Saturday, December 24, 2011

Happy Holidays!





Whether you are a liberal, conservative or simply moving though this world as best you can without confrontation; whether you are a friend, enemy or simply don't know nor care who I am, may you all have a very Happy Holiday Season.

From the World According to Butch Trucks

Sunday, December 18, 2011

An apology

One thing that was brought to my attention yesterday was that in my moment of anger ( never write something when you are angry) I did bring others into my rant that had absolutely nothing to do with Ed King's statement. Most importantly. Lynyrd Skynyrd.

My taste in music is very limited. It includes "Trane. Miles, The Yardbird, Herbie and many others from the field of  Jazz. Mozart. Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Debussey and Ravel and numerous other composers of orchestral music. I simply do not listen to those who would be considered my peers.

I am not a fan of Skynyrd's but that is simply one man's opinion. I will not deny that they did make their contribution to the musical canon and that they do deserve respect and their place in the history of music as such.

I hereby extend my deepest and humblest apologies for including them in my angry rant aimed at Ed King. They were not in any way complicit in his statements and, as far as I know, they have had no interaction with him for a very long time.

Guys. I am sorry.

As for my statement about Sarah Palin ( although it had absolutely nothing to do with Ed King's crap) that stands. She has had far more than her 15 minutes and she is heading back to Alaska with the millions she made playing the part of a potential presidential candidate.

Peace!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Stupidest Statement I have ever read!

I just had to respond to this one. Thus sayeth the arrogant, ignorant, redneck, Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd (draw your own conclusions from that):

"I thought Dowd's mixes were LOUSY on everything he 'produced'. Obviously, the material was all great.

After working with Dowd in '91, I better understood the entire relationship between Dowd & the band. Dowd was a monumental kiss-up. Sure, he was a pioneer in music engineering in the 50s & 60s...but he was damn lucky to get his name on LIVE AT FILLMORE EAST. LUCK-KEEEEEE. Dowd couldn't mix two eggs.


Great engineering by competent engineers @ Capricorn made Dowd look like a genius. The Allmans' sound was already ON STAGE. Whoever engineered GBMB was INcompetent...then combined w/ Dowd's mixing ineptness, it all ended up sounding PRETTY LOUSY."

"Dowd had the gift of kiss-a$$ like no other...and somehow got Ronnie to worship him. But I know a kiss-a$$ with bad ears when I see one. And a man whose just GOT TO HAVE HIS OWN WAY. What an ultra maroon. Though I'll acknowledge his contribution to recordings early years.

I often wonder if the Dowd Skynyrd albums were made to sound like cardboard so that the Dowd Allman Bros. albums would always be better. Though I feel that LIVE AT THE FILLMORE mixed itself...well engineered (NOT by Dowd).

MY TURN.......WRONG!!!!  Tom Dowd mixed every note on that album and I was there for every one of them. It was awesome.

Then you have the LAYLA album. Talk about BAD MIXES?" Ever heard anything as god awful as Layla, or any other song from that album? Again, all mixed by Tom Dowd.

It is obvious Ed King despised Tom Dowd, and accuses him of favoring the Allman Brothers over Skynyrd to the point of Dowd sabotaging the sound on Skynyrd albums to favor the sound on Allman Brothers albums. Tom didn't have to do anything for that to happen. I promise you he gave his best to every project he did. To contradict Ed King's statement "Obviously all of the material was great." Again.....WRONG!!!! some of it sucked.

I do not even have to defend Tom Dowd in this case. All any thinking and hearing person has to do is listen to King"s "musical" catalogue and compare it with the man who mixed John Coltane's "Giant Steps" and "My Favorite Things", "Layla" and every other song on that album and just go back and check out the unbelievable list of material I added to my article about Tom Dowd. I mean "Stand By Me", "Mack the Knife" Nearly everything by Ray Charles and Aretha? Fuck, is this guy for real?

Get a copy of "Tom Dowd and the Language of Music" and listen to the tributes paid to Tom Dowd by Eric Clapton, Ray Charles and many others. Compare them and their achievements with Ed King's. Unless you consider writing "Incense and Peppermints" on a par with what those people did I think you can see what Ed King is lacking: intellect. I think he has about as much of a chance of understanding the genius of Tom Dowd as my Yorkie does of comprehending Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.  

To say that his statements are beyond preposterous and absolutely without merit would be the understatement of the year. He "knows a kiss ass when he sees one?" Hell he wouldn't know a baseball bat if it hit him up side the head.  What the hell is a maroon? Ed King is a moron. I guess that was the word he was looking for. A fact for his empty head:.Tom Dowd engineered every single note on Fillmore East, as I stated earlier. The only ABB albums engineered by the engineers in Macon were ":Brothers and Sisters" and "Win, Lose or Draw." Both very poor sounding, even if one was a success. It was only after Tom rejoined us for the "Enlightened Rogues" album that we got a decent sounding record again. Sad to say we changed labels and that was the last time we worked with Tom and it shows.

Ed King is a complete airhead and does not have the credentials to make any assessments about the accomplishments of Tom Dowd (unless writing the classic bubble gum tune Incense and Peppermints" is considered a MAJOR achievement) . Tom was one of the greats of the music industry. Ed King is a very minor ant on the ass of, hell I wouldn't even call what he played music.

For making that statement he deserves to have his wife's (if any woman can stand him) or girl friend's pubes turn to fish hooks. Ed, I would suggest that you avoid ever being in the same room with me again. Tom was like a father to me and you don't bad mouth my family.

DAMN!!!! Tom was as instrumental in making that redundant sounding band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, successful as anyone. He deserves Ed King's adoration and thanks. For him to make that statement simply shows him for what he is and what he is not. Grateful being toward the top of that list.

Damn shame that this has to be my first article in a very long time. I have been trying to put together a piece on the Occupy Movement. Stay tuned.

Tom, I miss you and always will. Ed King please just go the fuck away. This would be a better world. I hear Sarah Palin is looking for a private grounds keeper as she makes her way back to Alaska. Would be a perfect gig for your butt.