Music videos that feature Thunderbirds

[4stringer77]

Kenny Rogers' cutting tone on his single coil Precision has me rethinking my next bass purchase. Best version of Ruby ever!

Wait a sec isn't this the Thunderbird video thread?

[uwe]

"AC/DC, Y&T, Scorpions...
Didn't have to think too long about that ..."

I'll give you six more: Status Quo, Ted Nugent, Slade, New York Dolls, The Alice Cooper Group and Mott the Hoople, but you'll be able to name vastly more without one I think: Nazareth, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Bad Company (Rodgers only played a little rhythm guitar and it was never prominent), Uriah Heep, Triumph, James Gang, Max Webster, Thin Lizzy (two lead guitarists), UFO (Raymond only played rhythm occasionally), Budgie, Rush, Purple, Rory Gallagher/Taste, Ten Years After, Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, all those Southern Rock bands (generally two lead guitars or more), Judas Priest (two lead guitars), Golden Earring, Heavy Metal Kids, even CCR in their final incarnation after Tom Fogerty had jumped the Proud Mary. It had of course to do with the fact that in the seventies many bands patterned themselves either after Cream as a power trio or had a keyboarder. For largely economic reasons, keyboard players went out of style with most punk bands.

And AC/DC were initially (incorrectly though) hailed as an Australian punk band in Germany. They first gigged Germany at the height of the punk frenzy. And in early Scorpions, Rudolf's rhythm playing was much less prominent and he played more a secondary lead guitar (they still had a keyboarder back then too). That changed when Uli Roth joined the band (and the keyboard player left) who was less a rhythm player than Michael Schenker (who never forgets his rhythm role though he is a lead guitarist) and largely played fills (when he was not soloing) during his Scorpions tenure. With Roth (a Hendrix disciple not really into the school of chugging rhythm guitar) playing less rhythm, Rudolf naturally played more. That is true to this day, you very often see Rudolf playing the full chords (or power chords) while Jabs is either soloing or just hitting the lower E string.

[uwe]

almost all of the 60's british invasion bands had rhythm guitars, from the beatles on down to herman's hermits. for the songs that were being written the rhythm guitar was just as important as any lead guitar since most bands were putting out three minute pop tunes with little or no solos.

That's true for the sixties, but punk was a countermovement to the first half of the seventies and that is when traditional rhythm guitarists became less prevalent. It was the age of the lead guitarist.

[nofi]

 say punk and i think raging hardcore bands with sixty second songs. i rather like those.

[Granny Gremlin]

Rotten had charisma and he was credible, Matlock, Jones and Cook were better players than the guys in most other punk bands, two years earlier they would have formed the core of a more than decent hard rock/pub rock band. England was/is a class society (no lost wars shook up the social pyramdid), it was a fertile ground for Rotten in tandem with Mclaren to be provocative.

Come on man, Jones was a very poor player  (self admittedly so), brand new to the instrument at the start - through dedication (bloody mindedness) and his beloved 'black beauties' (again, this is straight from his mouth) he got a lot better very fast, but even at his peak he was not particularly great, so much as reliable - he just happened to become a prolific session guitarist, not, I'd argue, due to skill, but rather due to his ability to get along without drama  (rare in the punk scene) and pick things up quickly (vs taking longer and being awesome).  Most other punk guitarists were better than him and it is not even a close contest (the other Jones; Bob Andrews, Neil X, Brian James, Keith Levine and John McKay... and that's just his immediate contemporaries/people he knew  from the local scene.

Cook was nothing spectacular unless you compare him to the original incarnation of either The Banshees (Sid on drums; you can imagine how terrible that was) or the Slits (talented but naive drummer; also got better, but then quit the band).  The best punk drummer was Budgie, followed by Topper (who was rather unpunkish, but undeniably very skilled).

Matlock was a very well educated player, and possibly the best bassist technically, but not necessarily the best fit in the punk scene as we all know.

Rotten did have a certain charisma... though I would call it more of an anticharisma; he was a pioneer of that.  But credible he never was.  I mean he was credible as a punk if that's what you mean ( scene cred)  but not credible in the more traditional sense: in terms of anything he said publicly being trustworthy as fact or even in line with his honest opinion. Certainly can't argue with your last sentence there though.

[Highlander]

Wait a sec isn't this the Thunderbird video thread?

Ah... more than a match for me...

[OldManC]

The Clash were a bunch of poseurs. It's the one thing David Lee Roth and Johnny Lydon agree on.

I always thought Mick Jones was an interesting guy with quirky talent, but Joe Strummer always ruined that band for me. It's hard to take anything seriously when coming from a self professed punk revolutionary who grew up in privilege with a silver spoon hanging from his gob. Millionaire rock stars (or artists or actors) who constantly rant against "the system" or capitalism have no room to talk until they give up their copyrights, residuals, and private jets. Not that I begrudge anyone those trappings; only those who get them and then spend their time telling everyone else it's evil to want or work for them.

[uwe]

Rotten pretended to be a young cynic, in fact he was/is a disenchanted idealist like most cynics tend to be. He really was a late hippie who had cut his hair.



I guess you have to be if you are card-carrying Gong disciple and fanzine-devourer.





I only realize this now: PIL isn't too far away from that stuff! Certainly closer to it than to the Sex Pistols' pop-punk.

Jones (Steve) always had this very British workmanlike attitude to music, it is how he approached his guitar playing too. He worked hard at it and learned quickly. The ghythm guitar churning on never Mind the Bollocks cannot be faulted for what it is and wants to be. His discipline, you're right, must have helped in sessions and of course former Sex Pistols membership gave him legend credentials from a certain point onwards.

Sid Vicious was a punk model, not a punk musician IMHO.

[gearHed289]

I DO like what he did with Steve Vai and Ginger Baker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrFtPjltNAw&index=1&list=PLK4DYad6DBPUsXGhBfE1yvXTlidbAadcm

[Basvarken]

Are we almost done with the punk discussion?

Oh wait; When I was twelve I liked the Plasmatics. Does that count?

[OldManC]

I really liked Lydon the more I got to know about him. Just knowing he was an Alice Cooper fan made him go up quite a few notches in my book.

My only Lydon story: I was standing out in front of the Roxy theater on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood some time in 1986. I had recently returned from 18 month in England and didn't look a thing like all the glam metalheads in line with me. I can't remember who was playing but we were waiting for the doors to open. At some point, a long, white limo pulls by slowly with Lydon leaning his body half way out the back window, yelling as much abuse as he could while flipping us all the bird. I laughed and yelled "Oi Johnny!" as loud as I could and flipped him two fingers which make him break out laughing as he pulled away. Sunset Blvd on the weekend was always fun in those days.

[4stringer77]

Speaking of Alice Cooper, he got a pie to the face at this show.

See at 51:50. Probably the work of a Stooges fan.
Oh yeah, not a bass but Steve Winwood is jamming on a pretty sweet NR Firebird at this show. (1:04) Just to try to ease us back towards relevancy in the thread.

[patman]

The Crosley field show in Cincinnati...

[nofi]

same guitar i saw him with when i saw traffic in the early seventies. a very good looking and sounding guitar, imo. i'm always surprised why firebirds didn't become more popular than they were.

[4stringer77]

Saxon's latest with a bass player wielding a tb+ equipped T-bird.