I can think of hundreds of pieces of beautiful, stirring, moving music and songs, of course--The Great Gates of Kiev, Beethoven's 5th, One For My Baby by Frank, most of Pink Floyd, Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, Stay With Me Baby by Lorraine Ellison, many ballads by Jerry Lee Lewis...but there is one...ONE piece of music that eclipses anything I have ever heard: the aria theme by the great master, Ennio Morricone, from one of my favorite movies: "Once Upon A Time in the West," directed by Sergio Leone. Every time I hear that stunning piece I get goosebumps and tears in my eyes.

I just happened to turn on the box to play one of Sergio Leone's films, "Once Upon A Time in America," and caught Andre Rieu conducting his orchestra at night in the beautiful town square of Cortona in Tuscany, and they were playing Ennio's masterpiece. Tore me up....and the audience as well...tears were flowing everywhere. So moving....so beautiful. Morricone tapped into the center of the universe on that one.

Joe New, a guitarist/singer/songwriter friend of mine has a GREAT self-titled album out which I highly recommend...Joe can really write wonderful songs and is a superb wordsmith..."Married to the Blues," a very clever song, and one I used to play in England, has now been recorded by our good friend and fabulous singer, Davey Pattison, as well as "Gypsy Woman." I listen to Joe's album all day long in the car. Write to him at: smokinjoemusic@comcast.net and tell I sent you and that you want to buy his CD....you'll love it. The album was recorded in Emeryville and Nashville, and Joe drives a Coupe de Ville! Actually he doesn't, he has one of those new Mini rocket ships. He's a ville kinda guy, though. But write to him and order his album if you like guitar pickin' and great songs.

There's one about two young boys who live far from town, so their imaginations take over and they pretend they are Frank and Jessie James...one of the great lines is, "our dime-store six-guns must have robbed a hundred Glendale trains, the two of us pretending we were Frank...and Jessie James." Great dobro, mandolin, and guitar work on that track. All good stuff. AAA+++

And if you want to hear a singer who will knock your socks off---right in there with Jimmy Dewar and Paul Rogers, get Davey Pattison's new album, "Pictures" and his previous swampy-blues one, "Mississippi Nights" through John Rewind at Rear Window Music: raywayne@rearwindowmusic.com I call him Ray Wayne because we always talk to each other in exaggerated Mexican accents, and in calling him "Rewind" with a thick accent, it came out "Ray Wayne," so Rewind is also now Ray....follow me so far? Can you imagine how silly we would get if we took drugs?????

Speaking of socks, if you haven't seen 'Million Dollar Baby" yet, see it. There's a wonderful scene between Clint and Morgan Freeman in the boxing gym about Freeman's socks with holes in them...as good as cinema gets. Worth the price of the movie.

Those two are so damned good together...I think Clint should have Morgan in every movie he makes from now on.

The greatest rock n' roll track of all time EASILY is "Rip It Up," by the REAL king of rock n' roll, Little Richard...I've got a live version of it that kicks ass. What's amazing about him as well is that the live version is 2 minutes and 3 seconds, and several studio versions he's done of it are ALL 2 minutes, dead on.

The most eloquent, beautiful song ever written is "Imagine," by John Lennon. "Yesterday" comes real close, but "Imagine" is something very, very special.

But I have to say that I never tire of Celine Dion singing the theme from "Titanic," an absolute stunning track.

The greatest 50's r n' r group is the Coasters, and the FUNKIEST record ever made is definitely "Shoppin' For Clothes" by these dudes....man, that record torches them ALL! I love it....they had such a great sense of humor and style.

I was thinking about guitar solos today...and there are lots of great ones---plenty by Dave Gilmore----I love his stuff...he is so...so theatrical and grandly poetic in his playing.....the Wheels of Fire live "Spoonful" by Eric, of course...I don't think that will ever be eclipsed (I was there that night---every night they played in San Francisco)...Jimi's Star Spangled Banner and just about everything else he did...then there are two others I never tire of hearing: Eric's short ripping solo in "Forever Man," and Jimmy Page's launch into "Stairway to Heaven," a masterpiece.

Speaking of Dave Gilmore....I was driving north on the Portsmouth Road in Cobham, Surrey with the Fairmile Inn on my left and Fairmile Lane coming up on my right back in '98. So I'm on the left side of the road (being in England) in my little red Moggy and pull into the right turn filter lane to turn right into Fairmile Lane, which is a long straight. I hear this dead giveaway V-12 rev up behind me and glance in my mirror. It's Nicky Mason in his Ferrari Daytona. I waved him past, and he took off around me and roared down Fairmile Lane going right through the gears, disappearing in cloud of Ferrari exhaust. Fantastic!

Last Christmas, my son and I were driving towards Ripley from Horseley and approaching us was a silver Mercedes sports job and I looked carefully and it was Eric....I told Alex and he just caught a glimpse of him as he flashed by. We then went to the farewell concert for the Guildford Civic Hall closing that Gary and Eric and Bronzey and Andy Fairweather and Henry Spinetti, et al (the usual crew) were playing and I was hoping Alex could meet Eric then, but his daughter was sick and he split immediately after the gig....still, Alex got to meet all the others afterwards.

Saiichi emailed me yesterday and asked if I could swing tickets for Gary Brooker's annual Chirstmas charity gig in Surrey, and I called Gary's wife (Franky) and she answered the cordless standing outside their barn/studio where the boys were rehearsing for the gig....I would love to go---but I got hear a bit in the background! I'm sure Eric will be playing, along with Andy Fairweather on acoustic and rhythm, Dave Bronze on bass, Gary on keyboards, Henry Spinetti on drums plus a girl singer or two and maybe friends like Leo Sayer---Alex and I met Leo at the Guildford Hall gig...what a showman he is, and what a lovely, friendly guy...I know he will be a good friend some day. We hit it off immediately.

I'm off to northern California in two days...packing up the Explorer to the gills...hopefully Fender will soon deliver the nine Tribute Trower Signature Strats I'm going to paint...I'll do them all up in San Francisco.