So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Dave W]

I hope Bob never got shot.

[Ken]

I'll be here all week.  Tip your bartenders and try the veal.

[westen44]

Brenda Lee's "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" which was recorded in 1958, is now number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.  Next, is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You."  at number 2.  Here is another version I recently discovered (by Minniva, Norwegian metal cover singer.)

[uwe]

She wrinkles her nose, Dave will like it.

I'll reinstate somber yet festive decorum here:

[westen44]

I like the Tarjah version.  I suppose some will be offended that the Mariah Carey version is being ignored.  Didn't she write the song?  Somehow I can't much get into it, though. 

[uwe]

I see what you're saying about Gary Moore.  I have a bassist friend who doesn't much like him at all.  However, I think I remember reading that Jack Bruce said GM was his favorite guitarist to play with.  Supposedly because of their Celtic connection.  I think I may have mentioned this in another thread long ago.  Also, I may have heard Jack say this in an interview instead of reading it.  It was years ago, and I just can't remember.  Uncovering old Jack Bruce interviews can sometimes get tricky.  Personally, I don't dislike Moore, but I like Clapton much better.

I remember him saying that too. But then he never had the best judgement in who fits in with his playing. He's also lauded Cozy Powell as great to play with (and declared Led Zep silly for not continuing with him after the loss of Bonzo) even though Powell by his own admission has stated how he does "not care what the bass plays, because I can't hear it anyway with my drumming!"





In a trio featuring Gary Moore, Cozy Powell and Jack, I fear you wouldn't have heard all that much of the latter!

Playing "together" with Cozy Powell as a bass player basically meant total submission to his style and filling with root notes what little space he left, you had to take a very physical approach with his "Barbarians at the gate"-style drumming. Bob Daisley and Neil Murray could do it well (incidentally Greg Lake too), Roger Glover and Colin Hodgkinson not so much.

[westen44]

I think Jack Bruce sometimes had a tendency to speak off the cuff anyway.  Besides I'm not really sure if the Scottish and Irish both being Celtic is really something that exactly ties in with who should or shouldn't be in a band.

Cozy Powell's remark reminds me of something Frank Zappa once said, although I can't remember the exact quote or the context.  I've never been a Zappa fan.  But the gist of it is that the purpose of bass was to be greatly overshadowed by guitar.  Something to that effect.  It's just the opposite of Little Richard's quote:

... Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that's not what I call rock.

[wellREDman]

I'll be here all week.  Tip your bartenders and try the veal.

try your waitress and tip the veal

[Basvarken]

Brenda Lee's "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" which was recorded in 1958, is now number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.  Next, is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You."  at number 2.  Here is another version I recently discovered (by Minniva, Norwegian metal cover singer.)

I have my hopes set on Fairytale of New York. With the recent passing of Shane MacGowan his widow seems to be campaigning for a number one in the UK.

[westen44]

I have my hopes set on Fairytale of New York. With the recent passing of Shane MacGowan his widow seems to be campaigning for a number one in the UK.

I don't know what the full story is on Brenda Lee recording that song when she was 13 and it finally becoming number 1 now.  She is 78.  But it was on the news.  According to what I just read Fairytale of New York did reach number 1 in Ireland in 1987, not the UK, though, evidently.  Usually, U.S. charts are pretty different from anything else.  So I have no idea about the U.S. in this case.  It seems Fairytale of New York is in a battle against Wham and Mariah Carey in the UK. 

Here is a cover of the song from a street performer often seen on YouTube. 

[Alanko]

Gary Moore seems to be enjoying himself and I've certainly heard him worse OTT, but it still sounds forced in comparison to Slowhand's original. The thing with Clapton is not so much what he plays, but how he does it.

It sounds like he didn't learn the song fully. He's made a mind map of the chords, but not got there down at all. Very blocky and the wah pedal stuff is rigid on/off use with no nuance at all.

[Pilgrim]

Brenda Lee's "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" which was recorded in 1958, is now number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.  Next, is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You."  at number 2.  Here is another version I recently discovered (by Minniva, Norwegian metal cover singer.)

Something Tarja and Carey had in common that this version (which I like OK) does not is that the vocals are clear and easy to understand! In a great deal of music the vocals are mixed so low in comparison to the music that I can't actually understand the vocals. That's also true with the Minneva tune; if I wasn't already familiar with it I would be able to understand about 40% of the lyrics.

As outdated as it may be, I LIKE to hear and understand the vocals.

[uwe]

"Who do you think you are, friggin' Tom Jones?!"

Ritchie to Ian, during the mixing of In Rock, when the latter dared push up the faders for his vocals.



I like audible vocals too, it's a reason why I always preferred The Beatles to The Stones or DP to LZ. But too loud is too loud, it devalues the music, the "Slade"-effect.



The loudest vocals I ever heard were at a Neil Diamond concert. His voice was so loud in the mix, you could hear the hairs in his nostrils banging against each other every time he breathed. 

[westen44]

It just seems to me that often with cover bands the vocals aren't loud enough.  Of course, I think sometimes this is a good thing.  I don't know how many cover bands have been ruined by having a lousy singer.  But a lot. 

[Dave W]

OMG, that Tarja, whoever she is, is what Rodney Daingerfield called a two-bagger, You need a bag over your head in case the one over hers breaks. And if you scraped all that hideous makeup off her and burned it for fuel, you could heat your house for a whole winter.

I didn't realize that Brenda Lee had put out a new video. In that robe, she looks like a tall midget.



But she'll always be Little Miss Dynamite to me.