EP. 134 Donald Mustang Meets Steve Perry

Raul Ortega hijacks the Ben Maynard Program and turns the tables on me with one goal: trace the exact moments that built my music brain. It starts with a scene that’s almost too perfect to be real, my mom dropping a Beatles 45 on the family stereo and typing out the lyrics to “Let It Be” while I sit there absorbing every word. That’s the point where music stops being background noise and becomes memory, comfort, and obsession. 

From there we jump through the decades like a radio dial: early 80s Top 40, the rush of MTV, disco’s underrated groove, new wave’s takeover, and why that 60s through 80s window still feels like the sweet spot for classic rock and pop. We also get honest about the modern music business, why touring pays the bills now, and why some legacy acts still deliver while others maybe should hang it up. 

Then we hit the stories and the lists: the “Rebel Yell” moment that turns me into a different person, my top 10 songs challenge, and the run-in with Steve Perry that lasts about a minute but sticks for life. We keep coming back to the real takeaway: hearing a song isn’t the same as listening, and once you start listening for the bass line, the vocal inflection, and the tiny choices in production, you never go back. 

If you love music nostalgia, rock history, and deep listening, hit subscribe, share this with a friend who argues about playlists, and leave a review so more music nerds can find us.

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram 
and subscribe to my YouTube channel: THE BEN MAYNARD PROGRAM
I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com

Transcript

Raul Hijacks The Show

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Hey, look at that, man. Oh, I should shut up, right? Well, all right, folks. Uh, don't change the channel. This is still the Ben Maynard program. My name is Raul Ortega. I hijacked the program for today. Some of you might be saying, why? And why is this good-looking dude with Ben? And you have every right to think that and say that. The truth of the matter is I've been a fanboy for a very long time. Uh I am the unofficial president of the Ben Maynard program. I am the unpaid marketing director. And uh, well, yeah, that's about enough of that. So, here we go. I've been listening to Ben. Well, first of all, Ben and I we're alums, okay? We went to the same high school. Ben was too cool for school when I was there. He was much, much, much older, as you can tell. Okay. Okay. So I was just a nobody. And as usual, even today, he's a somebody. Oh, please. But uh, but here I am, okay. Click, click, click, okay, and click. And okay, we're probably losing viewerships uh as I continue to talk, but we're gonna get right into it, okay? Well, having watched Ben and his program, uh, I've come to learn that he is a savant when it comes to music. Many he dabbles in other things as well, okay. I am a listener, but this guy has a wealth of knowledge. Oh shit. Um and uh he's being he's being modest, okay? And and that's that's really cute, but very inaccurate. Okay. So, so today what what I wanted to do is I wanted to interview Ben as as you know as where all of this love from music came from. Where did it stem from? What does it mean to him? So, so Ben, before we we we we start digging into the weeds, okay.

Where To Follow Ben Online

SPEAKER_02 2:31

How do they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Oh, yes. Uh so all right, so you can follow me on my socials, on Instagram, it's simply Ben Maynard program, all one word, or on the TikTok. That's for you, Catherine. On the TikTok, it's at the Ben Maynard program. So listen, there are still plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. I have no idea where we're going, I have no idea what to expect. See, for me, look, no notes at all, no show prep because that was on purpose. This isn't my show today. This is not my show today. I have no idea what's going on. And uh, you know, I'm just gonna throw this right here on the floor. It has no business being on the table today. Anyway, so away we go.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

All right. So one of the things that I want you to understand and know is that Ben's extremely more attractive in person than he is on camera. That's not to say he's not, okay? But I'm just letting you know if you ever have the ability to come into uh to his arena, uh you're you're gonna be blown away by his so hard to get into my circle by by just by his ever presence and beauty. So here we go, Ben. Here we go. Is this guy truly a salesman or what? My word. That's why I'm the unpaid spokesman for the Ben Maynard program, okay? It's real simple. Yeah. All right. So there you go. Here we go. Here we go, folks. All right. Let's start this thing

Donald Mustang And The Bits

SPEAKER_02 4:05

off. I taught, I was I I spoke, I sp I talked to Ben all the time. But anyway, we had a conversation this week. I said, Ben, what's what's your middle name? He said, Donald. I said, All right. What was your first car? 68 Mustang. So after high school, we kind of lost contact for a little bit. So I don't know. This this he he might have done this, I don't know. But if you were a male dancer, okay, your stage name would be Donald Mustang.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Donald Mustang, folks. Oh, can we just shorten it to Don, maybe? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

No, no, Donald.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Donald. Donald Mustang.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Donald to the stage, Donald Mustang. Now let me ask you this. Yeah. I'm not saying you did it. I'm not saying you didn't do it. But if you did, what would be your persona? What would be like, would you come in like strutting? Would you come in like a little feminine? I'm I'm not saying you are. I'm just saying. Yes, you are. Okay, okay. You should see the text message. Okay, what would what would be your shtick?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Don't overthink it. Just say it. What would be your shtick, man? I would probably come in, uh, I would probably come prancing in something cross between uh Mick Jagger and Paul Stanley. Maybe have a feathered boa or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Yeah, probably. See, I said feminine, but he's right. It's prancing. Okay, so forgive me for that. Great catch. Okay. Okay, so, so. God, it's been probably two and a half decades, maybe three, since I've been in an establishment like that. Okay, back back in about not a men one, okay, but I'm just saying. I'm not saying it's bad. All right. You whatever. Okay. So, so hold it, hold it.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Okay, you folks listening, you may have to be turning the volume down on your on your your phones or your computer. Yeah, I really don't need a mic or your radio or something, anyways. All right, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

All right, so would you offer specials like two songs for 20 bucks? I don't know the rate anymore. First, I don't know the rate.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

I never knew the rate. Now, here's the deal, okay? First off, I don't know any woman that would want to pay to have me dance. I would walk in the room and they would be going, I wedded, I flaco, I, you know, they wouldn't. They would say chingon. Well, they wouldn't say chingon, they would probably be like Boss Webbles. No, they'd be like, hey, uh, what's what's up? Uh no, I'm not gonna let you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

No, no, I'm not gonna let you do this. I'm not gonna let you do this, Ben. You do it all the time. What would be the rate?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Okay. Uh, you know what? Okay, for let's see. Don't be Walmart. No, no, no, no. Don't be Neiman Marcus. Let's let's let's see. Well, here's the deal. For the younger women, they would have to pay a little bit more. So it would be why, why? Why? Uh, well, for this experience here, but for the older ladies, okay, they get a little bit of a bargain, okay. AARP kind of situation. AARP, yeah, yeah. I want to take it easy on their pocketbooks, leave them some money left for bingo and that kind of stuff, okay? Medication, things like that. Yeah, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I want them coming back. Right, right. Yeah, so they would have to get on their medication.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

All right, all right, all right. Settle down, everybody. Let us get right down to it. Now, that was just a little teaser. That was just a little warm-upper, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Is this gonna be like this for the next uh however long? Two hours.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Two hours, okay. So let's so let's get serious, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

All right. I'm uh you know what? The the Malort's right over there. I'm probably gonna have to take a drink.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Yeah, we may, we may, we may, okay. That's on the table.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

For the record, everything's on the table. Okay, okay. That is true. That is true. It's no, it's no holds barred. That was the one thing. There was no restrictions.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Thank you, thank you. And I signed the DNA, I did all kinds of stuff already, okay? So so let's get right, let's get a

The Moment Music Hooked Ben

SPEAKER_02 8:03

little serious right now. Yeah, let's do it. Because uh, you know, all joking aside, I am a fan. And I don't want you overthinking it, okay? Just speak from here. Okay, okay. The corazon. Yes. Where did this love for music? Tell me, tell me, tell me the first recollection you have when when you just fell in love with music. Okay, generally speaking. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

I've said I've said this before on the podcast. It's been a while since I told it, but um so if you haven't heard it, great. If you've heard it, well, here it comes again. But um, I want to say it was around seven 1972, 1973. Okay. And and not that we always had music playing around the house. That wasn't that wasn't necessarily the situation. Um, but you know, you you get in the car with your parents and you're sitting in the backseat and they got, you know, Kfi on or uh KHJ or something like that, you know, always AM radio back then, you know, and uh, or wait, wait, K L A C that was the country station, you know. So, so we'd always have music in the car. And uh, so so you get a tune to hearing music, and you know, you get a feel for it. But it was about 1972, 1973. My uh my mother had the 45 of uh The Beatles Let It Be. And I don't um I don't remember what was on the flip side. I can never remember. In fact, I was speaking of Mario Rodriguez, he's coming on this podcast in a month or so, sorry. But he's a huge Beatles nut. But anyway, the flip side of that single was a John Lennon song, and I hated it. Um, so I never played it. But I remember my mom sitting on she we had this big giant console stereo. Those were the days. Wow. Real wood, right? Really 12-inch speakers on each side of the cabinet and 200, two, 300 pounds. Exactly, exactly. That's exactly how I describe it. I always say, man, these things were like a real piece of furniture. They weighed like two, three hundred pounds. It would take two people, sometimes three people to move it.

unknown 10:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

And and and in the center you had a turntable and AMFM radio, and then a little place to store your uh your your records. So my mother, I'm really dragging this out. My mother, she takes takes a single and she puts it on the turntable, and she sits down on the floor of the family room in front of her typewriter. And on goldenrod paper, as the song is playing, she's pounding out the words to the song. And now my mother could type very fast. She was an incredibly fast typer. She didn't get it all in one go. Okay, she did have to pick up the needle and drop it here and there. But my point is within it, I mean, when you're a kid, everything is very fast. And and it was a very short time. She's got the lyrics on goldenrod paper to the Beatles Let It Be. And I took that piece of paper and I would drop the needle on that single over and over and over, and I would sing along to Let It Be. And that's kind of where I was just hooked. And, you know, ever since then, I've just had this. I I don't know. I feel like I've just had this incredible relationship with music. And for music lovers, you you you might feel the same way. You may feel a little bit more, a little bit less. I don't know. Um, but I remember at Christmas, my parents got, they both got my brother and I the same, the same gift. It was uh an acoustic guitar. And it wasn't, it was a plastic open body or hollow body acoustic guitar, but it had real strings, not the plastic strings, had real strings, real steel strings. And I would um I'd stand in the living room. I remember I had, I've got it, I've got I haven't saved on my eBay account. I have I had this album. I don't know if you remember, um, but the Saturday morning shows, uh uh uh Lydsville and and HR Puffin stuff and Land of the Lost, and then there was one called Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. And Johnny Whitaker was the kid star of that program. He was on uh A Family Affair with Brian Keith uh several years before that. So he's on the program, but he's like a young child star. He would sing songs on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters from time to time, and there was an album that that whoever put it out put out this album, Johnny Whitaker, and it had all the songs from the um from the television show. And I would get that acoustic guitar and I'd put on Johnny Whitaker, and I would pretend all the little like second-grade girls are sitting on the floor in my family room, and I would, I would just, I would be lip-syncing along or and and and fake strumming the guitar because I didn't know how to play it. Um, but I would be performing for all the little girls, all my little second grade girlfriends out there, you know, and or there'd be times I didn't have the guitar, and I'd grab mom's hairbrush, and you know, it'd be but this was the same thing. I would just have my little routine, and there's all my imaginary girlfriends out there. So I don't know. That's kind of it.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

So, so here's what, and I've heard that I've I've heard this story and I wanted him to share it. Yeah. Um, how beautiful is that uh coming that your mom, yeah, you know, was one of the influencers, if you will, in your love of music. Yeah, would you happen to have do you still have that where she typed out? I don't wow that would that would be a game changer.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

That would be killer. That would be a game changer, man. That would be it.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Because it would be plastered here.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

It would. I would probably have it framed hanging on the wall in the studio. And it probably and if I still had that Beatles single right alongside of it.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Why don't we get it done anyway?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

We could do it, we could you know, yeah, in memory, not in memory, but you know, in recollection of your mother, man. Yeah, maybe I could.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

That would be really, really nice. That'd be awesome. Great idea, see? Yeah, this is why he's the marketing guy and the sales guy.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

So, you know, one of music is special and different for everyone. It is, you know, you you hear a song and it takes you somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

100%, right? 100%, and um, well, every time I hear let it be, I picture being in the family room of my house and my mom typing that out, especially as she's typing out the words Mother Mary comes to me, you know. And my mom's name's not Mary, but you guys get the point. And so it's just yeah, it hits home. Yeah, it does. It does. Wow, it does, that's and that's just that one song, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Right, right. Yeah, it's it's amazing. Right. So uh truth be told, I'm not a Beatles fan, and I always give Ben a hard time about it. Um I'm a huge Paul McCartney fan. Yeah, huge Paul McCartney fan. Um so yes. Moving on. Moving on. After after your mom kind of got the ball rolling, if you will. Um give me your aside from let it be. Yeah. Give me a song that just one, if you can, that really moved you. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

In one way or the other, you know, moved you to get you excited, think about girls.

