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Mike Nesmith, Jones, Peter Tork, and Mickey Dolenz monkeying around
Musicians appear to be on the endangered species list of late. First Whitney Houston, then Davy Jones of the Monkees, and just the other day, acclaimed guitarist Ronnie Montrose all passed away. I had a man crush on Davy Jones back in the seventies. The Monkees started out as the first constructed boy band capitalizing on the British invasion by the Beatles and eventually wound up making a name for themselves as real musicians.
And Montrose’ eponymous album is one of the classic hard rock albums of all time. His guitar playing was on par with that of Eddie Van Halen with a little soul thrown in (sorry, Eddie. All shred all the time isn’t always the best stuff). ‘Rock Candy’ sounds as good today as it did 40 years ago. Hard to believe that number. But don’t take my word for Ronnie’s influence. Check out the interview with Sammy Hagar whose career was launched with that album. Montrose was also renowned for his guitar work on Edgar Winter‘s classic album ‘They Only Come Out at Night’. That was the first album I ever spent my allowance on, much to the chagrin of my father who rather preferred Hank Williams.
Some conflict of interest problems surfaced recently with the Keystone XL Pipeline. Apparently the company conducting the environmental impact studies has ties to TransCanada. They are suspected of trying to minimize the environmental hazards associated with the project. It will be interesting to see how this plays out when the general election is in full swing.
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Related articles
- Sammy Hagar remembers Ronnie Montrose (cnn.com)
- RONNIE MONTROSE – Classic Interview Available At In The Studio (bravewords.com)
538 Refugees 