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With the strokes of a guitar solo, Joni Mitchell showed us how our female music elders are super punks

<p>The iconic Joni Mitchell’s recent surprise performance at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiluPSmAF8&amp;feature=youtu.be">2022 Newport Folk Festival</a> prompted a world-wide outpouring of love and respect. </p> <p>This was her first musical performance since suffering from a brain aneurysm in 2015 that left her unable to walk and talk. Last year, she spoke of having <a href="https://www.nme.com/en_au/news/music/joni-mitchell-addresses-health-issues-in-rare-speech-at-2021-kennedy-center-honors-3112447">polio as a child</a> as “a rehearsal for the rest of my life”. </p> <p>The tributes for Mitchell celebrated her triumph from illness to recovery, but they also paid homage to Mitchell’s career that has pivoted on protest. </p> <p>Mitchell is largely associated with folk scenes of the 60s and 70s. She has produced a prolific body of work, advocating for social change. As a committed activist she has spoken against environmental degradation, war, LGBTQI+ discrimination, and most recently, removed <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/29/22907696/joni-mitchell-spotify-joe-rogan-podcast-misinformation-covid-19">her music catalogue</a> from Spotify in a protest against anti-vaccine propaganda. </p> <p>Now, with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7wOdpxGctc">strokes of a guitar solo</a> she repositioned herself from folk hero to punk provocateur, defying the “permissible” ways older women “should” behave. </p> <p>In commanding public space and using one of the most traditionally masculinised expressions of popular music practice, she directly challenged the sorts of expectations many people have around gendered norms, particularly what women in their elder years look and sound like.</p> <h2>Not everyone gets to age on stage</h2> <p>Some of the most persistent social restrictions placed on women and gender diverse musicians are in relation to age. </p> <p>Ongoing expectations of older women are to be passive, quiet and very much in the background. They are rarely asked, or expected, to “take up space” in the same ways their male counterparts do. </p> <p>Whereas men step through phases of youthful experimentation into established music legends, there are tiresome obstacles for female and gender diverse people to do the same. </p> <p>And while exceptions are often exceptional, they are not plentiful.</p> <p>It’s not just age. Women have long been sidelined when it comes to acknowledging their skills on the electric guitar. Much like Mitchell.</p> <p>The electric guitar has been an important part of rock and punk genres. There is a symbiotic relationship between how these genres – and the instrumentation that defines them – have unwittingly become gendered. The electric guitar solo in particular has come to be associated with machismo: fast, loud, expert, brave. </p> <p>If you like to imagine a world where women don’t exist, google “best guitar solos ever”. </p> <p>A recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/02/opinion/grammys-rock-guitar-solo.html">New York Times article</a> suggested things are starting to change. Citing guitarists like Taja Cheek and Adrianne Lenker, the Times suggested the guitar solo has shifted from a macho institution into a display of vulnerability, a moment (perhaps many) of connectivity. </p> <p>Mitchell’s performance sits somewhere in this domain. </p> <p>For the hundreds of thousands of women and gender diverse guitarists world-wide, myself included, the electric guitar and the genres it is entwined with offer a cool, optional extra: to test the cultural norms of gender with other markers of identity like class, culture, sexuality and age, to blur ideas of what we should and shouldn’t do.</p> <h2>Australian women to the front</h2> <p>Australian women and gender diverse rock and punk musicians are often subject to a double act of erasure – missing from localised histories, and also from broader canons of contemporary music, which often remain persistently rooted in the traditions of the UK and the US.</p> <p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55669013-my-rock-n-roll-friend">Tracey Thorn’s brilliant biography</a> of the Go-Between’s drummer Lindy Morrison is a love lettered homage that steps out the complex local, emotional, personal and structural ways that Australian women and gender diverse people are often omitted from cultural spaces. </p> <p>“We are patronised and then we vanish,” writes Thorn.</p> <p>The work of women and gender diverse artists is often compared to the glossy pedestal of the male creative genius.</p> <p>In this light, we don’t play right, we don’t look right, we don’t sound right. </p> <p>And then, somehow, we don’t age right. </p> <p>Other reasons are far more mundane. Women contribute around <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/blog/economics-blog/2019/Value-unpaid-work-care.html">13 hours more unpaid work</a> than men each week. </p> <p>Carrying plates overflowing with generous gifts of labour, the maintenance of a music practice – a largely underpaid endeavour – is often the first to fall by the wayside. </p> <p>Add to the mix ingrained social networks of knowledge sharing, and the dominance of men making decisions higher up the chain, and it is easy to see how women and gender diverse musicians stay submerged as men rise to the limited real estate of music elders. </p> <p>The problem isn’t so much about starting up. It’s about finding the time to keep up.</p> <h2>Our female and gender diverse music elders</h2> <p>There are so many Australian female and gender diverse music elders. Some are visible, but many ripple beneath the surface. </p> <p>Regardless of genre, in maintaining decades-long practice, they are the super punks whose legacy can be heard in venues across the country. </p> <p>The challenge now is to support the current crop of excellent musicians beyond the flushes of youth so that we have a more sustainable, textured and diverse Australian music culture. One where Mitchell’s defiance of expectations represents the status quo of how older women should and can be.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-strokes-of-a-guitar-solo-joni-mitchell-showed-us-how-our-female-music-elders-are-super-punks-188075" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Music

