Steemit Open Mic WEEK 71, LED ZEPPELIN, Hats Off To Roy Harper, Cover song, LIVE w/Vocals/ Lap Style Guitar
I JUST READ ABOUT SAYING USER NAME AND HAD JUST RECORDED THIS MORNING BEFORE THE NEW RULE POST. I SWEAR THIS IS ME, TONYPAPA!!! I WILL OBEY FROM NOW ON, JUST READ IT LATE AS I FINALLY PLANNED TO ENTER EARLY HAHA. OF COURSE...
ON WITH THE MUSIC:
This is my first cover for Steemit Open Mic and could not think of a better place to debut. YOU LISTEN. I love that.
I played guitar for many years before I tried singing. I felt lyrics were wasted space between solos. That's what happens when you learn guitar in the 1980's.
As a teen, I devoured all of Led Zeppelin's catalogue and realized after 2 years mouthing meaningless lyrics to their songs, they actually wrote (or stole) fairly nuanced lyrics. Before the internet, I would go to music stores and peruse their musicbooks to discover my favorite band's lyrics. And Guitar Player Magazine. Crossroads w Steve Vai...etc.
Many of Zep's lyrics were recycled American Blues written by the likes of Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Muddy Waters and many others.
I would gasp at the brazenness of these old folk/blues lyrics: domestic abuse being a common theme.
Hats Off To Roy Harper is a blend of blues verses within an homage of country-blues slide guitar. Jimmy Page named the song after one of his English folk musician friends, Roy Harper.
I was drawn to learn this song because I cannot find any solo performance of this and for the challenge of singing and playing lap style at the same time.
Guitar tuning: OPEN C (version)
Tech Nerdgasm Quickie:
2 track setup in StudioOne
The lower half shows the track set up, the effects on each track, and what bus they are assigned (Insert or Send). I wanted to mimic the dirty, tremolo effect on the vocal of the original track w/out losing the body of the original vocal signal. Thus, the Ampire effect in the SEND. I also wanted the guitar signal clean. I had some bleed from the git on the U47 vox mic due to the placement. Lap style guitar keeps my head down to make sure I'm on the correct fret so the vocal mic got some guitar. Overall it was not too bad to mix being only 2 tracks live performance.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! Let me know what you think and if you'd like to see some guitar/music lessons presented on these styles or others.
So happy I watched this, sorry I didn't see it sooner!
I'm making the Steemit Musician's post and I saw Led Zeppelin in the title and I was like "yay a song from one of my favorite albums!
Also, I would love to see some guitar lessons on this style of playing!
Feel free to send me your music and/or lessons in Discord.
Thanks for the request! I'm working on some lessons now and I'll use your comment as an opportunity to get on Discord. For now, I'm taking notes for the "Why I Love Open Mic" video planning to post. There is so much to keep up on here that it's really pushing the creativity. I'm happy you came by!
Great stuff, man! You've got a new follower ;)
Thank you so much! Sorry for the late response, I'm working on some music theory lessons, new tunes, and some gear maintenance so I can do some tone demo's of some cool amps I can access. Following Back!
No worries! I’ve been up to my ears woth work, too :) Keep up the great work!
Amazing, @tonypapa! I love it
@nirtsfaty, thank you for checking this out! so appreciated to be able to share this passion with like minds.
Ha! Loved the "tech" nerdgasm info... Nice cover production and performance, brother!
Thanks! Thought you guys may like an exact diagram of the effects for fun plus I love sharing knowledge as I see you do as well from your past posts! So I'm taking time and researching how to use all the nuanced steemit stuff - prob things you have in your steemit "muscle memory"- so i can more efficiently use these resources and push this music scene, artists, and concept. Thanks again, my friend!
Sick choice of songs! I Aint never heard anybody else do this one, certainly not on steemit...
Killed it on guitar and good job on the vocals too. Covering any Plant is admirable, and while playing guitar...ho man, truly a feat.
Really, thanks for noticing! That was part of the challenge, and began this about a year ago, just bc the guitar work was so fun. Then I began constructing a bit more so the arrangement "fit". Tried open G, open D, then open C was the winner. Steemit was is the catalyst for pushing this version out. So thankful for the sake of my battle with the creative process. I tried finding a solo version (as it's not the best/popular zep song) and couldn't find one so what the hey!
Ya, steemit is angood vehicle for getting content out that you’d otherwise have probably done nothing with ;)
That was a lot of fun. Thanks man.
I thought you guys might dig some bluesy Zep ;)
you just brought it my friend!!! I was like..... yeahhhhhh wooooo fantastic
I never know who the closet Zep fans are! Tattoed Zoso on my back when I turned 18. Congrats on your Steemit radio appearance, just saw that and can't wait to check that out.
Nice one, buds!
I'm a fellow lapsteel slide guitar player (you should check out my lappy called the 'Violap' which is co-designed by Ben Harper -
it's incredible -you'll love it - I play it in my first ever Steemit post)
Gotta love Led Zeppelin and Roy Harper is one of my favourite artists too. If you don't know his music, check out the album Stormcock - Jimmy Page plays on a track called, "That Same Old Rock" which is a brilliant, epic 12 minute piece. (If you know his music already, all good)
Anyway, I'm new around here so nice to meet you. Just followed you and upvoted...
:)
Thanks for reaching out! And thanks for the info on Stormcock I have not heard that yet. Co-designed by Ben Harper!?!? I def will head over to your page and check the Violap out.
Yes do check it out! She's a beautiful instrument!
Roy Harper & Jimmy Page did a lot of recording together. Their stuff on Roy's albums is sublime, but in the 80's they did an entire album together. Unfortunately, it was too influenced by some of the cliche 80's sounds and isn't their best work, imo. But as I said, their acoustic work on Roy's albums in the 70's is sublime!
I'll def check out Roy's Work and Jimmy's and I agree with your assessment of the cliche 80s stuff - they were kinda plagued by that post Zep. Can't wait to peruse your page!
I never thought I would see someone tackle this song! Awesome job sir @tonypapa!
YES! YES! That's why I picked it. Plus I love them blues. I used to play solo shows for tourists on the Great Lakes (still do occasionally), and I'd love picking songs the other solo performers wouldn't touch like Purple Haze, Paul Revere from the Beasties, She Caught the Kay (Taj Mahal).
You keep doing them I'll keep watchin them.... I might even do my knock off of Katy, cuz I love the lyrics.
Thank you, the encouragement matters and helps! and you know Katy too ;)
I have a "kinda version" of Katy that I worked up as a novelty song for this little blues thing we were doing at the time, I've always had good lead players, I'm not sure my version would make sense to those who are really familiar with the other great version out there, I bet you could pull it off. ;9)
Hey, maybe a collab, who knows? I'll try it and see if it works solo, maybe a loop machine, bc I really love the bass line of it. Maybe I get some players to back me on it. A trio I had used to pull some heads with it.