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Some Tunes From Coverboy
Neil and Jonathan
I first met my friend Jonathan around 4 years ago. He worked as a tech for Dell ( he’s 20 years younger than I ) and was assigned to contact me and come to my home to replace a defective hard drive. We got around to talking about music and how I would love to learn the guitar . ( He was blown away with all the concerts I’ve been to when I was younger … especially at The Fillmore East in NYC which was THE PLACE to see bands perform … one night I saw Santana, Jeff Beck , and Jefferson Airplane there … paid $7.00 and had great seats !!!! One New Years Eve we had the front row for Hendrix Band of Gypsies … those were Great Times … every weekend there were 2-3 groups to see and there would be an early show and a late show .. sometimes we’d camp out all night to be first on line when the box office opened up at 10:00 AM the next morning )
Anyway, I just so happened that he’s an accomplished player and so one thing lead to another and we agreed to lessons. I remember working very hard , practicing for 6-7 hours each day … eventually the blisters on my fingers turned to callouses. Don’t laugh !!! … Jon would check the exact position of them to see if I was using the proper technique … LOL I’m glad he did ) . After around 2-3 months we decided to record some things … he brought over his amps , drums and 5 guitars - I have a Gibson Les Paul which I had received as a gift a long time ago … so we were in business. For 3 years we spent mostly every Wednesday afternoon playing . I was retired and Jon had lots of free time. The room here is pretty big with it’s own kitchen and plenty of space for computers , microphones , the drum set up, and for all the guitars laid out on stands so we can pick and choose.
All the songs were recorded in the lower level of my home except for “ Meet Martin Riggs / Sleepwalk “ which we played at a Fair here in Long Island 2 years ago. There were 1000 people or so in this amphitheatre and I was really nervous. Jon had played in bands for many years but this was my first gig … lol . We had 2 other friends playing with us that day and another friend doing the recording and mixing. Oh My God What a Rush … lol … It Was Freakin’ GREAT !!!!! My fingers froze a little ( even though it was summertime ) with all the excitement, but surprisingly enough it went very well. "M M Riggs" is from Clapton in the soundtrack for the film " Lethal Weapon 1 " and " Sleepwalk " is an oldie but goodie by Santo and J O H N N Y from the late 50's. We tried to combine the 2 so more of the audience .. young and old ... could relate.
I play Lead Guitar on all the tracks and Lead Vocal on two songs …. “ One World “ and “ Words of Love “ …. also play Bass Guitar on “ Voodoo Lady “ and “ Sex and Candy “ . Jon pretty much did all the rest … percussion , vocals , rhythm guitar, bass. All the music was shot through computers using the programs “ Cool Edit “ , “ Wavelab “ , “ Sonar “ and a few others. It got pretty involved but it was lots of fun.
Please remember we’re not pros ( as you’ll soon find out ) … not even close …. but we had one helluva great time making music and we tried our best to pay attention to detail. “Hey Baby” was our first song . Jon wanted to start us out with “ Yellow Submarine “ by the Beatles as a good training tool but I laughed and said : “I don’t live in a Yellow Submarine … I have no desire to, either … and I have no fucking clue as to what they are talking about … Besides, I think it’s kinda Fruity … Nahhhh Jon … let’s do a Hendrix Number “ . He laughed his ass off at me for attempting to run the 40 yard dash before I could crawl but I was dead serious . I eventually talked him into it and it took a good long time because I never recorded before and also The 9/11 Tragedy occurred right in the middle of it and we stopped playing for 2 months because I was too sad and depressed. Last Sunday we reminisced and remembered when I was playing one of the guitar solos ( the real mushy one ) for Hey Baby on our first session back after 9/11 … how I got real teary eyed doing it … 9/11 was all I was thinking about as I was playing and I guess I got carried away and dragged it out a bit. All in all there are 80 tracks in that one song.
“Words of Love” was very tricky … when I was first learning it I said : “No way George Harrison did this without playing it slow then speeding up the track .. It’s Freaking Physically Impossible “. It seems simple when you hear it but it’s loaded with double stops and a lot of chords. I really worked hard on it . I’m tellin ya … you really appreciate the great guitar players, once you try to do some of their stuff … Harrison … Knopfler … Clapton … Stevie Ray Vaughan and on and on … unreal .
(We slowed down and rearranged Lynyrd Skynyrd's " Searchin'" ... and call it "Neilly's Blues")
Jon got married this past April ( I was his Best Man ) and thought it prudent to get a steady job, so we now see each other only around once a month. He did come over the house last Sunday to help me with a program so that I can pass some songs on to you guys.
Anyway … So here are some tunes that we did and if each one of you would only like just 1 of the 9 that are posted … well we’ll be VERY HAPPY.
Hope you enjoy !!!
PLAY IT LOUD
Your friend,
Neil
PS … I always played “Air Guitar ” like lots of guys do, but try to imagine how thrilling it is for me to be driving along , listening to our CD, and playing air guitar and I’m the one who’s really playing … LMAO
Love You Guys !!!!
