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Post by kds on Apr 29, 2019 13:43:55 GMT
Top Ten Guest Appearances
1. Roy Harper on Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" - Great vocal, and Harper hits notes that neither Waters, Gilmour, or Wright could hit.
2. Jimmy Buffett on Alan Jackson's "It's 5 O Clock Somewhere" - The guest actually overshadows the artist here to the point that many think this is a Buffett song. Buffett has run with the "It's 5 O Clock Somewhere" phrase, and this ode to day drinking has been in his setlist since the song became a hit.
3. Brian May on Black Sabbath's "When Death Calls" - May plays a great solo on this deep Sabbath track from the often overlooked Tony Martin era.
4. David Gilmour on Paul McCartney's "No More Lonely Nights" - Gilmour plays a great Floydish solo on this Macca gem.
5. Eric Clapton on The Beatles "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - Speaking of great solos
6. Nate Reuss on Brian Wilson's "Saturday Night" - Yep, I'm one of those guys who says that NPP was overcrowded with guests, but this one works.
7. Ray Charles on Billy Joel's "Baby Grand" - A nice vocal by Ray Charles really classes up this Billy Joel song.
8. Bruce Dickinson on Rob Halford's "One You Love to Hate" - The voices of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest on the same song. Nice.
9. David Bowie on Queen's "Under Pressure" - While not one of my favorite Queen songs, the vocal interplay between two legends is pretty powerful stuff
10. Alice Cooper on Guns N Roses "The Garden" - At a time when Alice was getting back on his feet commercially, he appears on this really good track from one of the hottest bands in the world at the time.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 29, 2019 14:29:29 GMT
In the spirit of KDS’s best replacements—but flipping the script—I present a list of some of the worst replacements. I didn’t quite get to ten, though. I’m sure there are many, many others out there, but this was just somewhat off the cuff. Vinnie Vincent – he was both a very good AND very bad replacement. The good: solid hard rock songwriter and brilliant guitarist. The bad: didn’t fit stylistically with KISS, and his personality was historically bad, especially as a hired sideman. Mark St. John – replaced Vinnie Vincent for one album before health issues caused him to exit. Re-listening to Animalize, it’s better than I remember … but not good. While that batch of songs did no favors, St. John was a poor fit for KISS. John Corabi – replaced Vince Neil in Motley Crue. There wasn’t a lot anyone from the glam/hair scene could do at the time, but Corabi was a terrible fit for Motley Crue; as bad a singer as Neil was, he epitomized that band’s sound. Jason Newsted - maybe controversial since Newsted was part of the most successful era for Metallica, but to me their sound got immediately worse after the death of the brilliant Cliff Burton, whose bass parts were amazing. Jason Becker – no fault of his own, but Becker stepped in for the great Steve Vai in David Lee Roth’s band after Vai left for Whitesnake and a more active solo career. Becker was a brilliant guitarist—tragically impeded by ALS, actually—but Vai’s quirkiness, humor, and showmanship made him a great sidekick to Roth. Gary Cherone - Third time was most certainly not a charm for Van Halen. I agree with KDS that Sammy Hagar actually was a great fit, different as he was from DLR. Cherone was different from both of them, but didn’t fit VH. It’s a shame, as Extreme was very good in its own right. Paul Rodgers – No offense to Rodgers, whose career stands on its own merits. But this was strange, awkward, and just not good. Queen is and always will be dominated by Freddie Mercury, alive or dead. Buckethead, et al – You can’t have Guns n Roses without both Slash and Axl. So you can add Dizzy Reed, you can swap in Gilby Clarke for Izzy Stradlin, you can swap in Matt Sorum for Steven Adler. You can even fiddle with Tommy Stinson on bass over Duff McKagan. But you need Axl, and you need Slash … not a guitar hero with a bucket on his head.
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Post by kds on Apr 29, 2019 14:36:41 GMT
As a fan of Van Halen and Extreme, I really wanted that to work. But, it just didn't. The songs weren't good.
Same with Rodgers and Queen. In concert, it was good, but the decision to go into the studio and release an album was a poor one indeed.
Did you know that the Corabi Crue album actually has a growing number of fans? It seems to be mostly hard rock fans who didn't like the original Crue, but Corabi actually did a tour recently when he did that album in full. It's actually the one Crue album I don't own.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 29, 2019 23:31:04 GMT
In the spirit of KDS’s best replacements—but flipping the script—I present a list of some of the worst replacements. I didn’t quite get to ten, though. I’m sure there are many, many others out there, but this was just somewhat off the cuff. Vinnie Vincent – he was both a very good AND very bad replacement. The good: solid hard rock songwriter and brilliant guitarist. The bad: didn’t fit stylistically with KISS, and his personality was historically bad, especially as a hired sideman. Mark St. John – replaced Vinnie Vincent for one album before health issues caused him to exit. Re-listening to Animalize, it’s better than I remember … but not good. While that batch of songs did no favors, St. John was a poor fit for KISS. Kapitan and kds, what is your opinion of Tommy Thayer?
