Tag Archives: Rock Music

Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate

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This wedding season twice, I have had a request to play Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate at the Recessional at the end of the Ceremony as a Rhode Island Wedding DJ. I enjoyed seeing the couples strutting down the aisle with smiles from ear to ear to Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate. Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate is a great song with such a nice flow to it. Rumor has it Flea asked his wife to marry him to this song.

 Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate Music Video

Many couples today are coming up with unique choices for the music for their Ceremonies and Traditional Dances. I have fun supporting them and offering alternatives as we plan their wedding collectively. It is always their decision but I try offer my professional Wedding DJ experience when desired.

Rhode Island Wedding DJ with Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate

In early October, I was professional Rhode Island Wedding DJ for a wedding. The Bride wanted a different instrumental version of Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate on piano by Klavier. I had not heard this version previously, but once I heard it, I understood why she wanted it. It was perfect for a beach Ceremony with the lighthouse in the background. She looked fantastic and it was like a scene from a movie with Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate playing in the background as they left the beach with the sun beginning to set, as we watched them making their way up the hill. Life is good for the New Jersey Shore Wedding DJ.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate Cover by Klavier

      Klavier - Hard to Concentrate

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group’s musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk rock and psychedelic rock. Wikipedia

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Janet Jackson If

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This past Saturday night I felt inspired to put together a Janet Jackson medley while mixing at a professional DJ gig that began with Janet Jackson If. I am surprised she is not played more these days. Her music is so well designed for dancing and creative movement. Her vocals are soft and somehow forceful and sensual simultaneously.

Dancing at Rhode Island Wedding with Rhode Island Wedding DJ Janet Jackson If

Janet Jackson is the first and only artist in history to produce seven top five hits from one album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.

 Janet Jackson If Music Video

I remember driving kids in the van we used to pick them up from school to the program I was coordinating at the time. They played Janet Jackson If again and again, and the girls would practice all her dance steps every day while we were getting ready to begin. I got to know every beat of Janet Jackson If without ever choosing to play it or listen to it:) As a long-time fan of Diana Ross and The Supremes and a professional DJ, it inspired me to hear her sample beats from them along with the powerful guitar chords that introduces the Janet Jackson If.

Janet Jackson If Story

“Janet Jackson If deals with a female narrator’s fantasies of being someone’s girlfriend. The track contains a sample from Diana Ross & the Supremes‘ 1969 song “Someday We’ll Be Together“, and is built on a heavy metal guitar riff heard throughout the song. The combination of heavy hip hop/new jack swing beats with an electric guitar and a trip hop sound was a relative departure in sound for Jackson, and an extension of styles she developed on her previous album, Rhythm Nation 1814. A remix of “If” entitled Brothers in Rhythm House Mix appears on Jackson’s 1995 remix album janet. Remixed. The single contains a B-side called “One More Chance”, a cover of a song her brother Randy wrote, produced, and performed for The Jacksons‘ 1984 Victory album.” wikipedia

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Pink Raise Your Glass

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I realize that I am posting the video Pink Raise Your Glass, very late. It occurred to me as a professional DJ, that this is becoming a Rock Classic. Almost every party or wedding that I perform at as a Rhode Island Wedding DJ these days includes this song. It has even made it to 40th and 50th Birthday parties!

 

Pink Raise Your Glass is a great party song with some nice sarcasm mixed-in to the typical Pink high energy rhythms.  It is starting to become rare for Rock songs of the current era to stand the test of time as the Classics of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s did. There are several reasons for this, one being the rise in popularity of Hip Hop, R&B and Country. Pink seems to be one of the artists that may be able to rise above and sustain popularity and her roots for an extended period, partially due to the fact that she appeals to teens, twenties and adults simultaneously. I hope she continues to produce edgy music like Pink Raise Your Glass, that also reaches widespread audiences.

Pink Raise Your Glass Rhode Island Rock Wedding DJ

According to Billboard, Pink was rated No.13 on the list of Artists of the Decade and No.1 Pop Song Artist of the Decade (2000–2009.  Pink has named Madonna and Janis Joplin as two of her biggest musical influences. She stated that “I wanted to do it my way with my career, and I had this arrogant notion that people weren’t just interested in my music but me as a person. That was my bit of arrogance, I guess. That’s something I learned from Madonna. I was a fan right from the first time I heard ‘Holiday'” Of Joplin she expressed: “She was so inspiring by singing blues music when it wasn’t culturally acceptable for white women, and she wore her heart on her sleeve. She was so witty and charming and intelligent, but she also battled an ugly-duckling syndrome. I would love to play her in a movie.”

Alecia Beth Moore (born September 8, 1979), known by her stage name Pink (stylized as P!nk), is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress. In 2000, she released her first single “There You Go“, from her debut album Can’t Take Me Home. The song was a commercial success, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Having sold over 40 million albums and 70 million singles globally, being a critically acclaimed performer, Pink is often seen as the “underdog” in popular music, for not receiving as mainstream attention as her female pop stars peers. Her career accolades include three Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards and five MTV Video Music Awards, in addition to having eighteen Top 20 Hits on the Billboard charts and three #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2009 Billboard magazine named Pink the #1 pop musician of the decade, and in 2012 VH1 named Pink #10 on their list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music

British soul singer Adele considers Pink’s performance at Brixton Academy in London as one of “the most defining moments” in her life.

