greghistory

INFLUENCES THAT SHAPED MY DIRECTION IN MUSIC
CHARLIE CHIP
When I was little, we used to have a truck come to our house and deliver Charles Chip potato chips. They came in a
giant tin can, and every week when the Charlie Chip truck came, you would turn in the empty can for a new one full
of potato chips. Just about Thursday or Friday, I would be in love with the empty can. It had so many cool sounds.
Everywhere on the surface, made different sounds. Eventually I was given my first drum set, because I kept denting
up the Charlie Chip cans.
DRAWING MUSIC
In third grade our teacher brought some records to class. She had us move all the desks,and we all spread out on
the floor, with large sheets of drawing paper and giant tree trunk size crayons, of the five basic colors. She then told
us to draw what we heard as she played different records. One was "Hall of the Mountain King", and I was
transformed to see music in shapes, colors and emotions, instead of just sounds and emotions.
SUBMARINE SOUNDS
After school I would come home and watch one of my favorite television shows, "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
The theme music was very dramatic and exciting. But over the music was dubbed the sonar radar sounds that you
hear in a submarine. They were not in beat to the music, and happened at un-natural and irregular intervals.
However, when you heard the same intro day after, the sounds became a part of the music and I learned them as
an instrument and would play along, banging on the sonar beats.
MISTAKE ON ART PROJECT
In 7th grade, we were doing an ongoing art project. It took days, and every class we would bring out our projects,
work on them, and then put them away for the next day's work. We got towards the due date, and my hand slipped
and made a gouge across the art surface, it was too late to start over, so I changed my idea and incorporated the
gouge into the work. The teacher gave me an A+ for incorporating the mistake as art.
MOST MEMORABLE MUSICAL MOMENTS
BAGPIPES IN THE MORNING MIST
When I was little, down the street from my house was a huge estate called "the McCoys". They had a giant hill of
rose bush mazes, that wound around and around, and it was so much fun to run through it for hours. They also had
lots of trails through the forests and hills. Early one morning I was wandering through the rose maze, and heard
some distant music. I turned and turned and followed the sound, it got louder as I approached a hill. When I crested
the hill, on the next hill, surrounded in morning fog was a person playing the bagpipes in full Scottish kilt and
costume. I was very scared, because it looked so spooky and unreal, but I was frozen to the spot, because the
music was so strange and enchanting. When he finally stopped, I ran home out of breath.
GREEN ONIONS
I was a little kid, in the back seat of the car, and we were going to the store. Green Onions by Booker T and the
MGs came on the car radio. I flipped out. I had my dad take me to the record store, it was a miniature electric car
race track club, where they also sold records. I bought my very first record with my 25 cent allowance money.
BATHTUB
When I was very little, I would take Saturday night bath, and have my little transistor radio on the closed toilet seat
next to me. There were only three radio stations on AM radio that I would listen to, and I would switch back and forth
looking for my favorite songs. One night I hit "Time has Come Today" (Chambers Bros.) The beat was so strong, I
splashed in time to the rock, then the reverb clock came in , slowwwwing down the music. It was like no other music,
the speed got slower and slower, the splashes got slower and bigger, slapping the water as the time slowwwwwwwed
dowwwwwwn.
TEEN PARTY
One summer I went to a family reunion in West Virginia. There were tons of people, and I didn't know any of the
kids. At one point towards evening the teenagers went to a basement and had a dance party. I was nervous and
scared, they were all older than me, and some of the boys had moonshine in a little bottle. They made a big deal
about giving me a sip. Promised not to tell. The teenager girls were very scary, and there was an electricity of
badness in the room. Susie Q (Creedence) came on the record player, I was comfortable in the music, because it
was a favorite song from my little transistor radio. This however was the "album version", that I didn't even know
existed, and when it got to the extended middle psychedelic freaky part, I was entranced, it was the coolest thing I
had ever heard. It was so big and monstrous, it was so wicked and strange. The basement was musty and cold.
