WORST replacement lead singer in a rock band? Blaze Bayley in Maiden? Ripper in Priest?

The worst of the worst.

Let's hear it.



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But you're right.

I remember the press conferences...Sammy really didn't want to sing a lot of Dave songs, Dave NEVER agreed to sing ANY Sammy songs, and Gary said "We'll sing ALL of the hits you want!"

It was a bad choice, period. The Van Halen brothers simply sought a singer that, unlike Sammy and Dave, wouldn't have an ego that matched their talent.

The two-CD package "Best of Both Worlds"...released after the Cherone belly-flop...was an unforgivable insult, because Eddie and Alex attempted to re-write history, to erase a guy who only tried to sign up and be a team player.

If I ever post a poll for the two most suck-ass brothers in rock & roll history, I EXPECT Eddie and Alex to take the crown.

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Cherone is actually a good singer and frontman, who I'd seen in his bands around Boston for years. Now it seems that whenever his name comes up, it's with a sneer because of that Van Halen thing. I have to admit I don't quite understand why everyone hated him so much in VH. I actually saw them when he was frontman and I enjoyed the show. :shrug:

Edited to add: Gary and I had some mutual friends back in the day, and I'd always heard that he's a nice guy--only makes the situation sadder still.

I just have never been able to tolerate the Sammy. Like at all. :shrug:

I was really into 5150 when it came out.

...he's just not my cup o' te-quila. :D

I'm not kidding you. By the second album, they'd run out of solid tunes (with only a couple of exceptions). There was no third album, because egos got in the way.

But that first album? If they'd been able to follow through on that, I can't even imagine how huge that band would be right now.

I've followed Hagar's entire career that followed, on a "hit & miss" basis, as the result of my love of that one album. Keep waiting for him to do it again. Most likely will never happen.

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I never like Van Halen all the much but they did have a couple of good tunes with DLR as the front man. After he left everything they put out was absolutely shitteous.

I thought that Sammy was a PERFECT match for VH. He seemed to fit right in at almost every level. The important thing is that I thought VH improved immensely with Sammy as the front man. Songs like "Right Now" or "Why Can't This Be Love?" - I mean, come on...that is some outstanding stuff. I never liked DLR - He was a glam rocker. I had always seem VH as a blue jeans band. And Sammy was a no nonsense, bring your lunchbox rocker. A perfect fit. I couldn't believe that Sammy left...I was shocked when I heard he was gone. The VH brothers should have kept Sammy...I bet that there are moments they wish they hadn't let him go.

-P

Who knows where the band would have gone if he'd stayed on board.

While I recognize the vocal excellence of Bruce, I just don't care for that form of delivery. I'm hard to please. I detest those deathmetal "singers" who sound like they are undergoing a tracheotomy. I am also put off by the "look at my vocal range" singers. I prefer something in between. I can't define it, but I know it when I hear it.

However, as a hardcore hater of the Beatles, Elvis, Springsteen (his music, not his politics) and Sinatra, I've faced that particular accusation myself.

Okay, maybe not the WORST, but a poor man's version of the outrageous Bon Scott.

...I've ready many interviews with the Young brothers AND Brian. The decision to go forward wasn't made by a coin toss. I feel a lot better about AC / DC in 2009 than I do...as an example...Lynyrd Skynryd. Ronnie Van Zandt's widow took them to court after bassist Leon Wilkeson dies, because the agreement was that TWO original members had to remain in the band in order to continue using the name. Leon's death left ONE: Rossington.

But like everything else, they paid her off, and they still tour under the name.

But Bon Scott was one of a kind.

Sad they I never got to see him live.

AC/DC with Bon was a fantastic rock-n-roll band but merely a good rock band with Brian. Bon gave 'em that sleezy authentic rocker vibe that cannot be contrived. He lived the songs he sang.

...similar to the shows that ended up in the "Bonfire" box set. I never cared for the "official" Bon live album, "If You Want Blood," because how the hell could you have a prime Bon Scott concert without "Live Wire?" The radio show...like the Bonfire box set...had it.

The early songs like "Long Way To The Top" and "Sin City" and "Down Payment Blues"...I think Brian would be the first person to call those "untouchable" classics. I remember all of them when they were new, and I've gotta tell you...nothing matches the excitement of hearing the Bon Scott classics coming out of a radio for the FIRST time.

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Anything that man touches turns to shit.

