I spent much of my life musically stuck
in the 60's and 70's and this page definitely reflects that. When grunge
appeared in the 90's I jumped on that bandwagon for a while, too. I'm not
sure exactly when, but when I first created this page the following table
probably summed up where I was: stuck. So this doesn't reflect my current
taste, but it stands as a good sample of where I was and what I was listening
to.
| Title | Artist | Album | Guitarists (if different from Artist) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machine Gun | Jimi Hendrix | Band of Gypsies | |
| Traveling in the Dark | Mountain | Nantucket | Leslie West |
| It's My Fault | Johnny Winter And | Live | Johnny Winter Rick Derringer |
| Magna of Illusion | Blue Oyster Cult | Imaginos | Robby Krieger |
| Comfortably Numb | Pink Floyd | The Wall | Dave Gilmour |
| Pride and Joy | Stevie Ray Vaughn | Texas Flood | |
| Lazy | Deep Purple | Machine Head | Ritchie Blackmore |
| Crossroads | Cream | Wheels of Fire | Eric Clapton |
| Since I've Been Loving You | Led Zeppelin | IV | Jimmy Page |
| Messin' | Manfred Mann's Earth Band | Get Your Rocks Off | Mick Rogers, guitar |
| Can't You Hear Me Knocking | Rolling Stones | Sticky Fingers | Keith Richards Mick Taylor |
| Willie the Pimp | Frank Zappa | Hot Rats |
A couple of years ago I started going through my records and CDs and digitizing stuff that I hadn't listened to in a while. I also started using a couple of streaming services. As they do, the gave me "if you like that, you'll probably like this" suggestions. As a result, my playlist has changed. To the point where I rarely listen to older music at all anymore.
Here's what happened. One of the albums I rediscovered in my collection was King Crimson's Discipline, released in 1981. Giving it a listen, I liked what heard and decided to dig deeper into their catalog. The result was an almost year-long obsession with their music, buying every album, video and box set I could find as well as streaming everything. King Crimson was one of the first bands to fuse progressive rock and metal, way back in the 60's. The result was complex, innovative and challenging, using different time signatures and key changes along with soundscapes, expansive percussion and blazing guitar work. Many of their pieces are long enough to allow them to explore musical themes, often blending challenging vocals with extended instrumentals. From 1981 through 2020 or so, the changing lineup featured a bevy of some of the best musicians in a band ranging from four to seven members. Instrumentation changed from two guitars, base and drums (Robert Fripp, the only member present throughout the band's life, and Adrian Belew on guitars, Bill Bruford, former Yes drummer, and Tony Levin on bass) to later add multiple drummers (as many as three at one point), synthesizers and woodwinds.
I've covered King Crimson here if you want to explore.