...You know that little "Squee" sound before the 2nd solo in Comfortably Numb? Also to be heard throughout the '80s as a favourite trope in hair metal guitar solos? Often combined with Whammy-bar abuse?

Anybody think of some early examples? They are easy to play (amplified guitar, distortion, hit the string first with the pick, then the edge of the thumb), and it seems strange to me that I can't recall Hendrix or Townshend et al utilising them, especially as they often occur by accident (There's an inadvertent one in "Dazed and Confused")

I have no idea why this is bugging me.

It's 2:25 AM. I've just driven a 306 mile round trip to see Roger Waters rebuild the Wall. I've done a "Nights out with", but there's more to be said. If you are intending to go, there may be some spoilers, so join me in the comments for more...

...muso "ProfessorofPop" writes on hooks, and why they work.

So if we now look at “Black Dog”, composed and recorded (mostly live – the overdubs are largely Page’s synthetic-sounding hyper-treated guitar parts) when Zep were at the height of their powers, we hear a group that can perform a track with 98 times changes, absent sheet music or a conductor

http://hooksanalysis.wordpress.com/

Facebook did not want to simply create an e-mail system because research revealed that e-mail felt too formal and slow for many people, particularly the young.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11743524

I shall be celebrating my nonentity status in the kitchen, slaving away over seared fois gras to start, slow cooked lamb with tomato and rosemary risotto for the main, and some incredibly unsophisticated but very alcoholic trifle to follow. Hey - it's my party. Wine will be a cheeky new world red, with some 1977 Port and aged stilton to follow.

From the kitchen, I will be enjoying listening to the courtly banter of Geoffrey Chaucer, who will be telling us how the traits of all the people he's met in the 21st century appear just as they were in the 14th century. Philip Marlowe will be telling scurrilous stories of the spikes and stews of Elisabethan England, and clearing up some of the more outlandish rumours about his demise to Alan Moore, who most certainly knows the score.

Even though he's entirely fictitious, Stephen Maturin will be endeavouring to calm down his somewhat boisterous friend, Jack Aubrey, who perhaps has over-indulged somewhat - doubtless encouraged by Raymond Chandler and Winston Churchill, who have unexpectedly found they have three "A's" in common - Anglophilia, Americaphilia and alcoholism.

Amelia Earhart is talking aircraft with James Stewart, Mickey Martin and Johnnie Johnson listening in.

Benefitting greatly by still being alive, David Bowie is struggling to recall the making of "Station to Station" to Kate Bush and David Attenborough who is convincing in his argument that Bowie isn't a chameleon as he blatantly doesn't have zygodactylous feet or a tongue greater than the length of his body.
"late night actress" Laura Jones is serving drinks and hopefully staying on to help me clear up.

So who's coming to your bash?

<grumpy> ...would like the "TMFTL" in-joke given a quiet funeral, with a stake through its heart to ensure it doesn't rise again. </grumpy>

So, give me songs where the guest vocalist really has an impact. As an example, here's Michael Stipe on the Indigo Girls' "Kid Fears" (comes in at 2:25 if you can't wait that long.) Shame about the video, though, best I could find.

I never really had much time for Lynyrd Skynyrd, sure, "Sweet Home Alabama" was OK, as was "Free Bird", but they didn't ignite the spark to make me seek out more. However...

...I recently watched a performance of the latter song on one of the Old Grey Whistle Test DVDs

(terrible, badly edited YouTube version- it's missing about 5 minutes of intro, verse and solo and sounds a bit off key as the speed is out, but you'll get the idea.)

...Fuck me, they played a blinder. Nonchalant Allmanesque slide, with nochalant cheeky cigarette - check. Birdsong impersonations - check. Absolutely *blinding* 2-3 guitar solo that had the hairs on my heirs standing up, hell yes.

