tag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:/blogs/test?p=3The Thing2024-02-26T11:37:28-05:00John Nugent Musicfalsetag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/73574452024-02-26T11:37:28-05:002024-02-27T03:50:41-05:00Back To The Woodshed!<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/31dd139b93153734cd00dd77830ed0fb7ed66823/original/woodshed.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" height="504" /><p>A couple of years ago, I mentioned how I had been “woodshedding”. That's guitar-slang for “practicing a lot”. I've been doing that again lately. </p><p>Once in a great while, for some reason, I get the urge to push really hard to learn new guitar riffs, techniques, songs and other things, for hours and hours on end! And in stretches that last for days, weeks, even months. I have learned over the years to always try to take advantage of that urge to be a “musical sponge”. I may not be playing any better but it sure feels like it.</p><p>That's why these postings have been few and far between lately. I hope my three followers don't mind the interruptions.</p><p>This woodshedding thing has happened maybe a dozen times since I started playing guitar at age 13. In one stretch, during the summer of 1974, I played my guitar over 12 hours a day, nearly every day (at least that's the way I remember it). I wrote about it in March of 2021 in a posting which I called <a class="no-pjax" href="https://johnnugentmusic.com/blogs/test/posts/the-lost-summer-of-1974/the-lost-summer-of-1974" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><strong>The Lost Summer of 1974</strong></a>. I didn't know it at the time, but that summer was one of the best periods of my life; it's when my brother Jerry and I became best friends, and not just brothers.</p><p>It happened again during 2020 (see <a class="no-pjax" href="https://johnnugentmusic.com/blogs/test/posts/getting-loopy/getting-loopy" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><strong>Getting Loopy in the Woodshed</strong></a> and <a class="no-pjax" href="https://johnnugentmusic.com/blogs/test/posts/only-999-982-more-sold-and-it-goes-platinum/only-999-982-more-sold-and-it-goes-platinum" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><strong>It's Gettin' Deep, Folks</strong></a>), while we were all in Covid Hell. Very few gigs, lots of free time, and a desire to learn not only helped me to get some new skills; I was even able to record and release an album. And, it kept me me out of a straitjacket from boredom.</p><p>Does woodshedding really make a difference? I dont know; it seems like it. Besides, it's fun, so I hope the madness continues for a while longer!</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/73176802023-12-11T13:06:18-05:002023-12-13T15:12:04-05:00Jingle Bell Schlock<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/80a735d5a3aa4231fad6b989c0668aa60a396872/original/shatner-rudolph.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" />I'm not crazy about sad Christmas songs. In fact, you're never gonna hear “I'll Be Home For Christmas” or “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” around here unless I forgot to hit the thumbs down button on Pandora.</p><p>It's not that this isn't great music; it is. But some holiday tunes just have a way of bumming me out. And the older I get, they more that seems to be the case. Nope, I'll take Rudolph, Frosty, ringle-tingle and holly jolly any day. That's just me, though. Maybe you like heartwarming, nostalgic, even melancholy holiday songs.</p><p>Even so, some of the songwriters definitely got a little too carried away the HoHoHomesick theme. But if, for some inexplicable reason it's serious cry-in-your-eggnog Xmas action you're after, then try some of these heavyweights: Dolly Parton's “Hard Candy Christmas”. Or maybe “Christmas Shoes” by NewSong. Not sad enough? Then there's always John Denver's “Please Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas”.</p><p>And then there's the list of songs that aren't necessarily sad; they're just plain bad. Everone seems to have their own list of Christmas throwaways, so don't hold it against me if your list differs from mine. But I'll bet there's at least a few crossovers! Here's my bottom ten:</p><p> </p><p>We Need A Little Christmas (Angela Lansbury)</p><p>Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney)</p><p>Last Christmas (Wham)</p><p>I want A Hippopotamus For Christmas (Gayla Peavy)</p><p>You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch (Thurl Ravenscroft)</p><p>Baby It's Cold Outside (Frank Loesser and Lynn Garland)</p><p>Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (Elmo and Patsy)</p><p>Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt)</p><p>All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth (The Satisfiers)</p><p>Christmas Don't Be Late (Alvin and The Chipmunks)</p><p> </p><p>Happy Holidays!</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/73047042023-11-16T13:09:11-05:002023-11-27T09:48:22-05:00Great (and Not So Great) Cruise Ship Cover Bands<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/e240e0d8086e32aac525461617975b3f6bb6a072/original/nick-the-lounge-singer-closeup.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />Before I became a solo Musician/Entertainer, I was a SatCom Systems Test Engineer for over 35 years. My last job in that role was working in the field on the Royal Caribbean ships. When I was done for the day, I would sometimes head down to the faux English Pub (all the boats had them, usually with names like The Pig And Whistle or The Mare's Tooth or Ye Olde Mouldy Cheese) to hear some music.</p><p>The ships usually had 3 or 4 piece TropRock, Steel Drum or Reggae bands at poolside, Jazz bands on the main deck where the restaurants are, and big show bands (sometimes even small orchestras) in the auditoriums. But the little pubs were mostly the home of the solo performers. Some of them were outstanding, and some, well...</p><p>The best live music I ever heard during those days was a 4-piece Beatles cover band from the Phillipines. Although they nailed the harmonies and the British accents while playing, they spoke almost zero English when attempting to shmooze the audience between songs. That struck me as sorta funny, but it made me respect their dead perfect vocals even more.</p><p>The worst? I heard a solo guy playing Sultans Of Swing in one of those little pubs and noticed that during one of the many guitar solos, he slid up the fretboard to a note, yet the sound of the guitar I was hearing actually slid down. This seemed pretty strange, so I moved closer to the little stage to get a better look, and to my horror, I realized that he was just doing “Guitar-aoke”. Yep, he had turned his guitar's volume all the way down and was faking it.</p><p>He probably should've called himself “Liar Straits”. Or maybe “Mark NOT-fler”.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/72747092023-09-17T15:10:05-04:002023-10-16T10:57:56-04:00The MacGuyver Bag<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/3cddd2a0b210cadde10812fc9c8188f24acf98ec/original/macguyver.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />I have been saved by my MacGuyver Bag many times.</p><p>In case you didn't know already, MacGuyver was a TV character (I think they may have resurrected the original '80s era show a few years ago). Anyway, this guy was was somehow always able to bail himself out of a bad situation with ingenuity and simple on-hand materials like duct tape, razor blades, clothes pins and coathangers. In the nick of time, MacGuyver could easily build a small thermonuclear device using only some bobby pins, chewing gum and an alarm clock.</p><p>If, when I first started playing out, I found a bad cable or a broken connector on my pedalboard at the beginning of a set. I would improvise as best I could. And although I always managed to get away with it, it was a real stress-fest. It only took a few more close calls for me to realize that I'd need as many different spares, extras and adapters as I could fit into a dufflebag, to keep in my car for such emergencies.</p><p>Nowadays, after ten years of playing music, I have spares for almost everything I could need in that bag, which I call my McGuyver Bag. Every gigging musician needs one. It not only helps in case of a failure, but is also good for those times when a venue asks you to plug into their weirdly configured mixing board (which is often). As in, mating an XLR female low impedance cable to RTS high impedance male plug to RCA to 1/8-inch Mini female to… You get the idea.</p><p>Not long ago, and (as usually happens) right at starting time, I discovered what I thought was a bad microphone cable. It turned out that the mic itself had an internal wire that came unsoldered. I thought it was a deal killer until I remembered that I still had an old headset microphone from when I did a few hayride gigs at a place called River Ranch, near Kissimmee. They needed someone to strum cowboy chords and sing campfire songs through a little battery-powered PA while we rolled through the countryside. I've never liked headsets, but at the time, I figured that on a bumpy hayride, that "Garth Brooks Starter Kit" might keep me from getting my front teeth knocked out by a microphone on a mic stand bouncing around in a flatbed on a rocky trail. After doing those hayrides, I never used it again, but I decided to keep it in the bag, just in case something similar ever came up.</p><p>So, when my mic failed, that old headset saved the day for me. It was a good decision to keep that thing. Uncomfortable, but it got me through the gig. And once again, the MacGuyver Bag got it done.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/72616382023-08-23T14:28:53-04:002023-08-23T15:25:27-04:00My Nick Jonas Moment<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/ab4f745123c61706e28e185c640c4197df5d6a8e/original/wrong-note.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />I almost never have stage fright. In fact, the more people that are out in the crowd, the more energy I feel, and it rubs off on me, always in a good way. It loosens me up and makes me believe I can “swing for the fences”. I probably don't actually play any better, but I sure do feel like I do.</p><p>Joe Satriani once said a great comment about stage fright. He said that almost everyone in the audience wants you to succeed. They really hope you play well and bring the house down, so don't be afraid to be up there. They're all pulling for you. And even if you're not playing your best, most people don't really notice when you hit a "clam" or two, as Les Paul used to call them.</p><p>That's not to say that I have never gone down in flames. Example: A broken string on a guitar that has a whammy bar causes all the other strings to go out of tune. When it breaks in the middle of a song, well, that's not a good thing. Or, if a mic cable decides to fail, suddenly your vocals are not getting out. Embarassing.</p><p>Or, a “Nick Jonas moment". I'm not sure who he is, but I know he's famous. A few years ago, there was a viral YouTube video of him blowing a guitar solo onstage at an awards show. Personally, I don't think it's all that bad, but I will say that it is a pretty good example of Guitarist Brain Freeze. Check it out: </p><div class="video-container size_m justify_center" style=""><iframe data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="_fvOb9YtHHg" data-video-thumb-url="" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_fvOb9YtHHg?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div><p>I'm no stranger to hitting the wrong note, though I can usually slide up or down the fretboard to make it seem like I meant to be there in the first place. But sometimes it just doesn't work out. About a month ago, I was playing a song by the Zach Brown Band called “Where The Boat Leaves From”, and on that magical day, I made Nick Jonas sound like a musical prodigy. I started out on the absolute worst wrong note possible, and it went downhill from there. I never found the right key. At one point, I completely stopped playing for a few seconds, then started playing again, and once again, started out on the wrong note followed by a flurry of many others, all of which were also wrong. I never recovered.</p><p>I've played that song's guitar solo hundreds of times, but on that day, for whatever reason, every neuron in my brian misfired, and I somehow couldn't manage to find my footing. It was so bad that I broke out laughing and could barely sing the second verse. I mean, it's no big deal; it's just one song after all. And if there's anything I know, it's to never take this stuff too seriously. Besides, even though I couldn't find the right note, at least I had it surrounded!