Pink Raise Your Glass Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

John Hiatt Have A Little Faith

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John Hiatt Have A Little Faith has been featured in the films Benny & Joon, Phenomenon, Love Happens, Look Who’s Talking and My Best Friend’s Girl. John Hiatt Have A Little Faith has been covered by many artists including  Joe Cocker, Delbert McClinton, Chaka Kahn and my favorite, Van Morrison. Jewel’s version is the one featured in Phenomenon. 

 

Really this is just a beautiful song- the lyrics, the melody and intensity. It certainly carries a message we all can appreciate.

John Hiatt Have A Little Faith Rhode Island Wedding DJ

 John Hiatt Have A Little Faith Lyrics

When the road gets dark
And you can no longer see
Just let my love throw a spark
And have a little faith in me
And when the tears you cry
Are all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try
And have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me

And when your secret heart
Cannot speak so easily
Come here darling, from a whisper start
And have a little faith in me
And when your back’s against the wall
Just turn around and you, you will see
I will catch you, I will catch your fall
Just have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me

‘Cause I’ve been loving you, for such a long, long time
Expecting nothing in return
Just for you to have a little faith in me
You see time, time is our friend
‘Cause for us, there is no end
And all you gotta do, is have a little faith in me
I will hold you up, I will hold you up
And your love, gives me strength enough to
Have a little faith in me
Hey hey
All you gotta do for me girl
Is have a little faith in me

John Hiatt Have A Little Faith Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode

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“In the 1960s and 1970s, Berry’s music was the inspiration for such groups as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Berry had a number of comeback recordings and in 1972 had the first and only #1 Pop Chart hit of his career with “My Ding-A-Ling. 1986 fittingly saw him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the very first inductee in history. As a tribute to his pervasiveness in the realm of rock, a clip of Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode was chosen played in the Voyager I spacecraft, proving Chuck Berry and his rock legacy are truly out of this world.”  The Official Site of Chuck Berry

 

Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of Rock and Roll music.

 

Among the many bandleaders performing a backup role with Chuck Berry were Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller when each was just starting his career.  At the request of President Jimmy Carter, Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode performed at the White House on June 1, 1979.  A pioneer of rock music, Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode was a significant influence on the development of both the music and the attitude associated with the rock music lifestyle. A statue 8 feet (2.4 m) tall of Berry, funded by donations, is being erected along the St. Louis Walk of Fame. The dedication ceremony was July 29th, 2011.

Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode Rhode Island DJ

In 1980, when I was a freshman in college working at the college radio station as a DJ and a professional Wedding DJ, I had the opportunity to see Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode perform at a small venue in Dover, NJ called The Show Place. There were maybe 100 people present at the show and it was so much fun! I was so surprised how much energy and enthusiasm he had as ‘an older man’ back then. It is amazing to me that he is still performing today!!!! That was 31 years ago.

Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk

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It is hard not to feel the energy and Soul that the great Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk put into every guitar lick in this song. Smooth as silk without being overproduced. I recently had a Groom ask for this song to be the song that he and his mother would dance to for their Mother-Son Dance.  I fought hard to contain the tears that well-up every time I hear this song. I do not remember the scene in the film La Bamba but I remember it was one of the more emotional ones. There are few artists from that era that had a full-length feature film made about their life like Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk. As a professional Wedding DJ, I get requested plenty of his music these days and continue to feel moved by his music.

Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk Music Video

He was born Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes. He was asked by his producer and agent to change his family name to make it sound ‘more american’. Its strange in 2011 to contextually imagine that happening today, where nearly twenty percent of American population is Latino.  His death along with other pop stars Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper is still considered an American tragic story. After the February 2, 1959, performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly, Richardson, and Valens flew out of the Mason City airport in a small plane that Holly had chartered. He was on the plane because he won a coin toss. The plane, a four-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza, departed for Fargo, North Dakota, and crashed shortly after takeoff in a snow storm. The crash killed all three passengers and the pilot; at 17, Valens was the youngest to die on the flight. The event inspired singer Don McLean’s popular 1971 ballad “American Pie“, and immortalized February 3 as “The Day the Music Died”.

Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk with Rhode Island Oldies DJ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

John Lennon Imagine

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John Lennon Imagine. I remember the bittersweet night of being a professional DJ at a club in Randolph, NJ on a Monday night, it was December 8,1980. The club was mostly packed, especially for a Monday night in winter. The dance floor was jamming and everybody was having a good time. A young woman came up to the DJ booth and begged me to play Bruce Springsteen. I explained that the dance floor was full and she would have to wait till it thinned out, otherwise everybody would probably stop dancing. She finally convinced me to play him while she was standing there. I had the record in my hand when one of the bouncers ran up and told me John Lennon had just been shot and killed. I dropped the record on the floor of the DJ booth. After the song playing was over, I turned on the mike and announced his death. I asked for moment of silence and then played “Imagine” before returning to my regular set, although not regular at all. It is the moment I think of the most when I get behind my turntables, then CD Players and now MacBook. Growing up, he was hero my hero with his music and desire for peace.

