Jam Night

David and I are trying to get more organized. We've been getting together every couple of weeks and just jamming for fun. We've tended to do songs we're interested in each time, but a song might be done once and then forgotten.

So I suggested we make up a kind of set list, and play through the songs each time - adding new songs as we want. Since David had liked Hotel California and we had done that last time, I suggested (via email prior to getting together) that we start with that one.

So that was the plan, except we never did Hotel Clifornia. Instead, we started with 16 Tons, then moved to The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and I took out the Last Waltz DVD and we watched that to try and figure out the beginning and what happens at the end of the chorus.

I also like Helpless which is also on the DVD, so we watched that, then I found the chords. It's a good Neil Young song; three chords. The listing on Olga said it was D - A - G, but when we played the DVD it was obvious they were playing it: C - G - F. I think I like that better.

David then mentioned that he had read somewhere on the web that you can see that Neil Young snorted Cocaine prior to going on stage as you can see some powder on his nostril. According to Wikipedia

The release of Martin Scorsese's movie of the concert was delayed while Scorsese re-edited it to deemphasize the lump of cocaine clearly visible hanging from Young's nose during his performance of "Helpless".

David just bought a Zoom multi-effects pedal via Craigslist. We spent some time playing with that; I liked the more subdued stuff than the way out effects that make an acoustic guitar sound like Jimi Hendricks is playing it.

Finished the evening with Loneliness House by Greg Brown. Pretty simple but captivating song; might be interesting to do with a looper.