Here's the Link:
Neil and Jon, Our Songs
**********************************
Neil and Jonathan
I first met my friend Jonathan around 4 years ago. He worked as a tech for Dell ( he’s 20 years younger than I ) and was assigned to contact me and come to my home to replace a defective hard drive. We got around to talking about music and how I would love to learn the guitar . ( He was blown away with all the concerts I’ve been to when I was younger … especially at The Fillmore East in NYC which was THE PLACE to see bands perform … one night I saw Santana, Jeff Beck , and Jefferson Airplane there … paid $7.00 and had great seats !!!! One New Years Eve we had the front row for Hendrix Band of Gypsies … those were Great Times … every weekend there were 2-3 groups to see and there would be an early show and a late show .. sometimes we’d camp out all night to be first on line when the box office opened up at 10:00 AM the next morning )
Anyway, I just so happened that he’s an accomplished player and so one thing lead to another and we agreed to lessons. I remember working very hard , practicing for 6-7 hours each day … eventually the blisters on my fingers turned to callouses. Don’t laugh !!! … Jon would check the exact position of them to see if I was using the proper technique … LOL I’m glad he did ) . After around 2-3 months we decided to record some things … he brought over his amps , drums and 5 guitars - I have a Gibson Les Paul which I had received as a gift a long time ago … so we were in business. For 3 years we spent mostly every Wednesday afternoon playing . I was retired and Jon had lots of free time. The room here is pretty big with it’s own kitchen and plenty of space for computers , microphones , the drum set up, and for all the guitars laid out on stands so we can pick and choose.
All the songs were recorded in the lower level of my home except for “ Meet Martin Riggs / Sleepwalk “ which we played at a Fair here in Long Island 2 years ago. There were 1000 people or so in this amphitheatre and I was really nervous. Jon had played in bands for many years but this was my first gig … lol . We had 2 other friends playing with us that day and another friend doing the recording and mixing. Oh My God What a Rush … lol … It Was Freakin’ GREAT !!!!! My fingers froze a little ( even though it was summertime ) with all the excitement, but surprisingly enough it went very well. "M M Riggs" is from Clapton in the soundtrack for the film " Lethal Weapon 1 " and " Sleepwalk " is an oldie but goodie by Santo and J O H N N Y from the late 50's. We tried to combine the 2 so more of the audience .. young and old ... could relate.
I play Lead Guitar on all the tracks and Lead Vocal on two songs …. “ One World “ and “ Words of Love “ …. also play Bass Guitar on “ Voodoo Lady “ and “ Sex and Candy “ . Jon pretty much did all the rest … percussion , vocals , rhythm guitar, bass. All the music was shot through computers using the programs “ Cool Edit “ , “ Wavelab “ , “ Sonar “ and a few others. It got pretty involved but it was lots of fun.
Please remember we’re not pros ( as you’ll soon find out ) … not even close …. but we had one helluva great time making music and we tried our best to pay attention to detail. “Hey Baby” was our first song . Jon wanted to start us out with “ Yellow Submarine “ by the Beatles as a good training tool but I laughed and said : “I don’t live in a Yellow Submarine … I have no desire to, either … and I have no fucking clue as to what they are talking about … Besides, I think it’s kinda Fruity … Nahhhh Jon … let’s do a Hendrix Number “ . He laughed his ass off at me for attempting to run the 40 yard dash before I could crawl but I was dead serious . I eventually talked him into it and it took a good long time because I never recorded before and also The 9/11 Tragedy occurred right in the middle of it and we stopped playing for 2 months because I was too sad and depressed. Last Sunday we reminisced and remembered when I was playing one of the guitar solos ( the real mushy one ) for Hey Baby on our first session back after 9/11 … how I got real teary eyed doing it … 9/11 was all I was thinking about as I was playing and I guess I got carried away and dragged it out a bit. All in all there are 80 tracks in that one song.
“Words of Love” was very tricky … when I was first learning it I said : “No way George Harrison did this without playing it slow then speeding up the track .. It’s Freaking Physically Impossible “. It seems simple when you hear it but it’s loaded with double stops and a lot of chords. I really worked hard on it . I’m tellin ya … you really appreciate the great guitar players, once you try to do some of their stuff … Harrison … Knopfler … Clapton … Stevie Ray Vaughan and on and on … unreal .
(We slowed down and rearranged Lynyrd Skynyrd's " Searchin'" ... and call it "Neilly's Blues")
Jon got married this past April ( I was his Best Man ) and thought it prudent to get a steady job, so we now see each other only around once a month. He did come over the house last Sunday to help me with a program so that I can pass some songs on to you guys.
Anyway … So here are some tunes that we did and if each one of you would only like just 1 of the 9 that are posted … well we’ll be VERY HAPPY.
Hope you enjoy !!!
PLAY IT LOUD
Your friend,
Neil
PS … I always played “Air Guitar ” like lots of guys do, but try to imagine how thrilling it is for me to be driving along , listening to our CD, and playing air guitar and I’m the one who’s really playing … LMAO
Love You Guys !!!!
Here's the Link:
Neil and Jon, Our Songs
**********************************
Damn good Neil.Awsome guitar on One World.Words Of Love was terrific.Man Sleep Walking brought back memories.You guys were really rocking on Long Distance Lovin.If you take request I would like Pipeline and All Along The Watchtower.lol.You'er a very talented guy Neil and John too. 
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