Hayes, music is a form of entertainment. You seem to have a problem with others' musical tastes (even though you said you were joking...I think I've seen you comment on it before though as well), as if some aren't as "sophisticated" as yours. I could just as easily make fun of you for choosing to watch sports, rather than, say, reading. After all, I wouldn't call sports very sophisticated, much like choosing to watch maybe a sitcom on TV. Billy Squier rocks by the way, and your lack of knowledge of the Tesla catalogue is glaring. Here is my current top 25, in alphabetical order: A AC/DC Buckcherry Cheap Trick Coward The Cult Danzig Enuff Z Nuff Eve 6 Faster Pussycat Guns N Roses King's X KISS Lit Marvelous 3 Megadeth Motley Crue Queen Queensryche Skid Row Tesla Toadies Type O Negative Van Halen The Yo-yo's
Thanks Freak. Anybody who read my 1000th post knows my affinity for Billy Squier. Many of his songs really touched home for me during my early 20's, much more than just the radio fare of Emotions in Motion or The Stroke. That is what this thread is about, correct? Musical acts that have the greatest impact on your life.
Hmmm....I read a lot, so not sure what your point is. As I said in the post right before you posted this I'm just messin around. However, if having 'a lack of knowledge of the Tesla catalogue' is the biggest indictment of my musical tastes, I'll die a happy man. I've already said that its cool to have different taste in music so calm down. Behad, I dig Billy Squier as well, its just strange to see his name on a 'best of/greatest' list.
The greatest acts in the history of music are, in no particular order, the Backstreet Boys, Air Supply, Gilbert O'Sullivan, NSYNC, Wayne Newton, Slim Whitman, Kate Smith, Barry Manilow and Lil' Bow Wow. With that said, the greatest movie ever made is "Krush Groove", the greatest restaurant in Houston is Luby's, and the greatest Houston Rocket player ever is Richard Petruska.
ABBA!!!!... Any former band that turns down 1 billion dollars a few years ago to get back together, deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest musical acts for the genre.
Fried okra, creamed spinach, coconut cream pie, and a tall glass of sweet tea, please. My God it is slow at work today!
Beastie Boys Stevie Ray Vaughan Bob Marley ATB Van Halen (pre-Sammy Hagar) Gregory Isaacs Beau Jocque
I don't see what's so amusing about that. You described Tesla as the band that "had one bad cover". That description displays a blatant lack of familiarity of the band. Here, I'll try to help you out. From the All Music Guide: Although Tesla emerged during the glory days of hair metal, they never completely fit the spirit of the times. Their music was well-produced pop-metal, to be sure, but they never indulged in the glammed-up excess that made cartoons out of many of their peers. Instead, Tesla's music was bluesy, no-frills, '70s-style hard rock; it concentrated more on solid musicianship than enormous, arena-ready choruses (or hairdos), and it had a noticeable grit — not so much the urban sleaze of Guns N' Roses, but a grounded attitude and a genuine affection for old school hard rock. Despite their refreshing lack of posturing, Tesla was just as hard-hit as the rest of the pop-metal world when grunge wiped out classic-style hard rock, but they did produce one of the more respectable bodies of work of the era. Tesla was formed in Sacramento, CA, in 1985, out of an earlier, locally popular group called City Kidd which dated back to 1982. Tesla's lineup featured vocalist Jeff Keith, the underrated guitar tandem of Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch, bassist Brian Wheat, and drummer Troy Luccketta. At management's suggestion, the band named itself after the eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla, who pioneered the radio but was given only belated credit for doing so. After playing several showcases in Los Angeles, Tesla quickly scored a deal with Geffen and released their debut album, Mechanical Resonance, in 1986; it produced a minor hard rock hit in "Modern Day Cowboy," reached the Top 40 on the album charts, and eventually went platinum. However, it was the follow-up, 1989's The Great Radio Controversy, that truly broke the band. The first single, "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)," was another hit with hard rock audiences, setting the stage for the second single, a warm, comforting ballad called "Love Song" which substituted a dash of hippie utopianism for the usual power-ballad histrionics. "Love Song" hit the pop Top Ten and made the band stars, pushing The Great Radio Controversy into the Top 20 and double-platinum sales figures; the follow-up single, "The Way It Is," was also something of a hit. In keeping with their unpretentious, blue-collar roots, Tesla responded to stardom not by aping the glam theatrics of their tourmates, but by stripping things down. The idea behind 1990s Five Man Acoustical Jam was virtually unheard of — a pop-metal band playing loose, informal acoustic versions of their best-known songs in concert, plus a few favorite covers ('60s classics by the Beatles, Stones, CCR, and others). Fortunately, Tesla's music was sturdy enough to hold up when its roots were exposed, and one of the covers — "Signs," an idealistic bit of hippie outrage by the Five Man Electrical Band — became another Top Ten hit, as well as the band's highest-charting single. Not only did Five Man Acoustical Jam reach the Top 20 and go platinum, but it also helped directly inspire MTV's Unplugged series, both with its relaxed vibe and its reminder that acoustic music could sound vital and energetic. The studio follow-up to The Great Radio Controversy, Psychotic Supper, was released in 1991 and quickly became another platinum hit. It didn't produce any singles quite as successful as "Love Song" or "Signs," but it did spin off the greatest number of singles of any Tesla album — "Edison's Medicine," "Call It What You Want," "What You Give," "Song and Emotion." Perhaps that was partly because Tesla's workmanlike hard rock didn't sound ridiculous if it was played on rock radio alongside the new crop of Seattle bands. But regardless, the winds of change were blowing, and by the time Tesla returned with their 1994 follow-up Bust a Nut, those winds had blown pretty much any new blue-collar hard rock off the airwaves. Bust a Nut did sell over 800,000 copies — an extremely respectable showing, given the musical climate of 1994, and a testament to the fan base Tesla had managed to cultivate over the years. But all was not well within the band. Tommy Skeoch had been battling an addiction to tranquilizers and his problems worsened to the point where he was asked to leave the band in 1995. Tesla attempted to continue as a quartet for a time, but the chemistry had been irreparably altered, and they broke up in 1996. Most of the bandmembers began playing with smaller outfits, none of which moved beyond a local level. When Skeoch's health improved, the band staged a small-scale reunion in 2000, which quickly became full-fledged. In the fall of 2001, the group released a two-disc live album, Replugged Live, which documented their reunion tour.
