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Hardly a soul exists in a developed country that hasn’t heard some Steve Lukather guitar playing at one time or another, and many have no awareness that what they’re listening to is his playing. He worked in the late 70s and 80s mostly as a session player for too many names to list but two of the big ones are Cher and Michael Jackson. He also got together with his session player buddies to form a band called Toto. Since 1989 he has also put out a variety of solo work. More recently, he’s been a part of Ringo’s all star band

I have listed this post as incomplete, because I have listened to a rather small amount of Toto’s catalogue, only 2 of their 14 studio albums. I found out about Toto while working at a grocery store. I would hear Hold the Line on the store radio and liked it. I later looked it up and that was the first time I heard the name Toto. I believe I’ve heard Rosanna on those “hits of the 80s” type CDs being advertised on TV in the 90s. In 2012 I found out that some guy called Steve Lukather was going to be playing a Joe Satriani’s G3 that year. My reaction was, “Who the hell is that?” So that actually got me to check out his solo records starting with 2008’s Ever-changing Times. Since then I have been meaning to give Toto a chance and only did so about half a year ago. I also recently finished reading Lukather’s book, so some of the information here is coming from that. He likes to go buy Luke as a result of knowing too many Steves like Steve Porcaro for example, so I’ll refer to him as Luke from here on.

What I remember from the book is that during the 70s Luke had a little high school band going. He did a little bit of session work, but somewhere along the way he got picked up by Boz Scaggs to be his touring guitarist not long after he was out of high school. He ended up doing two solos on Scaggs’s eighth studio album, Down Two Then Left.

This is a very Lukather-esque solo that works as a good representation of his style.

This was a one take solo that helped establish his session player career. Word tended to make its way around the music community of L.A. when something like that was down. I honestly prefer the A Clue solo to this one. It was also not long after that the his session player buddies decided to form Toto with him.

I’ve been thinking about how odd a band Toto is. All of the musicians in the band are really, really good but at the same time there’s a complete lack of the coolness factor in their music. They are a group of music nerds doing really great music but nobody is going to think you’re one of the cool kids (or cool, uhh, older guy) if they hear you listening to Toto. Some true rocker types might even put you down for it. So anyway, let’s start with:

The typical Toto approach was shared vocal duties, and Luke takes the lead on this one. I honestly find the sound of his voice to be quite good. He’s a baritone and no legendary singer, but he’s got a pleasant, natural tone to his voice. That’s actually Cheryl Lynn singing the “Georgy porgy” chorus. In this video you might also notice how dorky the members of Toto look. Totally not cool at all. Jeff Porcaro, the drummer, could play some drums but those glasses look so terrible. Anyway, Luke is bringing some nice slide guitar at 2:00 with an oddly-placed solo in the middle of the song.

Not surprisingly, this song started as a piano song, and Luke added that complementary guitar riff on top of the piano foundation. This is an excellent example of the kind of thing Luke (probably most members of Toto as well) did. He has an excellent ability to add a complementary guitar track that enhances a song and makes it even better. Some of Luke’s best work is not his soloing or lead guitar, but his additions to what end up being rather full mixes with a lot of instruments doing a lot of work.

Again, he’s singing on this one, and I find his voice quite pleasant. I love those two notes he plays in the transition from the softer sections to the rockin’ part (1:57).

After a pretty successful first album based off the success of “Hold the Line,” they decided to go for more rock credibility with their next effort, Hydra.

There’s a short transition solo at 1:20 and a much longer solo found at 2:19. He nailed it on both of them, and then there’s another sort of solo squeezed in there during the transitional section at 3:08 and outro soloing to take us home at 4:04. All well done.

I don’t have a solo to point you to here, but what I love about his song is his complementary rhythm playing that starts at 0:40 and repeats several times throughout the song. I’m assuming this was another Hold the Line type piano song that he added guitar on top of.