Rebel Yell And Dance Floor Stories

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Oh, okay. Here, here's one. Almost got me kicked out of uh almost got me kicked. No, I was I was already in my late 50s, almost got me kicked out of club 80s. Um uh so that was about 20 years ago. Go ahead. Jeez thanks. Um Rebel Yell, Billy Idol. Man, as soon as that that thing comes on, man, I am all you transformed, I am all a fire. And um, I I remember we were at we were at Club 80s one night, and I mean the night is kind of like winding down a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

And apparently not for you. No.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

And and there's there's two levels where our table was was uh was right above the dance floor, and there's a there's a wall around the dance wall that separates it, and um and the uh the DJ hit that song, and I was like, oh yeah, I it was it was like uh it was like Jeff Spacoli and so you're saying Donald Mustang came too. Donald Mustang was a fire. Okay, okay. It was like Jeff Spacoli in Fast Times of Ridgemont High. Oh, hey, dude, I know that song. And I jumped the wall. I climbed on the wall and jumped down onto the dance floor, and the security came like running out. They thought I was like some drunk guy that was gonna go out and I don't know, beat up on somebody or whatever. Partially drunk. And my family had to hold them all back. No, no, no, it's okay. He's not even drunk, he doesn't even drink. It's okay. He's heard the song.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah, that's the governor of Chino, okay. First of all, leave him alone.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

The governor of Chino. Yeah, so that one definitely gets me all worked up. Uh tell me about you jump on the stage. What happened? I just like dancing. I think I was out there by myself. I don't know. You know what? You know what? And you know another one too? Look, I take your shirt off. What'd you do, man? I didn't take my shirt off. Nobody wants to see that. Nobody wants to see that.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

That's all the reason to do it. But but what happened, man? Give me the goods, man. What you did. You do the splits.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

I had no idea that security was even trying to run me down. I had no idea. I didn't know until you're in the song. I was. I didn't know until after the song was over and I was done, you know, shaking my tail feathers out there and getting down, you know, in the midnight.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Like a dirty white boy. As they say on the song.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Not not yeah, I know. You know what? Um uh I I do. I I get I get a little groovy. I get lathered up and uh, you know, I'm I'm flinging my arms and I'm shaking my tail and and I'm out there taking up space on the top. Well, we're gonna see that.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

We're gonna see that in one upcoming event, folks. Just stay tuned, okay? Yeah, when we start having a good idea. I'm envisioning I'm envisioning, I'm envisioning Donald Mustang with this cowboy hat, this cowboy boots, and a thong. Okay, that's all I'm gonna say. Uh that's kind of what I'm envisioning. You say, let us know how you feel about it. DM Ben at the Ben Meter program. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

All right. Can I at least wear briefs? Do I have to wear a thong?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

I'm in charge. Okay. I'm in charge. I'm the I'm the director. Okay. All right, all right. Now listen, we'll have all the disclaimers out there. Okay. Nobody objects may look larger than rear view mirror stuff. All right, all that good stuff, okay? Yeah. So, and we'll we'll have all of that good stuff out there because we don't want to harm anyone.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Yeah, objects in the rear view mirror may actually be closer than they appear. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

He's a professional driver. Of course, he would know that. So, all right, all right. So, Ben. Yeah.

High School Radio And First Kiss Songs

SPEAKER_02 19:26

High school, brother.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

High school. Man, the music. Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

The music. You know, I hold so so I asked Ben. I'm sorry, Ben, but I'm but I asked Ben.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

I asked Ben, Ben, give me the song where you kissed your first girl. Actually, that's not how he worded it. I didn't. I'm cleaning it up. I'm cleaning it up. He's really cleaning up.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Cleaning it up. For the are are we are we governed by the FCA?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

I don't know who the FCA are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, there's no FCA. How about the USDA? Are we are we governed by any of them? If they bring in some fine stakes, then fine. No problem. But we can we can say what we kind of sort of sort. You can we don't have to get belligerent, but yes, you can use adult language if you want to. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

So the the first girl you kissed.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Well, the first girl I kissed was with the song. With the song, with the song. Okay, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what, folks.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

And leave your name out for uh are you gonna bring it in?

SPEAKER_01 20:29

I don't want to get sued or anything. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, we're just saying kissing, by the way. Okay, yeah. Well, that's not how he phrased it. That's not how the text message went down.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

I gotta stop texting Ben because he's gonna call the feds on me.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

And I never delete anything, so I can always hold it against it. Yeah, that's good to know now. Yeah. So now, um, okay. We'll forget about the whole kissing thing because I was playing spin the bottle like in the third grade. Okay. But there you have it, folks. But um Donald Mustang. We'll we'll get to we'll get to high school. And the the when did you kiss your first girl in kindergarten? No, uh no, no, no, no. That was I think it was like between third and fourth grade. We're playing spin the bottle.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Um the song, banned a song.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yeah. I which I'm gonna take to high school, okay, because that's what you asked. We traveled.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

You asked, no. You traveled that song? No, no, no, no. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

You asked me about the first girl that okay, that I, you know, what okay, that I'm not gonna phrase, move on. They get it. I became a man, all right.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

The first girl first of all, there's a make you a man, but that is true.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Let's but you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

We're carrying on.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

They get it, Ben. Um we got we got it I was I was like I'm not saying I'm proud. It was I I was 16 years old. Okay, yeah, I was 16, and um it was 1982. It there was a lot of Fantastic music. And I was listening in in high school. Most of you people probably know this, but you know, I would listen to a lot of top 40 radio. Our local top 40 stations in in the LA area were um K N A C. No, that was the punk rock station. But uh and and K rock was like the punk new wave station and KLOS. They were the hard rock classic rock station. But I was listening to uh a lot of like uh K I Q Q and Kiss Fm and Um I would say uh it could have been honestly, it could have been like Ray Parker Jr., the other woman. Um there's uh there's a it it because okay, I kind of do think about this from time to time, and so there was a song by David Bowie. Uh it was on the soundtrack to cat people, I believe it. And it's called um Putting Out the Fire, I think is the name of the song. It's a really, really good song. Um could have been that one, and then there was a movie from there was a movie starring this like 19-year-old Piazza Dora or something like that. There was a song, it didn't last very long on the chart. I'm not even sure if it broke the top 40, but it it could have been something from that movie. I don't know. Okay, all right. I'd give you a few choices there, okay? Well, and I didn't really come up with it.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

You're giving your fans, you're giving your fans, you're not giving it to me. No fans. Okay, all the all the people that are just tolerant. Well, this guy so self-deprecating. I just get so upset with him. Um see, people are texting, they're saying, Stop the show, stop the show. Oh no, they want more, trust me, they want more. And we're just we're just getting started. We're just getting warmed up. So um the evolution of music from when you remember it to

How Popular Music Keeps Shifting

SPEAKER_02 24:05

now. Let's put let's put it in three books. Yeah, okay. Okay, all right. The love in the beginning, yeah, the maturity in the middle, okay, and let's go where you think it and the in in the third quadrant, in the third section, I would say. It kind of fell off.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Well, it's even fair. Okay, all right. I'll stick with the first one. I hope this is the direction you want to go. So now music has changed. Music has so changed and so evolved.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

And we're and we're so old that we say, God, we had the best music. And I'm I'm sure every generation says that, but I truly believe.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Well, this is the way I look at it, Raul. Is is I think that our generation is I I really do think that we are right. We we are the best generation and the most fortunate generation for when it comes to a lot of things. But when it comes to music, you know, we were a little bit too young to appreciate the British invasion of the early to mid-60s at that time. But those bands were still relevant in the early to mid-70s. That when we're starting to listen to music and appreciate music, uh, and then you get into junior high, he's like, oh, yeah, everybody's talking about the stones. They're talking about Led Zeppelin, the Who, uh, the Beatles. You know, the Beatles unfortunately had a very short window. They were that broke up in 1970. But shame on you, Ono. Yeah, yeah. Way to go. So um, but but they were still so very relevant. And so they were all a part of that. And that's all history. I mean, that is so historic. The that that British invasion and and then the American bands that were were coming up, Credence, Clearwater, Revival. I mean, come on, those those songs are so timeless and fortunate man.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Yeah. Fortunate son. Fortunate son, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Just uh such dynamite songs. My favorite, my favorite band of all time, by the way. And uh, and you know, like the Eagles and Kiss and Aerosmith, and so you have to. Oh, listen to Kansas and Oriel Speedwagon on the way. See, see, and so now all that stuff is starting to come. And all that great music that honestly, still to this day, a lot of those artists are still performing, some of them better than others. Um, but look at how many there's two more generations behind us that still listen to that music. You can go to, okay, here's here's here's a for instance. Rush just they, you know, they just started, they re, they, they, they're they're back out on the road after 10 reassembled, after 10, 11 years away, um, and and post-Nil Peart's death. And now Rush is back on the stage selling out multiple nights in every city that they're playing. And it's not only the diehards and the hardcores that grew up listening to them that were with them from the start. They're bringing their kids along, you know. And so it's so I I believe that our our music, our generation's music, which which would encompass honestly like the the that British invasion, all of the 70s and into the 80s, that whole that whole decade of the 80s, even. I think that's our stuff. Like a 20, like a 25-year period. And that I just think is just the sweetest spot on the baseball bat. And and because if it wasn't, those kids wouldn't be going to they wouldn't be going to see Cheap Trick or C Kiss. Who's on all the Vegas shows?

