The Rolling Stones Turning 50: Finally Getting Satisfaction?

It’s been 50 years since the Rolling Stones’ first public performance. Will Mick and the rest of the band ever get satisfaction?

By: Ringo Bones

 Back in July 11, 2012, the Rolling Stones “quietly” celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of their first ever public performance. Time flies when your having fun as one of the world’s most iconic rock stars indeed as it was back in July 11, 1962 where Mick Jagger and the rest of the band first ever major gig at the Marquee Club in London. Strange how Mick Jagger used to say in press interviews during the bands heyday, around 1968 to 1972, that he would rather die than sing Satisfaction at 40. 

Well, 1983 came and went and Mick Jagger still manage to perform the bands iconic signature track – Satisfaction – throughout their gigs during the 1980s like he’s forever in his prime. And this includes their Bridges to Babylon tour during the latter half of the 1990s. If this won’t give Mick and the band the “Satisfaction” they desperately seek, I don’t know what will. 

Remembering Whitney Houston - A Metal-Head's Perspective

Sometimes I wonder how will metal-heads remember Whitney Houston in the wake of her untimely passing on the eve of this year’s Grammy Awards – should I ask myself?

By: Ringo Bones

As an unabashed metal-head weaned on 1980s heavy metal back when Ronald Reagan still ruled the free world, I only became familiar of Whitney Houston’s breakthrough single, Saving All My Love, only because it is often played before Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer on mainstream FM back then; Though Whitney was first discovered by famed record producer Clive Davis as an 18-year-old choirgirl from New Jersey back in 1981. By 1987, Whitney gained fame by having more Billboard Number Ones than The Beatles – though Beatlemaniacs were not amused. And I even managed to see The Bodyguard – Whitney Houston’s iconic movie with Kevin Costner back in 1992 back when the mainstream FM stations in my neck of the woods were handing out movie passes like its going out of fashion.

As with almost all of Whitney’s fans, I also point the finger of blame on her marriage to former New Edition member Bobby Brown as the primary cause of her drug problems. Not to mention the well-documented incidents of domestic abuse and the crack cocaine binges that never would have intruded Whitney Houston’s rather cloistered choirgirl lifestyle prior to hooking up with the former New Edition member.

Though the official coroner’s toxicology report is still a few weeks away, many find it disconcerting the timing of Whitney Houston’s untimely passing in a Los Angeles hotel on the eve of the 2012 Grammys. Nonetheless, the Grammy tribute remembering Whitney’s achievements in the music world and the 4 hour long service on the New Hope Baptist Church is by no means the last of what we’ll hear of Whitney Houston’s iconic music career.

It’s The End Of REM As We Know It?

Even though I may be too young to remember first hand when they released their first official album or still care when they released their last one, is it the end of REM as we know it?

By: Ringo Bones

When I first heard the “amicable” REM breakup announced on the BBC - on the morning 7:21 AM of September 22, 20011 local time here in the Philippines – I first thought that it was just a mere “publicity stunt” to improve the band’s somewhat sagging popularity. After all, I didn’t even knew that their last major label album was released in March of 2011.

In subsequent interviews, REM frontman Michael Stipe and the rest of the band reassured their loyal cadre of fans that the decision to disband, though not an easy one, is amicable. The band reached a unanimous decision of not wanting REM to become a self-parodying nostalgia act. In their 30-year long career that started back in 1981, it wasn’t until 1987 that REM started to gain mainstream success with the release of the album Document and the regular airplay of The One I Love and It’s the End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) on mainstream FM. Even then, the band had to wait till the advent of th2e Seattle Grunge era of the early 1990s in order for REM to become truly synonymous with “alternative rock”.

Will REM’s retirement from the music scene eventually usher in a new generation of artist who are as good – if not better – than them? Sadly, after the multi-billion dollar global music industry was ruined by illegal file-sharing schemes like NAPSTER and its ilk in the very tail end of the 20th Century, it seems like “rock stars” that used to make millions of their musical talent is fast becoming an economic dinosaur. It may be the end of REM as we know it, but I’m still worried about the future of the global music industry and its ability to reward young and talented musicians who truly deserve fame and fortune.

