Massive coincidence, but this happened right as I was learning some Randy Rhodes on guitar and re-evaluating 13 as an album.
So my dad was a kid/teen in the 70s. He was there for the creation of SNL, Sabbath and a lot of other things that pop culture would produce but not piticularly be favorites of the older generations. Now many have stood that test of time, sabbath and Ozzy included. The first time I heard Sabbath was Iron Man at some point in the 90s. My family went to OzzFest 99 for my 13th birthday and seeing Sabbath live was amazing. So Sabbath and Ozzy had been a large part of my life in some way.
“Fun” fact, my grandfather lost his finger tips like Immoi did, in a landscaping accident.
However, given who Ozzy is, the event isn’t shocking, like John Lennon dying, rather more impactful to the landscape of the entire history of music.
Even if you’re younger than I am, you probably know who Ozzy is. He’s the Satanic Santa Claus that, if you’re extra, leaves you booger sugar in your stockings, instead of lame ass toys. /sarcasm
Obviously this is a devastating blow to his family and friends and that’s one of the most interesting take aways in all this. Normally a musician dies and people are left scratching their heads as to how the band will continue, ala Bon Scott and Ac/Dc. This isn’t one of those cases. Instead, especially given that Ozzy tended to estrange his band mates, it’s more, how will his legacy continue to grow? It’s closer to Hendrix dying than a band, in that regard.
Either way, only time will tell what Ozzy and by proxy, Sabbath’s lasting legacy will be.
This article is aimed mostly at the youth. It’s a time, long ago, in a Galaxy far, far away, known as 2008. Back then I was 22 and unemployed as a majority of you guys seem to be, according to the internet. I did my job as a student and got the As, took the SATs, would have been pretty much garuntee ivy leagues in my age range. However, much like Obama’s change, the economy was going to tank and change everything. It was bad enough as is seeing jobs hire people with felony wraps being hired, while you worked hard, did your due diligence, flew the straight and narrow and worked towards your goals. Life’s unfair, or so I heard from people in my age all the time, bitching about the position they put themselves into. Where’s my commercial as the old saying goes? Nowhere. They drank, they drugged, they had failed relationships, they got pregnant and spit out a kid with a random and kept bemoaning their life. It’s hard to find a position that you put yourself into as something I’m supposed to understand 100. The other side, sat their ass on the couch and looked for attention on YouTube.
Now, I equally had access to YouTube as everyone did, but I saw no value past hosting on it. Sitting around in my room all day was something I mostly did as a teenager, didn’t sound like a great way to spend my 20s. So for me, I went with EBay. Back in the 80s, the Reganite was recalibrating from a late 1970s recession. 1992 would have as well and I can remember vividly how often my father would talk about the price of gas then vs the price of gas in 1992. He had a job and he would flip things on the side sometimes for extra cash. Maybe it would pan out for me as well? Well around this time, 2008, he was running a non profit that was gifted to him by a clergyman around here, because he had the experience and business acumen. That happened a few years before 2008, but he still kept it up. So since couldn’t find a god damn job, I asked if I could take the mini cola fridge from him. I took it home, cleaned it. Spent a dollar on my debit card, opened a EBay account, and put up my Nintendo DS game collection along with D&D and Whitewolf RPG collection to kickstart this thing. Two positive reviews later and boom, we sold the mini fridge next and it snowballed from there.
I was working on several other things at the time, writing being one of them. However EBay played way better than the writing was. Hence why this website came 3rd after EBay. After was college then Bestinyourgirl.,com. However I was setting things up for that back then.
I worked two hours a week on EBay and enjoyed it. Some days I woke up to $100 dollars. Nice given that it stretched pretty well in a recession world. Remember, recession and inflation are two different things.
I was definitely doing better than my peers and while it wasn’t going to make me rich, at least being able to get what I needed to do was good. I was given near perfect conditions for this too. I was young, not married, no girlfriend, no college debt, no kids, no car, no Obama care payments or other bullshit in my way. This was pretty much the best it was going to get at that point in my life.
My recession was way easier than most others. Money flowed well enough. While there could still be tough times here or there, at least I wasn’t wasting away a druggie that cared about how they had to choose their kids diapers or their next fix and I know you know that trope well, since TikTok used to be filled with the people my age that had “narcolepsy” passed out with a fellow peer of yours in the backseat. horrible things. At this point I was very thankful for the lot I was given in life. I barely spent any of my money on fun things, albeit I did redo my Freddy costume from the 90s in the modern world and bought myself a nice bit of pipe tobacco and maybe the odd cigar.
