This is the worst interview I have ever seen. Paul Shaffer never shuts up. Poor Donald Fagen can hardly get a word in edgewise. I am surprised Fagen didn't walk out. If he gives a two-word answer, Shaffer will interrupt it. Forget about finishing a sentence, or even starting one! Shaffer continually talks over his guest, and plays over him too. When Fagen finally tells him how much fun it wasn't (19:53), Shaffer doesn't even notice, just keeps blathering on. Incredible - that's narcissism.
Music (4/4)
WordPress makes it so damned easy to embed YouTube videos.
Many years ago I saw Eric Clapton at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. All through the show, I kept hearing Dire Straits. Finally, I grabbed someone's binoculars, and sure enough, there was Mark Knopfler! Since then I found out they are great buddies, and tour together a lot. Clapton was so cool, he let his tour guitarist have the final encore, this:
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I've liked this band ( duo actually ) since the first time I saw this video on the UHF video channel because we didn't have cable. Corinne Drewery is not like today's squeaky singers, she can hit the high notes, and the low ones too - listen. This was their first and biggest hit.
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Another great band that you've probably never heard of. The music industry today is rotten to the core, but that doesn't mean music is !!!
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This is one of the funniest things on the whole internets. Mark Twain, a mad scientist, and it ends with a great Steely Dan tune. What else could you want? How about the rest of that song:
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Most people regard The Knack as a novelty act - My Sharona and little more. The truth is, they were a really great band that deserved a lot more respect than they got. Watch this show at Carnegie Hall in 1979 - they are note-perfect and tight. It starts with one of my favorites - Rave Up - a real barn-burner. Load the video in YouTube for the rest of the show.
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He forgot to mention "remastering", where great old recordings are piped through a compressor to end up sounding just like today's shite. This is especially ironic for Beatles recordings. The Beatles and George Martin went to great lengths and used a lot of tricks to get the maximum dynamic range out of the primitive recording equipment of the day, and largely succeeded. Only to have the life squashed out of it by money-grubbing record companies who want to sell you the new "remastered" (ruined) version. The original Beatles recordings sound much better, especially the CDs; if you have them, hold on to them !!!
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Hollywood and the music industry are not totally bereft of talent today. Here is actress Zooey Deschanel and her musical partner M Ward doing a wonderful rendition of Dusty Springfield's 1964 Stay Awhile:
Deschanel has a very nice singing voice. And while she's not Eleanor Powell or Ann Miller, she competently dances her way through a clever and stylish video. I can't speak for her acting, the only thing I've seen her in is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; the rock I live under gets very bad TV reception. She was good in that though, so I'll give her all three - sing, dance, act.
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I crunched some numbers based on the excellent data that D'Addario provides, and it turns out that a 25.5" scale bass is quite workable with off-the-shelf string sets. The trick is to get a 5-string BEADG long-scale set and discard the G. Tune the remaining strings to EADG. This is equivalent to capo-ing the long scale at the 5th fret, or lopping 5 frets off the neck, so of course, it will work! In hindsight, it's all pretty obvious. I worked out the following scales and string sets:
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