70

That love is all and love is everyone...

Evolution

When I was 15, I dreamed about standing with a guitar on stage in front of a hall full of excited girls. A cowboy hat, a black leather and a smoking cigarette were a must.

When I was 21, I dreamed about standing with a guitar or beside a keyboard in front of a hall full of concerned people who came to listen to music. A cowboy hat probably was a must, but all the other stuff wasn't anymore.

Now that I'm 28, I dream about having a concrete box to lock myself inside with a guitar/piano/flute/whatever and play for myself, catching every little piece of sound, enjoying every single note, every single offbeat, every string vibration. I'd also prefer a cozy bathrobe to the hat. And this one is the sweetest dream of all three for me.

A major difference between USSR and western rock music of 60-80's is that most of the Russian bands never really cared about the music (yes, I know that USSR != Russia, but as the majority of the bands sang songs in Russian, I will use that term). There were many reasons for that. There were no money, there were no good instruments, there were no good recording equipment. There were no sponsors. There were no local musical heritage, and getting discs with western music was a challenge.

However, even though the music was recorded on handicraft hardware built from spare parts of three different machines, even though the guitars and processors sounded as a mix of Nirvana, Chuck Berry and Bach, even though a drum machine beat the same boring 4/4 far-from-reality rhythm through entire song, even though guitar solos were as simple as in guitar beginner's guide, even though the rehearsals were performed at someone's apartments or (in better case) in underground studios, even though in many cases there were no official discs available, so the listeners had to use their tape recorders to spread records, even though... Despite all of that, Russian bands played the rockest rock I've ever listened to. Every single song was an inexhaustible source of energy, love, truth and wisdom. It may sound oddly, but probably the poor quality of the music was one of the compartments of the inspiration made by the songs... Good enough music would just have prevented the listener from feeling the spirit they carried.

It is very exciting to fight with your own mind. My today has begun with a bunch of minor and major negatives. First, I failed to get in time to a bus to carry me to a gym (20 seconds is not a delay for an appointment but they are vital when you are trying to catch a bus ;)); the subsequent bus had no free seats, so in addition I have lost 30 minutes of morning reading. Finally having got off the bus (the driver obviously used to drive road rollers in his best years), I found one of the pedestrian traffic lights on my further way broken, resulting in yet another 5(000) minutes of waiting for traffic to let me cross the street. And it was only 7:15.

The dawning day gave me another missed-on-the-edge bus, enormous queue in a bank, broken lock of the outer door, discharged battery on the mobile, and three or four broken or postponed (for various reasons) work plans.

Yet going in the first bus, I understood that it’s simply an another “unlucky day”. Such days - consisting of a shower of misfortunes and sad mistakes - occur from time to time, and in most cases I just accept them as they are, trying to avoid doing complex or critical tasks. However, for some reason I decided to fight my mind today and to do my best to remove the “unlucky” sticker from the day :).

So, having got off the bus I began to search for positive stuff around to fix my karma. Funny dogs in a park, clear blue skies, an accidental green wave I’ve got into, a small smiling girl didn’t help. Next, mad race in a gym to squeeze negative energy out of my mind. A little better, but still far from the ideal. Okay, 10 minutes of relaxed park walk; an exchange of smiles with an ice-cream seller (I’ve tried all the sellers around); another chapter of a book; a cold shower; some funny Internet stuff. Nope. Fixed door lock. No avail...

And finally I did it! To be exact, the sound of acoustic guitar, harmonica and Bob Dylan’s voice coming from my PC’s speakers did that. And the mind has suddenly become clean and positive; I realised that it would be even better to alter the work plans in the way I was forced to do in the morning, and there’s nothing fatal in missed buses and absence of habitual morning book. I also realised that I’ve just lived (and continue to live, as it was something about noontime) a brand new day of my life, - a wonderful day, full of new experience, knowledge and feelings. You bet, I have just fought down my own mind!

Covers: Ghost Riders in the Sky

The song that expresses an American version of the Wild Hunt story has been covered more than half a hundred times (for half a hundred years).

What is interesting about the Ghost Riders version of the Hunt, is that the American idea of the story is quite optimistic and life-asserting, while the classic European versions describe the Hunt as something presaging suffering, catastrophes and deaths. Though the original lyrics are credited to Stan Jones, he said that "he had been told the story when he was 12 years old by an old cowboy friend". That is, the story is likely to be something more than just a personal view of the author, and can be considered to belong to American folklore of that (or former) times.