And I may or may not have listened to this a bit one too many times.
Here comes the money!
For the most part, I was happy in that. Now a days I have nothing to show for it, cause it didn’t allow for a lavishly decadent lifestyle, but it afforded me the things that truly mattered, such as time with my best friend, time with my family and plenty of guitar playing.
The conditions now, for you, are kind of similar, except for the pesky bullshit of WW3. Too be fair, we both had the war on terror looming back then as well. However you have the negative aspect of inflation, which makes the dollar stretch less. This sucks, but is manageable. You face druggies now using internet sites to fund their fix, while You get yourself ahead for the more important things in life. Fact of the matter I been there, done that and got myself in a decent positioning. While there are things I would do better, life through us all a curveball. I chose not to have kids, given the horrible pool of eligibles. You guys have some good peers and can maybe make something of that with a family. In my middle age, I’m finding the Gen Z family TikTok’s to be cute. At least I’m not a pathetic old man, so I got that going for me.
The moral of the story though, life gives you trials by fire and men and woman who walk the path are forever forged in steel. So keep rocking and don’t let this bullshit get ya down.
Here’s another song I listened too one too many times. Maybe it will serve you well too!
It’s about make a little music every day til you die, it’s a beautiful ride.
INTRODUCTION: So I’m not a fan of the biography genre. I’ve read very few of them. Probably about 10 in my 39 years on this planet. Most people don’t intrigue me enough to want to know about their background. Normally it’s trite experience anyways, regardless of skin color. It’s normally birth, shit happens, some people you meet are good, some are bad, other adversaries apply, maybe a lover or two and then the person is famous or dead, one of the two. I went wanting to know more of the psychology of Jimi Hendrix, since I’m learning his music, it only makes sense to get deeper into a man, whose music I’ve heard my whole life, but never thought to learn more about. So this is my first real biography review. Not really sure how to do one, but we will try.
WRITING STYLE: Fair. From my understanding the author isn’t a non fiction writer, he was a creative writer and did this as a favor to Jimi. However, I’m reading the kindle version and the slightly wonky style could be from a bad transfer. It’s not unreadable though. There is a small bias on the authors part, as they were friends. So keep that in mind as well.
lIFESTYLE: So this biography is different than no others, as it’s basic structure as above. To be fair, Jimmy was so unique that the basic structure works here. That’s not what I’m here for though. There’s going to moments you sympathize with him and the occasional WTF moments. If you like that, this is for you.
HISTORY:This book was written in 1978, and it shows. However, the author takes great detail in explaining to you the events of the era, so people like myself get an idea of the world around him. Not necessarily a unique trope for such, but necessary for future generations who will need this context to understand Jimmy or anyone really.
MUSIC: Now this is what I’m here for! Oh god did Jimmy and his family have amazing taste in music. Songs and people I’ve never heard of. Bad bad Wiskey, live, being my favorite of all the songs I’ve listened too.
Amazing!
CONCLUSION: if you’re coming here for something salacious, you’re going to be disappointed. Sure it has its moments of “very 60s” bullshit, however it’s a very conservative portrayal of such. If you’re interested in a man and how he developed his style, you won’t be disappointed. It also offers up and otherwise interesting perspective on Jimi’s death that should not be discounted as being accurate. That’s an article for a different time, though.
5 out of 5 for Jimi fans and 4 out of 5 for a person who may just want a biography of an otherwise, interesting person.
So you want to be a guitar guy,uh? Well, it’s a long way to the top of you want to rock and roll. Maybe you’re a bored teen and want to play heavy metal to vent your frustration, or maybe you’re middle age, have a great IRA and want to retire to become a hippie playing 60s folk songs, regardless of your reason for picking up a guitar, you made a great choice in expanding your horizons in musicality.
Remember, learning is always a positive and it’s never too late to start a musical journey. The rewards along the way are endless. From the joy of playing your first chord, to the joy of playing your first full song;the first time you’ve played a chord progression or note progression and felt the natural high of creating something more than yourself and that will give you the drive to continue.
You’ll meet some interesting people along the way as well. Some you meet may stay a while and others a short time, but it will hopefully help you grow as a musician as well.
This isn’t an entire guide to play guitar, but will it assist you in the beginning to become more than just a four chord, “baby baby baby” player. Unless you want to be Justin Beiber, nothing wrong with that. I’ll even help you,
A, D, E and G make up a backbone of a lot of music. Pick any one or more and you’ll be Bob Dylan in no time.
