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Neal Schon gettin' it done

bagman67

bagman67

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Okay, some of us will scoff at the ubiquity of Journey on the middle-of-the-road in rock'n'roll, and I agree that their bombast can be a bit much.  But "Lights" is a master class in fluid playing and also has some mighty tasty tones (not quite as evident here, with a camera's mic as the recorder, but you have all heaerd the original - but I digress).  This is a cool video because, in addition to showing off how to play some of the parts, it lets us see the tune's author improvising in the song, continuing to keep it new and interesting.

Anyway, enjoy (and Neal, either button up the shirt a little more, or get an undershirt, or work on the abs):
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v6ecBv-woM[/youtube]

Peace
Bagman
 
As time passes and different musician's reputations become solidified, it sometimes seems as though Neal Schon doesn't want to be remembered as the guy who bagged a job with Santana to go play "Don't Stop Believing" and (especially) Steve Lukather wants to be remembered as a killer fusak/shred guitarist (which he is) instead of being the guy who zombielly re-animates Toto to tour Japan every time he runs out of money. Yeah! "Rosanna!" Git on down,.... bro.

They're both great guitarists who chased the "AOR" money train during a period where Steve Morse couldn't rub two nickles together, but by now, the stench of power-balladry is impossible to expunge. Interestingly enough, Lindsey Buckingham, the guitarist for the even-pimpier Fleetwood Mac, managed to escape this by releasing a series of really weird, even anti-commercial solo albums. There's great musicians hiding everywhere; Andy Timmons, who is up towards the top of my list of the shreddy-type fellows, has a day job as musical director for: Olivia Newton-John! (?)(!!) A lot of the Nashville studio mainstays are great, even brilliant jazz players... personally, I've never ever had the opportunity to turn down commercial success in favor of "art", or for any other reason either. :laughing3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naJsLEgcT9Y&feature=related

It seems like the interlude with Harmonica Asshat actually made him regroup to "zero" and come out killing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MViw7ri7Z4&feature=related
 
I don't know who or what "Harmonica Asshat" is, but I call it for the name of my next band if it's not already taken.  :laughing7:
 
Neil Schon is a freekin stud I love his tone of course I prefer melodic players.  I don't care what anyone says, there are some Journey tunes on the soundtrack of this old bastards life:)
 
Neal schon is one of the most overlooked players.  He plays for the song giving it what it needs rather than succumbing to self indulgence.

 
TonyFlyingSquirrel said:
Neal schon is one of the most overlooked players.  He plays for the song giving it what it needs rather than succumbing to self indulgence.
Click to expand...

While N. Schon does an awesome job of playing the guitar in the service of the song, I seem to recall Journey was kind of a self-indulgent fusiony wank-fest before someone crammed a pop sensibility down his throat.
 
Maybe so, but I think that those years of chops building acrobatic only helped to build his inventory of things to choose from.  Some journey songs are simple and just serve to deliver the song, other songs have technical thing fused in there just at the right time to reinforce an emotional element.  In the end, it adds to the versatility of their sound.
 
Agreed. I've never really understood the contempt for Journey either. There's a lot more to them than gets played on the radio. Radio is what sucks.
 
I am a big Neil Schon fan, especially his solo albums where his blues background comes out, but I did notice that in the latest Journey concert footage he was trying to play too fast and too loud, to the point where I really wasn't enjoying it.  Nothing like when I saw the Escape tour back in the day.
 
I saw them at a "Day on the Green" concert at the Oakland Coloseum in the summer of 1983 with Night Ranger, Bryan Adams, Eddie Money, & Triumph.  that was an awesome lineup with 3 of the bands being Bay Area bands.
 
TonyFlyingSquirrel said:
Neal schon is one of the most overlooked players.  He plays for the song giving it what it needs rather than succumbing to self indulgence.
Click to expand...

Can't say I agree, I have always seen him as a bit of an attention seeker, when it comes to just giving the song what it needs Mike Rutherford from Genesis needs to stand up and take a bow. His guitar work is top drawer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4LEOALuUQo
 
elfro89 said:
TonyFlyingSquirrel said:
Neal schon is one of the most overlooked players.  He plays for the song giving it what it needs rather than succumbing to self indulgence.
Click to expand...

Can't say I agree, I have always seen him as a bit of an attention seeker, when it comes to just giving the song what it needs Mike Rutherford from Genesis needs to stand up and take a bow. His guitar work is top drawer.
Click to expand...

Since we're headed in this direction, I'll nominate Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers.
 
bagman67 said:
Anyway, enjoy (and Neal, either button up the shirt a little more, or get an undershirt, or work on the abs):
Click to expand...

Forgot about this one. Saw Def Leppard a few years ago. When they got to Rick Savage's solo part, he's playing with no shirt, and dramatic blue side lighting. Now granted, Rick still in better shape than I am, and not bad at all for an average joe on the street. But the average joe on the street doesn't walk around shirtless with dramatic blue side lighting either. It was not pretty. The next time we saw them (I'm a fan, but my wife is still in the '13 yo school girl infatuation' stage with them, we've been at least 3 times in the 5 years we've been together)  Rick had a shirt on.
 
I've always had a ... "thing" about people who wear muscle-tees, who like, don't have any muscles. It's not a good thing. All too often, the aging rocker seems to mistake underarm cellulite for rippling waves of tendons... I guess if WalMart introduced a line of "flab-tees" it might take a while to catch on. What DO the groupies at Iron Maiden & Def Leppard look like...
 
stubhead said:
What DO the groupies at Iron Maiden & Def Leppard look like...
Click to expand...
went to a Maiden concert a few years back, Music was as good as always but saw way to many woman trying to look like they did 20 years ago.
Ouch, some of those butts should have been outlawed they had so many folds in them, some of the girls in fishnet looked like sausage the way it poked in between the nets
I was almost ready to find a rock and knock myself senseless so that I would not have to see another size 14 belly hanging over a mini skirt when the lights went out and Maiden came on, what a relief, just the lights going off was worth the price of a ticket.
SO then the crowd got going and the place heated up,guys started to get rowdy, not a nice place seeing a bunch of toothless methheads in their 40s getting drunk and trying to recapture their youth when they remembered how to spell their names before the braincells died. I think half of those cells committed suicide so they didi not have to look at the thighs of the girlfriends.
Anyway after a great concert I bugged out before the lights came back on to be able to drive home as if I had another round with the varicose veined legs of the average woman there I would have been blinded, and had to take medicine for my mind.
 
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