The annual appearance of the Thanksgiving Day cat...

For all who are celebrating Thanksgiving today, have a great holiday!

Most-viewed tabs for the month of September 2009 (w/ view numbers):

37 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
27 - Max Webster - A Million Vacations
16 - Girlschool - Yeah Right (guitar)
15 - Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care Of Business
14 - April Wine - Just Between You And Me
14 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
12 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
12 - Harlequin - I Did It For Love
12 - Max Webster - The Party
10 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On

Total Tab Views For September: 501
   
By section:  Canadian-355  Girlschool-56  Various-39  Chords-51

A seasonal entry for today, "The Late September Dogs", from Melissa Etheridge's 1988 self-titled debut album. This has always been my favourite song from her first record. I could say I really like the passion with which this song is sung, and the emotion that builds throughout it, and it would be true. But it would seem a bit redundant, because does she do any other kind of song?

I also like the bass playing in particular in this song. I think Kevin McCormick's bass playing added a very unique sound to her earlier records (he played on the first four), and he's really featured on this song. For that reason, I tried to find the studio version of the song to link to, but it wasn't easy.

The chord chart:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/crd/etheridgem-lateseptemberdogs.txt

It seems the audio can only be reached in a roundabout way. I found the song on a page at Imeem, but if I link directly to the page, it gets blocked out with a sign-in box. However, if you click the link below, then click the second link from the top on the Google search results page, you'll get to the same page, but the sign-in box won't appear. I don't know why, I don't ask questions, I just try to overcome obstacles.
http://www.google.ca/search?q=melissa+etheridge+-+late+september+dogs&btnGNS=Search+imeem.com&oi=navquery_
searchbox&sa=X&as_sitesearch=imeem.com&hl=en&rlz=1R2ADSA_enCA335

Aside from that, there's a live version at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRrniAqZDjc

Back in the 80's I knew a guy who really liked the band The Cult. And I liked them too, for that matter. One time when we were sitting around with one of their tapes playing, I happened to mention that (Cult lead singer) Ian Astbury had gone to a high school only a few blocks from the one I went to. (Astbury lived in Hamilton, ON in the mid-to-late 70's http://www.juicemagazine.com/THECULT.html) A few weeks later we went to see The Cult, who were plaing the CNE Grandstand. In a relatively quieter moment, between two songs, he turned to his best friend, gestured toward me, and told him, "She used to see Ian Astbury walking to school back in high school." Gotta love the way stories can get embellished that quickly, don't you?  In all fairness, though, maybe he just misinterpreted what I originally said, and thought that's what I meant. But he probably just thought it sounded like a better story that way.

That was the Electric tour, so this song hadn't been recorded yet, but it's a good one. It's from the band's fourth album, Sonic Temple (1989).

THE CULT - "New York City"       (I. Astbury/B. Duffy)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/varriffs.txt

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF369vRRAWE   

Most-viewed tabs for the month of August 2009 (w/ view numbers):

46 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
26 - Max Webster - The Party
19 - Max Webster & Rush - Battle Scar
18 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
17 - April Wine - Just Between You And Me
16 - Girlschool - Yeah Right (guitar)
14 - Harlequin - Innocence
14 - Trooper - Raise A Little Hell
13 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
12 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
12 - Kim Mitchell - That's The Hold

Total Tab Views For August: 594
  
By section:  Canadian-429  Girlschool-85  Various-46  Chords-34

Among the three charting singles from Prism's self-titled debut album (1977, pictured) was the power ballad "It's Over". This track, as well as most others on the record, was written by the band's drummer/producer Rodney Higgs. Higgs was none other than Jim Vallance writing under a pseudonym. Why? Vallance himself explains it this way:

"For many years, when asked to explain the reasons behind the pseudonym, I offered one of two answers:
(1). I didn't want my university classmates to know I was in a rock band, or ...
(2). I didn't want my family to know I was in a rock band.

I'm the source of both of these stories, and both are untrue. The truth is, quite simply, I was terrified. Prism was my first recording project, and with seven of the album's nine songs credited to me, I felt vulnerable and exposed. What if the album failed? So, I took the coward's way out and hid behind a fictitious name. That way, if the album "tanked" no-one could point a finger at Jim Vallance! Rodney Higgs would take the blame. I admit it was goofy, and certainly a cop-out. In fact, thirty years later I'm still mildly embarrassed by my decision!"
(jimvallance.com/01-music-folder/albums-folder/pg-album-prism-01-prism.html)

Well, the album didn't tank, and the only finger pointing might have been to point out the guy who wrote three hit singles for it ("Spaceship Superstar", "Take Me To the Kaptin", and "It's Over"). Vallance, of course, much more famously went on to become a hit-making machine as Bryan Adams' songwriting partner.

The chord chart:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/crd/prism-itsover.txt

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0o09trgUlM