Duane Eddy and Dennis Solee, Ghost Riders in the Sky.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Today is Paul McCartney’s 68th birthday.

Sir Paul’s performance in Kyiv on June 14, 2008 was probably the most exciting musical event I have attended for all my life. To say that it was wonderful, impressive, awesome, cool, great, unforgettable -- is to say nothing. There are no words to describe my feelings that summer night -- I just stood open-mouthed and stared at the scene, listening to the songs I loved since my very childhood, the songs which caused me to rend my fingers down to pieces, helplessly trying to play them accurately with my old guitar when I was about 12. Probably, that was the day of pure, absolute happiness.

And what a night it was! A powerful shower was pouring down from the sky for the whole day, so the streets in the city centre looked exactly like channels in Venice; umbrellas were pretty useless -- what one can do with a paper shield against a dozen of steel arrows? :) But the rain was nothing for 350’000 gathered at Independence Square to listen to a live legend, a legend whom many of the spectators have been awaiting for more than 40 years. It was an unique atmosphere of pervasive happiness around.



So, happy birthday Paul -- be just as young as you were there in Kyiv two years ago, and... just thank you for your songs and the joy that you bring with them to our hearts.

Photos: Korrespondent.net, Viktor Pinchuk's fund.

Covers: The Man Who Sold the World, Nirvana

Nirvana just have given a second life to this old Dawid Bowie's song.

What is interesting about this performance, is that though the thing is supposed to be done unplugged (i.e. with no output effects except amplification), Kurt brazenly uses guitar processor for his solo part. However, the processed guitar gives a fascinating sound to the song, so I tend to forgive him ;).

Another interesting thing is that The Man was one of the first songs we've played at school parties with my first band. That were really сrazy times... Our equipment consisted of ex-acoustic guitar with a self-made built-in distortion effect, a bass obtained from another 7-string acoustic guitar by placing bass strings in place of 1, 3, 5 and 7th strings, and the drums made from casseroles and their covers. Nobody was aware of the exact lyrics, as there was no Internet and our English was not that good to understand Kurt's mumbling clearly. But, you know, we sounded great for ourselves (and I think not bad for others as well, as we were invited to more than one party ;)).

Covers: Dust in the Wind, Scorpions

In my opinion, most of the covers cannot compete with the original performances. Still there are some exceptions. An outstanding arrangement of a good old Kansas song, primarily thanks to Adriana’s cello and the keyboards.

We live with the history we’ve inherited. There is no too much sense in thinking about what history we’d had if something that happened in the past did not happen, or, vice versa, something that did not happen actually did. At the same time, some of the past events are so shocking that it is really pity that we cannot go back and observe the alternative branches of the history. The fatal crash that has taken the lives of political elite of Poland reminded me about another tragic accident happened more than 50 years ago (there are very little common between those cases; perhaps, the only common aspect of both ones is airplane crash).

On February 3, 1959 a small Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft carrying 3 passengers on board took off from the Mason City local airport, Iowa. In several minutes after take-off, forced to fly in extremely poor weather conditions, it crashed in about five miles northwest from the airport. All the passengers and the pilot were killed. The passengers were young rock and roll musicians, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.

Who knows, what kind of music would we have listened today if the Bonanza landed successfully at the destination point of Moorhead, Minnesota? Buddy Holly was truly one of the most talented and creative musicians of his times. Musician from the very childhood, having created such well-known rock and roll masterpieces as 'Words of Love', 'Peggy Sue' and 'That’ll be the Day' by the age of 22, Holly had every single chance to have a huge impact on the music of 50ths and 60ths. Actually, he did have it - his songs significantly influenced the creativity of such artists as the Beatles (who performed a number of his works at miscellaneous live shows; 'Words of Love' has even been officially released on their Beatles for Sale album), the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and many others. However, that was only the beginning of Holly’s career, and it is hard to imagine the value he could contribute to the popular music if he survived.

Despite the relatively small number of songs released, Buddy Holly is still one of my favorite performers. I propose you to get back to 1958 and enjoy Holly’s never-dying rock and roll hit. The grand piano solo is incredible!