could give Greta Van Fleet a run for their money

[uwe]

That first one is quite nice but something about the melody and delivery brought back a memory

LOL, I hear the similarity. To be fair, a lot of Elf's music stemmed from Mickey Lee Soule, the keyboard piano player who was also in the first Rainbow line up and had a short stint with Ian Gillan Band (plus helped on Roger Glover's Butterfly Ball project). He later on moved out of music but returned to the DP family eventually as Jon Lord's keyboard and later on Roger Glover's bass tech. He's also the guy playing piano on the RAH videos with Ronnie. Soule was/is a very underrated musician.

https://mickeyleesoule.com/

[Basvarken]

 

[Rob]

Gets great at :49

[uwe]

It took me a while to realize that dad = Meatloaf, I first thought he just looked a lot like him. 

[lowend1]

Never the strongest Dio composition, I agree with Rob, it's too forced. Maybe you need to be grown up a little to do Dio credibly.

Small window of opportunity. By the time most (male) singers are mature enough to credibly channel Dio, their voices are already past their peak. Having said that, I've heard Ray Gillen sing it better - off the cuff, in a garage in NJ - than either of the above.

[Basvarken]

Small window of opportunity. By the time most (male) singers are mature enough to credibly channel Dio, their voices are already past their peak. Having said that, I've heard Ray Gillen sing it better - off the cuff, in a garage in NJ - than either of the above.

Ray Gillen! That man was a force of nature. One of the best singers ever.

[lowend1]

Ray Gillen! That man was a force of nature. One of the best singers ever.

That he was. I knew Ray since the 1970s because we had a lot of common friends and grew up in the same area of NJ. He didn't really explode vocally until the early '80s, though.  He would randomly show up at my band's rehearsal space (the aforementioned garage) to write, jam and generally make fun of one another, lol. At one point I was feeding him a steady diet of Ian Gillan's Jesus Christ Superstar cuts - he was not familiar with it at the time. When the first Badlands album came out, I called to congratulate him. He thanked me and said "Listen to the scream in the middle of 'Streets Cry Freedom' - I was totally thinking of you and the Ian Gillan stuff when I recorded that"

[TBird1958]

Now here's an up and coming young band, that guy on the far left has some cool dance moves. 

 

 I think it's a case of exceptionally tight whities!


 

[Basvarken]

That he was. I knew Ray since the 1970s because we had a lot of common friends and grew up in the same area of NJ. He didn't really explode vocally until the early '80s, though.  He would randomly show up at my band's rehearsal space (the aforementioned garage) to write, jam and generally make fun of one another, lol. At one point I was feeding him a steady diet of Ian Gillan's Jesus Christ Superstar cuts - he was not familiar with it at the time. When the first Badlands album came out, I called to congratulate him. He thanked me and said "Listen to the scream in the middle of 'Streets Cry Freedom' - I was totally thinking of you and the Ian Gillan stuff when I recorded that"

Wow! That is so cool that you knew him personally.
I have been in touch with Greg Chaisson since the MySpace days. He still speaks highly of Ray and his former Badlands bandmates.
And Rob Lamothe, who is an old friend of mine, also thinks Ray Gillen is one of the best singers ever. He recorded a song (twice) called Blue Ray about him. And he sang a version of Badlands song The River on Greg Chaisson's solo-album as a tribute to Ray too.

Second version of Blue Ray by Rob Lamothe:




The River taken from Greg Chaisson solo album with Rob Lamothe on lead vocal:





The original by Badlands:

[lowend1]

Wow! That is so cool that you knew him personally.
I have been in touch with Greg Chaisson since the MySpace days. He still speaks highly of Ray and his former Badlands bandmates.
And Rob Lamothe, who is an old friend of mine, also thinks Ray Gillen is one of the best singers ever. He recorded a song (twice) called Blue Ray about him. And he sang a version of Badlands song The River on Greg Chaisson's solo-album as a tribute to Ray too.

Never heard that version of Blue Ray - cool. Love Rob's voice - Riverdogs was one of the bright spots of that late 80s era. I'm friends with Greg on FB also, but have never met him (or any of the other Badlands members) personally. I'm going to see Red Dragon Cartel at the end of the month. Just bought the new album but haven't listened as yet.
Not to turn this into an appreciation thread, but Ray was an enigma. He always kept his options open and would jam with anybody. He had an uncanny ability to instantly come up with a melody for almost anything that the band played - and if you already had a melody, he always got the most out of it.

[Basvarken]

Never heard that version of Blue Ray - cool. Love Rob's voice - Riverdogs was one of the bright spots of that late 80s era. I'm friends with Greg on FB also, but have never met him (or any of the other Badlands members) personally. I'm going to see Red Dragon Cartel at the end of the month. Just bought the new album but haven't listened as yet.

What I've heard so far sounds good. Much better than the first album of RDC.



Greg recently sat in with RDC to play one or two Badlands songs.

Not to turn this into an appreciation thread, but Ray was an enigma. He always kept his options open and would jam with anybody. He had an uncanny ability to instantly come up with a melody for almost anything that the band played - and if you already had a melody, he always got the most out of it.

I think were done talking about Great van Fleet. So if this thread turns into an appreciation thread for people who cold actually sing that's perfectly fine with me.
Ray Gillen had a very recognizable melodic style. If you listen to Black Sabbath's Eternal Idol you can hear Ray's melodies carbon-copied by Tony Martin.

Rob Lamothe says Ray was one of the best singers he ever heard. And Rob is an amazing singer himself.
Have you heard the 2017 Riverdogs album California? It was recorded with the original line-up form the first album. Per request of the record company they tried to capture the vibe of that 1989 debut album.

[uwe]

I got that - good album!

[Basvarken]

This guy sounds impressively close to Ray Gillen:

[lowend1]

This guy sounds impressively close to Ray Gillen:

Yeah, Ive seen this. The kid is good, no question. He's probably the closest to nailing Ray's tone that I've heard.
Have you ever seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxK6gU5kaI&frags=pl%2Cwn

[Basvarken]

Yeah I've seen that before.
What a clumsy young puppy he was there