What Are You Listening To Lately? Focus & Jan Akkerman Around Here

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TGNeil
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Fri Feb 09, 2018 1:10 am

Hey Gang,

I thought I might resurrect an old thread idea about sharing stuff. Maybe you will add some videos of things that are grabbing you lately. I have been playing a lot of one of my favorite progressive bands from the golden years of prog, Focus. They were a Dutch band that broke it big here in the US with a novelty tune called Hocus Pocus. When I picked up the album, Moving Waves, I was blown away by the rest of it, which was nothing like the hit.

Their guitar player, Jan Akkerman has to be one of the best of all time, a real innovator that spawned even the likes of Ingwie Malmsteen and the next generation of shredders and tappers. He also plays the lute on some Focus tunes and his solo albums. Nowadays more into the jazz/fusion world.

A tune of theirs that I always loved and messed with many years ago is Sylvia, a piece written by their other star, Thijs van Leer. It got so complicated that I eventually gave up and forgot everything I had come up with for it.

Last weekend I stumbled onto a video of Jan messing with it acoustically, although it seemed he was just fooling around and it was not worked out at all. It gave me new inspiration to tackle it and I may test drive it on the TG Update this week.

Here are a couple version, the original from Focus III, and Jan's more recent dabble with it that unlocked some doors for me.




And here is a ridiculous example of his solo take on Hocus Pocus.



The tongue-in-cheek text with this video had some interesting insight-
At last, Jan Akkerman demystifies 'Hocus Pocus' and plays it on acoustic guitar, so that the 'ordinary' guitarist can get to grips with it. Without use of electric guitar, the tune is now laid bare, clear and accessible to all. So, grab your acoustic guitar, pull up a chair, and watch this video two (or maybe even three) times, to get a full command of this wonderful piece of music. See how Jan here sticks to use of very basic notes and runs, to ensure that most musicians can pick up the rudimentary elements without much effort. Note: Perhaps wise not to take this introduction (to an illustration of extreme virtuosity) too seriously!
And the original Hocus Pocus in case it eluded your teenagehood.


crieniecat
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Fri Feb 09, 2018 5:53 am

Very cool Neil! Thanks for sharing it :woohoo:


davidrfinn99165
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Fri Feb 09, 2018 6:42 am

Thx Neil.... i saw Focus live in around 1975.... my very faint memory is that Thijs Van Leer was the extrovert one, and came over as the leader of the group, Jan was somewhat quiet on stage. As guitarists we would have preferred it the other way round.

Sylvia is a great track !


spinland
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Sat Feb 10, 2018 7:51 am

Thanks to your recommendation on the Norwegian Wood lesson, Neil, I picked up a copy of Rubber Soul as well as a couple of other Beatles staples (until then I'd only had a mixed bag of some favorite songs).

That playlist, and my Eagles playlist, are currently dominating my listening time. I mentioned I've been listening to a lot of blues stuff as I grow into playing that genre, but I keep coming back to the stuff that's right in my wheelhouse enjoyment-wise. :side:

Mark


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