It's too bad that what I still consider to be two KILLER songs, "Burn" and "Might Just Take Your Life," came out of that union. Gillan will NEVER perform them on stage. Coverdale spews out a "Burn / Stormbringer" medley on stage to this very day.

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That's a classic.

Other than that, and even including those two songs, he's the real-life David St. Hubbins. :P

On one of the recent concert DVDs, a woman in the front row hands him flowers, and he says "Thanks for the flowers...and thanks for your tits."

It's a real Kip Winger slimeball moment.

Like I said, he's the real-life David St. Hubbins - nothing more, nothing less.

:rofl:

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1) I've never liked David Coverdale because he can only sing about his dick; and 2) What did Kip WInger do? (It's not that I doubt you--it just sounds like it'll be funny.)

...a greasy, third-string "rocker" with his cheesy Miami Vice beard stubble and stringy filthy hair licking his lips over a seventeen year old girl.

Not my idea of entertainment. I've always considered him to be nothing more than a leering, bottom-feeding scumbag, the worst of the "hair rock / hair metal / hair whatever" crowd.

The only reason I have him higher on the list than Bret Michaels is that Michaels stayed within his own age demographic, but in terms of the intellectual firepower of his "songs," it seemed like he was writing them for ten year olds.

And when the music stops, we'll take out a chair.

It was not nearly as dire as people have made it out to be. The record wasn't too bad either, if you don't consider it a Sabbath record.

...said that Sabbath fans weren't that happy to hear "Smoke On The Water" in the set list. Not sure if they performed it when you saw them, but it had to have been interesting. Gillan also reportedly hated the album cover art.



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It was pretty cool hearing Sab do it. The crowd seemed to like it, too. And that artwork is pretty ridiculous. :D

Quiet Riot opened & had the #1 song in the country at the time.

Imagine your 13 year-old coming home from his first concert reaking of pot and wearing a devil baby t-shirt.

I think I was also 13! We had nosebleed seats, and consequently had quite a buzz from the pot smoke rising up there. I remember Quiet Riot, too-- "Cum On Feel The Noize" was the song, wasn't it?

You're right that Coverdale sucks, but at least the music was still good in his era. Turner turned Purple into a crooning, pop-synth band. I still have nightmares. :scared:

...and I'm talking "diva" on the order of some of the women in the VH-1 "reality" shows.

Really bitter, defensive and catty about his tenure in Deep Purple. But in all fairness, Blackmore was the person directly responsible for the shift in Rainbow from Purple-heavy Dio tracks like "Man On The Silver Mountain" to later, cheesy synth pop like "Stone Cold" with Turner. And Blackmore's the man who brought Turner into Purple. Turner was just doing what he did everywhere else, but he did it in the wrong band.

In the CD booklet for one of the final Blackmore tour CDs...believe it was the Stuttgart show (and NO ONE in the band wanted these shows released, but the record label did it anyway), Turner slams that tour...in support of the final Blackmore studio album, "The Battle Rages On"...calling it "The Cattle Grazes On." REEEE-OOOOWR! Pull in those claws, Joey.

He basically concluded that his single album with the band was superior to Gillan's return with Perfect Strangers / House Of Blue Lights / Battle Rages On.

The DP album with Turner is awful. Blue Light and Battle are good, Strangers is great. My $.02, anyway.

Mind you this wasn't Led Zeppelin but Jimmy Page doing some post LZ work.

Yes Coverdale has big blonde curly hair and growling voice. But he ain't no Robert Plant, that's for sure!

...you're not too far off, even though I know you're joking.

just because I looovvvee Steve Perry

...in other words, they both sound like bar-band tribute singers "discovered" on YouTube, and that's exactly what they are.

I enjoyed Steve Augueri's brief tenure in Journey, especially the "Generations" album. Yes, he was a blatant Perry clone, and yes, you can either take the band's side or Perry's when it comes to carrying on without him, but rock & roll has seldom been based on "till death do us part"-style loyalty.

Plus, Pineda landed one of the most cherry gigs in the world and immediately started complaining about how the road kept him from his family. Probably did. I'm sure there are plenty of jobs close to his family. There's no crying in baseball, and no whining in rock, and Pineda's a whiner.

"No whining in rock" huh? I like that.

Sorry, but I'm a "til death do you part" fan of Steve Perry's Journey. :silly:

It reminds me of the scene in "This Is Spinal Tap" where, following Nigel Tufnel's departure, is working out the set list with Viv Savage to remove all of the songs that had a "Nigel part" in them.