YEAAHH! You Go Freak!! Tesla is definitely up there as far as one of my favorite bands, and it's good to see someone else take up the defense in my absence... Btw...have you heard any of Bar7? I believe it contains a couple of the members of Tesla.
I'm not sure why you insist on continuing this, since i've clearly stated I've got no problem with people having different musical taste than myself. But, its nice to take a review from a site that gives nothing but good reviews. This is what the All Music Guide says about Poison. "In a decade fueled by party anthems and power ballads, Poison found a high amount of popularity in the late 1980s, with only such related bands as Bon Jovi and Def Leppard outselling them. While the group had a long string of hits, they soon became just as renowned for their stage show, and continued to be a major attraction over the course of their first three albums. Although their success was rather short-lived, one cannot deny the major effect that Poison had on the music industry during their career." Niiiice. Next you'll be telling me how much Poison rocked. I don't care for Tesla, really I had FORGOTTEN about them until I saw them on the list. That's how I'd sum the band up, forgettable.
Rockets2K -- yeah, I've got the Bar 7 album. It's pretty good. The former Tesla members are the lead singer and the lead guitarist. Yeah, I heard you the first time. The reason I'm still posting on the matter (not that I need a reason) is because you continue to say things that aren't true. For instance: I happen to like Poison, but the part of the quote that you emphasized, as if to show how wrong it was, is completely true. Poison had a huge effect on the industry during their career, that is just a fact. Whether it was a good effect or a bad effect is open to debate, however to deny they didn't have an impact on the music industry is just ignorant.
OK, with that statement you've shown that our musical tastes are so divergent that there is zero chance we'd ever agree on what makes a good band. Well, its a good review, so its obviously saying Poison had a good effect on the industry. And putting it in bold does nothing to change the context. What it DOES do is show that all the reviews from the site you took your Tesla review, even the one for a joke of a band like Poison, are good. That was the point. You took a review from a site full of good reviews. If all the reviews are good, then they're worthless. I'm not going to pick ANOTHER band that sucks to compare Tesla to, since I'm afraid no matter how horrid they were, you'd come out and say how much you like them.
I thought you said that was okay? Why is it a "good" review? It was an OBJECTIVE review. In fact, it's not even a "review", it's a freaking bio. It was informational. That's what the site is, informational. There was nothing in the Poison "review" that wasn't factual. How you can take that one bio, and then say EVERYthing on the site is a "good" review and therefore worthless, when all the site does is give a history of bands, is beyond me. What would you like them to say that would have been more factual? I think what you meant to say was "another band that I THINK sucks" and "how horrid I THINK they were".
Saying that AMG gives nothing but good reviews is flat-out wrong. I don't remember which groups it was, but I have seen several less than glowing reviews of different bands in the time I have used it for a resource. Freak, It is virtually useless to argue about good rock bands with Hayes seeing as the only hard rock bands he mentioned in his list was Sabbath and Zeppelin (who wouldn't?) and all the others are varying forms of blues and soul.. It's pretty much a fact of life that people either loved the 80's rock scene or they hated it...its quiet obvious which side Hayes comes down on. I would just chalk it up to a vast difference of opinion and leave it at that. edit: I should have said that AMG gives bad reviews of ALBUMS since the bio on the artist's main page is just that...a bio.
Well, I thought that I would never say this: but I agree with TheFreak on something! You would be more likely to see Halley's comet before you would see this, but alas, it has happened. Musical taste is so subjective. Just because TheFreak likes Tesla and Poison (or did like them, can't remember if he still likes them now or not) doesn't mean that he has bad musical taste, IMO. His taste is just different from mine. It's the same way with art or specifically paintings. I think that some of the best paintings of all-time are ones from the Renaissance and specifically painted by Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Raphael. But at the same time, I can't get into Picasso's paintings or even better yet, Jackson Pollock. That doesn't mean that people who like those artists have bad taste...just that their taste is different. I can sit here and argue with anyone on this board about why I think that Nine Inch Nails is a great band; however, I understand why people may not care for them (or really him). Music is a very hard thing to be objective about, IMO. I hate to say it, but a year ago, I was buying whatever was popular on the radio at that time which included, *gulp*, Britney Spears. I think that Britney Spears does a good job in what she does, but I don't get into that type of music; however, I wouldn't bash anyone who likes her or artists like that. I just like to see what everyone else likes in music, and see who comes the closest to my own taste. Those are the reasons I do music threads...not to have debates on who is the better band or artist. BTW - TheFreak: I would be more than happy to have a debate with you on stuff that can be backed up by facts, but it is useless to do so if all you do is rely on opinions, conjectures, and hearsay...
