Horslips Highlighted on Irish-Showbands.com
The site obviously expanding its range to "Irish Pop, Rock, Country, [and] Folk..."
There's an amazing picture of the Zen Alligators that I've never seen before!
And, inexplicably, over at The Best of British Rock, I found another Horslips discography. I like the use of the sidebar to hold singles and the main frame to hold albums.
It turns out, though, that the curator of this site is a kindred soul in his own discovery of music:
If I can remember, it was probably in the summer of '65 when two brothers, ages 6 and 7 took party to countless visits by their cousin - age 9 - and convened to the basement of a home in Pasadena Maryland. A brand new 45 - courtesy of our cousin - was placed on our portable record player. With tennis rackets in hands, not to mention a set up that consisted of shiny trash cans, we became The Beatles.
After our session of endless lipsynching to The Beatles' Please Mr. Postman, I Should Have Known Better and A Hard Day's Night, I myself would be hooked forever, specially after the night my grandmother sat with me as we watched a televised concert of the Fab Four playing The Shea Stadium - sadly, my grandmom would pass on that winter - but the seed was planted, the radio played endlessly. I Fought The Law by The Bobby Fuller Four and Devil With A Blue Dress by Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels and scores of other great American classics were listened to, albums and singles were bought and I loved them all. But the sound of guitars being played through Leslie cabinets, the melodicisms, the blues, the progressions, the rockers from the U.K. is what snatched me up.
Ten years on, I'd been introduced to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple - courtesy of two more cousins. I had joined my first band two years prior (I can still see my step-father grimacing as he splurged to purchase my first drum kit). I saw my first of many concerts with my cousins in '75. Suzi Quatro's thunderous bass still echoes in my memories, as does Alice Cooper, Kiss and even Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band - Amercian bands will always be in my heart.
Twenty years on, children came - three son's God blessim'. I'd been in and out of the U.S. Army, been in countless bands and went to many concerts - I would purchase my third drum kit at my own expense. Musical success has pretty much eluded me, but the love and taste of the musical electricity is still there - it's in my soul, and there is where it shall stay.
And, hey! He likes Horslips!
1 comment:
I'm glad you liked that Showband site--you're right, from the title it's the last place you'd expect to read about a band that has been credited as partially responsible for breaking up the old showband monopoly--like the Olivia de Havilland lawsuit in 1950 that broke up the Hollywood production/ distribution/ exhibition stranglehold. On the other hand, they say the movies went downhill after the old studio assembly line (every six weeks or so, new film!) was dismantled.
Come to think of it, Horslips can be compared favorably to the old Hollywood system, ironically, for H. gained even more control over their art than even moguls did, or shady showband promoters. A book, smelling of tobacco, arrived second-hand from fair Ulster recently, on the showbands. I am expanding my small shelf of Irish music books to learn more about mid-20c contexts. This obsession with the music biz may be inherited. Supposedly I must be rather closely related (given same neighborhood, uncommon non-Murphy name, same time period, fertile procreators pre-Vatican II & Pill) to Noel Finan and whatever brother he fell out with, they having run for decades one of the island's biggest venues, the Seapoint Ballroom at Salthill, Galway city. Still a big building today, but no longer a dancehall, sweetheart...
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