Yes, that famous song. Luke got to sing the verse and the higher stuff was done by Bobby Kimball, the tenor. The hardest rockin’ parts of the song are created by Luke’s guitar and makes the song more complex and interesting than the piano pop ditty it is in most places. He starts soloing at 3:13 and does the outro solo thing later on.

My knowledge of Toto stops there.

I do know the Luke is the one playing rhythm guitar and bass on MJ’s Beat It. He also contributed guitar work and solos to 80s/90s hits like (Solo at 2:17):

In 1989 Luke released his first solo album. I recall reading about how he got shafted as far as it being released in the USA. So he didn’t really have much success with it. The first two tracks might have had some radio success. The first one features an unlisted Eddie Van Halen in there. I’m not sure what he did on the track.

I haven’t listened to 1994’s Candyman much, but I enjoyed his 1997 release entitled Luke.

Songs like this reveal Luke is more than just a guitar player. He really did a great job on the lyrics and vocals here. I really like the continuous vocal drops during the chorus that mimic a slide guitar or other instrument that goes between the notes. His solo here does not disappoint either (3:16).

In 2003 he released a Christmas album called Santamental. Which features a lot of guests, so it’s listed as Steve Lukather and Friends. One of those guests is Eddie Van Halen on the first track.

After an instrumental presentation of the song, there’s a long soloing section featuring alternating solos between Luke and Eddie for a total of 6. This is probably the coolest and craziest version of Joy to the World you’ll ever hear.

I’m including this song, because it’s actually a modern, original Christmas song that perfectly mimics that traditional Christmas feel. Honestly, I thought it was a traditional Christmas song until I read in his book that he wrote it with help from a friend.

In 2008 he released Ever-Changing Times. Overall it is a good collection of rock songs and ballads, but I can’t choose a song that really stands out.

In 2010 he released All’s Well That Ends Well, which is a similarly excellent piece of work.

Again, Luke brings it as more than just a guitar player but as a singer and lyricist as well. He also got excellent keyboard work done. That additional guitar track at 0:46 was a brilliant addition. He starts a solo at 2:43 and just kills it. Another great solo in a great song.

He’s got himself a nice little riff going on this one with some masterful soloing starting at 2:56.

Finally, his solo career stops in 2013 at this point with an album simply named Transition. This guy puts out great stuff now and this is another overall great effort. The nine-track album starts off with 3 negative songs. The first two are about all the hate spewed on the internet by keyboard warriors, and the third about getting divorced. It’s followed up by a song called Right the Wrong and then the title track, Transition. There are then two positive songs and a love song written by a friend who gave him permission to use it. Finally, it ends on an instrumental cover of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile. I leave you with the opening track.

I kept my coverage of the solo albums pretty brief. I’m sure I left out some great work and great solos, and really, I would recommend checking out the full albums from 2008 to 2013 if you like a wide variety music with excellent musicianship. If you know more about Toto than me, you can contribute some Toto songs and moments I haven’t heard yet.

Hits: 8

In an interview, SRV said it was “A Prayer” and on an Austin City Limits performance, Stevie introduced this by saying it was “This one goes out for all the people still suffering out there tonight”.

Done in one magic take, the recording session was the stuff of legends. Producer Jim Gaines recalls:

Stevie told me he had an instrumental he wanted to try, and I said that I only had nine minutes of tape left,”  “He said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s only four minutes long.’ We dimmed the lights and the band started playing this gorgeous song, which went on to six minutes, seven minutes, seven-and-a-half… The performance was absolutely incredible, totally inspired, dripping with emotion—and here we were, about to run out of tape. “I was jumping up and down, waving my arms, but everyone was so wrapped up in their playing that no one was paying me any mind. I finally got Chris’ attention and emphatically gave him the cut sign. He started trying to flag down Stevie, but he was hunched over his guitar with his head bent down. Finally, he looked up, and they brought the song down just in time. It ended, and a few seconds later the tape finished and the studio was silent, except for the sound of the empty reel spinning around.

