A's Musical Daily Driver
(Newest On Top)
Mar 3 - 10, 2025
Mar 10, 2025
"Down"
Live: 10/17/10 - Fox Theater - Oakland CA
This tune was written by founding drummer Mr. Todd Nance who died due to a longstanding chronic illness in August of 2020. I saw this band many, many times from 1992 through about 2017. They're very much still playing but I got off that bus because of an ever-evolving life. Times change for all of us. I have no idea how many shows of theirs I've been to and I've actually got to stop and think about how many States I've seen them in. They started playing around 1985 and to my knowledge they've never played the same show twice, following in the footsteps of The Grateful Dead. Hundreds of songs in their bag of musical tricks. Panic are in solid second place among my all-time favorites with The Dead being in first place.
(As a matter of fact, the Dead aren't exactly in first place. In truth, for me they're in some sort of other category by themselves. As opposed to being just my favorite band, The Dead been a huge part of my life and persona since I was 14 and although they stopped performing in 1995, they remain just as much a part of me today.)
Panic's founding lead guitarist was Mr. Michael Houser, who died in August of 2002 as the result of pancreatic cancer. The band seriously considered hanging it up for good when Mikey died but they chose instead to continue on and brought on Mr. Jimmy Herring as their lead guitarist in 2003. The guy is one of the most talented guitarists I've ever come across.
I chose this song today because Jimmy's guitar work here is just mind-blowing to me. Everything he does in terms of live solos is improvised and in this performance we get not just one but TWO chunks of guitar inferno from him. Check this song out and, if you're at all like me, prepare for Jimmy to blow you out of your shoes, folks.
- A
Mar 9, 2025
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
“Change of Heart”
Live: Circa 1982
Tom’s one of the artists whom I was into from a very early age. His passing away was doubly painful for me. The initial news of his death was certainly a shock & extremely saddening. The initial announcement attributed his death to natural causes following a heart attack.
Though Tom did a much better job at it than average, he did struggle for years with a heroin addiction. In the early 2000’s though, he finally made his way to recovery, which was kept quite quiet as well. It never crossed my mind that his death would have been directly linked to his addiction. It seemed as though his active addiction was in his rear view mirror. This is cunning and baffling stuff though.
When the toxicology reports were finally made public weeks after his death, we learned that his system was full of opiates. As an addict myself, this was heartbreaking news. As if his death itself wasn’t difficult enough to deal with. Yet another one of us lost to addiction. It just never ends.
Anyway, I don’t know why I picked this particular tune of his today. I suppose it’s just because it’s a long-time favorite of mine. I do hope you enjoy it. As always, I’ll always go with a live performance as opposed to the original studio recording, when available. Seems infinitely more genuine to me somehow. Dig it. I miss you, Tom.
- A
Mar 5, 2025
Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos
"Running' Too Deep"
Live: Orpheum Theater - Boston MA - 1993
Whoever uploaded this tune lost their way. Despite the title of the video, this is most assuredly not The Rolling Stones. Five Our Father's and 10 Hail Mary's for you, good sir.
For God's sake, every-fuckin'-body knows Keith. Over the years he's certainly become a larger-than-life figure; more of a legend than just a man. His reputation definitely precedes him. His drug use is emblazoned on modern society's collective brain. I suppose that's true because it makes easy talk in the bar but I don't think that it's the most interesting thing about him at all.
The guy's known as "a guitarist's guitarist". There's most definitely not anyone on the planet who can duplicate his inimitable sound. It's one of those "recognize it in five seconds" styles and tones. One very unique element that goes a long way in producing his sound is that instead of using all six strings on his guitars he often removes the high E string and plays with only five. He feels that the high E adds too much high end and can muddy the tone he looks for as a rhythm guitarist. A case of less is more for sure.
This track was released on "Main Offender", his solo album of 1988. I was a sophomore in high school at the time and as we were all pummeled by the vapid, vacuous sounds that decade's music is famous for, that album was a huge oasis amidst a musical desert. It amazed me immediately. God provides.
While not playing with The Stones he wrote and toured with his solo band, The X-Pensive Winos. I've seen The Stones a few times but have never been fortunate enough to see him play with the Winos, which is not surprising since, in reality, they didn't play a ton of dates over the years. Unjustly sparse.
I've been a member of AA for many years and at one time I had a female acquaintance in the program whose name I don't recall. Not that it's in any way relevant to the dreadful story you're about to read. Perhaps somewhat harsh but this girl had a cloud for a brain. Super attractive physically but that's about where it ended for me. Never actually got to know her, which I didn't perceive as much of a missed opportunity.
I was at a meeting one night and had just seen The Stones the night before. Evidently, this girl had known some people who were somehow in with the band's management. Never knew the details nor did they interest me. Along with the people she knew, she somehow managed to hang out with Keith before the show the night prior. Hand to God, she didn't know who the man was. How that was possible baffles me to this very day.
Never has such a monumental musical injustice been thrust upon someone as it had been thrust on me. As a guitarist for most of my life and an enormous Keith devotee I was devastated and proceeded to live in the Land Of Supreme Resentment for about the next week. Rageful. Utterly unforgivable. I've been fortunate to have met an unusually large number of my musical idols over the years but this would have been one of the all-time pinnacles. Dear God, what terrible deed had I committed to deserve such a merciless punishment? Today that question remains unanswered, which is probably for the best as there could never be valid justification for such a wretched cosmic crime.
Anyway, I could write a lot more about his guitar playing but I'm going to save that for a later date upon the sharing of another Keith tune. Check this one out. It's one of my favorites.
- A