A Chord “rock version”
Place your index finger on all three, informally referred to as the rock star A or place you index (1) on the D string (third string down from the thickest string, AKA the “High E String”) middle finger (2) on G string and then your ring (3) on the B string. APEGIATE(pluck each string starting with just the string above the one your index, this is the A string. Once each note comes out clear, no muting, strum down. If that rings out clear, congratulations! You’ll have panties in your face in no time! *Claims of panty throwing, unsubstantiated*)
The E Shape
The E shape. This is going to play an important role when we look at barre chords. So your index goes where the single red highlight is. Then your middle and ring where the double red highlight is. Arpeggiate from the high string (thicc est one) down to the thinnest. All clear? Strum down on all strings. If that sounds clear, congratulations! You’re now two chords in. Justin Bieber will be running scared of your musical prowess and Zombie Elvis will come back from the dead to reclaim his throne.
By now, your hands are feeling the burn! Unlike the 27 club you can’t burn out now. You got two more chords to learn!
The G Chord
It sounds heavenly and makes chord progressions in these 4 more rounded. It’s a tad bit awkward but once you get it down, you’ll be good. I put the numbers above. Once you place them and arpeggiate them for clarity and then strum down. Everything sound clear? Congrats! That’s three chords? *Richard Simmons Voice* Don’t you just feel like a pop star when you three chord?
The D Chord, the one ya momma loves!
The D chord! It’s bigger than Justin Bebier. More hit songs use the D even more than the G chord. At least the internet tells me. See the string with the redl line and use the numbers for your fingers to depress them. Arpeggiate from the string just above the index to the final. All clear? Now strum. If that’s clear, than you completed our first level of lessons. Like the Real Men of Genius song, here’s to you Mr 4 chord pop star. For giving us all, a slew of trite hits. This is also a moveable cord. Go up one, you get the D7. Keep going down and you get a plethora of others.
What we learned!
A, D, G and E chord. ✅
Arpeggiation ✅
How to strum ✅
The notes of the strings (E-thicc est, A, second thicc est, D, third thicc est, G, first thinnest, B second thinnest and the last one, E again. Good to remember it as E ddie A te D ynamite G pod B ye E ddie! ) ✅
Any questions?
*Raise hand*
What if we don’t want to be Justin Bebier and just pick up girls at the local bar?
KAGE: learn those for chords, then see INDEX (future link when full version releases)
Psst…now that the pop star posers are gone, we can have a real chat. You’re not like the Beiber guys, wanting to pick up chicks. You love guitar and you want to learn more, but you want to your rhythm to have a pair of balls? Well, you might not be a rock star, but at least it’s more than jeans and a top hat to get people to notice you. Not that there’s anything thing wrong with jeans and top hats, they practically built the 1980s. So buckle up and hey hey, you’re gonna be a rock star!
Right now you’re going to be having more 5th’s than 90 % of 1970s-1980s rockstars. Don’t drink to victory yet! We need to be more precise in playing.
The E minor chord. Kinda like a 5th.
So a 5th is any two notes you depress like the above. You can move this shape pretty much everywhere and it sounds powerful. When you strum, only hit the two strings that you depressed the notes on. Although not the full gambit of power chords, this will surely allow you to cut the line to clubs you never get in and maybe, maybe, even that person at the bar that everyone knows, will compliment you. That’s almost a celebrity!!!!! A 5th of a celebrity, if you will. (KAGE NOTE: This is why I didn’t excel in comedy. Also the fact I hate entertaining people, but, yet, I still like to be clever. 🤔)
The reason I point out the E minor, is two fold. 1st, phrasing is everything and telling you how to put your hands on minors will probably red flag you. The second is they don’t sound great on electric guitar and that’s why you’re here, to be a Jukebox Hero, with stars in their eyes…hopefully they’re stars, otherwise I might recommend a doctor.
If you made it this far you have learned
The A, D, G, E chords. ✅
You have learned to Arpeggiate ✅
You have learned to strum ✅
You have learned 5ths ✅
You have learned playing guitar hurts your fingers ✅
You have learned patience, my young padawan ✅
But most importantly, you learned the most 1980s hero movie lesson of all time, to believe in yourself and never give up til the freeze frame. ✅
In the end, they’ll see you how they want to see you. A pop poser, a punk leader, a rockstar or a pesudeo celebrity-Sincerely, The 5th players Club
Only shit, you’re still here? Woha! Here I taught you enough to have parties and sex with practically nobody worthwhile, but you want to learn more? You rebel you! That obviously because you’re unpretentious. You must be some, well, punk. Your music is going to end aprtihid. Save the whales and even make Micheal Jackson hold hands with random celebrities without gloves. damn!