</p><p>I am pretty sure that I was recording my audio at the time (as I often do), but I can't find the recording. If I ever find it, I will post it here. Legendary.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/72436422023-07-18T12:01:25-04:002023-07-18T12:16:02-04:00Cashing In<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/8764a659de25ea2e559831fbc125f376034f057c/original/dollar.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />There's a trend lately where musical artists are selling their entire music catalogues for huge money. According to ABC News:</p><p><span style="color:hsl(0,0%,60%);"><strong>“In 2021, Bruce Springsteen reportedly sold his catalog to Sony for more than $500 million. Others capitalizing on the trend include Neil Young and David Bowie and more modern artists like Justin Timberlake and John Legend. Even Justin Bieber, at just 28 years old, reportedly sold his catalog for a staggering $200 million.”</strong></span></p><p><span style="color:#f0ebc5;">I can't resist those kind of eye-watering numbers. So I just looked up the sales figures from the streaming services that push my debut / farewell / greatest hits / anthology album Gettin' Deep, to get a reference. So far, after just 3 years, I have bagged a total of $8.38 (minus fees). That's right; over eight dollars!</span></p><p><span style="color:#f0ebc5;">Based on that data, I have decided not to wait on Gettin' Deep going platinum anytime soon. It's better to simply sell my entire music catalogue. The first offer over 7 figures gets it.</span></p><p><span style="color:#f0ebc5;">I'm waiting…</span></p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/72282122023-06-17T14:18:05-04:002023-06-26T12:26:59-04:00Desert Island Edition<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/8d4f9de3dca1ceebe7d04571bdcf663747a95c3a/original/wilson.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Not that you asked for it, but here, in no particular order, is my list of ten “Desert Island” albums; the ones that could possibly keep me entertained enough to not have to talk to a soccer ball. Never mind that there'd be no electrical power for my turntable, though maybe I could do the Gilligan's Island pedal-powered bit. Nah; I'm too lazy to use an exercise bike.</p><p><strong>Aja</strong> Steely Dan</p><p><strong>Pictures At Eleven</strong> Robert Plant</p><p><strong>Live In The Air Age</strong> Be Bop Deluxe</p><p><strong>What If</strong> (or <strong>Free Fall</strong> or<strong> Night Of The Living Dregs</strong>) Dixie Dregs</p><p><strong>Suspended Animation</strong> John Petrucci</p><p><strong>Moving Pictures</strong> (or <strong>Permanent Waves </strong>or <strong>2112</strong> or <strong>Hemispheres</strong>) Rush</p><p><strong>Queen 2</strong> Queen</p><p><strong>Physical Graffiti</strong> (or <strong>Houses Of The Holy</strong> or <strong>Presence</strong>) Led Zeppelin</p><p><strong>Jailbreak</strong> Thin Lizzy</p><p><strong>Overnight Sensation</strong> (or <strong>Apostrophe</strong>) Frank Zappa</p><p>By the way, I always thought that the movie Cast Away should have ended differenly. Like this: After years on the island, faithfully protecting the FedEx box that washed ashore with him from the wrecked plane while being careful never to open it, Tom Hanks finally makes it back to civilization. He drives across the country to the address that was labeled on the box, and hands the package to a woman at the door. She opens it in front of him, and says “Wow, I completely forgot that I had ordered that satellite phone and GPS from Amazon!”.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/72113672023-05-18T13:08:39-04:002023-05-20T13:13:10-04:00My Favorite Rock Star Quote<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/049b1feec87938a56b21ea42c4158e35388b3687/original/angus.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />When it comes to classic rock, it's hard to beat AC/DC. My favorite band? Well, not exactly. But I love their energy (pun intended), the fun they seem to be having on stage, and the sound and style of their guitar playing. There's no virtuosic legato, tapped harmonics or sweep picking, so their guitars - thankfully - don't sound like an angry wasp in a coke bottle (dweedly twiddly diddly tweedly), like so many of the musically gifted shredders' intruments do. They just CRANK. That's how I like it.</p><p>I recently read a magazine article saying that the members of AC/DC are not the self-important rock gods that some other bands' members have become after being together for 50 years. They still seem to never take themselves too seriously. I suppose that when the lead guitarist wears a velour schoolboy costume you probably can't!</p><p>Take, for instance, Angus Young's reply when an interviewer asked him how he feels when someone comments that all of their albums sound similar:</p><p><strong>“I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sound exactly the same, In fact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.”</strong></p><p>What a great quote.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/71912732023-04-16T10:36:06-04:002023-04-16T11:07:06-04:00You've Been A Bad Monkey<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/dd39f2f418d5cdf371dae19b22cdb9a259e15548/original/bad-monkey.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />One of the best things about being a guitar player is having access to effects pedals. They're interesting, colorful, they open up lots of new sounds, and if you know how to turn the knobs just right, they can really help you sound better and more polished.</p><p>They also are inexpensive enough (usually, that is - more on that in a minute) that you can swap them in and out of your rig without spending the kind of money that you spend on guitars and amps. And with all these guitarists swapping them back and forth on the eBay, Craigslist and Reverb.com used gear markets, you can get lost in a whole world of awesome, dirt cheap entertainment!</p><p>As you move up the scale, however, from the garden variety (up to around $100) effects to the more pricey pedals (up to around $400), it gets harder to think that way. Those effects are usually either for the professionals, or for people with very specific and demanding needs, or for the “gear snobs”. Multi-effects units can get even pricier, but since they are combining various effects into one unit, the price per virtual effect is usually pretty low. Plus, they eliminate the need for all the interconnect cabling, power supplies, velcro, pedalboards, etc.</p><p>But then, there's the top tier. The ultra-hyped “effects of the rock stars” that go from trendy to ridiculously overpriced cult status in a matter of just weeks, days, and sometimes even hours.</p><p>I had one of those pedals once. A gray DOD Overdrive 250 that I was going to put out at the curb, literally, because I never cared for the way it sounded. But my son told me to look at eBay, because “You never know”. He was right, because in looking into it, it turns out that about 98% of those DOD pedals were canary yellow, but 2% were gray. The gray one had recently been endorsed by one of the shred-meister guitar gods, a guy named Yngwie Malmsteen. He considered it to be essential to get his tone. eBay was on fire, with all the Yngwie wannabes clamoring for the gray DOD 250. I got $350 for a pedal I paid 70 bucks for in 1985.</p><p>It gets better. An original Klon Centaur overdrive in good shape can get you up to $8000. There are other high-dollar cult pedals too. Some fade out almost as fast as they get trendy. Others, like a first-generation Ibanez Tube Screamer (think Stevie Ray Vaughan) or a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (Jimi Hendrix), a Solo Sound Tone Bender (probably the ugliest effects pedal ever made), can get you nearly there too.</p><p>And then there's the Digitech Bad Monkey. Hated by countless guitar players everywhere, and considered to be just a toy for noob players who didn't know any better, it was shown a few weeks ago in a video by Josh Scott, of JHS Effects, who is possibly the best authority on guitar effects in the world. Scott did a YouTube video which demonstrated how, with the right knob-turning and nothing else, he could make a Bad Monkey sound nearly identical to a Tube Screamer, a Fulltone OCD, and yes, even the vaunted Klon Centaur. He was so convincing that the prices for used Bad Monkeys shot up from around $30 to over $600. In a matter of MINUTES.</p><p>The hype didn't last long, but even now, 3 weeks later, the eBay “ask” prices are in the mid-$100 range, and the “sold” prices are around 70% of that. For a pedal that many guitarists called junk.</p><p>I'm gonna invent the P.T. Barnum Overdrive. It's gonna be a box with two connectors and a wire, and a switch that overlays your guitar's signal with the sound of a cash register.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/71705542023-03-13T16:10:08-04:002023-03-15T06:21:55-04:00Believe It Or Whatever<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/b98a6f18cd065c79bd594ac870f31e4be4c8008d/original/believe-it-or-whatever.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />Strange but true! OK, not so strange actually, but I thought it was sorta weird: Early on Saturday afternoon, I was flipping through TV channels, and stumbled upon a golf tournament. I'm not a golfer (probably because I'm no good at it) and only played 3 or 4 times. But it's a fun, relaxing sport and there's lots of pretty natural scenery. Besides, there was nothing else on TV. So yeah. Golf.</p><p>As soon as I set down the remote, a text came in. “Hey John, we need someone to fill in tonight for a sick musician at a resort up near Jacksonville. Corporate party for one of the sponsors of the PGA Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra. Are you interested?"</p><p>This was the same tournament I had just found on TV less than a minute earlier.</p><p>A two hour drive, and not much time to prepare, but wow, a great gig, and with such a quirky coincidence, I just had to take it. So while it's not exactly Twilight Zone material, maybe there's an outside chance it could qualify for the back page of Ripley's comic book, next to the World's Smallest Giant and the Amazing Gourd Boy.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/71537202023-02-14T13:27:15-05:002023-02-23T18:43:12-05:00Beck and Bacharach<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/122064/24e47ec7646818ddf9041a23c079ad16d38712f7/original/beck-and-bacharach.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_m justify_center border_" />Wow, two legends gone in one month.</p><p>Jeff Beck, one of my favorite guitar players, passed away in mid-January. He was one of those people that I assumed would be around forever; probably because he pushed the envelope, and was very good at reinventing himself. There will never be another one like him.</p><p>And now, less than a month later, another icon is gone. Ever since I was a kid, I've been a “closet Burt Bacharach fan”. I've always had a steady diet of Rock, Metal, Alt, Prog and other edgy music, so it's a little embarassing to admit that I've also enjoyed his particular style of 60s pop (often done in collaboration with lyricist Hal David). The melodies, the “hooks”, the chord progressions and key changes were inventive and complex, yet easy to listen to. And Bacharach was one of the most prolific songwriters of all time. Over seven decades, he wrote and/or performed over 70 - that's right, SEVENTY Top 40 hits. Some people, understandably, call it “elevator music", but I like it anyway.</p><p>My wife is a lifelong Karen Carpenter fan. She has less trouble admitting that she sometimes likes listening to Lounge Pop than I do.</p><p>Coincidentally, it turns out that Bacharach and David wrote the Carpenter's first #1 hit, Close To You.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/71405172023-01-19T20:35:18-05:002023-01-22T12:07:34-05:00New Year, New Me<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/b3725bd8981476cd8d6f194197d54b132bc7dd8e/original/2023.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />Been seeing a lot of articles about "music royalty" lately. There's Elvis, King of Rock and Roll. Aretha Franklin, Queen of R&B. James Brown, Godfather of Soul. Many people with titles like those definitely deserve them.</p>