SPEAKER_00 28:12

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Not all, I should say, but you know, but predominantly who's who's there. It's them.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

So you have all these, all it's all this absolutely fantastic music. And that's just the rock stuff that I brought up. That doesn't include that doesn't include you know, the disco era, which was just killer. I could see you on a disco floor all day long. And my satin shirt and my bell bottom angel flights. And yeah, you know. Did you have a gold chain or were you? I uh not really. That wasn't your shit. No, it wasn't okay. It wasn't. All right. But um, I it could be, I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 28:49

You know, yeah, well.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Um you travel down there one day. But yeah, there we go. But but the the whole disco era, you know, the hustle. Did you do the hustle? I didn't. I didn't do the hustle. I love the music.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

That's a staple, that's a staple band to the disco.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

You know, the hustle has really evolved into line dancing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, and then they take the hustle and they add this, that, and the other thing and change it around a little bit, but you got all those cowboys and cowgirls. So you cowboys, you cowgirls stole the hustle. Is that what you're saying? That's exactly what happened. Okay. But but you had all that rock and roll. Then you had that whole disco stuff too, which was a short window, but it was really, really good. And I don't believe in the whole, you know, disco sucks kind of thing. You know, I just love all kinds of stuff. And and the Bee Gees. I mean, come on, Donna Summer, the queen of disco. And even though the Bee Gees were not disco, they're known for that because they wrote the greatest selling movie soundtrack of all time in Saturday Night Fever, you know, the things sold, I don't know, 50 million copies or something, but but um, you know, RB with the Commodores, Earth, Wind and Fire. Just that good. But see, where did that come? That was in that 25-year window. So good.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Wait, so good, just like it said.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Can you believe this shill over here? He's wearing my hat, even. But you know, um, you know why I'm wearing a hat?

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Why are you wearing the hat? This is a professional organization, folks. Okay, in a professional organization, you fly your colors, okay? Um, and that's what I talk to Ben all the time. You wear you wear your Ben Maynard thong, you wear your Ben Maynard sandal, your shirt everywhere you go. Okay, because people need to know. They need to know. Yeah, so anyway. Okay. Uh, and then you know that was my free advertising for the Ben Maynard program show, by the way. Go ahead. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Uh and okay, so we've kind of covered that first 15 years there. Yes. Now we're turning the decade. Disco's kind of going away, but it's it's evolving. And it's we is that kind of what soft rock kinda.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

I I think I think that's a mixed in.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

I think that's always been a part of it. What we call yacht rock, but we called it. I love yacht rock. I love it, love it, love it. 10ccs. Can't get enough of them. Dan Fogelberg. Um, you know, those just so good. But but, you know, um, we saw that stuff. It like we talked about evolution, where music started, where it's going. And really, it started way back before the British invasion, but we had to start somewhere. Now, um, you have that stuff evolving. Discos now, it's it's not, it didn't go away, but it evolved to more dance music. Yes. Okay. And techno stuff. And and then you have you have new wave coming in. We're we're we're we're at the end of the post, or we're at the end of the punk era. So post-punk as well, which was mid to late 70s, a short window for punk, really. But but that punk stuff and those artists are some of them are evolving into new wave artists as well. They're kind of taking a different a different turn. And and those are now, those are like, excuse me, my high school years, and and all this stuff is is uh is taking over top 40 radio, where top 40 radio before was was it was country, it was rock, it was it was uh uh you know soft rock music, it was it was everything. And then now when you turn the decade into the 80s, you still have some of that, but you guys know out there, and if you don't, I'm a big freak on the uh Billboard Top 40 charts for those, you know, first three, four, five years of the of the 80s, you know, and I love that stuff. And you can look at those charts and listen to that music and you can see where it's changing. You know, you had country crossover breaking into the top 40, but that lasted about three years, four years, and then you could see the country artist falling out of the top 40 charts and all that stuff taking over. Um, the new wave, even new wave kind of had a short window, um, because then those bands kind of store, I don't, they kind of started to to to to fade away, but you had artists like um like Madonna breaking into to the music scene in in late, I think late 83. And so you saw like kind of her style starting to really um uh take over on the charts. And um you still had rock you still had a lot of rock and roll on the chart as well. And I think a big part of that was MTV. MTV played such a huge role. I think MTV had uh an enormous influence on radio. Um, and I think it helped out a lot of musicians' careers because you know MTV was was like started from nothing. And and on August 1st, 1981, this this little tiny channel that really like less than half of the country could get on their cable networks uh at the time was playing these videos that they were grabbing from anywhere that they could. They were promotional video, a TV commercial for a song or something. They were playing all that stuff in their first few days. And so a lot of these artists people had no idea who they were, but they saw the video on MTV and it's like, I kind of like that song. Then they would go seek out an album or a single or whatever, and then through that popularity on MTV, that song's breaking the you know the the the billboard charts, you know, and now it's playing on on radio and just like our social media today, back, you know, in in some respects, in terms of getting you out there, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Uh, you know, getting you uh uh viewership. Yeah.

MTV And The New Hit Machine

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Let me ask you this. Sure. That was long-winded. I'm sorry. Oh, that's great. Soul train. Soul train.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

So train. You know, okay. I do have a little bit of kind of a tiny, tiny story. Um I never yeah, it actually is. Um ran into him. Okay, I'll tell the story first. Bumped into him, never spoke to him, but bumped into him in an AMPM out in the valley. Okay, used, I actually in the in the 80s, in the the especially the late 80s, I was working out in the valley a lot. And um I used to see a lot of celebrities walking into 7-Elevens and AMPMs. And um yeah, he walked into AMPM, bought a pack of smokes, and uh mostly right away. You think yeah, come on. Yeah, he was very, very how tall was he?

SPEAKER_02 36:19

Was he a large was he tall? He seemed tall.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

I I don't recall him being, he might have been my height, maybe it's maybe a smidge taller than me, but he didn't seem to be yeah, really, really, really tall. Um, but but I never really watched Soul Train. Uh you know, flipping the channels, you go by it. Yeah, I never really watched American Bandstand either, you know, which were the two music, the two music shows, you know, and and you had the kids dancing on the floor and that kind of thing. Totally different, but kind of the same. But but they would play the hits that were on the radio too. So that was a good way to get exposure uh for a music listener.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

I'm surprised you didn't look at those two more because of your love for music.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Yeah, I just think that I I never did that because um uh I was probably just busy out playing ball or something like that, you know. Just out outside on a skateboard, playing baseball, football, whatever it was, you know, just out in the streets. So see what he just did right now.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Fuck you just told you he's a world class athlete.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

That's what you just threw that in there. Yeah, I'm so world class. Um swimmer.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Definitely not.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Might sink. Um, but so so you met, did you talk to him? Or you I just no, no, I I I didn't. I didn't. I it's it's very rare that I um see even even now, it's very rare that I will see somebody of recognition, you know, uh notoriety, I guess I should say, um and and say anything. I don't know. I just I I kind of want to just you know leave them in their space, you know, and and not bug them because they they get that stuff all the time. So so I just don't, but um sidetrack.

A Real Steve Perry Run-In

SPEAKER_01 38:05

I will tell my Steve Perry story though. Again, out in the valley. Journey. Yep. This was 1997, and um uh Journey had they had put out a reunion album in 1996 called Trial by Fire. My number one song I gave to you on the list we'll get to that is is from that album. Um and I'm delivering, I'm making a delivery to this uh restaurant, and uh it's a it's a shopping center that is a it's a two-level delivery means he was dancing for a client. Go ahead, please. Um and so it's an L-shaped uh shopping center. I'm just trying to paint the picture, people. Um I come out of the elevator, my truck is parked right, I'm just steps away from my truck, and there was uh an electronic store. It was called the good guys. You remember the good guys? Oh, yeah, they didn't last very long, but they were pretty popular. They all the electronics and they sold music too, they sold CDs and all that stuff there too. So I see walking in the walking through the parking lot with a good guy's bag, yellow, yellow good guys bag, Steve Perry. At least at that at that moment it looked like Steve Perry, and he's walking with a young lady. And I see him walk to his vehicle, a blue Lincoln Town car. You would never expect Steve Perry to be driving a Lincoln Town car. But was it the big one? Yeah, it was the big four-door Lincoln Town car. Okay. So um he walks her to the passenger side, he lets her in. What a gentleman. Yes. Then he goes to the back of the car, opens the trunk, and puts his bag in the trunk. And I'm and I'm seeing this all, and it's happening obviously very fast. And I'm watching this, I'm going, yeah, I don't to myself, I'm saying if I don't say something now, I'm gonna like regret this forever. And I said, I just kind of with a question mark said, Steve Perry? And he turns and he looks, and I said, No way. And he says, Hey, actually, he was, he was, he was walking from the around the back of the car. He was actually getting to his driver's side door. And so I said, No way. And I started to approach and he walked back and we met at the back of his car. And he extends his hand. He says, Hey, how you doing? What's your name? And we shook hands. I said, I'm Ben. He says, Nice to meet you, Ben. I said, Man, I have been a fan of yours and Journey forever. And he says, Wow, thanks a lot. And uh, and I said to him, I said, Hey, um, I said, I I just heard on the radio. Now remember, they put out this reunion album, Trial by Fire in '96, and they were going to tour for it. And um, I said, I just heard on the radio that you guys were canceling the tour. And he says, No, no, no, no, no. He says, uh, we're just postponing it. I'm having a hip issue. And none of this stuff, none of this stuff had become public knowledge. Okay. So there you go, folks. He says, I just, I'm just having a problem with my hip. No, we're just postponing it. No, we're all, we're all right. And I was like, oh man, that's great. And he says, Well, again, extended his hand again. He says, Hey, it was it was nice to meet you, Ben. And I said it was a it was great to meet you too. We shook hands, and that was it, over and done with. So the whole, the whole interaction, the exchange probably lasted, I don't know, 45, 60 seconds, something like that. You know, but it lasted forever. But but it's yes, it's burned in my mind. It's there forever, and it was an experience and a very pleasant experience with someone that I truly admire for his incredible talent and and and and musicianship and everything else, and the greatest voice in rock and roll. Um, maybe even in any genre of music. But um, you know, they always say never meet your heroes. It's a double-edged sword. Yeah. And and so um that time was, yeah, you wanted to meet your hero that time. It was it was a good one. It was a good one. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

Yeah, yeah, because that could have that could have gone south. It could have gone and it could have probably damaged some of your love for honestly. I mean, you know, because you're uh you're absolutely right. But but but he was a pro, yeah, a gentleman. He was and still is, I'm sure. Yeah. Uh so uh good on you, Mr. Perry. Uh that's that's awesome. And I too am a big fan. Um, don't know half a tenth of the information that this man has about them. But but like, you know, the best uh you know, the best I guess my my talent is uh turning the radio on. That's that's my key. That's my key to success with the music because I'm I'm a good radio turner on her. You're good, you're great at turning that knob, right? Oh yeah, that's my gift. Yeah, all right. So here we go.

The Top 10 Songs Challenge

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Uh and Ben, uh, I asked Ben to send me his top 10.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

He did.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

And I you know, he Raul sends me another text after he wants to know my stripper name. I had no idea why he was asking that question anyway, but but he sends me a follow-up text. Hey I said dancer name, first of all, folks. I said dancer. I never said stripper. Okay. Tomato tomato, right? So um This guy's gonna get us canceled. So so he sends me a follow-up text and he says, Give me your top 10 songs of all time. I'm like, dude, that's a lot of music. He says, I need to buy the says I need it by the end of the day. Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

So uh whatever. Okay. All right. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:55

I'm gonna give you the song based on your we're gonna go from 10 to number one. Okay. All right. I want you to say the first thing that comes to your mind when I when I give you the song. Oof. Okay. The first thing. You can't overthink this, Ben. You just gotta let it rip. Do I get to elaborate or anything?