POOL PARTY
When in Elementary school, we moved from Arlington to Falls Church. It was the first time I had my own private
bedroom. I had 2 big windows that I would open, and with the lights out, gaze out at the night while listening to rock
music on my little AM radio. One summer night, I heard some additional music in the distance. I turned off my radio. I
could hear the local community pool, having a band playing at the teen pool party. It was so exciting, because
depending on the wind, I could sometimes hear better, then it would drift away, then audience applause and
screams of joy. I was shivering with excitement, and straining against the window screen. It was live music !!!!!
SUNSET ON BRIDGE
On Route 50 Falls Church, just near 7-corners, there is a big bank building that is now the BBT headquarters.
When it was being first constructed, on a Sunday I was riding my bike and noticed that I could enter the skeleton of
the building. My little transistor radio was strapped to my handlebars, and as I rode around inside the concrete
shell, the music was amplified with giant reverb. After hours of travelling the different floors, all the outside was still
open and there were puddles of water that I could race through, I started home. As I crossed the bridge that goes
over Route 50, the sun was a giant ball of fire on the horizon. I stopped on the bridge and was shivering with
excitement, it was so wonderful and gigantic, the dark orange glow swallowed everything in the world. On my little
radio came "Won't get Fooled Again". I had never heard it before, and as cheesy as I think it is now, it was a
galvanizing moment, and gave me goosebumps and a dry throat.
MOST IMPORTANT CONCERTS
X........ (opening for warren zevon @ constitution Hall 9/29/87)
They had Tony Gilkeson on guitar, and the band was looser and more like a train wreck than the stiffer punk
version of the band. The hall was practically empty, so I walked right down to the front of the stage without any
hassle. After each song there was silence and a few hoots. The band however absolutely kicked ass, they seemed
to revel in the absurdity of playing a giant empty hall. The stage design had a giant telephone pole and street light,
like you would see at a country general store. There was a transformer and telephone wires and a big full moon. It
was a great backdrop for X, gut-bucket, slam against the barn door, throw a rock through a window, wolf howling,
smash a bottle sound. And a great big empty concert hall, with lots of echo and no audience.
NGUYEN DIHN NGHIA FAMILY ENSEMBLE...(Meridian Intl. Center, Wash D.C. 2/25/98)
This is only one of two concerts that I have attended where I have cried. There is an instrument called the dan bau,
that I think is the most beautiful sounding instrument in the world. They had it going through a small tiny guitar amp,
so it had a bit of grit, from forcing the volume at full, and reverb to it. I became enchanted with this Vietnamese
music, because I saw some notes on a Japanese CD translated from Japanese to English, that said "there are
precious play of Klong Put of which players need not to touch the instruments". This statement absolutely
fascinated me, and I had to buy the CD. It became my favorite CD, the sound of the dan bau was like gut-wrenching
delta blues, the sound was like Jimi Hendrix to me, but more beautiful and soulful and sad. It turns out that the klong
put is a series of bamboo tubes that you clap in front of, and by forcing air they produce assorted bass tones.
LOUNGE LIZARDS w/JOHN LURIE...(Barns @ wolftrap 11/26/90)
The first song started out real cool, then built to an intensity, that had me gripping my chair.I felt myself rise and
actually levitate. This has only happened at a concert once before, when I saw the Tibetan Monks at Lisner
Auditorium. On that instance, I actually got dizzy and had to force myself down, afraid of getting ill. But this time, I let
it go, and came down naturally at the song's conclusion and dissipation of energy.
NATIONAL ARABIC MUSIC ENSEMBLE OF THE CAIRO OPERA HOUSE EGYPT (Lisner 9/12/98)
The sound was incredible, the show was outstanding, the music was mesmerizing. After the show, in a daze, I took a
cab and was dropped off at a Metro station. Because of construction work, I could not enter, but had to walk around
the site. It was a very warm evening, with a nice warm breeze. There were light racks up on high poles that gave
everything a yellowish amber glow. A big swirl of wind came and created a giant tornado in the construction dirt, and
it swept toward me. I had to bend over and cover my face as it engulfed me.I felt transported to an Egyptian desert
sandstorm. It was a very magical and strange evening.
