So, what have you been listening to lately?

[gearHed289]

Thanks for that Cal Jam II clip. I remember watching that when it first aired (must have been Don Kirshner's). MANY years later I found out that was Jack Blades. Hard to believe he used to play like that. I only knew him from Night Ranger.

[uwe]

It's pretty baffling. With Night Ranger he doesn't slap or pop ever, even in songs where it would fit. He's still got the dance moves though!

Brad Gillis is one of the most severely underrated US axemen too. His solo here is priceless (and the 'biographic' vid in Spielberg style hilarious):



And I'm to Night Ranger the same type of wuss Stewart was to Winger, I know.



They encapsulate for me what is absolutely great about American melodic rock. And I'm not saying that in irony (sic!), but out of admiration and envy. (An unironic statement from me - and you thought I didn't have it in me, shame on you!)

Still going strong too.



It's a pity they hardly ever come to Europe, much less Continental Europe. I only saw them once, at the beginning of their career, with their debut album just leaving college radio and making inroads with regular FM, in a small club in Orlando (with a great crowd outside hoping in vain to get in - it was sold out) that didn't even feature an elevated stage. Great gig it was. They looked and acted like they had just stepped out of that small blue Volkswagen bus in the 'biopic' vid above.

[gearHed289]

It's a pity they hardly ever come to Europe, much less Continental Europe.

At least they can still rock in America. 

[uwe]

Lil' card-carrying GOP-fan boy, but I like the guy ...

[uwe]

A wuss fest: Alan Parsons meets Styx!



Had to look up what it meant, an (o)uroboros is apparently an ancient symbol of a serpent dragon eating its own tail.

[doombass]

That reminds me of Klaus Voormann's artwork on Turbonegro's Scandinavian Leather:

[Dave W]

This was posted in a discussion else where about Cream. The band is apparently from Detroit. They really nailed this one.

[uwe]

They're all good, but especially the drummer - Ginger Baker was key for the Cream sound.

[westen44]

After watching that, You Tube gave me this as a suggestion. 

[uwe]

MG, they were kids back then.

[Dave W]

They're all good, but especially the drummer - Ginger Baker was key for the Cream sound.

Yeah, he has the feel. Singer has Jack's vocal technique down well too.

After watching that, You Tube gave me this as a suggestion. 

Now that was interesting!

[westen44]

Much more interesting than, for example, when you listen to demos/studio sessions by the Beatles.  Some of those early stage Beatles songs can be actually painful to listen to.  It makes me think that there was a tremendous amount of raw talent packed into Cream.  Besides that, just look what they did in the mere two years of their career.  There will never be another Cream.  I'm a Beatles fan, but also just stating the facts. 

I'm basing my impressions of the Beatles in the studio working on songs mostly on the Anthology series.  Many times they had to go through quite a laborious process to perfect their songs.  Personally, I don't always want to have to listen to all of that.  Of course we don't have anything comparable to the Beatles Anthology CDs for Cream.  We don't know for sure how they sounded working on songs in the studio for the most part.  I suppose the negative thing for Cream is that playing live they could sometimes run jamming into the ground.   This is basically what Tom Hamilton said about them upon hearing Cream live for the first time. 

[uwe]

The Beatles were songcraftsmen, they sucked at/saw no value in improvisations, preferring a very controlled studio environment, which is perfectly ok. With Cream it was more the other way around (though they - especially Bruce - were still better songwriters than the Beatles were improvisers), which is fine too, nothing wrong with being a jam band. Horses for courses, some peole like to "hear the songs they know and how they know them" and I'm more the type who grows listless if after the third song in a set a band still hasn't deviated from the studio versions.

I once left a Rush gig early (Permanent Waves tour) because they bored me stiff recreating their studio sound and arrangements - for all the complexity and creativity of their music, there was zilch improvisation, just utter concentration on stage. Girlschool were the opening act and while nobody in Girlschool would be good enough to even be a stage technician with the Rush crew, they sounded fresh, unperturbed and raunchy in comparison. Not that there was much improvisation  , but they weren't obsessed with  reproducing their studio sound at the expense of a performance either.



To the defense of Rush, I have to say that their stiff earnestness in performing their music left them as their career progressed.  I saw them 30 years later again and it was a fun experience.

And the late Kelly Johnson of Girlschool was as close as you could ever reasonably get to hearing Farrah Fawcett play lead guitar in a hard rock setting - what's not to like?!

[westen44]

I think Girlschool must have been inspirational for several female bands.  I keep hearing about them.  Personally, though, it can be hard for me to focus on a band that's had a lot of lineup changes.

Since I've listened to practically every Jimi Hendrix recording in existence, I can say that he rarely, if ever, played a song in the same way twice.  That may be why I like his live recordings so much.  It's too bad that there aren't many of them out there.  The bootleg recordings are useless--something I've mentioned in a previous thread.  Needless to say, when you've got amateurs in the audience using 60s technology to record, you can't expect too much.  But the rare recordings professionally recorded such as "Hendrix in the West" especially are pleasant to listen to. 

[uwe]

Compared to Rush, Girlschool are of course only a footnote in rock history. Even among all-women-bands, they were certainly no Fanny in terms of natural musicality (with which the latter brimmed by any standard).



Yet also definitely more fluid than The Runaways with their "Look, we've just learned this!"-rehearsal room charm.