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 29, 2019 23:37:29 GMT
Top 10 Replacement Members: 8. Zak Starkey - the latest drummer to replace Keith Moon in The Who - The only drummer they've had who even comes close to Moon. It's a pity that he was unavailable for most of the Endless Wire album in 2006. What did you think of Kenny Jones' tenure as the drummer of The Who?
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 30, 2019 0:05:11 GMT
I think Tommy Thayer is an entirely qualified rock guitarist whose professionalism seems to meet KISS’s needs. His old band, Black n Blue, never did much for me. He’s probably underutilized in KISS. But that’s the KISS we’ve been left with.
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Post by kds on Apr 30, 2019 12:27:35 GMT
Top 10 Replacement Members: 8. Zak Starkey - the latest drummer to replace Keith Moon in The Who - The only drummer they've had who even comes close to Moon. It's a pity that he was unavailable for most of the Endless Wire album in 2006. What did you think of Kenny Jones' tenure as the drummer of The Who? Jones is a decent drummer, but I just don't think he was the right drummer for The Who. Although, to be fair to him, by the time he joined, The Who were no longer that intense hard rock band of the late 60s / 1970s, and Pete was saving his A material for his solo work.
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Post by kds on Apr 30, 2019 12:29:01 GMT
I think Tommy Thayer is an entirely qualified rock guitarist whose professionalism seems to meet KISS’s needs. His old band, Black n Blue, never did much for me. He’s probably underutilized in KISS. But that’s the KISS we’ve been left with. It's a pity than Gene and Paul took two really good players in Thayer and Eric Singer and basically reduced them to just playing the roles of the Spaceman and the Catman on stage. At least Vinnie Vincent and Eric Carr got to chose new characters, but of course that was back when KISS were still trying to stay relevant instead of banking on nostalgia.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 30, 2019 12:33:56 GMT
Exactly. I agree 100%.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 30, 2019 13:36:03 GMT
I didn't realize that Thayer and Singer NOT choosing their own character was an issue. Is this an opinion shared by many KISS fans? Was it or is it a major point of contention?
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 30, 2019 13:51:50 GMT
I don’t think most KISS fans want two new characters so much as they want the two old musicians who portrayed those two old characters. But there’s surely a contingent who think, in the absence of Peter and (especially, it seems) Ace, the band should respect them by not using their characters. And songs/features, eg Singer performing Beth.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 30, 2019 13:52:14 GMT
The ten rock guitarists who left the biggest impressions on me through the years. 10. Tommy Allsup – played with Buddy Holly early on, huge influence on how I hear guitars in rock music. 9. Frank Zappa – I got into him around the same time I got into jazz (18ish), and I’ve always loved his idiosyncratic approach including odd phrase lengths and percussive sound. 8. Joe Satriani – So smooth and precise (“Always With Me, Always With You”), I also loved his (as far as I know) groundbreaking way of two-hand tapping, done exclusively with hammer-ones instead of hammer-ons and pick-offs (“Midnight”). 7. Slash – Not groundbreaking in the slightest, but I love his tones and melodic approach to blue-based rock solos. 6. Eddie Van Halen – I think the only reason he’s rated so low is that he’s so unrelatable: you can copy Eddie, but even if you do it perfectly, you’ll just be a decent copycat of Eddie. But that boogie-and-riff style, to say nothing of the soloing … *sigh* 5. Steve Vai – Speaking of unrelatable. Technically impeccable, endlessly creative, tongue firmly in cheek about the absurdity of rock music, he did great things for David Lee Roth and for Whitesnake, not to mention on his own. 4. Brian May – A wizard with tones and the first great orchestrator of walls of guitars. Wildly underrated as a guitarist, actually, probably because it’s hard to get much attention when you share a stage with Freddie Mercury. 3. Ace Frehley – Far and away the worst guitarist on my list, he was still a formative influence for me. His rock instincts were great, meaning he got the gist of each song out of his playing, however rudimentary it might be. 2. Jimmy Page – Maybe more influential to me as a producer than a guitarist, still just a master (despite being in the latter portion of this list for technique). Wide range of styles to draw from, and the hard-to-dispute king of riffs. 1. Jimi Hendrix – Just a miracle. I love how he could fill out a song live with just himself on guitar and no keyboards, no horns, etc. He’d cover a riff, little licks between vocal lines, and sometimes what sounded like other parts, all on his own. And his comfort with the instrument was so obvious as he seemingly effortlessly jumped from this to that and back again.
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Post by kds on Apr 30, 2019 14:21:19 GMT
I didn't realize that Thayer and Singer NOT choosing their own character was an issue. Is this an opinion shared by many KISS fans? Was it or is it a major point of contention? It is to a certain degree. Basically Gene and Paul are passing off Tommy and Eric as the Spaceman and the Catman, with all the same gimmicks and vocal highlights. It doesn't sit well with a good portion of the fanbase, in particular, hard rock / metal guru Eddie Trunk.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 30, 2019 15:02:01 GMT
Hard rock / metal guru / frehley fanatic and champion Eddie Trunk...
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Post by kds on Apr 30, 2019 15:58:34 GMT
Hard rock / metal guru / frehley fanatic and champion Eddie Trunk... Eddie Trunk is also the primary reason I miss Vh1 Classic for The Metal Show, which aired from 2008-2014 (I think).
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