More on what’s wrong with the third snippet from the new album, Progress, called We Danced. Donald Trump? A tribute to Steve Howe. Chattering. The O-Face. Wah wahs. Yessongs. Stolen video.

Roger CortonAlready you’re not happy with We Danced.

JCHWell, it hit me what the problem is.

RCI hesitate to even ask.

JCHNo O-Face.

RCThe what?

JCHOh c’mon. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
RCI do know what you’re talking about. But in the wake of the current election, can’t we be a little more uplifting?

JCHUplifting? How’s this for uplifting? FUCK DONALD TRUMP. Ya know why? I could care less about the guy’s politics. But the net long-term effect of his campaign will be to single-handedly make the world even more insufferably ‘PC’ than it already is.

RCDone?

[…]

The third snippet from the new album, Progress, called We Danced. Tapping. Hedley Lamarr. John Gotmann marriage counseling. Tom Morello vs Mark Knopfler guitars. Saw. Ferraris. A Clockwork Orange. Masters Of The Universe. Sammy Hagar. Straight head rock in Prog? Tales From Topographic Oceans.

Roger CortonNow this is more like it. Some actual GUITAR PICKIN’, son!

JCHIn the immortal words of Heddy L…

RCThat’s Hedley…

JCHShit. You beat me to the punchline. Well forget that joke. I finally figured out why you’re getting more of a sense of a humor. It’s to cut me off at the pass!

RCYou finally caught on.

JCHLike I tell ya, I’m not as sharp as I used to be!

RCWell let’s try to focus on the song for once and not your failings as a man.

JCHI’ll try, ma. What do you wanna know?

RCWell, first of all, as a guitarist I just have […]

We interrupt our multi-part rant on ‘Criticism’ for the second snippet from the new album, Progress, called Take A Picture. Famous fretless bass players with two syllable names. Pino. Jaco. Jon Anderson and Olias of Sunhillow. The Roger Dean planet. Unconventional finger picking. Bach. Superbia. Catholic sin. Satan. The usual.

Roger CortonI was going to publish the other parts of our mega-chat on (cough) ‘criticism’ but this site is supposed to be about your music and not ‘Humanities 101’. So I made an executive decision to get this up. ASAP.

JCHWhat’s that old business joke about ‘asap’?

RCIt makes a sap out of you and me. Us oldsters really know how to tell a joke, eh sonny?

JCHNo doubt. Probably nobody under thirty has even heard that knee slapper. But in reaction to your ‘executive decision’, allow me to be a bit more with the youth of America. “What…ehhhhhver, dude.”

[…]

A two-parter on the notion of ‘criticism’. More on the Onward cover. Nobody cares about Hillary’s damned pneumonia. Prince. Blue Angels. George Van Eps. Old school gymnastics and the Olympics. Simplicity. Easy vs. hard. Simple vs. complex. Loops vs. clicks.

Roger CortonNo new Snippet this week? I thought you were going to throw up at least one new something every week.

JCHLook, don’t hassle me, man. It’s been a crappy week. Everywhere I go I just run into too much recession, man.

RCNo man, you mean he ran into too much repression (laughs). I haven’t heard that in a long time. So what’s going on?

JCHTo paraphrase Bernie Sanders, nobody cares about my damned whatever. The point is, I couldn’t get it done. Come to think about it, that’s what Hillary should tell people when she got sick last week. “Nobody cares about my damned whatever. Now fuck off!” It just amazes me that she can’t take a day off to be […]

Live snippet. Cover of Yes/Chris Squire’s ‘Onward’ from Tormato. Why we hate looping. Alfalfa and learning to croon. Simple things that are hard to do. Dick Van Dyke’s Recurring Nightmare. Tempo maps. Why do classical conductors make the big, big money? Astoria, OR is great in the autumn.

Roger CortonWe have that rarest sighting in the wild. You doing a cover song.

Onward (Cover) (Snippet)

JCHWell actually one verse, but yeah. As background, I finally got round to listening to that boxed set of Yes re-masters.

RCWhich came out, what, three or four years ago now?

JCHDo you actually listen to those door stops? I get these ‘gift boxes’ for Christmas pressies and…

RCI confess. I’ve gotten a few of those. Never listened to most of them.

JCHIndeed. Who has the time or patience to listen to the fifth outtake of whatever? Anyhoo, I listened to ‘Tormato’ again and… by the way, did you know, […]