Dennis Catron :: Guitarist

Top 10 Lists
"Why are boys so obsessed with numbers?"
"No one knows why, really."

Gregorys Girl

A little secret... When it looks like men are thinking hard at work, they're probably making little lists in their head that have nothing to do with the job. We like numbers. A man can forget his wife's maiden name, but he'll always be able to remember what he hit his last season in Little League (.489 - 24 for 49, thank you very much :-) Here goes..!

Top 10 Albums

			David Werner Imagination Quota Dismissed by the press as a Bowie clone, Cleveland's David Werner made the finest record ever in my humble opinion in 1973. Dreamy songs and production, great players... Never making it to CD, I copied it from vinyl to my Mac. Have a listen and see for yourself... Imagination Quota				Grand Funk Grand Funk This was the first record that I just lost it over. Farner's voice is immaculate, Mel Schacher's bass is recorded to shake your room, and so primal and heavy it would kick-start garage bands across the country.
			The Byrds Greatest Hits Los Angeles's Beatles, not only a great band, but stylish as heck. Roger McGuinn's an underrated genius.				Montrose Montrose Any kid that picks this record can be a guitar hero within a month afterwords. Ronnie's solo's are all obvious, easy things, but done with such finesse that's it's inspiring. Punkers leaned towards Kiss records, but that was too easy. This album made guitar gods.
			New Radicals New Radicals The only record in the 90's that totally freaked me out. Totally lost on a nation of kids listening to hip hop. Gregg Alexander gave up after this and went back to producing, which is a total shame.				UFO Phenomenon The greatest guitar record of all time, period. Michael Schenker speaks through the thing, in a way even Jeff Beck can't.
			Black Sabbath Vol 4 The tightest, darkest record ever. Lyrics like, "Try your hardest, you'll still be a loser - The world will still be turning when you're gone" attest to Ozzy's genius. Tony Iommi's peak moment.				Mott the Hoople Mott I'm amazed how few people still care about Mott. T-Rex and even Mud get more type, this was Rolling Stones magazines Album of the Year in 1973, and every local band knew 'Drivin' Sister' (and increased sales for D'Armand volume pedals). Better than any Bowie record, ever.
			Buffalo Springfield Retrospective The most underrated band ever. Steve Stills, Neil Young, Jim Messina... Every song on this is a classic, with Jack Nitzsche's production on 'Expecting to Fly' is as good as anything his mentor Phil Spector ever did.				Blue Oyster Cult Secret Treaties BOC always had a tongue in cheekness about them, but they weren't fucking around here. This is the darkest, most complex thing they ever recorded. Buck Dharma was the king of the sinister riff and Eric Bloom's singing is superb.

Top 10 Songs

This is the toughest category ever...

1. English Beat - Save It For Later
2. Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
3. Stevie Wonder - If You Really Love Me
4. Pine - Inhaling
5. Moonbabies - Have You Ever Said Goodbye?
6. Jonathan King - Everyone's Gone To The Moon
7. Missing Persons - Destination Unknown
8. Chad and Jeremy - Distant Shores
9. Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart In San Francisco
10. Super Furry Animals - Venus and Serena

Top 10 Beatle Songs

Had to make a seperate category since all top 10 songs could be Beatle songs :-)

1. Rain
2. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
3. Tell Me Why
4. Strawberry Fields Forever
5. You're Gonna Lose That Girl
6. Devil In Her Heart
7. Martha My Dear
8. Hello Goodbye
9. Matchbox
10. Here, There and Everywhere

Hon. Mentions:

The Band - Chest Fever, Blue Cheer - Feathers From Your Tree, Buffalo Springfield - Bluebird, Kinks - All Of The Day, Bats - Afternoon In Bed, Robbie Williams - Win Some, Lose Some, Jukka Tolonen - Elements, Led Zeppelin - Ramble On, Rickie Valens - Ooh! My Head, Sandie Shaw - Girl Don't Come, Scritti Politti - Wood Beez, Incubus - Wish You Were Here, Van Halen - On Fire, We Five - You Were On My Mind, Tom Jones - It's Not Unusual, Suzy Bogguss - Outbound Plane, Bobby Fuller Four - Let Her Dance, Rex - Ride Home, Jane Wiedlin - Blue Kiss, Mama's and the Papa's - I Saw Her Again, Moody Blues - Lovely To See You, Mekons - Memphis Egypt, Aqua - We Belong to the Sea, The Fixx - Secret Separation, Greta - Some People, Caravan - Memory Lain, Hugh, Sly Stone - Hot Fun in the Summertime, They Might Be Giants - Put Your Hand Inside the Puppethead, Stalk-Forrest Group (Blue Oyster Cult) - Ragamuffin Dumplin'

Top 10 Bands

1. Beatles
2. Rolling Stones
3. Led Zeppelin
4. Beach Boys
5. Black Sabbath
6. The Kinks
7. Buffalo Springfield
8. Byrds
9. The Who
10. Van Halen (Roth)