Gary Moore 1952 – 2011

As one of the guitar hall of famers forever in his prime, the untimely passing of Gary Moore back in the 6th of February, 2011 while on holiday in Estepona, Spain had been a shock to all his fans around the world – including me. As one of the founding members of the now defunct legendary Irish group Thin Lizzy, the music world – especially his fans – are forever enthralled by Gary Moore’s guitar playing and song-writing skills.

Given my age, I only gained appreciation of Gary Moore’s post Thin Lizzy career with the regular airplay of Victims Of The Future in our local FM stations back in 1984. While Gary Moore’s much-deserved runaway mainstream success outside of the core of his dedicated fanbase only happened after the release of Still Got the Blues in 1990 and After Hours in 1992.

From my perspective, what could be considered the “Golden Age” of Gary Moore’s musical career – both artistically and financially – was during the mid-1990s during the release of a Peter Green tribute album titled Blues For Greeny in 1995. Gary Moore even managed to coax the music press shy original guitarist and founding member of Fleetwood Mac, the legendary Peter Green, to come out of his self-imposed musical exile and got every guitar enthusiast the world over who were too young to have heard Peter Green first-hand gained much needed appreciation of legendary early Fleetwood Mac songs like Albatross and Need Your Love So Bad.

Though Gary Moore went on to release still more albums during the rest of the 1990s – like his return to his rock roots album titled Dark Days In Paradise in 1997, the post Napster music biz environment had been unkind to Gary Moore’s career and still badly needed exposure for new fans. The only news that I can get of a new Gary Moore album release during the first decade of the 21st Century was via “word of mouth” by his on-line fanbase – very strange indeed?

Even though Gary Moore is no longer with us, his music will live on. Not only through the sizable discography of his Thin Lizzy era and solo music career, but also through guitar enthusiasts around the world playing their very own rendition of Gary Moore’s legendary guitar solos. As of late, friends of mine who are very skilled guitar enthusiasts had been doing their renditions of Gary Moore’s Victims of the Future through their 6550 tubed Marshall amps in a rather pensively poignant manner – though I prefer Gary Moore’s more blues-based works played on a Mullard EL34 equipped Marshalls or a very early KT66 equipped Marshall half-stack.

- Ringo Bones

The Untimely Passing of John Lennon: End of an Era?

To anyone too young to have experienced the Beatles first hand, does the brutal assassination of John Lennon back in December 10, 1980 forever deny them of the joys of Beatlemania?


By: Ringo Bones


To any music lover still a few years shy of 40, the 10th of December is somewhat of a contentious part of the year and it is not just because of the Christmas shopping rush. It always makes me feel that I’ve been cheated from experiencing first hand one of the defining cultural phenomena of the 20th Century – namely Beatlemania. This time of the year only reminds me that I’m only left with growing up with the cynicism of the 1980s – though Punk and Metal were very good, I do sometimes wonder how popular music today would look and sound if John Lennon is still alive.

Even though – like most sensible Beatle fans – I still harbour the perception that the “teen idol” aspects of early Beatlemania is as quaint and as namby-pamby as the present-day equivalent. It was only when John Lennon’s youthful cheekiness turned to harshness aspect of the Beatles that I finally notice that the Beatles is ultimately destined for greater things.

As John Lennon began examining openly his own inner turmoil and his growing social and political conscience, it ultimately led the Beatles in their experimentation with mind-altering drugs and Eastern Mysticism – especially Eastern Mysticism – and as the first one to make overt political statements by returning his Member of the Order of British Empire Award in protest of British policies like the Vietnam War. John Lennon inadvertently made the Beatles immortal.

