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Paul and Colin start their podcast discussing various aspects of music, emphasizing personal preferences and diversity in tastes. They introduce the concept of creating a "Mount Rushmore" of rhythm guitarists, naming Malcolm Young (AC/DC) and John Entwistle (The Who) as their top two picks. They also mention Rudolf Schenker (Scorpions), John Lennon (The Beatles), and Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) as potential candidates. They engage in a lighthearted conversation about the musicians' roles and contributions to their respective bands. They end up not finalizing a fourth choice, comparing their selections to an Olympic podium rather than a Mount Rushmore. Hello, and welcome to the inaugural episode of Two Music Boneheads, a podcast about all things music. My name is Paul. And I'm Colin. And what we want to do here in this podcast is talk about music, all kinds of music. What kinds? All aspects of music in regards to it. So go ahead, mention a few and I'll come back to you. So we want to talk about things like artists, genres, the music business, the production, the social impact that music can have, lyrics, how music is made and how music is produced. And the one thing to remember through all of this is that music is very personal. And we will, just like everyone else, we have our likes and dislikes. But by no means are we correct necessarily. That's what makes us boneheads, I think. Yeah, so even though I like something that you don't like, or I think something is terrible that you really like, that means nothing about you, me, it's just our tastes in music and the aspects of music. That's right. It's like any kind of opinion. Everybody else's is not as good as mine, but it doesn't really matter in this case. We really would rather talk about the things that we like and we don't like. And hopefully if you can join in on that, that'd be great. And you'll notice that some of Paul's tastes are very distasteful, but we can deal with that. And we all have something to be a little bit ashamed of, I guess. But it's not about being cool, it's about being true to yourself. It's about liking what you want to like for the reasons that you like it. And those reasons are myriad. So we're going to start right off and get into our first topic. We're going to do all different types of things in all different ways. And this is a pretty common kind of thing that I've seen done with when it comes to these things, and that's making a Mount Rushmore. And so we have a lot of different options to look at in Mount Rushmore, but we've chosen today our favorite rhythm guitarists for whatever reasons, and we can explain those as we get into them. So we'll start and we're going to do the top three today. And so let's start from the... We'll get the fourth one in too. It's Mount Rushmore. There's four of them. We've got to get four. Mount Rushmore. Okay, I forgot. Four presidents, four rhythm guitarists. Yeah, there you go. Sorry. We'll correct each other as we go along here, because we know we're both not... Should we go... Let's do something where I'll mention one, and then you mention one, and then we'll each move. So we make it as many as eight, and then we'll whittle it down to four. Of course, we're both going to probably agree on some things too. Yes. And in fact, we've had a little discussion ahead of time in regards to this, and I think we both have already decided who our number one guy is. Do you want to tell them? Yeah. So I think our number one guy, and probably everyone on the planet's number one guy, is Malcolm. Malcolm Young. Malcolm Young, and you know who he is. You've seen him in concert, and you know how good he is. Played albums, and listened to the spectacular rhythm guitar riffs. It's always perfect. It's always on time. Angus got all the attention, as well as should. He's a very good guitarist in his own right. But he was always just diddling around everything that Malcolm was laying down. And so there was nobody, and those riffs are what really stands out, for me at least. I've always just really appreciated ACDC in general. I tend to lean to be more of a Bon Scott guy as opposed to a Brian Johnson guy, but there's good on both sides, needless to say. And through all of that, through all of those great things, was Malcolm doing his thing. Okay. Okay. All right. It's my turn now, huh? Now, you know, I'm going to call this, and you can, you know, this guy technically would not be considered to be on this list. But the reason I'm, I've got a good reason to put him in, and I just feel strongly about it, so I'm going to. I think John Entwistle from The Who plays about the best rhythm guitar because he's laid down everything underneath Pete Townshend. Playing a bass like that was almost like playing a rhythm guitar. Okay. I can't disagree with you at all. Just a thought. I mean, technically, he's not a rhythm guitarist. You know, he's a bass player, but that's just me. That's just on our list. We can, we can, we can, we can, we can shovel him off the Buffalo whenever we need to. Now, I would classify him as one of the top five bass guitar players. Yeah, me too. But at the same time, I agree with what you said about playing an instrument on an album where it's a key instrument. It's just as key as the guitar, because he plays leads in it. He plays the rhythms. He plays a lot of himself. He