fraroc

That's one of the things that really surprised me the most about this autobio. The fact that Geddy really let go of that stereotypical "Canadian politeness" and let his true feelings be known about people, things, and situations that he didn't like. I liked that, I found it to be a really refreshing look into who Ged really is as a person. Sure, he's a sweetheart, but he's just as willing as anybody else to hate people who disrespect him or treat him like shit or take advantage of his kindness. Kinda reminds me of the old saying "Never mistake kindness for weakness." Another thing that was pretty eye-opening was the fact that Geddy had to deal with his fair share of crazy obsessed stalker fans, like the guy who was convinced that all of the songs on Presto were written about him...And the fact that some kid literally broke into Geddy's house in hopes of meeting him was just insane to read about.

If you ask me personally, Eddie Van Halen was just as important as Jimi Hendrix or Chuck Berry in terms of impact on the genre of rock n roll. He permanently changed the way the electric guitar was used in metal and a lot of the techniques that modern death metal and djent guitarists use can all be traced back to EVH.

Theres always rumors cropping up every so often about Geoff rejoining Queensryche but I'm of the volition that the only way that a Geoff reunion could work is if Chris DeGarmo returns to the band. He's really the only one who can wrangle the big egos of Geoff Tate, Mike and Eddie and really force them to get along.

I hate to say it, but it does seem like Chris DeGarmo was the glue that held QR together, whithout him they've been having nothing but problems between Mindcrime II (which was pretty much their version of Yes' Union with the songwriting difficulties, band infighting, and session musicians), Geoff Tate becoming completely unhinged and assaulting Scott Rockenfield which led to the big Queensryche schism of 2012, to Scott Rockenfield dissapearing and now suing the band claiming that Eddie Jackson and Michael Wilton fired him while they claim that Scott quit on his own accord. And its a shame because Todd LaTorre is a great singer and songwriter and the two latest QR albums almost sound like a modernized version of The Warning.

And I should add that I think it's an absolute crime that the only time you hear Queensryche on the radio is when rock stations do some kind of "hairspray special" which really just translates to all 80s metal that's not Def Leppard, Whitesnake, or Bon Jovi. In fact, I challenge all these radio stations to put Unskinny Bop up against Eyes of A Stranger or Nothin But a Good Time up against Walk In The Shadows and tell me how Poison and Queensryche are anywhere near the same genre of music.

Seriously, this band was something else in the 1980s and I'm honestly glad I've rediscovered them in recent years. Often branded as "thinking man's heavy metal", many people viewed them and still view them as the American Iron Maiden, which in many respects is a valid comparison seeing as how not only is Maiden incredibly influental to the fearsome fivesome from Seattle, Bruce Dickinson himself admits that Operation: Mindcrime absolutley blew Seventh Son of A Seventh Son away in terms of musicianship. Their first two releases, Queensryche and The Warning both are straightforward heavy metal kick to the teeth with songs like Queen of The Reich, Nightrider, The Warning, Before The Storm, and of course the legendary Take Hold Of The Flame, but when Rage For Order came out, that was when they started attempting things that no other band in the heavy metal/hair metal scene was doing, writing complex, multi-layered, deep, and emotional music and experimenting with combining traditional metal with goth rock, synthpop, and darkwave. RFO is to me when Queensryche really went from being the American Iron Maiden to something truly unique. And everything I just described about RFO was cranked up to 11 with Mindcrime which is clearly the 2112 of the 80s.

Im just going to pop back in to say that Talk is an absolutley MONSTER album and if you haven't listened to it yet you're missing out on an incredible Yes album

Ive always been a bigger fan of David Ragsdale, but Robby Steinhardt was the one who wrote those amazing violin parts and made it all possible. He gave Kansas an identity, something that makes them known....the rock band with a violin. Nowadays you'll have a huge number of prog metal and power metal bands that feature an electric violinist, but the band that really started that trend and made the violin cool was Kansas....And that's all thanks to Robby...Rest in peace <3

One of the bands I've truly grown fond of over this entire Covid mess is Yes, I've always been into them on and off my entire life, but over lockdown I really took the time to listen more deeply into their discography and as a result, I found myself loving songs that initially turned me off because of their length (Awaken, The Gates Of Delierium, Close To The Edge etc) And as a result, I really grew to appreciate the music of classic Yes, I'm still #TeamRabin but Steve Howe is definitely one of the best prog guitarists of the entire 1970s. And also, I've recently completley fell in love with Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. That entire album is seriously so f***ing underrated, I love that 70s prog mentality mixed with 80s instrumentation and Latin and Afrobeat influences, Order Of The Universe and Brother Of Mine are masterpeices full stop :) And speaking of ABWH, who can go wrong with MegaYes in 1991, the album might have been shaky and disjointed (but still really enjoyable to listen to) but that tour was absolutley phenomenal, probably the absolutle best version of Yours Is No Disgrace they ever did.

