Jump to content

IpMan

Members
  • Posts

    4,149
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by IpMan

  1. Yes indeed, I don't think anyone on this thread has trashed Bakers talent, quite the contrary. I believe everyone here recognizes Baker as one of the greatest drummers of all time, the problem is he is also a complete dick. The fact Baker chooses to trash other musicians shows how truly insecure he is especially when it comes to his drumming. Therein lay the irony, everyone knows Baker is one of the best, however I don't believe Baker feels this way about himself and that is truly sad. He is one of those poor bastards who has a vision of perfection, unfortunately that state is unattainable and combined with a "I must be the best" attitude has him pulling an endless goal he can never reach akin to Sisyphus and his boulder. You know, I really pity this poor man, he is a victim of his own impossible standards.

  2. I wonder if Baker could read music in general or just for the drums? Two completely different things. When I learned to read & understand musical theory, I learned on the trumpet. The notes, tempo, meter, time, accents, etc. were what you would expect of sheet music you see in the movies and takes time to lear and learn properly. Sheet music for drums is very, very easy by comparison. There are no "notes" per se in drums, just what drum to hit, how to hit that drum, time, accent. I like to compare the two like this: Learning to read true sheet music for non-percussion instruments is like learning chess; learning to read sheet music for percussion is like checkers.

    Anyway, just curious if he knew how to read both. Anyway, Baker is still a grumpy old asshole, one of the most naturally gifted drummers ever but a complete and total asshole to the core.

  3. Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. It was a pretty uneventful day, as the family did a little pre-celebration over the weekend. Now, I can kick back, relax and watch some Lon Chaney movies I have not seen in awhile...

    Happy Birthday Paul...don't forget to watch Shadows & The Unholy Three. Lon at his best.

  4. Page is my fave, but I have to sort of comment on Hendrix. Hendrix overall took much more drugs, etc., than Page . But Hendrix was

    known even up to the last days to practice at least a few hours a day , if not 5-6. I find it impossible to believe that Page after 1973 was

    consistently practicing daily, let alone for hours and hours. Plus Hendrix was constantly wrangling with his whammy bar, constantly

    throwing the guitar out of tune . Just listen to "Wild Thing" , from 1967 Monterey Pop.. And Hendrix's rhythm guitar style was far more

    complex than Page's ; What Page is doing on the Rain Song Hendrix is doing live every few songs, ballad or rock. And although

    Hendrix could get "sloppy", he always quickly recovered, and kept the thread. Your'e talking about totally different types of

    sloppiness, although again Page is multifaceted, not simply sloppy overall.

    Hendrix drug use has been insanely blown out of proportion. Sure he did drugs, but about the typical usage of the time. If Hendrix tried to do 1/10th of the dope Page was shooting on a daily basis from 77' - 82' Hendrix would have been dead long before Sept 1970. FWIW, the jury is still very much out on Hendrix's death with many people thinking he was murdered. No one, and I mean no one can ingest more than two gallons of wine and that is the volume of wine they found in this body, not including quite a bit more which he aspirated during his transport in the ambulance.

    I also play guitar and have been doing so for over 30 years. Hendrix played and practiced constantly, he always had that damn guitar with him wherever he went. He was sloppy for the same reasons Page was sloppy, emotion trumped technique and experimentation and pushing his own boundaries live took precedent as well over technique.

    Now Page 77 - 82, that drugs baby, for as much booze & smack Page was doing in those years it is a bloody miracle he was able to play as well as he did. Hell, the man almost died on stage April 9th, 1977 in Chicago (according to Richard Cole). Food poisoning my foot.

  5. Page's live guitar skills definitely too a hit, beginning with inconsistent performances on the 77 tour. I actually think Plant may have been more inclined to consider a full reunion had Page not been so messed up whenever they played together following the band's breakup. The Atlantic show was the worst, and although blame was shared for Live Aid, I think Page was in bad shape. I think Page was still not yet clean when they did their first Page and Plant tour, with Jimmy still having that drinkers bloat look, and needing a back-up guitarist in the shape of Porl Thompson.

    That is the weird part, whenever I saw Page in the 80's in The Firm or solo he always played beautifully, very well. However for the Atlantic 40th he really sucked balls, just crappy, yet when I saw him in Phoenix for Outrider either just before or just after the 40th he was again brilliant. Just my opinion but I feel, during the 80's, when he was on his own he could cope better and did not get as wasted pre-show. I think during the Atlantic 40th in particular he was really feeling the nerves and just got too damn drunk pre-show. I really believe it is as simple as that. Page suffers from horrible stage fright, plus with the added pressure of a Zep reunion and he just cannot handle it sober, at least not in the 80's.

