The Doors ( B16 )

In 2013, the remaining members of the Doors recorded with rapper Tech N9ne for the song "Strange 2013", appearing on his album Something Else, which features new instrumentation by the band and samples of Jim Morrison's vocals from the song "Strange Days".

In their final collaboration before Manzarek's death, the three surviving Doors provided backing for poet Michael C. Ford's album Look Each Other in The Ears.

February 12, 2016, at The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, John Densmore and Robby Krieger reunited for the first time in 15 years to perform in tribute to Ray and benefit Stand Up to Cancer. That day would have been Ray's 76th birthday. The night featured Exene Cervenka and John Doe of the band X, Rami Jaffee of the Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert Deleo, Jane's Addiction's Stephen Perkins, Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara, Andrew Watt, among others.

After the Doors

After Morrison died in 1971, Krieger and Densmore formed the Butts Band as a consequence of trying to find a new lead singer to replace Morrison. The surviving Doors members went to London looking for a new lead singer because they were unable to recruit in the US. The Butts Band formed in 1973, signing with Blue Thumb records. They began working on their first album titled Butts Band that was released the same year. They disbanded in 1975 after the second album. Phil Chen, who played bass on the band's second album, would later join Robby once again with Manzarek–Krieger.

Manzarek made three solo albums from 1974 to 1983 and formed a band called Nite City in 1975, which released two albums from 1977 to 1978. Krieger released six solo albums from 1977 to 2010.

continuare

Van Halen ( B7 )

His hit single "I Can't Drive 55" came from his 1984 album VOA, produced by Ted Templeman who had also produced Montrose's first album Montrose, as well as all of Van Halen's albums up to that point. Hagar agreed to join and also serve as a rhythm guitarist on stage to add to the Van Halen sound.

In the May 2015 season premiere episode of the TV show Live from Daryl's House, musical guest Hagar stated that he had heard a rumor from "several people" and asked host Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates to confirm if he had been "asked by Eddie to sing in Van Halen." Hall affirmed that he had been asked after a Hall & Oates concert in 1985, but declined.

The first time the record company heard any of the new material with Hagar was when Warner Brothers president Mo Ostin came to the band's 5150 Studios. Hagar said the band played "Why Can’t This Be Love" live with Eddie on keyboards, after which Ostin proclaimed: "I smell money."

The 1986 Van Halen album 5150 was a huge hit, becoming the band's first No. 1 album on the Billboard charts, driven by the keyboard-dominated singles "Why Can't This Be Love" (#3 U.S.), "Dreams", and "Love Walks In" (Top 30 U.S.). To further introduce the new era for the band, a new Van Halen logo was put on the cover. The new logo retained elements of the original, but now the lines extending from either side of 'VH' wrapped around and formed a ring.

Following the release of the 5150 album, the "5150 Tour" tour was launched to support it across North America. Footage was released on VHS and DVD as Live Without a Net. In the band minimized the use of pre-Hagar Van Halen songs in the set, other than the band's best known classics. This was a trend that continued, with the expanding repertoire of Hagar-era songs slowly whittling away at the number of Roth-era songs on the set list.

continuare

The Byrds - I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better ( S1.3 )

Said Dickson, "There was always something to unravel in those songs, the non-explanation of the complex feeling. For instance, if you remember I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, it doesn't say: "I'll feel a whole lot better", but "I'll probably feel a whole lot better." For me, that makes the song. There's a statement followed by a hesitation." Dickson would later work as a producer on Clark's 1984 album Firebyrd, which featured a re-recorded version of "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better".

Reception

Although it was initially released as the B-side of the "All I Really Want to Do" single, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" was itself heavily promoted by Columbia Records during the time that "All I Really Want to Do" spent on the Billboard charts. As a result, the song managed to chart in its own right in the U.S., reaching number 103. Mark Deming has commented that "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" was the first song written by a member of the Byrds to be commercially successful.

Since its release, the song has become a rock music standard, inspiring a number of cover versions over the years. It is also considered by many critics to be one of the band's, as well as Clark's, best and most popular songs, with Rolling Stone magazine ranking it at number 234 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cover versions

Tom Petty covered the song (as "Feel a Whole Lot Better") on his 1989 solo album, Full Moon Fever. Petty's version was released as the fourth single from the album and peaked at number 18 on the US Rock chart.

Don Nix on his 1976 album Gone Too Long with George Harrison, retitled "Feel a Whole Lot Better".

In 1978, country singer Bobby Bare covered the song on his album Sleeper Wherever I Fall San Francisco band The Flamin' Groovies also released a cover of the song on their 1978 Sire Records release, Flamin' Groovies Now. Paisley Underground band The Three O'Clock covered the song on their Baroque Hoedown EP. Reportedly, Gene Clark sings backing vocal on this version of the song.

continuare

John Lennon ( b6 )

By the summer of 1957, the Quarrymen played a "spirited set of songs" made up of half-skiffle and half-rock and roll. Lennon first met Paul McCartney at the Quarrymen's second performance, which was held in Woolton on 6 July at the St Peter's Church garden fête. Lennon then asked McCartney to join the band.

McCartney said that Aunt Mimi "was very aware that John's friends were lower class", and would often patronise him when he arrived to visit Lennon. According to McCartney's brother Mike, their father similarly disapproved of Lennon, declaring that Lennon would get his son "into trouble". McCartney's father nevertheless allowed the fledgling band to rehearse in the family's front room at 20 Forthlin Road. During this time Lennon wrote his first song, "Hello Little Girl", which became a UK top 10 hit for the Fourmost in 1963.

