Hey! Oh yeah, that's the cliche Canadian greeting, because I'm only a cliche artist here.
But, I'm the perfect thermometer for top ten classical, if I can think of that many.
And that's not a metronome ticking away, but a Roland drum machine through an antique Traynor P.A.
This is only going to be a mix of composers and performers from this near Niagara Falls Canadian.
1: Beethoven: I could probably draw and sculpt him, hearing and seeing him since birth.
I used to know "Sonata in C#m", the first movement, on electric guitar, but it's been over forty-five years.
Somewhere along the line, I even had a little bust of him, giving it to a friend.
2: Erik Satie, or its that Eric? Oh yeah, all those Sunday afternoon commercials in grades 2 and 3,
for the Reader's Digest record company, my parents and grandparents both subscribers.
I still have a few of their Reader's Digest books too, always excellent products.
Gymnopedie, while they showed Monet, or it is Manet, paintings of water lilies.
3: Nicolo Paganini: I used to carry his photo along with my Jimi Hendrix ticket stub,
hearing his pieces on albums borrowed from the public library, my favorite violinist.
I got a very nice violin given to me by the aunt of my high school fiancee,
but it's hard to play it left-handed, or even find the same note twice.
I gave it to my brother who painted it white.
4: Lizst, my favorite pianist as a teen, buying two Vladamir Oskenazy albums,
for sure, not spelling the Russian pianists name correctly.
5: Bach: I can't say "get Bach to where I once belonged", because it was Bach all over,
and still is. However, I bought Walter/Wendy Carlos "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi,
as a teenager, because he/she had "Switched on Bach", done on synthesizers, a huge hit.
That sounds horrible online, but off the album, playing it loud, it sounded better, uh, to me.
I even have a personal observation about Bach.
If one person sat there for every minute of every waking day, for all of his life,
you still couldn't even copy everything Bach wrote. He must have been part of a music guild.
I see him being a big influence for Steven King and his writing.
6: I have to include, as being among the best drummers, pianists, flute and sax players,
the total of fifteen jazz albums I bought, that I would go through, jamming along.
John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, all bandleaders, with their musicians.
I went through a lot of other jazz albums, but their fifteen were the best.
Hearing and meeting McCoy Tyner in 1977, during his "Atlantis" tour, changed my life.
7: Jimmy Smith on a Hammond B3: My parents had his "No Blues on this Cruise", album,
and I used to listen to it myself.
When I was on the road in the seventies, if there was a gig when I wasn't playing,
it was some local on a B3, usually with a son or daughter on drums,
and I'd hang out and tip heavily.
8: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A newspaper reporter girlfriend wanted to go to Hamilton,
to see "Amadeus", thinking it wasn't going to make it down to the peninsula.
She had free tickets and her car. I loved the movie, doing it all for me, becoming a huge hit.
The clothes, architecture, paintings, music, opera, the drama, and just like me,
too many notes, and never enough time to say all that I want to.
I learned his first name after Eddie Van Halen named his son after him.
I owned the movie twice on VHS, not ever finding it on a used DVD.
That's me with my own TV for the first time, this last four years.
9: Now, I'm pushing it, thinking of so many classical and new pseudo-classicalists,
and I type pseudo, because for me, saying classical is saying music that has become classic,
because it's got that enduring popularity and is what listeners want to hear.
10: The as-yet-untitled Fredik Magle, and his domain, the only modernist for me.
My favorite keyboardist, on piano, organ, cathedral organ and synthesizer,
with his playful and serious videos.
This domain, Magle.dk, is the only music forums I've been logging into,
ever since I had my global run five years ago with my inventive guitar,
setting records when there weren't any, for the most views and replies,
on every music domain I posted in, including Harmony Central, America's oldest and biggest.
A Canadian Guitar forum domain, now the biggest, was inspired by me, a local doing that.
I see Magle.dk as giving me the sensation of how a conductor must feel,
standing in front of a symphony, with a guest pianist, vocalists and instrumentalists,
using his conductor sticks to click away on the stand, while I'm clicking away here,
everything having a deep intellectual reach, so many differentials in functionalities,
with everything harmonizing in a graphic arts and computer build way.
I feel like I'm living part of my musical life here,
and believe me, sometimes it's the only part of my musical life that truly is living.
Hey! I musta been only flashing back here, even if I'm here now.
I forgot to mention my favorite all time musician, me and my instrument,
my semi-solid-body electric guitar. On You Tube, "John Watt semi-solid-body".
Jus'self'promotin'.