Now I know that there was a plane crash, but further research indicates that this band was a dead man walking Greek tragedy. Less that a year after this performance, the lead singer, the guy playing the Black Les Paul and one of the female backing singers (and sister of the guitarist) were dead, along with management, roadies and crew.

Backing vocalist Leslie Hawkins was so badly injured that she never made a full recovery and remains "largely retired"

Gary Rossington, playing the SG, broke both arms, both legs, both wrists, both ankles and pelvis, and developed a serious drug addiction to the prescribed medications. Five years later, his wife died.

In 1986, Allen Collins, the guy in the red loon pants with screaming Gibson Firebird killed his girlfriend and paralysed himself after driving drunk. Complications and pneumonia did for him less than three years later.

In 2001, bass player Leon Wilkeson didn't wake up - natural causes as a result of chronic liver and lung disease

In 2009, keyboard player Billy Powell also died - complaining of shortness of breath, paramedics found him dead with the phone still in his hand

I have real dissonance reconciling the sheer joie de vivre shown in this film with the knowledge of what fate has in store for most of the band.

Steve Gaines died aged 28, Cassie Gaines at 29, the same age as Ronnie Van Zandt. Allen Collins died at 37, Leon Wilkeson at 49, and Billy Powell at 56. Gary Rossington and Artemis Pyle (currently on the sex offenders register for sexual battery against his children) are still alive.

Incidentally, two members who joined the post-crash band have also died - Ean Evans at 48, of cancer, and Hughie Thomasson - heart attack at 55.

I can't think of any other band that's suffered such attrition - the Grateful Dead, perhaps?

In honour of the magazine name, can you add or change one word from a literary classic to make something a little more lowbrow - examples

Omelette - Prince of Denmark
Jane Er.. - A life of indecision.
Child Catcher in the Rye
Merchant of Venus
Moby Duck

...you get the idea...

The sandwich thread has made me hungry for unobtainables. I pay many dollars for (usually out of date) Branston and was recently stunned & delighted to obtain some T&L Golden Syrup in a remote camping store way out in the boonies (think finding a Faberge Egg for sale in the cafe on Snowden). When I last flew out of Heathrow I nearly incurred excess fines as my suitcase forswore clothes and substituted the following:-

2 1lb tubs of Marmite
48 rolls of Polos
2 large drums of Bisto (both split. My bag now smells like Linda Bellingham's Sunday)
Large drum of Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate
2 Bottles Marsdons 6X
Picallili
PG Tips - hundreds of them
2 Giant Salad Creams - I'm down to my last eighth
Industrial tub of Wine Gums
Assorted cadbury products, heavily favouring the Fruit and Nut bar. Couldn't find a Fry's Creme bar anywhere in Bristol, though, which depressed me a bit
One St Michaels's Christmas pudding (Hence the excess)
Large jar Mincemeat.

Sadly lacking were aforementioned Branston (couldn't find a non-glass jar - don't they do squeezy ones any more?), Pickled Onions - same reason, Pork Pies (Can't bring in meat), Proper Cheddar (not the mild, rubber shite that they make in Wisconsin, which according to the Cheese brochure in my supermarket, is "The Home of Cheddar")

So. You too are in exile. What can't you live without?

A great name for a band, this is actually a 65 year old B17G, who, after a lively history of surveying, crop spraying, cattle hauling and (nearly) bombing Europe (the war ended just prior to delivery), now offers 20 minute flights for such a trivial thing as a large fistful of cash.

More in comments. Sorry for completely off topic post...

...everything looks like a nail.

Your favourite aphorism, please.

Just for fun, and because I know you love a challenge, which songs feature these spoken interludes...?

