Zan - the final post for the A to Z Challenge

So it's a made-up word.

It was 1990, the height of Warhead's short career, Corey Wallace had made up this word - 'Zan'. Out of nowhere.

It really stood for anything, and we started using it in sentences - it was a noun, verb, adverb, pronoun, present participle, you name it.

Zan was it. A versatile word that fit every occasion.

And best of all, it was all ours.

Only we knew what it meant. It was code. Our code.

Andrew Moffat, Nick Nathaniel, Mark Dopson, Corey Wallace and myself - Cesco Emmanuel.

We were so young and naive, with no clue what life held in store, but we were playing heavy music, sometimes we loved it, sometimes we hated it. We were seeing other parts of the country. We played in some really messed up hell holes, hardly any money, terrible sound, one occasion I got electrocuted while performing.

But hey, we had fun didn't we?

Yes indeed, we zanned it.

Those were the days.

I hope to never forget those great, young, innocent 'Warhead' times.

Yawning, Yapping and You

You know Trinis are a special breed of people that love to tell you about yourself, even when it's not their place. Even when it's not true.

Like the time when I lost weight, everyone had to tell me 'Hey you not looking good you know, you looking too skinny, are you sick?'

Trinis have no cover for their mouth and they don't really care.

Sometimes when I'm out, I yawn and almost every time without fail, I get a comment about how I'm always tired - "oh gosh, yuh just came out, how you yawning already?"

So I try to take it in stride, because if I didn't, I'd be upset and annoyed all the time.

Trinis, if they don't make you stronger, they'll will insult you to death (albeit in a funny way).

And that is just how we're all built here - boldface and blunt, always giving someone 'fatigue', not much in the way of political correctness, and lately it seems that common sense is losing ground here as well.

Trinis - we love to talk, we can spend hours just out on a street corner talking rubbish.

And we always, always tell you how we feel, or what we think of everything, we're all experts here, whether you want to hear it or not, whether it's true or not.

And most sentences start with "You need to do this" or "why don't you try this?"

Trinis love to give unsolicited advice. I get it all the time from my 'friends'.

But most of the time, what I would like to say is "Why don't you mind your own damn business?"

Xanadu by RUSH

It started with guitar lines that faded in an out, whether Alex used a volume pedal or just turned his volume knob on and off on his guitar to make those notes swell and die quickly, I'm not sure.

It was haunting, sad at first, but it had this epic, nostalgia feel to it, you could tell something big was about to happen. The first few notes caught my ear and I was forever hooked on that song.

Then it built, slowly and softly till the entire band came in all at once, like an outburst of sound, Alex repeating this simple motif high up on the fretboard but it was so powerful. It just exploded out of nowhere.

Then there was a quiet lull, as if waiting for time to cease.

Soon Peart rolled in with this crazy drum arrangement and the bass line was just truly infectious, the song just grooved along, it almost felt like an instrumental.

The chords and melody line that followed in the verse had me lapping it all up like a starving dog.

By the time the end guitar solo came in I was confused and lost as to what part of the song I loved more.

It would remain one of my favourite RUSH songs of all time.

For their 30th anniversary tour, they played a little part of it and I was in heaven, for those two minutes.

Such a masterpiece, it's a real shame they don't play it more often.

So much great music over a career spanning almost 40 years.

And I liked every era of their music - the early stuff with just guitar, bass and drums; the keyboard era in the 80s, and the early 90s return to their raw sound.

There's just so many great songs to choose from.

One of Canada's greatest bands of all time, and one the most amazing, technically proficient power trios that ever existed.

RUSH - a musicians' band.

My favourite band of all time. A band I saw three times.

I own most of their albums, a few t-shirts, a tour book, two DVDs, and hundreds of songs. I've learnt many of their songs, I've changed my guitar tunings for their earlier songs.

They're a cult band, and they're still going strong, almost 40 years later.

Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart.

Three guys that made and still continue to make some amazing music unapologetically.

Will you come with me, I'm taking a little trip

Hey I'm going away for a while, don't know when I'll be back. Do you want to come? You only need a backpack - three clean pairs of socks, a few underwear, deodorant, some t-shirts, two pairs of jeans, two good pairs of shoes and an iPod.

That's it.

Oh, and a willingness to go on an adventure.

Where are we going? I have no set plans but it should be fun.

Let's start off in New Zealand, and then head to Australia.

Have you ever been to British Columbia? I've never been to the East Coast of Canada, I hear it's lovely.

I'd like to see more of Scotland, I only passed through for one day. Ireland is a must, I have some family ancestry from those two places. Maybe I have a long lost cousin somewhere there.

My great grandmother was Madeira, so we can go to Portugal for a bit.

And we will end in Spain, especially Barcelona.

Let's go to a football match at the Camp Nou, let's go see Barca play.

Yes?

When can you leave?

I'll call you tomorrow to see if you're packed and ready to go.

Let's get out of here.

See the world.

Just you and me.

Van Halen

David Lee Roth will always be 'the' frontman. Sammy Hagar did a decent job, but it just wasn't the same. I had copies of '5150' and 'OU812' and 'F.U.C.K', some decent songs there, but nowhere near what came before.

Van Halen was just raunchy, rocking band with a singer who sounded like he didn't care and was having a good time doing just that. A wild man. A ladies man. A party animal. David Lee Roth.

Sammy Hagar? Well.

It just was not the Van Halen we knew. It was a different band, sort of sounding like VH, but with a different lead singer, and then the tone and writing style changed. But honestly, how you can ever get better than '1984'? With songs like 'Top Jimmy', 'Drop dead legs', I mean c'mon?

