Anvil - Metal on Metal

This is a live performance by the Canadian heavy metal band Anvil performing their song "Metal on Metal". The performance is from either Late Night with Conan O'Brien or The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, I'm not entirely sure, but I think it was on Conan's old show.
The band Anvil is a heavy metal band from Canada that was predicted a great future in the genre in the 80's, but things didn't turn out like that. A lot of highly successful artists quote them as an influence, but they never really made it big. A documentary was made about the band in, titled "Anvil! The Story of Anvil", and it was released in 2008. It's one of the best documentaries I've seen ever, period! It makes you really feel and understand the feelings the people in it have. It's a great documentary and I highly recommend it.
The song was first released on the band's second studio album, also titled "Metal on Metal", in 1982. (Album artwork embeded below, I love that art work, so cheesy, yet very fun).

It's a descent performance from the band and you can tell that they are just having the time of their life which they really truly deserve. Especially the band's frontman Steven "Lips" Kudlow, what showmanship!

Enjoy ; )

Whitesnake - Still of the Night

This is a live performance by the British hard rock/metal band Whitesnake performing one of their classic songs "Still of the Night". The song was released in 1987 on their self-entitled album. It did fairly well in the charts, and in 2009 it was ranked the 27th best hard rock song by the VH1 network and its viewers.
The song kinda fuses the early blues vibe and influence with a more modern metal style. And that's just what it sounds like, you end up with this sweet hard rock song, with distorted guitars, pinch harmonics, awesome vocal performance and a sound that's both unique and totally familiar.
The song has also been stated to sound like the Zeppelin song "Black Dog", and I agree, but that's not a bad thing. First off, the riff from "Black Dog" does sound somewhat similar, but it is much more complicated than the riff in "Still of the Night". Besides what's wrong with drawing influence from Led Zeppelin, all 70's/80's bands should do that. There's influence and then plagiarism, and this is definitely just influence, well done Whitesnake.
It's a great song, and to this day it is still used as Whitesnake's encore at concerts, and with good reason, what an awesome way to end a show.
They really perform in this clip, and give 100 %. The fans are into it, and joins in on singing, the guitar parts rock, the melodic middle session rocks and David Coverdale does a fucking amazing job on the vocals. Truly an awesome performance.

Enjoy ; )

ZZ Top - Pincushion

This is the music video to the ZZ Top song "Pincushion", it's a pretty cheesy video, and it definitely has that ZZ Top 80's feel (even though the song was published in '94). It was published on ZZ Top's Antenna album. The album itself reached no. 14 on the album sales lists, but the song "Pincushion" actually got to no. 1 on a lot of mainstream rock charts at the time.
It's a great song with a great riff and sound. The video is actually pretty good, and fits the song pretty well. It's pretty silly, but fits the sexual innuendoes throughout the lyrics. It's a fun little song, and a good video.

Enjoy ; )

Robert Palmer Addicted to Love

This is a performance from 80's rock king Robert Palmer. The song was released in 1986 on Palmer's "Riptide" album, and got very popular due to a video featuring fashion models playing the instruments, and Palmer singing. A classic 80's music video, cheesy and corny. You can say that Palmer rose to success through videos very much the same way ZZ Top did. The song is known for it's catchy guitar riff and a drum opening in 7/4 rhythm, the rest of the song is in 4/4 rhythm. The song did very well in the charts.
It's a great performance, and everyone really grooves. The guitar solos are good, and the drummer really gets the audience going. A good performance, of a good song.

Charts (1986)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart	5
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks	1

Enjoy ; )