<p>But now I see there's a list on Wikipedia called <a contents="Honorific Nicknames In Popular Music" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_nicknames_in_popular_music" target="_blank">Honorific Nicknames In Popular Music</a>. There, you'll find the expected royalty: Chuck Berry, Loretta Lynn, Michael Jackson, Dick Dale. And that's all fine. But there's lots more, as in HUNDREDS more, and I'm sorta struggling with that.</p>
<p>I mean, right there alongside the Buddy Hollys and the Tina Turners is Clifton Chenier, King of Zydeco. And MC Frontalot, Godfather of Nerdcore. Nina Hagen, Mother of Punk. Toby Love, King of Crunkchata (what the heck is that?). And let's not forget Jane Zhang, Dolphin Princess.</p>
<p>So I've decided that there must be room for one more, and if I can just invent an obscure music genre that nobody ever heard of, I can annoint myself King, and become immortal. An instant legend.</p>
<p>From now on, please refer to me as The Godfather of Neo-Classical Countryfunk.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/71222422022-12-13T13:53:13-05:002023-01-22T12:07:34-05:00What's Better Than Bad Santa? Refried Santa!<p style="text-align: justify;"><a contents="" data-link-label="Rockin' Around The Xmas Tree Circa 1985" data-link-type="page" href="/rockin-around-the-xmas-tree-circa-1985" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/037dd4ffc6e9f26f1683fef85af61589c764193d/original/bad-santa-2.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></a></p>
<p>Happy Holidays! We've had quite a month here; let's just leave it at that. Due to several events out of my control (and a fair amount of exhaustion), I decided to find an easy way out of having to think of something creative for this month's Blog posting. So I'm recycling the song from my December 2020 posting. Copy, paste, done. Consider it musical Re-Gifting.</p>
<p>This song was an absurd (yet very fun to produce) thrashing of a Christmas classic that I recorded back in the 80s. It's so bad it's... OK it's just bad.</p>
<p>So please allow me to take a Mulligan on this month's posting. I mean, after all, Bad Santa was a notorius slacker, so I should make it on his list by following in his lazy footsteps. Click <a contents="HERE" data-link-label="Rockin' Around The Xmas Tree Circa 1985" data-link-type="page" href="/rockin-around-the-xmas-tree-circa-1985" target="_blank">HERE</a> or all you get is coal.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/71037572022-11-16T15:22:55-05:002022-11-24T22:20:37-05:00TBGPYNH<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/418c3b7015100191973ec29aa63da3c3b046e3a5/original/tbgpynh.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />Unless you're a guitar nut, like me, these 3 guys are most likely not household names. But they are some of my guitar heroes, and they deserve way more attention than they get. Click these YouTube links and give them a few minutes if you have time.</p>
<p><a contents="Greg Koch" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSU5NoqnK1E" target="_blank">Greg Koch</a> (if you're in a hurry, the pyrotechnics start at 2:43)</p>
<p><a contents="Guthrie Trapp" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-eQln1Io60" target="_blank">Guthrie Trapp</a> (one of Nashville's best and most versatile players)</p>
<p><a contents="Steffan Schackinger" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GJs6Cj7X2I" target="_blank">Steffen Schackinger</a> (he's from Denmark, but man, he sure is down with that Celtic sound!)</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/70806262022-10-13T12:33:08-04:002022-10-15T11:15:29-04:00Guitarioke (pronounced gih-tar-ee-oh-kee)<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/40512737c79323c9c9dea50e725de721d875ece3/original/milli.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />When I started out in 2014, I quickly found out that a lot of my preconceptions about performing were wrong. One of them was my fear of using backing tracks.</p>
<p>More than once, I had heard other musicians use words like 'illegitimate', 'cheating', even the dreaded word 'guitarioke' when talking about the use of backing tracks. I can see why they might say such things. I mean, I actually did see a guy in a cruise-ship pub faking the Sultans Of Swing guitar solos. With a MIDI track, no less. Not even a real guitar sound. So yes, cheating does happen. And I didn't want to look like a cheater. That unneccesary worry nearly prevented me from going forward.</p>
<p>Being in a band was out of the question. Too many variables. As a single player, there's no down time if another bandmenber quits and we miss a dozen gigs or more while a replacement learns 100+ songs. I also like being able to pick all the covers in my setlist. It's a one-man dictatorship. Selfish maybe, but way easier. Nobody (except maybe me) makes mistakes, breaks a string, or goes off-key. No 200 pound monolithic amp cabinets, hydra-esque PA cable snakes or 72 piece drum kits. No 'audio escalation syndrome', where each player slowly ratchets up their volume to overcome the others until the sound is just a loud swirl of audio mush.</p>
<p>And the biggest plus, by far: Solo gigs are almost always either restaurant or poolside affairs, and therefore rarely end late at night. So, you'll never see me eating pancakes and rubber sausage in a Denny's at 3AM. Thank God for that!</p>
<p>But as a lead electric guitarist, I had to face the simple truth that even though I'd be going solo, I'd still have to have, as a minimum, drums and bass on many of my cover songs. I can't just strum an acoustic guitar and/or do 7 layers of loops all night. Therefore, I was not going to get around it. I needed backing tracks (BTs) or it wasn't going to work. I was really struggling with the idea.</p>
<p>My wife has always had faith in me, and she was working hard to convince me to go through with it. As I tried to get over my hangup and move forward as a solo entertainer, I read countless message boards about the pluses and minuses of using BTs. If you're still reading this then you already know the plus side of the solo vs band argument. On the minus side: "Using tracks makes your sound too sterile", some people wrote. "It's a crutch", said others. Or, "It's boring when there's no front man (sorry, front person!), or a drummer twirling a stick between cymbal crashes". Some people used terms like bogus, fake, and <a contents="Milli-Vanilli" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli_Vanilli" target="_blank">Milli-Vanilli</a>.</p>
<p>There's merit to some of that criticism and it wasn't doing me much good.</p>
<p>But then I read a post on a message board which made everything crystal clear. The poster wrote "You're all missing the point. It doesn't matter if you're juggling chainsaws, performing magic tricks, doing standup, playing in a 7-piece jazz band, or (in my case) doing a guitar solo with a backing track behind you. All that matters is whether you are entertaining the crowd. So if they like what you're doing, and they're having a great time, then you are definitely doing your job".</p>
<p>That single posting (and a very supportive wife) is why I finally decided to go for it. I'm sure glad I did.</p>
<p> </p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/70601262022-09-14T12:10:13-04:002022-10-05T11:17:33-04:00Shama Lama Ding Dong<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/80540046d32000c53112b47a345730bd308c3e36/original/otis.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>As I'm pretty sure I've said before, writing music doesn't come easily for me. It's why, after all this time, I've done only one album. You'd think though, that at least the lyrics shouldn't be too much trouble, considering some of the popular songs that have been written over the years.</p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>1958 - Book Of Love (Monotones): </strong><br>Oh I wonder, wonder who, mmbadoo-ooh, who <br>Who wrote the book of love? </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>1963 - He's so fine (Chiffons): </strong><br>Do-lang-do-lang-do-lang <br>Do-lang-do-lang </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>1967 - I Am The Walrus (Beatles): </strong><br>Sitting on a cornflake <br>waiting for the van to come </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>1968 - McArthur Park (Richard Harris): </strong><br>Someone left the cake out in the rain <br>I don't think that I can take it <br>Cuz it took so long to bake it <br>And I'll never have that recipe again </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>1978 - Shama Lama Ding Dong (Otis Day and the Knights): </strong><br>Because you're <br>Shama Lama <br>Rama lama ding dong <br>You put the ooh mou mou <br>Back into my smile, child <br>That is why <br>That is why <br>You are my shoobee doobee doo <br>Yeah</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>1984 - New Moon On Monday (Duran Duran): </strong><br>Shake up the picture the lizard mixture <br>with your dance on the eventide </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>1994 - Loser (Beck): </strong><br>In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey <br>Butane in my veins and I'm out to cut the junkie <br>With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables <br>Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><strong>2005 - Here We Go (Trina): </strong><br>Blah, blah blah <br>Blah blah blah-blah <br>I'm like uh-huh uh-huh <br>OK OK</span></p>
<p>Woah. Now that is deep.</p>
<p>By the way, regarding that Duran Duran song; I remember an interview with one of them (Simon LeBon, maybe?) who was asked about the lyrics of New Moon On Monday. The interviewer said something like "I'm so moved by the sheer depth of the words. The juxtaposition of man versus machine. The struggle of the time/space continuum and how technology can stifle our ability to (etc, etc, etc...)". He responded "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but no, I just put a bunch of words together that sound cool. They don't mean anything."</p>
<p>Recently, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters gave a similar answer to the host of one of those daytime talk shows. The host went on and on about the lyrics of their song Learn To Fly; about the escapism of it all, and how liberating and cathartic it must feel to release your inner psyche from the bonds of mankind's oppression and (<em>insert big fancy words here</em>...). Dave's answer: "Nope. I wanted to be a pilot at the time. I wish I had a better answer for you. But like it says; I just wanted to learn to fly."</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/70397902022-08-17T10:38:55-04:002022-08-24T10:35:54-04:00More Musical Mashups From The 4th Dimension<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/fae2b56ca4b56952f624b8a1990e3ecc70456aa5/original/enterprise-and-space-guitar-scl.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_xl justify_center border_thick" alt="" />A while back, I posted about some highly unlikely collaborations that actually happened (Zappa and Osmond on Nightline, the Martha Stewart / Snoop Dog connection, Pat Boone's "metal and leather" phase, etc). I jokingly suggested that there is an upcoming duet album from Amy Grant and Marilyn Manson, which obviously has the same relative odds, but <em>didn't</em> actually happen - yet!</p>
<p>It makes me wonder; maybe there's an alternate universe of musical weirdness where...</p>
<p>...a Masters thesis is turned in by a student at the Julliard School of Music called The Use Of Dropped Tunings In The Viking Metal Genre</p>
<p>...an article is published by a guitar magazine: Surf Songs For Banjo</p>
<p>...a TV infomercial is selling the TIME-LIFE 172 CD holiday collection: Christmas With Ethel Merman and The Georgia Satellites</p>
<p>...a PBS series airs: Understanding Music Theory With Ozzy Osbourne</p>
