Ed talks shit about Hendrix (again)

[Terry]

Thanks for the Hendix vids...they're great!
On another note, Ed's "Horrible Solo Spot" in 2007 was absolutely horrible the few first min of the solo.
It sounded like he was grating chicken wire across the pickups instead of playing notes....but they were notes, unfortunately....really bad, and bizarrely patterned ones too.....yechhhhh

Show I saw him at last year, he's taking his solo spot, wanking around, then starts to play the tapped part of Eruption. The crowd begins to cheer, then starts to quiet down when it becomes apparent that he can't play it at full-speed...it honestly looked like he just wasn't able to play the lick at the same speed it was on the record anymore...like, he had to gradually work up to maybe 2/3rds to 3/4ths speed, but couldn't get up to par...it was kinda sad.

[Terry]

I always said that if Yngwie cut his millions of albums down to about 6 or 7 containing only his best stuff, he would be regarded much more highly...

But he released everything he ever recorded. Too much information, even for an Yngwie freak like myself...

I think Jeff Scott Soto was his best singer, but Ripper is damn good and brings a new edge and youthfulness to the music...

Jeff Scott Soto wailed like a banshee on fire on Marching Out...great, great vocals.

[Diamondjimi]

Show I saw him at last year, he's taking his solo spot, wanking around, then starts to play the tapped part of Eruption. The crowd begins to cheer, then starts to quiet down when it becomes apparent that he can't play it at full-speed...it honestly looked like he just wasn't able to play the lick at the same speed it was on the record anymore...like, he had to gradually work up to maybe 2/3rds to 3/4ths speed, but couldn't get up to par...it was kinda sad.

He wasn't too bad @ the Toronto shows I witnessed. But I remember feeling disappointed overall with his spotlight solo in the shows. What a fuckin shame to have witnessed him in his prime ,burnin it up and then to see him struggle and unable to burn anymore.

He's in desperate need of someone to shoot him straight and pull no punches regarding his level of fail. He is in need of some oldschool hardcore woodshedding. The kind that brought him greatness back in the beginning...

Hey ,Paul Newman was whoring salad dressing. BUT, he could still "act" like the legend he was.

[bueno bob]

I always said that if Yngwie cut his millions of albums down to about 6 or 7 containing only his best stuff, he would be regarded much more highly...

But he released everything he ever recorded. Too much information, even for an Yngwie freak like myself...

I think Jeff Scott Soto was his best singer, but Ripper is damn good and brings a new edge and youthfulness to the music...

The problem with Ripper, and Perpetual Flame in general, is that his vocals are buried under a mix of mud. He's totally lost in the background. Yngwie's guitar tone, he's tweaked it to a point where I can barely even listen to it.

You know, I can solve all of Yngwie Malmsteen's problems right now.

1) He needs contemporaries in that band of his. An ever-revolving door of kids leaves him plenty of room for control, sure, but too much control is, at least in his case, a bad thing. Contemporaries may be able to improve on his ideas or at least offer feedback that's valuable, even if their skill isn't on par with his; having yes-men happy for a paying gig just enables constant answers of "Yes" without a yes being what's necessarily right for the element. Personally I think the best thing he could do would be to hook up with Soto and the Johansson brothers again and make a REAL Rising Force album. And it should be as permanent as he can make it.

2) He needs a semi-decent label that'll at least take a remote interest in him. Koch is distributing, but beyond that I doubt they have any direct interest in what he does, as evidenced by the spectacularly lackluster Perpetual Flame. Frankly, ever since Alchemy, his albums have been 75% filler...Perpetual Flame was, to my ears, about 95% filler. Only two songs on that album sound like they were even bothered with beyond a two hour cram session to write. Essentially, he needs quality control from his label.

3) He needs a real producer. Ever since Alchemy, his vocalists (Mark Boals, Doogie White and now Ripper Owens) have all been buried under a muddy mix of music and virtually impossible to discern from the mix. Oh, sure, you can hear them singing, but fuck, shouldn't the vocalist be at the FOREFRONT of the band for the final mix? Christ, the bass sounds better than Ripper's mix.

