I was at a bar last night in North Jersey ( Shortway’s) and I was listening to a great bar band called SILVERBAK.  Now I have to tell you under full disclosure that the lead singer is my brother in law and is really good.  He is a great lead singer and band leader and the band he has behind him are studs .  I told you this because he and I have same tastes, so a lot of the music he plays is right in my wheelhouse.    Here is what SILVERBACK plays that I love:  BOWIE: Suffragette City, Ziggy Stardust  ( great ), Tom Petty: Mary Jane’s Last Dance, Runnin Down a Dream( Crazy Great). Allman Brothers: One Way Out, Beatles( Don’t Bring Me Down, Hey Bulldog, Neil Young ( Cinnamon Girl, Rockin in the Free World), etc   Now These were all awesome…But let me add some of my favorites that I would like to hear when I’m drinking, singing, and hanging with my friends.

1) Early BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN..Thunder Road, Spirit in the Night, Rosalita..

2) VAN HALEN..  Ain’t Talkin Bout Love, Hot For Teacher..

3) LYNRYD SKYNRYD..  Gimme Three Steps, What’s Your Name, Tuesday’s Gone

4) CARS :  Best Friend’s Girl Friend, Just What I Needed

5) ALLMAN BROTHERS: Good Clean Fun, Nobody Left to Run With Anymore

  These are some beauties I would love to hear at a bar…What are some of your favorites ?

Check out this lineup …..it’s nasty !

http://www.prefixmag.com/news/coachella-lineup-announced/25594/

I recently got back in to ELO ( Electric Light Orchestra) for those not around in the 70’s, 80’s etc.  Jeff Lynne was a pure disciple of the greatest band in  the world , THE BEATLES.     Now I know sometimes they get a little too close to the BEATLES, and I know they had their bad DISCO era ( LAST TRAIN TO LONDON), etc   But the bottom line is that they had 20 GREAT songs and 10 Super Great songs.  I think songs like   EVIL WOMAN, SWEET TALKIN WOMAN, TURN TO STONE, ALL OVER THE WORLD, LIVIN THING, STRANGE MAGIC, TELEPHONE LINE, and MR BLUE SKY are some of the greatest songs ever made and that’s just their big hits.

Check out some of their videos on YOUTUBE.com  and you’ll be amazed at how great a band they are.   Please comment and let me know WHY THEY ARE NOT MORE REVERED ? 

he can for the world, while being the lead singer and songwriter for one of the greatest bands ever.  Yeah he does some toolish things , but the 2200 great things he does far overtakes those !

awesome. Listen here . I never was a VAN HALEN fan. They were huge when I was starting in the job world , i was too busy trying to make money then listen to David Lee Roth, so I took a pass on VH (as they are known). But I later found out that Van Halen was the favorite group of 2 of my best friends(couple) and I started to get hooked. At parties we would break out our Karaoke version of SKYNRYD’S Gimme Three Steps, the ROLLING STONES..Brown Sugar, and many others…Then one night the couple put on VH. One song after another our whole group knew except me. I had to learn quickly. They are a GREAT party band to listen to. Straight out.. So last night at the IZOD center..They were just that…But a Live party ! David Lee Roth was so jacked that he could have been at an NFL combine in the afternoon, then singing PANAMA that night ! He moved around the stage with his multi-colored selections of Top Hats nailing every VH classic. The beginning of the show was good, but the second half…After DLR ’s acoustic story and lead in to ICE CREAM MAN , the concert took off. With Eddie Van Halen’s and Valerie Bertinelli’s son WOLFGANG on Bass , and Alex Van Halen on drums, EDDIE VAN HALEN took his guitar and held us hostage. Eddie in my opinion is one of the top Guitarists ever..I heard those gasps you purists..But he straight out is. From his sick opening of ERUPTION, to PANAMA, JUMP, RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL,and especially AIN’T TALKIN BOUT LOVE … He just grabs the audience by the throat and wrestles them to the ground before him. So if you ever get a chance to see VH ( I think they are playing at the GARDEN on Friday)..RUN WITH THE DEVIL to see them and just marvel at this fun group with one of the greatest guitarists of all time ..Eddie Van Halen.. long live Rock and Roll ! PS Here is my list of Top 10 Guitarists..Not in order. Hendrix, Santana, Clapton,Alvin Lee, Duanne Allman, Eddie Van Halen , Jack White,Derek Trucks, Jimmy Page, and Keith Richards.