<p>...performer John Nugent hosts a seminar titled Get Rich Quick In The Music Biz!!!</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/70146292022-07-14T10:16:05-04:002022-08-17T10:51:12-04:00Bass-ic Humor<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/81de0ceae107c2303fd7e5f351dd712f4bc17b8b/original/bass-headstock-nugent.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.jpg" class="size_l justify_none border_none" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px; margin-left: 25px;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In 2015, I tried adjusting the neck relief on my Squier Precision Bass but I forgot to loosen the strings first. SNAP went the truss rod.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I ordered a replacement neck from Warmoth, a vendor of bolt-on necks and other parts. My new neck arrived in fine shape, but it had no logo. Using a sheet of ink-jet decal material and some clear polyurethane lacquer, I made my own. I decided not to try and fake a Fender logo, though I was tempted. Besides, I was in a silly mood at the time, so I designed an obvious counterfeit.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The photo shows the headstock with the new logo. I made the logo look almost exactly like the Fender logo, but if you look a little closer, you can see the letters "pre" followed by the word Tender (with a stylized "T" instead of the standard Fender "F"). Because after all, it's not a Fender; it's a preTender.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Fender has their Precision Bass model. I've named mine the Largemouth Bass.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/69945622022-06-15T13:47:30-04:002022-06-15T14:42:28-04:00Parody By The Pint<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/3fae68e4d5d6c2af27482bf8a83600eda5839712/original/beer-shots-and-wine.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />I couldn't resist making fun of this one. The world's most overplayed cover song; Sweet Caroline. from cruise ships to poolside bars to Boston Red Sox games to Over-55 retirement communities everywhere. How many times have I played it? Thankfully, zero. But maybe someday I'll play the version at the end of this post... Nah.</p>
<p>We all know that binge drinking is always a bad idea. Almost as dumb: Inviting Sam Adams, Jack Daniels and EJ Gallo to your stomach party. So let this parody song be a lesson!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Beer, Shots And Wine (sung to the tune of Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond)</span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Lyrics by John Nugent</span></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Too many beers <br>Down at the tailgate party <br>What is this pounding in my head? <br>Out goes the keg <br>Someone says "Dude, no worries!",<br>Hands me a rum and coke instead </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Drunk <br>Sloppy drunk <br>Passin' out <br>Wakin' up <br>In your pool </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Beer, shots and wine <br>All at once just ain't no good <br>I lost my mind <br>Shoulda known I never could <br>But here comes... </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Three shots of Jack <br>Chase 'em with Pabst Blue Ribbon <br>How bout a watermelon Shnapps? <br>Some joker says <br>"Break out the jello shooters" <br>That's when the wheels came flyin' off </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Drunk <br>Stinkin' drunk <br>Blackin' out <br>Throwin' up <br>On your shoes </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Beer, shots and wine <br>All at once just ain't no good <br>I lost my mind <br>Shoulda known I never could </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">*** instrumental bridge *** </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Beer, shots and wine <br>All at once just ain't no good <br>I lost my mind <br>Now I know I never should </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Beer, shots and wine... (fade out)</span></p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/69677582022-05-10T11:41:44-04:002022-05-10T20:56:09-04:00Gigs From Hell - The Night I was Dumped At The Landfill<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/43301485af2aa36dd61e8c7a43012242de8813fb/original/peewee.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />There used to be a venue in North Melbourne that was near (actually right next to) the Sarno Road landfill. It was called, rightly, The Landfill Saloon.</p>
<p>It was pretty popular with locals, especially with bikers, but for some reason was closed in 2016. I'm not sure why, because they supposedly had very good food, and the outdoor deck they built was big, solid, and on a lot that was perfect for large rowdy crowds. Maybe it was because it was too close to a landfill.</p>
<p>In my first year doing this solo thing, 2014, I played there. As a guy just starting out, I grabbed every gig I could get. The Landfill Saloon taught me an important lesson: Don't take every single offer. I went down in flames. They hated my music. Not me, just my music.</p>
<p>There were around 60 or 70 people there, all bikers. Really nice people; a very friendly crowd, but definitely not into it. I don't blame them; I mean, you're not going to find any Judas Priest, Twisted Sister or Steppenwolf in my setlists. After several tunes, I said, over the mic, "Uh, folks, I'm getting the impression that I'm in big trouble. I just played 4 or 5 covers that I figured had the best chance of winning you over, but I can tell that it's not happening. And it goes downhill from here. So, whattaya say we just call it a night, and I'll tell the Manager that they can keep their money?"</p>
<p>A cheer erupted and I got a standing ovation. OK, so they were already standing, but they were obviously grateful to see me go away. There were offers to help me pack my gear, and a few good-spirited pats on the back for not playing my guitar.</p>
<p>I hadn't seen that many happy bikers since PeeWee Herman did the <a contents='"Tequila dance"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKsd8z6scw" target="_blank">"Tequila dance"</a> on the bar for the Satan's Helpers motorcycle gang.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/69457512022-04-11T12:07:10-04:002022-04-11T23:55:12-04:00Parrot-Head Parody<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/e603f3b22e8d8b7cfde2ccb7d81e937795c84b5b/original/metamuciville.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>I've butchered the lyrics to quite a few songs over the years, even before there was a Weird Al Yankovich. And as I had said in a previous post (see Hey Mr Dan Marino, from 18Nov2021), I plan to put some of them here on my website from time to time. My favorite songs to parody are the ones that, as I call them, are "retreads". Because, as great as many of those classic tunes are, they get played entirely too often by musical entertainers; at least around here they do. Especially the TropRock stuff.</p>
<p>One in particular, Jimmy Buffet's biggest hit, was so much fun and so popular that it has unfortunately been covered more than any other; more than Mustang Sally, Brown-Eyed Girl or even Sweet Caroline!</p>
<p>So, as far as I was concerned, it was fair game. Time for a Parrot-Head Parody.</p>
<p>Yep, what was once a song about getting drunk on your porch with some new ink and a lacerated foot is now a song about getting older and how difficult that can be. As my dad used to say, "getting old is not for sissies".</p>
<p>_____________________________</p>
<p><span class="font_large"><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Metamuciville (Sung to the lyrics of "Margaritaville", by Jimmy Buffett)</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Lyrics - John Nugent</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Nursin' a bad back <br>Feelin' the bones crack <br>Bifocal glasses; can't hardly hear <br>Soakin' my false teeth <br>Straightenin' my hairpiece <br>Six different meds now, chase 'em with beer </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Wastin' away again in Metamuciville <br>Searchin' for the lost key to my car <br>So freakin' lame, I guess my age is to blame <br>I give up; I'll just hang at the bar </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">My kids think I'm insane <br>Can't remember my dog's name <br>Not even sure I could tell you my own <br>Under stress and overweight <br>I need a new prostate <br>Ain't had a woody since 2001 </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Wastin' away again in Metamuciville <br>Found my keys, but where is my car? <br>So freakin' lame I guess my age is to blame <br>What the hell. Let's go back to the bar </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">(Solo) </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Paisley shirts and checkered pants <br>Strikin' out at the Seniors Dance <br>Charge up the scooter so I can get home <br>Sick of watchin' the TV, so I <br>Booked a flight to Tahiti <br>Got lost in the airport, wound up in Rome </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Wastin' away again in Metamuciville <br>Can't find my car (or was it a truck?) <br>So freakin' lame I guess my age is to blame <br>Gettin' old, man does it suck </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Yes and, ain't it a shame, I guess my age is to blame <br>Gettin' old; oh boy does it suck.</span></p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/69188062022-03-10T11:03:15-05:002022-03-10T19:32:30-05:00I Wanna Be That Guy<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/b67c255f213335417faa8030d7e903af65c446b2/original/pepto-guy.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Some bucket list buckets should remain empty, I guess.</p>
<p>When I was 7 years old, I wanted to be a "blimp driver". True. We lived right across the causeway from the mooring mast of the Goodyear Blimp. It was maybe 2 miles from the house. I thought it would be a dream job to fly that thing. Wow, being the pilot of a giant lighter-than-air dirigible! Or as I called it, a Blimp Driver. I really wanted to be that guy.</p>
<p>My oddball bucket list hasn't gotten any less strange over the years. I always wanted to be an extra in a zombie movie. Heck, I still do. It would be fun to tell people "Man, you've got to check out Night Of The Living Dead Part 12. It's streaming tonight at 4AM on the SHUDDER network. I'm that (undead) guy at 31:47, crouching in the fog behind a beat up Airstream trailer, gnawing on a foot."</p>
<p>I also think it would be fun to sing TV and radio ad jingles; especially the ones with ridiculously mundane lyrics. I remember a jingle for a local air conditioner shop called Able Air. Arena-rock anthem music by a band that sounded a lot like Kansas. The singer, at the top of his Steve Walsh-esque lungs, sang</p>
<p><span style="color:#3498db;"><em><strong>"Able to be there when you need us. ABLE AIR. Quality service at its finest. ABLE AIR!"</strong></em></span></p>
<p>And I mean, he was really into it. Like the future of the free world depended on your condenser fan's short circuited startup capacitor.</p>
<p>I wonder if "that guy" in the Pepto Bismol ads brags to his friends when his moment in the spotlight comes, every time they air it (which, by the way, is a lot). You know; the ad where they're singing</p>
<p><span style="color:#3498db;"><strong><em>"If you've got nausea, heatburn, indigestion, acid reflux"</em></strong></span></p>
<p>and then he belts out</p>
<p><span style="color:#3498db;"><strong><em>"DIAR...</em></strong></span></p>
<p>Let's just stop there. Trust me, he's not singing about his personal journal. If that's the only word I get to sing then I don't think I wanna be that guy.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/68954242022-02-11T17:03:40-05:002022-02-16T12:11:01-05:00Awkward Musical Combos<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/83e73c13a445dbd157d37dc4f82deae9a44a0c72/original/pat-boone-metal.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />In 1985, I saw something I never would have believed could happen. On the TV show Nightline, <a contents="Frank Zappa and Donny Osmond" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00akjaGyrF8" target="_blank">Frank Zappa and Donny Osmond</a> were discussing a Music Content Labeling bill that was up for vote in Congress. Strangely, they were both in almost total agreement against censorship. What a shock to see the musical equivalent of the North and South poles in near lockstep.</p>
<p>Mixing water-and-oil entertainers for ratings is nothing new. For some reason, there are always certain people who enjoy that (?). Laurel and Hardy gave way to Abbot and Costello, then Dean Martin / Jerry Lewis, and nowadays, it seems like everywhere I look it's Snoop Dog and Martha Stewart.</p>
<p>Another thing happening a lot is so-called 'crossover' music, though some things should never cross over. In 1997, Pat Boone (yes, THAT Pat Boone) did an album of Hard Rock / Prozac Pop covers, titled In A Metal Mood. A dozen songs originally done by bands like Metallica, AC/DC, Ozzy, etc, but turned into crooning lounge lizard masterpieces. I dare you to make it to the end of his cover of Van Halen's <a contents="Panama" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGhPcpfi4vE" target="_blank">Panama</a>. I still can't decide if the backup vocals are the Lawrence Welk singers or the Brady Bunch.</p>
