One of my favorite sidemen is the great Albert Lee. I've met him a few times and he's one of the best, but unheralded, musicians you will ever meet. He's a brit that play on almost every country record. I say he's unheralded, because most rockers don't know him, but he's to country what Steve Cropper (met him too) was to rock and soul.
Albert Leer interview

I especially like his explanation of his hybrid picking style. I think many people had piano lessons when they were young, and can definitely relate to the change to the "cooler" guitar.

Plagiarism comes up fairly often with popular songs. Plagiarism is, of course, bad. Combining twelve notes (at least from a piano) across several octaves, using all the different instruments in the world, different time signatures, bending guitar strings, etc., etc. gives music lots of variety. But occasionally one wonders if it is coincidence or copying. Too quick to accuse artists then creativity may be stifled, too slow and an artist's creative work is stolen.

A current Rock Wars matchup reminded me of this dilemma. Is it coincidence or not? Probably, but very similar in some ways.

THE WAKHRA SONG (Navv Inder, Raja Kumari) [India] - At least 4 years old

METALI (Babymetal w/Tom Morello) [Japan] - One month ago.

Browsing the Billboard Mainstream Rock Top 40 Chart:

NEVER ENDING MOMENT (Des Rocs) - Group I never heard before reached #30. I like this one.

BLACK THUNDER (The Hu) - Group nominated in a couple of Rock Wars reached #11.

UNDER YOU (Foo Fighters) - If you like Foo Fighters, this sounds like them, reached #9.

NEED A FAVOR (Jelly Roll) - Reached #1. A little country sounding, grew on me a bit.

There were also newer songs by Guns N Roses and Metallica which I didn't feel worth linking to. There were also 34 other songs, mostly that could have been by the same band as near as I could tell.

Dr.Fate98 mentioned the first three BOC albums and how outstanding they were. I couldn't agree with him more. The band itself seems tailer made for Halloween antics and since it's closing in on that time of year, here's a couple they did that fit the season perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognBcHjlcJo

This one gives me a The Color out of Space Lovecraft vibe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vVU7MyK9fQ

Concrete Blonde did their own cool vampire song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILleWEWfM8s

Speaking to the discussion of session men, I'm not an expert but I've enjoyed the works of plenty of sidemen over the years not the least of which was the Wrecking Crew. I haven't had time to look at Hail's link so I'm not sure who all they discuss. VG9 directed me toward Albert Lee years ago. Somebody I should have been familiar being the fan of Emmylou Harris that I am. I picked up a couple of his albums on iTunes though as well as a couple of albums by Steve Cropper. A young lady I posted earlier; Lisa Fischer, has a beautiful voice but is relegated to being a backup singer despite putting a solid solo album. Duane Allman did session work early in his career and was popular with Aretha Franklin apparently. Nicky Hopkins whole career seems to be as a session man for tons of bands. Bobby Keys work with the Stones was phenomenal especially on Can't You Hear Me Knockin'.

I just watched a YouTube podcast with four pretty popular commentators, one who recently saw Guns N Roses at Aftershock. One of the others has always been a huge fan. The discussion started by mentioning Slash was seen flying first class, and they joked about him being downgraded from private planes.

The discussion was brutal, mainly that Axel no longer could really sing GNR songs, the songs were played significantly slower, maybe detuned more than expected, and even Slash wouldn’t play the iconic solo parts that fans know. He noodled to the point that those solos couldn’t be enjoyed. Live is different from studio, of course, but you expect improvement when improvising, not complete disruption. The joke was they now maybe understood the downgrade to first class. Evidently many true fans actually left early so that their earlier good memories of GNR wouldn’t be completely ruined by their current performances. I found that comment most striking, especially since Appetite For Destruction is one of my favorite albums ever.

Obviously I haven’t seen their live performance, but they do have a more recent song out, and I did not enjoy it at all. I guess RIP GNR.

I just got a look at Rolling Stones list of 250 greatest guitarists and one of my personal favorites finally makes the list but it was brought to my attention because of a Facebook post in which Vernon Reid of In Living Color describing it as ignorance that it doesn't include an artist named Alan Holdsworth. Now I'll confess that I'm not too familiar with him despite the fact that I have some of his work in my music library via a prog band called U.K. at any rate it left out Martin Barre of Jethro Tull, Robin Trower, Gary Moore, Ronnie Montrose and Rick Derringer as well. Oh yeah, there's no Ted Nugent either but I'm sure it's because he's become such an A$$hat these days. It does include a lot of country pickers but should have included Roy Clark and Doc Watson. There's a huge number of folks I haven't looked into. I just remembered, no Yngwie Malmstrom either.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...il-1234815162/

It looked like they were going for a very eclectic list with more innovators of particular sounds than full on skill set, so I was surprised to see Hendrix at 1. Although you can make the case he was known for being a true innovator as well as having the chops to pull it off.

I enjoyed seeing Rory Gallagher, but wonder why there was no Uli John Roth, no Billy Corrigan and other sound visionaries.

I got to see Allan Holdsworth Jam on stage at a NAMM show that included, Paul Gilbert, Rick Nielsen, Steve Stevens and Steve Vai.

If I could rearrange just the top 5, Hendrix would remain number 1, but Jeff Beck is 2, Page would be 3 still, Van Halen 4 and Chuck Berry 5.

Also, very happy to see some love given to Randy Rhoads who taught the slew of 80s guitarists exactly how to riff.

This reminds me a bit of when I went to see Deep Purple with Steve Morse (also not on the Rolling Stone list) on guitar. They had just finished Smoke on the Water and a dad turned to his son sitting in front of us and started to tell him that's not how the solo should be played. It took every ounce of restraint not to tell the father that the solo was taking the basics of what Blackmore had laid down and expanded upon by the phenomenal playing style of Steve Morse. He made it his own. The original solo was still part of what we heard, but it was even better.

Personally, I never saw GnR live either, but I always thought that Appetite for Destruction had the chance to become Nevermind. It had a lot of the changes that were about to come down the road from the Grunge era, but the band never experimented further to move rock music forward.

The first time I remember hearing this song was when I was coerced into going to a Journey concert by a girlfriend. One of the best live shows ever.

WHEEL IN THE SKY (Journey)

PS- I had shared another song here originally, but remembered I liked this one better.

Even before Walk This Way, Nu-Metal / Rap Core infacy...
Rock Box - RUN DMC

Slayer's Kerry King as a guerilla on guitar, let's go!
No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys

Would lead to a collaboration with Public Enemy
I'm the man - Anthrax

Love the sample from the movie The Warriors in the intro / outro
Wrong Side Of The Tracks - Biohazard

Saw this band open for Sick Of It All, thirty years ago, it was the first time I ever experienced a DJ with a rock / metal / hardcore band
White Collar Fool - New School

These were all great, but I especially loved the first two. I think we need an official Rock Wars motto-

“Move Your Butt To The Cut”

Enjoyed the first two as well. Especially got a kick out of the Professor Irwin Corey intro. One of my favorite comedians.

The Rolling Stones first album in 20 years comes out Friday, and the second song "Sweet Sounds Of Heaven" from it was released two weeks ago. This one has Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder backing them and I think I like it. I did not like the first song released, but this one makes me interested to see what's coming.

SWEET SOUNDS OF HEAVEN (The Rolling Stones) - This is a slightly longer version with more Gaga and Wonder at the end, after 5:10. I think I like it best.

SWEET SOUNDS OF HEAVEN (The Rolling Stones) - This is the edited version.