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An ode to surf music

<p>The first tune I ever wrote – a proper tune, with an intro, verses, choruses and a middle bit – was a surfing instrumental.</p> <p>I have always been a pretty crappy singer, and I figured that the guitar could sing for me (I know, I know). But like anyone who grew up in the 60s this genre made sense to me. It was both fun and familiar, and there was room for storytelling in the sound of the guitar.</p> <p>Surf music was born with the release of Dick Dale’s first single Let’s Go Trippin’. Dale was born in Boston, but arrived in California as a teenager and started surfing. He played a left-handed guitar, but with the strings upside down, that is with the low strings at the bottom and the high strings at the top. This quite odd arrangement made for an idiosyncratic sound, all the physical movements up-ended; the dynamics reversed, the emphasis offset.</p> <p>Dale first played <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOlmBC1DlsY">Let’s Go Trippin’</a> in 1960, and it was a wild and crazy sound, the birth of a genre.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WOlmBC1DlsY"></iframe></div> <p>The fact that he has a Lebanese background informed his style. The frenetic oud and tarabaki playing that drives Lebanese pop music of the 50s seeped in, along with his love of drummer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Krupa">Gene Krupa</a>’s snappy snare.</p> <p>It didn’t take long for Dale’s influence to spread. Not really very surfy, but in 1962 Monty Norman’s James Bond theme for Dr. No was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqcevBO9fi8">played by the tremendous John Barry Seven</a> and is a great example of the foregrounding of the edgy guitar sound that Dale perfected.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GqcevBO9fi8"></iframe></div> <p>The first of the teen surf movies, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056860/">Beach Party</a>, was released a year later: tales of teen idiocy, with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon at the helm, centred around summer, surf, music and endless partying.</p> <p>At least a dozen of these films were made, formulaic and sanitised, with established comedians like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lynde">Paul Lynde</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rickles">Don Rickles</a>, promoting a romanticised image of surf culture.</p> <p>Although the movies were built on beach party guitar bands, the music charts and radio waves of the time were also home to beautiful, evocative guitar instrumentals. The Ventures from Washington state had their first hit with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owq7hgzna3E">Walk, Don’t Run</a> in 1960.</p> <p>They played mostly covers, but developed a new sound - pounding toms and unison picking guitars - releasing many twangy gems including covers of Joe Meek’s Telstar, The Champs’ Tequila, as well as two of the touchstone tracks of the surf music genre in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqC3BjIyq_0">Pipeline</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjiOtouyBOg">Wipeout</a>.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tqC3BjIyq_0"></iframe></div> <p>In the UK, The Shadows were exploring similar terrain, with hits like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoN6AKPGkBo">Apache</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rR0trsOUaY">Wonderful Land</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VycZVyApqew">Atlantis</a>. They took a more lyrical approach, stepping away from the blues-based patterns of the US guitar artists, and sliding in minor chords and more complex structures.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VycZVyApqew"></iframe></div> <p>But the thing that really sets The Shadows apart is the sound: the guitar amp producing washes of spacious reverb, as well as the watery bubbling of the vibrato; the guitar tremolo stretching the strings into tonal waves, and the orchestral layering on some of the grander tracks.</p> <p>Santo and Johnny’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rwfqsjimRM">Sleepwalk</a> is a lesson in subtle mood-making with its lap steel guitar evoking the distant Hawaiian islands.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2rwfqsjimRM"></iframe></div> <p>It appears in the repertoire of both The Ventures and The Shadows, inspires another deeply influential beauty, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QooCN5JbOkU">Albatross</a>, by Fleetwood Mac, with Peter Green on guitar, and echoes through the decades to the wonderful <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueMaYzvXX8w">work</a> of Richard Hawley.