4,726 Reply by Zurf

(26 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

What rock song would I place at number one if I were the one voting?  Probably "Hey, Hey, My, My" by Neil Young.  Perhaps only because of its horribly inaccurate prophecy - "Rock and Roll will never die...", and pretty much the next day disco takes off and ruins popular music for thirty years. 

Still, it's what rock is all about.  Which is nothing.  Rock is about absolutely nothing.  And it's sung by people who probably shouldn't be singing.  So, Hey Hey My My is rock.  There was a really good, but much too clean to be the best ever, but still really good rock song by - oh heck - Train maybe?  "Hanging Around".  And Barenaked Ladies did a song about having a hangover.  So it breaks the rules by being about something, but it's about a hangover so I think that's excusable because they were hungover at the time.  Plus, if rock is about something, it's about breaking rules.  Anyway, that song is "Hello City."  But it's too well performed and much too tight to be real rock. So it's kind of ska.  Or something. 

What was the question? 

Oh yeah!  I wouldn't put "Stairway to Heaven" as the best rock song. 

You know, "Hello Darlin'" by the Beatles might be a pretty good best rock song.  It's got a killer bass line that frankly if you studied it could make a right decent bass player out of you.  It's about nothing.  And the band got really, really rich.  Which probably doesn't mean anything music wise, but it does seem to be a requirement for these lists. 

My two cents.  And yeah, if you're a Zep fan, I'll take change. 

I'm sorry.  I've been completely wrong on each of the items above.  Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" is the best rock song ever.  Yes.  There we go.  I'm willing to stand behind that.  Until I change my mind again. 

- Zurf

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4,727 Reply by Zurf

(69 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Ahhhh.  There are two things that I must do before long.

1. Head to Leesburg Restaurant in my town in Virginia.  It's been there since the mid-1800's and they make some pretty fantastic bisquits with sawmill gravy.  Plus the owner is a dear friend, so I get to have a nice chat too.  Perhaps some day I will take on the challenge of bisquits baked over a fire in a cast iron dutch oven.  Perhaps I will expand the capacity of my camp kitchen to something more predictable. 

2. Cry, because I can never again this side of heaven enjoy my Gram's soda bread.  She was a good and fine Irish woman from the Barr clan.  I didn't much care for the things she did to perfectly good beef (what did the cow ever do to her), but oh that soda bread.  I will be trying Old Doll's recipe, as Gram's is lost to the years. 

- Zurf

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4,728 Reply by Zurf

(4 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I can't even afford to look at a picture of them in a magazine. 

- Zurf

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4,729 Reply by Zurf

(10 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

bensonp wrote:

I agree with that quote, but I have seen some who just don't do well being themselves.  You know some of these.

Yeah.  They're called ....  well, I suppose I can't really say, but it rhymes with mole. 

- Zurf

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4,730 Reply by Zurf

(12 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I get them.  They're not pleasant.  My symptoms change over time.  Sometimes I get the cluster migraines that are like intense shooting pain up your neck to the center of the head.  These come on without notice and have literally made me collapse between one step and the next.  The long slow ones like you're suffering now are the worst, I think.  I wish you luck in recovering.

My trigger is usually stress and a dropping barometric pressure.  I'll get a mild migraine when there's a big low front two days out and it won't get better until the storm hits and the pressure stabilizes.  Also, I need to maintain a consistent level of caffeine.  A lot then a little is going to be a problem. 

In my case, I've found that kava kava and aspirin works pretty well, but I have some prescription stuff called Imitrex that works well on the nervous and vascular effects, and another drug called Midrin that deals with the stress.  Kava kava and aspirin combined together works well. 

Be glad you're not my sister.  She had a migraine for over a decade - nearly fourteen years - that culminated in grand maul seizures that it took her two years from which to recover and triggered something akin to epilepsy.  She's on a preventive now that is letting her live her life again, which is great. 

- Zurf

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4,731 Reply by Zurf

(10 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Well Pete, on the being successful, I got a quote from a guy that I interviewed when I was in grad school.  His name is Ray Linder, and he was CEO of GoodStewardship.com.  And may still be for all I know.  Anyway, he had this to say about success.  I remember it because I've got the quote framed at my desk so that I can look at it every day. 

"You can't help but be anybody but yourself.  If you want to be successful at anything, you need to figure out who you are and be that." 

- Zurf

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4,732 Reply by Zurf

(7 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

You'll get there Doc, and when you do you'll have a whole new skill set under your hat.  Or glove. 

- Zurf

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4,733 Reply by Zurf

(7 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Hey Toots - "If you can't play something good, play something we know!"    I think that's the mentality you were describing.   I actually heard that yelled out at a bar once.  Ends up it was yelled by a friend of the musician who was razzing his buddy and wasn't quite so horrible as it first sounded. 

- Zurf

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4,734 Reply by Zurf

(23 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Hard to say. 

I like singer-songwriter stuff because the lyrics attract me.  That said, the melody could readily repel me.  On the other hand, a good melody with idiotic or cliche-ridden lyrics can repel me too. 