Top 10 Guitarists

1. Michael Schenker
2. Jeff Beck
3. Eric Johnson
4. Duane Allman
5. Jan Akkerman
6. Eddie Van Halen
7. Danny Gatton
8. Ulrich Roth
9. Mark Knopfler
10. Michael Hedges

Top 10 Front Men

1. Mick Jagger
2. John Denny
3. David Lee Roth
4. Sebastian Bach
5. Jizzy Pearl
6. Joey Ramone
7. Nick Gilder
8. Layne Staley
9. Robbie Williams
10. Motormouth (Scott Hoogland)

Hon. Mentions:
The Monkees, Badfinger, Alice In Chains, The Weirdos, Focus, The Catherine Wheel

Top 10 Guitar Solo's

1. Mark Knopfler - Skateaway
2. Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues
3. Vito Bratta - Little Fighter
4. Denny Diaz - Bodhisattva
5. Amos Garrett - Midnight At The Oasis
6. Michael Schenker - Rock Bottom
7. Jeff Beck - Goin' Down
8. Ernie Isley - Whose That Lady?
9. Bill Nelson - Crying To The Sky
10. Ulrich Roth - All Night Long

Top 10 Bass Players

1. Jaco Pastorius
2. Jack Bruce
3. Paul McCartney
4. Dennis Dunaway
5. Chris Squire

Top 10 Drummers

1. Ringo Starr
2. Ian Paice
3. Ginger Baker
4. Keith Moon
5. Charlie Watts
6. Alex Van Halen
7. Neil Smith
8. Neil Peart
9. Mick Tucker
10. Jimmie Nicol

Hon. Mention:

George Lynch - Mr. Scary, Mick Ronson - Width Of a Circle

Top 10 Porn Star Names

1. Triple 'E' Williams - Made up without hesitation by my 11 year old brother-in-law when I asked him, "If you humped the pole at Jumbo's Clown Room, what would your name be? Michael Zaldivar is a friggin' genius.
2. F.M. Bradley - 70's black guy - 'F.M.' stands for 'Field Marshall', which proves there are no boundaries when choosing the right porn name.
3. Choco Bon Bon - Japanese smut has these little computerized bars over the genitals, so this guy got his nickname by having testicles twice as dark as his body. Makes a cute name for a puppy or kitten.
4. The Mighty Chung - A mail order catalog showed up at our house once boasting a stable of stars with oversized fake genitals. The Mighty Chung was an small Asian man, middle aged, and looking more like a business guy than a porn guy. He was wearing a huge strap-on (which you were supposed to buy into being real), had a little pot belly, and made all these incredible grimacing sex faces in the photos. This is what happens when you skip college.

Top 10 O.C. Bands

1. Honk
2. A La Carte
3. The Big F
4. Pontiac Brothers
5. No Doubt
6. The Mechanics
7. The Strand
8. Social Distortion
9. Berlin (Ty Cobb version)
10. Naughty Women

Top 10 Movies

1. La Dolce Vita
2. Gregory's Girl
3. Local Hero
4. Hard Days Night
5. Seven Samurai
6. Girl Can't Help It
7. Christmas Story
8. Rock and Roll High School
9. Quadrophenia
10. Animal House

Top 10 Girls (Besides my Wife :-)

This is the second toughest category ever...

1. Annette Funicello - The perfect 60's girl. Actually the perfect girl, period :-)

2. Connie Francis - Annette grown up.

3. Piper Laurie - Originally passed off as British, she was actually a nice Jewish girl from Detroit. Though most remember her as the psycho mom in Carrie, she was quite the pin-up in the 50's.

4. Mina - Mina (Mazzini) is the most popular singer in Italian history. Over four decades she released about 50 LP's and changed her look more often than Madonna ever did. Intelligent & a great sense of humor & class.

5. France Gall - Isabelle (France) Gall was a teen pop singer in the early 60's, best known for being unaware of the dirty lyrics she was singing at 15 on a Serge Gainsbourg song (Baby Pop, think popsicle...) She blossomed into one of the world's most attractive women.

6. Terri Higgins - Cute British pin-up I used to rummage through dumpsters in the 60's looking for features on. Horny 2nd graders have no shame when looking for quality babes, and Terri was the qualitiest babe of them all. Yes I know qualitiest isn't a word :-).

7. Vanessa Williams - Rick Fox has to be, well, not straight. Seriously.

8. Fur Dixon - She lasted in The Cramps for about 3 months (about the same time as our bass player Tim Maag lasted with them) before Ivy had her thrown out, probably due to extreme jealousy. Fur is a goddess :-)

9. Deborah Walley - Deborah was the always the best friend in all the Beach Party movies & was a latter-day Gidget. She was always cuter than any of the lead beach bunnies.

10. Kimiko Matzuzaka - 80's Japanese AV star who had a mainstream career (TV, usually some Japanese TV host oogling over her breast size.) Gave up entertainment and now works an office job, just like you and me. Poor thing!