THE AGE OF ROCK & ROCKETEERS

We thought it was the greatest thing in the world.  Not only did 1956 bring us Elvis and Heartbreak Hotel; it brought us Chuck Berry and Johnny B. Goode.  It also brought us Ace Andres and many like me.  Well, maybe not "MANY".  But in the midst of the 50s, middle class America saw the rise and fall of many "Tap dancing" or "Accordion" schools.  Fortunately for me I got tap dance lessons.  It was great in that at the age of about five, I was performing in front of hundreds at the county fair.

I think it was around this time (1961) that a song came out called "Mustang Sally".  It was a wonderfully simple blues song for guitarists.  It was comparable to a piano guy playing "chopsticks.

 

By the time I was a teen, I had lost my mom, but I had gained a guitar and a Jimi Hendrix live at the Monterey Pop festival album. (Flip side of album had Otis Redding)  Ironically, I go by that stage every week.  I studied Jimi's guitar riffs.  Then Woodstock came along and a group that KILLED EVERYONE at that concert had a guitarist named Alvin Lee.  (One of my last living Heroes) So in my late teens I had to learn to "SHRED" (This is a term used to describe playing at mach 2) Oddly enough what inspired this blog entry today was Alvin Lee's new Album.  WHAT?  The album is called "Still walking on the road to Freedom".  Good Lord, I'm impressed Alvin can still walk without a cane.

Who does Alvin think is going to buy his new album. Most of Alvin's fans are trying to find "A space in Time" on MP.3 for their Ipods or Iphones.  Many of Alvins fans are trying to find an extended care nurse that will play "Rock and Roll Music to the World" on their old Cassette players.

We thought it was the greatest thing in the world when Eddie Van Halen showed us 25 year old guitar slingers how to do "Multi-finger fretboard pull offs".  Eddie raised the board for us rock guitarists.  This was sort of the new thing you had to "know" how to do to be recognized as a 6 string fighter pilot. An Ace......

While Marshall was making money by the millions selling JCM 800s, bar bands were still playing "Mustang Sally".

The 80s and 90s flew by with Hollywood trying everything short of suicide to get the attention of the newest generation.  The bar bands kept playing "Mustang Sally" But by the turn of the millennium; Heart Break Hotel had closed it's doors.  In fact the Doors had closed the Morrison Hotel.

Yet in every city in any damp, beer soaked carpet is a band playing "Mustang Sally"

If you were born in the 70s, 80s or even the early 90s, you're going to hear bar bands with old guys playing the same set list that starts with "Mustang Sally" and ends with "Brick House" 

Rock Music is the new Roller Skating rink of the 21st Century.  Instead of the Hokey Pokey, it's some AARP members playing "Mustang Sally".


AS someone said on YouTube in response to one of my videos: "Ace, you're a dying breed".  Seeing Neil Armstrong pass away or cross over makes me wonder.  Who needs a 4 finger pull off shredder anymore? For that matter; who needs a lunar Astronaut any more?