Andrea and I were recently talking about my process for generating Rock-tober posts. Sometimes it starts with a song. There have been specific tunes throughout my life that affected me deeply the first time I heard them, and they've not always been rock songs. I heard one particular melody as a teenager and it captivated me instantly, but before the days of the Internet and song identifying apps like Shazam, I had no way to run it down. Eventually, I learned its name: Pachelbel's "Canon in D". When I purchased it on CD it played on endless loops in my dorm, apartment, and eventually at Andrea's and my wedding. Starting with a song and telling the story of its impact on my life is fairly straightforward.
More often, the process starts with a story of a specific event or a period of my life. This tends to be the more plentiful source material because the people around me provide endless fodder for these missives. In the vast entirety of rock and roll, there's usually a song that dovetails into these stories perfectly.
Marty Ray
There are times, though, when it's not so easy. I'll have a great story, but the accompanying song is not immediately obvious. An expedition through the musical library of YouTube then ensues. Times like these have become one of the fascinating side journeys of Rock-tober for me as I've discovered some great artists who aren't mainstream but have a devoted fanbase on their YouTube channels. Rock-tober alumnus, Marty Ray, found his way into this blog on one of these exploratory jaunts.
Puddles the Clown
There are times when I just have to make way for the bizarre. The channel, Puddles Pity Party, features a guy dressed as a clown. Once you get past the makeup and the outfit and focus on this dude's voice, you'll be amazed. He did a stint on America's Got Talent back in 2017 and wowed all the judges, even imperious Simon. The first number I heard from him, his mash-up of "Come Sail Away" and "Let It Go", was simply on point. If you hit his channel, you should also check out his excellent stripped-down, mellowed-out cover of "Crazy Train" with an actual freight train providing impromptu sound effects.
Morgan James
Another time, I was trolling through a listing of Aerosmith songs and found a cover of "Dream On" done by Postmodern Jukebox. This channel will take a modern hit and recast it with a vintage big band sound. For this particular rendition, they collaborated with Morgan James, someone whose name and voice I hadn't known previously. I was in for a treat. While "Dream On" is a core Aerosmith standard that will forever be an identifier for the band, Morgan utterly owns this cover. At 2:25 and again at 3:14 you'll wonder just like I did how this lady can only have two lungs. Andrea told me there's a specific vocal technique used to push a note this long and hard. It sounds painful and Andrea agreed that it wasn't easy, but the end result is a phenomenal first-rate cover of a rock and roll standard.
By the way, her funky blues cover of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" isn't bad either.
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