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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: YouTube

  • Writer’s block

    Writer’s block

    I’ve been wanting to post all week, but I have a touch of writer’s block…

    I haven’t been writing on Pop Rock Nation as much as I have in the past because lately I haven’t felt as inspired. I often look to the media or my daily life for ideas on things to write about. That is especially true when it comes to writing about music. I hear something on a TV show or the Internet and it makes me want to find out more and perhaps share with others. Unfortunately, nothing has come up in the past few days that has seemed worth blogging about. It seems like all my ideas for music posts are about things I’ve written about before. I was thinking about posting another “horrible covers” post, but that seemed a little too played out.

    So here I sit on Thursday morning trying to get over my writer’s block. I am immediately reminded of an old Elton John song called “Writing”. It’s from his Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album, which I first discovered in the mid 90s when I bought a bootleg copy of it from a guy in Armenia. I went looking for it on YouTube and found this cover version by a user named zerobio. No, it’s not Elton’s version, but I really like what zerobio has done with it. So I’m sharing it here.


    He does a fabulous job with this deep cut classic, doesn’t he?

    So now that I’ve heard zerobio sing an old Elton John song, I’m curious about what else he’s done. Turns out he performs his own music and covers. Here’s one of his originals…


    “It Wouldn’t Be Right” is an original… and it’s pretty good. Listening to this, I realize that this YouTuber has got some mad skills.

    Wow. Just one visit to YouTube has melted my musical blogger’s writer’s block! I check out zerobio’s page and see that his name is really Elliott Kimmel and he’s from Ontario, Canada. I don’t know Elliott, but I can tell he loves music very much. I can tell that he wants to share with others, too. Here’s a guitar tutorial he’s put up for other musicians hoping to learn how to play certain songs. Mr. Kimmel is also a science teacher, which may also explain why he’s so generous with instruction.


    Wanna learn how to play “Blinded By The Light”?

    So now I’m sitting here listening to Elliott Kimmel and realizing that though I have only just discovered him, he and I have pretty similar tastes in music. Here’s a cover of “Ordinary Fool”, a song from the musical Bugsy Malone. I also covered it on my own YouTube channel. I like his version better because he accompanies himself and gives the song a different spin.


    Elliott Kimmel makes “Ordinary Fool” his own.

    My writer’s block is gone now… and now I’m also inspired to make some music. It beats vacuuming the house, right? Thanks to YouTuber Elliott Kimmel, aka zerobio, for chipping away my writer’s block. I highly recommend checking out his YouTube channel and showing him some love.

    If you like his music, you can purchase it…

  • YouTube talents…

    YouTube talents…

    November is upon us and I feel the need to focus on YouTube talents today…

    One of my favorite ways to kill time is to troll YouTube for cool videos. Sometimes, I like to see if I can find old songs I thought I had long forgotten. Sometimes I get curious about a certain user’s videos and start looking though their catalog. That’s how I found my old friend, Weird Wilbur, whom I have written about several times on Pop Rock Nation. Wilbur’s songs are funny and profane and probably offend people as much as they make some folks laugh.


    “Fuck You Texas” is probably Weird Wilbur’s biggest “hit”.

    But I have also found some other talented folks on YouTube who aren’t as inflammatory as Wilbur can be. One such user is my friend George, who goes by the name “shargram” on YouTube. I first encountered George when I was looking for a video of the song, “Mary Skeffington”. I knew it as an Olivia Newton-John number, but it was also a Gerry Rafferty song. And George covered it himself and posted the video on YouTube.


    I commented on George’s video and he answered back. Now he watches my videos.

    From George’s page, I ran into a few other YouTube talents. Here’s a video by my YouTube friend, Dave, whose YouTube handle is “A297MAN104”. Dave writes and performs a lot of his own songs.


    “To A Better Place” is a song by Dave, but is sung by Steve Jackson in this video.

    Sometimes I run into YouTube talents after they leave me a comment on my own page. Here’s a video by Jonas Sköld, a guy who plays a mean guitar and sings.


    Here Jonas sings his version of “The Lucky One”, a song originally made famous by Alison Krauss and Union Station.

    I found Frets Nirvana on one of George’s videos and was impressed by his guitar playing. He’s quite the YouTube talent!


    Here’s an original composition called “Jack Rabbit”, dedicated to a recently deceased rabbit named Jack.

    I found Ken Turetzky on a Red Peters compilation album that I reviewed on Epinions.com. He sought me out and sent me more music. We have since become friends and I do enjoy his YouTube videos…


    Here’s Ken performing his ever popular hit, “My Fat Ass Itches”. There are days when I really relate to this song too well.

