Class of 0
Saint Louis, MO
I said "1) Arnel Pineda may be a good singer; but it's not just the pipes, it's the personality. 2) Ronnie James Dio was much better solo than he was as Ozzy's replacement. To that end, he wasn't a sufficient replacement for J.O. (Ozzy's real initials) 3) Peter Cetera actually did sing really nice rock songs earlier with Chicago; but consider some of the songs that Terry Kath sang were FAR more lounge-lizard-y than even Cetera's solo stuff (e.g., Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?), so I think in that band's instance, it was just the evolution they all went through together. 4) My first point about personality? Goes for ALL of these bands, and Styx too. It's not just, can this person sing, can they stand up and wear gaudy costumes and assume the same sort of temperament as the person they replace; it's also a matter of, can they bring the same sensibility about song creation to the band that the original person brought? And in everyone's case that has been mentioned so far (and I include Mr. Hagar in this), the answer is a resounding NO. Sammy was a great amalgamation of influences -- from Ronnie Montrose through Neal Schon to Eddie Van Halen and beyond -- but ultimately, he was far better at distilling to his own essence. As soon as he and Eddie teamed up, it was all too art-rock-y. Dave was a pain in the a$$, but he knew what Van Halen originally stood for: PARTY."
I said "Okay, you are SO missing Styx with this lout Lawrence Gowan. Yes, we know that Dennis DeYoung is a monstrous megalomaniac... but the man could SING, and he could WRITE. Something the aforementioned Gowan-creature has still not proven he can do (Canadian Elton John, puh-leeze!). I'm sure there are all sorts of people who don't miss DDY's poisonous attitudes toward his ex-band-mates (including James Young and Tommy Shaw), but -- whether the present membership likes it or not -- without DDY and his towering ego, the group is just a faded cover version of itself. Here's hoping someone locks them all in a room together, lets them kick the crap out of each other for a while until it's out of their system, then puts them up on stage together once and for all. Unless Tommy still thinks it's just fan-tas-tic to be playing in ever-shrinking mini-arenas."