<p>And then there's beyond weird. You haven't lived life to its fullest until you experience William Shatner's version of <a contents="Mr Tambourine Man" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hTtsqiFCc" target="_blank">Mr Tambourine Man</a>. Or Leonard Nimoy's <a contents="Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC35cQKHwzg" target="_blank">Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins</a>. Wow.</p>
<p>I will give Pat Boone some credit though. I'm pretty sure he did that album as some kind of big joke. And yep, it worked. But I actually think Kirk and Spock were trying to be serious. Or maybe it's just the musical equivalent of <a contents="Jumping The Shark" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark" target="_blank">Jumping The Shark</a>; a last gasp as your star power fades away.</p>
<p>I'm halfway expecting that a Marilyn Manson / Amy Grant duet is around the corner.</p>
<p> </p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/68659462022-01-11T18:37:01-05:002022-01-28T12:50:37-05:00Turn it Down!<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/3c9bf9bfccb2544d036d727270a472a323c8d32b/original/evil-guitar.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />I really love what I do. Playing music is, by far, the best "job" I've ever had. No one so lucky should ever complain. So please forgive me for my second consecutive whiney post. Anyway, here goes:</span></p>
<p>Guitar players, especially electric guitar players, are often told that they're too loud. That complaint is usually justfied. Aware of this, I am always extra careful to keep my volume at proper levels. If I'm too loud, it can be very annoying for the crowd, and even more so for the venue's workers. Here's a typical conversation between two customers at a particularly earsplitting thrash-metal nightclub:</p>
<p>He: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING LATER TONIGHT?"</p>
<p>She: "WHAT?"</p>
<p>He: "I SAID WHAT ARE YOU DOING LATER?"</p>
<p>She: "WHAT?"</p>
<p>He: "NEVER MIND."</p>
<p>She: "WHAT?"</p>
<p>Most of us hate that kind of loud, right? I sure do, so I try to keep my sound in the sweet spot. Not too loud, not too soft.</p>
<p>But one night not long ago, I just couldn't possibly have gotten any LESS loud. The manager who hired me was a fine host and a nice enough person but unfortunately he had the hypersensitive sonar hearing of a fruit bat. By the time he was finally satisfied, the sound of my voice was literally louder than it was through the PA.</p>
<p>Even worse is that all night long, people kept saying "Dude, you really need to turn up! Nobody can hear you!" Well, I guess one person could.</p>
<p>To put it scientifically (not that I need to):</p>
<ul> <li>747 at takeoff +150dB</li> <li>Construction site +100dB</li> <li>Classroom chatter +60dB</li> <li>Deep woods at night +20dB</li> <li>Library 0dB</li> <li>Mouse breathing softly into cotton ball -20dB</li> <li>Cave on far side of Pluto -180dB</li> <li>Gig (see above) -???</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/68420432021-12-15T14:46:35-05:002021-12-30T10:51:00-05:00Gigs From Hell - The French Disconnection<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/4eb8996a34583ddd6f0054ba46c2b2a2af79ac65/original/french-disconnection.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Any musician who's been out there long enough has horror stories of gigs that went wrong, and I'm no exception.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I got a call from a French-Canadian snowbird about playing a New Year's Eve party at a Senior Center just north of Daytona Beach. After I accepted her kind offer, she stated (in somewhat broken English) "So we see you then and I show where you have parking."</p>
<p>The night of the gig, as I was setting up, I noticed that everyone (except me) was in their Hollywood Finest; Ladies wearng full length evening gowns, and men in suits that stopped just short of tuxedo territory. In my button-down tropical print shirt, I sensed that I was in big trouble.</p>
<p>After only 3 or 4 songs, things came to a screeching halt. I was interrupted, mid song, by the woman who booked me, asking why I was not playing dance music. I said "Yeah, not everything I play is dance-able. What exactly are you looking for?".</p>
<p>"We all are wanting ballroom dancing! Waltz, or Samba, or Cha-Cha! Tango? No? But not this fast thing which you are playing. The guests are not liking these fast things."</p>
<p>I asked whether she had been to my website before booking me; heard my songs; watched any of the videos. "No, I not have gone to your Interweb place. I was just only told you were good for fun and for dancing" she replied. Yikes.</p>
<p>I suggested we just call it a night, but she begged me to stay. "But it is New Year's and they want fun!"</p>
<p>Then, in a stroke of luck, from somewhere in the depths of the well-dressed yet increasingly agitated mob that was pooling up in front of my little stage, I heard someone say the magic word: "Karaoke". Of course. Karaoke!</p>
<p>So I spent the rest of the night as a poser Karaoke DJ, with the help of YouTube. One by one, they came up to the mic, as I cued the tracks of their favorite Dean Martin, Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra covers. And so, between the Karaoke and the Cognac, they all seemed to have a reasonably good time.</p>
<p>Thank God for the Interweb.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/68141372021-11-18T11:41:21-05:002022-05-20T09:26:19-04:00Porpoise Parody - "Hey Mr Dan Marino"<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/46bd7e40faa99aec9466bf505914d799f6ce6490/original/dolphins-logo.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong><em>UPDATE (09Jan2022):</em></strong><em> Incredibly, after I posted this writeup and parody song, Miami won 8 of their last 9 games of the 2021 NFL season. Maybe it's time to write a song for the Jacksonville Jaguars.</em></span></p>
<p>I love college football. NFL? Not so much. But if I was a pro football fan, I'd probably have to go with the Miami Dolphins.</p>
<p>We lived in Miami Beach for four years when I was in elementary school. In those days, the mid to late 1960s, Miami was WAY different than it is now. Scarface wasn't Al Pacino. He was Al Capone, who, though long gone by then, had left a house that still stood, down the street from us on a little island in Biscayne Bay. Waterfront property was dirt cheap back then, and it seemed like everyone had a dock and spent their summers fishing, skiing, and swimming.</p>
<p>Life in '60s-era Miami was like a real-life episode of "Flipper", the TV porpoise who had a knack for getting into trouble. The series was actually airing at that very same time. I was almost the same age as one of the human characters. We had a little boat, and we ate so much fish I should have sprouted gills.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, Miami had just landed a brand new NFL franchise, the Dolphins, with high hopes and a cool logo, though I've always wondered how a whale could breathe with a helmet over his blowhole.</p>
<p>The team wasn't very good at first. But after we moved away from Miami, the Dolphins got a lot better at playing football. In 1972 they went the distance undefeated; a win/loss record that has never been matched. In the 80s and 90s, after some ups and downs, the Fins were back again, and QB Dan Marino was the man; he broke all kinds of records. The city of Miami had a big resurgence too, and people went nuts over Miami Vice, Scarface, Art Deco buildings and pastel paint.</p>
<p>All that stuff seems distant; almost quaint now. No more Flipper. No more Scarface (either version). No more T-shirts with Armani suits. But, in a throwback to the late 60s, the Miami Dolphins are struggling again this year. Currently, they are 3 and 7, and their playoff hopes are tanking faster than Don Johnson's music career did.</p>
<p>So, out of sympathy, I've written a parody song for the team, asking their 60 year old hero Dan Marino to somehow magically help them recapture some of their marine-mammal mojo.</p>
<p>If they start winning, you can thank me!</p>
<p>_____________________________</p>
<p><span class="font_large"><strong><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Hey Mr Dan Marino</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">(Sung to the melody of "Mr Tambourine Man")</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Lyrics - John Nugent</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Hey Mr Dan Marino <br>Play some downs for me <br>We're not winning and <br>It don't look like we're going to <br>Hey Mr Dan Marino <br>Throw it long for me <br>It's the two-minute warnin' <br>And we're countin' on you </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Miami lost another one <br>Worst I've ever seen <br>Might go 0 and 17 <br>Wish I had a time machine <br>Take me on a trip <br>...Back to 1972 </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">And I know it's been a long time <br>Since you played on my TV <br>No more highlight reels to see <br>No more Fox or NBC,<br>Or Even ESPN 3 <br>Now it's just AARP <br>Cuz you blew out both your knees <br>I promise I'll still root for you </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;">Hey Mr Dan Marino <br>Play some downs for me <br>We're not winning and <br>It don't look like we're going to <br>Hey Mr Dan Marino <br>Throw it long for me<br>Cuz it's 4th down and forever <br>And we're on our own 2</span></p>
<p> </p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/67769592021-10-15T12:13:46-04:002021-12-26T12:59:45-05:00The Worst Top 20 Of All Time<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/d2e5f28b13626fdea02c27b7bb3cfe978fd06235/original/squid-vicious.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />I've never really been in a successful band, though the first one, in high school, was by far the most fun. The fact is, I don't think I was ever meant to be in a band situation. It just seems more comfortable for me to play solo. It's a one-man dictatorship where I get to pick all the songs. I will admit however, that it is a bit like a high-wire act. If something goes sideways, it's totally up to me to McGuyver my way through to the end of the song.</p>
<p>But for some inexplicable reason, I have always kept a running list of "imaginary band names" that I invent, as if I'd actually need one. With the slim odds of ever being in another musical group, this habit has probably never made much sense. And since old habits tend to die hard, my list continues to grow. A few of the names are pretty good. Most are just OK. But then... there are the ones that are downright moronic. On purpose. Because the more absurd they are, the more they make me laugh. I guess maybe that's the real reason I keep updating the list.</p>
<p>Here, in no particular order, is my Bottom 20. I won't bother you with the good ones; they're no fun:</p>
<ul> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>The Bad Clams </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Bums In A Boxcar </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>The Buffoons </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>I Soiled My Spacesuit </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>The Spaghetti Models </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Oaf </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>I Want A Hyrax </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>The Various Artists </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Malaria 51 </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Killer Clownfish </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Mothra Stewart </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Spleen </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Tiny Giant </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>I Think We're All Clones Now </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>He's Dead, Jim </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>The Skunk Apes </strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Texas Leafblower Massacre</strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>Smokey Tardigrade and the Moss-Piglets</strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>OZOB</strong></span></li> <li><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><strong>The TaserTots</strong></span></li>