1) "Just put your feet down, child, 'cos you're all grown up now."
2) "I know thee well: a serviceable villain"
3) "...I'm going to cut you into little pieces!!!"
4) "It's only true the children of the fucking wealthy who tend to be good looking"
5) "Is the Lone Ranger ready?"
6) "Where can the horizon lie when a nation hides its organic mind..."
7) "Hi there, nice to be with you"
8) "James Dean"
9) "The killer awoke before dawn"
10) "Look, mummy. There's an aeroplane up in the sky"
11) "Ah heugh heugh, I don' believe ya. Aye, Eh, huh, ya, uh . Hey Ray, hey sugah, Tell 'em who we are"
12) "Backside melts into the sofa"
13) "First I'll buy some beads, and then perhaps a leather band to go
around my head"
14) "Me? I'm just a lawnmower"
15) "Elric's cousin Yyrkoon has usurped his throne"
16) "My sex and my drugs and my rock and roll are the only things that
keep me here"
17) "There is one seat in the circle, 500 million in the stalls, simply everyone will be there"
18) "Man, I don't feel like goin' thru with this, this is really silly"
19) "She said 'No, I'm the daughter of kate"
20) "Naa, Leave it, yeah!"
21) "I am Michael Caine"
22) "I knew that someday I was going to die, and I knew that before I
died, two things would happen to me"
23) "My advice is, if you maintain this lifestyle, you won't reach thirty"
24) "...gang of nearly a thousand youths entered the grand hotel in
pursuit of two, leather clad rockers"
25) "Let's go. Ready? From the top!"

I had a minor revelation today, after a few weeks of various road trips, I've accepted that "Hunky Dory" is the only album I can sing from start to finish.

When I say "sing", it's not perhaps a very traditional interpretation - sadly the muses didn't see fit to impart to me a sense of rhythm, pitch, intonation or diction, but when it's just me and the wheel, who cares? Of course, today, the wheel and I were joined by my daughter, who at 7, is acutely aware that daddy doesn't quite cut it as a vocalist. She also lacks the necessary social grace to realise that it's impolite to point out my shortcomings. Regularly.

Anyway, Hunky Dory. Damn, it's a classic album. Opening with a couple of pop classics, I chose to use the Peter Noone variation for "Oh, You Pretty Things" - the Earth is a "beast" when young ears are present. "8 Line Poem" could be the first hurdle, as the lyrics are obfuscated with some "unusual" stylings by Mr B - I'm fairly sure it's "A tactful cactus by your window", and awarded myself bonus points for remembering to roll the 'r' in "Hera" prior to her head/paws insertion.

Life on Mars is a shoe-in, just remember the hard 'k' in "Amerika" and ululate on "Marrrrrrrrrrrrrrs" until your voice cracks an octave, and your daughter drops her colouring book and protests. "Kooks" is the throwaway track, but as an adult singing (ostensibly) to a child it's bearable. "Quicksand" - as the name implies, plenty of traps for the neophyte, but practice, and a cursory knowledge of "The Golden Bough" will help.

Did I say "Kooks" was the throwaway? No, that's "Fill your heart" There's never a need for Tiny Tim covers, but at least one can entertain one's captive (perhaps now furiously clawing the windows - hurrah for windowlocks!) audience by doing the trumpet stabs. Three more before the big finish - Try not to be distracted by the greatest-sounding guitar which doubles the acoustic intro to "Queen Bitch", mumble through "Song For Bob Dylan", and ensure the right degree of camp for "it's ..eh.. WarHOL actually...as in HOLS..."

Bewlay Brothers...it's the amateur wailer's big challenge. A lip reader, seeing me paused at the traffic lights might wonder why a middle aged man appeared to think that "it was stalking time for the moonboys" but luckily the lights change quickly. My strangled vole of a voice is actually well suited to the multi-tracked finish, though it did prompt a question from the booster seat..."Daddy, what does he mean, "Lay me place and bake me pie, I'm starving for me gravy". A few falsetto "aways" and I'm there, 40 minutes have passed and I'm still word perfect.

Bollocks, it's the Rykodisk version. Who the hell knows the words to "Bombers"?

...Anybody else going to see Roger rebuild it...?

http://www.rogerwaters.com/