John Sykes in his prime

[controlled_voltage]

on a strat no less [for the intro]

never saw this before
motherfuckeing cozy killin' it too
what a loss

 

[Monkey Man]

Indeed. Great stuff.

Also, never have gritty, soulful lead vocals been made to look so easy as when David does 'em IMHO.

I think, "Hey, he's not even straining; look at how relaxed his face is", so I try and the first note hits me - I just can't do it. Know what I mean?

 

[GtarLover]

Excellent!!
Thanks for sharing

Sykes brought Whitesnake up, IMO.
His guitars were HUGE on the recordings as well.

 

[Racerxrated]

Excellent!!
Thanks for sharing

Sykes brought Whitesnake up, IMO.
His guitars were HUGE on the recordings as well.

Agree in every way. What a colossal blunder Coverdale made in letting John go. They would have been Huge for years; one of the Iconic bands instead of the 1 amazing album they are mostly known for..the album Sykes co wrote of course.

 

[Marshalll]

And he can sing too

 

[PDC]

I’ve seen this clip several times - and every time I watch it start to finish it’s like it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it all over again. So much raw energy and talent going on at this performance.

 

[Beyond Black]

Indeed. Great stuff.

Also, never have gritty, soulful lead vocals been made to look so easy as when David does 'em IMHO.

I think, "Hey, he's not even straining; look at how relaxed his face is", so I try and the first note hits me - I just can't do it. Know what I mean?

I’d pay top dollar to see an Australian Monkey Man singing Whitesnake tunes!!!

 

[hammered]

Very cool clip . The begining before he switches over to his Les Paul is very Gary Moore influenced which comes as no surprise as Gary was a huge influence on John

 

[Hamer95USA]

@OP: Thanks for sharing the video! I’ve never seen John Sykes play a Fender Strat onstage, only on his recordings. He sounded very much like Gary Moore. John playing that Strat onstage for the intro of “Crying In The Rain” reminded me of “The Loner”.

I have to agree that it was a big mistake on Coverdale’s part to fire John and the rest of the band during the ‘87 Whitesnake CD. The later CDs that Whitesnake put out has never been successful after that or have been played on the radio. John has a great guitar tone live or in the studio and he can sing really well. I liked the Blue Murder CDs that came out in the early ‘90s though it was poorly promoted by Geffen records in the alternative rock/grunge era of musc at the time. Blue Murder is an awesome band and would hope that they would actually ever tour the U.S.one day with Carmine Appice & Tony Franklin.

Guitar George

 

[grooveHT]

The Sykes intro was really reminiscent of Gary Moore's Sunset from Rockin' Every Night; both are killer! Thanks for sharing.

 

[controlled_voltage]

ha
i've been on a sykes kick all weekend since i discovered that video!
my first exposure to john was with thunder and lightning - what an incredible album
here is the playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTNzuBh ... pcMibwu7LC

so after watching this clip it's pretty obvious a lot of john's tone is from that Les paul
'he just crushes Scott's tone and scott is a great player
I have always been a super strat guy but I'm thinking about LP's now.

 

[paulyc]

Nothing like a good Les Paul ! Note that John’s main squeeze is a Norlin era guitar, supposedly inferior. Nonsense.

 

[Buckeyedog]

Excellent!!
Thanks for sharing

Sykes brought Whitesnake up, IMO.
His guitars were HUGE on the recordings as well.

Agree in every way. What a colossal blunder Coverdale made in letting John go. They would have been Huge for years; one of the Iconic bands instead of the 1 amazing album they are mostly known for..the album Sykes co wrote of course.

Totally agree.

 

[Monkey Man]

Indeed. Great stuff.

Also, never have gritty, soulful lead vocals been made to look so easy as when David does 'em IMHO.

I think, "Hey, he's not even straining; look at how relaxed his face is", so I try and the first note hits me - I just can't do it. Know what I mean?

I’d pay top dollar to see an Australian Monkey Man singing Whitesnake tunes!!!

Ha! You'd probably pay even more to get me to shut up.

 

[jabps]

ha
i've been on a sykes kick all weekend since i discovered that video!
my first exposure to john was with thunder and lightning - what an incredible album
here is the playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTNzuBh ... pcMibwu7LC

so after watching this clip it's pretty obvious a lot of john's tone is from that Les paul
'he just crushes Scott's tone and scott is a great player
I have always been a super strat guy but I'm thinking about LP's now.

Scott's early work ranks up there as one of my favorite players ever but live...I've seen few video's where his tone did standout.
I just don't get it. It's like dude, where are you. Now some of the really old live Lizzy stuff it's all there but sometimes with Moore, Snowy and especially with Sykes he just gets buried.

