Jim, what's your opionion on the new Alice in Chains lead man?

Black Sabbath comes to mind.You have the Ozzy era,the Dio era,the one album with Ian Gillian and the Tony Martin era. A lot of their fans are die hard Ozzy fans and will never accept anyone as their vocalist but him.

I have seen them four times. Twice with Ozzy,once with Dio and once with Tony Martin. The first show with Ozzy was not long after the Sabotage album and it was vintage Sabbath. The second time around on the Never Say Die tour it was obvious that Ozzy was so messed up that they could not perform at anywhere near peak.

Then a couple of years later I saw them with Dio. Now you have to understand,I have been a fan since their very first album,so when I say this I say it with some regret....Sabbath with Dio on vocals is far superior to Sabbath with anyone else on vocals. Dio brings something special to the table that Ozzy just is no longer capable of.Having said all that,my favorite Sabbath album of all time is 'Tyr' with Tony Martin on vocals. Shoot me.

My apologies to all the diehard Ozzy fans. Just my humble observation.

Look at Motley Crue they tried to replace Vince Neil . Big mistake.When theres magic in the music its the singer not the song.

Look at Motley Crue they tried to replace Vince Neil . Big mistake.When theres magic in the music its the singer not the song.

 

Now I don't necessarily agree with that, but I see what you're getting at. With some bands, the lead singer is the driving personality and the one who fans most recognize, usually. Changing that formula turns the band into something foreign to most fans, and makes the band harder to embrace than before. For example: Lynyrd Skynyrd without Ronnie is not Lynyrd Skynyrd, simple as that.

 

But the importance of good material should never be downplayed. If it wasn't important, nobody would ever listen to Bob Dylan or Tom Waits.

Jim, what's your opionion on the new Alice in Chains lead man?

 

I touched briefly on that earlier, and it kind of has me torn. The guy sounds very faithful to the AIC I always loved, but it still just feels like a tribute band doing old covers. A really good cover band, but still a cover band.

 

It doesn't really fit into the phenomena I'm talking about here, given that AIC has been shelved for a decade. I look at this much in the same way as I view what Queen is doing with Paul Rodgers, or to a lesser degree, the INXS thing.

 

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Band makes great music, and becomes rock'n'roll icons and the face of the southern rock genre. Band has plane crash, killing lead singer, among other members. After a few years of a hiatus, some of the remaining members have the brilliant idea of "Hey, let's just go get the former lead singer's little brother to take his place -- it'll be like nothing ever happened," ignoring the fact that not only was Ronnie Van Zant the face of the band, he also defined their sound with his songwriting, and little brother can't hold his jock. The results are, predictably, awful. When Gary Rossington and Billy Powell finally leave this mortal coil, Ronnie's going to be waiting for them in one of Heaven's back alleys with a tire iron for what they did to his band.

 

I agree totally. Musically speaking they still sound good. But, like you said Ronnie was one of the best songwriter/singers ever in IMO. The songs he wrote and sang defined Lynyrd Skynyrd.

 

By the way, Billy Powell died on 01/28/09.

What killed Van Halen was not necessarily the switch to Sammy, but when they moved onto their 3rd lead singer in Gary Cherone. I LOVE Cherone as a singer, but it didn't fit. Eddie changed his approach to writing songs and it showed on that album. He tried to put music to words that Cherone had already written instead of coming up with the music then adding the lyrics after. That 1 album experiment made Eddy look like a little kid who couldn't play well with others. The final straw for me was letting Michael Anthony go. MA was the only guy who still got along with Sammy and Dave and it must have ticked Eddie off.

Black Sabbath comes to mind.You have the Ozzy era,the Dio era,the one album with Ian Gillian and the Tony Martin era. A lot of their fans are die hard Ozzy fans and will never accept anyone as their vocalist but him.

I have seen them four times. Twice with Ozzy,once with Dio and once with Tony Martin. The first show with Ozzy was not long after the Sabotage album and it was vintage Sabbath. The second time around on the Never Say Die tour it was obvious that Ozzy was so messed up that they could not perform at anywhere near peak.

Then a couple of years later I saw them with Dio. Now you have to understand,I have been a fan since their very first album,so when I say this I say it with some regret....Sabbath with Dio on vocals is far superior to Sabbath with anyone else on vocals. Dio brings something special to the table that Ozzy just is no longer capable of.Having said all that,my favorite Sabbath album of all time is 'Tyr' with Tony Martin on vocals. Shoot me.

My apologies to all the diehard Ozzy fans. Just my humble observation.

 

I'm a huge Sabbath guy and without Ozzy is just isn't Black Sabbath IMO. I refuse to listen to Dio with Sabbath or any of the others.

Worked for Fleetwood Mac.

Worked for Fleetwood Mac.

 

They never really had a single front person, though. Lead duties (during the era everyone knows them, not their '60s blues era) were shared pretty equally between three of them.

They never really had a single front person, though. Lead duties (during the era everyone knows them, not their '60s blues era) were shared pretty equally between three of them.

 

Very true.

Very true.

 

In hindsight though, I think Hangman set me up. :lol:

They never really had a single front person, though. Lead duties (during the era everyone knows them, not their '60s blues era) were shared pretty equally between three of them.

 

But I happen to enjoy the Peter Green era... :bunny: That face means nothing to what I'm saying, I just wanted to use it.

In hindsight though, I think Hangman set me up. :lol:

 

Nah, no setup... I was just thinking about it and thought they fit the criteria. I would argue that Journey was not really "known" with Gregg Rolie as their singer. In fact, if you ask the majority of people they don't even know that the band existed before Steve Perry.

Nah, no setup... I was just thinking about it and thought they fit the criteria. I would argue that Journey was not really "known" with Gregg Rolie as their singer. In fact, if you ask the majority of people they don't even know that the band existed before Steve Perry.

 

In a way, Fleetwood Mac does, but they were relatively unknown to Americans in their earlier format, so I didn't really think of them.