SPEAKER_01 44:14

No, not yet. Oh, okay. Not yet. Okay. Okay. So just like like first word or first thought or something. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:20

Yeah, because I'm gonna write it down. Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Okay. Gypsy, Uriah Heap, live, 1973. Go. My brother Jim. What? So powerful. Powerful? Yes. Okay. Because you said your brother. Yeah. Now say it. Now I want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

My brother turned me on to Uriah Heap.

unknown 44:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

And I was calling diarrhea heap, but go ahead. He turned me on to Uriah Heap back in the 70s, um, probably around 73, 74. And um he had the studio record uh Demons and Wizards. I think that was, I think that's Uriah Heap's fourth studio album. And uh it's it's actually it's an absolute gem and classic. And and I What's your brother's name again? Jim. Jim.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Was he ever part of your band? No. Okay.

unknown 45:19

Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

No. He didn't make the cut? No. All right. Shame on you. Go ahead. So so he turned me on to your eye heap. I I remember the first three albums that I bought. The first, the first, the, the, the Johnny Whitaker one, that doesn't count because I didn't buy it with my own money. My mom bought for me. No, no, no. No, I'm I'm a square, okay? I'm I'm a law-abiding citizen. So the first three records I bought with my own money were Demons and Wizards from Uriah Heap, Uriah Heap Live in 1973, and the soundtrack to um Rocky Horror Picture, or not Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Rocky Horror Show. Difference. There's a big difference there.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

Did you ever go to the theater and play act and all that good stuff? Yeah, I used to do that.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

It was when we were in high school. We would we would go and we would smuggle in toast and and and and rice. And uh, I don't think we had any squirt guns. I think somebody else in the audience had those, but I think we did take cards because there's a line in the Did people get dressed up? Uh we went to Pony Hills Mall, so we weren't uh in Hollywood. I think a couple people did, but not crazy. Okay, not crazy. But there were but I remember the beginning credits of that movie. People were up at the top of the front screen doing all this dancing and everything else. Okay, so so yeah, so that's that I I get that with uh with gypsy. It's absolute fantastic song. And if if are they still they're still active? They were active as of about two years ago. Um they were supposed to do a farewell tour. Uh, I don't know how that all worked out because they're from the UK and they don't come to the United States real often. But um fantastic band. Absolutely just uh so good. But gypsy is my is so good. Yeah, so good. Gypsy's my all-time favorite um uh Uriah Heap song. Okay, yeah. All right. Number nine, folks. Yeah, number nine. This is gonna be long.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Deuce Piss Alive Three. You wanted the best. You got the best. So what word are we using? The best? Remember, what one word that comes to your mind. You said powerful. Okay. That's why I gotta keep that sky on track. The best. Okay. The best. Alright. We're going to number eight. Okay. I'm gonna pick and choose when you get to elaborate. Okay. Alright. Number seven. I need you. Worn.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Two words.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

So good. I'm a huge foreigner fan. Heavy.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

There's another one. That's a third word. Okay. Can I give you that third word? Heavy. It's heavy. It's got a heavy bass line in it.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

So I'm gonna I'm gonna allow Ben to elaborate on this one because I am a huge foreigner fan. Huge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

As well as I am, too. Um that one's um, gosh, I think it's the last song off the debut album. I think it's track 10. And um, I bought that album many, many, many years ago. I think my first foreigner album was uh Double Vision, though. Double Vision first, and then went back and got um the debut album. And um even though the way we listened to music when we were growing up was you just drop the needle and you play the first side, you walk over to your turntable, flip it over, and you play the second side, and you would sit on the floor of your bedroom or whatever and look at the artwork, you know. And and um that was a song that that it got away from me. I didn't pay attention to it. I didn't, I didn't really become familiar with that song until many years later. And uh, and I'm like, man, I missed out on this one all those years ago, but it is so good, you know. Lou Graham, and we talk about and I talk about Steve Perry all the time and how absolute fantastic uh he is, and just you know the best. Lou Graham, oh man, oh man, Lou Graham, something else. And the fortunate part is is I've had an opportunity to see both of those, uh both of those guys perform, you know, uh several times. So um Lou Graham, man, wow, what a voice too. And that song, he's just giving it to you, people. And um it's just uh it does, it's I love I I I love, like I said, it has a very heavy bass line, and it's and it's it I and I love it when the bass is up in the mix, the bass guitar is up in the mix, and you hear that. And it's just do you think the bass is somewhat underutilized? I think so. Okay, when it comes to when it comes to uh music and a band, you know, the bass guitar and the drums, that's your engine room. Okay, that's what gets everything going and keeps everything in rhythm and in time and all that type of stuff. And it's kind of I I think a lot in the 70s and maybe even into the 80s too, uh probably have to start paying more attention on production, but but I think sometimes a lot of producers they would they would they would they would bury the bass in the mix, you know. And so it's like you really had to like open up your you know ear and put it to the speaker or something to to to hear it. Um and maybe it just went was a case-by-case situation with a band or something like that. But um, you know, I love I love a nice heavy bass line in a song. I think I think funk brought the bass to the forefront again. Actually, I say Rick James, but you know what? A guy by the name, and I've mentioned him before on this podcast, um, Larry Graham. He he was a part of um Sly in the Family Stone. I used to always, I would always get it mixed up, and I would always say P Funk or Parliament or something like that, you know. But no, he was a uh Sly in the Family Stone, and he uh branched off. He released a s, he did have a band called Graham Central Station. How nice is that? That's a good ring. Um, released solo album, one of my favorite songs of all time, song that I danced to my wife to, you know. Um in a million. It's just talk about a song that will just just slay you. But Larry was an absolute master at the bass. And he could play uh he was um um he could play slap, which I love watching that method. I love watching slap. And you guys know I don't play any instruments at all, but but um I love watching people play slap bass. Uh I think it's just a like I said, a great method. Um, and Larry Graham was one of the best. Definitely one of the best. But uh bass is awesome. The bass is an awesome instrument, man. Okay, we're going to number seven, I think, isn't it? Six.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Oh, is it six? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

Oh, seven was I need you, right?

SPEAKER_00 53:00

Yes, sir. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Six. What's six? Fantasy.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

Oh, Nova. Yeah. By the way, folks, stay tuned. I'm just gonna give you a little teaser about all the NOVA. Not today or not from here, but stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

Nelson Mielez. That's what comes to mind when you say fantasy.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 53:22

Nelson is the one that turned me on to that song. He heard it on the radio when it first broke. Uh a friend of yours? Yeah, he was a high school friend. You know, high school friend, lived around the corner. Um, and um, and uh he was like, hey, dude, check out this song. And he, well, he first he heard it on the radio. He went and bought the single, and then he calls me, just hey, check out this song, and he put this song on. When you say the single, the little the 45, yeah, 45. And there's some youngsters that don't know. That's true, that's true, that's true. That's true. They don't know what a C, I mean, C D. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of them don't know that too. But but he put the 45 on, and I was like, Whoa, this is so cool. The guitar. Aldo is really just such a virtuoso uh when it comes to the guitar. And it was it starts out with some lasers, you know, the beginning of the song, and there's a there's a drum pumping in the bass drum pumping in the back, you know, and it's just thumping, just thumping. That gets your blood going. It does, it does, and it's thumping and it's thumping, and you hear, like I said, the lasers, and then you hear some computerized sounds, and then you hear this, you hear this helicopter chopper whirling, you know, you hear the the propellers whirling, and then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, there's like a a laser, a laser gun just fires away and kind of a an explosion, and then it just cranks right into the uh to the guitar, and it's so so good. It's so good. Yeah, that that um that riff is just absolutely it it just it's unforgettable that riff.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

We're on to the top five, okay.

Bass Lines That Change Everything

SPEAKER_02 55:11

And folks, uh I gotta I gotta tell you that when when Ben sent me this list, I was a little shocked. Probably disappointed too. No, no, uh, and not shocked in a bad way at all. I was just like, wow, okay. Because I know Ben and I, when we talk, he talks about put the wrong banner up. Let me take that banner. He he speaks of uh of of bands and singers, and and I said, wow, okay. Uh I was I was uh expecting to see some of them on here, but not disappointed in the in the list by any stretch of the imagination, because there's some there's some really good stuff here. So number five, yeah going back to journey entire place.

SPEAKER_00 55:58

One word This doesn't happen often, folks. Fabulous, fabulous, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

I don't want to repeat myself, but yeah, the first time I heard that song, I was like, this is yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

So number four Turn me loose lover boy.

SPEAKER_01 56:36

Just I mean it takes me right back to high school. You know. Um I didn't hear that song until I came into Loverboy. So I'm gonna write high school. Okay, alright. Can I elaborate on that?

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Absolutely. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

So I came into Lover Boy on working for the weekend, probably just like most everyone did. Um Turn Me Loose was off the debut album, or is it still off the debut album, okay? So um they didn't change it?

SPEAKER_00 57:13

No, they didn't change it.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

And uh so this guy, this guy.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

So so they um the Ben Maynard program. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

No, that's right. That that song is so fantastic, and it's surprising that it it only topped the uh billboard charts at like number 35 or something like that. It didn't even break the top 30.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

But I This is what I'm talking about, folks. Such a nerd. This guy knows.

SPEAKER_01 57:44

But I didn't hear, I didn't hear that song. At least I didn't recognize gorgeous nerd. Remember, please. I don't remember hearing that song. Oh, but I but working for the weekend, it's got oh yeah, cowbell, boom, boom, boom. More cowbell, more cowbell, one, two, three, four, and then boom, it kicks right in. And so I so I was hooked on Loverboy from the right right from that that moment, and um listened to the get lucky album, their second album, and then um a guy uh in high school, a guy, he gives me a cassette tape that I don't know, he recorded or something. We're going way back. Sorry, sorry, youngsters. What's a cassette? Oh my gosh. It's like mommy, he said cassette. What's that? Is that a bad word?