David Bowie - Let's Dance

This is a music video for the title track of Bowie's album "Let's Dance" released in 1983, and digitally re-mastered in 1999.
This is a great album by Bowie, it experiments with many different genres of music, it has a lot of funk influences, but also draws on more traditional rock and blues, and of course also the pop sound of the times.
The album is also famous for helping blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan getting discovered. Bowie had heard Stevie's 1982 Montreux performance, and was impressed. They met up backstage and chatted, and it turned out they were in to some of the same weird things musically. Bowie admired Stevies sound, and hired him to play lead guitar on his next album which was "Let's Dance".
Stevie only plays lead guitar, the rhythm guitar on the album is Nile Rodgers. And Stevie's lead playing is very toned down, and not a huge part of the album, but still helps increase the sound and the experience.
The album cut of the song Let's Dance is 7:37, much shorter than what is used in the music video which I assume is also the radio edit of the song. They still left in all of Stevie's parts however which shows how much his lead playing helped the album.
Stevie was also offered a spot in David's live band that was going to tour for the album, but he turned it down, and went onto recording his first solo record with Double Trouble "Texas Flood", and got the massive career in the 80's.
It's a great song, and a pretty good looking music video for the times. Stevie isn't in the video, and Bowie pretends to play a Stratocaster looking guitar while wearing white gloves, perhaps a nod to Stevie and the fact that no one could play like him, who knows? Or maybe just David being odd.

Enjoy ; )

Guns N' Roses - Mr. Brownstone

This is a performance by hard rock 80's band Guns N' Roses, the good line-up with Slash still playing the lead parts. The song appears on the legendary 1987 album "Appetite for Destruction".
The song was written by Izzy Stradlin and Slash, they were complaining about being heroin addicts, and started writing down lyrics on the back of a grocery bag. They brought the lyrics to Axl, and they decided to record the song. The lyrics are clearly about addiction and heroin, as Brownstone is slang for heroin, much the way Mary Jane means Marijuana.
"Mr. Brownstone" was the first UK single released by the just signed band. It was released as a double A-side along the song "It's So Easy".
The song explores what in the rock world is known as "The Bo-Diddley beat". It was a beat first used by guitarist Bo-Diddley, therefore it is named after him. It has been used by many bands though times, and was especially popularized in the 60's by bands like The Rolling Stones etc. This gives the song that Rolling Stones kind of feel. GNR are influenced heavily by 60's bands and especially The Rolling Stones, and in a song like this you can really hear it.
It's a great song with a nice long guitar introduction leading into the riff, with a sweet solo, and sweet rhythm thanks to Bo-Diddley and Matt Sorum. A great performance, of a great song.

Enjoy ; )

Ronnie Wood (ft. Slash) - Stay With Me

This is a performance by guitarist and singer Ronnie Wood. Wood is widely known as being one of the guitarists from Rolling Stones and he also gained fame touring with Rod Stawart and Jeff Beck. He has however besides all of those things always had a solo career. And his new album album "I Feel Like Playing" has just been released earlier this year.
Ronnie co-wrote the song "Stay With Me" with Rod Stewart for the band "The Faces". It became a pretty well known song, and has been featured on several compilation albums by "The Faces". The song has been covered a couple of times for instance by Ronnie James Dio's band Elf and Def Leppard. Through those covers the song kinda kept it's momentum through the 70's into the 80's.
In this performance Wood is also joined by famous guitarist Slash who, for the most part, stays in the background and plays rhythm on the song. He does have a small solo, but it isn't flashy or long. Slash knew this was Ronnie's performance, and stayed in the background, a character trade that only the best guitar players in the world posses.
It's a nice uplifting performance of a really good song.

Enjoy ; )

ZZ Top - Party on the Patio

This is a live performance by hard rock/blues band ZZ Top. They perform their song "Party on the Patio", a very traditional ZZ Top song. It's from the 1981 album "El Loco" which was the first album where the band started experimenting with synthesizers. This and "Tube Snake Boogie" were exceptions for the new format that would eventually bump the guys into 80's fame with the use of funny music videos, usually with hot chicks and nice looking vintage cars.
Dusty Hill sings this song, and he does a good job, just singing as loud as his lung capacity allows him.
It's a great little feel good rock 'n' roll vibe and song, classic ZZ Top, the old school ZZ sound, gotta love that!

Enjoy ; )

Rare SRV Footage - Love Struck Baby

This clip is a piece of rare footage. It's Stevie Ray Vaughan performing his hit 'Love Struck Baby'. Joining him on stage is a young Colin James. Colin James was discovered thanks to Stevie, and Stevie has talked highly of him and his abilities in interviews.
Enjoy ; )

P.S. If you're more interested in Colin James, check this music video, it's very eightees, so maybe you'll enjoy that ; )