The Rolling Stones Performing Wild Horses in an Accoustic Version

This video clip shows the famous rock band Rolling Stones performing one of their most known songs called Wild Horses. This particular version is played on accoustic instruments. The recording sounds great, almost better than the original album cut. The album that contains this song is Brown sugar and was released in the early seventies.
The Rolling Stones were another rock group from England, as the Beatles. But even though both groups appear almost together on the international rock scene, in fact they are very different, not only musically but they represent different kinds of people. The Beatles were much more ‘compatible’ with society and even when they were critical about certain issues, they did it nicely, while the Stones sounded harsher. No wonder that the Beatles were asked to visit the Queen and get hit by her magic sword so much earlier than the Rolling Stones.
This song has some influences from american country and western music and here are the lyrics:
Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted, I bought them for you
Graceless lady you know who I am
You know I cant let you slide through my hands
Wild horses couldnt drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldnt drag me away

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind
Wild horses couldnt drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldnt drag me away

I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I dont have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Lets do some living after we die
Wild horses couldnt drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we’ll ride them some day

Wild horses couldnt drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we’ll ride them some day.

Frank Zappa performing Stairway to Heaven in a Cover Version of this Original Led Zeppelin Song

This video shows one of the rare ocasions with Frank Zappa performing a cover version of a song composed by other artists, in this case by the famous rock band Led Zeppelin. The cover is pretty close to the original music, which means the song is fully recognizable by anyone, however it has Frank Zappa’s personal stamp on it. The band of Frank Zappa in this ocasion is composed of about ten musicians while the Led Zeppelin band counted with only four musicians. The main difference is that Frank Zappa’s band has a brass section which fits perfectly into the song. The arrangement was of course done by the bandleader and includes some extra guitar notes in the quiet introduction of the piece as well as some other notes and noises produced by the members of the group. It sounds funny and I think the performance of this song illustrated that humour does belong in music. If you like to watch more videos with music performed by Frank Zappa, you can click his name in our tag cloud or you might want to visit the fiesta-musical.com website where you can find more videos with music performed by Frank Zappa, interviews with him and some domcumentary video material related to this important (rock) musician of the 20th century. You might also want to listen to Led Zeppelin playing Stairway to Heaven in its original version.

Sarah Vaughan Performs the Bebop Classic Perdido

This video clip shows Sarah Vaughn or Sassy, as she was called by frriends and fans, performing Perdido which has become a jazz standard to play for jazz musicians. The video is a scene taken from Rhythm and Blues Revenue, a movie made in 1955 which you can download without copyright infringement.
Sarah Vaughan was a very important singer in the jazz scene and has influenced the female jazz singer Anita Baker and many others. After she appeared at age 18 on an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater in New York and won first prize with her performance of Body and soul, another jazz standard, some jazz critics considered her as the most important singer of the bebop era.
In her beginning days as a jazz singer she formed part of Billy Eckstine’s big band where other jazz giants like Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie played in the brass section. Short time after singing in the big bands, Sarah Vaughan decided to form her own band and had almost inmediate success when in 1947 she became number one of the charts with ther performance of the song Tenderly. From thereon Sarah Vaughan also included some pop songs in her singing enlarging her audience and gaining more popularity. However, at the end of the 60s, Sarah Vaughan dropped the pop singing and returned to pure jazz music singing with jazz legends as Louie Bellson, Don Cherry, J.J Johnson, Oscar Peterson and Herbie Hancock, to mention just a few.
Among the best known songs associated with Sarah Vaughan are the tastefull ballad Misty and several songs by Duke Ellington and George Gershwin. She did not loose her singing talent until her sixties when she was still performing for large audiences until her passing away in 1990 at the age of sixty-six.

Branford Marsalis Quartet Performing Yes and No by Wayne Shorter

Watch this video with the Branford Marsalis Quartet performing the song Yes or No, an original composition by Wayne Shorter that appeared on the LP JuJu on the label Blue Note Records in 1964. Branford Marsalis is one of the greatest tenor saxophone players ever. Whenever he plays you will notice the influence the legendary Bebop sax player John Coltrane has caused over the following generations of jazz musicians, especially over the tenor saxophonists.
On this record Branford Marsalis is accompanied by Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts on the drums who is really heating up things and provides a solid speedy base for the solos of Branford Marsalis on tenor saxophone and Kenny Kirkland on piano, while Robert Hurst is playing the accoustic bass. Our personal point of view almost always rates original recordings higher, so you might want to check out the mentioned Blue Note Records LP JuJu with the composer of this song called Yes or No, Wayne Shorte, on saxophone and accompanied by piano legend McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on the drums and Reggie Workman on bass. Notice that McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones belonged to the original John Coltrane Quartet.
We have no doubt that the original version is ‘better’, but who cares? This is a live performance of a really good and hot jazz quartet and sounds very cool, see how the musicians enjoy their working. We just want to give the credit for composing this song to Wayne Shorter, but that doesn’t mean we greatly enjoy this version by Branford Marsalis and his band.
As always when we post about a tenor saxophone player, we invite you to participate in our poll about the greatest tenor sax player ever.
Branford Marsalis comes out of a family of important jazz musicians and began to play with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers as well as with his brother’s band, the Wynton Marsalis Quintet. In the meanwhile he has played with a lot of jazz ‘monsters’ including Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Hancock. We strongly recommend you to watch out for more videos and records of this modern jazz legend.

Albert Hammond playing It Never Rains in Southern California

This is a video clip with Albert Hammond performing It Never Rains in Southern California, his only hit. It is pop music from the early seventies and shouldn’t even be called music. Very easy going, just to turn off your brain and enter the brainless masses who think such a thing can be called music. Compare it to the rest of the songs and pieces published here on the Music Video Guide and you will see that the pop category is the less interesting one in terms of music. It might get the most readers though, since this type of performance is what the music industry is interested in: a very easy harmonic base with only 3 or 4 basic chords, no tonal colours like major sevenths or other notes that make a chord more colourfull, no complicated lyrics, a well dressed guy. That ensures saleability in every part of the world since it sounds the same all over the globe. Listen to some chinese pop music, for example, and it will sound the same as any pop song produced in England or South Africa. We include this kind of song only to illustrate our point that music is more than words. If you use words in music, please do it with intelligence like Frank Zappa or use them to expose the beauty of the human voice, like Ella Fitzgerald singing with Joe Pass.
This particular song was rerecorded by a country-pop band called Trent Summar and the New Row Mob who republished it on an album called “Live at 12th and Porter.”