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QooCN5JbOkU"></iframe></div> <p><strong>Australia in the 70s and beyond - great beaches, great surfers, great music</strong></p> <p>The beaches south of Sydney produced Australia’s most notable surf band in 1961. The Atlantics had their genetic roots in Greece and Eastern Europe, an immigration success story years before Vanda and Young.</p> <p>Their biggest hit, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3agVtY4Z6M">Bombora</a>, is a surf rock classic and was an international sensation in the earliest days of the genre.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3agVtY4Z6M"></iframe></div> <p>They had another big hit, The Crusher, and then in 1964 released War of The Worlds, awash with echoes and distortion and moodiness. It was innovative and brave, but ultimately spelled their demise as a surf band.</p> <p>As the 60s hit their twilight, and the wave of political enlightenment from Prague and Paris reached our shores, the blonde, post-war beach party was dragged out by the undertow. The Summer of Love, then Woodstock came and went, leaving the surfing subculture chilling with a joint in the back of the panel van rather than wildly dancing around the bonfire with a bottle of Mateus Rosé.</p> <p>The twangy instrumentals, with their snappy drums and lightning guitar lines stretched and grew, as synthesizers and production techniques replaced the earlier simple arrangements. The sound changed and became spacious, echoing the endless drift of the waves, and the slow drama of the incoming storm.</p> <p>In 1970, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248194/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Morning of the Earth</a> was released, becoming the first film soundtrack to earn a gold record in Australia. It not only has tracks by singer-songwriters and pop stars but also by the acid-surf instrumentalists <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamam_Shud">Tamam Shud</a>. It became an enormously influential film, capturing the idyllic nature of the surfing culture.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K3uLj-YYaBs"></iframe></div> <p>But the twang hadn’t gone. The sound of the surf guitar is core to the music of The Cramps and The Pixies. It surfaced in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Wilson_(American_musician)">Ricky Wilson</a>’s great guitar lines for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szhJzX0UgDM">The B52s</a>.</p> <p>It rang clear as a bell in 80s Australian bands like The Sunnyboys, Surfside Six, Radio Birdman, The Riptides, and Mental As Anything.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b2D84Ma-CxI"></iframe></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CINvgez73g">The Cruel Sea</a> rose in Sydney in 1987 from the ashes of Sekret Sekret, settling around the ebb and flow of guitarist Danny Rumour and guitarist/organist James Cruickshank and the rhythmic undertow of Ken Gormley and Jim Elliot.</p> <p>Instrumental rock became groovy again. Eventually, Tex Perkins joined and they became award-winning mainstays in the rise of 90s festival culture.</p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H_wam2QImAY"></iframe></div> <p>More recently <a href="https://headland.bandcamp.com/music">Headland</a>, who began in 2014 playing live original instrumentals to gloriously evocative Super 8 footage of big surf at Lennox Head in the 70s, have restored faith in the power of the instrumental for the post millennium. Surf music lives!</p> <p>I only ever played my little surf instrumental a few times and then that version of our band exploded – Lindy Morrison left to join the Go-Betweens and we entered a more angular and fierce phase. But last year, in a performance at the State Library about Brisbane posters and how they help to tell stories about our past, our culture and our place in the world, I played it again.</p> <p>It felt odd to be doing it on my own, but it also felt both funny and appropriate. The tune had the twang of a simpler time. As does <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJWuQV2u9ns">this little gem</a> from Brian Wilson, who believes that smiles can fix the problems of the world. <!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128914/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sJWuQV2u9ns"></iframe></div> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-willsteed-107411">John Willsteed</a>, Senior lecturer, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/queensland-university-of-technology-847">Queensland University of Technology</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/surf-music-in-praise-of-strings-sand-and-the-endless-swell-128914">original article</a>.</em></p>