Nonetheless, what John Lennon achieved at 40 – namely a sane and healthy maturity in spite of the fame and fortune that is now and since seen by Generation X and Generation Y folks with envy – is truly remarkable indeed. I and the rest of humanity will probably be forever saddened every time the anniversary of his brutal assassination rolls around again, but the testament of his views and beliefs that’s forever etched in his music still captures me and every veteran Beatlemaniac and the odd new fan or two. Imagine that indeed.

Ronnie James Dio: Heavy Metal’s Man For All Seasons?

After keeping the post-Ozzy Black Sabbath alive and kicking and making Heavy Metal music eternally hip for a new generation of converts, is Ronnie James Dio heavy metal’s man for all seasons?


By: Ringo Bones


Even though I still mourn his untimely passing back in May 16, 2010 every time I scour every used LP and CD store in my neck of the woods for every LP, CD, cassette and the odd 8-Track or two that Ronnie James Dio appeared in, it seems only now that I realized that the metal world has lost one of its greatest founders. Given that it is more or less a consensus that 1969 is the accepted birth-year of Heavy Metal music, Dio already started his journey to fame and fortune with Blues-rockers Elf when they opened for Deep Purple. And it was probably his true love for performing that made his career endure.

Dio’s coruscating, partly operatic voice got the attention of Ritchie Blackmore when he hired him to front his post Deep Purple band, Rainbow, in 1975. Four years later Dio took over Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbath’s vocalist and managed to revive the band’s rather waning fortunes with the 1980 release of Heaven & Hell. Dio also popularized – make that invented - the “devil’s horns” gesture – long since became a Metal staple. He then quit Sabbath after 1982’s Live Evil, then formed his own band Dio with drummer Vinnie Appice and recorded one of Heavy Metal’s most iconic tracks: “Holy Diver”.

Dio also managed yet again to revive Black Sabbath’s waning careers in the 1990s when he sang for Sabbath for their Dehumanizer album. Probably the album that paved the way for Ozzy reuniting with Black Sabbath near the end of the 1990s – and made Heavy Metal music hip yet again for the under-18s near the end of the 20th Century.

In 2006, Dio rejoined with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler in a reformed Black Sabbath dubbed Heaven & Hell. Due to his untimely passing, Glenn Hughes is to take Dio’s place in Heaven & Hell for a special tribute at the High Voltage festival at London’s Victoria Park back in July 24, 2010. The band used the event to raise funds for the Ronnie James Dio “Stand Up And Shout” Cancer Fund - committed to the early detection and prevention cancer.

As someone who’s been performing since the birth of Heavy Metal in 1969, Ronnie James Dio managed to carve himself a unique niche in the somewhat cynical Metal world since hijacked by the corporate-driven music biz. With a talent proving that he can not only write beautiful and catchy Metal tunes that sell like hotcakes but is also there to remind us not to be unduly jaded by the increasingly corporate dominion of the music biz on Heavy Metal music. Ronnie James Dio could indeed be Heavy Metal music’s Man for all Seasons.

The Post-Napster Music Industry: Still Economically Viable?

Given that stadium-filling rock concerts are still a reality, did the global music industry faired well since Napster made free downloading of music a reality?

By: Ringo Bones

If you want any proof that the global music industry have faired well against the Bolshevist Napsterization of how we get new music - as in free on the Internet - just look at Bruce Dickinson ferrying his Iron Maiden bandmates and gear via an Astraeus 757 designated as Ed Force One. And given that Iron Maiden and related fanbases has been designated by the multinational music industry fatcats as the scapegoat du jour for illegally downloading their copyrighted wares for over a decade, is this proof positive that the music industry have faired well against Napsterization?

Short of finding enough funds for Iron Maiden performing the first heavy metal rock concert in weightless conditions on board the International Space Station, the music industry fatcats had been showing us facts and figures on how Napster and its ilk had devastated their bottom line. But it did allow some deservingly talented acts access to a worldwide audience without going through the record industry fatcat middlemen. All you have to do now is to find these great stuff on the web - and its free. Copyright infringement be damned - though I just hope they can solve the perennial problem of not so pristine sound quality, someday.