Neil Young and Adam Sandler

So I recently discovered a video on youtube of Adam Sandler covering the Neil Young classic "Like a Hurricane." At first I thought there was no way I would like this version, I mean this is the same guy who brought us songs like "The Chanukah Song" and "Piece of Shit Car" how can he do justice to a Neil young song? But as I listened I was actually very surprised by how much I liked it. Adam's version was quite a bit different from Neil's, but that is probably a good thing. Most notably his is much calmer in a way than the original and about half as long. Adam doesn't use the "grunge" sound that Neil was so into during this song. What I like best about this is that both artists bring something completely original to their version. Adam isn’t trying to sound exactly like Neil, he’s doing his own thing and that makes it much better. Compare and contrast for yourself with the links below;

Adam Sandler's version
Neil Young's version

Rock & Roll Trivia Part III Answers

1) Many people think it came from the band the Rolling Stones, but actually both the magazine and the group got their names from a Muddy Waters song; Catfish Blues a.k.a Rolling Stone.

2) Sweet Caroline has no connection to baseball, nor to the Boston Red Sox, however it is still played during the eighth inning of every home Red Sox game, simply because Amy Tobey, whose job it was to choose the music that was played at every Red Sox game between 1998 and 2004, chose it. At first she only played it when the teem was ahead and she was sure they were going to win, but as time went on and it became more and more popular, management made it mandatory that the song be played during the eighth inning of every home game.

3) The first band to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was The Coasters.

Rock & Roll Trivia Part III

1) Where did the magazine Rolling Stone get its name?

2) What is the connection between the song Sweet Caroline and Boston red Sox games?

3) What was the first group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Rock & Roll Trivia Part II Answers

1) Pink Floyd got their name from two old blues singers; Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

2) The first part of the title, Baba, came from Meher Baba, Pete Townshend's spiritual guru. the second part, O'riley, came from Terry Riley, an experimental musician Townshend admired.

3) The answer is as obvious as it seems, 5.

Rock & Roll Trivia Part II

1) How did the Band Pink Floyd come up with their name?

2) The Who song Baba O'riley is often miss-titled Teenage Wasteland, where did the real name come from?

3) You would think this one would be easy, but a surprising number of people dont know. How many members are in The Dave Clark 5?

Rock & Roll Trivia Part I Answers

1) Stephen Stills, who wrote the song, told his manager that he had written a new song "for what its worth" when the manager was done listening to it, Stills said it still needed a title, and the manager said you just told me the title, "for what its worth." It stuck.

2) It is a song about having writers block, the title is referring to what time it is, either 25 or 26 till 4 or 3:35 or 3:34.

3) Paul Simon got the inspiration from looking at a chicken and eggs dish on a Chinese menu.

Rock & Roll Trivia Part I

1) The Buffalo Springfield song "For What Its Worth" is often miss-titled, how did the song get its seemingly random title?

2) Chicago's song "25 or 6 to 4" is a great song, but what is it about?

3) Where did Paul Simon get the inspiration for his song "Mother and Child Reunion?"

Halftime Show Part Two

Halftime Show I
Halftime Show II

part two of my review;

The next song was “Working on a Dream.” The only good thing about this was at least it was a new song, off his just released album. The only problem that I had with it is that I'm pretty sure Bruce got a little confused, he shouldn’t be working on a dream, he should be working on not being so lame, and what a surprise, he fails yet again. And I’m sorry but what was up with that choir? Once again Bruce is trying to be a preacher. And it’s just making him look bad.

As the last song begins I breathe a sigh of relief, it’s almost over! And in spite of myself I can’t help but smile a little, Bruce has chosen to end the show with my favorite song of his (alright I admit it, there’s actually a Bruce song I like, but only one!) “Glory Days.” :) I am actually a little excited to hear this. But the excitement drains out of me in milliseconds. Um... changing the baseball to football and fast ball to hail marry, kinda ruined it for me, I get what he was doing but unfortunately it didn’t exactly work out the way he was hoping. Once again the performance left quite a lot to be desired, but this was without a doubt the best part of the show. And the talking with Steve at the end... SHUT UP ALREADY!!!! No one cares! They all just want to get back to the football game already. You have now wasted twelve minutes of their lives that they will never be able to get back.

And one final note, why did Bruce decide it was a good idea/necessary to swing his guitar around and around himself like that? News flash Bruce: you’re not twenty years old anymore and that move looks ridiculous when you’re doing it! Just stop already. As if the performance wasn’t bad enough already, seeing him do that just cemented in my mind what a horrible show this really was.

I am a lesser person for having to sit through it, and hope I never have to suffer through that experience ever again!

Halftime Show Part One

halftime show I
halftime show II

So unfortunately, or maybe not so much, I missed the halftime performance by Bruce Springsteen last night. :( But luckily I was able to find it on youtube this morning. As I was watching it a few thoughts came into my head. After all it’s not exactly like Bruce was doing anything that would make me want to pay attention to him or anything.

First off, when did Bruce become a preacher? Last time I checked he was supposed to be "the boss" of rock and roll or whatever. Not that that name really rings true in my opinion, but still he shouldn’t try to cross over into preaching any time soon because he, will fail. But still the whole preaching to us to come watch him pissed me off right from the start.

Then to make things worse, the first song he chooses to do is “10th Avenue Freeze-out” Really? Um who the heck told him that that was a good idea? I mean I know it’s a staple at your other concerts, and great it tells your story about how you got together with the E Street Band, but you have twelve minutes to put on the most amazing show of your life, and that’s the first song you play? Barf.

Oh and the pyrotechnics? This is Bruce Springsteen here, not exactly someone who needs fireworks exploding behind him while he’s performing. It was all I could do to hope that one would "accidentally" get fired in the wrong direction and he would get hurt. (Not seriously mind you, just enough to stop my ears from bleeding any more) so when the song ends, Bruce decides to try and pretend to be about forty years younger than he really is and slide across the stage and almost into a camera. Obviously his brain isn’t working that well because he’s well, him, but last night was an epic failure on the part of his brain.

So the next song Bruce chooses is “Born to Run.” Wow. Original. Or not. I mean seriously we get it you had a big hit with this song, but why not try to wow us with something original rather than play the same old boring crap as usual. And the worst part of this is that I never expected anything less of him.

To make things even worse, it wasn’t even that great of a performance, I mean this is only the SUPERBOWL HALFTIME SHOW, but why would we want a good performance out of the band. That’s just crazy!

As the next song begins, Bruce is obviously out of breath. How does that happen? He should have been preparing for this for quite awhile by now and there is no reason he shouldn’t be able to do a twelve-minute show without getting winded. I guess not.

This ends part one of my superbowl half time review