Use Your Imagination....Music.

239   8.4  

Don't Be Afraid...

When the 60's rolled through, it burst with colorful expressions left and right that gave everyone a smile, without the fear that they were not loyal enough to their original devotions to music.

Do not categorize music. I will say is straight up; genres are marketed to an extreme in this sad world we live in. Jimi Hendrix never limited himself to just one style, one genre, one way of playing, the guy loved music not R&B, Jazz, Blues, or Rock, he loved music, and that's what he wrote. You can't really categorize any of Hendrix recordings without constantly speaking of how it touches with so many different mixes of music.

Play your heart out, and that's what this debut did. There is no fear in criticism, or any other negative out puts, do or die we're gonna put out an album of our souls. Despite how gloomy the world's music has become since starting in the 80's, I can imagine Jimi would find something positive to focus on, even if it's barely something in today's age.

Frank's rating:

3   9  

Do What You Feel...

Do you play the guitar? Maybe you play the Piano or maybe even the Vibroahone, never be afraid to simply express yourself.

Robert Johnson did just that with his recordings, you hear the tales of how sad life can be, even straight up story telling, regardless what or whom it associates to, the man reminds us all even when we're going through hard times you can make a positive out of a negative

Don't let the day and age we live in fool you, and that goes especially for young people in music. Don't think ignorant and get greedy when you see bullshit on MTV and think "Oh I can't do anything, I don't even have a band." Robert Johnson didn't have a band either, all he had was himself and his guitar, and he proved he could knock it off pretty well!

Frank's rating:

18   9  

Great Minds Think Alike...

Maybe you have a friend, or a couple that do what you do, or maybe even different. That's cool, and still cool if they do different things, you gotta listen to them like Miles Davis. This man knew how to change music with his developing sounds in the 40's and 50's, to the point following into the 70's he didn't forget that he too could learn a thing or two from what was going down in the times. Miles whole career in music never stopped growing, even if you don't like some of his albums you can't say the guy didn't love music, so willingly and never afraid to try things, even when it was hurting him as a recording artist, he simply never feared humiliation or what people said about him.

The recordings to Jack Johnson focused heavily on the musicians around Miles at the time. He managed to just simply walk into John McLaughlin and company letting loose, and was so impressed, he had to start recording. It's rare someone who is the star of the album with their name on it will wait 2 minutes into a song before hitting their first note, but Miles did. He didn't have to break right through the song, he was surrounded by brilliant people, and listened to them.

Your best friend might be totally different in his tastes of what he/she does with music, but don't let that stop you from listening to them and bouncing ideas back and forth. Great minds think alike, and you can learn from things that you never thought you would care about.

Frank's rating:

4   10  

Forget Negativity All Together

Get it out of your mind, push your ego totally aside. Herbie Hancock, really didn't care about what anyone was going to say about his newest album when Headhunters was about to drop. Given the negativity that was centered around Miles' Davis' On The Corner only a year earlier, no one knew what to expect from Jazz artists of the 60's anymore, but Herbie Hancock learned from his mentor quite well. Headhunters is regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time now, and it would not have impacted music so greatly had Herbie focused so much on criticism and negativity like so many artists did going into the 70's.

Someone is going to tell you that you suck one day weather you like it or not. It might anger you, might upset you, but either way you should never listen to them. Don't think about beating someone upside the head and writing a song about it. Don't let negativity influence you, don't let it ruin your day. Let your own thoughts flow over and drown what someone told you.

Frank's rating:

5   7.3  

Try Something New

Whatever you want to do, you should never have that fear in your heart of trying something new, because of criticism or other reasons. That's what we learn from David Bowie. The imagination level runs very high on him, and you can never overlook that one thing, weather you are a fan of him or not.

After guiding through Rock and Roll and changing it forever in the early 70's, Bowie wanted to try something new and he did just that. Even as his horrible cocaine addiction was reaching sky high, he simply didn't get hooked to band aid his pain. Staying up night after night without any rest from his addictions, Bowie put himself to work making sure he could nail this new thing he wanted to do; and that was making an R&B record. This is now one of Bowie's great gold albums, and I'd argue over all it's probably his all time best album, and my personal favorite since he totally nailed the sound he reached for.


I like to think about it with women. If your woman tells you she don't like it, well she don't like it. If she threatens to leave you because of it, she don't love you, and you shouldn't waste your time with her. Never be afraid to try something new, no matter what it is. If you're afraid to try something new, you're going to be stuck in a box with limited creativity forever.

Frank's rating:

9   8.7  

Tribute Your Inspirations

Falling in love with music, you should never ever let your ego get too big. Take a lesson from the more appreciative ones that lived before you. You would be wrong to say you wrote that one song that inspired you to play such an awesome riff or sing a new song. If you can't do that, at least credit a band.

And that's where we look at the Allman Brothers Band. A great pool of ideas overflowing from these great musicians and they were always very happy to pay tribute to those they loved. I like to look at their cover of 'Hoochie Coochie Man' on this record. Here they play an excellent tribute to Muddy Waters original, just letting their hearts pour love for the song by adding their own touch to it, adding lyrics, solos, and so on, there is nothing but love in that cover for the original. I can just picture each and every one of these guys playing that song over and over as kids and loving it.


When you love something, you admire it. When you have a hero you want to grow up and be, never forget them. Don't ever focus on what people say about your heroes either, take it as a grain of salt. Without hearing this riff or that lyric, you may not have ever thought about writing that song you just got done playing, so give your heroes some respect and always remember why you loved them.

Frank's rating:

5   9.3  

Speak Your Mind

Say what you feel, don't worry, and don't give a damn one bit, just spit it out! Even if no one likes what you say, don't be afraid to say it if it makes you feel better.

James Brown proved it when he performed. He was built for performing live and poured every ounce, even the last final drops into his live performances for everyone that paid money to see him get up there and do what he did. Sex Machine is a lot more than having a funky good time; he speaks his mind. Nothing is stopping him one bit from telling the world how he feels like a sex machine in so many of these songs, and best part about it is you get some amazing versions of some of his classics songs.

Let your mind over flow aloud and one day, someone will nod their head and smile at something you say. They may even laugh, it's good to say what you feel, but don't give it away to those that you don't trust, and if people make fun of you or complain about what you say, don't hang out with them anymore; that simple.

Frank's rating:

1112   8.4  

Progress Forward

The spark and flame from what you think should always pushing for new boundaries, and that's where we come to Dark Side of the Moon. The album that started Pink Floyd's line of possibly their best albums back to back to back ending at the end of the decade.

The thing was, they were not afraid. Their imagination got the best of them and didn't stop. Even as times were getting hard, they used their poor sick blue feelings, branded all together from the power of positive thinking and put this amazing album out that started a trend in their world. Just take that lesson from these guys, if this is your first time hearing Pink Floyd, you probably won't expect certain instruments making their appearance on highlight songs, which I won't spoil for the first listener.

Just the basic hearing of something you thought you hated from the influence of something or somebody, may change over time and grow. Yet another reason why negativity needs not to be a focus, you can take anything and keep pressing forward with it.Like Pink Floyd's heavy use of all the crazy sounds on this record. It may sound weird, delusional, insane, and many other bad things to one person, but it's a whole world channeled directly through creativity in many forms.

Frank's rating: