Monday's Music Moves Me: Roctober 80s Edition

Roctober edition. Today is Monday October 12, 2020.  It is time for Monday's Music Moves Me! Today's theme is pick a decade and celebrate Rocktober. I am picking the 80's so crank up your Walkmans and Boomboxes it is time to rock!

I am Mike and I will be counting down the top Rock songs from 1980-1989, my source playback.fm.

                                            1980 "Keep on Loving You" REO Speedwagon

1981 "Start Me Up" The Rolling Stones

1982 and 1983 The Police "Every Breathe You Take"

1984 Foreigner "I  Want to Know What Love Is"

1985 Dire Straits "Money For Nothing"

1986 Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer"

1987 U2 "With or Without You"

1988 R.E.M "Orange Crush"

1989 Alannah Myles "Black Velvet"

 

Did any of these surprise you? Well I will see you soon with a new post!

Battle of the Bands: Keith Urban wins

 Keith Urban won my Battle of the Bands contest against Lisa Loeb. Even with the help of a tasty guitar solo by Dweezil Zappa the final score was 12-1.  I was going for contrast and I think I achieved that with the artists I selected. Lisa Loeb came across with a weak voice that to some sounded amateurish so in someway Loeb beat herself. In the end the voters voted to "Keep on Loving You" Keith Urban as the cover came from REO Speedwagon's catalog.




The Battles of the Bands will continue in October, which is often referred to as Rocktober so stay tuned for more battles starting October 1st. In the meantime we will celbrate KEith Urban's victory with more Keith Urban tunes.

It has been "A Long Hot Summer"...

"Sweet Thing"..

I'll end with his latest single "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16"

See you soon with a new post!

Battle of the Bands: Keep on Loving You

Gary Richrath a guitarist and songwriter for REO Speedwagon and the man behind some of their best known songs has passed away. I am paying tribute to him today by featuring an REO Song in my battle of the bands contest.



Please check out the other battles:

The list of Battle of the Bands participants..

 I snagged it from STMcC Presents 'Battle of the Bands': 

@ ‘FAR AWAY SERIES’ by clicking HERE.
@ ‘TOSSING IT OUT’ by clicking HERE.
@ ‘YOUR DAILY DOSE’ by clicking HERE.
@ 'BOOK LOVER' by clicking HERE.
@ 'CURIOUS AS A CATHY' by clicking HERE.
@ 'THE SOUND OF ONE HAND TYPING' by clicking HERE.
@ 'DCRELIEF - BATTLE OF THE BANDS' by clicking HERE.
@ 'THIS BELLE ROCKS' by clicking HERE.
@ 'THE DOGLADY'S DEN' by clicking HERE.
@ 'CHERDO ON THE FLIPSIDE' by clicking HERE. 
@ 'ANGELS BARK' by clicking HERE.
@ 'JINGLE JANGLE JUNGLE' by clicking HERE.
@ 'WOMEN: WE SHALL OVERCOME' by clicking HERE.
@ 'J.A. SCOTT' by clicking HERE.
@ 'NOVELBREWS' by clicking HERE. 
@ 'HOLLI'S HOOTS AND HOLLERS' by clicking HERE. 
@ 'QUIET LAUGHTER' by clicking HERE. 


Some great stuff linked above! Anyway I pit two versions of the songs together and you vote by your comments. I will be back six days later with the winner on September 21.

The source and not in the contest..

REO Speedwagon and "Keep on Loving You"

Below are the ones you are voting on.

Lisa Loeb with Dweezil Zappa..

Contestant two Keith Urban...

I know you all hate live versions for this contest, but he at least they are short, So who are you going to vote for the extremely popular country star in Keith Urban or the alt pairing of Lisa Loeb and Dweezil Zappa?

Enjoy and I will be back next month for another Battle of the Bands!

Lawrence Gowan of Styx

Some how this summer I ended up interviewing a lot of musicians.I had the privilege of interviewing Lawrence Gowan who is the main lead singer and keyboardist in the band Styx. You can read my interview here.

If you go to the article their are YouTube videos of interview with REO Speedwagon who Styx is currently touring with, Styx songs "The Grand Illusion," an interview about Styx's charity Rock to the Rescue and an REO Speedwagon video for "roll with the Changes." I know more videos will be put up from REO Speedwagon and Styx when my review of tonight's show is published, hopefully Saturday.

Anyway like always I try to add a little more into my blog.

Here is a video for the song Gowan was probably best known before joining Styx called "A Criminal Mind"

Here is Styx performing "Lady" with Lawrence Gowan...

Well I am going to see the show tonight in Baltimore at Pier Six Pavilion the show starts at 7:30, Styx is scheduled to go on at 8 and REO Speedwagon is set to close out the Friday night show. If you read my blog too late or you are not in the area check out the Styx website for more dates.

Rainy Day Music...

A hurricane is brewing in the Atlantic and a storm with a cold front is coming in from the west so much of the east coast of the United States is going to experience a lot of rainy days and in some places snow. I thought I would share an article of 25 rainy day songs so you can start setting up your MP3 setlist. You can read it here.

Here is a song by Deep Purple that wasn't on my list but is perfect for the forecast..

This storm Sandy plans to rock a few people like this...

Hopefully like REO Speedwagon I will be riding the storm out...

Yes it Feels like Rain...

The videos are from songs that were not on my list.I will end it with one more song that is fitting for the new storm. It isn't hurricane season anymore but there is one out there,,,

Well I hope everyone stays safe in the storm...

Riding the Storm Out

This Spring and Summer have been all about storms for me. Over Memorial Day weekend Tropical Storm Beryl decided to meet me at my vacation spot. Next I was at Blues Fest and there was the delay/evacuation due to strong winds due to a rain storm. Now, I ended up driving through the Derecho in the Mid Atlantic states. I wrote a blog about it Monday when I finally got power back on but didn't publish it, I turned it into an article instead. I liked the blog post better since it was longer, I had to whittle it down for the short article request. Perhaps this song should be my theme song for the summer..

Well you can read my article about riding the storm out here. I should feel lucky I only lost power for parts of four days I know some folks who are still without power.

Okay, besides just promoting my article I thought I would post a few more articles by other writers so you could see what they went through it.Plus it is nice to play it forward!

Here is the experience of one writer who lives in Columbia, Maryland. It is a bit North East from me. Here is a report from Catonsville, Maryland to read as well.

Well, I hope you have power where you live and I will have a new post soon!