plays a lot of rhythm guitar. When you listen to Who's Next or Quadrophenia, the bass stands out even more than the guitar in a lot of songs. The real me? The real me. Oh my gosh. It's amazing. Yeah. So, okay. Okay. So that's my, go ahead. So I'll not disagree with you. All right. At this point, like I said, at least he's up for nomination. Okay, cool. My second choice would be Rudolf Schenker of Scorpions. He's been there since the start of time for the Scorpions, and he's always been a great rhythm guitar player, no matter who the guitarist is. Has he done, I know Michael had a lot of solo stuff. Did Rudy do any kind of solo stuff? He does some solos. Like... No, I mean, has he ever been a solo artist, for instance? No, never. Michael Schenker went out on his own as a solo artist. I wasn't sure if Rudy... I've seen Schenker's stuff before, but I'm not sure. No, never. When they started and they did their first album, he brought his brother in, which was a lot younger than him, to play the leads on that first album. And he was with the Scorpions and Klaus Meine for the whole time. And he's never gone off and done anything. When I don't know things, I'm just going to ask him questions on this, too, so I'm learning as well. Were they around during Uli John Roth? Yes. Uli John Roth and Michael were on the same... or was Rudy the guy? No. I'm just asking. Well, that was a good question. Michael Schenker did not play on any album that Uli John Roth played on. Okay. None. Okay. Was Rudy part... so Rudy wasn't... No, Uli John Roth didn't play on the first album. Okay. That was Michael Schenker. Okay. And then Michael Schenker left to UFO and they got Uli John Roth. And he played until the Taken by Force and Live album in 77. Okay. And then Uli John Roth left, Michael Schenker came back, and he played on the next album. So Uli John was on, like, Love Drive and stuff like that? No. Oh, Love Drive. Love Drive was Love Drive and Animal Magnetism. Oh, late 70s. And those were after. Okay, okay, okay. All right. Because Love Drive was... I'm just being the classic rock guy that I was back in those days. That was the first Scorpions you pretty much ever heard. Maybe The Zoo. You might have heard The Zoo back, you know, before that. But that would have been about it, the Scorpions, back in those days. Until, until Love Drive. Love Drive was really broken. For Uli, right? For, yeah. Yeah, that's... For the general classic rock radio guy, you know. Right. Scorpions didn't break into it strongly until then. Yeah. So it was all old school rock until Uli John Roth left. They became new rock. It wasn't as interesting, but the new drummer, Herman Rarebell, was really good. So that made a big difference. Herman Z. German. Yep. He was good. That's funny. So, okay. So that's my second choice. Okay. The second choice. My second, my third choice. My third choice is, you know, unfortunately I don't listen to a lot of bands that had multiple guitarists. So I have a hard time. So I'm just going to go with a real blatant one in front here, and I'd say John Lennon. Okay. I mean, you know, he's one of the core guys, and, you know, if you don't know who John Lennon is, there's, boy, you really better go back a ways, but you got a lot of work to do. But yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, when you look at all the things that you look for out of the Beatles, you know, the Beatles did have a fair amount of stuff that was very riff driven. Well, not that George was playing a ton of solos per se, but, you know, there wasn't necessarily the style other than, you know, the little eight bar thing you get, you know, after the first two verses. But, yeah. Vocals were perfect, and the writing is always there as well. And it's sort of an easy one, sort of, but I'll take John Lennon. Well, that's a good choice. I like that choice. He also set it up for a lot of other people, too, I think. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of groups were able to see how to have a two guitar band without them running over the top of each other. Right. So George would always stay in the background until it was his time to play his leads, which were good, short, succinct. Yeah. But John was always a good rhythm guitar player. Yeah, it was too formulaic, but he, yeah, it was always solid behind him. How about you? Okay. So. Number three. My next one would be Brad Whitford from Aerosmith. Oh, damn. I was going to take that. So, well, now I took it. You can have it if you want. No, it's all right. No, it's all right. I'll figure it out. Brad Whitford has always been a great rhythm guitarist, and I almost can't think of anything that he played a lead on. He was always just there playing on. Yeah, that was all about Joe Perry. Pretty much the same thing as Angus and Malcolm. There was one guy that was a designated lead, and there was a reason for that. Hey. Rhythm guitar player. He was there because he did a good track lay down for all rhythms, especially those early albums, the first two albums. Excellent. