#1 Pretty Boy Floyd...Leather Boys With Electric Toys...
JUST KIDDING......
#1 Winger....PULL
Winger is easily the most maligned metal band in history. Wiped out by Nirvana, ridiculed by Beavis and Butthead, singled out for hostility by Metallica. In part, they deserved it. The pretty boy dancing in the videos, the big hair, Kip's unfortunate turn in Playgirl magazine. "She's Only Seventeen" will haunt them forever.
Forget all of that. Forget that you even know what these guys look like or sound like. This album contains what is arguably 10 of the most well crafted metal songs of the 90's. Incredible musicianship (as always), pop-sensible songwriting, and choruses and riffs so memorable it would make Lennon and McCartney proud.
Stop and consider who these guys are without all the hairband MTV hoopla. Kip Winger - Alice Cooper's bass player. Reb Beach - classically trained virtuoso who stepped up to fill the gigantic shoes of George Lynch in Dokken. Rod Morgenstein - drummer of the 70's prog-fusion masters The Dixie Dregs (not to mention drummer for Jelly Jam with John Myung (Dream Theater) and Ty Tabor (King's X). These are three incredibly accomplished musicians and one of the tightest trios ever assembled. It shows on every tune, as does the hit making magic of the Winger/Beach writing team.
"Pull" was a masterpiece, and because of one man, their mortal enemy Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead) it remains to this day,just a warm memory in the hearts of metal fans who dream of what metal should have become...but sadly never did. The closest metal would get to reaching this level would be Creed, and eventually Nickleback..not even close to this level of musical mastery. to quote the opening song of the album, Behold....
and here is a live version of the same song "Blind Revolution Mad"...so you know they were not made up of studio special effects and polishing...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIp_EaCUMmI&eurl=http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2812483588116233415&postID=4600584033012283415&feature=player_embedded
check out the live version of the tough-as-nails song "Junkyard Dog"
and, probably my favorite Winger song..."Who's the One"..keep in mind, this BASS-player is the "pretty boy", "Poseur", "fag" and whatever else they could possibly call him-playing guitar probably better than anyone in modern rock today...this is the level we expected OUR musicians to play at to gain our respect...
There were alot of albums to choose from in this list- it was very hard deciding who would be here, and who would not. I have a list of honorable mentions that I am going to post next-These will be popular, and some not-so popular bands.Unfortunately, the music business has often neglected the deserving, and praised the fools, but over-all, the bands who made the albums that were truly great, know who they are. The bands who made the stinkers who's success was totally dependent upon timing, and whatever chip the current movers-and-shakers in the music industry had on their collective shoulders,also know who they are. This list means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, but at least,many of the great bands of the last 30 years have at least one fan who appreciated them for what they were and still are....great musicians, and not trendy playing pieces in a record executive's game of chance...
2 comments:
I picked up Pull (and KISS Alive III) the day it came out and I agree with most everything you said. The CD is flawless. One of the most well-produced (Mike Shipley) albums in hard rock.
Winger were lucky. They had considerable success with their first two albums before the industry started to change. I remember KBPI giving "Down Incognito" and "Who's The One" considerable airplay. Maybe because of Kip's Denver ties, but at least they played them. MTV didn't touch it.
If anything, it goes to show how sheepish people can be. Lots of people buy CD's because they are following what's popular at the time. But Pull was a lot darker musically. You could make the argument that people wanted to hear "happy metal" instead of more mature subject matter.
The Pull Tour show at the Gothic is one of my top 10 concerts of all time. Even though Trixter wasted two hours of my time before Winger hit the stage.
Sheepish is the perfect word for it...although, I have to admit that for a while there, if the band didn't look right(i.e. have "the image"), I didn't give them much of a chance- at least until about 1990 when I grew up a bit- so I was as guilty as anyone for falling for the marketing and trend, rather than appreciating the substance of what they were doing. That is the one thing that the Nirvanas of the world did accomplish- they brought music back to an art when for so long it was more like a Vaudville show..its just a shame that so many incredible musicians like Kip, Reb, Rod, and Paul were thrown under the bus...Winger especially- it was such a blatant attempt to destroy their careers, for no other reason other than the Lars Ulrichs and the Mike Judges didn't like the style of music- Lars especially baffles me, because as a musician,(and a damn good one) he should be able to appreciate that any member of Winger could probably play any member of his own band under the table on a technical level- why he didn't appreciate their mastery of music, I'll never figure out...
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