Rock's Most Unheralded and Underrated Guitarist

Rush was a great and unique band.  The Canadian trio featured and all-time great drummer in Neil Peart, a phenomenal bass player in Geddy Lee, and a superb guitar player in Alex Lifeson.  What made them unique was that Lee and Lifeson would write the music while Peart wrote the lyrics, something drummers did not typically do.  A band’s singer usually writes the lyrics because he’s singing them, and he has to sing them with conviction; he has to “buy-in” and commit to the lyrics, which is much easier to do when a singer writes them.

But they were unique in another way.  Peart is one of the most heralded drummers in rock history, deservedly so.  And Lee has more skill as a bass player than most.  But the key to the band is Lifeson, as I will explain in a moment.

Having gone through high school in the early 1980s, when Rush had reached peak popularity, my high school years coincided with their best LPs:

•  1980 – Permanent Waves was released while I was in 8^th grade and was played a lot my freshman year on the high school grounds.
•  1981 – Moving Pictures, released midway through freshman year
•  1982 – Signals, my junior year
•  1984 – Grace Under Pressure, my graduation year

Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, 4/1/86

The second concert I ever attended was Rush at Madison Square Garden on the Signals tour, December 3, 1982.  I saw them again at the Meadowlands Arena on September 29, 1984, in the Grade Under Pressure tour and once more for the Power Windows tour on April 1, 1986.  I thoroughly enjoyed their music and seeing them live.

Of course, any time I saw them, my eyes were fixed on Peart absolutely rocking the drum set.  But over time I’ve come to appreciate Alex Lifeson because his versatility makes him better than most rock guitar players.

Consider, most guitar players have their signature sound.  You know Eddie Van Halen when you hear him.  Same with U2’s The Edge.  And Stevie Ray Vaughan has his own sound that makes his music instantly identifiable.  I can go on and on, naming almost every great guitar player that’s ever been recorded and they have their own sound, save for a handful of versatile and unique players like Eric Clapton and Steve Howe.  Among that handful has to be Alex Lifeson.

On Rush’s self-titled debut album, Lifeson, just 20 years-old, sounded like he was imitating Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, using a similar guitar sound with heavy distortion.  Even on their second LP, Fly By Night, the guitar intro to Beneath, Between & Behind sounds like if could be a Led Zeppelin intro.  But there were hints of evolution on the title track, played with sparing distortion.  His sound evolved through the 70s, playing acoustically (The Trees, Closer to the Heart) and on electric, with effects and without, and playing fast and artistically (La Villa Strangiato, Xanadu).

By 1980’s Permanent Waves LP, Lifeson sounded nothing like he did on Rush’s debut just seven years prior.  A year later, on Moving Pictures, Lifeson was at his rock peak, playing skillfully when appropriate and rocking hard other times.

Then Rush began changing their sound, and as he did throughout the 70s, Lifeson’s sound changed with the band.  In the late 1980s and into the 90s, Rush went for a more keyboard-driven sound and Lifeson changed his guitar sound, but also his style.  The power riffing rock leads evolved into new wave textures and rhythms.

And that’s the greatness of Lifeson; he’s a shape-shifter, a guy who can really play any style and always wrote and played to the style of music the band was playing.  And while fans consistently raved about the virtuosity of Peart’s drummer and talent of Lee playing outstanding bass runs with his hands while often accompanying himself on synthesizer foot pedals, Lifeson, I believe, has been the key to the band’s sound.  Whether rocking a hard lead or applying texture to Geddy’s keyboard leads with appropriate guitar rhythms, Alex Lifeson always made Rush’s music better by playing to the song rather than trying to force a signature sound into a song.  That make Alex Lifeson one of the best guitar players in the industry because he can do so much and play so many styles.  It’s just a shame more music fans don’t recognize his talents.

The Idiocy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

In 1978, singer/songwriter Kenny Loggins scored a hit with a "Whenever I Call You Friend," a song he co-wrote with Melissa Manchester and sang as a duet with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks.  The song peaked at number 5 on the Billboard pop charts.  The song marked Nicks' first success on the charts outside of Fleetwood Mac, as well as Loggins first solo success after splitting from Jim Messina, whith whom he had scored a top 10 hit ("Your Mama Don't Dance") as well as two top 20 hits ("My Music" and "Thinking of You") prior to going solo.

