More Michigan: Motor City Mad Man - The Nuge

Nothing says (screams) Michigan quite like The Nuge.   Free for All is considered his best album (I give Cat Scratch Fever a slight edge), this classic has the title track of course, plus Dog Eat Dog, Turn It Up, and Hammerdown.  If you read this blog - you will recall how engrossed I am with Ted's signature Gibson guitar.  It was given the name Byrdland because is was originally custom built by Gibson for two famous Nashville session muscians - Billy Byrd and Hank Garland.  You will see some Byrdlands with a rounded end or Venetian style lower cutaway.  From most photos, Ted prefers the sharp or pointier Florentine lower cutaway.  According to a Gibson message board, the guitar is currently available as part of Gibson's Custom series and is made with the Florentine cutaway.

Michigan's Own - Bob Seger; plus the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section

I am heading up to Michigan for a long weekend - the UP, to be precise -twelve hours out of Mackinaw City.  So, the ride up calls for some Seger.  On the left is The Distance, from 1982.  The liner notes tell us Even Now was recorded at Stdio 55 in LA.  Russ Kunkel on drums, Roy Bittan on piano, and Don Felder on guitar.  Some of it was recorded at Muscle Shoals  Sound Studio in Sheffield, AL.  Jimmy Iovine produced the record.  Roll me Away has Waddy Wachtel on guitar and Michael Boddicker on synthsizers.  He played synthesizer on many Michael Jackson records.  Danny Korchmar is on guitar on House Behind a House.  Photo on right is back cover of 1978's Stranger in Town.  My high school prom theme song was We've Got Tonite.  Glen Frey has the guitar solo Till is Shines.  Members of the The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (aka The Swampers), get full listing on the inner jacket.  The Alabama Music Hall of Fame (http://www.alamhof.org/msrs.html) state, "hailed as four of the finest studio musicians in the world, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section – keyboardist Barry Beckett, drummer Roger Hawkins, bassist David Hood and guitarist Jimmy Johnson – have appeared on classic recordings by top-name artists in virtually every musical genre."

Iron Butterfly, Jeff Beck Group, and the Moody Blues: what they have in common

I am reading another book on Woodstock, this one called Back to the Garden by Pete Fornatale.  Comments and vignets from people who were there: artists, organizers, and attendees.  So what do Iron Butterfly, the Jeff Beck Group, and the Moody Blues have in common?  All were on the event posters and in the media ads - but did not perform.  Moodies were invited but they were not touring, it was too much trouble to go.  As for Beck, the author says the band was splintering at the end of their summer 1969 tour.  As for IB, in the book, festival stage manager and Fillmore East vet John Morris tells this tale.  After being invited, IB sent a telegram to event managers stating the bands' demands to be met if Iron Butterfly were to perform at Woodstock: "from LaGuardia, a helicopter will take us direct to event; we will perform immeidately, then be flown back out."  As legend has it  - Morris' (or Lang's) reply telegram to Iron Butterfly went something like this:

For reasons I can't go into
Until you are here
Clarifying your situation
Knowing you are having problems
You will have to find
Other transportation
Unless you plan not to come