It has been said by those who knew Stevie best that he considered this to be his masterpiece, as it is his soul that your hearing not just notes and chords. Stevie called it “The King Tone”—the bell-like, crystalline timbre of a Fender Strat played clean, warm and in the in-between (out-of-phase neck-middle and bridge-middle) pickup positions. And he put it to extraordinary use on “Riviera Paradise,” one of his rare but unforgettable forays into the world of Wes Montgomery–inspired jazz blues.

It was the last song he played at what would be his last show, a show that he opened up for Eric Clapton.

After his performance he received a standing ovation that lasted for what seemed like an extended period of time going much longer than what would be considered normal. As he was finishing his bows of gratitude to the crowd you can see Clapton, who also is giving a standing ovation to Stevie. As Stevie was finishing his bow’s of gratitude to the crowd you can see Clapton also giving a standing ovation near the back of the stage. He greeted Stevie as he was leaving the stage and told him that his song was beautiful, powerful, something special. The song pulled him (Clapton) out of his dressing room, that he had to come see this being played, that he was just like the people in the crowd, he was blown away by it. When Clapton took the stage he even told the crowd he was taken by the song and it was the first time in a very long time that he didn’t know what to open with saying how do you even follow that performance.

Stevie took Clapton’s seat on the flight out, he was trying to beat the bad weather said to be coming and there wasn’t room for the two of them, Clapton was being nice and trying to help when he offered up his seat to Stevie. Before Stevie left he told the members of his crew/band that he received what he considered to be the greatest compliment in the history of his life tonight from someone he looked up to since he was a child. It meant so much to him to hear that from Eric Clapton, someone he considered to be one of the all time greatest guitarist in the world. That flight crashed, killing everyone onboard. Clapton was devastated when he learned of the crash and Stevie’s untimely death, he later again talked about Stevie’s performance that night and how he (Clapton) was just like the people in the crowd and was so taken by that beautiful, powerful piece of music, calling it a masterpiece by anyone’s standards and like the artist something special that should be remembered for eternity.

Hits: 93

Happy Veteran’s Day! We here at Music For Us hope you are having a safe holiday and are remembering why this day is a holiday.

There are two things which you may notice. The first is that this one isn’t being written by COF and the second is that this appears to be a timely article.

To address those issues, I’ll simply note that I do actually write and that this plan to write timely articles (to do things such as make holiday posts) has been in the works for some time. We tested the waters back on the 4th of July and this is a continuation of that test.

We will gauge the responses and make our decisions based on what data we have. We will absolutely not be writing one of these for every single holiday. First, there’s just too many holidays and not enough time. Second, we get visitors from across the globe -- meaning we all have different holidays and celebrate holidays on entirely different days.

So, we must be pragmatic.

Also, for those unfamiliar with my writing style, I’m pretty verbose.

That means this will not be like the articles you see daily. The daily articles are (usually) written by COF. This was written by me. I am not COF. I will write like I am me. I also swear like a trooper. I will abstain as this site is not my guitar site and the audiences are quite different.

Now that we’ve established that, let’s get on with the music!

This song is very near and dear to me, even though it came out after my period of enlistment. First and foremost, it’s about the United States Marine Corps, a service to which I gave a portion of my life. More specifically, it’s mostly about the individual Marines and not about the Corps itself.

It’s notable that Billy Joel, contrary to popular opinion, neither served in the USMC nor did he fight in Vietnam. However, he lived through the era and he wrote the song at the behest of a number of his Marine friends. Friends who told him their experiences, as they did fight in the war.

This song is about the Vietnam War but is about the people who fought it, which is a key difference and why this song is exceptional. Unlike many such songs, this song makes no attempt to make a statement about the war itself. This song is not a war protest song. It makes no political statement.

Goodnight Saigon doesn’t try to moralize about the war, or even about war in general. This song is about the people who fought, specifically about the Marines who fought in Vietnam -- but it makes many positive references to their opponents.

