Hello, friends!
I didn't want too much time to pass before I gave y'all a heads-up.
Our young man Dave and his bride are traveling the country taking nursing contracts, typically 3-month deals (as many of you know).
At this time, they are on the west coast, 3 hours behind what my clock says. This has caused a major problem with scheduling time to record. We are remaining vigilant to spot a break in the space-time continuum so we can record again, but for the time being we have tons of videos for you to enjoy. I doubt many people have watched EVERY video we recorded.
We still read EVERY comment and reply occasionally. Keep your requests coming and help me get us back to Rush and Yes and Genesis....
Thanks,
John D'oh
13 - 0
Well. I must say... (John Doh here) ... I have unsubscribed from a youtube channel in the past. Why? Because the content was no longer relevant to me? What the heck does that even mean? Like, I no longer listen to great music? Or, I no longer birdwatch? This makes no sense. So, no, I don't unsubscribe due to relevance. I unsubscribe (honestly) because I no longer have confidence in the information, or the delivery has gotten boring.
But as I sit here, uploading content for the coming weeks, in front of my green eyes, we lost a subscriber.
After a moment of contemplation, I place the sword back on the stand and pick up a nice IPA, instead.
After finishing the third such beverage... I say... kiss my shiny metal ass, unsubscriber.
16 - 7
The short-sighted people who own the rights to King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man have placed a 100% block on our Reaction. I just watched a complete 1979 interview with Fripp in which he describes himself as "greedy." He lamented this about himself, as he ought. The measure of a man shouldn't be how much he has, rather, how much he gives.
This sort of wholesale blocking has happened with The Beatles, Gordon Lightfoot, and a variety of other bands.
Our reaction videos clearly fall within the consideration of fair use under U.S. copyright law because they are "educational, informational, and critical in nature." How and why youtube becomes co-conspirators in the breaking of U.S. Copyright Law is a mystery to me.
POLL: Why do you watch REACTION VIDEOS?
Please share this poll with everyone you can! We need to get the attention of these narrow-minded and greedy people.
20 - 19
It's the single most-suggested song in the Rush catalogue...
Which is weird 'cuz it's two songs...
And it's coming out...
Today, Friday, February 10, at 12:15pm...
on the anniversary of plane crash that became "the day the music died"...
In celebration and appreciation of our Fellow Humans...
Who now number more than 2,000 said Fellow Humans...
RUSH...
Cygnus X-1: Book One and Cygnus X-1: Book II
Played back-to-back without interruption.
37 - 6
Working Man Conundrum - Rush Fans Help Requested!
John Doh, here.
So, now that Working Man is high on the request count, I find myself having a level of difficulty. I LOVE Rush, especially Pre-90's Rush, when I was young and impressionable. So, as I go over the votes, it's pretty close between people who simply have requested "Working Man" and people who have specifically requested the "Live in Cleveland" version which was filmed in 2011.
My conundrum is that Dave has made it clear to me that with all the music being suggested, he doesn't see the sense in listening to two version of the same song.
ALBUM VERSION - In my mind, the original album version is a fantastic rendition. It carries all that Rush energy that begins with the jam being held back and then the dam breaks and BAM! Rutsy's drumming will never be Peart's, but it ain't bad.
Time Machine Tour (Cleveland) - In 2011, Geddy's singing was dramatically different than previous tours. I understand he went for vocal coaching in order to preserve his vocal cords and do a better job at hitting those high notes rather than dipping down to lower octaves to complete the phrases on-key. You can't escape, though, that his voice is remarkably less powerful and relied on amplification to sound so hot at the shows.
R30 Tour - But even as I listen to a concert recording from the R30 tour, his vocals are more natural sounding than Cleveland.
Vapor Trails Tour - Then, I took another step back in time to the 2002 tour and Geddy is in near-original, full voice!
I get that the Cleveland version has that elongated opening, and smoking guitar from Alex, and stands alone in that regard, but when it comes down to it, in my mind, the best live performance from a vocals/performance standpoint is 2002.
Please check out a sampling of these versions, back-to-back, and then return here to VOTE for the ONE (and only one) we will share with Dave.
Studio - https://youtu.be/hhgh8vN9N5o
Time Machine Tour (Cleveland) - https://youtu.be/fEZDFPsL50M
R30 - https://youtu.be/XvG3dX43b8s
Vapor Trails - https://youtu.be/g2bRDLUja-o
Thanks Fellow Humans!
5 - 3
Surprising to me, during our month-long hiatus we added 64 new subscribers to the channel!
Our last New Subscribers Challenge was to reach 2,000 Humans with the reward being back-to-back reactions featuring Rush, Cygnus X-1 Books One and II. As I type this on 1/20/23 we are at 1,912, just 88 Humans shy.
We will certainly be doing other Rush before we hit the goal and I hope to place Awaken by Yes on our upcoming videos list. (The hard thing for me, a certified YES-FREAK, is to choose which version. Sonically speaking, the best version that includes video is Jon Anderson with Todmobile, but that's not YES, per se. I'm still working it out, but we may go with the original studio non-video version, perhaps with lyrics.)
Thank you all for hanging in there while we worked out Dave's logistics issues and my time issues. With Dave being 3 hours behind me, it does make recording more difficult, but we have a goal of 3 videos per week for the time being. You may have noticed Dave's image was about 50% clearer in our "We're Back" video. That's because he has switched to the evil Mac to do the recording. We haven't gotten the system 100% correct yet as I hear my own voice with a full 1-second echo. It's not easy to chat under that circumstance.
We appreciate y'all! As you may know, I "heart" every comment after I read it unless it has a song request. Then, I wait to "heart" it until after I have added the song to our master request spreadsheet. So, if you don't see the heart, know that I have likely already read the comment, but haven't logged the request.
See y'all soon! - John Doh
17 - 6
Watch this week for "The Weapon" from Rush and "Close to the Edge" by Yes as well as some other great classics including introducing Dave to T Rex. (Made for some great dinosaur jokes!)
TAKE A POLL!
Do you ever watch Dave's reaction to songs you are NOT familiar with or are outside your favorite music genre?
Please select the best option that applies to why you watch:
19 - 9
Come for a smile, stay for a laugh. Then go out and spread kindness.
Daily dose of good news is a passion project of mine. There is so much good going on in the world, but it seems to be barely reported. After hearing about the kindness of those around you I hope you spread a little more today.
Millenialist reactions was how this channel got its start. I still hang out with John regularly and we plan to do more videos. We have so many of your suggestions on the list we could record for a month and barely be caught up. As soon as I can wrangle him into more sessions they will be posted.
I have lots of idea's for content I would love to put out. Some of which has already been written. Stay tuned!