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A Recommendation for Music Lovers
If you are into music—particularly rock, a friend of mine turned me on to Rick Beato. He’s a music expert as well as a musician and music producer, and has a YouTube channel where he takes a song and breaks the music down to explain what makes it great. In fact, his series is titled, What Makes This Song Great? Here is his take on “More Than a Feeling” by Boston:
He recently did his 100th podcast on the live version of “Do You Feel Like We Do?” by Peter Frampton (possibly the best encore song ever):
I burned several hours yesterday watching video after video. I bet you will too . . .
Published in Entertainment
I love Rick Beato. He also does a lot of nerdy music theory videos.
I’ll throw in a recommendation for the “Professor of Rock” channel. Adam Reader does a great job, dropping videos on a daily basis. You can find it here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfessorofRock/featured
This is fascinating stuff, Stad. It’s morning and I have too much to do to listen all the way through, but I will be back for more. I am a fairly unskilled guitarist and have always wondered how the guys on the recordings got such great sounds out of their instruments. The blending of the 12-string (which I play) and the electric was an “aha” moment.
Rick is great. Well worth the time.
That was fascinating! I don’t play, but I enjoyed his analysis and enthusiasm.
I occasionally watch some reaction videos, but few and far between.
This young couple is great! They both have good heads and hearts. He’s a guitar player of many years in several cover bands.
Here’s a great reaction to Yours Is No Disgrace by Yes.
Beato’s enthusiam reminds of Robert Greenberg from The Great Courses. His analyses of songs only deal with the mechanics of the music, not the lyrics. When he does talk about the words, it’s only about how they are sung, not what they mean. I’d love to meet the guy . . .
I watched several reaction videos too. There was one rapper who heard “More Than A Feeling” for the first time, and was blown away . . .
What a cute couple! I’m going to watch a few of their videos, then go back to Beato for more . . .
Update: I’d love to ask those two if they ever wondered why there are Classic Rock channels everywhere . . .
Double update: The young couple post under the NickNLex name, and the girl has the clearest facial skin I’ve ever seen . . .
Yes! This was my first thought, too. (“This guy ought to be doing this on ‘The Great Courses.’ This is SO cool!”)
Watch Rick’s what makes this song great? On Kid Charlemagne where he goes through Larry Carlton’s amazing guitar solo and then plays it himself.
I enjoyed his take on why modern pop stinks . . .
I often have my guitar with me and play along when I watch these videos. You can learn a lot by doing this.
Afternoon Staf,
Fabulous, do you have other songs that he broke down that impressed you as much? If so, please link us to them. I ended up liking the analysis better than the song. I love music but comparing what he hears to what I hear is humbling.
Yep, Rick Beato fan here too. Got some of his e-books.
Just search for “Rick Beato”, then go to your video tab . . .
Yep, another thumbs up for Rick Beato from here.
I sure admire their appreciation, but these folks come off as a little clueless.
“I can’t believe this is 40 years old.”
“I know.”
“No, it’s older.”
“You’re right.”
“Almost 40… 8 years old. This is like music…”
“But it’s not gonna…”
“What, did I…”
“No, it’s 40 years old.”
“No, it’s…”
“45 years old.”
“No, 71.”
“Wow.”
“We’re in 2000… and 21.”
“Yeah.”
“Ohhh”
“60 years old.”
“That’s ridiculous. It sounds like music from right now. I mean nobody plays like this.”
Also check out my post Music Reaction Videos are a Thing from last summer.
My favorites are, in fact, the live Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight” reactions where they inevitably say, “What?!? He plays the drums?!?”
‘Cracks me up every time.
Actually I took a break from Beato when my spouse discovered me in the back room of the house, unwashed, de-hydrated but infused with musical knowledge.
Assuming it is safe to return to his videos, I will indulge myself once more.
One of the best he does is Rosanna, by Toto. You’ll never listen to that song the same way again – you’ll notice everything.
Arrggghhh!!!! I have work to do, and you are killing me!
(Love it…)
I think this banter is charming. My guess is they were so blown away, they couldn’t think straight . . .
But the good news is that young people are discovering music they didn’t know existed, and I bet they end up chucking most of what’s out there today for the “classics”.
Toto…..super underrated plus Steve Lukather played on EVERYTHING. Dude was awesome
Those two kids do some podcasts in fluent Spamish . . . pretty impressive!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtDsPF-jg3g
Harmonics whammy-bar / pick scrape / pointed mid-range settings on a Boss pedal I’m 11 minutes in, and this is just heaven.
Boston turned into a cliche, fodder for larfing at 70s overproduced rock, but at the time it was amazingly fresh – and it was smart. You could tell the guy behind this was a technical maestro, and had also grabbed ahold of a thrashing live wire in the culture no one had figured out how to handle. The precision of the construction was obvious, even if you didn’t get everything Beato is talking about.
Alas, the stoner / cheap-beer crowd loved it because it RAWKED. That made Boston a bit suspect among those who were looking for something more avant-garde. Punk came along soon after, and made these meticulous edifices sound inauthentic. A year or two after Boston exploded, stripped-down bands would redefine the bleeding edge, and Stoltz became the equivalent of Kubrick spending years in isolation obsessing over storyboards and props.
You could always listen to Rush….. lol
Those videos of young people discovering “Old Geezer” music are priceless. I want to thank you for opening the door to that room of delighted young people.
Lifeson and and Peart were incredible, but couldn’t get past Geddy Lee’s “cat fed into an industrial shredder” vocals. Although “2112” was AWESOME in high school. Also, interesting that a band that had some libertarian sheen ended that album with the news that a supra-global entity had assumed control. Yay, I guess? Because they’re pro-electric guitar?
Geddy Lee makes my list for one of the most distinctive voices in rock . . .
Same could be said of Tiny Tim.
I do like Rush btw.