He might have the best voise and the widest range, but that doesn’t make him the greatest…  In my opinion  it goes like this…   John Lennon, eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell, Chris Robinson…Enough said !

What are some other great ones ?

Is this the real price ?

Is this just fantasy ?

Financial landslide

No escape from reality

Open your eyes

And look at your buys and see.

I’m now a poor boy

High yielding casualty

Because I bought it high, watched it blow

Rating high, value low

Any way the Fed goes,

Doesn’t really matter to me, to me.

Mama – just killed my fund

Quoted CDOs instead

Pulled the trigger, now it’s dead

Mama – I had just begun

These CDOs have blown it all away

Mama – oooh

I still wanna buy

I sometimes wish I’d never left Goldman at all.  

I see a little silhouette of a Fed

Bernanke! Benanke ! Can you save the whole market ?

Monolines and munis – very very frightening !

Super senior, super senior

Super senior CDO – magnifico

I’m long on subprime, nobody loves me

He’s long on subprime, CDO fantasy

Spare the margin call, don’t blame me for all !

Easy come easy go,

Will you let me go ?  

Peloton !

No, we will not let you go !

Let him go Peloton!

We will not let you go !

Let him go, Peloton !

We will not let you go !

Let me go !

Will not let you go

Let me go (never)

Never let you got

Let me go

Never let me go – ooo

No, no, no, no, no, no, no 

Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia, let me go !

S&P had the devil put aside for me for me, for me, for me………….

So you think you can fund me and spit in my eye?

And then margin call me and leave me to die?  

Oh  – can’t do this to me

Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah

No price really matters

No liquidity

Nothing really matters

No price really matters to me

Anyway the Fed goes…

out some GIANTS. I even have a problem with JOHN MELLENCAMP. I like Mellencamp, but he’s not as important as rockers IGGY POP and the STOOGES or even LEON RUSSELL, and those are only a few that have been passed over by the Hall Of Rock Shame. Hear is the deal. The Hall has put Madonna,The Beastie Boys, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen etc ahead of the afore mentioned pioneers and other talents like Lou Reed,Linda Ronstadt,The Moody Blues(what), Queen(double what), YES (triple wh..ah you get he picture),Al Green(most of the people I know have Al Greens Greatest hits and not Leonard Cohens), Genesis, etc.etc. Bottom line is this. I could name at lest 10 more names , besides the many I have already brought up that I personally would vote for. I know MADONNA was a big part of the music POP scene, but even she shouldn’t be in front of the ones I have mentioned , never mind COHEN, THE BEASTIES’S, and COUGAR(aka Mellencamp) Can’t we get a real HALL OF FAME with separate categories JAZZ, R&B,POP, etc and really get this thing straightened out ? Other notables missing Alice Cooper,J Geils Band, Neil Diamond,Gram Parsons, Three Dog Night, and that’s still doesn’t fill out the group. I wonder if even THE BEASTIE BOYS are embarrassed about this one. Probably not !

Good stuff, especially live.  Stevie Nicks is about 220Lbs, but thats cool, she was so hot for so long that we’ll give her a pass, but LINDSAY BUCKINGHAM makes up for it by just killing it on stage in this scintilating version of their classic break up song.  McVie and Flletwood just got divorced and Buckingham and Nicks thought it would be better to go their own way..Thank God they got back together again for at least this live song !