Music

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Pink Floyd guitar sells for world-record price at auction

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The legendary guitar belonging to Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour has sold for $5.7 million at auction. It is now the most expensive guitar of all time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gilmour raised over $30 million for charity after auctioning off more than 120 lots from his personal collection.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The sale took place at Christie’s auction house in New York City and included iconic instruments played by Gilmour throughout Pink Floyd’s history.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The legendary “Black Strat” Fender Stratocaster guitar, which was used on the recording of the band’s hit albums </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Dark Side of the Moon</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (1973), </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wish You Were Here</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (1975), </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Animals</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (1977) and </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Wall</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (1979), was the standout item and sold for the jaw-dropping $5.7 million.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">"It's very hard to know how much I will miss it."<br />David talks about his iconic Black Strat, ahead of its sale through <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristiesInc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChristiesInc</a> next month in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GilmourGuitars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GilmourGuitars</a> charity auction. <a href="https://t.co/CA7anqH9ej">pic.twitter.com/CA7anqH9ej</a></p> — David Gilmour (@_DavidGilmour) <a href="https://twitter.com/_DavidGilmour/status/1129086403000901637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">16 May 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Proceeds from the auction will go to the charity ClientEarth, which funds environmental lawyers and experts in the fight against climate change.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible," Gilmour said in a statement.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We need a civilised world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Other stand out items sold at auction included Gilmour’s Martin D-35 acoustic guitar, which sold for more than $1 million and his 1955 Gibson Les Paul, which was famously used for the guitar solo on</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Another Brick in the Wall </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">(Part 2).</span></p>

Music

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Precious moment baby with Down syndrome dances to sister’s song

<p><span>A mum has shared a heart-warming video of her son with Down syndrome singing and dancing to his sister performing "You Are My Sunshine".</span></p> <p>In the precious video, two-year-old Bo is singing a duet with his 11-year-old sister Lydia as she plays the guitar.</p> <p>His mum, Amanda Gray, stumbled upon the sweet moment as she came out of the shower.</p> <p>Next to the video, Amanda wrote, “My daughter Lydia was watching Bo while I was in the shower. Came out to this.</p> <p>"If she didn’t have a guitar I don’t know if she would know how to babysit him. This is her go to. It’s proof that music therapy works. Bo is 25 months old and has a 12 word vocabulary. Every word he has learned has been through music and singing."</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fheberjonesy%2Fvideos%2F10155028240386813%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p> <p>The family strongly believe in music therapy being able to assist anyone struggling mentally or physically.  </p> <p>The proud mum-of-five wrote on her Facebook, “We were told awhile back that our lil caboose Bo would inspire and teach the world someday.</p> <p>“At that time I don't think Caleb and I could comprehend or even imagine it to this extent. He is a blessing. He has brought a sweet spirit into our home and a little piece of heaven. He has changed our lives and humbled us beyond measure.</p> <p>"My older children along with us are changed forever because of him.</p> <p>"All he knows is how to LOVE. Simply LOVE unconditionally.</p> <p>"What more could parents ask for? To EVERYONE who has viewed, commented, shared, and messaged us personally...THANK YOU.</p> <p>"Thank you for seeing the beauty of this video as it bring awareness to Down Syndrome but also that music Therapy ROCKS!"</p> <p>Little Bo’s life has been filled with various challenges and at the tender age of two he has already had heart surgery, taking months to recover.</p> <p>Amanda and her husband Caleb, who are both musicians, believed music could help and sang "You Are My Sunshine" to him continually.</p> <p>"He was so heavily sedated and wouldn't respond," she wrote on Facebook.</p> <p>“From then on this has become his theme song. We are firm believers in music therapy!</p> <p>"By the way the blessing that has come out of this besides the fact that he survived after crashing in the CICU was that he is on two international studies for life because he should’ve never survived what his little body had gone through.</p> <p>"He mind boggled our doctors and surgeons as they had to reach out internationally for help and in the end ended up trying their own solution which is why he is here with us today!</p> <p>"He also broke a record timing for Primary Children’s Hospital in 40 years for response to put someone on ECMO bypass! He seriously is our little miracle."</p>