In fact, it was as a solo artist that Loggins had his greatest success, scoring two Grammy Awards in his 12 nominations.  Loggins also earned a Golden Globe and has been nominated for Tony and Academy Awards.  As a solo artist, Loggins penned and performed nine Top 20 singles, five Top 10 singles, and a number one with the theme from the film Footloose.  Loggins also scored big with film soundtrack songs "Danger Zone" from Top Gun, "I'm Alright" from Caddyshack, and "Meet Me Half Way" from Over the Top.

Loggins also co-wrote one of the biggest-selling Doobie Brothers songs with Michael McDonald - "What a Fool Believes."

From 1978 to 1988, few artists dominated radio the way Loggins did.  That's an undisputable fact.

The one honor Loggins has not received is induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  In fact, Loggins has never even been nominated.

After success with "Whenever I Call You Friend," Stevie Nicks, on the other hand, had two more Top 50 singles with Fleetwood Mac - "Sara," which peaked at 37 on the pop chart, and "Gypsy," which peaked at 46.

Nicks also went solo, scoring her first two 'solo' hits by singing duets - "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and "Leather and Lace" with Don Henley, both of which cracked the Top 10.

Nicks finally broke through with true solo success in 1982 with "Edge of Seventeen," which peaked at number 11 on the pop charts, and "Stand Back," her first true solo Top 10, peaking at number 5.

She scored four more Top 20 singles in her solo career, one of which peaked at 4 ("Talk To Me," which I have no recollection of ever hearing, and I was a college radio DJ in the 80s and a sports DJ in the 90s with the NJ Devils, NY Giants and NY Jets, so I remember 80s music extremely well).

Nicks had 8 Grammy nominations as a solo artist, without ever winning.

Clearly, Kenny Loggins had far more success as a solo artist than Stevie Nicks; it's not even debatable.  Loggins was a far greater songwriter than Nicks, who was the third best songwriter in Fleetwood Mac, behind hitmaking keyboardist Christine McVie and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

But Stevie Nicks is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Twice.  Once, justifiably, as a member of Fleetwood Mac, and once as a solo artist.  How did Nicks make it in as a solo artist?  The Hall admits they wanted more women in the Hall; you know, more "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion."

The question thus becomes, is it fair to put someone like Nicks in the Hall because she's a woman while a far more successful artist like Loggins can't even get nominated?  I'll leave that for you to decide.

From Energy Independence to Desperate Dependence in One Election

The differences between President Trump and Joe Biden couldn't be more stark:

• Trump had a strong pre-COVID economy.  Bidenomics has given us a Jimmy Carter economy.
• Trump's foreign policy saw no new wars in the world.  Biden's got North Korea back to testing missiles and Russia back to exceeding their borders.
• Trump opposed illegal immigration.  Biden's got open and porous borders.

But perhaps the most important distinction is in energy policy:  Trump believed in energy independence and made America a net-exporter of energy.  Biden is pushing electric cars that will make us completely dependent on foreign nations.

And the results of Biden's policies, predictably, will end in disaster.

According to Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe,

there is a severe shortage of materials needed to produce the 1,000 pound batteries that power electric vehicles.  Said Scaringe, "All the world's cell production combined represents well under 10% of what we will need in 10 years, meaning, 90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist."

Government's answer to this problem is to require gas-powered vehicles to average at least 40 mpg by 2026, a goal designed to decimate the auto industry because it's simply unattainable for most cars on the market today.  Put simply, cars are already made so cheaply to make them as light as possible so they can meet today's mileage standards and to raise those standards will mean even cheaper cars.

Those Mustangs made of a horrible and cheap plastic interior will be made even cheaper - I drive a Mustang and am surrounded in the cockpit by cheap, thin plastic.

Those Toyotas made with aluminum block engines that require you to re-tap the holes for the head bolts any time a head gasket change is needed will be made every cheaper - I've changed a Camry head gasket and re-tapping holes means removing the engine, a very costly fix for car owners.