John Lennon Imagine Music Video

The next day, as Program Director of the local college radio and DJ, I stated that we only play John Lennon Imagine and music by John Lennon for the next twenty-four hours.

The Beatles and John Lennon Imagine Icon

 

“BMI named John Lennon Imagine one of the 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of America‘s list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance. It earned aGrammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. A UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book named it the second best single of all time, andRolling Stone ranked it number 3 in their list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“. Since 2005, event organisers have played it just before the New Year’s Times Square Ball drops in New York City. Dozens of artists have performed or recorded versions of “Imagine”, including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Elton John, and Diana Ross. Emeli Sandé recorded a cover for theBBC to use during the end credits montage at the close of the 2012 Summer Olympics coverage in August 2012. “Imagine” subsequently re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18.” Wikipedia

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Clarence Clemons Tribute (Jungleland)

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As a New Jersey teenager in the 70’s and 80’s, it was hard not to be a Bruce Springsteen fan. He spoke to a time and place in our shared story and had those riveting live performances that lasted anywhere from 3-4.5 hours with everybody leaving covered in sweat.  As soaked in sweat as Bruce Springsteen was by the end of the night, equally drenched was The Big Man on The Saxophone, Clarence Clemons.

 

This clip is from a performance in 2009 with Clarence Clemons performing one of my favorite solos of Clarence Clemons, “Jungleland”.

Clarence Clemons Tribute “Jungleland” Music Video

I remember when Izod Center (originally Brendan Byrne Arena, formerly Continental Airlines Arena and commonly Meadowlands Arena) first opened and they booked Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen to perform the first and second weeks respectively.  I had the opportunity to obtain tickets to two of the Springsteen shows. Those were some great memories for me.  Clarence Clemons, you will be missed and remembered.

Clarence Clemons Hartford Civic Center, April 24, 2009 Born to Run

Clarence Clemons playing his “Born to Run” saxophone solo with house lights up. Hartford Civic Center, April 24, 2009.

Clarence Clemons and How He Became Part of The E Street Band

Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone.

 

“One night we were playing in Asbury Park. I’d heard The Bruce Springsteen Band was nearby at a club called The Student Prince and on a break between sets I walked over there. On-stage, Bruce used to tell different versions of this story but I’m a Baptist, remember, so this is the truth. A rainy, windy night it was, and when I opened the door the whole thing flew off its hinges and blew away down the street. The band were on-stage, but staring at me framed in the doorway. And maybe that did make Bruce a little nervous because I just said, “I want to play with your band,” and he said, “Sure, you do anything you want.” The first song we did was an early version of “Spirit in the Night“. Bruce and I looked at each other and didn’t say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other’s lives. He was what I’d been searching for. In one way he was just a scrawny little kid. But he was a visionary. He wanted to follow his dream. So from then on I was part of history.” Clarence Clemons

 

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Beach Boys Good Vibrations

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Beach Boys Good Vibrations. It was May 21st, the eve of my 19th birthday. Me and two of my buddies were enjoying a night out at one of our favorite clubs in West Orange, NJ. It was last call and one of the guys turned to me and said, “Let’s go and celebrate your birthday in A.C. (Atlantic City)”. Ten minutes later we were in my Camaro headed South on The Garden State Parkway.

 

Two hours later we were playing blackjack in Ceasar’s Palace. I won a pile of cash and they offered us a room for the night complimentary. We woke in the morning and went to the beach to relax not knowing that The Beach Boys were giving a free concert on the beach! It was a great show and Beach Boys Good Vibrations made it one of my best birthdays still to this day.

Dance in sunset on Beach with The Beach Boys Good Vibrations DJ in New Jersey

I grew-up listening to Beach Boys Good Vibrations and other records mostly on 45’s and some albums. As a professional DJ they have always been a part of what I play when it makes sense to do so. I used to play a bunch of different Beach Boys medleys due to their still high popularity at the time. Today they are more of a nostalgic band for younger folks but those old enough to remember them continue to ask for whichever of their songs is their favorite.

Beach Boys Good Vibrations Music Video

Beach Boys Good Vibrations

“The Beach Boys Good Vibrations is a song by American rock band The Beach Boys, released as a single in October 1966. Composed andproduced by Brian Wilson, the song’s lyrics were written by Wilson and Mike Love.

Released as a single on October 10, 1966 (backed with the Pet Sounds instrumental “Let’s Go Away For Awhile“), it was The Beach Boys’ third U.S. number-one hit after “I Get Around” and “Help Me, Rhonda“, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1966, as well as being their first British chart-topper. Initiated during the sessions for the Pet Sounds album, it was not taken from or issued as a lead single for an album, but as a stand-alone single, although it would be later considered for the aborted Smile project. It would ultimately be placed on the album Smiley Smile eleven months after its release.” Wikipedia

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Joe and Nalini Wedding

Gallery

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This gallery contains 29 photos.

  DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