3 or 10000 These Eyes by The Guess Who

Oh the memories flood in.  Several times, while growing up, I have had to share a bedroom with my brother.  During these times, one particular habit of my brother has stuck with me.  He insisted on playing the radio all the night, not loudly but just at level where you knew it was still going if you woke up in the night.  To this day, I fall asleep quicker if there is some sort of noise going on in the room. This is probably why I fell asleep at a Metallica/Guns N' Roses concert, but I digress.

Every morning, like clockwork, I would wake up just before daylight and These Eyes by The Guess Who would be playing on the radio.  I knew it was about time to get out of bed when I heard that song and in a way it was a good start to the day.  While not as popular as other songs by The Guess Who, fond memories flood my mind whenever I hear it.

Many of my favorite songs come from these late night/early morning radio shows and I will go into detail about them later.

2 of 10000 Holy Diver by Ronnie James Dio

I felt obliged to post this tribute to a true man of metal after learning the recent news.  I discovered Dio much later in my teens when my brother went to basic training and left backpack full of cassettes.  I believe this song was included in compilation titled either "Heavy Metal Mayhem" or "Maximum Metal Power"  Man I loved those compilation, not because of songs, but because of the absurdity of the song selection.  There was usually a metal song along with classic rock song, maybe sandwiched between a progressive rock song and a power ballad.

There's so much good about this song.  It's got the classic metal chugging rhythm, a wailing vocal and shredding guitar solo. I remember reading a Guitar World article about the guitarists of Dio and the dude has played with about all of the most influential players of the 70s and 80s. 

The video is equally impressive.  Dio single handily lays siege to a castle, broadsword in hand, and interrupts the twisted rituals of some evil cat wizard type beings. It doesn't get more epic than that.

He was nicknamed "little Hitler" by Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. He must have exercised some serious fortitude to command blind allegiance from the father of heavy metal guitar.  Rest in peace dark prince.

                            Dio - Holy Diver

1 of 10000 Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano

When I was in my adolescence, I used to go to sleep with the radio playing.  Which in present day terms, is the equivalent of going to sleep with your iPod on shuffle, except no disc jockeys spinning their smooth mix of lite rock favorites.  The station I listened to happened to rotate the same songs every couple of days so I became very familar with their catalog.  One song that constantly played on the radio just as I was drifting off, was Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano. I never really knew who Jose Feliciano was growing up. I even thought that it was James Taylor singing. It was not until much later, after much searching for a James Taylor version that I discovered it was actually Josè Feliciano. Now I'm glad it's not James Taylor.

Josè is much better guitar player as shown here.

Purple Haze Jose Feliciano / Jimi Hendrix

The smoother, less poppy version of Light My Fire always sent me off to sleepy land and that is why it is one of my favorites.

And So it Goes

So I am about to begin a musical journey that will wind itself through the peaks and valleys of my life. I plan to review one song everyday for 30 years until I have listed my 10,000 favorite songs. I hope that this will open up my creativity and expand my musical tastes. You are more than welcome to follow along.