Those cars that crumple in a fender bender because fenders are made of tin will fall apart because the metal on the exterior will become paper thin.

Simply put, more cars will be junked faster than every before because they simply won't last.  This creates far more waste than ever before while costing consumers more money for replacement.  And these fuel-powered cars will be absolutely necessary because, as Scaringe stated, there simply is not a supply chain for electric vehicles on an adequate scale.

So why did this administration dive-in head first into the EV market without a means to supply the forced demand?  It simply couldn't have been an accident.  They can't be that dumb, can they?

Tax Day Proves that Democrats Are Going After YOU, Not Millionaires

Today is tax day and some of you were shocked to see that you got screwed in more ways than one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we hear the Democrat lip service constantly - "The rich have to pay their fair share...  We're not going after anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year...  It's a millionaire's tax because we're only increasing taxes on millionaires!"

It's all a lie!  And you learned that this tax season.

First, let's talk about last year's "Child Tax Credit."  Sure, you got some money back from the government every month or so last year, and because President Trump gave you a real tax cut 4 years ago and a real stimulus check in 2020 that you got to cash, no stings attached, you thought you could trust government.  But it turns out that those Child Tax Credits were really just loans that had to be paid back.  

I had friends who were stunned when they learned that they owed $3,000 on their tax return this year because they accepted their "Credit."  Yeah, some of you smiled as you voted Democrat last November but Biden laughs at you today.  

The second way they got you was by declaring that if you sold a mere $600 worth of goods on Etsy and/or eBay last year, that's now considered taxable income.  

Buy record albums in the 70s and sell them last year on eBay?  You pay!  

Buy some football jerseys in the 80s and sell them last year on eBay?  You pay!

Buy baseball cards in the 90s and sell the last year on eBay?  You pay!

Your spouse, son or daughter made some crafts and sold them on Etsy?  They pay!

"We're only going after millionaires!"  What a load of crap! And they checked bank accounts to make sure they got their share of your Etsy and eBay money.

While middle class America lives paycheck to paycheck and suffers the strain of near double-digit inflation thanks to Bidenomics, Democrats would have you believe that corporations are making you poorer, but the Democrats the people who are lying to your face while increasing your taxes.  They are taking your money, not corporations. 

Greedy politicians.  That's your problem.  And on tax day, you should remember that.

Media has Become Theater of the Absurd in NJ with Regard to Legal Weed

This morning News 12 reported that "after some months of deliberations, New Jersey is ready to open their first legal marijuana shop."  

"Some months?"

Look, we all know the media does not like to criticize Democrats or hold them to any standard whatsoever, but Phil Murphy stated during his first gubernatorial campaign in 2017 that "the first thing" he would get done in office was legalizing weed.  That was FIVE years ago, not "some months" ago.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a weed-head and would rather it not be legalized at all (call me crazy, but legalizing a gateway drug when 2021 saw the most overdose deaths in NJ state history isn't smart, in my humble opinion), but Phil failed miserably to get pot legalized.  Technically, he never got it legalized at all; the people of this state did.  After 3 years of failure to get his Democrat-majority in the legislature to legalize weed despite the fact that the governor is the de facto head of his state's party, the weed coalition managed to get weed legalization on the ballot as a question, and the people approved it.

Phil then slowed the process down by appointing a committee, choosing his members by diversity, equity and inclusion, of course, and it took the committee a year and a half to get this done.  Maybe they were all stoned for the last 18 months and worked r-e-a-l   s-l-o-w-l-y.

Of course, come Monday, I expect Phil to take victory lap, bragging about getting this done.  And the adoring media will proudly report this as some great accomplishment for the governor, but again, the reality is that Phil was completely ineffective at legalizing weed and did little to get this done in any semblance of a timely manner.  Kinda like how it took thousands of deaths for Phil to reverse his incredibly moronic policy of forcing COVID patients into nursing homes.  But the media never took him to task for that, either.

Gun Control Does Not Work

Yesterday Joe Biden did what Joe Biden does best these days: he went on TV and yelled at the teleprompter, sometimes incoherently, about gun control and "ghost guns," as if guns made from parts or from 3D printers were responsible for the sharp uptick in urban homicide rates since the return of ill-advised (a polite way of saying "stupid") left-wing policies led by people like New York City's former mayor, Bill (Warren Wilhelm) de Blasio.