PIL (Univ. of Maryland, Ritchie Coliseum Halloween possibly 1981)
Guitar , bass, drums and Johnny. Big concrete gymnasium. Johnny wore a big oversize white shirt that looked like a
straight jacket that had burst open, with long dangling sleeves. I always see this concert in my mind as being in
black and white, not color. Keith Levine stomping around in a circle, pounding on the guitar, a repeated chord, as
his circles get smaller and smaller, the chords get higher, tightening the tension in the hall like a spring. He then let
it break and burst, and wound it up again.

MOST INFLUENTIAL AND FAVORITE ALBUMS
BAND OF GYPSYS (Jimi Hendrix)
ROCKIN THE FILLMORE (Humble Pie)
RECORDED LIVE (Ten Years After)
LIVE VOLUME ONE(Cream)
8:30(Weather Report)
LOTUS (Santana)
LIVE @ Philharmonic (John McLaughlin)
WE WANT MILES (Miles Davis)
DARK MAGUS (Miles Davis)
AGHARTA (Miles Davis)
PANGAEA (Miles Davis)
THE MAN WITH THE HORN (Miles Davis)
JAZZ AT THE PLAZA (Miles Davis)
BITCHES BREW (Miles Davis)
BLACK SABBATH
MEET THE BEATLES
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (Beatles)
LOU REED LIVE (Lou Reed)
GET YOUR YA YAS OUT (Rolling Stones)
IMPRESSIONS (John Coltrane)
RITE OF SPRING (Stavinsky)
WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (Velvet Underground)
DON JUAN'S RECKLESS DAUGHTER (Joni Mitchell)
RAW POWER (Iggy & the Stooges)
LIVE DATES (Wishbone Ash)
BABYLON BY BUS (Bob Marley & Wailers)
ZoSo (Led Zeppelin)
PHYSICAL GRAFFITTI (Led Zeppelin)
MARVIN PONTIAC'S GREATEST HITS
WORD OF MOUTH (Jaco Pastorius)
neto (Jose Neto)
FIRE OF LOVE (Gun Club)
MIAMI (Gun Club)
LAS VEGAS STORY (Gun Club)
LUCKY JIM (Gun Club)
WILDWEED (Jeffrey Lee Pierce)
ZOMBIE BIRDHOUSE (Iggy Pop)
TOO BAD JIM (R.L. Burnside)
EXILE ON MAIN STREET (Rolling Stones)
STEREO TYPE A (Cibo Matto)
SOY GITANO (Camaron)
GONE TO EARTH (David Sylvian)
APPROACHING SILENCE (David Sylvian)
SECRET OF THE BEEHIVE (David Sylvian)
DEAD BEES ON A CAKE (David Sylvian)
THE FIRST DAY (Sylvian / Fripp)
A TEMPLE IN THE CLOUDS (Fayman / Fripp)
WALKING INTO CLARKSDALE (Page / Plant)
THE MAN WITH THE HORN (Miles Davis)
RELAYER (Yes)
HUMAN BEHAVIOR (Bjork)
ANOTHER LIVE UTOPIA (Todd Rundgren's Utopia)
FILLMORE EAST(Allman Brothers Band)
IRISH TOUR (Rory Gallagher)
NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS (Sex Pistols)
LIVE AT LEADS (The Who)
ALVIN LEE & CO. (Ten Years After)
ROCKET TO RUSSIA (The Ramones)
DESIRE (Bob Dylan)
MUSIC OF MOHHAMAD ABDUL WAHIB
BRIGHT SIZE LIFE (Pat Metheny)
NILS PETTER MOLVAER (Khmer)
GNAWA MUSIC (Night Spirit Masters)
ALJIBE (Sinfonia Andaluza)
FRISELL/HOLLAND/JONES
ERES LUZ (Nina Pastori)
BOLOMAKOTE(Farafina)
any albums by FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI
any albums by GINGER BAKER