16 September 1999 (Thursday)
Steve discussed Don's CDs from last week: Loves Argent, sorta likes Uriah Heep, and loves Iggy Pop. Argent has excellent musical sensiblities, complex but never becoming pastichial (from the word "pastiche" which rhymes with "quiche"...) or contrived and displaying a suprisingly wide range of musical styles. The fact that Don paid $6.99 for the CD at an obscure used record joint in O.C. says something about the music biz. Uriah Heep is very good but the heavy rock is of the bar chord, Black Sabbath variety (Uriah Heep is an antecedent of B.S.). Iggy Pop is his wild, nihilistic self.
Deviating from the agenda, the band sans the Slugster (who arrived later with a woman he introduced as his wife) warmed up with "Tragedy" by Argent a terrific (in Steve's opinion) combination of funk and power pop. The real tragedy is that most people will never hear most of Argent's music.
Warmed up with "Cold Sweat" by James Brown which morphs into "Oye Como Va" by Santana.
"Hang 'Em High": Decided to redo the guitar and organ part. There were some technical problems with the mixer/pc. Ken finally pronounced the correct incantation an got it working. After a few miscues and false starts by the organist, Dr. Shred threw in the towel. Dr. Shred will practice and cook this next week. There was a discussion of the chord progression at the end of the bridge. Don was playing F#m, Steve was playing Bsus-B. The two chords are related (I and V) but the combination sounds funny. The V of the F#m chord is C# which is the 9th (or 2nd) of the B major scale and A is the 3rd of F#m and minor 7th of B. Both chords should work! When you play the F#m with the Bsus-B you get a B9 which is used as a final chord in many tunes. Don thought that the dissonance might be from playing F# as the root and added that Cropper plays only the upper notes of the chord. Steve agreed to listen carefully to the recording.
"Mrs. Robinson": can't find the last take?