SPEAKER_02 58:37

Ben walked with Moses.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

No, no, um, so so he hands me this cassette and he says, dude, you gotta listen to this. And you say dude or do to rally. Yeah, he might have said idiot. I don't know. Well he got sucked in the eyeball. Yeah. So it was it was uh Lover Boy's debut album on that cassette. It was like he recorded it off the uh off the record or something. And I put that thing on and listened to it. The the the the first track on it is The Kid Is Hot Tonight, and then the second track is Turn Me Loose, and it's like whoa. And just, you know, it uh speaking of like guitar riffs like we were with fantasy, you know, Aldo Nova, that fantastic guitar riff. Um, and and and then Paul Dean from Loverboy, just such a crunchy guitar. He's one of my favorite guitar players, Paul Dean. He's so totally underrated, but um that that crunchy guitar riff and then Mike Reno's vocals, another absolutely dynamite singer. I like, I guess I must like these guys, these singers that that that can just sing right into the end of the stratosphere. Yes, I must like that because I love all these high screens and all that kind of thing, and and uh when they just carry a note forever. I love all that stuff. And here's the here's the here's the uh similarity between Lover Boy and and Aldo Nova, both Canadian artists. Great. So um there you but yeah, that's uh and I just I love that song, Terminal. I could I just will never get tired of hearing that song, and there's a really great version that's hard to find. It's a it's a live version. Um, and it's not from the 80s, it's a live version that's maybe 20 years old. So you have an older, you have an older Mike Reno, you know, singing this stuff, still belting it up, and he still does a fantastic job. It's not it's it it's it's maybe like a half a step tuned down, but man, does he make it sound good? It just wails. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:03

So here's a public service

When Legacy Acts Should Hang It Up

SPEAKER_02 1:01:05

announcement. Okay, okay. And it's just my opinion. But some of these bands that we're talking about or singers we're talking about, I've gone to see. And I shouldn't have gone. Because they've lost and listen, of course, with with time, yeah, and age, and and all this other stuff, but it was a little disappointing, Ben. Uh, and maybe I went there with the wrong expectation. No, um, but I said, oh my gosh, this is this is not good.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

I think that's very fair for you to say, and because I've had the same experience as well. And um, you know, when when you go more power to him still continuing to keep on, right? Yes and no. Because you gotta hang it up sometimes, man. Yes. Look, even look, even the even the best athlete has to finally put put it away. Yeah. Has to finally just say, you know what? He puts his cleats and his baseball glove in the locker and closes the door and walks out for the last time. Yep. They finally come to that realization. And when do you pick that time though? That's I think that's the yeah, that's that's the rub, right? Or that's the it can be hard. It can be. Um I think in in like for musicians, the the music business is so so different now than it was way back when. And um it's all your all the money you make, you know, the biggest part of the money you make now, the larger portion of it, is from touring, from doing shows. People don't buy music anymore, you know. Um, on the whole, people don't buy music. I buy music still. I uh I I've been record store showing not a turntable, but he buys music. But he goes and buys records without the turntable. But yeah, I went record store shopping the last two weeks, you know, and picked up some some good stuff. Nothing that I was specifically looking for, but I picked up some good gems. And and but but that's obviously the used music. The musicians don't get paid on that. But I'm speaking about new music. You have artists, so many artists, legacy artists that will put out music. You have a bunch of them that won't put it out anymore because they're like, what's the point? But but you have legacy artists that will still make music because that's what they do, they will still put it out, and even their even some of their hardest core fans don't buy it. So, how else are they gonna make money? You've got to go out and tour. You gotta you gotta do shows to make money, and then you get money off the the ticket sales, you get money off of the merch, you know. So um by the way, folks, merch the Ben Maynard program. Yeah. So um I think that's why you see a lot of artists out doing stuff that, you know, maybe they've not just lost a step. You know, losing a step, that there's no shame in any of that stuff. As long as you can still go out there and do it and do it well, nobody's expecting you at 60, 70, 75 years old to go out and sing and play and perform. Exactly, exactly. But um, but you know, if you can still do it. Yeah, it still has to be respectable, it still has to sound good, and the the artist still has to put put out those tunes uh at a respectable level. And some unfortunately can't do it. And um that's you know, somebody needs to get that vaudeville hook and you know, kind of pull them off the stage. But but uh yeah, so I hear you. It can be disappointing, especially when it's somebody that you truly, truly admire and and and and you just you you just have a a great love for their music. And there's nothing when it comes to music, the great part about it, there's nothing better than going to see the your band that you just love so much, and you know every song and every word, every word of every song, you know, every guitar lick, you know, every drum solo, you know, every fill, and and they're on fire that night. I mean, there's that is so good. And then by the same token, you want that same thing, and then it just it falls flat, and you're like, oh man, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:35

So me and my wife went to see Smokey Robinson, probably probably uh last year. Last year. Wow. But let me tell you something.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:43

That guy still has fire key.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:46

He still has fire key on at the Hollywood Bowl. Yeah, unbelievable show. Yeah, the guy just brought it. And uh he's up there, yeah. He is, but he's still bouting it away. I good for

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

him yeah yeah no I good for us actually sheesh that was uh that was amazing that was amazing and I went there with a little bit of uh well we're gonna get where we're gonna get kind of uh attitude yeah yeah okay yeah no no he delivered Smokey's the man yeah smokey's the man hey they had a television they had a television ad for uh uh what they were selling a smokey robinson's and the and the Smoky Robinson and the miracles package you know it's like a greatest hits package and I remember um this was in the 70s people so most of you don't even know but they probably weren't born yeah probably so um there was there was a guy and it's you know of course it's all scripted and everything but it's supposed to be uh supposed to be uh um um off the cuff you know kind of thing like this like Lucy Goose and this guy pulls up parks his he stops he I think he's probably driving like a Chevy Monte Carlo or something you know and he's he kind of a like big money back then 70s like disco guy almost sort of but but you know he's got the comb back dark hair he's got a beard I think he had sunglasses on I can't recall and uh and he and he looks at the camera and he says my father used to say turn that radio down and I'd say but dad it's smoky nice nice I love that and uh man I mean okay music is played for love cruising is made for love I love it baby making music folks cruising baby making music yeah there you there you have it there you have it are you telling me you come on geez that is that's that's great you brought up smokey man smoky's awesome so let me go back let me go back just for a quick second we're gonna come back to the okay we'll come back to the top 10 yeah we're kind of going everywhere it's fine but in in in in your it's your show okay thank you thank you I'm just here thank you um Donald Mustang him again yeah him again him again him again okay the last podcast that I watched Ben Maynard had a stash okay a stash and go back go back what what episode one third you just go back like two episodes okay three episodes I think I had it for two of them okay he had a stash folks yeah where he looked like he was the lost brother from the YMCA oh from the village people from the village yeah yeah yeah I was sure I was sure yeah it kind of looked like the cops brother or something like that yeah we can we can leave it at that okay we can leave it at that okay but would that be your stash with Donald Mustang I say yes you're the manager so I I'd say I say yes he's rocking the stash okay folks he's rocking the stash okay um well you know what you and if he's driving around in a van don't get in the van yeah especially if he offers anyone candy right but get the candy first but uh uh yeah you'd have to deal with Catherine on that one she hated that mustache well I'm in charge of professional career okay you deal with your wife I have to deal with mine okay yeah um I shouldn't say deal I lovingly listen to my wife as you should right okay as you should yes I'm gonna throw this on you okay throw it on me see if I can catch it the cow bow how awesome was the cow bow did that just come out of left field I don't know because that was like a country deal right or or where did it stem from I don't know you know what it might have been it might have been like a um um like a like like a a like like back whole heel building backyard type thing you know you got one guy you know the banjo with the with the with the jug uh and one guy with the he makes a bass guitar with a broomstick and a string on a on a on a wash tub turned upside down and then you got some guy it it it it looked like it made some noise so he took a stick and started hitting it and maybe he just had he ripped one off of the cow in the in the pasture or something but uh that's iconic though it is it is you can hear a guitar you can hear you know a drum you could hear yeah you hear that cowbell you say hey wait a second wait a second it's just different well you know there's some well okay the the one the kind of real iconic one of course is uh uh don't fear the reaper yeah yeah and they got the whole you know Saturday live episode more cowbell and all that stuff but see it's it's it's it's an iconic sound in that song and and um uh people know that song even if you are not familiar with blue oyster cult at all and you should be um you know that song and you know the cowbell and um you know there's some bands that that that use it have have used it you don't hear it that much anymore but but but uh we just talked about uh lover boy and working for the weekend I honestly when I stop and think I don't know if there's another lover boy song that has any cowbell in it but but if if you take don't fear the reaper and you take the the just that just take five seconds out of the middle of that song where you hear the cowbell and you take the beginning five hits five notes on work em for the week and you and you just play that people are going oh yeah that's this song and that's this song right it makes things very recognizable you just know it. Yeah do we double double did we go over double vision no because we stopped with we stopped with turn me loose I think I think we stopped double vision foreigner well one word the forum 1982 that's more than one word but it's short that was the place right remember the forum man the forum was it that that was that was it when a band came the leg show prime uh I mean all of it all of it it was all in one the sporting events and the concerts man what an iconic arena and I mean it's back but it's it's it doesn't it doesn't have that same luster that it had even though it's so up to date and they cleaned it up yeah it's they cleaned it up and and and it's and it's solely for live concerts period now and and it's got the best of the best of everything in it no no it it's no it doesn't have like I said it doesn't have that same everyone was at the forum I mean every genre played at the forum yeah why do I know that I used to be security for uh for events back in when I come back from college CSC right was it is it's CSC that's something event I it's been such a CSC the yellow jacket the guys that wear the yellow jackets that say event staff on the back yeah yeah um he was a he was the big heavy you know edge of blade edge of the blade it's my favorite journey album frontiers it's track one side two just so we're gonna scroll with track one the word the word oh you just want uh we can elaborate but I just wanted the word um it's I don't know so hard I mean I could just frontier it is so hard so hard I don't know it's it it might be uh it might be it's pretty close to Journey's heaviest song um it might be they have a couple of heavy tunes off of the Escape album also um great album yeah it is it is it is um but um yeah all right dynamite guitar riff never heard him play it live though never heard him sing it live unfortunately journey's all up in this list they are huh they are yeah message of love I told you guys opening track to trial by fire and it's amazing that I would choose that song to be number one on an album that came out it came out ten years after Journey's last album featuring Steve Perry okay uh which was raised on radio in 1986 so it was it was a whole 10 year stretch and Trial by Fire is the last album to feature Steve Perry on on vocals and to have that song be like my number one song um it made my journey it made number one on my journey top 20 obviously so there it's got to be number one somewhere again and it's um it it's it's a heavy song not not overly heavy if you like separate ways which is an iconic song um message of love is very much like uh separate uh yeah separate ways and um but better and uh and I know for those of you who have no idea what I'm even talking about because you don't know the song maybe you don't go deep into journey um yeah it's just it's a it's a great song and I love I love Steve's passion um in right before they hit the chorus he comes out of uh a line um I have to hang on a second here this is on the fly people all right so give me a second you know it's funny you mentioned I was just actually listening to that this morning I was listening to Journey on the way up as well I was listening to that very song there it is um there it is and let's do this just so I get it right well he's looking that up folks remember subscribe to the Ben Maynard program on your YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts um so that you know the the the the opening verse in the song is is I walk alone in the dark without you uh and deep in the shadows I run without you and here I stand the king of fools now this is the really cool part it says now love is here but where are you so it's now love is here where are you and then in he's so passionate and he says and you have to listen he says oh yeah not not not not oh yeah not like that but oh yeah and uh that kind those kind of little um um I don't know how to describe them but those kind of like those little things in in songs whether it's just a single note or a drum hit or that it just it it it just it hooks me and it and it just gets me right there right

Hearing Versus Listening For Real

SPEAKER_01 1:18:15

in the chat. So I I'm really really glad uh you know Brent uh Ben brought up the the listen part because for a long time I would I would hear music yeah hear it right but when I slowed it down to listen and really pay attention to the lyric the story exactly and I said wow okay that's it it it made the song different for me there there's a there's a guy I think we hear yeah but we don't all listen it it's it's like it's like when our wives say or when when you you tell your wife yes I heard you and she says yeah you heard me but you're not listening to me that's when I repeat every word she told me yeah it's but it's the same thing. Yeah we hear the song we hear the music but are we really listening and um so I would encourage everybody to really you know take a stab at listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:23

And I I'm sure all of you already do but if you don't I think you'll have a deeper and different appreciation.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:30

