Thanks for stopping by again Cystems Phailure. Since you are not that far away from us being in Michigan I imagine that you were exposed to a lot of hockey. Back in the days of the Original Six I was a Maple Leaf fan however with all of the expansion we now have two teams here in Alberta now of course. Mind you I'm more of a baseball fan anyway I'm afraid to say ( and yes I have the highlight videos from the 1992 and 93 MLB seasons  lol ).  

I grew up just a couple miles south of the Soo, so back in the pre-cable days I watched as much Canadian television as U.S.  That's how I ended up a fan of the Habs and the Expos.  Obviously the former worked out much better for me over the years than the latter.

I didn't see any Greyhound games (I went to all the LSSU, then LSSC, hockey games), but I remember how fired up everyone was on both sides of the border in the two Soos during the single season Gretzky played there.  Even though he was only 16 there was sense that something special was starting up.

Yes a real shame about the Expos, but the ownership changed and things went downhill. Mind you the big disaster of 1994 didn't help at all. As for the great Wayne Gretzky he of course played for many years here in Alberta for the Oilers. Mind you back then I was working and living in Calgary and they have a big rivalry with Edmonton so one couldn't say too many good things about number 99  lol.   

http://youtu.be/TJqB4nc8eyk

saw the people standing thousand years in chains

somebody said it's different now, but look it's just the same

pharaohs spin the message round and round the truth

they could've saved a million people, how can I tell you?

(OK, so the music is basically "The Weight"...but wow!)

Thanks for the post AndyClifton. Interesting lyrics but somehow I missed that song entirely the first time around. In recent weeks I've been listening to a lot of Rock from the 1950's, the real early stuff --- Hail Hail Rock and Roll !

Just saw a very good movie " Walk The Line " with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. A great movie about Johnny Cash which also deals with the connection between Rock & Roll and Rockabilly music. A lot of people are not aware of the fact that a important early gig for Elvis Presley was his appearance on the Grand Ole Opry where he sang his own arrangement of Bill Monroe's  " Blue Moon Of Kentucky ".  

http://youtu.be/LRjlZ8x2uQM

Thanks for the info AndyClifton. One thing brought forward in the movie " Walk The Line " is the interesting connection between Rockabilly and early Rock & Roll. Of course Jerry " The Killer " Lewis was a big star in the early days of Rock but there were others who worked in both of these types of music, including Johnny Cash. 

Also notice that the one oldtimer that the Sex Pistols played at least relatively straight was Eddie Cochran:  both "Something Else" and "Cmon Everybody."  The more I listen to him, the more he seems like The Voice of pure early rock n roll...everything I love about it (even more than Buddy!).

Thanks for the post AndyClifton. I'm afraid that The Sex Pistols era was a bit too new for me although I did like some of the stuff that Bob Seager had out. Also some of the music that Janis Joplin put out was great. Her version of " Me And Bobby MaGee was truly a new song compared to the original, she was a unique talent. You also mentioned Buddy Holly, another great one to be sure.

Well I'm continuing to enjoy my Satelite radio, so much music and so little time  lol.  To misquote a old saying: Satelite radio might be the best thing since sliced bread. 

Best guitar player ...The Beatles, The Stones and the Who agree!

Thanks for the post in here Electricpawn. Well when one talks about Jimmy Hendricks then we are going well past other guitarists. If somebody were to ask if anyone else might come along someday with a similar level of talent, well the chances of that happening are very very small indeed. 

Hail Hail Rock and Roll ( and Johnny B Good, and Roll Over Beethoven, and Maybelleen etc ). Yes fans of Early Rock I heard that today is the 85th Birthday of Chuck Berry, truly one of the greats. Glad to hear that he is still with us. 

Though my age would dictate for me to lean toward The Rolling Stones,  I would still go with The Beatles at any day.  They were just great and shaped toward taking the world by a storm.  Too bad that fame had caught them off guard and they had to oblige with some illegal substances that I could say took a toll at them.  I wonder why those who are in the upper echelon would always be in this type of story.

Thanks for leaving a post here Mernard. Yes so many people who go from rags to riches at a early age can't handle it and just go all to pieces. Mind it's easy for me to talk but I imagine that I would not have been any better at handling the fame. It's a great shame as well because who knows what terrific music might still have been created by the Beatles working together as a group. Another sad case that comes to mind is the Beach Boys who were never the same of course after Brian Wilson dropped out.

ps: the Beatles did put out music after the breakup but things were quite different of course.  

Earlier in this thread I mentioned the Ed Sullivan factor with his having the Beatles on his show. This of course created a monumental shift in Rock and Roll music. Often we tend to forget tho that most of the previous stars quickly faded away from the scene after the Beatles took center stage. Elvis Presley was an exception of course ( helped perhaps by all of his movies ), and so was Roy Orbison. Some of the others managed to carry on at a bit of a reduced pace such as Chuck Berry. Also I can remember Fats Domino appearing on Austin City Limits when he was well into his 60"s. However most of the other act of the 1950's were gone fairly quickly after the changes that started in 1964. 

Since my late teens, which was in the late 1970s, one of my favorite genres has been Blues music, particularly the hard-guitar Chicago-type blues (Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Paul Butterfield, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Son Seals, Bo Diddley, etc., and later Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others).

Around 1982 +/- a year or so I had the opportunity to see Willie Dixon perform at Michigan State University in a small setting.  Dixon (born in 1915) was one of the real founders of the Chicago-style blues sound, and I'd always wanted to see him, especially after reading in many interviews over the years that Jimmy Page often listed Willie Dixon as one of his biggest musical influences.  Dixon was one of the original performers who was in large part responsible for the cross-over and integration of blues into roll 'n roll starting in the 1950s, working with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and others, and Dixon's work and influence was directly incorporated into many mainstream rock acts in the 1960s and 1970s (Cream, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Foghat, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Queen, etc.).

Dixon was in his late 60s when I saw that performance at MSU, and he and his band put on a great show.  I especially remember his harmonica player, who looked like he predated Methuselah.  He had a giant tool belt with maybe a dozen different harmonicas hanging off of it, all sizes and shapes, and man could he play!  I have no idea where that decrepit old man generated so much wind to blow harmonica all evening.  And they did 2 shows. 

Thanks for leaving another post Cystem_Phailure. Yes there has been a lot of great Blues music put out over the years. In Alberta here we have a Radio station that plays Blues shows two days per week. Also as I'm listening to Satelite radio a lot these days I can latch onto their Blues channel. In a previous post I mentioned Fats Domino who is a favourite of mine. The way he plays that happy style of Piano to go along with his singing he is kind of a cross between the Blues And New Orleans style of Jazz. I mean Jerry Lee Lewis was very very lively on the Piano in his early days but Fats has a more relaxed and cheerful style ( tho I love Jerry too  lol ).