So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Dave W]

A friend posted this on FB, I had never seen it before.

Little Richard's screen test for The Girl Can't Help It.

[westen44]

This song by Little Richard is pure dynamite even to this day. 

[westen44]

I like how this singer's voice sounds raspy in this cover of a Flashdance song.  Her name is Diamante.  I discovered her a few years ago, but then kind of lost track because I could never find any CDs by her (and still can't).  Although this is obviously a cover, she seems to do more original songs than anything else. 

[uwe]

This song by Little Richard is pure dynamite even to this day. 

He stole that lyric from Deep Purple (at 00:35)!



Seriously, why is his backing band all of the sudden all white?

[uwe]

I like how this singer's voice sounds raspy in this cover of a Flashdance song.  Her name is Diamante.  I discovered her a few years ago, but then kind of lost track because I could never find any CDs by her (and still can't).  Although this is obviously a cover, she seems to do more original songs than anything else. 

Ah, 80ies chick AOR is alive and well!


(In case you wondered, Robin's version was first, Cher heard her version when Robin toured with her as her backing vocalist and covered it.)

Not that Cher's version was without merit, I never understood all the naysayers about her voice, it's totally distinctive if not a range shifting powerhouse like Robin Beck's.

[uwe]

Kick-ass version of a T. Rex song, Billy Idol's voice is nothing like Marc Bolan's, but he does it justice - with John Oates on lead guitar. If you want to skip the Marc-revelling intro, the song starts at 01:50.



Idol is good at 70ies pop ... The Bonham'esque drum intro at 02:20 is hilarious!

[westen44]

I wasn't quite expecting a topic which would include Little Richard, Deep Purple, Diamante, Robin Beck, Cher, Mark Bolan and Billy Idol.  But here it is it looks like.  I suppose Diamante is the least known, and even though I'm the one who brought her up, I don't even know much about her myself.  In the music world, she seems to be best known at this point for her guest vocals for artists such as Bad Wolves and Breaking Benjamin.  Which reminds me, I had been thinking of posting this Bad Wolves video.  (Diamante isn't on this one, though).

[uwe]

It's a pretty iconic song and hard to touch, but they've metallized it nicely. Reminds me of Disturbed.

Michael, you're fast becoming the resident metalhead here! 

PS: And no Purple fan worth his salt and with a little knowledge of music history would deny Little Richard's lasting legacy in that band as Ian Gillan's vocal style, Jon Lord's piano playing attack and the slightly frantic intensity of the music go. Basically, whenever DP Mk II played rock'n'roll type numbers, they sounded like a modernized Little Richard (and not like Chuck Berry like a lot of other bands), just listen to Lord's piano solo at 01:57 and Gillan's falsetto final verse at 02:35 here:

[westen44]

I don't think of myself as a metalhead, although I do like some of it.  I tend to stay away from screaming metal.  BTW, Little Richard's screaming on Tutti Frutti has been noted by some people as an early example of screaming in rock. 

I can definitely hear what could be interpreted as a Little Richard influence on those Deep Purple piano parts and falsetto vocals.

BTW, I do like this kind of screaming in songs, but consider it to be an exception.  It's old.  I bought the CD in 2006.

[westen44]

I got this as a You Tube recommendation a few hours ago.  This was an unusual and pleasant surprise.   

James Gang on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert

[uwe]

Yup, Blackmore saw that on TV at the time and not knowing that Tommy would be his successor with DP about a year later came away impressed.

"I originally heard him on Billy Cobham's Spectrum album, and thought, 'Who is this guy?!' Then I saw him on television and he looked incredible – like Elvis Presley (Uwe: the Lamé suit ...). I knew he was gonna be big. When I heard that Purple hired him, I thought it was great. He was always so humble."

That's a great performance of the Gang. People always complain about Roy Kenner ("wedding singer"), but I think he was a very good vocalist (probably the best one the Gang ever had unless you are hooked on Walsh's nasal tone) - his pitching on that live recording is ace.

Why that Don Kirshner performance has not been released on CD yet is beyond me.

The James Gang with Bolin and Kenner sort of had this hard rock version of a Doobie Brothers vibe going - I really liked that. Visually they were a sight as well: Kenner and Bolin all glammed up with stage clothes and multi-color hair, Peters and Fox like they were Foghat roadies - bit like Cheap Trick in fact.

And I really liked that heavily phased and Echoplex-laden (the Echoplex sits prominently on the bar stool right beside Tommy's mike at the James Gang gig) guitar sound Bolin had trademarked for himself, it was smooth and slinky, yet rocking, complementing his playing well. Didn't sound too bad with Purple either! (The vid doesn't really show them playing that particular song but was created by a fan in the aftermath from other performances.)