Or their decision to play "Jazz Odyssey" at the puppet show.

:rofl:

The other difference between Pineda and Augueri is that I liked the new material from Augueri but thought that the band's "Wal-Mart exclusive" with Pineda was a few slices shy of a loaf.

I understand the inclusion of the live CD, because they wanted to pull in existing fans, but the re-recorded studio versions of the "greatest hits?" COMPLETELY unnecessary.



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The studio material Priest did with him was horrible but he does quite a good Halford impersonation. Check out "Diamonds and Rust" and "Green Manalishi" from Live Meltdown '98. He tears it up.

I'd say Sammy Hagar. Van Hagar blows.

was Glenn Tipton forgot how to write songs for a few years, and I think KK sort of lost interest/focus for awhile. My take is that Glenn is so prolific as a writer and a player that without a really strong personality to stand up to him he just sort of takes over by default, and being really bittter about the whole "Losing you record deal after more than 20 years because your singer left"-business didn't help get the juices flowing. (I know I should have hypenated that last bit, but that is just too many hyphens!)

Glenn is probably the most talented member of the band, but without motivated input from Rob and KK, he doesn't always edit out the "klunk."

I know, he has a really good voice and they put out some good music with him but the music they put out with him was not Doobie Brothers music! And I'll have to disagree about Sammy Hagar. I think some of the stuff that he did with Van Halen was very good.

...I recently listened to a 2-CD Doobies greatest hits retrospective, and pretty much everything past "Takin' It To The Streets," the first McDonald album, had a brittle, tinny, over-processed sound.

That band really wore out its welcome. I haven't followed the post-McDonald reunions (although one of the songs from that era, "Dangerous," is one of my favorite all time movies, "Stone Cold," with Brian Bosworth and Lance Henriksen).

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remembers that McDonald contributed in a big way to Steely Dan. His background vocals on The Royal Scam are outstanding. I think he learned a lot from the boys (Walter and Donald).

I thought he transformed DB into an exceptional band. Yes, they were no longer the DB, but what they became gave the band a second life that was even bigger than their first.

-P

I was impressed to hear how apprehensive he was about trying to take Gabriel's place as lead singer. I gained a lot of respect for him personally when I heard that!

same thing and also gained a lot of respect for Phil.

I think it was really Hackett's departure and not Gabriel's that really changed Genesis for the worse.

mostly kidding.... :hide:

D was a real hero of mine. RIP

RIP as well.

...I paid attention to Natalie Merchant's solo career but forgot that the band carried on without her.

I don;t know how accurate the Wikipedia entry is on this, but here's what they say about Mary:





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Tough act to follow, and all that.

in a little bar in Savannah.
Natalie had stagefright so bad that she would not face the audience when she was singing.
That did not stop her from sounding like an angel,though.

I managed a sandwich shop in State College PA when Natalie's tour brought her to the Penn State campus.

About a half an hour before showtime we received an urgent call for a delivery, and the caller punctuated the urgency by claiming that the order was for Natalie, because she didn't want to perform on an empty stomach.

The customer is always right, of course, but I somehow suspect that Natalie doesn't chow down on 36 inches of meatball sub just prior to taking the stage!

....not that I'm a big Queen fan, but come on....Freddy Mercury being replaced by an over-indulgent guy who only became known because of American Idol? Sorry, it just seems blasthemous in the name of Rock and Roll to me.

I mean Rodgers is a talented singer but you just don't replace Freddie Mercury.

If they use that no-talent karaoke idol singer to replace Freddie Mercury I'll take Queen out of my top 20 list and delete their music out of my itunes. (And Queen has been #2 for DECADES!!!!).

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But this lead singer replacement ruined the entire band for me:

Sabbat. First two albums with Martin Walkyier = some of the most awesome thrash metal of the late 80s (check out their myspace page for a couple songs). Third album with Richie Desmond = teh suck. In fact, the band doesn't even list it on their official discography on their webpage!

But I see that Walkyier has rejoined the band which is great news. It's just something in Walkyier's inflections and voice that really made the entire package work for me. Hopefully a new album is in the works!

but I'm still disappointed that Kreiger went along with that dog and pony show

I also thought Graham Bonnet was a bad replacement for Gary Barden in the Michael Schenker Group.