13 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

Outstanding performances Bill! When I saw the last listing I thought at first it was the “other” Bach Tocatta and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565), but then again, that one has been done to death...

Indeed it has been "done to death!" In fact, it should be added to the list of "music not to play while browsing at an organ dealer's showroom..."

Although truthfully the Fugue by itself might be okay. 😇

Nice, I too know how to play a guitar but it has been ages since I last played a guitar.

Welcome to the forum(s). I think you'll like it here. As I've found...it's never too late to start over............Doug

Edited June 19, 20205 yr by W2DR

Wow. I'm starting to feel a little sad having outed myself as a drummer. 😪

I've heard all of the drummer jokes, however, and I still laugh at them. 😂

The one I get smacked with most it --- What do you call they guy that hangs out with musicians?  The drummer.

I've also heard a lot of them about pipers, and whistle players too.

This is a fun thread. Keep it going.

 

9 hours ago, W2DR said:

As I was opening the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I
never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for
over twenty years."

AARRGGHH! ROFLMAO haven't heard that one in a long time.

 Fr. Bill thanks for the other MP3's listening to the Tocata as I type.

 Sue

And yet another one for Rick..........

A man dies and goes to Heaven. Unlike he had expected, Heaven is essentially a really long hallway with doors on either side, each with a short IQ range listed on it. Inside, he learns, the rooms are perfectly tailored so that the conversation will match the intelligence of the people in them.

He opens the 170 door. "Well," comes the conversation inside, "I've always found Fourier transforms to be a rather limited way of interconverting what are fundamentally..."

SLAM. Too rich for him. He heads down the hall a bit to the 115 zone and opens the door. "I just read 'Generation X'," comes a voice, "and though Coupland doesn't do too badly in identifying his generation's fundamental angst, I was a bit confused by..."

SLAM. Not bad, but now the man was getting curious, and wanted to see what was further down the scale. He tries 95. "Hey, did you read the paper today? Says interest rates will go up again..."

SLAM. How about 60? "Huh. Thought 'Married With Children' last night was pretty funny. Didn't get the bit about the hooters, though..."

SLAM. It was getting pretty bad. He tried 35. The people inside were looking at one another and drooling.

Finally, he came to the one marked with a 10. He hesitated, fearing what he would see when he opened the door. But he did, seeing only two guys inside.

"So," one said to the other, "what size sticks do you use?"

Edited June 19, 20205 yr by W2DR

What guitarists who make drummer jokes have to admit though, is that they all know Led Zeppelin wouldn't have been half as good as they turned out to be if it hadn't have been for John Bonham. The band knew it too, which is why they split up when Bonham died.

Bonham had really beautiful touch on the drums which I don't think anyone else has ever matched, a good example being Kashmir which - since it isn't going at one thousand miles an hour and on the face of it seems like a simple 4/4 pattern - sounds like it would be simple to play, but it has the drums so perfectly dropped ever so slightly behind the beat to give it a kind of shambling majesty, that if they were a millisecond slower it would sound terrible, but instead because he was such a masterful drummer with such a massively gifted feel for timing and restraint, it sounds fantastic. And in case you've never noticed, the orchestrations in the background are not 4/4, they are 3/4, which makes it snyc with the drum pattern every 24 beats. That is a very cool bit of creative production.

You only have to go and see any of the very many Led Zeppelin tribute bands who are compelled to try covering it, to know that playing drums that well is indeed a rare thing. So yeah, I make those drummer jokes, but I do have a drum kit (which I'm rubbish on) and I appreciate what a good drummer does for a band:

 

Edited June 19, 20205 yr by Chock

4 hours ago, 188AHC said:

Wow. I'm starting to feel a little sad having outed myself as a drummer. 😪

Oh, don't feel sad!  During my first week of Basic Training (Army), I auditioned to play the platoon drum. Apparently besides having two left feet*, I was so rhythmically challenged the DI drummed me out...

<rimshot!>

* Actually, that bit about two left feet was a running joke since I had spent two years as a member of the "Kentucky Rifles," my military' schools precision Drill Team. We used the M1 Garand with fixed bayonets for our drill routine, and I was used to slinging that 9.5 lb M1 around like it was a baton!

