Yngwie with Journey?

[Gainzilla]

Current years non withstanding along with the subjective nature of all of this, Neal Schon is an absolute beast and EASILY one of the greatest rock guitar players ever.

Bottomline, If you slam Neal Schon, you've exposed yourself as a clueless dumbass. Sorry for sounding harsh but that's the blunt truth.

Kage

 

[shade]

Bottom line... Anyone can slam or praise anyone they choose to... if you don't like it, pound sand.

My whole point here was that the guy has done some great stuff. You listen to those old albums and he tastefully added to the songs, made them better. But... in recent live stuff he at times tries to do these really fast runs that DON'T fit and imo sound bad. They make him sound like a hack, instead of the talented musician he is...

There is a difference between saying something someone does sucks and that someone sucks.

 

[IntenseJim]

Schon's solos are screaming with emotion, lyrical, fit the song, memorable and timeless, catchy with great hooks. His rhythm playing is nothing to sneeze at. And he's managed to be in a band that's survived for decades.




How he plays now? I wouldn't judge to hard if I had to play the same solos or derivatives of them night after night, year after year, decade after decade.

He can't win:
1. He didn't play the solo exactly like the record. WTF?
2. He played the solo like the record. How about cutting loose and some creativity. WTF?

I'm sure the critics of Mr. Schon's playing can say the same thing about their solos and careers.
You got it: I deplore Internet hatefests like this one..

 

[zz666]

it's not a hatefest

 

[maxguitars]

Late 70s to mid 80s Neal Schon was this amazing melodic rootsy blues-based soloist with variety of warm organic tones.

Modern Neal Schon is just highgain overplaying mush with fake Sustainer feedback. It's horrible to listen to. He's just not a technical guitar player but he solos as if he is. His technique can't cut it and it just turns into a super-saturated wash of scrapy pick noise.

As a fan of Neal's I have to agree to a point. I think he needs to turn off the sustainer and plug into a marshall and a wah-get back to his roots -the stuff he did from 73' to 82' was his best.

 

[shade]

Not intended as a hatefest. I like Journey, listened to the DVD and thought it was an interesting topic. 65 posts in a day and a half? A lot of good points made positive and negative... I'd call that a worthy discussion... whatever.

 

[Schaf]

Schon's solos are screaming with emotion, lyrical, fit the song, memorable and timeless, catchy with great hooks. His rhythm playing is nothing to sneeze at. And he's managed to be in a band that's survived for decades.




How he plays now? I wouldn't judge to hard if I had to play the same solos or derivatives of them night after night, year after year, decade after decade.

He can't win:
1. He didn't play the solo exactly like the record. WTF?
2. He played the solo like the record. How about cutting loos and some creativity. WTF?

I'm sure the critics of Mr. Schon's playing can say the same thing about their solos and careers.
You got it: I deplore Internet hatefests like this one..

I have to agree. He sin't going to win no matter what he does. He's a beast of a player no matter how you slice it. Wrote a shitload of great songs and some of the most memarable solos of all time. ta htis point the guy should be able to do pretty much what he wants.

 

[carlygtr]

The guy was asked to play in Eric Clapton's band AND Santana at age 15 or 16. He was "shredding" back then only it was more like wailing blues/ fusion licks at super speed. He's played with all the old blues icons. He's played in so many projects it's hard to count.
Today's guitarists, who are oh so talented shredders, they impress other guitar players for the most part. They are around for the last few decades with no real success. They can't do what Neal forgot.

Who cares about current Journey or his tone? He made his mark decades ago and can do what he wants, be it use a shit tone or post cak pics on the net.

 

[shade]

Obviously a few people here care or they wouldn't have posted. There's always the v@gina thread if you don't like this one...

Oh, and I question the judgement of anyone who is ok with that pic....

This topic is pretty wore out anyway....

 

[Mailman1971]

This is my Favorite Journey....BY FAR!
Such good GOOD music...

Pure awesomeness!

Steve

Another fave from back on that same album.....such good music.
Still listen to it in my car to this day!

 

[carlygtr]

Obviously a few people here care or they wouldn't have posted. There's always the v@gina thread if you don't like this one...

Oh, and I question the judgement of anyone who is ok with that pic....

This topic is pretty wore out anyway....

There's always the Andy Wood thread for you teens to jizz over.

 

[Anonymous]

This is my Favorite Journey....BY FAR!
Such good GOOD music...

Pure awesomeness!

Steve

Another fave from back on that same album.....such good music.
Still listen to it in my car to this day!

This Journey stuff brings a big smile to my face every time it comes on Sirius!

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Obviously a few people here care or they wouldn't have posted. There's always the v@gina thread if you don't like this one...

Oh, and I question the judgement of anyone who is ok with that pic....

This topic is pretty wore out anyway....

There's always the Andy Wood thread for you teens to jizz over.

Oh come on! That song "Chelmsford" is badass and I'm old as dirt and I love old Journey too!

Steve

 

[thiswaythatway]

Current years non withstanding along with the subjective nature of all of this, Neal Schon is an absolute beast and EASILY one of the greatest rock guitar players ever.

Bottomline, If you slam Neal Schon, you've exposed yourself as a clueless dumbass. Sorry for sounding harsh but that's the blunt truth.

Kage

Pretty much sums it up. Neal never hit a band note and his vibrato sounded prefect. From Infinity to Escape they were just incredible as a band and Neal was defining the term, Rock Guitar Hero. Journey has aged a LOT better than all the hair spray 80's sleaze metal.

 

[Rushtallica]

I love older Journey music. 8) I don't know WTH Schon was thinking with that weird bathroom pic, but I just block that shit from my mind. It won't diminish his past music or the band.

 

[Bob Savage]

This is my Favorite Journey....BY FAR!
Such good GOOD music...

Man do I love that era of Journey. Greg really was the keystone, although I do dig Escape too.

 

[Zachman]

It's funny how these discussions always end up with someone saying you shouldn't criticize the artist in question because he's richer than you.

I like his playing with journey. Some of it is very memorable.

I don't think anyone is saying he shouldn't be criticized because he is rich. The point is that artists only gain fame and fortune by writing/playing music that a lot of people enjoy - and a lot of people enjoy what he's done. Considering that, maybe some of the criticism is unjustified. He may not be the most technical guitar player; he may not be a shred-master; he may enjoy posting selfies that should remain private . But, the dude can play and he's been successful at it for a very long time. We should all be so lucky...

I don't think anybody was putting down his earlier body of work...simply offering the opinion that his playing/tone has not "aged" well. Not sure why people feel the need to escalate things to encompass more than the intent of the OP?

Rupe - greetings
I wasn't trying to escalate anything; my apologies if the post came across that way. It felt to me like there was an implication that Zachman was excluding Schon from criticism simply because he is (presumed to be) rich. I was pretty certain that's not what he meant and just offered my two cents...

It's all good

Aloha, sorry about that. I can see how it could be taken that way. By that standard Brittney Spears is amazing... LOL

What I was eluding to is that Neal has been chosen by the likes of Santana, Clapton, Lee Ritenour, Steve Lukather, Paul Rogers, Ian Hammer, etc... (For a reason-- He's got a sound and style all his own and he's the real deal, and as a result-- he's been able to make a rather lucrative long running career of it), so those who would argue whether or not he's legit-- It probably doesn't bug him too much because he knows you can't please everyone.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

I deplore purple font during a hatefest

 

[Zachman]

I deplore purple font during a hatefest

 

[Mailman1971]

[No message]