Most improved musician

[abcdefz]

I'm wondering -- has any musician ever made a leap of improvement like Roger Daltry did between Tommy and Who's Next? I mean, the dude went from being a kind of whiny singer for a bunch of records to suddenly be all fuckin' blood and thunder. Holy crap.

I can't think of any other musician who's made a leap like that. Artistically, maybe the Beastie Boys between LTI and PB, but I think that was more about the Dust Brothers' contribution. But they had skills on LTI anyway, just weaker material. And I'm talking musicianship.

[Brother McDuff]

beck's jump from "mellow gold" to "odelay" makes the LTI to PB jump look like a crack in the sidewalk.

[abcdefz]

beck's jump from "mellow gold" to "odelay" makes the LTI to PB jump look like a crack in the sidewalk.


^
Are you talking about artistically or his musicianship?

[saz]

steve marriott after a few years in humble pie. it wasn't long until he was playing lead phrases and licks along with frampton and clempson. he learned so much from them and his playing improved tenfold. he went from an amateur, and then a good rhythm guitarist in the small faces, to a solid rhythm and lead guitarist in the pie.

john squire became a true virtuoso ace between the stone roses' s/t and the second coming. his playing on one love was a massive hint of what was yet to come, but i never would've imagined that he'd become the jeff beck of our generation.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

beck's jump from "mellow gold" to "odelay" makes the LTI to PB jump look like a crack in the sidewalk.

Mellow Gold was more unpredictable, and unpolished. But that's what made it perfect. Odelay! was more of the same, only a bit more polished. I didn't see a huge jump. Now Mellow Gold to something like Sea Change.... that's a leap.

[Documad]

George Michael from Wham! to the first solo album.

[Brother McDuff]

^
Are you talking about artistically or his musicianship?

though I feel the two go hand in hand oftentimes, I would say artistically by far. whereas mellow gold was a sloppy, unfocused, and extremely juvenile (though not in a bad way by any means) collection of songs, Odelay was just spewing creativity (more thoughtful and refined) with each and every track. he broadened his genre-bending and melding technique with more potent lyrics and deliveries, a more mature and expressive marriage of live instrumentation and sampling, etc.

as far as an artists that really progressed from one album to another between two albums in musicianship, i think the chili peppers grew by leaps and bounds between mother's milk and blood sugar sex magik. they already had the chops, but truly learned how to channel it and tame it correctly during that period. those who play music themselves recognize, focusing and developing your sound is just as hard, if not harder than initially gaining the basic skills. this is much thanks to rick rubin, of course. too bad they just kind of digressed since that point in their artistic career.

Odelay! was more of the same, only a bit more polished. I didn't see a huge jump.

I couldn't disagree with you more.(n)

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I couldn't disagree with you more.(n)

We'll just have to agree to disagree, son. :cool:

[Auton]

i dont think odelay was any sort of improvement on mellowgold's formula, at least on beck's part. i think that the majority of the sonic improvement is due to the dust brothers' involvement- i'm not saying i don't like odelay more, which i do, and i like the individual songs more, but i really don't think that there was much of a difference in beck's abilities between albums. besides odelay still has some pretty mehhh songs.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

For me, Odelay was an excellent album, but didn't live up to the hype I'd heard about it. I'm not downplaying it's brilliance by any means, it just wasn't what I expected. Personally, I prefer Mellow Gold...

[MC Moot]

beck's jump from "mellow gold" to "odelay" makes the LTI to PB jump look like a crack in the sidewalk.


Words right out of my mouth....(y)

[MC Moot]

I'll add the evolution between the Red Hot's "Mother's Milk" and "Blood,Sugar,Sex,Magik".......or i guess second it,anyways!

[xrocketman]

muhfuckin beatles,

before rubber soul and after rubber soul

[Brother McDuff]

We'll just have to agree to disagree, son. :cool:

i can live with that. (y)

i do think, though, that many poeple underestimate the contributions of the actual artist when it comes to a dust brothers produced record. many seem to think that they do like 80% of the work. (I'm not accusing you of this, Deep Sea, it's just a thought that popped in my head mid-post.)


muhfuckin beatles,

before rubber soul and after rubber soul

(!) the ultimate(!) That's a thread ender right there. It don't get much more epic and spot on.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

i do think, though, that many poeple underestimate the contributions of the actual artist when it comes to a dust brothers produced record.

I couldn't agree more. Alot of people are of the opinion that the artist is just the face. The mouth, so to speak. And the producers do all the work. In alot of cases this is true (corporate puppets like Britney Spears), but alot of artists are more hands on than you'd think.

Preach.