Lynyrd Skynyrd is a country rock band that has been around a while, originally forming in 1964, and having their strongest popularity in the 70s. They lost three member in a plane crash in ’77, but still had enough to reform for a while later.

This particular song is pretty basic country-boy southern rock with clear vocals.

This song is one of the songs that made the band famous, being released on their multi-platinum hit Hysteria album in 1987.

Def Leppard is a classic hard rock band forming in 1977, and is still active. They have sold more than one hundred million records.

Classic sort of Country Western style. Classic sort of story. Sort of funny.

Rodney Atkins was born in 1969, but didn’t really get into music professionally until 1997. He has a few albums and hits.

Not really about guns, but a cool title and an interesting song, particularly if you like blues.

Jack White a relative piker (born in’ 75) compared to most of the folks that have made the Friday gun-song list, but he’s got some talent. I always find it fascinating how many different types of voices can sound “good,” even when they are not really what I’d call smooth. His voice sounds pretty rough and strained to me, but still “good.” it is a bit like listening to the “Perhaps Love” duet between John Denver and Placido Domingo: Denver sounds great, until the professional tenner starts singing, and you realize how much difference there is in the “quality” of their voices.

Me? I sing in the (off)key of pirate, and hov no professional training or knowledge or particular skill, but I sort of know what I like when I hear it.

The Clash was a popular punk rock band mostly in the late 70s and 80s. Surprisingly, they were a fairly political band. A lot of punkers were against “the man” and leftists, and they were no exception there, but they also didn’t like the bleak “nothing is worth it” nihilism that so many embraced to justify their lack of morals.

Anyway, another Friday, and other gun song.

Pretty dark song, but it’s one of the reasons for gun ownership – sometimes, you just have to take care of things yourself. If you do, the only question is just how unpleasant it will be in the details.

Aerosmith has been around for a while, rocking out starting in 1970 (wow – 43 years ago!) (wiki for them here) Most of their stuff is hard rock, but they have a few that are not quite so head-banger.

Bing Crosby is a famous singer and actor to people of a certain age, performing from the mid 1920s to the mid 1970s. He was a number of musicals and comedy shows, both movies and TV. Very talented guy.

This is his 1943 rendition of the then-well-known song, singing with the Andrews Sisters, a popular trio from the era.

From the movie soundtrack of Last Action Hero. It was an interesting movie. It absolutely tanked at the box office, got really lousy reviews, and generally totally trashed. It had all the “right” ingredients for a hit: Arnold Schwarzenegger, pithy lines, explosions and action, hot chicks, crazy villain. But it flopped. I agreed with that assessment. It was just so over the top, it was really wrong.

Then, a couple of years ago, I read a review of it that said it wasn’t a “serious” action movie; it was Arnold making satire, and we all just missed it. Arnold was spoofing the whole genre that had trapped him. Suddenly it made a LOT more sense. In that context, it’s pretty not bad. Lots of metaphors and such, when that’s what you are expecting.

AC/DC, of course, needs no introduction, so I’ll just post the link.

This sounds like fun:

Dynamic Building Clearing

An incredible and intense tactical training. Make hundreds upon hundreds of room entries, work in low light, plan missions, conduct rehearsals, execute the MISSION!

This course will teach the most modern and up-to-date version of dynamic clearing as is being used by the worlds best Entry Teams. This is a perfect course for both new and experienced SWAT officers, tactical trainers, military personnel, security contractors, or anyone who has a desire to understand the tactics being used on a daily basis in the GWOT.

Buckley, WA
September 06 – 08, 2013

But I have too many other things to do this month. And besides, if I really needed to clear a building I think I would use explosives.

Via a comment from Bill:

Pat Kelley and others are quite impressive as well.

Two new shows, Hot Shots and 3 Gun Nation, premiered this month on theBlaze TV. When Top Shot came out it was all the buzz on the gun blogs. This time, not so much. This time however, the new shows are NOT soap operas with some shooting thrown in.

When Survivor came out and was a big success, I got interested and watched a couple of episodes. By the description I thought it was going to be something good, where the survival skills of the competitor would win the contest. Man, was I disappointed. It turned out to be all political/mind game horse crap that you see on any soap opera, and the strongest skills are often among the first to be voted out as a threat to the weak. Belch! And Top Shot was made in Survivor’s image.

Not this time. So far. I’ve seen two episodes of Hot Shots and one of 3 Gun Nation, and they are all about shooting competition. What a relief! We got to see, as a side story, a guy fire 18 shots from an auto pistol, with a draw and two reloads, in under five seconds, and hit his target. He used a pure race gun and all race gun gear, but regardless, it is was beautiful to see.

The shows would be better if we were given a little more nuts and bolts of the game, and if we were told a little bit more about the gear (so far no one has even told us what caliber they’re shooting and so we’re left to guess based on magazine dimensions and airborne brass) but if you’re into shooting competition and you despise soap operas half as much as I do (no one gets voted off, for one thing) these are worth seeing. On episodes one and two of Hot Shot, Miculek goes for his 20th straight championship.

I’m just cringing though, hoping against seeing the episode wherein the top shooter is all angst-ridden over his ex girlfriend’s pregnancy with his best friend, and her upcoming surgery, and whether his best friend’s baby with his ex will survive, and whether the dark nemesis with a quaintly unidentifiable European accent will try another takeover of an ambiguously gay shooter’s fashion design business empire, while tempers flair over the Jade’s snooping of Monica’s love affair with Pete.