In one day, both iconic stars have died, sending shock waves throughout the world. As one tweet puts it, "MJ and FF is now news at the speed of light"--thanks to Twitter and Facebook.
The King of Pop died of cardiac arrest, reports say. The beautiful and original Angel Ms. Farrah Fawcett succumb to cancer. MJ was 50, Farrah was 62.
If you were already born at those times when both were at the peak of their careers, they drew a lot of attention. Of course, who can forget the lovely Mrs. Majors (yes, of the six million dollar man) and the moonwalk. Since high school, we've been attempting to emulate that space walk-inspired move but have failed many times.
And Farrah. Oh my. 'Nuf said.
I discovered Jackson during his "Thriller" days--same song which inspired hundreds of inmates in a Cebu prison. Every kid back then, including yours truly, admired MJ. He danced, he sang. I tried the former, but failed. I tried the latter and, er, somehow have made some progress. And his music videos were works of art. I've never seen so many screaming and crying fans on video when MJ goes on stage. To this day, one of my favorite guitar pieces is "Man in the Mirror." (Tuck Andress created this beautiful arrangement of that song for the guitar).
When I entered college, my musical taste changed abruptly as I went for heavier sounds that bordered on noise. But while I headbanged to the music of Metallica and jumped around as I copied Van Halen, MJ's music was always there--(Beat It, for instance, was one song where Van Halen was asked to play a monster riff), hovering.
MJ, has indeed made the world a better place for a lot of people, despite major bumps in his career. His music will live on. Thanks MJ!
Recently in '80s Category
By Clarence Yu
With news of the imminent release of Guns N’ Roses’ new album setting the rock music world on fire, I thought it apt to write something about one of its members -- to be specific, an ex-member, Slash.
To most of us growing up in the 80’s, Slash was the epitome of the cool, tough, classic rock guitar, refusing to use a whammy bar in an age where ala’ Eddie Van Halen tapping was en vogue, and keeping mostly to Gibson Les Paul’s as his main guitar of choice. He (along with Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi) brought the talk box back to life (a device, when connected to a guitar can make your voice and guitar sound cool and robotic -- listen to the intro of “Livin’ On A Prayer by Bon Jovi).
Unknown to most of us then (well, at least to me), Slash wasn’t really that cool at all (at least in my opinion), and he really didn’t bring back classic rock guitar playing (it never really left). In fact, after many listens of their landmark album “Appetite for Destruction,” Izzy Stradlin (the rhythm guitarist) perhaps contributed much more with his sparse, rhythmic playing, and his songwriting (Stradlin wrote most of the good songs).
At any rate, that’s perfectly fine with me and Slash’s seeming coolness is replaced with a surprising tenderness, honesty and sensitivity in his autobiography, “SLASH (by Slash and Anthony Bozza).”
The book starts with a (not a spoiler) brief anecdote, with Slash using this as a metaphor to display his gratefulness that he is still alive and kicking today.
I picked this book up overseas two months ago and finished it in two days. It’s quite a long book, but a good read. It does not try to be Hammer of the Gods (a biography of Led Zeppelin), Walk This Way (Aerosmith’s autobiography) or The Dirt (Motley Crue’s autobiography). Instead, it comes off as a heartfelt story of a man caught up in one of the world’s greatest bands, confused, left for dead at one point and resilient enough to come back to life.
Slash doesn’t mince words in this seemingly honest tale of his own personal upbringing, his innocence (which seems to shine throughout the book) of the ways of the world, his skyrocket ride to fame with Guns N’ Roses, his fall, and his current venture with the band Velvet Revolver.
The usual tales of the perils of rock and roll (sex and drugs) are abundant enough in the book and are surprisingly shocking instead of being inserted in as entertainment value.
Slash also shows a great sense of humor in the book, and one of the most common phrases you’ll find in the book that he uses is, “All things considered…” after which something ridiculously funny follows.
The book also chronicles little known stories of how Guns N’ Roses really got together and wrote one of the greatest rock albums in history. As an example, Slash admits that he could not coherently play the riff to “Sweet Child Of Mine” when the band first wrote it because of the fingering on the fretboard which he found difficult to execute, and it took him quite a while to get used to it.
For those interested in the other band members, similar honest stories, again not for entertainment or shock value, are in abundant supply. Slash’s relationships with W. Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler, Duff McKagan and company are well documented in the book, again with surprisingly matter-of-fact, honest prose that doesn’t pretend to be brilliant nor cool.