Gun to head and forced to give a single answer, I'd say lyrics.  But that's a generalized answer that may or may not apply to any given song in particular. 

- Zurf

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4,735 Reply by Zurf

(10 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Another vote for light, with the caveat that there's no wrong choice.  Strings are cheap (relatively speaking).  Play around with it to see what gives you a sound that suits you.

I usually use D'Addario for a brand and shuffle around between their silk 'n' steel, phospher bronze, and whatever else I feel like on any given trip into the shop.  I do not recommend the D'Addario EXP coated strings.  I've got some on now and don't care for the feel.  But maybe you would. 

Welcome to Chordie.  Good folks here.

- Zurf

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4,736 Reply by Zurf

(30 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

mekidsmom wrote:

Killing me Softly - I've been working on for a while... I can't quite get it to where I'm happy enough yet (and it's the easiest to switch cords on of these three)

My mom loved this song, but the tempo always drove me nuts.  I'll bet you do a better job of it than Roberta Flack.

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4,737 Reply by Zurf

(11 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Thrilled that it went well for you.  I've been on stages much of my life, but never in the center.  Man, the guts!  Well done. 

You've got a great voice, and so I'm real happy that you've decided to share it. 

- Zurf

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4,738 Reply by Zurf

(34 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Nice work on those flies.  My favorite is the one with the slender pink body and big puffy yellow marabou tail.  That would have such nice action in the water. 

- Zurf

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4,739 Reply by Zurf

(9 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBfcBVt6Etk 

His enunciation in this live video is much better than the studio version that's on the radio.  But see if you don't hear "you gobble deviled eggs".

For the record, this is one current favorite new 'radio' band right now.  I think they're making some terrific music and their "Toes" song is one of the ones I plan on working on next.   

- Zurf

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4,740 Reply by Zurf

(9 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

there's a book about Olive.

Olive is a dog, who thinks she must be a reindeer because of the song.  So she goes and helps Santa deliver toys.  Very cute book.  But I guess Papaguitar's not the only one to hear it that way.

http://www.amazon.com/Olive-Other-Reind … amp;sr=8-1

- Zurf

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4,741 Topic by Zurf

(9 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

So my wife got me the album "Foundation" from Zac Brown Band.  It has on it the song "Whatever It Is", which is very popular on the country radio stations in the U.S. right now and has been for a good while.  Upon reading the title of the song and hearing the song, I finally figured out that he was singing 'You've got whatever it is'...   

Up to now, whenever I heard that song, with the enunciation and phrasing used, it sounded like he was singing 'You gobble deviled eggs'..., which did not sound nearly as complementary to the woman about which he is singing as does the rest of the song. 

- Zurf

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4,742 Reply by Zurf

(17 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I like Chrome.  It's my browser of choice on my home computer.
It is simple and fast.

- Zurf

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4,743 Reply by Zurf

(14 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Oh dear.  Maybe not emergency room, but you ought to get that checked by your family doctor.  Knees are tricky and painful things. She/he may be able to prescribe some anti-inflammatories and/or painkillers. You may get referred to a specialist. 

- Zurf

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4,744 Topic by Zurf

(4 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

What the heck do I do with that? 

From my four year old girl.  She's sweet as apple pie, but sometimes there's ideas coming out of her head that make me wonder.  I worked odd jobs at a meat packing plant for a short while and I know that the original packaging for meat is not shrink-wrapping in styrofoam platters.  But that doesn't mean I'm going to have my four year old waist deep in gore either.

For the record, my answer was "No.  We are not going to kill a pig one day."   
 

- Zurf

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4,745 Reply by Zurf

(2 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I used to run sound.  There's a whole level of personal entertainment and pettiness that's worth experiencing.  That said, I was not at the Marty Stewart show last night. 

- Zurf

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4,746 Reply by Zurf

(14 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Boom chicka boom, baby.  Boom chicka boom!

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4,747 Reply by Zurf

(9 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I have seen them in person.  I used to run a warehouse in one of those run-down warehouse/office parks you see from time to time.  The guys who had the office in front of our warehouse building were these lowlifes who ran telephone scams who claimed to be collecting money for some police charity or other.  Papaguitar, I'd like to be able to dispel your impression, but I can't. 

- Zurf

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4,748 Reply by Zurf

(5 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

The finishers wanted to work on Easter Sunday, but we told them no.  I would never ASK someone to work a holiday like that.  They asked US if they COULD.  Normally I'd say yes.  I don't object to people working at odd times to raise the money they need to pay their bills if it's what suits them, but we're having a dinner here for a couple families and don't want the dust raised. 

- Zurf

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4,749 Topic by Zurf

(5 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Yeah right.  It's 11PM and our primary contractor is still here, and the folks he's subcontracted some of the drywalling work to are still hard at work.  I don't know where the myth came from, but these folks are busting hump! 

- Zurf

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4,750 Reply by Zurf

(4 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Well done.  I enjoy your style and talent.

- Zurf

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