</ul>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/67498922021-09-17T16:06:20-04:002021-12-26T13:00:32-05:00Totally Tubular, Brah<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/d7573fa1eabc9e886c764b7432b831f6c11f5989/original/tubes.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" />What is it about vacuum tubes? Why would so many of us pay so much for for gear that has electronics that are modeled after 1940s-era technology? Though it seems odd and outdated, most guitar players will swear that tube amps are superior to solid state. Is it hype, or for real? Maybe it's a little of both. Regardless, here are my arguments for why I'm sold on them:</p>
<ul> <li>When vacuum tubes are overdriven, they begin to behave non-linearly, which distorts the signal, adding harmonics to the tone of your guitar. Those harmonics fatten up the sound.</li> <li>Tubes compress the sound of your instrument when they are pushed hard, lowering the dynamic range somewhat, but in a good way; another phenomenon that thickens up the sound.</li> <li>Solid state amps also distort the signal, but in a way that is (best case) not quite the same, and (worst case) pretty awful. Think of the tone of a cheap solid state amp as being similar to the sound of a wasp in a coke bottle, amplified; the sonic equivalent of an icepick in the forehead.</li> <li>Amps with tubes, especially with tubes in the output section, are WAY louder for a given wattage. Those who say that it just 'seems' louder, and that "watts are watts", may not realize that volume and loudness are not necessarily the same thing. Plug the same guitar into a 50 watt solid state amp and then a 50 watt tube amp and there's a clear difference. Audio streaming services and producers of TV commercials figured this whole 'loudness' thing out a long time ago, though they do it with studio techniques; compression, limiting, EQ, slapback echo, etc.</li> <li>Vacuum tubes simply look cool, glowing in the back of your amp. And coolness has always been a part of rock and roll, right? Many amp manufacturers have perforated panels in the front and rear of their amps, because the tubes give off lots of heat. I'll bet it's also because that orange glow looks great behind a flat-black grille. It's that Mad Scientist Lab retro look.</li> <li>The thought of trillions of electrons boiling off of a negatively charged cathode plate as you hit that open E chord just makes it seem all the more awesome; at least to me it does.</li>
</ul>
<p>Nowadays, smart solid state amp and effects pedal builders use things like Impulse Response curves, Amp Sims and other tools to emulate what tube amps already do naturally. They're getting pretty good at this. To be honest, I hope they never truly nail it.</p>
<p>The mystique about vacuum tubes is a strange mix of hype, nostalgia and factual electronic theory. But any way you want to justify them, tubes are here to stay. Brah.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/67105972021-08-09T12:11:03-04:002022-05-11T14:57:04-04:00Time-Life Music Collections Of the Future<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/e11fedb99563f575810b194d94163b4950f5eea9/original/90s-grunge1.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />We were watching one of those Saturday evening Time-Life audio collections on TV the other day (yes, I admit we do watch them sometimes) when they started playing tunes from lesser known bands like Mott The Hoople and Nazareth. Though I used to really like those groups, I never figured that the music curators would ever consider them 'legendary'. But they did, and that's fine with me.</p>
<p>So as the years keep rolling forward, I guess we had better be ready for other collections not seen before. No more STARS OF MOTOWN or ROCK LOVE BALLADS. Nope. Brace yourself for the inevitable Time-Life GOLDEN GRUNGE COLLECTION. I can almost hear the hosts now:</p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>Eddie Vedder: "Ya'know, Courtney, thinking back on those days of flannel shirts, combat boots, holey jeans and hair that hasn't seen a comb in six months really makes me smile."</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>Courtney Love: "Yes, Eddie, memories we'll always cherish. The bands and the icons we'll never forget. The Breeders, Garbage, Alice In Chains, The Melvins..."</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>Eddie Vedder: "And those incredible musicians playing entire guitar chords..."</em></span></p>
<p>Don't get me wrong; I loved 90s music, and in particular, many of those grunge and alt bands. I still do. But I have a feeling that none of the artists in those '90s groups would ever want to hear the words 'Classic' and 'Alternative' in the same sentence. It would seem to completely miss the point of that whole era. Even so, chances are that we'll be watching some Saturday night when that collection actually airs, and heck, I might even buy it. All 124 CDs. Or the USB stick, micro-SD card, or whatever format they're using by then, assuming they don't just stream it.</p>
<p>Sometime around the year 2045 comes the real shocker:</p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>(Background music: chug chug jugga krunk flaaarrnnngggg, dweedlydweedly chug chug jugga krunk..</em></span><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>.)</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>"It's time to roll back the clock to the days of drop tuned</em></span>, <span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>sweep picked, palm muted, 8 string mayhem! Guitars that looked like medieval battle axes and leftover Halloween props. And those unforgettable yet unintelligible Death Growl vocals. It's GOTH-METAL GOLD! And now, here's your hosts, Lars 'G</em></span><em style="color: rgb(189, 195, 199);">utGrinder' Elfwagen and our very own Wink Martindale!"</em></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>GutGrinder: "Gwaahhhrr mwarrrh gworfar merf wormwoohr trrrongar. GWERMERMUNK!"</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#bdc3c7;"><em>Wink Martindale: "That's right, G.G., great times and fond memories ..."</em></span></p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/66845362021-07-10T20:30:20-04:002021-12-26T13:02:40-05:00The 5 Seasons: Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Torture<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/addb34ea58df7362f0b96bee82c38dd2f5c2c773/original/summer.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p>Summer always reminds me of how much I love the Fall. Nothing wrong with summer, I'm just not a big fan, though it is very hot today and I could use a big fan. I love Florida, boats, fishing, and water in general. So then, how could I not love this season? I'm not really even sure, but the fact is that the fall is my hands-down favorite. There's college football, Halloween, empty theme parks, the greatest fishing of the entire year, and - best of all - lower humidity.</p>
<p>But here, just north of the tropics, there's a fifth season, the Season of Torture. It's that time of year when you play a poolside gig, and the combination of sweat and 102% humidity causes your Tommy Bahama shirt to stick to your man-breasts like Gorilla Glue on flypaper, as your guitar's strings gum up so badly that you wonder if you'd mistakenly strung it up with Twizzlers.</p>
<p>When I was a Field Engineer (my last career job prior to playing music), there was a special kind of torture: working inside the radome of Caribbean-bound cruise ships. The radome is that big white "golf ball" on the top deck where the satellite dish antenna is housed. The dish diameter just barely fits inside of the radome, with about a centimeter or two to spare in any direction. The dish must be perfectly balanced in order to move quickly. So it's sort of like a 1,500 pound gyroscope, tracking the satellites while the ship moves around at sea.</p>
<p>Because of that perfectly balanced antenna, there can be no air currents allowed inside the radome to possibly push the dish around. No windows, no AC, no fan. Just relentless, crushing, overwhelming heat. Most of the work has to be done while crouching or kneeling under the dish. About 45 minutes is the endurance limit, when you may start seeing dark spots and imaginary swirly kaleidoscopic visual things as your brain starts to melt. Blacking out would seem to be an improvement. Open the hatch and go down the access ladder, take a break, go back up the ladder, get back in.</p>
<p>But it's not what you feel or see so much as what you hear; the sound of Margarita machines, water slides, Calypso music, and laughter outside the dome.</p>
<p>Now, <em> that's </em>torture.</p>
<p>I actually did enjoy most of that field job (though given a choice I'll take the Alaska and Norway fjord cruises any day). It was a great experience and a nice way to see the world using somebody else's money. But yeah, it could get pretty hot in the tropics, up in that radome. So, can I handle playing my guitar on a July afternoon in Florida wearing a tropical-print shirt? No problem; sign me up.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/66624942021-06-17T16:42:15-04:002021-12-26T13:03:05-05:00Pilsners and Venturis<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/e1f31d56f562cfb47e7873b843fafe42e6455dd1/original/beer-snob.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Cars used to be pretty simple, and as far as I ever knew, beer was just beer. Both have changed a lot over the years.</p>
<p>One night way back when, a friend (hey, Ken) and I had a few cold ones while we rebuilt the 2-barrel Rochester carburetor of my Chevy Malibu. At the end of the night, we had a rather nicely formed pyramid of empty Rolling Rock cans. But then we found an "extra" gasket. To our horror, we soon realized that the extra gasket was actually the one we forgot to put between the upper jet assembly and the lower banjo assembly. By the time the sun came up, we had fixed the error and the carb rebuild was finally finished. Needless to say, beer and carburetor rebuilds don't mix. </p>
<p>These days, I'm less of a car mechanic and more of a "beer snob". Ambers, Reds, Browns, Porters, mostly. Not IPAs (put a Xmas tree and a grapefruit in a blender and you have your basic IPA). But yes, I became sorta picky, and no longer considered a Mickey's Big Mouth or a PBR to be a significant part of my diet. OK, not <em>any </em> part of my diet.</p>
<p>But I'm not a true beer snob. Read this annoying little snippet from a real review of a well-known (and damn good, by the way) craft ale, copied from a website that actually posts this kind of nonsense:</p>
<p><span style="color:#7f8c8d;"><strong><em>"...pours a semi translucent amber color with a creamy/foamy 2-finger head; nice lacing. The smell is malty, bread like; hint of vanilla. Taste is nutty, bread pudding essence with overtones of stone-fruits. Mouth-feel is medium bodied with an abundance of mildly pleasant..."</em></strong></span></p>
<p>I mean, come on. Really? I would never rebuild a carburetor with that guy.</p>
<p> </p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/66284682021-05-12T11:21:59-04:002022-03-24T11:20:25-04:00The FrankenGibson<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/4912887b76a6e6836438541e97ec6776cd7628fa/original/frankengibson.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></strong>I bought my first "real" guitar in 1976. It's a '67 Gibson SG Standard, with a dark walnut finish (think Angus Young, Frank Zappa, Robby Kreiger and you get the picture). The same year I bought it, I arrived at one of our band's (very few) gigs and when I opened the case...</p>
<p>SPROINNNGGGG!</p>
<p>The neck had somehow, in transport, snapped where the heel joined the body. Luckily, the other guitar player had a spare guitar, so we were able to play. But my beloved "real" giutar was now real junk. I decided to snap it the rest of the way, so I could get glue to coat the entire break. I re-set the neck, and then I refinished the guitar. It actually didn't look too bad, in spite of the hideous scars at the heel, and it played like butter after the glue set up and I put everything back together.</p>
<p>I played that guitar for many years, and it never failed me again. In fact, it's the other way around.</p>
<p>25 years after the neck break, though still a great instrument, it had become a piece of wall art. Very playable, but even so, just wall art. Then one fateful day, I took my battered old SG down from the wall, to show my wife and son as I told the tragic story of the broken neck. I set it on a stand, and then, as I explained how delicate and fragile an SG's neck is (one reason they play so well is because they're very thin), I somehow knocked it right off the stand, and it hit the deck. Hard. The headstock split completely in two, as one of the tuners went flying, still attached to the end of its string. Mother-of-pearl inlays separated from the headstock and skated across the floor; I eventually found them all.</p>