It’s perfectly readable, and Slash, for all his posing and reputation, may very well have turned out to be the most intelligent and sensitive member of the band. He doesn’t say much about his opinion of the new Guns N’ Roses, nor does he seem to harbor any resentment towards the entities that caused of the break up of the original band. He is human after all, and is just happy to be alive. For anyone looking for a rock and roll story that has heart, get this.
It took 17 years, but finally classic American rock group Guns N' Roses is launching "Chinese Democracy," Agence France-Presse reports.
The band released Use Your Illussion I and Use Your Illusion II albums in 1991, which were the last original recordings of the band before some members including guitarist Slash left the supergroup. After that, the band has gone through a lot of changes, with frontman Axl Rose remaining as the only original member to date.
Songs like "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Paradise City" are now classic tunes that emerged from the hard rocking band from Los Angeles. Of course, who can forget their acoustic composition, "Patience," which also became a hit.
Excerpt:
LOS ANGELES – US supergroup Guns N'Roses will unveil their first original album in 17 years next month with the release of long-awaited work "Chinese Democracy", a statement said Thursday. The long-delayed album will go on sale in the United States on November 23 while the title track "Chinese Democracy" has already been released to radio, the band's managers said. The album is Guns N' Roses' first since the 1991 release of Use of Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. "The release of ‘Chinese Democracy’ marks a historic moment in rock n' roll," co-managers Irving Azoff and Andy Gould said in a statement. "Guns N' Roses fans have every reason to celebrate, for this is only the beginning."
By Pocholo Concepcion
Philippine Daily Inquirer
DURAN DURAN bassist John Taylor once tried to go solo. In one of his club gigs, there were 20 people in the audience.
Thursday night at the Araneta Coliseum, Taylor proved he played best with his old band, dubbed the Fab Five at its peak in the mid-1980s. It’s been more than 20 years since and fab might have given way to some flab, especially in the case of front man Simon Le Bon. Still, something must be said about how Duran Duran could give its now middle-aged fans reason to get up and dance -- with New Wavish poise.
The fun started on the second song, when Le Bon hinted he was kinda “hungry” -- a cue for “Hungry Like the Wolf.” The vocalist, dressed in a dark suit with a slightly loosened tie, sounded in tip-top shape.
To his left, Nick Rhodes -- looking stoic and sporting a mop of Andy Warhol hair -- presided over on keyboards with a MacBook to boot. The thumps from his synthesizers would reverberate throughout the evening.
Complementing the well-mixed drum tracks was Roger Taylor’s own live pounding on the skins, which -- in true ’80s fashion -- was technologically enhanced to emit a spacey, Sensurround audio quality.
The third Taylor, Andy the guitarist, had joined the reunited original lineup but quit again in 2006. His replacement, Dominic Brown, was not a bad choice; his solos served as a refreshing counterpoint to Rhodes’ machines and effects.
The band’s claim to relevance, the new album “Red Carpet Massacre,” also the name of this current tour, was prominently plugged when the title track was performed. The funk groove and echoing rhythms made it hard to discern the lyrics.
Another track from the same album, which Le Bon introduced as co-written by Justin Timberlake, was about getting over one’s pride and calling for help on desperate moments.
Was the band desperate when it decided to regroup in 2001? Maybe not financially, since the members were said to be comfortably living off royalties and merchandise sales of past albums, and in fact paid for production expenses while writing and recording new songs.
The question of whether the group still matters today is debatable, although some relatively new stuff heard at the concert, including the brooding “Come Undone” from 1993, could provide a fair, positive answer.
But as far as the screaming female fans were concerned, all that was important was to hear the old hits. Everybody stood up upon hearing “The Reflex” and “View To a Kill” -- the former reminding us what the art of remix was about, and the latter insisting that a seductive groove wins over lyrical genius: “Dance into the fire.”
Le Bon was obviously too heavy around the middle to do his signature pirouettes, though he managed a few spins in “Notorious,” “Wild Boys” and “Rio.” Rhodes and John Taylor -- the art school buddies who formed the band -- displayed a dexterity that belied their ages.
Whether it was accurate to have labeled Duran Duran a New Wave band in the past was lost in the dance at the Big Dome. Come to think of it, almost every group that had synths and fab hair was called one.
