Meanwhile . . . Back in 1988

[toomanycats]

[Rollin Hand]

Don't take this the wrong way, but in some of those photos, you were prettier than half the girls in my high school, and as such were way out of my league.

Nice job on the song.

[toomanycats]

Don't take this the wrong way, but in some of those photos, you were prettier than half the girls in my high school, and as such were way out of my league.

Nice job on the song.

That's half the reason I grew my beard. It's tough being pretty when you're a man. It distracts and lots of folks don't take you seriously. They automatically judge you as superficial, can't imagine you have any depth or intellect, and disparage your talent. Guys like Lemmy and Gary Moore never had to deal with that problem.

[Rollin Hand]

Don't take this the wrong way, but in some of those photos, you were prettier than half the girls in my high school, and as such were way out of my league.

Nice job on the song.

It's tough being pretty when you're a man. It distracts and lots of folks don't take you seriously. They automatically judge you as superficial, can't imagine you have any depth or intellect, and disparage your talent.

Wah, wah, wah, cry me a f$%&ing river.

I showed this to Mrs. Hand, and she said "Right. Welcome to being a woman, pal."

[Narsh]

I loved the tune man!!! It had a Ron Thal meets VH meets Great White. Can go wrong with that combination.
And major kudos on a lot of the licks in there.

[Chocol8]

The amount of old pictures some of you guys have of yourselves amazes me. I have a picture of me circa 1980 and another from 1996 and that’s it until the digital age starting around 2001.

[RiverDog]

That was amazing John! Those were the days man. I wasn't as good looking and my chops prob weren't as strong but that was my dream, too. Somehow it never quite happened, though. I got married, settled down, and started growing a small tribe of children instead.

[nomadh]

I started a thread to show our old playing pics. I posted my 3. If that's what you looked like I want more pics of the women you dated.

[jhull54]

Hahaha...those were the days! Envious of that head of hair!

Especially now!

Great stuff John.

[doc-knapp]

I think the acid I took back in '88 just kicked in.

[toomanycats]

The amount of old pictures some of you guys have of yourselves amazes me. I have a picture of me circa 1980 and another from 1996 and that’s it until the digital age starting around 2001.

My best friend in high school was an avid photographer and after graduation went to R.I.T. as a photography major. He was always taking pictures back then. For some reason I've always had friends who were photographers.

[tlarson58]

Was the look and musical vibe (hair to blues-based) a conscious one or a gradual transition?

[toomanycats]

Was the look and musical vibe (hair to blues-based) a conscious one or a gradual transition?

That's a good question.

I always was a blues player, though I wasn't as articulately self aware of it as I am now. The earliest rock song I learned where those by Zeppelin, Clapton, the more accessible Van Halen ones, other assorted 70s rock, as we'll as newer rock songs by bands like The Scorpion, Quite Riot, Judas Priest, and so on. The vast majority of the lead playing on these songs is pentatonic with the added flat 5th, which we know as the blues scale.

It was only latter on, when I dove deep into the blues by going back to the original source material . . . cats like B.B., Hubert Sumlin, T Bone Walker, Buddy Guy, you know the usual suspects . . . that I realized how derivative all of my favorite players were from the blues. This certainly applies to Page, Clapton, Hendrix, and that entire generation, though it continues through the next generation in Van Halen and beyond through an entire movement spawned off his influence. I believe that EVH's best playing isn't the flashy tapping and whammy tricks, but that part rooted in what he learned from Clapton. The audio recording on YouTube of VH playing high schools before they were signed, and what Ed does on Brian May's Starfleet Project, are some of my favorite playing of his. That stuff is killer bluesy playing, played with freshness, unparalleled fire, and an amazing swing.

The blues is at the root of "hair metal." I've said this before, but I consider there to be a trend line running from the British Invasion until about 1992, after which that phase ended. The Brits introduced white America to an art form that was native to their own country, though which they were largely unaware of, and that is the blues. The first Rolling Stones record was mostly Chicago electric blues covers. Next thing you know you have Cream, The Yardbirds, and Zeppelin. America throws Henrdix back at them and really shows them how it's done. Electric lead guitar becomes the ultimate expressive instrument for a generation. Most all of this occurs within the basic form of the blues, the I, IV, V chords and the pentatonic scale plus the flat 5th, with only slight variation. This paradigm continues for three decades with only superficial changes in hairstyle and cloths. But it's all just rock and roll, and at it's foundation is the blues.

[Rollin Hand]

I agree with TMC here the blues is the basis of hair metal. At least the stuff I liked anyway. It gives it more life and movement, and sounds less rigid.

Heck Van Halen came from Clapton. Mick Mars came from the blues. Whitesnake is a forum for blues and R&B infkuences. Even Zakk Wylde plays pentatonics, just at warp speed.

It's all a progession of influences.

Heck, I am more blues-based, but it's more from a lack of motivation to learn scales.

[Chocol8]

I went through a similar progression. Van Halen led me to Cream which led me to Clapton and he then led me to Robert Johnson, Freddie King, BB, and Buddy Guy. (Highly simplified) Throw in some Dead Kennedy’s and Grateful Dead, New Orleans jazz and James Brown and Parliament funk, a touch O country, and a double splash of bluegrass, and voila…by time I was 20, I knew so much music I didn’t know a damn thing anymore!

But as I age and go through phases of life, so much leads me back to the blues over and over again.