OK Forum members, you know the expression Let the FORCE be with you? Well, take precautionary measures before listening because the FORCE is coming right inside your house, gonna get right next to you and it may be a good time to check if your surge suppressor is working.

Before that, though, did you know that there is another blues burner and yet another award winning banjo picker both named Tom Adams? People's comments on SoundCloud always were written as though they weren't talking to our Tom, but about that other guitar guy, asking how he's doing and such. So Tom and I agreed to use "Tommy" in hopes making things less confusing.

Tommy, the mighty burner, is the FORCE. Along with

Jamie Rhind, synth
Aleck Rand, Hammond, synths, bass, horns, arrangement
Several RealDrummers
Mixed by Tom Adams

This ain't your father's

............................................Green Onions

You hip cats are on fire man. I dig this crazy jazz sound. This was cool, groovy, uptight, outasight, dope, beast, wicked and dizzy. Please invite me to the next hip swinging jam if the other cats are down with it.

Hi Aleck Rand, first thing I'll say is I Love the song title! The force is strong with this one! The section at 1:38 is very interesting, very crazy and fun! Well done!

Dean and Tommy,

I have played this song SOOO many times that familiarity almost bred contempt. I would have been glad to have never heard that song again UNTIL NOW!

YEH!
I like

Nice synth, organ and guitar

good mix Tom

I will give the neighbours a treat later, door open and all at 11.
They might object now as it is 1.00 am here

Alyn

I love the mix. The separation is great. Green Onions and the rest of the fridge (lol).

I love the mix. The separation is great. Green Onions as I've never heard it before (lol).

Wow! The most fun version I've heard in a long time. That was great; excellent solos and a very good mix, I think.

Thank you.

Green onions I thought like Huh ??? Then the first opening notes and I said oh ‘THAT Green Onions
The rest was a roller coaster ride of fun. down the line, highly talented musicians just letting go, putting definitive movements within it, that was just brilliant This was a real sit up listen guys, loved it.

Paddy G

I would definitely define this as definitive!!! If the forum was a TV show, this would definitely be our theme to introduce the show. The greener, the meaner, so glad I seen her (and heard her). Okay, I'm just getting silly now. This is such a great listen-great song to spin some stellar musicianship off of. I'm a big booker T fan-loved his work on Bruce Cockburn's Nothin but a Burning Light. Great work guys!!! Booker T would love this!! Take care. Greg

Wow, really excellent guitar tone here! I love that distortion! Flamethrower guitar, indeed.

As most of you here know, our resident maestro, master guitarist and keyboardist Dean likes to color outside the lines once in a while. Thanks for taking me along on the ride. It was fun reinterpreting a classic. Not only does Dean play some great B3 and bass but he brings in Jamie for some dazzling synth work. These two impressive musicians left me in awe with their contributions to this project and deserve a big Thanks from me for allowing me to participate. What a Blast! Thanks to all who took the time to listen and comment. We all appreciate it. Tom

I loved this tune. Excellent collaboration

To Tom and all the Forum members:

We ought to get two things clear:

(1) The blues is a chord progression. Not to be confused with blue suede shoes, or your emotional state after someone stepped on them even after you asked, "Please don't."

(2) Blues guitar does not mean playing the blues on the guitar. The simplest blues is an art in itself (three 7th chords is alls you get) and here's where you find blues guitar. On the other hand, jazz blues substitutes entire sub-progressions for the three basic chords, offering easy escapes, lots of room for double-talk, etc.

Now that we've cleared that up, it's time for something that needs no clearing up: Tom Adams is a virtuoso of the blues guitar. Green Onions, as performed here, shows the kind of hybrid that can result when you turn a jazz musician loose on the three chords. But I can't even fake blues guitar, so in order to make it work we needed a solo voice strong enough to cut through the dense accompaniment and occasional smoke-and-mirrors. Tom has the voice, the vernacular and the venom. I agree with that this collaboration was a blast that deserves to be heard another time.

Aleck Rand

"Blues guitar does not mean playing the blues on the guitar"? You've got me there! I'm completely baffled.

Great collab guys!

Great virtuoso performance by all. Quite a top level collaboration that fried those green onions to perfection.

Had a fun listen.


Charlie

That was NICE! I'm going to cop this arrangement for my next gig. I've done GO on organ for years to the point I hated it and started messing around with it out of boredom with staying true to the original. Never did a formal rearrangement though but I did change it to Am so I could easily throw in some Greg Rollie Santana style two handed chord slaps in it. Love this version and thanks for posting this.

Bob

David,

You unleashed a flurry of boss phrases and praises on Tommy and me and the gang. And naturally we are all grateful. It's hard to believe that GO has been going strong since 1962 and I'd like to think that it set Booker T. up for life, but in the music business - make that the entertainment business - you never know. Think of the two guys that invented the Superman character. I think they sold the rights to Marvel Comics for $150 and spent the rest of their days fighting - I don't know with what success - for their just reward.

Dean

Hey Jazzmammal,

Go forth with our blessings, dude, and thanks from all of us. I do know what you mean - more than one Forum member expressed the same "done it to death" fatigue with the Onions. In fact, that was the motivation to take it into the Room of Fun House Mirrors and watch it orbit around Tom's gravitational pull. If you can record the band doing it on a gig (...gig? it sounds familiar ... remind me again?) and post it somewhere, I'd love to hear it. Looking forward to it.

Dean

Lambada!

Why is blues guitar not the same thing as playing the blues on the guitar? What a great question! And it deserves a quality answer. This will appear in a forthcoming post. Now I wish someone would ask, "Which soldier escaped the circular firing squad?" No answers have been forthcoming and I just may have to give it away with a "spoiler alert."

Aleck Rand

Y'all are smokin'!

Made me want to hear this band live.

Excellent mix - put each player "right there".

Tom - hot!

fj

Dean & Tom & others

Great re-interpreted version of a classic. Brilliantly done.

Peter

Hey Floyd,

Thanks man. Does Tommy steal it or what? With the horns at the end, he's cookin' as hot as it gets.

Dean

Old enough to remember the original and.....WOW!!

This kicks a$$ in all directions with the playing, the
arrangment and a killer mix.

Oh yeah!!!!!

J&B

Janice and Bud,

We had a ball twisting this chestnut into a pretzel. Isn't it the truth though? We remember the original - WOW!! is right - meaning we're .... old. I love expression like

(a) "Where did the time go?" and
(b) "If you have your health, then you have everything."

The second one is supposed to help old fellas like me "feel better about ourselves." Bear with me on this for a second guys, will you? If it's true that "If you have A, then you have B", then it must be true that "If you don't have B, then you don't have A" (because if you did have A, you would have B - we just said that). So if sentence (b) is true, then it means "If you don't have everything (which is certainly true for all of us), then you don't have your health." Try convincing any healthy person of that. So much for (b). As for (a), tell me where the rainbow "went" after you no longer see it. Let me know if you find it, because that's where the time went too.

Let me apologize for subjecting you nice people to this foolishness. That's why "old" and "fool" go together so often. Glad you liked Green Onions and thank you.

Dean

Peter,

Thanks for a wonderful compliment.

Dean

I was crowned a septuagenarian last January. Entering the 80th decade ain't a walk in the park. At least not for this one. Sans my younger wife I'd be....well no need to expound Hang in there!

Bud