4) He needs to surround himself with people who can give him some honest opinions, which means his professional/personal business manager/wife/quality control expert April needs to just be a wife and forget about the rest of it for a while. I mean, seriously...shit, just look at the cover art for Perpetual Flame...and Unleash the Fury...and Attack!!...fucking atrocious and Perpetual Flame SCREAMS gay '80's shit and not in a good way, either...frankly, that cover art, the airbrushing, it's all so fucking low budget I literally made my own cover for it and it looks FAR more professional. Somebody just needs to stop him or say "Man, this is just IDIOTIC...try something like this, seriously..."

5) His instrumentals NEED TO BE ACTUALLY COMPOSED, NOT IMPROVISED. I can't stress that enough. Look at his classics - Black Star, Far Beyond the Sun, Evil Eye, Icarus Dream Suite, Marching Out, Crying, Trilogy Suite, Krakatau, Memories, Eclipse...all composed. And all EASILY MEMORABLE, very fine pieces of music. At some point, I think post 1998, he just quit actually WRITING instrumentals and just started noodling in the studio and called it a song. Doesn't work that way; each and every single instrumental I've heard from Yngwie since at least Facing the Animal I cannot recall from memory.

6) He needs to tour the U.S., but it needs to be a package tour. Most everybody here stateside has forgotten he ever existed. The G3 thing with Satch and Vai was cool, and he could have followed it up with some serious package touring (which is just economically smart in this day and age), but he's passed on that in favor of touring outside of the U.S., taking the easy money and easily headlining. But frankly, it's been true before and it's true now...if you're not big in the U.S., you're not big period. And to do a successful U.S. tour, he's going to have to tour with some other big names, not just have nobodies play six crappy songs to give him more time in the spotlight. The economy sucks - people want a quality bill. Give them one.

7) His live shows really need to be quality controlled. When you stop to consider he's definitely going to play not only extended versions of Black Star, Far Beyond the Sun and Trilogy, but take not just one but TWO guitar solos on top of that, you're only hearing maybe six or seven actual SONGS and the rest of it is just watching him blaze up the fretboard. And while that's cool for what it is, Yngwie has far too extensive a catalog with far too many good songs to be ignored. 10-11 actual SONGS, encore with Black Star, Far Beyond the Sun, his guitar solo and then whatever SONG he wants to end the show on and call it good, you know? Give the people an actual BAND to listen to, not just HIM.

Were those things to happen, I bet his fortunes would be much improved. Unfortunately, they won't, because let's face it - NOBODY tells Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen what to do!

[yah]

Show I saw him at last year, he's taking his solo spot, wanking around, then starts to play the tapped part of Eruption. The crowd begins to cheer, then starts to quiet down when it becomes apparent that he can't play it at full-speed...it honestly looked like he just wasn't able to play the lick at the same speed it was on the record anymore...like, he had to gradually work up to maybe 2/3rds to 3/4ths speed, but couldn't get up to par...it was kinda sad.

I didn't mind say, the last 3/4 of the solo, though I know that Ed is not nearly up to par on it....it's a long way away from his playing even in the 90's.
The first few min are really bad though....bizzare, drunken, crack/meth moments of remembered bad-trips , I guess.

[TongueNGroove]

I can hear hendrix and I can out play anyone I know personally, so i've been told...

A few members on this board have heard me play a few things...

You should join up at GuitarWar.com, I would love to hear some of your stuff

[TongueNGroove]

Sorry, but there's nothing about Mamsteen that ever struck me that he was a Rock n Roll guitar player....sounded more like a guitar teacher...

Bored the hell out of me.

If this bores the hell out of you, you must be deaf... MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service Just a little sample of Yngwie's finest work.

[BITEYOASS]

What Ed doesn't realize, and what Bill Hicks once said is that wasn't a guitar that Jimi was playing, it was his dick. Added to that, Jimi didn't have to be drunk to play, but he would have a drunk sing for him.

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[ELVIS]

NOBODY tells Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen what to do!

I just typed one of my longest posts ever and somehow WINDOWS FUCKING VISTA closed IE on me!

And then I almost deleted your excellent post by accident trying to quote you. I did that to someone else by mistake and they cried to Sarge. The new vBulletin design makes it too easy to do that by accident if you have moderator control...

