Willie Simpson

Tag: Rock and Roll

  • The Jackson 5, The Love You Save

    This was the third killer single (I Want You Back, ABC) from the Jackson 5 after they made their killer debut on Motown.  It’s a song with a crazy soaring melody and complex vocal arrangement that came from the hit making geniuses “The Corporation,” the Los Angeles wing of Motown’s machine.  This performance, from Ed…

  • The Blues Brothers, Ray Charles, Twist it (Shake Your Tail Feather)

    How about that keyboard reflecting in Ray Charles’s sunglasses?  That’s rock and roll, or more specifically, the blues.  This legendary scene, from the “Blues Brothers” movie, is and irreplaceable document of blues rock awesomeness.  The Blues Brothers were a group formed by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, two SNL geniuses who loved the blues and…

  • Paul McCartney, Sloan, Waterfalls, Coming Up

    TLC ripped it off.  No doubt about it.  This song, “Waterfalls,” was a hit in England, but it was the first song of Paul’s unable to reach the top Billboard 100 despite the previous single, “Coming Up” reaching #1 in the US.  Hmm…”Coming Up” is one of my favorite songs ever, but I can’t embed…

  • Ricky Gervais Meets Larry David

    If you’ve been following the site lately, you’ve noticed that I’ve been alternating its content between rock and roll and Larry David.  Larry is just one of my biggest comedy heroes, and his newest 8th season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is off to a roaring start.  The trailers for season 8 point to an appearance…

  • Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, Say Say Say, The Girl is Mine

    The year was 1981.  Michael Jackson was staying over Paul and Linda McCartney’s house.  The pair of ultra stars were recording songs with Quincy Jones and George Martin for their respective albums.  For Thriller, MJ and Macca were laying down “The Girl is Mine,” a horrendous piece of saccharine pop.  For McCartney’s equally successful album…

  • AC/DC Week, Hells Bells

    And thus the bell tolls for the end of AC/DC week, and what better way to close it out then with “Hells Bells” from Back in Black. A lot of my fellow baseball fans know this song mainly from all time saves leader Trevor Hoffman, who used the song whenever he entered a game for…

  • AC/DC Week, Shoot to Thrill

    AC/DC is really good live.  For this installment of AC/DC Week, I have them live in Houston, Texas in 1983 performing “Shoot to Thrill” from Back in Black. It blows my mind that Brian Johnson can sing the way he can for hours.  There are rumors that now, in 2011, he is finally considering retirement. …

  • AC/DC Week, Back in Black

    So Bon Scott died and in comes English native and Geordie lead singer Brian Johnson.  Johnson never would match Bon’s rock star charisma, but he would out sing him in every demonic capacity.  Scott had a high raspy McCartney/Plant like voice, not nearly as good as those guys, but similar.  Johnson had something altogether different;…

  • AC/DC Week, Highway to Hell

    AC/DC week won’t stop, but Bon Scott’s contributions will.  Highway to Hell was released in 1979, and it would be the last album to feature the legendary front man.  Ten days after the video below was created, Bon Scott died from choking on vomit.  Whether it was his vomit or not, no one knows, because…

  • AC/DC Week, Live Wire…LIVE!

    For today’s AC/DC tribute, I got “Live Wire” from 1975’s T.N.T. and it’s LIVE…in London!  This is a GREAT video performance.  AC/DC were fantastic because they could easily recreate the energy from all their recorded tracks live.  It’s no surprise that they achieved massive international success.  All they had to do was show up, turn…