To understand the song, it’s important to understand why it was written. In Joel’s own words, on the Howard Stern show in 2014, Joel said:

“I wanted to do that for my friends who did go to ‘Nam. A lot of them came back from being in country and really had a hard time getting over it, and still to this day I think a lot of them are having a hard time. They were never really welcomed back, and whether you agreed with the war or not, these guys really took it on the chin. They went over there and they served, and they never really got their due.

“It was all about them depending on each other. When they were over there, they weren’t thinking about mom, apple pie and the flag, they were doing it for each other -- to try to help and save each other and protect each other. That really hit me.”

The song begins with the sound of helicopter rotors and the lyrics start with the Marines arriving on Paris Island, which is where people born on the eastern side of the Mississippi River are molded into Marines.

It explains how they left Paris Island in peak physical condition. It also introduces you to the fact that he never says, “I.” First, he was not himself a Marine but, more importantly, it was never about the fictional individual -- but was about the soldiers, plural. At never about a single soldier. It’s not even strictly about a specific side of the conflict.

The song continues and tells you about their arrival in that country and how many young Marines had that experience as their entire life experience -- that they died and wouldn’t be returning home to their loved ones and to resume their life as a civilian.

Joel goes on to tell you, as best as he can, about the experiences that the Marine friends shared with him. He tells you how it was boredom and doing without, with lots of hard labor, that was punctuated with periods of terror.

He tells you that the enemy was also adept at war fighting and that, in the midst of it all, it doesn’t matter who is wrong or who is right -- and that you’re not fighting for for a cause or the people back home, but are fighting for the brother who stands beside you.

It’s in those times of terror, when your very normal and human instinct is to run away, that you fight -- not because of any flag or country, but because the person next to you is fighting and because you’re closer than even brothers. You’re close enough to be willing to die together.

The song is not about those who died. It mentions the people who died, but it is about the warriors who survived. It’s about them, about them remembering back to their wartime experiences and about them remembering those they fought with.

That’s why it’s posted today. Veteran’s Day isn’t really about the men and women who died in war. That’s what Memorial Day is for. Today is for the warriors who survived, maybe never even having seen combat but had been willing to serve and take those risks.

Today is about service and those willing to provide it.

Billy Joel felt that the veterans had been given unfair treatment and that they’d returned home without recognition. He felt, and still does, that it doesn’t matter how one personally feels about the Vietnam War, or any war. That, regardless of one’s own opinion, it’s important to give recognition to those who provided service.

Which is exactly what today is about. Because this article is not about me, I won’t go into details. I will say that it doesn’t matter if you saw combat, you’re still a veteran and you still deserve recognition for your service -- regardless of anyone’s opinions on the validity of conflict.

Which is why this is written. Today, we extend our thanks to the people who have served in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard. Today, we recognize you and we serve you (even if it’s just this article) as a way of thanking you for having the fortitude to serve in our armed forces, both in times of peace and in times of violent conflict.

Thank you for your service. How can we help?

In closing, if you think that this sort of posting of articles for special holidays is a good idea, please do leave a comment. We’d prefer it if you left the comment here, so that we can get a good record of the responses, but you’re free to leave them elsewhere and we’ll try to collect the data as well as we can.

If it’s something that people are interested in, we’ll consider making this a regular feature for key holidays or other meaningful days. If you have a holiday and a recommendation, please feel free to share them. If you’re interested in contributing, we welcome submissions of all topical material.

Please have a safe, happy, and respectful holiday. If you see a vet, please consider offering them a beer!

Hits: 38

“Come Dancing” is a tribute to the Davies brothers’ sister Rene. Living in Canada with her reportedly abusive husband, the 31-year-old Rene was visiting her parental home in Fortis Green at the time of Ray Davies’ thirteenth birthday—21 June 1957—on which she surprised him with a gift of the Spanish guitar he had tried to persuade his parents to buy him. That evening, Rene, who had a weak heart as a result of a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, suffered a fatal heart attack while dancing at the Lyceum ballroom. The dancehall in this song is referred to as the “Palais,” which is French for “Palace.” Many Victorian buildings that were originally theaters but later became dancehalls went by the name of “The (insert name here) Palais,” so in this case, Davies would be referring to his local dance-hall. In many ways, the song is about change, as ballrooms in the big band era gave way to car parks and rock music.

