by Ray McDonald Tuesday of this week — January 8, 2013 — presented a convergence of three very different but significant events. First, it was the day that would have been Elvis Presley’s 78th birthday. “The King,” as he was known, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935, and moved to Memphis, Tennessee […]
All posts by rmd
And The Winner Is…
Posted January 7th, 2013 at 5:41 pm (UTC+0)
by Ray McDonald If you listened to music in 2012, you had a lot of company. Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS, the leading data information systems in the United States entertainment industry, just came out with their year-end sales figures. According to Nielsen’s David Bakula, “Overall music purchases surpassed 1.65 billion units in 2012, up […]
Keys, Please
Posted December 5th, 2012 at 7:19 pm (UTC+0)
By Ray McDonald In my last blog entry, I wrote about electric guitars…specifically, the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. I had so much fun learning about these perennial favorites that I’d like to look at some other building blocks of modern pop music. Today I’m looking at the electric piano and the Hammond […]
Choose Your Weapon
Posted November 2nd, 2012 at 8:22 pm (UTC+0)
By Ray McDonald From the time I bought my first Rolling Stones record at age seven, I’ve been convinced of one thing: you can’t rock without an electric guitar. Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t need one to make great music. There’s an entire galaxy of musical instruments out there to enjoy. But for […]
Tags: Eric Clapton, Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, Rock Music Posted in Pop/Rock
“Tunnel Of Love” At 25
Posted October 22nd, 2012 at 6:36 pm (UTC+0)
By Ray McDonald Bruce Springsteen’s “Tunnel Of Love” is my go-to Springsteen album. I find myself returning to it time and again. Here was a superstar at his most vulnerable, pouring his heart out during a desperate, confusing moment in his life. Well, just a couple weeks ago – October 9 – “Tunnel Of Love” […]
The British Are Coming…Again
Posted October 15th, 2012 at 4:21 pm (UTC+0)
I have a theory: the U.S. is in the midst of another British Invasion. Of course, there was that first one back in the 18th Century, but musically, the first “British Invasion” began in 1964 with The Beatles, then expanded to include dozens of other acts – many of whom are now in the Rock […]