ANYWAY!

I totally agree with everything you had to say and it was a good read. In addition, I always maintained that if Yngwie had a real producer or someone in control, his millions of albums and songs (some of which are virtually the same) would be reduced to maybe ten GREAT albums and he would have the recognition he maybe deserves. But he did it to himself...

As far as vocalists, he needs Jeff Scott Soto. They fit together like Dave and Edward, and he almost got him back before Dougie White came into the fold. I didn't even know Yngwie cared much for Soto until I stumbled on a YouTube interview and Yngwie had good things to say about him. He also said "poor Dougie White" couldn't sing very well, but he tried and Yngwie liked him personally. White was terrible when I saw him live. His high notes made me sick and he looked like a bigger idiot that the fat Yngwie busting out of his leather pants, not to mention dropping his guitar trying to play behind his back...

Mark Boals was good. I didn't like him at first, mainly because I was pissed that Soto was gone but when I hear Trilogy now it's far better than I thought at the time. But the songs on Trilogy are memorable. I can recall them from memory without hearing them for years...

But Yngwie's songwriting absolutely needs some collaboration for so many reasons. He's a great songwriter, but he needs somebody to work with, to inspire him to think along different lines at least sometimes...and to say, hey Yngwie, this song is Yngay...something like that...

If he would have actually worked with Ripper and given him some freedom instead of being a hired gun the results could have only been better. Some YouTube clips show Owens making some of Malmsteen's songs much more energetic and heavy. But I think Ripper (Tim) Owens is already out of the band and working on his own stuff...

Have you ever heard War to End All Wars ?? That album is a bit different with some actually composed songs, and there is some cool, way-out sounding atonal stuff and other ideas that catch you off guard. But still, I can't recall the songs without hearing them. And Facing the Animal has a few neat ideas on it as well, but like you said, since that point, it's nearly impossible to recall anything he's done...

I still think Yngwie is the greatest and most exciting rock guitar player i've ever heard, and only one of three (following Hendrix and Edward) that re-wrote the book on rock guitar...

Yngwie paved the way for people like Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman and Jason Becker. Tony McAlpine comes to mind as well...

But i'd love to see him back with Soto and the Johansson brothers and make a real album. I dont even have Perpetual Flame. I was excited about it and let down when I heard a few clips...

Check this out...

I guess the vocals are Jorn Lande, but watch Yngwie bust his ass at 0:49 seconds...

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[ELVIS]

The drummer in that clip looks like he just stepped of a Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffet gig...

Good guitar playing after Yngwie finally gets a guitar after falling...

[FORD]

I just typed one of my longest posts ever and somehow WINDOWS FUCKING VISTA closed IE on me!

Well, there's your first two mistakes.........

[ELVIS]

I know...

I'm about reformat or upgrade this new computer to XP. None of my recording equipment works with Vista even though they all have updated vista drivers on their websites. This computer was too good of a price to pass up and i knew I didn't want vista, but I didn't know it would be THIS BAD!

Have you seen this ??

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[ELVIS]

Usually when I go on about Yngwie, someone mentions Uli Jon Roth, so check out this clip...

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What the hell happened to Uli ??

It's like he has Eddie Van Halen syndrome...he can barely play in that clip!

And whats up with his vocals ??

I never was a big fan of Uli, but he could play, although the Yngwie comparisons are thin in my opinion. I think Uli copied a bit of Yngwie in the late 80's instead of the myth of it being the other way around. But Uli was great in the 70's and Yngwie does cite him as an influence along with Alex Lifeson, Steve Hackett, Brian may and Blackmore. Yngwie also liked Edward, and in the 80's he tried to contact Edward to jam and Ed wouldn't do it...

[jhale667]

Speaking of Jeff Beck, apparently he recently played a gig in LA and was joined on stage by a surprise guest. Meaning that Jeff himself apparently had no idea it was going to happen (or else he's really good at faking his reaction)

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More reasons to kick myself for missing this show...

[ELVIS]

Like Jeff Beck didn't know Rod was gonna walk out...

He just happened to be playing that song as well...

Yeah right...