This is the Lyceum Theater in London from that time:

And this was a typical night at a Palais:

“[Rene] had died dancing in a ballroom in London in the arms of a stranger. … Coming back from Canada where she’d emigrated [from the U.K.] to die, really, and again, being a source of inspiration. … She gave me my first guitar, which was quite a great parting gift”.– Ray Davies

Ray later said that the pop song was an attempt to return to the “warmer” style they had prior to their transformation to an arena rock act, explaining, “I wanted to regain some of the warmth I thought we’d lost, doing those stadium tours. ‘Come Dancing’ was an attempt to get back to roots, about my sisters’ memories of dancing in the ’50s.” The song is a nostalgic look back at childhood memories of its writer: the Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies, remembering his older sister going on dates to the local Palais dance hall where big bands would play.

The song became a staple of Kinks live performances, and song Ray Davies really connected with. He said that of all the songs he’s written “Come Dancing” is the lyrics he’s most proud of.

Davies later claimed that the song was about a spiv (the word spiv is slang for a type of petty criminal who deals in illicit, typically black market, goods), saying, “it was about an East End spiv, sung in a London voice. If anybody had lost any faith in us being real people, that record [‘Come Dancing’] would restore it.” Davies also claimed that the song was sung from a “barrow boy’s” point of view, saying, “[‘Come Dancing’] is sung by an East End barrow boy—I think there’s cockney rhyming slang in it!”.

Hits: 36

In an interview, SRV said it was “A Prayer” and on an Austin City Limits performance, Stevie introduced this by saying it was “This one goes out for all the people still suffering out there tonight”.

ACL live version:

Done in one magic take, the recording session was the stuff of legends.

“Stevie told me he had an instrumental he wanted to try, and I said that I only had nine minutes of tape left,” producer Jim Gaines recalls. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s only four minutes long.’

We dimmed the lights and the band started playing this gorgeous song, which went on to six minutes, seven minutes, seven-and-a-half… The performance was absolutely incredible, totally inspired, dripping with emotion—and here we were, about to run out of tape.

“I was jumping up and down, waving my arms, but everyone was so wrapped up in their playing that no one was paying me any mind. I finally got Chris’ attention and emphatically gave him the cut sign. He started trying to flag down Stevie, but he was hunched over his guitar with his head bent down.

:Finally, he looked up, and they brought the song down just in time. It ended, and a few seconds later the tape finished and the studio was silent, except for the sound of the empty reel spinning around.”

It has been said by those who knew Stevie best that he considered this to be his masterpiece, as it is his soul that your hearing not just notes and chords. It was the last song he played at what would be his last show, a show that he opened up for Eric Clapton.

After his performance he received a standing ovation that lasted for what seemed like an extended period of time going much longer than what would be considered normal. As he was finishing his bows of gratitude to the crowd you can see Clapton also giving a standing ovation near the back of the stage.

He greeted Stevie as he was leaving the stage and told him that his song was beautiful, powerful, something special. The song pulled him (Clapton) out of his dressing room, that he had to come see this being played, that he was just like the people in the crowd, he was blown away by it.

When Clapton took the stage he even told the crowd he was taken by the song and it was the first time in a very long time that he didn’t know what to open with saying how do you even follow that performance.

Stevie took Clapton’s seat on the flight out, he was trying to beat the bad weather said to be coming and there wasn’t room for the two of them, Clapton was being nice and trying to help when he offered up his seat to Stevie.

Before Stevie left he told the members of his crew/band that he received what he considered to be the greatest compliment in the history of his life tonight from someone he looked up to since he was a child. It meant so much to him to hear that from Eric Clapton, someone he considered to be one of the all time greatest guitarist in the world.

That flight crashed, killing everyone onboard.

