Santana: Guitar Heaven

When O-Dogg posted a YouTube recording on September 21st of Chris Cornell singing “Whole Lotta Love” with Santana on Facebook I almost cried.   Or came.   I’m not sure.   I commented “Holy shit.   That was like sex.   Really good sex.”

He then posted a recording of Chris Daughtry singing “Photograph.”   “I already bought it,” I commented. “Another disappointing solo.   What the hell Santana.”   Then there was the recording of Rob Thomas doing “Sunshine Of Your Love.”   I must confess I didn’t really care about that one.   I’d already bought the cd.   I’d listen to it when I had a decent recording.   He then posted Jacoby Shaddix (I don’t know who that is?) doing “Smoke On The Water.”   Really well.   Seriously pushing my buttons.   Very evil, that O-Dogg.

Euphoria Morning, Part 2

When I wrote about Chris Cornell’s Euphoria Morning over a year ago, I thought I was done discovering it.   Apparently I’m not.

For the time being I’ve given up burning compilation CDs of my favorite songs or flavors of the week to listen to in my car because for whatever reason (I suspect a sound quality issue, although you wouldn’t expect that from car audio listening — there is no such thing as good sound quality in a car.   Hm.), I get tired of them after a week or so & then I have to burn another one.    However, original copy CDs seem to stay in my car forever.   It’s just something I noticed, & since I’ve begun listening only to actual albums I’ve actually thrown out a stack of blank Mitsui Golds because they were old.

16 Songs That I Can’t Sing

But have tried to. Or still try to.

I’ve arranged these songs (done by the original artists, who CAN sing them) in a playlist for your listening pleasure. And then I’ve made a list of what happens when I try to sing them. Please click on the “Pop Out Player” button for the playlist, which should open in another window.

Chris Cornell & Timbaland

They’re saying it’s the “best music of their careers.”

I was very impressed with what Timbaland did with OneRepublic’s “Apologize” (with the exception of the Retard sounds in the background); I thought he did a great job of bringing out the vocals & intensifying the mood of the song.   When I heard he would be working with Chris Cornell, my favorite male vocalist since Temple of the Dog, I couldn’t even imagine what that would be like.   Chris Cornell of the expensive chords & the soulfully rocking voice.

I listened to 3 tracks, names unknown.   The first song was Rob Bass with Michael Bolton.   The second sounded cool but could have been sung successfully by any vocalist including any unskilled karaoke singer (like a lot of songs in this genre) & was ultimately utterly boring to me.   The third sounded more like Rob Thomas on his hispanic kick & seemed incomplete without a guitar solo by Santana.

Well, now I know.

Euphoria Morning

Every time I find out that someone I know isn’t familiar with Chris Cornell’s Euphoria Morning I’m shocked.   It isn’t that I think Chris Cornell should be everyone’s favorite male vocalist (Well.   He should.) or that everyone should know his entire discography (But they should.).   Ok, maybe it is.   It surprises me that people can know about Soundgarden & Audioslave & not know about Mr. Cornell’s intermediary solo album.   Euphoria Morning is probably one of my favorite CDs, & given the opportunity to have 3 of my CDs turned into vinyl with vinyl-quality sound, Euphoria Morning would definitely be one of my choices.

Back in the 90s Rob Seto, my Jelly’s music guru, recommended Temple Of The Dog (Soundgarden-Mother Love Bone collaboration) & Chris Cornell, in “Call Me A Dog,” became my new favorite male vocalist, & has remained so since.   I’d like to add that I didn’t find out what he looked like (Extremely.   Hot.) for years afterward.   There was just something about the way his voice lazily shifted in the word “as” in the line “It doesn’t bother me as long as you know…”   I’m serious.   That’s where it was at for me.   Sometimes when you hear something like that it’s best to never find out what the singer looks like.   But in this case I lucked out.