Completely different especially you know there there's I know there's some software that's available out there now that it it's a service you have to pay for unfortunately but then I guess you plug a song into it and it will it will separate all the tracks in the song and then you can put it all back together as well. And what a great thing I don't want to pay for it sorry um but what a great thing to be able to do to break a song apart by its individual elements and listen to that like I was saying the the the the the bass guitar and the drum as the interim first start with the drum track and listen to that and then add the bass line in and you're like okay now I'm getting a feel for the song and then you bring in the rhythm guitar you know now I see how it's coming together. Then you completely separate the vocal track. You listen to the vocal track only and you're like wow and then you'll start to hear stuff coming from the singer that you didn't hear before. Same thing with a guitar track or even a bass line because like I said a lot of times the bass gets buried in the mix and and you might hear something that you're like wow that's how the bass sounds on this song? Wow I never realized it's like watching a movie twice right so it's yeah you know you you get you get a little different yeah uh uh you know different vision different experience yeah when you can break it down man and then did you and then you just put it all back together you never listen to stuff the same way again but um I wish I would I I shouldn't say wish but if I feel like paying for the software maybe I will one day but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:08

This should well you are the software Ben so I mean you're not you know we're not you're not missing anything or we're not missing anything. Um yeah you one of my one of my go ahead go ahead I was gonna say you you you you you you skipped one song in my top ten because of course we just get we just get talking yeah which one uh tower from angel I did I did you don't sound like that song I'm joking I'm sorry I didn't I didn't do it on purpose all right well uh see that see the picture right there on the calendar yeah that's Punky Meadows that's the lead guitarist from Angel okay and uh yeah but but uh that's that's another just fantastic song it's a song they close the show with you know all the time it's just it's an epic song you know six seven minutes or whatever uh wow but uh fantastic with with with the time of a song oh first off if you're starting off a song and you're not singing the chorus within the first 20 seconds forget it there's a phrase that's called don't bore us get to the chorus and I hate that phrase because when they never told Ben that when he was dancing no they say hey white boy get off the floor you're taking up too much space but um um yeah I don't believe in that because an artist puts their they put their heart into their music and um um if it takes if it's got a whole intro that's you know but you're a different listener 20 seconds 30 seconds you're you're you're a different listener I I believe you know I mean for us for me for us you know older novices um you gotta hook us quick I don't know I see if it's good it's good getting pissed off no no fans get pissed off okay because he wants us to uh experience and love music like he does start throwing stuff across the studio right right and and and rightfully so all right so let's go one of my one Ben that I really really enjoyed uh a little ahead of my time ahead of our time I believe okay but so good Leonard Skinner oh oh yeah yeah yeah definitely um just a great southern rock band right just a great band right you know a bunch of guys just having some you know all went to high school together you know from the neighborhood just doing it and uh yeah it's it I mean it that band unfortunately has so much tragedy yeah so much tragedy in their history um it's it's good and and you know there there isn't uh there isn't an original member around anymore and the legacy is continued by um uh Johnny Van Zant uh Ronnie's Ronnie's brother you know and um he does a music yeah he does a fantastic job uh Catherine and I went and saw Skinnard uh I don't know seven eight years ago and they put on a fantastic show and the here's the thing that you can appreciate about them too first off they're always gonna have you know class musicians you know to cover that stuff and you know the tragic thing with Skinnard is that first if you're not familiar you know the band uh put out one of their biggest albums and right upon or just before release it was right around that area it was uh Street Survivors they were uh they were in an airplane and the plane crashed and I think it was three members of the band died lead singer yeah which and lead singer Ronnie Van Sant lead lead singer and chief songwriter um and so they didn't really kind of know where to go from there um but they did pick themselves up they moved they continued on uh it was uh some time later but but like it's like one at a time the remaining band members died you know they sickness uh you know illness that kind of thing you know and and so they passed on and um even to the point where there's well okay Ricky Medlock was this is what I'm talking about folks this is exactly what I'm talking about stay tuned pay attention sit up sit up straight pay attention this guy is a wealth of knowledge he had no idea what I was gonna talk about and here we go folks we're getting into the weeds okay get some coffee we're just getting started the stupid stuff so the dumb stuff here the nerd stuff so now Ricky Medlock I'm hoping that I have it I'm hoping I have it right I'm hoping that the memory hasn't completely gone is they consider him not an original member but he kind of is an original member he and Ricky Medlock's a guitarist but he's doesn't tour at the beginning he kind of came in like it was like a couple three albums later but but and I don't go deep into Skinnard people I don't go deep but I dig him I love him um but he played simple man but he play you hold that thought right there let me finish my thought and we're gonna go but Ricky Medlock please check my math on this play drums on the debut album for Skinnard now I don't know if he played drums on the whole album but I know he played drums on that debut album and then was gone okay and then came back on guitar um a few albums later and was with the band for many many years but you know he's he's uh obviously age health and all that kind of stuff is crept in so I don't I don't believe he's he tours with the band anymore I think it's just Johnny

Heavy Lyrics And Timeless Classics

SPEAKER_02 1:27:10

now.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:10

But um simple man oh you know that probably is my favorite Skinnard song for one me too and two people if you're not just gotta just google listen to this song Pandora and that song is so incredibly healthy. Listen to the lyrics it's a lyrical content but with that bass line in there the bass line in that song makes that it it it it's a it but it's like a it's almost a dark heaviness to that song. Man, that is so good. That is such a good song. Great great poll on that one. Good job.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:06

So, since we're on the heavy so since we're on the the heaviness I listened to this song and I heard it but I I began to listen to it. Sounds of silence. If you listen to those lyrics, you better have some tissue paper.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:38

You you know, I mean yeah, no, it's a that's that's that's another that's another uh good one. Um and by uh uh fantastic duo from the 60s and 70s, you know, Simon and Garfunkel. And uh it's amazing how two guys that could work so well together, Tom and Jerry. Just like each other so much, hate each other. Um and uh I yes, I threw out Tom and Jerry because that's what they kind of called themselves before they went with Simon and Garfunkel. Um but um yeah, no, that's a that's that's a fantastic song. Uh and and and another one, another poll from the Simon and Garfunkel catalog that I really, really like too, because there's just a there's just something about it, but uh the boxer. Boom! And it's just like an explosion, you know. Lila Lila, Lila Lai.

unknown 1:29:40

Boom.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:41

There's none of that in this music to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:43

No, it's just that kind of stuff. This it's it's a very dramatic song, you know, like an orchestra. It's just killer. Oh man, all right, gosh. We went from uh we've gone. We're all over the place. We have all over the place. We're all over the place. That's awesome, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:57

We're coming to you live from Chino Hills in California. The Ben Maynard program. All right, best singer of all time.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:07

Well,

Why Steve Perry Is The Best

SPEAKER_01 1:30:08

Perry? Yeah, Steve Perry. I've I've said that I kind of figured that I I have maintained that forever. Um, yeah, Steve Perry, hands down. And if if you if I need to prove my point at all um to anyone and everyone who needs to have my point proven, just go listen, forget about the stuff that's in the studio, okay? Because that's fantastic already and out of sight. But go listen to Steve Perry sing live, okay? You can go on YouTube, and there is about a bazillion different Steve Perry concerts live. But in 1980, Steve Perry captured, okay. That's the live album captured. There's no there's no fixes on that. There's no there's no AI stuff. There's no go, there's no going back in the studio and so we got to fix this and tweak that, and okay. And Steve Perry is absolutely fantastic. You can you go listen to a song like Where Were You? And there he's at the at the end of the song, you know, the band's going into the chorus, Where were you? And Perry is just, I mean, it's just screaming his head off. Well, his head's not coming off, obviously, but for for me, my head would pop off. But it's he's in the stratosphere, and it is so crisp, and it is so clean, and it is so pure, and it is so flawless, and it is so dynamite, and just there's that. There's and then you can hear him hit a bum note in a song like Lovin' Touch and Squeezing on the same album. And they're they're you know, they're coming in, they're doing the na na na na na na na na's and all that, and then he says, uh he he says, uh one more, or they're getting ready to go into it, and he says, one more time, Detroit, yeah. And that's where his voice cracked was at that part right there. And I love it because you know it's live. And and then you can listen to Journey released uh uh um I think it's called Greatest Hits Live, and they released it many years later, but it's tracks from the Escape Tour and the Um Frontiers Tour. And he's out of his mind. He's just just it it sounds so good, and you know it's untouched because there's two times where his voice there um faithfully, take faithfully. Oh I know faithfully's not even on that top 10 list. Are you kidding me? Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. But we apologize, we may have to rework the lips because that is an epic song. I said it before. I've said it before. The the tone, the piano tone, is perfect. And Neil Sean's guitar songs. Wow, Neil Sean late in the later on in the song. He was 15 and he was playing with Santana. Are you kidding? He dropped out of high school to join Santana. I mean, silly stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:34

Listen, if you're gonna drop out of high school, that's go play with the man.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:38

Yeah, go play with the man. Yeah, yeah. So, so then uh, so so you've got that, and then you've got, and I'm not I am in no way, shape, or form uh uh minimizing the work of the engine room, Ross Valerie and Steve Smith, because those guys are absolutely and uh you know what? I'm gonna go back to the record store. Steve Smith has a solo project called Vital Information, and I need to go buy it. I saw it at the record store last week.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:08

And we're gonna have a GoFundMe for a turntable, okay? Uh, I don't know what I'm gonna put it out. And listen, it's not because Ben needs the money, okay? That's not the reason, but I don't know why he won't get a god dang turntable.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:22

Pull the trigger.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:23

A turntable. There's records, albums all over here, and uh no turntable. Just so good and so weird at the same time. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:33

All right, so let's get back to it. Really quick, really quick. Because I want you people to listen to this. So, so you've got all that perfectness going on. Every single guy in the band is just perfect, and then you've got these flawless lyrics from Steve Perry and this this flawless voice, I should say. Not not the and the lyrics are fantastic. Um thank you, Jonathan Kane.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:56

But he could sing a little kid's riddle or a little kid's thing, and or what do they call them?

SPEAKER_01 1:35:02

A little rhyme and whatever. He could sing the phone book and sound fantastic. So, so listen to that song live faithfully, okay? And and at the end, he's coming out of it. Can you sing it and he says, Can you sing it? He says, Well, it's uh uh I'm not even gonna try. I'm forever yours, ever yours. And he stretches that do it, do it, you can do it. There you go. But his voice breaks. It starts to he's he's he's it goes into ever yours, and then he has you you you hear it, he has to come down. He goes, ever yours, and and I love it because you know it's live. I just thought that was the way the song sang.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:46

I you know, I'm a you know, I'm a novice listener, but I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:50

You and I were gonna listen to it afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:52

It's so we're probably gonna drink a beer.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:55

Better than Malort. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:58

All right. So folks, way off track. Great job, great job. Way off track. That's why we're here, folks. Mr. Perry, yeah, you're out there. He is. God bless you. Thank you for your contribution to our childhood and our adulthood, actually.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:19

Yes, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:23

Get a hold of us at the Ben Maynard program. We would be honored and love to have you on Ben's podcast. So if any there's people there that know Steve. And uh huge fans, Mr. Perry. Huge fans. So let's make this happen. Do what we have to do, and uh, and thank you, sir. I didn't mean to cut you off, but I want I wanted to thank Mr.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:51

Perry. It's okay. It's okay, good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:53

Thank you for thanking him because I yes, no, absolutely thank you for just being an awesome human being. Yeah, okay. Well, thanks for being nice to me. Yeah, that's what I mean. That's exactly what we're talking about. Yeah, 30 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, listen, Mr. Perry, I'm sure you had 2020 as a good looking dude. You said, Wow, this guy's attractive. Not in a bad way, not in a bad way, not in a weird way, but I'm not saying it's listen. No, no, listen, I don't want to get in trouble with anyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:19

Okay, he was probably saying, Who is this guy here in the green shirt and the green shorts? Because that's what we're working for talk about? No, I was working for S. E. Rykoff. And then we wore that.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:29

Well, they're not sponsors, so don't give them any time.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:32

Those were our uniforms.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:33

All right, we're gonna scratch that. Okay, we're scratching that.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:35

Jolly green giant out of here. Yeah, that's a that's a weird instead. He took 60 seconds to be very kind to me. And yeah, so anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:44

All right. Best we love you, Mr. Perry. Best bass player.