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I, boy, that's me for number four, and I am drawing blanks. Do you have a fourth? I don't, because I didn't go through my collection. All right. So, instead of a Mount Rushmore, this is more like an Olympic podium. We've got a gold, silver, bronze. That's right. Okay. Well, let's just do that, because there's no sense. You know, something doesn't come naturally to you sometimes. Granted, you could do some studying and go, oh, yeah. And I'm sure later on today, all of a sudden, I'll be driving in my car, and I'll just go, oh, my God, there's so-and-so, and I forgot all about him. And, boy, he was pretty good, too, but either way. At the same time, if it didn't pop into your mind now, he maybe wasn't one of the top ones because it didn't pop into your head either. Fair enough. All right. So, would we agree on our gold? Of course. Yes. So, we have Malcolm Young as being the best rhythm guitarist on our Olympic podium. So, we thought we were going to do Mount Rushmore, but Olympic podium works as well. All right. And number two, who do you think? Who would you say is number two? I would still pick Rudolph. Still pick Rudolph. Okay. I can understand that, because, you know, when you're listening to those, you know, those hard rock slash heavy metal bands that are out there, they really do use a two-guitar approach, which invariably gives the rhythm guitarist more importance, I guess you'd say, or more of a significant role in the sound that they're making. So, okay. I could go with that. For number three, gosh, I'd really like to throw my ant whistle in there, but I may have to do the same thing with Aerosmith. What's his name? Brad Whitford. With Brad Whitford for Aerosmith, because, once again, you're hearing those, you know, and I'm sitting there listening, and the sound in my head, and I'm hearing the riff from Sweet Emotion, or Walk This Way, or all these different classic Aerosmith songs. Yeah. Once again, that was Brad Whitford. Yeah. Yeah. So I would agree. So he's a bronze. I'll go with number three with bronze. He's a bronze. Because John Etwistle is going to be on the top in bass, no matter what. And that'll be another one. That's another show if we get that far. And anything Beatles is obviously good, but I think we've got to take the structure of the classic rock band. Yeah, and it wasn't quite that way. Okay. All right, well, that was our first bit, and we have one more. And this one is a little more personal, because what we're going to talk about here is the first three albums that each of us bought that sort of made us the person we are today. Now, both of us are somewhat advanced in age, and as a result, we would have had albums way back when, when we were kids. There were 45,000 albums. We're not quite 78 people, but we're not far off either. I was born when there were 78s out there, but I don't remember playing them much when I was a kid. It was pretty much 45,000 albums. So these are the albums, the first three albums that we really remember as being significant in regards to our current and also former musical taste. Colin, why don't you go first on this one? So I'll go first. And first album on my list, the reason I bought this album was because singles were coming out on the album, and I bought a single, and then another song came out. It's like, oh my God, I got to have the album, because if these singles are so good, I got to have an album. But I have to spend a whole week saving money to buy an album, because I had no money. Maybe even more. And I could afford a single, but I splurged and bought my first album, which was Edgar Winogroup. First album. Oh, the first one? Oh, okay. The first one with Frankenstein on it. Oh, they only come out at night. They only come out at night. Okay. With Rick Derringer as well. Yes. So I got the full-length version of Frankenstein, which you couldn't get on the single, but on the album, Free Ride was a Chuck Ruff drum song, and the single had another drummer do it, and the single was a better version. So that was a little bit disappointing. Oh, on Free Ride. Free Ride. Not on Frankenstein. On Frankenstein, that was Chuck Ruff. Now, did you ever meet Chuck? No, I never did meet him. For those of you listening, we're based out of the Reno area, and Chuck Ruff was one of our few, I don't know, one of the few rock and roll people that was coming out of Reno, that came out of our area. And so I got to meet Chuck Ruff one day, and we were judging a talent show for kids under 16, and it was a big thing, and the City of Sparks had sponsored it, and we were judges for it. And so I leaned into him when I met him, and I said, you know, it's not many drummers that had, like, a number one single that they got to do a drum solo in the middle of it. And his eyes lit up. Like, I just, like, you see worth in me, you know what I mean? You see me for how I am. He was a really, really pleasant guy. Years later, I hired his son Dustin to work for me. Dustin Ruff worked for me for years, and he's a wonderful man. I haven't talked to him in a really long time. But, yeah, Dustin worked for me for a long time. Oh, that's cool. And, yeah. But, yeah, that's a really good album. That's a really solid album. It's a good album. Edgar Winter was a really pretty prolific artist and did everything cool. I mean, I think both Winter Brothers were both really solid musicians and had a great legacy. When I bought that album, that sold me on, OK, I'm done with singles now. Album is the way to go. All my money went into albums after that. Yeah, there's one or two other good songs on that album. Yeah. Yeah, there's some other ones. I can't think of them all off the top of my head. But, you know, once we get a chance to do more of these shows and we'll