therealstevesmith

Final Pandora Station of '06

                                   Dec 31, @))^

Pandora.com

Billy Preston

Little Richard

John Legend

Tori Amos

Fats Domino

Billy Joel

Happy New Year. This year, try something new!

For My Boys In The Balconey

        Now you know that shit is more than funny

Don't Call it a Contest

                                 Sept. 12, @))^

                  I knew Puff Duffy liked to sample, but this is perickulous.

         I feel like his legal phenchpeople should have researched this out to the perimeter, front, back and iambic pentameter.   

             But if someone the likes of Sean P Puff Daddy esq etc stole your moniker, couldn't you just get paid by starting your own line of fill in the blank and calling it "Diddy"?  Why share the money with a barrister? I know if a certain former Olympian pole vaulter came out talking about he's the real $$, I'd have my own line of helmets out by the weekend. Early next week, latest.

       What I'm really waiting for is just how Mr. Combs will come up with a new name to use over da pond.  Perhaps Jesse Thames. Or Pbeatles. It may take an entire reality show to decide this!

          So don't call it a contest, but if you have any decent handles, feel free to kick 'em down the digital staircase.  In an odd way our world domination depends on it.

My Greatest Diversion

                            Aug 12, @))^

              Pandora is like C-Span for a music fan. Imagine having a your own radio for every mood that comes across you. It lets you enter the name of a desired song or band and customizes a playlist based on the characteristics of what you've entered.

               "Huh?" you say.  Imagine typing in "Purple Rain" by Prince. Pandora creates a radio station that will not only play that song (although not immediately due to liscencing issues), it's also going to give you Lakeside's "I Want to Hold Your Hand," The Isley Brother's "Voyage to Atlantis" and the Time's "Gigolos Get Lonely Too."

                Then it lets you tweak things by giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to each song. By the time you give a thumbs up to a couple of songs you love and pass on a couple of others, you're going to have a station that makes you say "Oh Damn" about 40% of the time.  The other 60% will consist of songs that make you say, "Oh yeah, I've heard of that band and just haven't gotten around to checking them out," or "Wow, this song's phat, I'm gonna click on to read the Amazon biography about them."               

              It's also going to give you songs by artists that you like, but from an album that you didn't happen to pick up or perhaps had forgotten.  Sort of like how regular radio used to be.

             I just created my fifteenth station (it allows up to 100) and I feel like a mini Picasso, shading and blending my stations until they sound like aural snippets of my life. My stations range from rock (Little Guitars, by Van Halen, Re-iginition, by Bad Brains, and Down Rodeo, by RATH) to heavy soul (Spinning Wheel, by BS&T, and Get Ready, by Rare Earth) to Slow Jams (Between the Sheets, by the Isley Bros, Lady in My Life, by Michael, Love's Holiday, by EW&F and I'll Be There, by the J5ive).

            If you can't find your groove with Pandora, not even Stella can help you. It's free and intuitive and a must hear for anybody sick of always knowing what's next on their I POD or local commercial radio station.

I'm In the Army Now

                                       August 9, @))^

         The shame of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is that 200 people have to come out to insist on Kiss' election into the museum.

          If you were watching "Match Game," and the category was, "Name a Fucking Rock Band," (let's assume this version's on cable) and Kiss wasn't in the top 5, you'd be cussing at the TV.

          The Hall was conceived BECAUSE of bands like Kiss.  Bands that transcended the genre and became household names.  Kiss has been hated like only the greatest originators of Rock n Roll were hated, while influencing music that old fogeys actually get into (i.e. Garth Brooks).      

          Stop hating.

          Shout it Out Loud vs. Sunshine of My Love?

          Rock and Roll All Night vs. Rock and Roll?

          Beth vs. Angie?

          I Was Made For Loving You vs. Do Ya' Think I'm Sexy?

          Detroit Rock City vs. Surfin' USA

          The glamsters from New York win in all those contests.

          Luckily the people who feel otherwise are gonna die soon.  There's always been a bias against Kiss because of their makeup ways. But fools don't realize that because of the bullshit ass reality tv shows, Motley Crue could actually be inducted into the Hall BEFORE Paul and them.  How do you explain that to the next young rocker talking about how everyone over 30 sucks?         

The Best RocknRoll Debut Records

                                  July 17, 2006 

This was previously published on July 12, 2006. I was looking at my blog sunday night, and for some reason it was gone.  Luckily, I've memorized everything I've ever written, so here it is again.

       I'm listening to Bob Lefsetz on 97.1 FM and he's having people call to vote for the best debut record of all time. It's a trip to learn how many people have different opinions than me. Folks are naming Dream Theater, Counting Crows, Traffic, The Band and William Hung (?!).      