Best Bass And Guitar Arguments

SPEAKER_01 1:37:52

Ooh, well, I mentioned Larry Graham earlier. I did. Is he? Is he the one? You know, I don't know, and I don't go deep enough into Larry to say that. So I I I don't want to I want to be very fair and I don't want to be phony. Um, but from the from the guitar, the the bass players that I am very familiar with, oh um look, there are you'll get guys like uh you know, you you you it's always because it's always a popularity contest, you know, and and guys get forgotten about or they don't make lists because they just don't have that big name, or they're you know, they didn't have their picture in circus magazine and all that kind of sort of hit parator or whatever. And um, so they don't they don't get the recognition that they deserve, but there's so many out there. And um, I know I need to, but I mean like I brought up Ross Valerie, and he's Ross Valerie was with the Steve Miller band before he joined Journey. And absolutely fantastic. All of the members of KISS are so absolutely completely underrated as far as musicians, players, as far as players. They're always told, oh, it's more about the show. That's what that's what everybody was told. But if you break stuff down and you listen to stuff, you hear so much stuff that you just like, oh, okay, I get it now. And you know what? They were wrong, and Ben was right.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:30

But well, they made a hell of a lot of money with the show, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:33

Yeah, so they're they didn't do too shaped. Of course. Um, so let me think about this bass, bass, bass, bass. Um, so many. Uh okay, I'm gonna tell I'm gonna tell you one guy. All right, I've seen him, I have to. Finally, I have seen him perform live. All right, and he was dynamite. Okay, and I mentioned it with Larry Graham. He played Slap Slap? Yes, and you're not even gonna believe the name I'm gonna give you. Randy Jackson.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:06

I just saw something about Randy Jackson uh yesterday. Randy Jackson.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:10

Yeah, Randy Jackson.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:11

So who is Randy Jackson?

SPEAKER_01 1:40:13

Well, and Randy Jackson is the same Randy Jackson, yo, dog from American Idol, okay? But who is he? Randy Jackson is and was uh no, no, no, no, no, no. He's not a Jackson, he's not from the Jacksons. Okay, not that Randy Jackson. Okay, uh, Randy Jackson was a session musician in the 80s and even beyond, played with a lot of different people in 1986. Randy Jackson was in Journey. Journey, that's right. Yep. He um, due to whatever drama went on within Journey, uh Ross Valerie and Steve Smith were no longer part of the band. The band became Steve Perry, Jonathan, Kane, Neil, Sean. Remember, they put out Raised on Radio. They used some session musicians, studio musicians to finish out the album and all that kind of thing. But when it came to the tour, they put out uh they they brought in um, I always want to say Dan Baird, and it's not Dan, it's um Mike, Mike Baird on drums and Randy Jackson on bass. And this is Randy Jackson had his hair all high and tight and flat top. And he brought the funk. Yes, he did. And and and if you people go watch this video, I how does everything get back to journey today? I don't know, but go watch this video. We love you, Mr. Perry. It's it's journey, girl can't help it. It's the the video for girl can't help it. It's a lot, girl can't help it, she needs more, or yeah, hasn't found what he's looking for, they're still standing in the rain. He can't help it because she's just that way.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:00

But but um baby makey music folks.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:04

That actually is a really good one, Randy. Um really, I mean, great singer, too. Great singer, personality. But and he was so very colorful in that video, too. Those 80s colors, those those bright pastels and everything. But but towards the end of the song, there's Neil's doing his guitar solo, and and then Randy steps up and he starts giving he starts giving the funk on that, and you see him slapping that. And um, yeah, and I got to see that live. So good. So yeah, I'll pull. I'm gonna say Randy Jackson.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:45

Great pull. Yeah. Before you answer this, I'm gonna tell you mine. Okay. Best lead guitar. For me, it's tough, but it's simple. God rest his soul, Stevie Ravon. That's mine for all a million reasons, but way too early. Yeah. Way too soon. Helicopter, yeah, crash, folks uh lost his life. But wow, what a right as he was speaking. Right as he was speaking, yes, yes, absolutely. Oh man, yes, yeah. I mean, you want it, you want to you want to hear a man who was possessed uh with a guitar in his hands. That was Stevie Ray Vaughn.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:30

And you want to listen to some great guitar work by Stevie Ray Vaughan, uh, pick up David Bowie's Let's Dance album. That's Stevie Ray Von all over that album. All over that album. And that's not even his best stuff, but right. You just but listen to the guitar work in that.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:47

It's just so good. So Ben and I have talked about this uh countless times that you know some of these people while they were coming up were like uh musician players or big, huge uh folks in the business. Yeah, and you don't really know I didn't, I didn't know that. Yeah, uh until something pops up. And the more I talk with Ben, AI, uh you know, we talk and everybody's listening, folks. So it comes up on my on my on my uh on my uh what do you call it, the feed or what whatever. Oh yeah, yeah. It just comes up and I was talking to him like five minutes ago, and oh shoot, okay. All right, I didn't know that, but yeah, you know, they're out there, folks.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:30

That's all I'm saying. Okay, best needs guitar. Uh I've I've maintained this for a long time. I have one and one A, so I can interchange them. But um Steve Lucather from Toto, Neil Sean, they're one one A. I can't even choose between those two. Neil Sean, yeah, man. And and both of those guys are so vastly underrated. Neil Sean obviously has a much bigger name because of the journey brand.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:56

No, no, let me ask you, let me ask you this. I don't mean to interrupt you, but let me ask you this. Why do you do you think they're underrated because some some other people in the band overshine them or overshadowed them? Yeah, or they just didn't uh no, I think I think in in this case, okay. Like I like I know Neil Sean. I mean, I don't know him, but obviously, but I know the name. Yeah, I know he was great, but nobody was greater than Steve Perry.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:24

In my right, and I don't think Steve Perry's talents overshadow Neil Sean's talent as a guitar player, or you can only listen to one thing at a time or Steve Lukather, that kind of thing. And I'm gonna explain. I I I'm gonna put it this way, okay. Remember where remember when we grew up. Remember the music we just we talked about, that 25-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:44

Band's much older, by the way. Go ahead. We've talked like three years. That's 21 years in dog life. I knew I knew he was gonna say that. I knew he was gonna say that, and I was ready to pull that trigger.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:56

Okay, so we talked about that window, and we talked about that that absolute sweet spot of that window, being those 15 years. Who are some of the guitar guys? Jimmy Page, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendricks was already dead. Yeah, okay. But it was like still alive. But he would his legacy lives on. Okay, so those three. Now, who comes in in 1978 and wrecks all of that? Eddie Van Halen. Okay? I got a great story on a later different podcast, but I got a great story on that. So just those guys right there, okay? Just take that right there, those guitar heroes. And they're they're gonna completely overshadow anyone else. Changed everything, you know, especially Eddie. Eddie did. Eddie revolutionized the way guitars were being played after that, you know. Whether they tried to mimic him, and then yeah, whether he took some of his techniques from somebody else or not, whatever it was, he still made everything.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:01

We're all thieves, folks, at the end of the day. I mean music.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:04

100%, 100%. And and you take everything that from here, here, and here you made his own. Yes, you make it your own. And and yeah, and he did, like I said. So he was he just he changed it. He changed the way guitar was played and and the way it sounded, too. So so when you have all that, then it takes, I think it takes away from anyone else that like comes after, you know. I mean, and Neil was there before, but but still he, you know, Journey hadn't emerged. Toto didn't start till 1978. So it Toto Africa. Oh, killer, killer.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:43

So um I know enough to make me dangerous, folks, but just barely.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:47

So I think so. So I think that's why guys like that and and even Stevie Ray Von, even though Stevie Ray Von got a lot of recognition, but he may have gotten a lot more had his career not been so short. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:58

100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:00

So um Eddie Van Halen was a perfectionist, by the way. And then you have his brother Jimmy Vaughn. Come on. Oh, he's still yeah, he I mean, he's still alive, and he, you know, he's playing, probably still hangs around in Texas all the time playing, you know. But um, but so that's why. I think that's why these guys get get overshadowed and don't get the recognition that maybe they um justly deserve. Yeah. So I think when you break, like I said, it's again, it's it's listening, it's it's it's not hearing, it's listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:30

Um we're gonna trademark that at the Ben Maynard program.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:34

All right. So go ahead. Drummer.

Drummers Pianists And Unsung Greats

SPEAKER_01 1:48:47

You know, um there's a you know so many just like iconic just like with guitarists, you know, so many iconic drummers.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:00

I get it's hard it's hard to pick. It's it's truly hard to pick.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:03

But but I I think I'm gonna say this, and and I'm gonna I'm gonna say this because uh I'm gonna bring up a name that doesn't get no one's gonna know. And he's not a Neil Pert or any no, he's not he's not a Neil Peart, um, but he is a John Bonham. Okay. And first of all, rest his soul. In the 70s, they actually looked a lot alike, and his nickname was The Bear, and it's Lee Kurslake from Uriah Heap. And he hit hard like John Bonham, played vicious like John Bonham, um, and kept the band on time and in tune and straightened out, and um like John Bonham. So he was a probably wasn't because because you take you take John Bonham like Moby Dick, that's his moment to shine, and that's his he's It's a shining moment. Um in the studio, Lee didn't have that moment, but he did live. He had those moments. So we talked about Gypsy uh being on my top 10. There's that song where he's just shines. Uh, there's another song, uh Circle of Hands, that's a live song, shines there, and you can hear all the stuff. And yeah, Lee, probably Lee Kurse Lake. Yeah. Okay. Rest in peace, Lee. He passed away a few years ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:31

Uh uh. So that's a little surprising. It was a little surprising. Yeah, not overly surprising, but you know, not not a not a big name. Right. If you will. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. All right. Pianist.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:47

I you don't dabble in that. I no, no, but um see, you gosh, you probably gotta go somebody like honestly, like Billy Joel or something. I was gonna say the piano, man. Yeah, I mean, come on, you know, and I love I love Billy Joel. I love Billy Joel. You know, so I I probably have to go Billy Joel.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:10

Yeah, yeah. That's I I I I think of a piano and I instantly go to him.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:15

You know, I mean, then the the two biggest ones obviously are gonna be Elton and Billy.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:19

Um, I mean, but uh yeah, I probably gotta go Billy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:25

That's that's awesome. Fantastic songwriter. And and and I guess the big difference is is I mean, both fantastic singers. Billy wrote the lyrics also, where Elton didn't. Elton wrote all the music, and then Bernie wrote the lyrics. Um, but Billy did it all as well. Billy wrote lyrics, Billy wrote music, Billy played the piano, Billy played guitar. Um so uh, but yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta go Billy. All right. All right. So wait, wait, wait, hey. Can you can you can you uh can you call out your favorite Billy Joel song? Now I'm asking the questions here. Yeah, it's not really part of the program. Um so we're gonna keep it moving along. Well, I'll tell you my favorite Billy Joel song because I don't even have to think about it. It's Allentown off of the nylon curtain. Yeah, uh just there's something about that song, and every time I hear it, it takes me back to being um to being a senior in high school. It was the album came out in back half of 1982, and that was I that was the second song. Ben's old. Yeah, he is. And that was the second single. The first single was Pressure. Great song. And uh the second song was Allentown, and I just love the train hissing or the steam hissing, not train, the steam, steam hissing in the beginning of the song, the little work whistle, five o'clock work whistle, the factory, factory whistle, you know. Okay, it's five o'clock, time to check out.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:54

So, where is Allentown?