<p>The whole event was so surreal that the three of us actually broke out in laughter. I mean, it didn't just break; it exploded!</p>
<p>Out came the glue again. Due to the oddly fortunate angle of the headstock break (lots of surface area for the glue to stick to), the guitar made it successfly through its second major surgery, though I didn't even bother with the cosmetics this time. I decided that this guitar had become too ugly for another facelift. I gave it a couple of weeks for the glue to cure, slapped the tuners back on, re-strung it, tuned it up, gave it a quick test drive and then back on the wall it went. The mother-of-pearl inlays are stored in a little box where they haven't seen daylight in two decades. They probably never will.</p>
<p>To this day, my good old FrankenGibson still plays as well or better than any other guitar I've ever held. It looks awful, but it certainly has "character". As in, a character from a horror movie. I guess SG must stand for Seriously Grotesque.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/65639072021-03-03T14:11:28-05:002024-02-27T03:50:41-05:00The Lost Summer Of 1974<p> </p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/dc4fef6df35ade5f89bc38962e2d53b340915edb/original/valiant.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" alt="" /><p>My parents brought my brother Jerry and me from Tallahassee to Central Florida in early June of '74. Between the two of us, we had very little money, and no friends. But we did have each other, and his '64 Plymouth Valiant with the push-button dashboard mounted gear shifter. Thank God for that car. It got us to the beach, and sometimes (when we could afford it) to the Eau Gallie Speedway, the Drive-In theatre, and to Jerry's Pizza Palace (no relation). If things were really tight, we just drove around listening to Mystery Theatre on the radio and hatching schemes on how to get back to Tallahassee.</p><p>When we weren't in his car, we could usually be found playing our guitars. And did we ever play them! I played mine, every day, often for 12+ hours through that entire summer. I'm convinced that I learned most of what I know about music in that three month span.</p><p>Late nights were most often spent in Mom and Dad's sweltering garage, our makeshift hangout, from midnight til 2 or 3 AM, watching Star Trek, Sea Hunt and Twilight Zone reruns while eating enormous bowls of Cheerios until the TV's color bars and 400Hz audio tone made it pretty obvious that it was finally time to go to sleep.</p><p>By September, we had both found part-time jobs, made a few friends, and started at our new high school. So life went on, and before long we were doing OK.</p><p>I jokingly call it The Lost Summer, but looking back now, it was probably the best one ever. It's when my brother and I became best friends. And I guess part of the credit for has to go to Jerry's 1964 Valiant with the push-button gearshifter!</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/65340492021-01-29T11:35:50-05:002021-12-26T13:04:36-05:00Album Trivia #3: Gotta Get Better To Die<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/a780915d8102076c52177171229d421a586fd273/original/sick-spongebob.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>One night last year, I woke up in the dead of night (as often happened around that time) with music, lyrics and a catchy song title swirling around in my head, so I started jotting things down on my phone as an email to myself so I wouldn't forget them. By daybreak, the basics of the song Gotta Get Better To Die, song #5 on my album "gettin' deep", were pretty much set in stone. Later that same morning, inexplicably, I got really ill with some kind of stomach flu; I mean, that all-day, all-night, Linda Blair kinda sick. So ill, in fact that I felt like I'd have to...</p>
<p>Well, you probably have guessed how this one ends. True story!</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/64980842020-12-12T17:42:21-05:002022-03-11T09:10:28-05:00If "Bad Santa" Played Guitar, This Is What It Would Probably Sound Like<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/bb88ce9d97a43bcbdd0233df29f6403eb35c727d/original/bad-santa.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Here's your Christmas present. One night in late 1985, out of sheer boredom, I decided to do my spin on a classic Xmas song. For what it's worth, this is it. And trust me, it ain't worth much. But for some reason I still laugh a little when I hear it. Maybe because it was so purposely over-the-top.</p>
<p><strong><a contents="Click" data-link-label="Rockin' Around The Xmas Tree Circa 1985" data-link-type="page" href="/rockin-around-the-xmas-tree-circa-1985" target="_blank"><span style="color:#ffffcc;">Click</span></a> <a contents="HERE" data-link-label="Rockin' Around The Xmas Tree Circa 1985" data-link-type="page" href="/rockin-around-the-xmas-tree-circa-1985" target="_blank"><span style="color:#8e44ad;">HERE</span></a><span style="color:#ffffcc;"> </span><a contents="to listen..." data-link-label="Rockin' Around The Xmas Tree Circa 1985" data-link-type="page" href="/rockin-around-the-xmas-tree-circa-1985" target="_blank"><span style="color:#ffffcc;">to listen...</span></a></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Happy Holidays!</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/64757682020-11-12T11:10:21-05:002021-12-26T13:05:13-05:00Getting Loopy In The Woodshed<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/31dd139b93153734cd00dd77830ed0fb7ed66823/original/woodshed.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Looks like it's gonna be a long haul with COVID-19. It's a good thing I was somewhat introverted in the first place! Even so, it's definitely getting old, but we are determined to not get infected, so the hunkering down continues. Have I mentioned how I hate that term "hunker down"? I think so. </p>
<p>Regarding "getting loopy"; it refers to what are called Loopers. For those who haven't heard of them, Loopers are devices which instantly play back your guitar riffs so you can overlay them with solos, etc. They may just be the perfect Pandemic Pedal. It's like having an invisible rhythm guitar player who never complains and doesn't show up drunk and/or carrying a virus. </p>
<p>One positive thing about COVID is that I have spent more time than ever practicing (with the exception of The Lost Summer Of 1974. I'll post about that some other time). The guitar crowd calls it "woodshedding"; I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's when I work on my chops. Whatever the reason, it never feels like work, and I think it is helping me, on many levels. Loopers, backing tracks, YouTube; all are great practice aids that I use often. </p>
<p>But not sheet music. I've always played by ear. Music theory has never really interested me, though I wish it had. I'm sure it would have been a great asset. I thought the Phrygian Scale was an alien skin disease from an episode of Star Trek. It's like my brain and my hands have a direct connection, and putting anything in between just confuses things. </p>
<p>When Eddie Van Halen died in October, a lot of news articles said that he didn't know theory either. So even though I'm certainly never gonna be another EVH (not even close!), at least he and I do have something in common. </p>
<p>Now, back to the woodshed!</p>
<p> </p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/64162992020-08-24T19:21:23-04:002022-03-24T11:21:01-04:00In Praise Of Crappy Musical Gear<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/b5fb4cac7ab35095a1107f07eeba4c0df8795fb0/original/decca-guitar-and-podium-mount-pa.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>At age 13, my parents let me buy a $29 acoustic guitar at Musicland in the mall. And although I am grateful for that, it probably explains why I quickly learned to like electric guitars. Try playing Whipping Post on a $29 acoustic. Anyway, a friend of mine bought himself a new Fender Stratocaster and a Marshall 50, and sold (gave?) me his old Japansese-made Decca (identical to the one in this photo, until I decided to paint it "refrigerator white"). Trust me here; not exactly a collector-grade instrument. Shortly afterwards, my parents moved us from Tallahassee to Melbourne, where, thanks to my Dad's new Public Relations job at the local college, I was given a portable, podium-mounted PA amp/microphone combination that was destined for the landfill. Luckily, the thing not only still worked, sorta, it also had a 1/4" mono input jack, suitable for plugging my little Decca guitar into. WOOHOO! I wish I could relate to you just how much I enjoyed cranking that thing to 11, its vacuum tubes screaming for mercy as I jammed with my brother Jerry to 8-track cassette tapes of Deep Purple, Queen, Blue Oyster Cult and Thin Lizzy in our shared bedroom.</p>
<p>As time went on, I was able to buy much nicer toys. Guitars, amps, effect pedals, you know; real stuff. But I will always remember three important musical truisms about cheap gear:</p>
<p>1) If you want to really appreciate a good quality musical instrument, you should first spend 10 or more years playing on junk. If you can learn to overcome the absolute awfulness of a cheap guitar with sheer will and determination, fearlessly fighting rusty strings, loose connections and buzzing frets, yet still wanting to keep playing, then you'll know you've found a creative outlet that will probably last a lifetime. And as a bonus, when you can finally buy that new Les Paul Custom someday, you will appreciate its glossy sunburst finish in a way that no Wall Street executive weekend warrior guitarist can.</p>
<p>2) They say that "tone is in the fingers" and to a large extent that is probably true. Even so, when you finally get some good equipment, you will probably sound better than you did before, and it'll be easier.</p>
<p>3) No matter how much I will ever spend on future gear, somehow nothing will ever sound as awesome as that little electric guitar through that hideous, overdriven portable PA with the blown speaker, as I jammed at midnight with my big brother.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/63897392020-07-22T11:28:18-04:002021-12-26T13:06:37-05:00Album Trivia #2: Fixin' Ta Lernya, Don't Wanna Concernya!<p><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/6005bfa8e9a8e5d72b4e94b14c3b00d80e5cd06f/original/caleb.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></span></p>
<p>I am, literally, a Florida Man (Song #6 on my album "gettin' deep"). Lifelong Florida resident, born and raised here. So I hope my fellow natives will let me get away with a little fun trash-talking toward my own home state. In a way, I'm actually poking fun at myself!</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure you've heard of the term Florida Man by now. This song is an absurd tribute to all of the crazy stories that supposedly could only happen down here in the Sunshine State. I mean heck, what an easy target!</p>
<p>Trivia: I faked the voices of the various 'NPR news reporters' with Text-To-Speech software. So, no humans were harmed in this musical production.</p>
<p>More trivia: After recording the lead vocal, I raised it by one octave. Seems more authentic that way, for some reason.</p>
<p>Even more trivia: As I was recording the lead vocal, I was trying to channel a guy named Caleb, who was a character in a very forgettable drive-in horror movie from the 70s. Caleb was a gigantic schizoid gardener/handyman in denim overalls who was cursed with the unfortunate combination of a bad attitude, a single-digit IQ, and easy access to a multitude of farm implements. Right before he would unleash his inbred fury on some luckless traveler with a dead car battery at 3AM, he'd say colorful things like "Mama said ya bin bad. Gonna hafta lern ya sum manners now wif this here crowbar.". That kinda stuff. Needless to say, the movie didn't have a very happy ending.</p>
<p>Check the album out <strong><a contents="HERE!" data-link-label="The New Album!" data-link-type="page" href="/the-new-album" style="" target="_blank"><span style="color:#8e44ad;">HERE!</span></a></strong></p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/63797982020-07-08T13:25:00-04:002022-04-13T12:08:15-04:00Album Trivia #1 - It's YUUUUUGE!<p><a contents="" data-link-label="The New Album!" data-link-type="page" href="/the-new-album" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/08b29f825ea505b9201548a3a3155825c1c2558a/original/ghidorah-square.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a>When I was a kid, I loved those stupid/fun Atomic Bug Movies. Yeah, they're awful, but I've always had a soft spot for the concept of big critters stepping on buildings. The last song on the album, Gojira, is my instrumental tribute to the "Japanese Giant Monster Movie" genre.</p>