Tommy's lead guitar is everywhere on that track, but it never gets in the way, it's just joyously and life-affirmingly omnipresent. In fact, Purple with Bolin sounded closer to the James Gang with Bolin than to DP Blackmore era - Tommy put his stamp on everything. Or as Jon Lord once said: "Come Taste The Band " is not really a Deep Purple album, but it is a great, great album. A great Tommy Bolin album."

[Dave W]

[westen44]

Yup, Blackmore saw that on TV at the time and not knowing that Tommy would be his successor with DP about a year later came away impressed.

"I originally heard him on Billy Cobham's Spectrum album, and thought, 'Who is this guy?!' Then I saw him on television and he looked incredible – like Elvis Presley (Uwe: the Lamé suit ...). I knew he was gonna be big. When I heard that Purple hired him, I thought it was great. He was always so humble."

That's a great performance of the Gang. People always complain about Roy Kenner ("wedding singer"), but I think he was a very good vocalist (probably the best one the Gang ever had unless you are hooked on Walsh's nasal tone) - his pitching on that live recording is ace.

Why that Don Kirshner performance has not been released on CD yet is beyond me.

The James Gang with Bolin and Kenner sort of had this hard rock version of a Doobie Brothers vibe going - I really liked that. Visually they were a sight as well: Kenner and Bolin all glammed up with stage clothes and multi-color hair, Peters and Fox like they were Foghat roadies - bit like Cheap Trick in fact.

And I really liked that heavily phased and Echoplex-laden (the Echoplex sits prominently on the bar stool right beside Tommy's mike at the James Gang gig) guitar sound Bolin had trademarked for himself, it was smooth and slinky, yet rocking, complementing his playing well. Didn't sound too bad with Purple either! (The vid doesn't really show them playing that particular song but was created by a fan in the aftermath from other performances.)



Tommy's lead guitar is everywhere on that track, but it never gets in the way, it's just joyously and life-affirmingly omnipresent. In fact, Purple with Bolin sounded closer to the James Gang with Bolin than to DP Blackmore era - Tommy put his stamp on everything. Or as Jon Lord once said: "Come Taste The Band " is not really a Deep Purple album, but it is a great, great album. A great Tommy Bolin album."

I had never seen that before.  I was extremely impressed.  I decided to read some of the comments.  Wow, some of them were really clueless.  Clueless is too mild of a word.  Some were saying Joe Walsh was better on guitar than Bolin.  Even Walsh himself said he wasn't as good as Tommy Bolin.  The harshest comments were about Roy Kenner.  Those were preposterous.  Many weren't even giving him half the credit he deserved.  I'm still puzzled what is going on in all these people's brains.  I don't know what they are thinking.  That entire performance was great.  I would love to have it on DVD and would play it over and over if only a DVD of it existed. 

[uwe]

Walsh even recommended Bolin to the James Gang because he thought he was so good. Fox, Peters and Kenner had no idea who he was and then first listened to Cobham's Spectrum (at least that is what Fox has said, but they must have listened to Spectrum pre-release then, that album only came out in Oct 73, by which time they had already released Bang with Tommy) initially wary how  a "jazzer" like Tommy was to fit in with them.


(People always think that the wild intro solo is Tommy - it's not. It's Jan Hammer on synth. Tommy
doesn't make a solo playing entrance until 01:50, he's mixed to the right, Jan to the left. No less
impressive though.)

But then after the first audition - much like with Purple a few years later - they were rapturous. He brought along tons of ideas, a gentle soul and looked wild.



Spectrum impressed a lot of people back then, among them Jeff Beck (who then while still with BBA discovered Jazz Rock and entered his Blow By Blow/Wired phase in inspiration) and even Deep Purple who invited Tommy to audition on the strength of that album. A record that just spoke with people at the time, it's very much a "live in the studio" affair wth almost no doctoring. At 01:46 you can even hear Tommy break his high E-string after another bending excess, yet he continued to solo and they left the track as is, wishing to keep the inspiration captured.



I don't know if Tommy was ever a "better" guitarist than Joe Walsh (who has strengths of his own), but he was certainly good enough to not bore Jeff Beck. And for Jeff to play bass for him. (The Tommy Bolin Band was opening for the Jeff Beck Group at the time.)

[westen44]

Wow, I just read that Bolin was self-taught and completely played by ear.  I certainly did not know that.