McCartney recommended his friend George Harrison to be the lead guitarist. Lennon thought that Harrison, then 14 years old, was too young. McCartney engineered an audition on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, where Harrison played "Raunchy" for Lennon and was asked to join. Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's friend from art school, later joined as bassist. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe became "The Beatles" in early 1960. In August that year, the Beatles were engaged for a 48-night residency in Hamburg, in West Germany, and were desperately in need of a drummer. They asked Pete Best to join them. Lennon's aunt, horrified when he told her about the trip, pleaded with Lennon to continue his art studies instead. After the first Hamburg residency, the band accepted another in April 1961, and a third in April 1962. As with the other band members, Lennon was introduced to Preludin while in Hamburg, and regularly took the drug as a stimulant during their long, overnight performances.

continuare

The Byrds - I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better ( S1.2 )

Composition and content

The song dates from the Byrds' pre-fame residency at Ciro's nightclub in Los Angeles, as Clark explained during an interview: "There was a girlfriend I had known at the time, when we were playing at Ciro's. It was a weird time in my life because everything was changing so fast and I knew we were becoming popular. This girl was a funny girl, she was kind of a strange little girl and she started bothering me a lot. And I just wrote the song, 'I'm gonna feel a whole lot better when you're gone,' and that's all it was, but I wrote the whole song within a few minutes."

Byrds expert Tim Conners has called the song "the Platonic ideal of a Byrds song", in reference to the presence of some of the band's early musical trademarks, including Jim McGuinn's jangling 12-string Rickenbacker guitar; Chris Hillman's complex bass work; David Crosby's propulsive rhythm guitar, and the band's complex harmony singing and use of wordless "aaahhhh"s. Band biographer Johnny Rogan has also commented on the song's country-influenced guitar solo.

The song is built around a riff that Clark later admitted was based on the Searchers' cover of "Needles and Pins". Music critic Mark Deming has said that, lyrically, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" takes a sardonic view of romance, with Clark undecided about whether to break off a relationship with a woman who hasn't been entirely honest with him. The song's refrain of "I'll probably feel a whole lot better when you're gone" betrays Clark's uncertainty about ending the relationship and whether such an act would be the answer to his problems or not.

Deming has also pointed out that the use of the word "probably" in this refrain is key and lends the track a depth of subtext that was unusual for a pop song in the mid-1960s. Jim Dickson, the Byrds' manager, has remarked that this level of subtext was not unusual in Clark's songs of the period

continuare

The Beach Boys - County Fair ( L2 )

This time each year in our hometown
The county fair comes our way
Where the folks gather round to be happy and spend their day
A-here's what happened now,
I soon decide that I'd take with me
The most specialest girl I knew
I had her pack us a lunch and on down the dirt road we flew

(Hurry hurry, step right up and win your girl a stuffed koala bear)
[Aw, come on Nicky. Win me a koala bear]
(Break the balloon with a dart)
(Yes you son, come up here. Win your girl a stuffed koala bear)
[Oh please win me a koala bear]
(Break the balloon with a dart. Come on son, step right up)
(Get up there, that's a boy)

Right then I knew what I had to do
(Hurry, hurry)
Before that day was through
(Step right up)
I had to win a stuffed doggie or I'd break her poor heart in two
(Hurry, hurry)
(Win a prize)
A let me tell you now,
I passed up a chance when I walked by a booth
(Hurry, hurry)
Where you throw a dart and break a balloon
(Step right up)
I snuck by a couple more, but I had to get caught real soon
(Hurry, hurry)
(Win a prize)

(Step right up, test your strength.)
(Come on son, ring the bell with the hammer)
[Aww, come on muscles]
(Win your girl a stuffed koala bear)
[Ooohhh]
(Come on son, are you a man or a weakling?)
(Yes you, step up here and test your strength)
(Win your girl a stuffed koala bear)
[Come on baby]
(Come on son)

I hit the rubber stump just as hard as I could
(Hurry, hurry)
But I didn't make it ring the bell
(Step right up)
I tried again and again, but I just didn't do so well
(Hurry, hurry)
(Win a prize)
Can you believe it now,
Up walked a fella and he tapped me on the shoulder, said
(Hurry, hurry)
I can win your girl a prize
(Step right up)
So, he flexed all his muscles and knocked the bell up in the sky
(Hurry, hurry)
(Win a prize)

Yeah the big strong guy knocked the bell in the sky
(Hurry, hurry)
Took my girl and the doggie away
(Step right up...)
Yeah the big strong guy knocked the bell in the sky
(Step right up son, test your strength)
Took my girl and the doggie away
(Come on kid, ring the bell)
Yeah the big strong guy knocked the bell in the sky
[Ah, goodbye muscles. I don't need you anymore]
Took my girl and the doggie away
[Loser]

The Byrds - I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better ( S1.1 )

"I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" is a song by the Los Angeles folk rock band the Byrds, first released in June 1965 on the B-side of the band's second single, "All I Really Want to Do". Despite initially being released as a B-side, the song managed to chart in its own right in the U.S., just outside the Billboard Hot 100. It was also included on the Byrds' debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man.

The song was written by band member Gene Clark, who also sings the lead vocal. "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" has been covered by a number of different artists over the years, and is regarded by fans and critics as one of the Byrds' best known songs."I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" is a song by the Los Angeles folk rock band the Byrds, first released in June 1965 on the B-side of the band's second single, "All I Really Want to Do". Despite initially being released as a B-side, the song managed to chart in its own right in the U.S., just outside the Billboard Hot 100. It was also included on the Byrds' debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man.

The song was written by band member Gene Clark, who also sings the lead vocal. "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" has been covered by a number of different artists over the years, and is regarded by fans and critics as one of the Byrds' best known songs. 

continuare