Mind

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Baby girl rocks out with dad to Bon Jovi

<p>This eight-month-old baby girl certainly loves her classic rock songs – just watch what happens when her dad starts playing a rendition of Bon Jovi’s <em>Wanted: Dead or Alive</em>! </p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="/lifestyle/family-pets/2015/12/life-lessons-from-grandparents/">Top 10 life lessons kids learn from grandparents</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="/lifestyle/family-pets/2014/11/the-grandma-diaries-memories-for-my-grandchild/">The Grandma diaries: memories for my grandchild</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="/lifestyle/family-pets/2014/09/why-family-traditions-are-so-important/">Why family traditions are SO important</a></em></strong></span></p>

Music

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Musician with dementia stuns family by playing guitar again

<p>A guitarist who once supported Bob Dylan but stopped playing because of Alzheimer’s has stunned his family by picking up the instrument again after two years.</p> <p>Ray Buckley from Liverpool in the UK was devastated when his daughter, Emma, told him that his beloved guitar had been stolen. Passed on to her as an inheritance gift, Emma, also a musician, took to social media to ask for the public’s help in tracking down the guitar after it was stolen from a parked car.</p> <p>While the original guitar wasn’t found, a generous musician touched by Emma’s story offered to donate his own guitar to Emma’s father.</p> <p>On a Facebook post, Emma wrote: “So I was absolutely overwhelmed with the incredible response from my post about my stolen guitar, and am still receiving notifications of people sending their love and best wishes.</p> <p>“My dad has early on-set Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia and the guitar belonged to him, and was the guitar he taught me to play on and therefore held a lot of sentimental memories.”</p> <p>The replacement, similar to the stolen guitar and made by the same company, delighted Ray so much that he began to play again.</p> <p>“He’s been so unbelievably upset and confused about the theft. I showed him the guitar. For the last two years every time I have handed him a guitar he has refused to play, embarrassed that he can’t remember, but his face lit up so much when he saw this new guitar,” Emma said.</p> <p>Emma then shared a video of her dad playing his new guitar.</p> <p>“This video is what happened next - something in that guitar sparked a memory, and we shared a moment together last night where we just about played our favourite song for the first time in five years. I’m on cloud nine.”</p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/body/2016/03/fitness-tips-from-75-year-old-tennis-champions/"><em>Fitness inspiration from a 75-year-old tennis champion</em></a></strong></span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/body/2016/03/exercises-you-can-do-sitting-down/"><em>5 exercises that you can do sitting down</em></a></strong></span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/hearing/2016/03/can-exercise-damage-your-hearing/"><em>Can exercise damage your hearing?</em></a></strong></span></p>

Retirement Life

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John Lennon's guitar sells for record price at auction

<p>After disappearing following a concert in 1963 and being found again 50 years later, John Lennon’s 1962 J-160E Gibson Acoustic guitar, that he used to record “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You”, sold at auction on Saturday for $2.4 million. </p> <p>The final sell price significantly exceeded the $600,000 to $800,000 estimated by auction house Julien’s Auctions.</p> <p>Lennon purchased the guitar in September of 1962 for £161, according to Julien’s Auctions. Fellow Beatle George Harrison purchased an identical guitar at the same time. Other hits that Lennon recorded using the guitar include “Please, Please, Me,” “All My Loving” and “From Me to You,” according to the auction house.</p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/health/caring/2015/11/kate-middleton-foster-care-charity-event/">What Kate Middleton plans to do next is truly touching</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/11/prince-harry-moment-with-veteran/">Prince Harry shares moment with injured veteran</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/lifestyle/pets/2015/08/famous-people-and-cats/">Our favourite old-school celebs and their adorable cats</a></strong></em></span></p>