    Here’s a video by my friend, Tim, whom I originally met on a message board for exMormons. He and his wife, Lisa, happen to be talented animators and Tim also plays a mean electric guitar.


    A Halloween cartoon.


    Here you can see Tim jam with his electric guitar as he sings his praises to G.I. Joe…

    I myself have made some videos. I like to find songs that aren’t particularly well known and put my own spin on them. Unfortunately, I have to use pre-recorded versions of music because I don’t have any talented guitar or piano players as friends who live close to me. I often wish I had stuck with the piano lessons my mom arranged for me when I was a small child. I also don’t do well on camera, so my videos are all photos from my travels.


    Yours truly singing “Angel From Montgomery”, one of my more successful covers.

    I mostly make YouTube videos for fun and because I like to experiment with music. It’s not something I do for money, nor do I have any delusions that I’ll ever be famous. It’s just a creative outlet, much like writing. I probably shouldn’t share my videos, but every once in awhile, they lead to meeting someone cool and talented on YouTube. Of course I like it for the more established artists, too. But every once in awhile, I like to give a shoutout to people who are just hiding in YouTube’s depths, waiting to be discovered.

  • Hall and Oates meet Rumer…

    Hall and Oates meet Rumer…

    I just rediscovered the magic of Hall and Oates as they meet a British-Pakistani singer named Rumer…

    The other day, I got an email from the Majestic Theatre alerting me that Daryl Hall and John Oates would be performing in San Antonio on February 24, 2014. I like Hall and Oates. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and their music was all over the place when I was coming along. However, I also know that these two guys have been around a long while and I wasn’t sure how they were holding up to the inevitable effects of aging.

    My good friend George told me that Daryl Hall has a series on YouTube called Live From Daryl’s House, which often features him, John Oates, and their band playing music with different artists. As I was watching clips from Halls’ series, I came across a clip featuring a singer named Rumer. I had never heard of her. In fact, I actually wondered if maybe she was Demi Moore’s daughter, Rumer Willis. But then I did some research and found out that Rumer is actually a British-Pakistani singer Sarah Joyce. Born in 1979, she is old enough to remember Hall and Oates, though she would have been a youngun when they were at the height of their popularity.

    In any case, I was a little nervous about listening to what she did with Hall and Oates’ hit, “I Can’t Go For That”. That song was never among my favorites by Hall and Oates anyway. But I was curious, so I played it and…

    all I can say is, “Wow!” I actually love this remake of “I Can’t Go For That”. I love that the arrangement is updated to sound exotic and sexy. Rumer has a sublime voice that seems custom made for music to chill out by. That voice is silky smooth and sensual.

    I was surprised to read that some people compared Rumer’s vocals to Karen Carpenter’s. Frankly, I don’t hear it. I love Karen Carpenter’s music and her voice was amazing. To me, Rumer’s voice has a sexiness and warmth that Karen Carpenter’s voice lacked. It’s like a puff of intoxicating perfume that subtly reaches the senses until you’re pulled in to its magic. I was not a fan of “I Can’t Go For That” the way it was originally released to the masses, but I could totally get into Rumer’s remake, sung with Daryl Hall.

    Rumer also covered Hall and Oates’ sweet classic, “Sara Smile”. I never thought of this song as one that would lend itself well to feminine vocals, but she does great with it…

    I like the way this song is stripped down and made into something new, featuring Rumer’s gorgeous vocals. If I were going to compare with Karen Carpenter, maybe I could more on this song than on “I Can’t Go For That”, but I still think her voice is unique and stands on its own. I have always loved “Sara Smile” and would probably prefer the original to this remake, but I think Rumer did a fine job with it. Listening to this makes me want to check out her music. And I love the way the band is into it, too…

    I was not familiar with “Be Thankful For What You Got”, but since I liked Rumer’s other work with Daryl Hall, I decided to listen…

    This is a very soulful number and again, Rumer and Daryl Hall knock it out of the park. Hall and Oates meet Rumer… and make magic! And now, onto the next order of business.

    Why I am writing on Thursday instead of Friday…

    Tomorrow, my husband Bill and I are going to attempt to take a military hop somewhere in the world. I have a feeling we’ll end up going to Germany, but we could go somewhere else. The nature of military hops is unpredictable. That’s what makes them both fun and frustrating. The upshot of this development is that it’s unlikely I will be able to do much writing for the next couple of weeks. Of course, if we don’t get a hop anywhere, I could be back to work next week. But the odds are good that I will be somewhat incommunicado, as least as far as blogging goes. I expect to be back around January 23 or thereabouts…

    Until then, see you later!