 

[controlled_voltage]

scott:
[btw i had no idea he is American- duh]

Those old Les Pauls are heavy enough to throw your back out.

Oh man [laughs]… you start wielding those babies around for two hours and your back is misaligned, your shoulder is destroyed and your neck is strained. It’s funny now because our other guitarist, John Sykes, still carries a big lump of mahogany wrapped around his neck all night and his shoulder is just killing him. But, he’ll never trade that guitar in for anything. That’s why I went to the Strat as my main guitar. I’ve been talking to Gibson and they’re building me a custom chambered guitar. So, I’ll be playing Pauls again

a great interview with the man

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... led?page=3

 

[Drew]

ha
i've been on a sykes kick all weekend since i discovered that video!
my first exposure to john was with thunder and lightning - what an incredible album
here is the playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTNzuBh ... pcMibwu7LC

so after watching this clip it's pretty obvious a lot of john's tone is from that Les paul
'he just crushes Scott's tone and scott is a great player
I have always been a super strat guy but I'm thinking about LP's now.

Scott's early work ranks up there as one of my favorite players ever but live...I've seen few video's where his tone did standout.
I just don't get it. It's like dude, where are you. Now some of the really old live Lizzy stuff it's all there but sometimes with Moore, Snowy and especially with Sykes he just gets buried.

I can't recall exactly what Marshalls Scott was using at that time. I think it was one SL-X and one modded JMP. He also had a ton of delay and chorus going. It sounded huge when he played alone. However, when you compare it against Sykes plugged straight in to one of his Jose Marshalls, John's non-effected tone did sort of bury Scott's effected tone. It really didn't have that much to do with the guitar Scott was playing.

 

[Tru_Gamer]

Doug Aldrich is a total BEAST IMO!

 

[WGAF]

ha
i've been on a sykes kick all weekend since i discovered that video!
my first exposure to john was with thunder and lightning - what an incredible album
here is the playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTNzuBh ... pcMibwu7LC

so after watching this clip it's pretty obvious a lot of john's tone is from that Les paul
'he just crushes Scott's tone and scott is a great player
I have always been a super strat guy but I'm thinking about LP's now.

Scott's early work ranks up there as one of my favorite players ever but live...I've seen few video's where his tone did standout.
I just don't get it. It's like dude, where are you. Now some of the really old live Lizzy stuff it's all there but sometimes with Moore, Snowy and especially with Sykes he just gets buried.

I can't recall exactly what Marshalls Scott was using at that time. I think it was one SL-X and one modded JMP. He also had a ton of delay and chorus going. It sounded huge when he played alone. However, when you compare it against Sykes plugged straight in to one of his Jose Marshalls, John's non-effected tone did sort of bury Scott's effected tone. It really didn't have that much to do with the guitar Scott was playing.

As good as Sykes is, Black Rose was written by Gary Moore and the guitar work still stands up today as a master lesson in rock guitar and harmony.

Sykes couldn't deliver it as Gary Moore played it in the clip above. Moore is THE rock guitarist of this genre.

 

[SoooRad]

ha
i've been on a sykes kick all weekend since i discovered that video!
my first exposure to john was with thunder and lightning - what an incredible album
here is the playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTNzuBh ... pcMibwu7LC

so after watching this clip it's pretty obvious a lot of john's tone is from that Les paul
'he just crushes Scott's tone and scott is a great player
I have always been a super strat guy but I'm thinking about LP's now.

Scott's early work ranks up there as one of my favorite players ever but live...I've seen few video's where his tone did standout.
I just don't get it. It's like dude, where are you. Now some of the really old live Lizzy stuff it's all there but sometimes with Moore, Snowy and especially with Sykes he just gets buried.

I can't recall exactly what Marshalls Scott was using at that time. I think it was one SL-X and one modded JMP. He also had a ton of delay and chorus going. It sounded huge when he played alone. However, when you compare it against Sykes plugged straight in to one of his Jose Marshalls, John's non-effected tone did sort of bury Scott's effected tone. It really didn't have that much to do with the guitar Scott was playing.

As good as Sykes is, Black Rose was written by Gary Moore and the guitar work still stands up today as a master lesson in rock guitar and harmony.

Sykes couldn't deliver it as Gary Moore played it in the clip above. Moore is THE rock guitarist of this genre.

There is also something to be said about how one dimensional Sykes is, and that he is not particularly good at playing other people's work.

That dimension can be great, but it also gets old fast.