Todd Jacobucci

I'm hoping to get some good feedback on this one.    There is no doubt it is incredibly difficult to take a lifetime of music, in my case decades and decades of music, and try to come up with one song that is the greatest of all time.   I've been rolling this around in my head for the last couple of days.  To me it has to be more than just a song that sounds great.  Sounding great is obviously important, but I'm thinking in terms of great lyrics, great playing, great singing, great production.   Looking at it that way;  taking into consideration all of these variables and that they must be top notch - the first song I thought of was "A Day in the Life" by The Beatles.    "A Day in the Life" is a magnificent production.  The playing and signing are fantastic.   Great work by The Beatles - but I think I have come up with something better.   I thought of this one this morning .  Its now 5:41 PM EST as I type th...

This is a topic I'm hoping to get a lot of feedback on.   I've thought about this since last night.  Woke up this morning and wrote a long list of movies that are personal faves.   I tried to think of films that really blew me away.   The kind of movie that sticks inside of your head long after you've seen it.   I've spent the last couple of hours sifting thru my list of films.     I've pared it down to ten.  The list you see is in no particular order - these are just my ten faves from 1972 until now - as the title of this article says.  I will leave the name of the movie and the year of release.  1. The Godfather Part 1  1972 2. Raging Bull  1980 3. The Shawshank Redemption 1994 4. True Grit  2010 5. Doubt  2008 6. Downfall  2005 7. The Godfather Part 2  1974 8. Training Day  2001 9. Les Miserables  1998 10. Fatal Attraction  1987 Ok, I just took a few minutes to double ...

A couple of days ago I broached the topic of "The Ten Best Female Singers".   There was quite a bit of feedback which I was grateful for.   Someone mentioned Ann Wilson.   I thought about that and couldn't believe I had left her out.   This is why getting feedback is so great.  You end up getting some good education.  So, this morning I figured I'd examine the opposite sex - male singers.  I am going to name my 10 favorite male singers.   Some of these singers have had long careers and their voices have faded - so, we must think in terms of these guys being in their primes.   Based on that way of thinking - here is my top 10.  No particular order - just the best 10 male singers I could think of.  And they are: 1. Robert Plant 2. John Lennon 3. David Gilmour 4. Mick Jagger 5. Kurt Cobain 6. Geddy Lee 7. Axl Rose 8. Roger Daltrey 9. Paul McCartney 10.  Steven Tyler And there you have it. ...

I've had this thought running through my mind the last couple of days.   So much recognition goes to male singers.  Guys like Robert Plant, Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey, John Lennon - all of them Rock Gods.   Lately I've been thinking that there are some good female singers as well.  Maybe it's time to give them some recognition.  So, I started writing down some names.  I concentrated on female singers of my era.  Judy Garland popped into my head but she was well before my time.  So, I only thought of women from my era and came up with ten.  With each name I'll explain my rationale.  I should also say, this is not a best to worst list.  These are just the ten best female singers I could think of.  And here we go: 1.  Pat Benatar I probably thought of her first because I believe, in terms of singing classic rock music, she is the best. 2.  Stevie Nicks Great voice and songwriter. 3.  Karen Carpenter Th...

A friend of mine and I were discussing this.   We tried to think in terms of just songs.  It couldn't be a TV theme, movie soundtrack. or some other incidental music.  These had to be songs that were released as regular records or CD's.    The other main catch being very simple - instrumental songs, no vocals whatsoever.    We came up with quite a few.    I listened to them,  considered them and ultimately decided only 5 of them really stand out.  And they are: 1. "Frankenstein" - Edgar Winter Group 2. "Moby Dick" - Led Zeppelin 3. "Pick up the Pieces" - Average White Band 4. "Rise" - Herb Alpert 5. "Feels so Good"- Chuck Mangione We also had "Intruder" by Van Halen, "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs, "Space Race" by Billy Preston amongst others.  I feel like we are missing quite a few though so I hope people will join in and add some songs to this topic....

This is certainly a broad topic.  Depending on how much time you've spent on this planet - there could be many songs that are meaningful to you.   That's the case with me.  I can go to different parts of my life and think of a song that was especially meaningful to me at that point in time.   So, I tried to think in terms of the present.   What is the song that has most recently been especially meaningful to me?    I came up with one which I will explain in a moment.  I hope others will join in because I think you can learn a lot about yourself if you take this topic seriously and really think about it.    For me it has to do with a recent setback.  I lost my beloved Shih Tzu Jack two years ago.  Absolutely agonizing loss.  Any dog lover knows this pain.  One of the things I loved so much about Jack is how happy and full of life he was.  He never wanted to be alone so he'd follow me from room to room. ...

For some reason when I woke up yesterday I had this thought in my mind - endings of movies.   I tried to think of endings that really stuck with me.   There have been movies with great endings (I think the ending of The Godfather 2 is great).   Other movies have moved me emotionally (the ending of "Doubt").   Others left me completely uplifted ("Rocky" for instance).  But could I come up with one that really stunned me?  An ending that stayed in my mind for a long time?  I could only come up with one.  The name of the movie is "Excision".   It's a little known film that I found to be fantastic.  It was released in 2012, stars AnnaLynne McCord, and was written and directed by Richard Bates, Jr.   I'm going to leave a video here that contains some scenes from the film and an interview with McCord and Bates, Jr.    It does not include the ending.  I didn't want to spoil it.   I can...