News

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The 5 best Stevie Ray Vaughan songs of all time

<p>Despite enjoying only a short-lived career due to his 1990 passing, American blues artist Stevie Ray Vaughan endures as one of the greatest guitarists this world has ever known. From his gritty, emotional growl to his incomparable bluesy guitar licks, Stevie is an icon in the world of Rock and Roll, one who remains inimitable to this day. To celebrate what would have been Vaughan’s 61st birthday if not for a tragic helicopter crash, we’ve compiled a list of his top five tracks. </p> <p><strong>5. The Sky Is Crying – Soul to Soul (1985)</strong><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></p> <div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 100%;"> <div style="display: block; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe src="http://players.brightcove.net/4174796129001/default_default/index.html?videoId=4525149843001" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;"></iframe></div> </div> <p><strong>4. “Change It” – Soul To Soul (1985)</strong><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></p> <div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 100%;"> <div style="display: block; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe src="http://players.brightcove.net/4174796129001/default_default/index.html?videoId=4525150032001" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;"></iframe></div> </div> <p><strong>3. “Texas Flood” – Texas Flood (1983)</strong></p> <div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 100%;"> <div style="display: block; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe src="http://players.brightcove.net/4174796129001/default_default/index.html?videoId=4525150033001" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;"></iframe></div> </div> <p><strong>2. “Cold Shot” – Couldn’t Stand the Weather (1984)</strong></p> <div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 100%;"> <div style="display: block; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe src="http://players.brightcove.net/4174796129001/default_default/index.html?videoId=4525155987001" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;"></iframe></div> </div> <p><strong>1. “Pride and Joy” – Texas Flood (1983)</strong></p> <div style="display: block; position: relative; max-width: 100%;"> <div style="display: block; padding-top: 56.25%;"><iframe src="http://players.brightcove.net/4174796129001/default_default/index.html?videoId=4525150034001" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;"></iframe></div> </div> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/wellbeing/2015/09/monday-music-playlist/">Catchy songs to beat the Monday blues</a></strong></span></em></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/finance/insurance/2015/09/best-songs-of-the-70s/">10 songs from the 70s you need to revisit now</a></strong></span></em></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/finance/insurance/2015/07/10-great-songs-from-the-60s/">10 songs from the 60s you need to revisit now</a></strong></span></em></p>

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Dragon lizard snapped playing a leaf guitar

<p>It looks like the next big rock star could be this dragon lizard.</p><p>Photographer Aditya Permana, who is based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, was recently exploring the local forest when he came across this dragon lizard.</p><p>After observing him for an hour, Permana was stunned to witness the lizard holding a leaf like a guitar slung across his body.</p><p>“I did not directly photograph the lizard at first, until the lizards feel calm and comfortable around me. I noticed it looked like it was playing a guitar – and it didn’t move at all,” said Permana.</p><p>Unfortunately, the lizard did not begin to start rocking out on his makeshift guitar but it sure does look like it!</p><p><img width="704" height="976" src="http://cdn.earthporm.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/dragon-lizard-playing-leaf-guitar-aditya-permana-indonesia-1.jpg" alt="dragon-lizard-playing-leaf-guitar-aditya-permana-indonesia-1" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13430" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></p><p><strong>Related links:&nbsp;</strong></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/02/koala-driving-car/" target="_blank"><strong>Schoolboy finds a koala trying to drive a car</strong></a></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/03/baby-chameleons-taronga-zoo/" target="_blank"><strong>More than 20 baby chameleons born at Taronga Zoo</strong></a></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/03/new-primitive-moth/" target="_blank"><strong>Newly discovered moth is “a living dinosaur”</strong></a></em></span></p>

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