Rants By Topic

Discussions regarding various albums. Which you can purchase here.

Progress (Fourth Progress Snippet)

11.15.2016

This is the big one, folks. The eponymous fourth snippet from the new album, Progress. Genesis 1:28. Property management. Nietzche and Also Sprach Zarathustra. ELP and Jerusalem. Gentle Giant and selling out. Nobody’s Fool–he grows on people.

RCWow. I thought I was listening to Return To Forever for a minute.I take back everything I ever said about you not ‘shredding’ anymore.

JCHWell, it’s an eight minute (cough) ‘snippet’.

RCNow I like that. It’s like the Detroit (Medley) you used as a bonus track for Nice Cuts. I never thought the snippets really worked well for ‘epics’–they don’t give the listener a good idea of the whole thing. On the other hand, new people are not going to listen to thirty minutes–they want to get to the meat of the thing. I know it’s extra work for you, but I think it’s a great solution.

JCHRog are you sick? I can’t tell […]

Is This Any Way To Write Music?

11.8.2016

Albums, Culture

If you’re here once in a while, you can see some changes going on in preparation for the release of Progress. So we’re gettin’ close. As I write this, it’s election day in America and Rog is taking the week off. So coincidentally I want to talk about some (cough) ‘polarisation’ he and I routinely have going on.

If you read this regularly, you know how Rog has encouraged me over the years to market better. That’s his job and I am forever grateful for his advice and support. I’ll go even further and say that if not for him, ninety percent of the ‘content’ on this site simply would not exist. That said, I think that he thinks of what I do as you probably do and that creates some ‘friction’. He literally cannot wrap his mind around the idea of not generating ‘product’ according to a schedule. Everyone works on a schedule, right? That kitchen remodel? You know how long it will take. The term paper? It’s […]

That Big Finish

10.27.2016

Albums

Beethoven sure had it rough. Composing for that big finish. Will Progress ship on time? More on Yes. Structure. Julia Roberts. The rare Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. Close To The Edge. Creating on cue. What breaks up relationships. Fertility treatments. Self-pleasuring.

Roger CortonWe’re getting down to the wire if your plan is to get Progress done by Thanksgiving, right?

JCHIt’s gonna be tight.

RCTighter than a drum, Homer?

JCHTighter than a frog’s butt, Jethro. Haw, haw, haw.

RCThat’s pretty tight. So, I see no new snippet. What’s the deal? If you’re so close to finishing, why don’t we see some results, son?

JCHI’ve been obsessing over Beethoven the past couple of years.

RCOh no, not another lecture on Structure. Anything but that!

JCH(laughs). No, man. No music appreciation today. Maybe it started as minor delusions of grandeur or self-pity with the ‘sick artiste’

RCYou mean deafness?

JCHNo, man. I […]

The Steve Howe Chattering O-Face

10.13.2016

Albums, Songs

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?

[…]

We Danced (Third Progress Snippet)

10.9.2016

Albums, Songs

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 […]