I was absent from this board when I heard the news that my idol had passed away....Not gonna lie, this was a really rough one. On par with Neil Peart and MJ.... Van Halen changed my life, full stop. I've loved them ever since I was 3 years old, it was my first exposure to electric guitar and it blew my mind...And it started a lifelong love affair for all things hard rock and heavy metal, so when Eddie Van Halen passed away, it feels like a part of me went with him. What sucks is that there was so much other shit going on in my life that October, with my auntie being hospitalized with severe covid (she survived, thank God) to my nanna (who tragically ended up passing away in February at the ripe of old age of 94) being diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer and having to go on hospice....It feels like I couldn't properly "mourn" EVH, even though I never knew him :( His music still played such a huge role in my life that I can't help but feel sadness when I listen to VH now,,,,

He's a mess. Hate to say this, but he reminds me of Lemmy in his last interviews. :( If Sharon hadn't been there, he'd have been completely lost. Has he always been like that? Did he ever have a stroke? He sounds as if he is having trouble speaking. His throat sounds really constricted. He can't sit still. His hands are forever moving. But for a man his age, his hair looks good. The British men hold onto their hair well. Except for Tony. Right Tony? ;) His speaking was a lot worse back in the early 2000s. Here, you can at least understand what he says. Back circa the Osbornes he would stutter so much and would struggle to get even a word out, which is one of the things that makes me think Ozzy has had this disease for WAY longer than last year. He does sound like he has laryngitis here, though. With Lemmy it was a bit different because he had very highly metastasized cancer that was going to kill him no matter what. Parkin 2 isn't curable, but it is managable and I think Ozzy and Sharon have done a great job managing it.

I finally got the gumption to start listening to Rush again....I think the worst offense that I did, was how much I put Dirk and Lerxst up on a pedestal and completely took Pratt's genius for granted....I only looked at the fact that he disliked touring, how he hated how fans gushed over him and I judged him so harshly on those things alone....I had the inaccurate notion that Geddy and Alex were the "fun guys" in the band and that Neil was just the always serious, no-nonsense stick in the mud..... But looking back at the interviews with Neil, looking back at how the trio interacted with each other, having dinner at that restaurant....Just goes to show you just how wrong I was about Neil. He was funny, smart, strong, and kind...He was a real salt-of-the-earth fellow that was gifted with an unbelievable talent for rhythm and he just wanted to be treated like a regular human being by the people who admired him. And it's such a crying shame that I'm only realizing this now that he no longer walks the Earth :( A lesson I've learned, never judge a book by it's cover.

They should just rename the whole park to "Neil Peart Memorial Park"

I thought they did! I could've sworn I read somewhere that a doctor found Ozzy's DNA isn't 100% human, and that's why the drugs and booze haven't quite killed him yet. Wow, that sounds like such a joke. I think I actually did read an article that said that, I don't think I really believe it I wonder if Ozzy doing all the drugs and alcohol he's done during his life that it somehow altered his DNA. Either way it doesn't look like he's in good shape. He and Sharon need to accept that his touring days are over. One bad day with Parkinson's will just lead to him cancelling shows again. The way I read it, it was some genetic predisposition he was born with which made him more resistant to the more life-threatening effects of drugs and alcohol. Makes you wonder if the same might go for guys like Steven Tyler, Keith Richards, or any number of other rockers who lived the life and made it out in decent shape. Would also explain why some quickly went to far (looking at the grunge movement for example), they simply weren't made of the same stuff and their bodies couldn't take it. This is all rather morbid. Ozzy's given us years and years of great music and hard touring. If he wants to keep going that's on him, but after what happened to Tom Petty I hate to see an artist make their situation worse for the sake of the fans. Poor Tom. :( He didn't want to disappoint the fans, so he made his hip worse. Tom Petty dying definitely did a lot to expose the opiod crisis in the US. Fentanyl is a horrible drug that can kill without warning.

The GUP tour as a whole had some of Geddy's absolute best singing, for the Power Windows and HYF tours I noticed he wasn't holding notes for as long as he did on the GUP tour.