admin to change a name. I'd just like to say that I vote for you not going back, myself, even if I occasionally might want to teasingly refer to you as Saul. As I think I said before, you probably never realized it, but when you pronounce your old handle, it sounds like it has nasty connotations. I know a polite young English businessman wouldn't know about such sordid stuff. I'm just sayin'...)

Very well. You've talked me out of it

Glad you liked the song. It deserved to be done in that epic style. And I reckon the guys and gals did a good job

[blue2blue]

It was very well done. It definitely seemed to please the vaguely familiar faces they kept cutting back to.



Speaking of Nancy Wilsons, here's the one who didn't need the funny lens...

[MarkydeSad]

Originally Posted by blue2blue

It seemed to please the vaguely familiar faces they kept cutting back to.



Speaking of Nancy Wilsons, here's the one who didn't need the funny lens...

No offence to Ms Wilson, but I was quite mesmerized by the chord-changes on guitar in that song

[blue2blue]

It was likely played by one of the top hired guns in Hollywood in the era, maybe even Wrecking Crew member, Tommy Tedesco. Hollywood Palace was a big deal, the main competitor to Ed Sullivan's long-running variety show. That said, at that point the networks still kept orchestras in that era (or at least NBC and ABC did) and the guitarist may well have been a regular in that body. (Which would not, really, preclude him from being a legendary studio player, even so.)

[MarkydeSad]

Originally Posted by blue2blue

It was likely played by one of the top hired guns in Hollywood in the era, maybe even Wrecking Crew member, Tommy Tedesco. Hollywood Palace was a big deal, the main competitor to Ed Sullivan's long-running variety show. That said, at that point the networks still kept orchestras in that era (or at least NBC and ABC did) and the guitarist may well have been a regular in that body. (Which would not, really, preclude him from being a legendary studio player, even so.)

Well, whatever, he was/is a damn fine guitarist

On second listening, Ms Wilson is a damn fine chanteuse, too

[Folder]

I thought the performance was good and I liked being able to see the reactions of Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page. They all looked like they were enjoying themselves. Robert Plant had tears in his eyes while listening to it. He's implied in the past that he was somewhat embarrassed by some of the lyrics. He supposedly wrote them on the spot while hearing the music for the first time.

But I did not like the way that they edited it. I suppose they did it because of time constraints. But they only chopped out probably less than a minutes worth and there was five minutes left when the show finished. I would have liked it better had they played the whole song.

[Ernest Buckley]

Hey Mark,

Saw it on FB too, thought it was quite good. Thanks for sharing it here with HC.

EB

[Lee Knight]

Pretty cool. Very cool.

I agree that the arrangement edits were not as well conceived as they could've been. But that does not take away from the fact that it is a very moving, well put together tribute to a great band and song. Still, those edits. Well, it wasn't the fact that there were edits, only that the places they chose to chop seemed to interrupt a flow that we all know so well. Tough job, they missed it slightly I think.

The lead guitarist... well... how are you gonna top Page's take on that solo? You can't. It really is one of the great ones. And that particular guitarist missed it by a bit, but once again, that doesn't take away from how well done the overall version was done.

Was that Bonham's son on the tubs? Whoever it was really did it justice. The recorder work on sampler was great, the vocal was fabulous... really fab I believe, the choir and strings were very well done.

Yeah, it was pretty spectacular.

[elsongs]

Originally Posted by Lee Knight

Was that Bonham's son on the tubs? Whoever it was really did it justice. The recorder work on sampler was great, the vocal was fabulous... really fab I believe, the choir and strings were very well done.

Yeah, it was pretty spectacular.

Yep, t'was Jason: http://www.antimusic.com/news/12/Dec...Zeppelin.shtml

[blue2blue]

Originally Posted by MarkydeSad

Well, whatever, he was/is a damn fine guitarist

On second listening, Ms Wilson is a damn fine chanteuse, too

He was, indeed. In the first, long ago, phase of my long, on-again-off-again relationship with rock, the last teen music I liked (just as I was turning 13) was surf and its working sibling, spy music (the kind with twangy guitars, principally, although I developed a soft spot for Lalo Schiffrin's big band work -- a very hip dude, of course). Guys like Tommy Tedesco were able to absorb and refine the raw sounds coming from rock, tame them enough to work in pop.

[blue2blue]

Originally Posted by Folder

I thought the performance was good and I liked being able to see the reactions of Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page. They all looked like they were enjoying themselves. Robert Plant had tears in his eyes while listening to it. He's implied in the past that he was somewhat embarrassed by some of the lyrics. He supposedly wrote them on the spot while hearing the music for the first time. [...][/video]

Ah... so that's who those guys were.

I've developed a real soft spot for Plant over the years. I really like his last couple of albums, with Alison Kraus and T-Bone Burnett, and with Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin in similar co-singer and producer/guitarist roles.

It was nice to see them enjoy the show, actually. They seemed properly transported by the occasion.

Originally Posted by Lee Knight

[...]
The lead guitarist... well... how are you gonna top Page's take on that solo? You can't. It really is one of the great ones. And that particular guitarist missed it by a bit, but once again, that doesn't take away from how well done the overall version was done.

[...]

Tricky row to hoe. You wouldn't want to look like you were trying to either send or show him up. You have to play well, but stay in the shadow. (I can't say it did anything profound for me, but the way it summoned the original without being slavish seemed pretty professional.)

The original solo, is, of course, one of the more compelling guitar solos of the 70s -- a time when there were a lot of guitar solos. It strikes me as one of the best laid out solos of the era -- and delivered with particular aplomb. Page really seemed in his element in the studio.

[TieDyedDevil]

Wow, that's quite the production. Not at all what I was expecting.