I quickly learned at KMI what a "Garand Thumb" was too. Fortunately, once was enough to drive the lesson home! 😅

7 hours ago, n4gix said:

I quickly learned at KMI what a "Garand Thumb" was too. Fortunately, once was enough to drive the lesson home! 😅

I had to look that term up, but yep! Once would be enough! 😄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYSl_Ngt_gc

A video about the "phenomenon" and how to avoid it by one of my favourite "gun guys" hickok45

On the subject of drumming (again - geddit!?) here is me doing a couple of songs mashed up together because of their suspiciously similar melody and drums. That's me on drums, guitar, bass and vocals, so you can hear that I'm as bad on vocals as I am on drums. For fans of the MD80, note this track is exactly 7:17 🤣

 

Edited June 20, 20205 yr by Chock

7 hours ago, HighBypass said:

A video about the "phenomenon" and how to avoid it by one of my favourite "gun guys" hickok45

Thanks for the link. Among the things we cadets had to learn and master was field stripping the M1 Garand and reassembling it...

...while blind folded! 

It is a remarkably simple rifle with very few parts, 

Those of us on the drill team would slightly loosen the butt plate's screws and over tighten the leather slings so that we could get the most 'slap' during our manual of arms evolution.

Now I know why I always preferred the M-2. Ouch !

5 hours ago, n4gix said:

Among the things we cadets had to learn and master was field stripping the M1 Garand and reassembling it...

Love it!  For rifles, M-14 was my first, followed by the M-16, 870, and MP-5 (it's technically a machine pistol, but... eh).  Shot a LOT of others, but I didn't have to fields strip them so...

Buddy of mine has two M-1s, he loves them. For me, the bloody things are as heavy as that darned M-14 so I'd pass on wanting to carry one.  Loved the M-16 by Matel (lol) for slugging around.

Back in 1976 I ran a drill team that had to use M-1s with the champers tack welded shut and barrels filled in with lead!  Surprisingly enough, several of us could manage doing helicopters with those heavy beasts and also could whip them pretty far.  Ah, to be young (dumb and stupid).  There is absolutely no way they allow the things we did back then, way too dangerous with lead filled M-1s.

 

16 hours ago, DaveCT2003 said:

Back in 1976 I ran a drill team that had to use M-1s with the champers tack welded shut and barrels filled in with lead!  

At KMI (Kentucky Military Institute) our M-1's were fully operational and stored in an Armory with strict controls. We had to memorize our assigned rifle's serial number so the Armory staff could verify/certify that we had the correct rifle when checking it out. Before checking it back in, we had to strip and clean the rifle and pass inspection by the Armorer's staff, even if we only had them out for parade or drill!

Our drill team's "Signature Evolution" was a "Rippled Queen Anne Salute," which involved going from right shoulder arms to a right kneeling rifle salute. The rifle would be rotated vertically 360 degrees during right kneeling position, ending with the left arm horizontal across the chest, with fingertips just touching the rifle's barrel.

The evolution began with the 1st squad leader (left side in picture below) to the last member of 1st squad, followed by last member of 2nd squad moving left to 2nd squad leader, until all four squads were in position. The reverse sequence completed the evolution.

By my third year we had added a second drill team Commander, I was very happy to be promoted to be one of the Co-Commanders and trade that 9.5 lb. M-1 for a very much lighter sabre, even though I had to wear that silly orange shako instead of a helmet! 

This video clip is from the US Army, but it does illustrate a one squad evolution of the "Rippled Queen Anne Salute":

 

4 minutes ago, n4gix said:

Our drill team's "Signature Evolution" was a "Rippled Queen Anne Salute

Yepper, I remember Rippled Queen Anne Salute very well!  Have you watched the US Marine Corps drill team?  Our instructors were Marine Corps DIs and our performance was almost identical to what the USMC team still does today.  We even placed second in a national competition at NAS Pensacola one year that I lead the team.  No surprise I guess, the judges were USMC DIs who pushed Flight Cadets for a living.

Nice to have shared this experience with you my friend!  I honestly haven't thought about that in well over 35 years, nice to do so!

Best wishes, and I suppose Happy Father's Day (in a slightly different sort of way).