It makes for an interesting look at generations. Somebody into Linkkin Park may have ever heard of Foreigner, just like someone into The Police doesn't give a damn about The Beach Boys.  So it's with that trepidation that I throw in my top five debut Rock Albums of All Time

       5. Foreigner. Foreinger.  Sure Paul Rodgers had a better voice, but Lou Gramm's vocals had a desperation that cut through the radio like an Emergency Broacasting System Test.  Hits included "Feels Like the First Time and "Cold as Ice," but for my time, give me "Long Long Way From Home" anytime.

      4. The Police. The Police. I believe that "Roxanne" is actually underrated.  If you went to any jury anywhere in the country, eleven of the twelve people would know this song. We take it's greatness for granted.  And Stewart Copeland comes up with some beats no black drummer could ever get away with.

     3. The Cars. The Cars. So what if the hook on "Best Friend's Girlfriend" is a straight up rip off of The Beatles, "Glass Onion"?  I didn't know it at the time. They also made the second side continuous, no doubt an homage to the second side of the Beatles "Abbey Road."  When the worst song on your record is "Don't Cha Stop," I'ma make it number 3 all time.

      2. Boston. Boston.  It's too bad that Corporate made them lead off the album with "More Than A Feeling." Rock n Roll Band" would have been a more compelling choice, especially after reading those amazing liner notes (listen to the record!). This was an album that boys and girls loved with equal passion. Maybe Corporate knew what is was doing back then.  I also think there may be a sonic quality to this record.

      1. Van Halen. Van Halen.  The shit starts off with a car horn followed by bass. It ends with a riff so hard that if it didn't fade out would just go on forever. In between is the greatest party you never went to.  So we listened to it. First on vinyl, until it scratched. Then on cassette, until it got ate. Then on CD until we finally heard Bad Brains.  When Michael Anthony sings his harmonies on each chorus, I don't care if you were rolling in a '82 Honda Civic with six people inside, you COULD NOT yell over it.

My Space Goes Legit

                       June 8, 2006

   50 years ago brothers had to sing on the corner to get noticed.  With myspace.com, a singer can open up their own corner.

    E. Walter Smith has debuted his My Space page. And if it's anything like his vocal range, then it's gonna be huge. It features four songs by him, and drops the details from a career that not only includes an endorsement by the United States Pastor's Association, it gives a shout out to P-Funk.

   In other words, E Smizza is the complete package.  His lyrics tackle the issues of forgiveness and letting go, how to express vulnerability in a 'manly' fashion and what it takes to make a love last forever.

   If you're tired of crotch grabbing makeup caking pitch changing cartoon singers, then check out E. Walter Smith.

20th Century Man

           July 7, 2006

     The last Rock Star. Everyone else (save Cobain) has been following. Tommy Lee owes the man 10% of everything he gets on that sorry TV show. He's a corporate employee.  My man's a rowk stur.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKTc9VaNIiI&search=roth

The Color Green

                                                    May 30, 2006

      Could Oprah and Ice Cube be gearing up for a squab?  Cube seems upset that Harpo Prod. isn't giving him the proper treatment worthy of a man who has gone from penning, "Don't Fuck with a Bitch From the Projects" to producing and starring in the hit kiddie flick "Are We There Yet?"

      What's next?  The "View" won't book System of a Down to talk Armenian genocide?  Oh the whore  horror.  Maybe Ice Cube or Luda could write an autobiography and then Oprah could put them in the Book Club and still not book 'em on the show.

      I believe I've seen Will Smith aka the Fresh Prince on the Oprah Show.  If I recall correctly he was entertaining, yet boring. No, wait. That was when he was Leno.  I mean TRL.  Or was it Conan the Librarian?

       I don't understand why these guys are so surprised. Aren't they, as someone else said, the highest paid least respected poets in history? 

      I think this is mainly a gift to white TV and radio hosts to go ahead and bag on some rich black folks for awhile. Some more. So now we get the pleasure of hearing some surburban bro doing his best, "No he dedent. I'm fittin to go off now."  The really edgy ones may even use the gunshot sound.

      Should be like a totally funky fresh feud.

I chose this link because the finch's first sentence is so indicative of what I'm taliking about, it could only pass muster in a corporate setting.

      

   

Spread The Word About This Jam

                            May 24, 2006

     With Father's Day coming up, it's time that you hear a new song by a great singer with a fucking ax to grind with anybody who doesn't take the time to know that his song is slamming.

      "Little Girl" is a tribute. It's also been sorely underheard.

      We can help change that, and get some good music on the radio.

       E. Walter Smith is the man.   Here is his song.

       You're a sucker if you don't jump on this early (like now).