have a little more prep, today's show we're running sort of off of cuff. So hopefully there'll be enough here to edit down into something that's usable that people will find worthwhile coming back to. For my first one, I have a few things. But I think the first one I really went for was Three Dog Nights' Golden Biscuits album, which was sort of an early greatest hits for Three Dog Night. For whatever reason, I found myself listening to Three Dog Night songs on it early. I was even a Three Dog Night fan before Joy to the World, which was the, for Jeremiah, was a bullfrog song for those of you who are familiar with them. So songs like One or Celebrate. Mama Told Me, Eli's Coming, Mama Told Me Not to Come, Nobody. I really, really liked those. And I remember I almost, I came really close to shoplifting it from a Penny's at one point. But I noticed in the corner that there was a guy watching me. So I never did end up taking it. But I did come back and buy it. And I bought it on a cassette, actually. But, yeah. And I was a huge, and that was also my first big love in music was for Three Dog Night. I was a real big Three Dog Night fan. There was a band that never wrote anything of their own. Everything they did, every song, even all the filler on all the albums, were all songs written by other people. They wrote one song in their entire career of those, especially during those very early days when they were so popular in the 70s. In the early 70s, everything on the radio had some Three Dog Night song because there were so many popular songs. You couldn't play the radio for two hours and not hear a Three Dog Night song. They were an artist that they stole from. Elton John and on the list goes on. Randy Newman, Laura Nero, Paul Williams. Yeah, all sorts of things. But that ended up, right? And great singers. An unusual structure for a band that it really worked well. Yeah, they took covers. They had a job of doing covers. And they always made them their own. They changed it up enough to make it where it was a fun song to listen to. And a band with three singers, I'm not going to be able to even think of another one that had three lead singers. So, different. Yeah, but they played other instruments too. Yeah, there's a couple bands. There's a few bands that had, but yeah, they were famous for having three. And do you remember Three Dog Night as a means? Yep. It's the cold night where you need three dogs to lay with. That's right. It's based on an Eskimo thing, or an Inuit thing. Sorry, back in those days it was Eskimo, but now it's Inuit. And I'll try to be politically correct if possible. So, my second album I bought was Led Zeppelin IV. Oh, gee, that's a... I know, at that time... Well, it's only fair because my other two albums are pretty much landmark albums too. So, I get that. It was easy to make that decision because that album had just been out like for six months. That was my first introduction to Led Zeppelin really other than hearing a few singles on the radio. So, that was what really opened my eyes up to how that structure was. Yeah, because Stairway, for those who didn't know, Stairway to Heaven wasn't a 45. It wasn't a single. It didn't get played on Top 40 radio. It would have been, what, Black Dog? Black Dog was the single, right? Rock and Roll. No, Rock and Roll wasn't... Was it a single? No, Black Dog was a single for it initially, wasn't it? That's just speculation. I think that's because I didn't buy any singles anymore. I bought that album and it was like, wow. Led Zeppelin singles weren't easy to come by in general because they weren't famous for burning up the charts single-wise. When I bought that album, I had someone play it at their house for me before I bought it. And he played the album and his brother says, oh my God, listen to this Stairway to Heaven song. And it's like, get rid of that. I don't want to hear that again. I want to hear Black Dog again. That is amazing. I was going to say, playing Stairway to Heaven, going, listen, and if only you knew that you'd hear that song another 4,000 times in your life. 4,000 so far. Yeah, so far. Still to drive home today, right? Amazing album for me. All right. My number two was Ziggy Stardust and the Rising Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. I remember hearing Suffragette City and just thought that that was just really cool. Bam, bam, thank you, ma'am, I thought. What the heck is this? And I really, yeah, I went and bought it. And being a Bowie fan, because this also affected me a couple of years later when I bought Aladdin Sane, but being a Bowie fan in high school in the mid-70s was a little bit of a tricky affair because Bowie had his little androgyny thing going there. And, you know, growing up in the Midwest and all of a sudden you're like this guy. And, I mean, have you ever seen the gatefold of Aladdin Sane where he's just there as this androgynous, genital-less character? You know, it's just, you know, was, let's just say, eyebrow-raising during that time. And so I put up with a fair amount of grief for it, but I've just been a Bowie fan ever since. And I've never stopped being a Bowie fan. And, yeah, and that was just the best. Yeah, definitely amazing. Mick Ronson, again, amazing guitarist. Yeah. And that and Aladdin Sane. And a really good guitarist in his own right. We'll talk about, down the line, we'll talk about more, I'll definitely end up talking