    I don't agree with your assessment of Porl Thompson as a "back-up" guitarist, he was a second guitarists which allowed P&P to perform songs they could not with only one guitarist. I was at both the 95' & 98' tours and as a guitarist I had my eye on Jimmy & Porl the whole time. Unless Porl is magic or Jimmy was miming to a backing track, Porl cannot play a solo around the 12th - 15th frets while playing rhythm on the third fret. Jim played great at both the 95' & 98' shows though I preferred the 98' show because Jimmy's playing was, IMO, the best playing he ever did live, period. Jimmy 98' - 2000' was the best live Jimmy, this was, for me, Jimmy's peak, where technical proficiency met emotional projection and created absolute musical brilliance.

  6. From what I heard and read, even despite Bonzo's death, ultimately yes the right decision was made. Behind the scenes Robert

    was really fed up with the drug/alcohol situation, Page in particular, but also Bonzo(just listen to some of the quite diminished 1980

    performances). Even Peter Grant was in bad shape. I think JPJ was kind of neutral concerning the band's shape. If you really

    research this thing, It really seems that Plant was hellbent on escaping a not really exaggerated sinking

    From the breakup, Page was the most affected. He sunk allegedly even deeper into various addictions, and even his guitar skills

    began to erode, arguably only to recover at the end of the 80's.

    Not sure I agree with his skills eroding and not recovering until the late 80's. I have seen YouTube videos of his ARMS performances in the US (The Albert Hall gig was horrible) and they were pretty damn good. I saw him in 1985 for The Firm and he was amazing, easily at 1975 level playing if not better. The only era where I feel Page was hit or miss as a guitarist was 77 - 83, after that he recovered very nicely indeed.

  7. You seem a bit high strung. It's just a song.

    I would say passionate as high strung suggests lack of control. Guess you are not a big fan of either passion or hyperbole...I am a big Louis Black fan so maybe that explains some of my posts. Sometime I will exaggerate a point to show the absurdity of the situation. If my passion and humor alarmed you, well, I am what I am. This is what happens when all your in-laws are Italian!

  8. I prefer heavier all around, .12 Elixir on my acoustics and either Ernie Ball .11 for the LP or .10 for the Fenders. I prefer heavier strings for the above reasons and developed my finger strength through a Randy Rhodes finger exercise which works wonders. When practicing, take about 10-20 min each session to use all four fingers of the fretting hand to hammer-on / pull off the full range of the neck, each string. I tell you this, when you can easily do this on all strings, all frets, you will have no problem doing deep bends and subtle vibrato even a step or more above on any string with a set of .11 plus you get the better tone and sustain of the heavier strings.

  9. I have two shows from this tour, Vienna & Frankfurt and both are great shows. Frankfurt in particular is fantastic and Jimmy's playing is near perfect in most of the songs. If they could have played at this level (Frankfurt) consistently on the NA tour dates, the 80'-81' shows would have been awesome.

    Sadly, and most likely, that would not have been the case, and Jimmy probably would have OD'd ala The Ox mid-tour if Bonham would not have beat him to it.

    Anyway, I liked this tour and their approach in general, though they needed to just the setlist. The songs were fine but the order of Rain Song, Hot Dog, All My Love was a dumb choice.

  10. If the 55 year old me could travel back in time to 1978, I would give the young David Coverdale the following advice:

    "You are a rare baritone in a sea of tenors. You are one of the few men in rock who can sing the really low notes with authority. Use the lower part of your range for dramatic emphasis and leave the high-pitched shrieking to the likes of Robert Plant and Glenn Hughes. As a woman, I will tell you there is nothing sexier or more primal than a deep-voiced man singing in the lower part of his range. So work those low notes baby! You've got the vocal chops, you're a handsome bloke and you have presence. You don't need to resort to cheesy mannerisms to grab audiences' attention."

    True that, after all Barry White & Jim Morrison come to mind. Morrison in his prime was / is considered the epitome of male sexuality in music. Not even Robert had that raw masculine allure of Morrison in his prime, so yes Disco, when it comes to the ladies, the baritones rule.

    I have to say I like Coverdale and admire his professionalism. Even though he has this "persona" he took great care to protect his voice, which Robert never did. The man quit smoking young, was not a party animal on the road, and even stayed away from weed and excess liquor during tours (according to him at least). I think Coverdale is one of those insecure guys who goes all histrionic and obnoxious as a mask, but in the end he was a great singer and very professional as a musician, though I agree he is a horrible lyricist.

    I wonder if the reason CP only did a Japanese tour was because Coverdale was a bit like Paul Rogers on the road and Jimmy did not have anyone to party with...Poor Jimmy.