<p>Gojira<strong><span style="color:null;"> (</span><a contents="(ゴジラ)" data-link-label="lun-lun-godzirra-4.jpg" data-link-type="file" href="/files/1066085/lun-lun-godzirra-4.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="color:#8e44ad;">ゴジラ</span></a><span style="color:null;">) </span></strong>is the original, proper, Japanese spelling and pronunciation (Go-Jee-rah) of what we Americans call Godzilla. The name is a hybrid of the Japanese words for "gorilla" and "whale". So then, what we have here is your basic 400-foot tall gorilla-whale with radioactive halitosis. Yeah. That. Which explains why he looks like an enourmous... lizard? Anyway, listen for the Asian-inspired sounds and melodies sprinkled around in my somewhat intense yet completely silly reptili-opus. Six-stringed musical destruction. Just the right way to finish such a fun album! Man, how I love this stuff.</p>
<p>Some trivia for my fellow guitar-geeks: At 2:02, right before the guitar solo is a gutteral snarl followed by a couple of shrieks. It was all done by a heavily distorted guitar with a whammy bar through a delay, with lots of reverb.</p>
<p>By the way, the monster in the photo above singing 3-part harmonies next to the supersized Les Paul is not Gojira. It's Ghidora (Gee-Door-Uh), AKA "Monster Zero". Gojira is much more the Fender type. Never mind. Check the album out <strong><a contents="HERE!" data-link-label="The New Album!" data-link-type="page" href="/the-new-album" target="_blank"><span style="color:#8e44ad;">HERE!</span></a></strong></p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/63308662020-05-26T14:38:16-04:002022-01-31T12:08:34-05:00It's gettin' deep, Folks.<p><span class="font_large"><span style="color:#8e44ad;"><strong><a contents="" data-link-label="The New Album!" data-link-type="page" href="/the-new-album" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/155910cc2d4d295ae1887eef0c3aa39dc753e81a/original/front.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a></strong></span></span></p>
<p>Actually, that's the name of my new album. I'm very excited about it. Check it out and then, well, um, "check out", if you know what I mean...</p>
<p>The silver lining to not getting gigs? Enough free time to finish the album! Only 999,982 more copies left and it'll go PLATINUM! Click the image to have a listen. </p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/63228592020-05-19T17:45:00-04:002021-12-26T13:07:33-05:00Bleach! Bank It! Bingo!<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/e5c2d2a21820ca9b56273c6423e20d3cd8dad725/original/biohazard-suit.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Well, it looks like I'm back in business (well, sorta) a little earlier than I had planned. Was gonna be June 1, but I guess I'll jump the gun by a week or so. It's OK, cuz I'm gonna have a little protection (see photo). This getup doesn't look too out of place by the poolside, does it? Might be a little stuffy on a 92 degree day though. I'll bring some Gatorade.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/63179972020-05-15T15:18:04-04:002022-03-16T09:18:36-04:00Will I Still Know How To Play My Guitar?<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/39d606c67a2e9afd0c2a8f8baa2beeb2b2a56364/original/patrick.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="font_regular">It seems that, while on "COVID-19 leave" over the last two months, I may have concentrated a little too hard on learning new material. I had forgotten how to play a few of my older tunes. Could it be that I've starved my brain for oxygen by wearing my face-diaper too often? Not such a problem with 3-chord Jimmy Buffett cover songs, but I just got a rude surprise when I tried running through some of my Jeff Beck and Hellecasters material. Yikes. My neurons were in dire need of a wakeup call!</span></p>
<p>But after a few passes on the trickier stuff, it all started coming back to me, so guess I'll be OK. Should be ready to go by June 1st.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/63033252020-05-03T10:31:37-04:002021-12-26T13:08:17-05:00A Painful Florida "Re-Entry". Ouch, Go Easy On Me, Doctor!<p><span class="font_large"><strong><span style="color:#8e44ad;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/79febc702736c919a35741106612507434b729fe/original/desantis-glove.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></span></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We continue to religiously shelter in place here at home. I'm not going to accept any work until June 1st. In my opinion, we should all be waiting until at least July 1 but we will go with the flow, I guess. So June 1 is kickoff. In fact, a few of the many holes in my schedule are starting to fill in (Thanks Tracy@RCB!). A hopeful omen?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">My reality is that a less-than-50% workload is likely, and anything more than that is a bonus. But we are thankful to be alive!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Some of the COVID buzzwords and memes are becoming sorta tired; even irritating. If I hear "Draconian Measures" or "Hunker Down" one more time...</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Does it seem odd that bowling alleys, nail salons, gyms, dry cleaners, tattoo parlors and professional wrestling are all considered to be essential? Maybe I'm just being Draconian. Or maybe it's just cuz we're Florida.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One thing our state did get right: The new Florida DEO system is much more efficient than the old one was. They rejected my second claim in half the time as it took for their old website to reject the first one.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">By the way, why are so many people wearing their masks while driving their own car? I have a hard enough time wearing mine while I shop. You really don't need one to drive.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Sorry for ranting. I guess all the hunkering down is making me a little bit cantankerous.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/62954632020-04-26T22:15:00-04:002022-04-03T13:58:49-04:00Bad Hair Day, Good Guitar Day<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/72ee7265074b553cfd72cdc5930ec03a83245f64/original/troll.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" />I just reminded myself how excruciating it is to make a music video. It takes forever, but it is sorta fun. Just posted two of them on my <a contents="video page" data-link-label="Video" data-link-type="page" href="/video" target="_blank"><span style="color:#9b59b6;">video page</span></a>. I will never be a guitar "shredder" and I don't want to be. I'm really not a fan of that wasp-trapped-in-a-bottle guitar tone (In fact, "tone" is probably not the right word). Judging by the quality of my videos, I'll never be a movie producer either, but after watching the second video again, titled <a contents="PRS Play At Home Challenge #2" data-link-label="Video" data-link-type="page" href="/video" target="_blank"><span style="color:#9b59b6;">PRS Play At Home Challenge #2</span></a>, it does seem to me that my fingers are a little faster these days, so I'll take that as a win. BTW, the baseball cap in the video is there to cover up my COVID-19 self-haircut. No worries; it'll grow back.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/62954622020-04-18T22:15:00-04:002021-12-26T13:09:14-05:00The Year The Earth Stood Still<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/cbb3a1f6e59a627101e3049ef325232c5fdb87b2/original/day-the-earth-stood-still.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">"Klaatu Birada Nikto". The famous phrase that commands Gort, the alien robot, to go out in search of more toilet paper and Purell. Lately, the 50s-era sci-fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still seems appropriate for the COVID-19 era. One silver lining (titanium lining, if you're an alien robot): Drive-In movie theaters are making a minor comeback! I really like that. Appropriately, by the way: at the end of TDTESS, the aliens all died - from an Earthborne virus.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Fortunately, I actually have plenty to keep me busy (other than the honey-dos that I can't always avoid). I've learned eight new cover tunes this month, and I'm planning many more during my down time. I'm making my own backing tracks for some of them from scratch, which takes quite a while. I also have several video clips in the can, which I plan to edit and post to this website and my Youtube pages sometime later.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I hope that any of you who are reading this also have diversions from this terrible pandemic. Hopefully you are not one of the sick, and are being supremely careful about not getting sick, and not infecting others. An upbeat attitude is probably a good idea; positive thoughts are proven to help keep us healthy. So learn an instrument, paint a bedroom, teach the kids how to throw a football, watch a comedy, or dust off the old video game console. In fact, I keep meaning to do that very thing, but happily, I've been too busy (imagine that!). I suppose that if I ever do fire up my old Playstation, there's gonna be a virtual "Fallout 3" character that I left stranded alone near the lighthouse of a remote island four years ago who is probably very mad at me by now. But hey, at least he won't have the virus, and if he does, we're all in much bigger trouble than we thought. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However you pass the time while socially distancing yourself, stay safe and check back with me on this website from time to time. And above all else, never, EVER look directly at robots that have lasers for eyes.</p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/62954492020-03-25T21:40:00-04:002022-02-02T09:31:13-05:00Wh- Wh- Wh- Why, Corona?<p><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/31ee1d91f94f30a3bcef638d4831268e41747543/original/kronervirus2.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="font_regular">Multiple gigs --- OK, all of my gigs --- are cancelled due to Coronavirus. Damn. In truth, I cancelled many of them myself. This virus crisis is getting scary and I'm simply not going to risk getting it or giving it to my family. No worries though; our lives are much more important than money. And hopefully all the venues will remember me when it's time to go back to work. Besides, it will give me lots of free time to fix equipment and learn some new cover songs.</span></p>John Nugent Musictag:johnnugentmusic.com,2005:Post/62963002020-03-01T18:40:00-05:002022-02-16T15:33:36-05:00The First Post, Soon To Be Last<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/122064/71f0067c261d3fb1799850185e992b5e33992298/original/thing-3.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_" />This new "What's Up?" section of my website is where I'll be posting about big events, updates on my upcoming album, and generally, where I will spew about whatever comes to mind. Feel free to post responses to my posts as well. At the bottom of each posting is a Reply section. See it? There's an option down there about logging in or registering, but you can just ignore it. You can be as anonymous as you want. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If people seem to enjoy this new feature, I'll keep posting. If not, I won't, no big deal. But if it works out, maybe I'll consider adding other features. Maybe a meaningful scientific poll like "Which is more uncomfortable: watching Axl Rose dance like Lorie Partridge, or getting a lobotomy?". Yeah. That sort of thing. Or maybe I'll resurrect my "Add A Caption To This Awful B-Movie Screenshot" contest, where the winner gets my old Will Play Guitar For Food t-shirt (as soon as COVID-19 is over, that is). Just let me know.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">What does all of this have to do with music? Possibly nothing, but maybe that's OK too.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">So that's it for now. For a while, I will make this informational posting "stick" to the top of the heap, and later I'll roll it back to the end of the line.</p>John Nugent Music