Then came the strange period with Extreme's singer - Gary Cherone, biggest mistake.

It's like losing your favourite dog and having your parents tell you they'll get you another dog.

The only guy who was replaceable, sorry to say was Michael Anthony. But not Roth, as crazy as he is, and you can't replace Eddie or Alex.

My favourite album is actually 'Diver Down' believe it or not, there's a song - 'Secrets' that I just love how the clean guitar sound just carries the whole tune, the bass has a solid pumping beat with the drums and then Eddie rips in with a signature solo. So what? he wasn't as fast as all the speed demons out there, but he has something most guys don't - a sense of melody and placing the right notes at the right time. His tone and technique are easily identified. How many guitar shredders can you hear and not tell the difference? I put Eddie Van Halen about the whole lot of them.

Forever in the history books of music, Van Halen will be one of those epic bands that made great music and had fun doing it.

Thanks guys.

U2

Their early stuff was the best, now they just sound like a band that has lost the zeal and the fire to write good music.

Bono still has a great voice, but their earlier albums - 'Boy', 'War', 'October', 'Unforgettable Fire', 'Joshua Tree' and to a lesser extent 'Achtung Baby' will always be my favourites.

And my God can he sing. Bono. A real frontman. When he reaches those high notes, it's loaded with emotion and feeling.

Don't get me wrong, I still like hearing their later stuff, but it is just 'ok', not great.

Great was in the mid-80s. Then it just became ok afterwards.

It's not their fault really, it happens to almost every artist/band that we know, over the course of their career they will lose their spark, some bands find it back, others don't.

Lyrically, I think Bono is still a genius and the Edge's guitar tone defined an entire generation of guitar players. And they have always been innovative in their writing and their sound, so kudos to them.

I danced many a night away drunk to 'Electrical Storm'.

But with songs like 'Bad', 'Wild Horses', 'Red Hill Mining Town' and 'Unforgettable Fire', it's hard to top that.

Maybe they just couldn't. Maybe they didn't want to anyway.

All I can hear in my head when I think of them are these words -

'And if the mountain should crumble, or disappear into the sea, not a tea, nor not I'

Thanks guys for bringing me such great music in my youth.

Soundgarden

I played all their albums on cassette when they broke up in 1997, drove my mother nuts.

When they got back together in 2011, I pulled out all their CDs and blasted it to high hell. I saw them that summer at the Molsen Amphitheatre in Toronto.

What Joy! A teenager's dream lived. My heroes.

I was really a metal kid, but the first time I heard Soundgarden, I became a changed man.

They were, and will always remain the loudest band I've ever seen and heard in my entire life. It wasn't a volume thing, it was a 'sound' thing. It's hard to describe, but it felt like a wall of sound - ambient at times, dissonant, all sort of feedback from every direction but yet it was groovy and so, so dark.

It wasn't the tightest show, they weren't the tightest band. But still. They have this thing to them. They always did to me. This thing.

When 'King Animal' came out in 2012, I was the happiest guy alive.

Finally Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron, Ben Sheppard and Kim Thayil were back where they belonged - together.

Hallelujah! Praise Seattle. Thank God for feedback.

I would honestly say that to me they stand apart from the rest of the grunge/alternative bands that came out of the Seattle scene in the late 80s/early 90s.

Oh sure there was the great Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney and Screaming Trees as well as a few others that made a name for themselves.

Each band good at what they did, each with their own sound.

That was one great thing about the Seattle scene in its' infancy.

And nowadays, Pearl Jam is still busy as hell putting out great music that's fairly accessible and touring non-stop, and Alice in Chains is having a go with a new lead singer since Layne Staley's death, but we all know it's not the same really, but they do deserve a 'Bravo!' for keeping it going and Jerry Cantrell is an excellent songwriter.

But Soundgarden to me had this dark, gloomy, slow groove that could just really have you beside yourself.

And their bizarre tunings. It's not just a drop 'D' or a drop 'C' on the 6th string while the rest of the guitar was in standard, now way, uh-uh. These guys will tune an entire guitar to the note 'E', just listen to 'Mind Riot' - a brilliant song with this haunting drone in the background.

So without further ado, here's a sample of some of my other favourites:

Badmotorfinger: 'Slaves and Bulldozers', 'Searching with my good eye closed', 'Holy Water', 'New Damage'

Superunknown: 'Mailman', 'Superunknown', 'Head down', 'Limo Wreck', 'The day I tried to live' and '4th of July'.

All those songs and more I killed repeatedly on my cassette deck back in the day.

And the tone of the guitars played by Thayil and Cornell, was so reminiscent of early Sabbath, it was a welcomed change from all the bright metal sounding guitars of the 80s. Not Soundgarden, their tone was stink and deep.

I just couldn't believe how they composed music. The guitars played these very uncomplicated melody lines that seemed perfectly placed to make each song seem darker, meaner, sludgier. The rhythm wasn't chunky but it had this chugging sort of feel. And Chris Cornell is one of the best singers of all time, when he screams my pores raise. I can still listen to the breakdown in 'Limo Wreck' and get goosebumps. Ben Sheppard's bass parts are so damn nasty and groovy and to top it off he's a damn good songwriter, and Matt Cameron is a phenomenal, intelligent drummer and a brilliant songwriter as well.

It's a killer combination really.

And when I got my hands on their digital download that very first day 'King Animal' was available, once more I smiled and shook my head when I heard 'Blood on the valley floor'.

Ah yes, my boys are back in business.