So here is your sobering lesson. It’s the F chord and no, I won’t teach you the hacks. You’re already proved momma didn’t raise no quitters. Get your index finger ready, cause it’s going to be used more than a lesbians.
The E chord, again. This time, you need to visualize your finger as the white part on the neck (aka, the nut, oh no, you know a dirty word and If You Know, You know!)
So essentially the chord is the E shape, down one fret to put us away from the nut. place your index near the fret. Find what’s most comfortable to you. Your finger is acting as a sorta capo/nut thing. You’re really going to feel this one, but no pain, no gain. Other basic barre chords follow similar shapes to the open chords. just get the index part down now, it’s the most necessary part of these chords.
Arpeggiate and check that each one rings out clear. Unless your like me, where one is almost always muted and gives it a percussion like sound, you show them strum from
If you find yourself getting the percussion fx, try laying down with the guitar. I’ve gotten perfect bar chords by doing this. Then try to adapt it to sitting up and then finally standing.
Once it’s clear playing consistently, move up a fret and get it perfect again until you run out of frets to move up. Hint, that’s fret 12, unless you want really cramped fingers.
And unlike Bieber fanboy, still playing What’s on OnlyTabs….er, UltimateGuitar, you can try this list of songs
Cult of personality -In Living Color
Strawberry Fields Forever-The Beatles
Smells like Teen Spirit-Nirvana
Shenna is a punk rocker by the Ramones
As a few examples.
So here’s what you learned.
A, D. G, E chord ✅
5th chords ✅
If you’re just a pretentious dick or a real guitarist ✅
Indexing technique, plus using open chord shapes with it to make new chords. ✅
Dealing with an insufferable sarcastic bastard like myself. ✔️ ☑️ ✅
Congrats! thank God, that much like YouTube, guitar playing has no real formal authority like real organizations that give credentials to relevant people. Closest we got is a music theory degree, but that has less to do with an instrument. So you’re getting what you pay for.
However, since you have stuck with it this far, you are now a guitarist. Sticking with it or any instrument is what matters. Here’s to show the world you officially made it, ma.
Mama always said life is like a Xbox achievement, you never know what you’re gonna unlock.-Forrest Gump, maybe.
Now some unsourced, internet words of encouragement that may or may not have actually been said by the musician.
“Some days playing guitar is going to suck, but if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded”-Jimi Hendrix
And now that you made it this far and are officially a guitarist, I guess ima have to teach you what Biber boy forgot, which is, tuning. Ugh! Probably should’ve put this in the beginning. Besides, some ass clown out there is saying “but Jimi Hendrix didn’t tune!” He did, in fact, tune, and made a rousing joke of having Clapton doing it for him too. That said, you’re not Jimi Hendrix and neither am I!
These things are called tuners. Sometimes three to a side or all going up at an angle.
So we need to 1. Buy a tuner from a place like Sweetwater, Guitar center or Amazon, which would the recommended way to tune or 2. Go to the App Store and find the fender or another free version you are comfortable with.
There is a 3rd way, until you develop the ear for it (note, been playing since I was 12 and I’m 39 now and still not great at ear tuning.) use a piano, find the notes and tune the pitch to the piano. This will help develop your ear.
And now, here’s what you won! A free link to Google looking for videos on how to restring!!! Harley Quinn Voice: Woha! Ain’t you the lucky one, eh?
Psst, go to Google and type it in like the picture. Stay away from those other types of sites though.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk the last piece of the learning puzzle. Pedals! They used to be expensive and now they’re affordable. So affordable in fact, that I’m contemplating quitting the cigs just to get more, especially if certain people aren’t mad though.
It’s not necessarily to use them, but they are kinda like stimulants. They can enhance the mood of your guitar playing if you will. However, you don’t need to buy them to get good at guitar. Just play ”from your fuckin heart“-Bill Hicks
Thanks for coming to my Kage talk. Hopefully you learned something. If not, well 🖕you too!
A riff that goes heavy. Iron Maiden were probably the ones that popularized the metal gallop in guitar, however, Heart used it, in this 70s hit, combining that with high strings, you got something iconic. Apparently it’s based around a Nazareth song. There is slightly a bit of truth that they sound the same, but legally they’re vastly different. This one definitely gets the nod for giving you a dank riff to satisfy that metal craving.
4.) Neil Young, Hey Hey, My My
Moody, atmospheric and dark, this song is a key change away, or a distortion pedal away, from being one hell of a metal song.