Personally, I wouldn't trust a handgun made from parts (particularly those made of 3D-printed parts) because if the firearm fails and backfires, the shooter would either be dead or permanently disfigured and in pain for life.

That said, I understand the desire and the challenge of building something by hand.  My father restores antique cars partly because he loves old cars but mostly because he loves the challenge.  

I suspect that's why most people build a pistol - to see if they can do it.  I don't think anyone's building a firearm with the thought of using it in a crime.  And the reality is, there simply aren't a whole lot of reports on the news of people committing violent crimes with "ghost guns" to justify a crackdown on them.

But this is what Democrats do and have been doing for decades:  they enact policies that are soft on crime, then when crime increases, they announce new gun laws.  They've been infringing on Constitutional firearms rights for decades and yet, there are still gangs roaming the streets committing violent crimes including homicide with all kinds of weapons, including firearms.  But Democrats never seem to want to address that problem.  Instead, they limit freedom on law-abiding citizens.

Then, of course, today there was a mass-shooting in Brooklyn that Democrats in New York and Washington will use to push for more limitations on legal firearms that will not stop a criminal or the criminally insane from acquiring an illegal weapon and using it.

And it's important that we address both of those groups - the criminal and the criminally insane.  They are the cause of most crime, violent crime, and use of firearms in a crime in America.

Why do sane people turn to crime?  Primarily because they're poor and/or addicted and in need, so kids join gangs and adults turn to crime to feed their habit.  And Democrats respond to crime by legalizing narcotics and releasing criminals.  Unsurprisingly, drug use has skyrocketed as has violent crime.  Go figure.

Why do criminally insane people turn to violent crime?  Because they can.  Decades ago the criminally insane were institutionalized; now they're household names of infamy after mass shootings that would never have happened had they been living in a psych ward.  The most egregious case occurred in southern Florida where a teen with serious mental disorders was passed from school to school because everyone knew he was dangerous and no one wanted to deal with it.  But predictably, every time the criminally insane shoot-up a school or a train or anywhere else, Democrats blame the firearm and use the homicidal attack as an excuse to curb the rights of the millions of gun owners who've never committed a crime.

So where do we go from here?  Back to 1992, in New York City.  That year there were 2,262 homicides in the city.  That's 6.2 murders a day.  And after decades of lax Democrats leadership, New Yorkers were fed up and elected a Republican mayor for the first time since Fiorello LaGuardia's three terms ended in 1945.  (Yes, John Lindsay was elected as a Republican in 1965, but was the man for whom the term "limousine liberal" was created and was re-elected on the Liberal Party ticket in 1969 before running for president in the Democrat primary a few years later).

That mayor who won in 1993 was Rudy Giuliani, who promptly cracked-down on crime and violence and cleaned-up New York City after decades of rot.  Giuliani's policies were so effective that they were followed by cities across the country and by the end of 2001, New York City experienced just 649 murders (excluding the 9/11 terror attacks).

Mike Bloomberg followed Giuliani as mayor and continued Giuliani's law-and-order policies and by 2013, New York City was averaging less than one murder per day, making New York City one of the world's safest large cities.

The path America must chart for a safe future is crystal clear - we must have law and order and criminals must pay for their crimes with prison time.  The criminally insane must be removed from society and institutionalized, as difficult as that may be for parents to accept.  

With regard to the enforcement of New York City's ridiculously low speed limits, Bill (Warren Wilhelm) de Blasio said, "If it saves just one life, it's worth it!"  If only Democrats felt this way about law and order and the criminally insane, we'd all have safer cities without having to have our Constitutional rights infringed upon.

My Experience with Tachycardia and the COVID Vaccine

When the pandemic began in the United States, I had already been following the news from Italy, where the virus devastated the nation and was particularly lethal to the elderly and overweight population, especially those with one or more health issues.  Having been sent home to work remotely, I set up my laptop on my dining room table and realized I was surrounded by snacks.  I decided to walk a mile that Saturday afternoon, March 14, 2020.

Within a week, I was walking three miles a day.  

Within three weeks, I was running a mile and then walking two daily.

Admittedly, I was snacking more, but the daily exercise was paying dividends as I was running faster and farther every week.

By May, I had increased my running distances, but was running just three days a week while walking three miles on days I did not run.  I set a goal to run a 5k distance by summer and in early June ran my first 5k distance in 32 minutes flat.  A week later I purchased running shoes and cut my 5k time down to 28 minutes.

I had gotten myself into pretty good physical shape, probably my best physical condition in over twenty years, back when I was in my late-20s and regularly playing pick-up basketball, softball, and occasionally ice hockey.  I stopped playing sports around the age of 30, when I dislocated my shoulder periodically and started my family, which consumed a lot of time.  Still, throughout my thirties and forties, I was never a sedentary person, which may have helped me get into excellent cardio condition in 2020.

Thus, I was pretty comfortable with my odds of beating the pandemic.  I was, and remain, slightly overweight, but I am healthy and have none of the illnesses or conditions that make the odds of beating the virus really low.

When the vaccine emerged near the end of 2020, I decided to take a pass on it.  Again, I liked my chances of survival because of my physical condition and sound immune system.  Further, I had returned to work with some co-workers while most people at my place of employment chose to stay home. 

By summer of 2021, one of my employers (who will remain nameless) required the jab to continue working there.  It was a part-time gig, but I really enjoyed it and let’s just say the results of my work product were consistently near the top of the charts.  So I took the jabs. 

The first jab went smoothly, though I was tired the next day.  The second jab produced far more intense results.  I was exhausted and lethargic, yet my mind was working as if I’d consumed a pot of coffee, resulting a near all-nighter because I just couldn’t sleep with my mind overly active, so I read a book.  I didn’t check any of my vital signs and figured I’d be fine in a day or two.

The employer that required the jab then required the third jab, or “booster” by January 31, 2022.  I didn’t want it.  At all.  I didn’t want to go through another sleepless night.  I’d also concluded that the initial jab didn’t nearly work as promised; I believe Joe Biden said in early 2021 that if we got the vaccine, we’d be safe for life.  Getting another shot 4-5 months after getting the first one clearly showed the ineffectiveness of the shot.  I appealed to management and was denied the choice to control my own healthcare.

So I got the third shot.

This time I had similar side effects from the first shot, but I monitored my pulse on my Fitbit.  While laying lethargically on the couch all day, my heart was actually racing, peaking at 97 beats per minute despite complete inactivity.  It should be noted that my daytime resting heart rate is generally in the 60s and low 70s.  Clearly the shot affected my heart.  A scientist I spoke with subsequently (who was involved in the response to the pandemic) told me I probably had tachycardia from the shot, a pretty common but grossly underreported side effect.  Why was it underreported?  He said it was because most people didn’t know they had it because they weren’t monitoring their pulse.  In truth, I know I had it after the third jab and likely had it after the second and never, myself, reported it to the CDC, so I am part of the underreported cases.

I also visited my cardiologist who said that the increased heart rate was likely due to the shot.

Just to show what I believe the shot did to my cardio system, I am posting my Fitbit-measured overnight resting heart rate, keeping in mind that I had the third jab on January 29, 2022 and that a month later, my resting heart rate was in the high 60s.  By early April, that resting heart rate was back down into the high 50s.

   

Can I prove that the jab caused the 18% increase in my resting heart rate?  No.  But during the months of February, March and April, I had no illnesses or traumatic incidents, nothing that would cause tachycardia.

Here are three more screen grabs from by Fitbit results showing what my pulse was during exercise two weeks before the jab, just over two weeks after the jab, and 6-7 weeks after the jab.  Note the peak heart rate, which is roughly 20% higher a few weeks after the jab compared to before the jab and 7 weeks after.  Again, can I prove that the jab caused increased pulse?  No, but I also do not believe that this is coincidence.

                 

      1 mile run, 1/12/22        1 mile run, 3/16/22         1 mile run, 4/10/22

So I ask you to make up your own minds.  I know from here on out, I will do what I feel is best for my health.  Your health should be your choice; isn’t that what we’re always told by the pro-abortion crowd?