SPEAKER_01 1:52:55

Allentown's in uh Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:57

So it's a steel worker.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:58

Yes, that's exactly what it's about. It's exactly what that song is about. It's about the steel worker and the the the steel industry and going it it going away and stuff. And it's just a it's a fantastic song. Love that song. So anyway, sorry, got off on a tangent.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:13

No, that's fantastic. That's great. That's that's why we're here.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:16

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:17

All right, now I'm gonna throw something at you. This may be a curve ball. Curve or screwball? Uh it's probably gonna be a changeup, actually. Oh, I better better keep my weight back. I want to know what you think. Okay, I want it raw. Yeah. I want uh uh don't think. Okay, try not to. Benny and the Jets.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:38

I hated that song for many years, but it's a brilliant song. It's a really good song. I just I love it. I do, and I'll tell you why I hated that song. Okay, because being, you know, um I think that song came out around 72, 73, something like that. But in you know, I'm I'm like 10, 9, 10, 11 years old, and people are running around the piano, man. Oh, that's a it, yeah, that's fantastic. That piano groove is so good. It is, it is so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:10

So good.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:12

And and but the kids in the neighborhood would run around and tease me, you know. They wouldn't the jets, and they would sing it and tease me about it. You didn't own it. I didn't, not not when I was nine, ten years old. I own it now. Yeah, you know, I've owned it for the last 30 years, 40 years, but but back then, no, I I I couldn't and I hated it. But but I do no, that's a that is a a fantastic song. It is. Um you know, just um, you know, and look, and people are saying like, hey, uh, you know, where's your jets? And I'm like, hey, Candy's right there, and Ronnie's right there. Those are my jets. So boom.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:56

There you got, there you have it, folks. Yeah. All right. Um, we're gonna we're gonna go to the back of the studio for a second.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:06

All right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:08

Where are we right now? Are we in the back half of the studio?

SPEAKER_00 1:55:11

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:14

Best sound person that that you can give. Oh, b oh, back of the house. Back of the house. Oh, I meant that, yeah. Back of the house. You know, doesn't get seen, obviously. Yeah,

Producers And The Hidden Craft

SPEAKER_02 1:55:24

yeah. Well, but you gotta say, man, you know, this person that I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:29

I don't know enough back of the house. Like, I mean, if you ask but you know when it's good, yeah. And if you and if you ask me about producers and stuff like that, I could I could tell you some of the producers that I think have done a fantastic job. Like who? Um, depending on the band, but but you know, producers with some big name recognition. And there's a reason why you have a big name being a producer is because you do good work. Good nights, you you you put out good stuff. I'll just boom, this one just popped into my head. Ted Templeman. Doobie Brothers, Van Halen. Every Van Halen album featuring David Lee Roth was Ted Templeman. And and then all that, all those Doobie Brothers albums in the 70s and into the 80s and stuff. I mean, what a great, what a great sound the Doobie Brothers had. What a great band.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:20

You know, you know what I think of when I think of the Doobie Brothers?

SPEAKER_00 1:56:23

What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 1:56:24

Bunch of cool dudes getting high and making great music. I don't know if they did that all the time, but they probably did. Yeah, you know, there's some there's uh I've heard some things how the Doobie Brothers came the name. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But I just think they were just like cool cats, man. Just just like good friends, great music, yeah, living life, getting high.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:46

And and and and another another example of just fine musicianship, not big names. The biggest name, obviously, is Michael McDonald, who Michael McDonald wasn't an original member of the Doobie Brothers. He didn't come in until like the what a voice.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:04

The fourth or fifth album. What a voice.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:06

Yeah, absolutely. Bob Seeger-ish, but very soulful, just a lot of soul.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:12

I just do Bob Seeger on the show. You did throw a bot you Mr. Detroit, and you ran right past it.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:17

Well, I was finishing my thought on Michael McDonald, but Bob Seeger, Americana. Detroit? Americana right there, you know. And um, I did about I don't know, a little over a year ago. I did a I I did a a Bob Seeger episode. I, you know, I I I featured his some of his albums, and I did a top 10 list, and nobody watched it, you know, nobody listened to it. But but Bob Seeger, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:44

It's all changed now. We got millions subscribers, folks.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:47

Sure. So, but Bob Seeger was absolutely just just killer, you know, good stuff. And like I said, Americana and just down home, like rock and roll, you know. Um just uh soulful, yes, and very soulful, very soulful, and uh uh uh uh a great spirit and a voice that it I mean it sounded like he uh you know uh swallowed razor blades, but man, did he smoke two packs of cigarettes?

SPEAKER_02 1:58:19

Two packs of cigarettes, yeah. Maybe drank a fifth of Bacardi and got on the mic, folks. Yeah, maybe it was the smoking that did that, but yeah, but but that's what made his voice so you know it's Bob Seeger when when when you sing. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:34

Yeah, that's what made his voice. My my okay, I'm gonna throw it at you then. I'm gonna ask him the question again. All right, favorite Bob Seeger song. Because I already know mine. Boom. It's I I have it. Had it for years. It's uh it's it's an awesome, it's an awesome song.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:48

I I honestly can't pick because I I I I listen to him almost every day. Yeah, almost every day. On the drive to work, I I have my Pandora list and Bob Seeger. Bob Seeger.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:00

It's just it's just there's a lot of good stuff. There's a lot of good stuff, you know. Um so I I can't. I'm just gonna say I'm gonna take the cheap way out.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:08

I can't. I just all of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:09

And he had a fantastic band, too, the silver bullet band. Okay, fantastic band. The first few albums that he his album with the train? Yeah. The first few albums he he didn't actually use the silver bullet brand because like the musicians were kind of changing in and out a little bit, but I think it was around the fourth album. That's when he stuck to Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band, and then they got their they got their recognition too. Um, but but great singers. Just listen to like harmonies and stuff. And um I what what's what's really cool is you have you have like okay, yeah, Bob Seeger, the Eagles, um, the but here's here's where I'm going with it. You have like James Taylor, JD Souther, Michael McDonald. All these guys were like all friends, and they were all working together, and they were all singing on each other's albums and that kind of stuff. And it's so it's amazing. It's it's amazing when you um when you when you go deep and you listen to this stuff to to you know pick all that out.

Great Women Artists For Next Time

SPEAKER_02 2:00:21

So folks, we've uh we've left out some of the best women in in the business, okay. And that's that's for a reason because uh we'll come at at that at a later show. But uh okay, because there are some Uber talented women. No question. Last last year, no question, we were celebrating my brother's uh Ed Sanchez's uh anniversary of his passing. God rest your soul, big brother. Um, and we went to go see Joan Jett. Now his brother, which I went to high school with, yeah, yeah, was plastered. I was with my buddy Anthony Sanchez, high school buddy. Hav got plastered. Oh, plastered. Did he really? Plastered it was it was it was it was hilarious. Haven't seen that since our senior year in high school, and we graduated in '85, by the way, so that's a long time ago. Anyway, he's so plastered. He's on Facebook telling everybody we're we're watching Pat Benatar. And it's Joan Jett. Ah wow. Yeah, that was that was great times. So so there's there's so many talented women in the business, as they say. Yes, absolutely. And we'll we'll we'll definitely get to that uh at a later date. That sounds okay to me. At a later date. Yeah, that sounds all right to me. So we're coming up on two hours. Time flew. Um yeah. I really I really appreciated the uh opportunity to to hear from you. To to you're always asking the questions, you're always, you know, uh, you know, you know, uh managing it, directing it. And I'm sure it's very uncomfortable to sit there and and just be pelted well with uh but but these are things he knows, folks. So it's not it wasn't like a hard exam. Uh and it wasn't an exam, because I wanted you to I wanted you to speak from here.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:20

Well and then here, and and and and that's yeah, and and there was no like you saw my on my show log, people I had no notes, and Raul, he was like, I'm not telling you what's going down, okay? So I had no idea what was happening. You know, I told you at the beginning, uh he he wants my stripper name, not dancer, Donald Mustang. He wants my stripper name, and then he wants my top 10 songs, and that was it. And I had no idea what any of that was all about. So um I did the best I could. I hope you were entertained, people.

Takeaways And Final Sign-Off

SPEAKER_02 2:02:55

Would you would you you know we always like back in the day, we would always say, what was your takeaway? You know, what was what was you know, what do you what are you gonna walk away with?

SPEAKER_01 2:03:04

You know, I it walking away from this walking away from this episode. Okay, good. Here, I guess this would be my takeaway. Um couple things. Fantastic time here, for one, fantastic time with a very intelligent gentleman over here, okay. This guy is very, very smart. He's obviously you can tell he's very well spoken, and he is uh he's thoughtful too. Now um, so I'm taking that away. Um that's that's one of my takeaways, and then just more childhood and high school memories from this episode. Right on, right on. Which is always good. Which is always good.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:55

Yeah, you know, yeah, it's always good.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:56

Time does travel. It does, it does. It's it uh it never stops, it doesn't stop for anyone.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:04

So so so here's my takeaway. And I've and I've been on this journey for a while now, um, but you know, Ben just brought it again back full circle. Is that uh we can hear music, but once you start to listen to it, it's game changer. It's over. Yeah, it's over. You're one way or another, you're hooked. And and uh and honestly, I believe it can change your life, it can change your outlook, it could change your day, it can change your mood. Yeah, it can do music can do all of that for us. It does for me, and I know it does for you. Yep. You know, we can we could be having a piss poor day, and that song comes on.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:44

That song comes on and changes your mood because it takes you back, makes you think of something completely different than what was going on in your head at that moment, you know, and then bam.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:55

So we're gonna we're gonna leave you with this one. It's our hopes and desires that uh we don't live our lives under the what ifs. Rather, what will be. So coming to you from the Ben Maynard program with love and appreciation. We're signing off.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:17

Oh, checking out. Okay. Uh so then uh here.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:22

Go ahead and close with we'll see you next time. This is the Ben Maynard program, tell a friend.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:27

Okay, all right. That's why he's still the boss.

unknown 2:05:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:33

We will see you next time in the next podcast at the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend, tell an enemy. We don't discriminate, tell everyone. And again, Mr. Perry, call us. See you soon, sir. God bless.