  11. The only boot I have from the 80' tour is Vienna and except for the shitty All My Love, the rest of the concert is excellent and inspired. I have been trying to score a Frankfurt, Zurich, or Berlin. If anyone has these please lend a brother a hand and PM me.

  12. It 'absolutely true ... unfortunately, so to speak, the fun always have the propensity to "magnify" any act of their heroes, or at least those who have participated in these concerts will certainly have a memory dictated by the juvenile period, so .. everything looks great - personally, although not involved in these concerts, but listening to the various bands around even on youtube, I have to note that not all spent a good time, even for the known events of dependence page - i have to tell the truth are concerts, ugly, both in the lineup, but more importantly, because it lacks the essential element is the desire to have fun on stage -

    Senza offesa ma il prossimo post solo post in Italiano e quelli non conosce possono correre attraverso software di conversione. Il tuo post non ha senso.

    No offense but next post just post in Italian and those not fluent can run through conversion software. Your post made no sense.

  13. I can't wait!! :)

    In the summer of '77 while many of you were catching the Zeppelin tour, I was in the movie theater watching Star Wars 50 thousand times, lol. (I was 11).

    May the Force be with you all.

    Funny you should say. When the movie came out and I saw the poster (I was 9 at the time) I thought it looked stupid, really, really bad so I did not go see it. I was too busy seeing Slap Shot, The Hills Have Eyes, The Deep, Exorcist (The Heretic) - shitty movie, Sorcerer, and Annie Hall. There were so many great movies that year, me and my brother would go every weekend and see two or three ($1 to get in the matinee) and Star Wars just looked like B-movie shite. So, Star Wars had been out for about two months and when I went to the movies I would notice this growing line to see this Star Wars and all my friends were saying how great it was. I finally gave in and saw it about three months after it's initial release and truly enjoyed it. I really liked the movie though there were much better movies that year, it scored a good 7 out of 10 for me.

    Now when Empire was released and I saw that I was overjoyed with the result. This has always been, IMO the best Star Wars movie...dark and serious, however Yoda really pissed me off. I was a big fan of Kung Fu (series) and Yoda was less Master Po and more overall pain in the ass. Anyway, I always thought Empire was the best of the three.

    Even though I hate most JJ Abrams movies (completely fucked up the Star Trek re-boot), I do have high hopes for this. The fact is Lucas fucked up the prequels so badly even a JJ shaky cam, blowing shit up, fuck the plot (Plot...who needs that) approach cannot be any worse. The fact that Lucas stopped making movies for adults and started making Star Wars movies into 2+ hours of stupid product marketing commercials for kids was enough for me. I realized he jumped the shark when he abandoned the whole Chewbacca - Wookie home world plot line for ROTJ, and instead pulled the Ewoks out of his ass. I HATE Ewoks and the whole juvenile approach, just stupid.

    If Lucas would have stuck to the original outlines for all nine movies (this was done in 1979 ish) he did with Gary Kurtz, the Star Wars Cycle would have been the greatest series of movies of all time.

  14. Alright, finally here it goes...

    I have never posted a pic of myself on this site. This picture contains a picture of me (not a good one either) and one of my co-workers (we were both extremely drunk at a VIP Sheryl Crow concert for the opening of the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Theatre) and the mayor of Orlando - with the Physical Graffiti background. You can figure out who is who...? ;)

    attachicon.gifimage.jpg

    Are you the strong black man? Oh, wait, that's Steve...my bad.

  15. Vienna 1980 and the WLL encore is really strong and unique. Sounds like Page is playing both the guitar & the Theramin at the same time and his licks are fluid as hell. Love what he did with the solo coming out of the middle section.

    Except for the horrible All My Love (just sounds sluggish and un-rehearsed), the rest of the set is great, very good show.

    Ps. Don't forget the dinosaur...

  16. John Paul Jones - The Joint, Las Vegas November 1st, 1999.

    Dude, this is funky...It appears you and I have attended several of the same shows in the Phoenix area over the years including the JPJ at The Joint. That was a monster show in a great venue. I saw Sting at Mesa Amphitheatre the night before, drove directly from that show up to Vegas for the JPJ show and damn was it worth it. I would later see JPJ open for King Crimson a few years later at the Herberger I believe. Did you go to that show as well Luvlz2?

    I love small venues with a nice, accessible bar.

  17. Robbie Williams submits scaled back plans for his £17.5m mansion after losing fight with Led Zeppelin star and neighbour Jimmy Page over application to build super basement

    Fuck this guy, people like this are the same fools who have no problem demolishing 100 year old baseball parks to make room for ugly mega-stadiums. No respect for history, no respect for true craftsmanship.

×
×
  • Create New...