Clapton was devastated when he learned of the crash and Stevie’s untimely death, he later again talked about Stevie’s performance that night and how he (Clapton) was just like the people in the crowd and was so taken by that beautiful, powerful piece of music, calling it a masterpiece by anyone’s standards and like the artist something special that should be remembered for eternity.

Hits: 50

Originally written/recorded by John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival who released it in 1969. In the beginning, “Proud Mary” had nothing to do with a riverboat. Instead, John Fogerty envisioned it as the story of a woman who works as a maid for rich people. “She gets off the bus every morning and goes to work and holds their lives together,” he explained. “Then she has to go home.”

It was bassist Stu Cook who first introduced the riverboat aspect of the song. The idea came to him as the group watched the television show “Maverick” and Stu made the statement, “Hey riverboat, blow your bell.” John agreed that the boat seemed to have something to do with the song that had been brewing in his mind for quite some time, waiting to take conscious shape. When he wrote the music, he made the first few chords evoke a riverboat paddlewheel going around. Thus, “Proud Mary” went from being a cleanup lady to a boat.

Fogerty wrote the lyrics based on three song title ideas: “Proud Mary,” “Riverboat,” and “Rolling On A River.” He carried around a notebook with titles that he thought would make good songs, and “Proud Mary” was at the top of the list. The song came together on the day that John Fogerty got his discharge papers from the US Army. Fogerty had been drafted in 1966 and was part of a Reserve unit, serving at Fort Bragg, Fort Knox, and Fort Lee. His discharge papers came in 1967.

Fogerty recalls in Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial History of Creedence Clearwater Revival by Hank Bordowitz:

The Army and Creedence overlapped, so I was ‘that hippie with a record on the radio.’ I’d been trying to get out of the Army, and on the steps of my apartment house sat a diploma-sized letter from the government. It sat there for a couple of days, right next to my door.

One day, I saw the envelope and bent down to look at it, noticing it said ‘John Fogerty.’ I went into the house, opened the thing up, and saw that it was my honorable discharge from the Army. I was finally out! This was 1968 and people were still dying. I was so happy, I ran out into my little patch of lawn and turned cartwheels.

Then I went into my house, picked up my guitar and started strumming. ‘Left a good job in the city’ and then several good lines came out of me immediately. I had the chord changes, the minor chord where it says, ‘Big wheel keep on turnin’/Proud Mary keep on burnin” (or ‘boinin’,’ using my funky pronunciation I got from Howling’ Wolf).

By the time I hit ‘Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river,’ I knew I had written my best song. It vibrated inside me. When we rehearsed it, I felt like Cole Porter.

When we recorded the tracks at RCA Studios in Hollywood in October ’68, I channeled Wilson Pickett and Howlin’ Wolf with my lead vocal. Listening to the playback, I wasn’t happy. The band’s background vocals sounded abrasive—like punk rock, not harmonious. I wanted a gospel feel. When I told the guys I was going to overdub the vocal harmony tracks myself, we had a big fight. Bruce Young, our road manager, took them to dinner. I stayed behind and overdubbed all the background vocal parts. I also overdubbed a guitar solo using a Gibson ES-175—a big jazz guitar that I bought for the recording session. I recorded my solo line twice so it sounded more pronounced.

At the restaurant later, the guys were still angry and threatened to quit. I convinced them to hear the results. Back at the studio, I played them the song with my vocals. Nobody said anything. Then Bruce said, “Wow.” The single came out in January ’69 and topped out at No. 2 on Billboard’s pop chart in March for three weeks. The band eventually broke up in ’72.

When I added rhythm to the chords, the song had the motion of a boat. I had always loved Mark Twain’s writing and the music of Stephen Foster, so I wrote lyrics about a riverboat. The line “rollin’ on the river” was influenced by a movie I once saw about two riverboats racing. I finished most of it in two hours. Then I opened my notebook for a song title. There was “Proud Mary.”

This was a #4 hit in the US for Ike & Tina Turner in 1971, and a highlight of their live shows. “Proud Mary” attracted 35 covers in the year 1969 alone. Over 100 have been made since.

Hits: 35