Tune Tag #72 with David Burton of "If You Get Confused": Allman Bros, Ozzy, Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, Billy Joel, Pavlov's Dog, Blue Öyster Cult
Warm up the station wagon! It's a Classic Rock bonanza for this one! A couple of Baby Boomers Tune Taggin'? Hardly. Would you believe our guest isn't even 30? Wait'll you meet this guy!
Howdy, David! Tag! You’re IT!
Tune Tag welcomes of If You Get Confused!
David is the 28-year-old creator of the newsletter If You Get Confused, where he shares notes on songs that have meaning to him in hopes that they might provide meaning to other people too.
He is a lifelong fan of music, and started his newsletter as a passion project to share music with anyone who wants to listen and find new ways to connect with the music he loves.
The title of his newsletter is named after the Grateful Dead lyric: “If you get confused, listen to the music play.” That’s a method that’s always worked for him, and his hope is that his newsletter helps anyone else who might need it!
Last week, we enjoyed the company of Tad Callin of !👇
Next week, Tune Tag in to see of Skateboarding on Their Altar!
David’s song #1 sent to Brad: The Allman Brothers, “Stormy Monday” (Live At Fillmore East, March 13, 1971)
David’s rationale: The foundation of my musical knowledge and appreciation comes from my Dad, who is also a huge music lover! When I was young, my Dad would always play Sirius XM radio channels like 70’s on 7 or Classic Vinyl Rock. When I was younger, I was embarrassed to see my Dad singing along with “old people” music when I was in the car!
But as I got older, I started to really enjoy this music (and didn’t realize how much knowledge I had picked up over all those years in the car with him)!
My Dad's favorite band is The Allman Brothers. He says that 1971’s At Fillmore East is the best album of all time. My favorite song on the album is “Stormy Monday,” which I particularly love for the guitar playing. The extended solos and instrumentals paved the way for me to start to appreciate live renditions and music without needing words….which led me to find the Grateful Dead, and more recently, getting involved with jam band music.
Brad’s song #1 sent to David: Wishbone Ash, “Rest in Peace,” 1976
David’s response: I have admittedly never heard of Wishbone Ash before. But, after some quick research, it seems like the reason Brad picked this was because of the dual-guitar influence, which includes the use of steel guitar. The Allman Brothers Band famously had the duo of Duane Allman and Dickie Betts on guitar, and Wishbone Ash seems to have had a similar setup with Andy Powell and Ted Turner.
Both bands probably drew a lot of inspiration from blues music, but Wishbone Ash has a bit of a different style to them. I really like it. I love this song and will definitely be looking more into the band’s work after this!
The specific song choice stumped me a bit. Maybe the morbid tones of “Rest in Peace” and “Stormy Monday” both blend together nicely.
Brad’s rationale: Longtime Atlantic Records producer, Tom Dowd, produced both the Allmans live album and this Wishbone Ash.
Brad adds: I certainly was aware of the duo of dual guitar players in the bands, David. Ash was pretty big in the day, and were a fun one to be a fan of if you were into rock and hard rock in the early-‘70s. If you were with friends at, say, an Allmans concert, you’d seem pretty hip if you could spring a sudden, “Have you heard the new Wishbone Ash?” on them!
David’s song #2: Uriah Heep, “Easy Livin’,” 1972
Brad’s response: I keep thinking there might be a dual guitar link here between Wishbone Ash and Uriah Heep. I think they both (Ash, anyway) had a thing with guitar-solo harmony playing.
David’s rationale: My research on Wishbone Ash revealed that Wishbone Ash member Martin Turner left the band after they wanted to bring in a lead vocalist and demote his duties to bass guitar only.
He was replaced by John Wetton (Roxy Music, U.K., Asia) of Uriah Heep. Wetton was also eventually replaced by another former Uriah Heep member, Trevor Bolder (was in David Bowie’s early-’70s Spiders From Mars).
I chose “Easy Livin’” as it’s another song that I learned from my Dad. Brad adds: Tell your dad, David, that I used to sing “Easy Livin’” pretty regularly at karaoke a decade ago! That, and Deep Purple’s “Burn” were incredibly fun to sing. Of the two, the only one I mechanically-lowered the pitch on was “Burn,” but, just by a hair. Has Dad turned you on to “Burn”? Here ‘tis, if not!
Brad’s song #2: Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train,” 1980
David’s response: Looks like we have some more band member cross-over here! When Ozzy left Black Sabbath to start his own thing, he formed the band with a few members from Uriah Heep. Once their first album, Blizzard of Ozz, was released, it was just under Ozzy Osbourne’s solo name.
The hit track from that album was “Crazy Train”--Brad’s choice!
Brad’s rationale: Lee Kerslake on drums for both the studio-Uriah Heep and Blizzard of Ozz tracks. That same year (1980), Randy Rhoads stopped in at the Music Plus/Glendale, the record store I had just become assistant manager of in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. That story here:
David’s song #3: Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” 1989
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