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Last Of The Steam-Powered Trains
"Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks from their 1968 album ''The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society''. Written and sung by Ray Davies, the song was recorded in October1968 and was among the final tracks completed for the album. Variously described as a blues, Rhythm and blues, R&B or Rock music, rock number, the song describes a Steam locomotive, steam train that has outlived its usefulness and has since moved to a museum. Recorded two months after steam trains were retired from passenger service in the UK, the song relates to ''Village Green'' themes of preservation and the reconciling of past and present. Davies based the song's distinctive guitar-riff on the 1956 song "Smokestack Lightning" by the American blues artist Howlin' Wolf, a song the Kinks and their contemporaries regularly covered. Commentators often regard the song as Davies's criticism of early British R&B groups for being inauthentic compared to the Amer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Fahey (musician)
John Aloysius Fahey ( ; February 28, 1939 – February 22, 2001) was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who played the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been enormously influential and has been described as the foundation of the genre of American primitive guitar, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of the music and its minimalist style. Fahey borrowed from the folk and blues traditions in American roots music, having compiled many forgotten early recordings in these genres. He would later incorporate 20th-century classical, Portuguese, Brazilian, and Indian influences into his work. Fahey spent many of his later years in poverty and poor health, but enjoyed a minor career resurgence in the late 1990s, with a turn towards the avant-garde. He also created a series of abstract paintings in his final years. Fahey died in 2001 from complications from heart surgery. In 2003, he was ranked 35th on ''R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