more Mick Ronson because he was one of those, oh, I just thought about, here's another artist that I really would bring up for a different topic that we would discuss, but we'll move on. So, your number three. So my number three was the Doobie Brothers' Taloose Street. Wow. Okay. And, you know, singles had come out from that album. It's like, oh, I've got to buy that album. What were the singles? Refreshing with the music. Sure. Was that, Jesus Is Just Alright? Yeah, Jesus Is Just Alright. When you play the album, there's no song to skip on it. Just like Legitimate Four. Nothing to skip. Every song was something that you had to listen to. And it was really good to you. So, yeah, that was a good one. Wow. That's... Yeah, see, I was just thinking, I have a particular favorite Doobie song, and it wasn't on there, but I have the one on Stampede. I like that. Yeah. I like that. That was your last good album. I cheated the hangman a lot. That was your last good album. When they got Jeff Skunk Baxter on it, that made the album good. When they got Michael McDonald, then they went down the tubes. They went different. Yeah. I don't care for that stuff as much, but it's just a different animal. Sometimes bands just will go in and just change over. And it's, you know, I've looked at more than a handful of bands before they became popular. And then they became popular, and they made lots of money, but good for them. But yeah, I just don't remember much. They went from classic rock to pop. Yeah. So then I lost interest when it was poppy. Yeah, a lot of bands, when they go that more pop, that pop direction, yeah, they tend to leave me behind. Yeah. So my last one was the Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus by Spirit. Cool. Once again, and unlike those other two albums, I mean, I don't know, Ziggy Stardust is pretty good, and the three down there are all pretty good. I mean, I really liked all the tracks on that. But I really liked all the tracks on the Spirit album. The main ones that you may have heard of, probably the biggest hit was Nature's Way, followed relatively closely by another song called Mr. Skin. But really psychedelic, really crazy. You know, Jay Ferguson came out of Spirit, who did Thunder Island and that. And Jay Ferguson, we've all heard some Jay Ferguson. He also, his biggest hit was a TV theme. He wrote the theme for The Office. That little, like, I can't think of the instrument. It's like an accordion, but it's, yeah, I can't think of it. It's an older accordion-style instrument that's used in The Office. But yeah, that was his biggest hit, was Jay Ferguson. Like what they play when they have a monkey dancing? Sort of like that, yeah. Kind of like that organ grinder. Yeah, like organ grinder thing. It's something like that. But anyway, so, yeah. But Twelve Days of Dr. Sardonicus was just world-changing for me. And I mostly bought it for the two hits, but once I listened to it over and over and over and over again. And I think these are all things that just sort of sent us off in different directions. Yeah, and, you know, my three albums I bought at the beginning, they're not all the world's top albums, but they were a starting point for me to jump off to a lot of other things. And I never jumped off a ledge up when I was on that, from the beginning to the end, and now still. The only one out of those, maybe you might have dropped off one of those boobies. An Edgar Winner. Do you still listen to, did you collect any Edgar Winner? I collected some Edgar Winner stuff. The next album was really good. Went and saw him at the lake once with Leon Russell. Oh, that'd be good. Yeah, I've watched them throughout the years. How about the Doobies? Now, Doobies were just here last year, right? Did you go to that? Yeah, I didn't go see it. Because that was with Tom Johnson, too. I know, I know. I know, I know. I think Michael McDonald goes with them, too, doesn't he? They take them both, right? You gotta take the bad with the good. It's what it is. It's just, you know, it's got their name on it. So, you know, they made money off of it. They put it out. It's what they did. Yeah. So, yeah, I found, I think I could still say I'm still a Three Dog Night fan. I had everything that they had. I didn't have all the Spirit stuff, but I had, I listened to some other hits, but that album really just was stuck out for me on more of an individual basis. But I had everything of Bowie, too. I was a huge Bowie fan. Bowie could do no wrong, in my eyes, for years, for a decade. There's another artist we'll talk about later. Yeah, that's Mark. Yeah, that's a show in and of itself, almost, talking about him. Okay, well, that finishes our two topics for today. We're going to start small and work, hopefully, keep these things relatively short at this point. Once again, we are Two Music Boneheads. You can go to TwoMusicBoneheads.com. Hopefully, we'll have something set up with an email, so you can send us your comments. You may also find us on Facebook, once again, under Two Music Boneheads. Also, if you want to send any comments, or you want to tell us some things you'd like to hear us talk about, we'd be happy to entertain that. We want to do what you want to listen to. So, if you've got opinions, you want to hear about things, let us know. We're happy to entertain at all. There we go. Thanks for listening, everybody, and enjoy your week. Thank you. Bye. Bye.