3.) One more time, Brittney Spears
Ok hear me out before you scoff. New Found Glory already showed this song could fit into the rock category, but could you imagine the chugging with distortion on the opening beat? It would have made nu-metal dudes creaming their pants.
2.) Taylor Swift-Look what you made me do
Leap Frog Studios already proven this song could go hard as fuck! That how I even found out this song existed. The dark lyrics with straight up gansta vibes, would be having people starting mosh pits in the streets. definitely should have been in the genre from the start.
1.) Coolio Gangsta’s Paradise
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this song was never rap and always in line with the metal genre. Gritty realism, deaths, loss and more and you got a song that sounds like it could have been part of the Melodic Swedish death metal music. plenty of YouTube guitarist have proven this correctly.
I’m not a professional musician. Fuck, I don’t even aspire to be. I love playing guitar, even if it’s badly. I’ve been blessed in this life to be pretty good at 99% of the things I touch, so maybe it’s helpful to me to be more intrigued by things I can improve upon vs things that you could say “come naturally.”
I learn fairly fast too. Guitar though, isn’t something I just became even moderately good at overnight. I had to keep at it.
However, I’ve deeply learned by shit when it comes to this and think that knowledgeable is relevant. Insert Giamo(sp?) a dude who wasn’t even on my radar until the autistic brigade made him a even bigger star by bitching about how successful he was. They complained his videos were mimed, as if anything short of a live recording has never been super authentic. one watch of Money Talks by AC/DC when Angus Young was spinning around the stage would help put it to perspective for you.
So someone faking a guitar video means shit to me, because you need that type of content to be a more seasoned musician. If you’re a guitar player and you didn’t know his videos were mimed, you probably not as good as a player as you think you are. I didn’t get a chance to observe him prior to this, so I didn’t get to make a decision one way or the other on that.
What I do know is that 99% of the music industry, since the 90s, is fake as fuck, so why do we care about the rando YouTube vid? This dude fits into the music industry and “Generation Fit in or Die” is mad out of professional jealousy. Otherwise he be praised for being a fraud. Which he was, until he cut into the autism brigades profit margin, whilst exposing YouTubers for being equally as fraudulent.
I normally sit out of this Bullshit, because YouTube isn’t the real world. It’s mostly misfits who think they’re cool and they’re not, hoping beyond hope their “popularity” will fill a hole inside them, because they filled with nothing but short comings. However, since I’ve seen this bullshit one too many times before, especially in my teenage years, which caught these assholes a beat down and deservingly so.
So here is the most damaging charge. He ripped off other people’s music. Ok, that is pretty bad, however, there is an insufficient amount of evidence to this claim. One video used to slander this man, was someone pointing to a Japanese Keyboard player that ripped off a 80s pop tune and added one note. That’s not how this works, that not how any of this works.
Here’s a list of mis used terms in music and what they actually mean.
Sampling: To lift the tune to another’s work and use it to reconstitute a new song. Famous examples of this are Ice Ice Baby vs Under pressure.
Lick: a small amount of music, that uses a scale of notes, that are open to be used by multiple musicians because they are public domain. Famous examples of this are nearly every song from 1940-2025.
So some people are saying he stealing licks, which seems impossible from what I’ve taken time to understand on music in general. It’s like chord progressions that Ed Shareen was famously sued for, but acquitted because they’re common as all hell.
I like Kirk Hammett, but a lot of this solos haves ripped off a dozen other musicians, even by his own admittance. Enter Sandman uses Hendrix Foxy lady in a small part. Master of Puppets uses a lot of classical licks. Non of these are rip offs. Except for maybe The Unforgiven being a large majority of classical gas. How about Slayer, raining in blood which uses In The Hall of the Mountain King as an opening riff? Hendrix also used licks. However, by YouTube logic, a part of all proceeds of his music are owned by Vox, simply because the way his way pedal filtered it.
The other part comes in that he is tabbing other people’s music and selling the tabs. Watch out ultimate guitar, you’ve been doing that for years. A lot of YouTube teachers will be out of work without that as well. Cause there’s no money in teaching open chords. Tabs is not selling the music as your own, it an interpretation, normally a very wrong one, at that. If he’s talented enough to make Tabs, he is clearly got musical instincts. So you have to give him that.
So unless there is some real damaging evidence that I’m missing, I have to assume that this isn’t about the music, because you don’t really care for music, do you? No, you care that Giamo was getting pussy, one of which was probably a celebrity that the autistics felt entitled to, and it nerd raged you into killing his career. Hopefully he lawyers up and sues each YouTuber for all .25 cents of their earnings, like Diddy to Sting for the next 20 years of your Pathetic lives.
