What are you listening to, right now................

MN5

@MajorRage said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@Crucial said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@MajorRage said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@Crucial said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@MN5 said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@broughie said in What are you listening to, right now................:

Throw back to Stevie Wonder:

He’s no Jay Kay but Stevie went alright I guess

Jay Kay is a good showman and singer but the real star of Jamiroquai was Stuart Zender. Without his bass playing they were pretty average. At least Jay Kay recognised this and always had him up front stage.
His lines made the songs great (helped by the beautiful tones he'd get from those Warwick basses)

This is a cover (Roy Ayers) but still, he has improved it.

Can't agree with you there. The star is Jay Kay, no question. Bassist maybe the best musician but he ain't the star.

Poor choice of words perhaps. Of course Jay Kay is the star of the show.
IMO though the point of difference that makes their music good was Zender. His grooves (along with the drummer) give Jay Kay the stuff to work off.
Maybe with an average bass player they would have had a hit or two along with contemporaries like BNH or Soul II Soul but I still think that Zander's work took them a level above and provided whole albums of listenable music.
It was the music that got them noticed first then one (brilliant) video that took them to stardom. Jay Kay the 'star' factor that held them there. The guy has stage presence and wears silly hats but is a bit of a tosser personality wise.
These guys came from a very small label with no track record of promotion to this scale.

The support to my opinion comes from their history since Zender left and how no one gives a shit about Kay.

(All just my opinion of course)

I do know what you mean, I think.

I've often wondered these sorts of things about other bands I've seen. Generally, you'd say the singer is usually the star, but I can think of countless others where, for me, I'm going to see them live for others. Most obvious recent example is Carey in Tool, but this also applies to Chilii's (Frusciante / Flea), Ozzy Osbourne (Wylde) to name just a few.

I just don't think this applies to Jamiroquai. Regardless of what you think of him, Jay Kay is the star & he's a phenomenal front man. Yeah, there's always politics around these bands, but some of them are understandable. If you are playing to 20,000 people and you know that 19,000 of them ar there to see you, why do you divide things equally?

I think the best example of that is AC/DC.

Bon Scott ( and latterly Brian Johnson ) were/are absolutely terrific frontmen. Angus Young isn’t quite as amazing a guitarist as people think but still very good and obviously visually great fun the way he prances round the stage in his school uniform.

But the other three guys ?

ANY competent pub rocker could fill in without too much notice. I get the discipline to play rock steady rhythm with little to no fills or improvising but pay me to do it and I’ll shelve all my fancy bass tricks right then and there and play some steady eighths in a heartbeat.

This is not to say I don’t love AC/DC, I do, they do their one trick superbly but the talent and uniqueness is only evident in 40% of the band.

( actually pretty rough on Malcolm Young, he wrote loads of their riffs )

Bass Player and Drummer though ?

The fact that Phil Rudd can play with a ciggy out of his mouth indicates he isn’t trying too hard.

I’m also fairly positive I’ve never seen Cliff Williams go past the fifth fret.

Tim

1983 thrash:

Tim

The absolute pinnacle of divorce-core music:

Bovidae

One of the better KISS songs, live in Australia with an orchestra.

MN5

@Tim said in What are you listening to, right now................:

1983 thrash:

James Hetfield is such a cool rockstar. Awesome grunty voice and a very handy riffing guitarist who can play some tasty lead stuff as well. Actually the whole band are pretty bloody wicked even if Lars is low down on the list of rock stars you’d want a beer with.

Tim

Pretty damn sick desert rock ...

Tim

No other

MiketheSnow

@MN5 said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@Tim said in What are you listening to, right now................:

1983 thrash:

James Hetfield is such a cool rockstar. Awesome grunty voice and a very handy riffing guitarist who can play some tasty lead stuff as well. Actually the whole band are pretty bloody wicked even if Lars is low down on the list of rock stars you’d want a beer with.

James Hatfield, the Mark Knopfler of Heavy Metal.

I've really tried to like / get in to Metallica no to avail.

MiketheSnow

MN5

@MiketheSnow said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@MN5 said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@Tim said in What are you listening to, right now................:

1983 thrash:

James Hetfield is such a cool rockstar. Awesome grunty voice and a very handy riffing guitarist who can play some tasty lead stuff as well. Actually the whole band are pretty bloody wicked even if Lars is low down on the list of rock stars you’d want a beer with.

James Hatfield, the Mark Knopfler of Heavy Metal.

I've really tried to like / get in to Metallica no to avail.

I’m the same with Dire Straits

taniwharugby

Crucial

@MiketheSnow started me on a post punk binge...

dogmeat

More proto punk / pub rock but from the same era

Crucial

@dogmeat managed to see Eddie and the Hot Rods play that a couple of years ago. An unexpected bonus support to a Stiff Little Fingers gig. Got the crowd going big time.

Feelgood's only hit post Wilko, but still a good one.

Here's Wilko with Roger Daltrey doing a good early Feelgood impression