>>I agree, Jethro Tull is very good. I saw them in Hershey PA in 1996 (they split a concert with ELP) and they were outstanding.
>>
>>Admittedly, I haven't listened much to U.H.
>
>They had great first albums, then artistic differences. Newer stuff not ground shaking, but live they have lots of fun and the audience catches it. Whereas I did not go the last Tull shows - I went to about 80% of their tours in the last century ( in my wild days sometimes more than once if I was in the area for biz,sports or pleasure). Watching old shows on youtube is better, as Ian's voice is not getting better.
>>
>>I like Queen very much, though they are very different than a group like Rush. I really would not put Queen in the same league when it comes to skills as musicians - but Queen had great performances and catchy songs.
>>
>>I am a big fan of Yes and ELP (I would say my three favorites in order are Rush, Yes, and ELP). But what separates Rush from the other two is that Rush has gotten BETTER over time. Their last album (ClockWork Angels) has several tracks that are just incredible. The signature work of Yes lasted much shorter (from the Yes album to Tormato), and the signature work of ELP lasted even shorter (they really had four outstanding albums, but MAN were they outstanding)
>
>have not checked this dimension. will do.
>>
>>You mentioned Styx. They had a period of good albums, from Equinox to Paradise Theater. Good but not great....had they voted Dennis DeYoung off the island long ago they could have produced better material. Stuff like "Babe" and "First Time" and that idiotic Mr. Roboto crap was just bloody awful.
>
>Some artists ar primadonnas, others form family like ties. Probably the Scorpions are similar in ties between group members after they stabilized in the first 2 or 3 albums - then only a problem with our IRS expelled one member. Martin Barre now performing some Tull songs shows to me that they are not foes like other split up groups. U.H. seems to have settled with a lower creative, but stable fun level within the group: no Salisbury or July Morning, not even Gypsy or Lady in Black, or concept albums, but solid performance which is great for live acts - which is where I spend my music money today. Some groups have talented and educated musicians able to work as a bare group *and* with a classical orchestra or like to try out some other areas - often interesting but missing the live energy sometimes felt at concerts by less refined artists. Sting with orchestra is interestng and worth the money, but not gut twisting like some less refined performances ;-)
>
>Sometimes good stuff grows from split ups - Asia having ELP and Boston genes one example. ELP themselves lived only because the Court of the Crimson King was not Nice any more ;-) And while neither Rainbow nor Withesnake had reached a Deep Purple level, they had stuff well above the average.
>
>Perhaps the most interesting concert I ever went to was Simply Red on their goodbye tour - not the part of their usual repertoire, but the opening act. Hucknall instead of calling in another group as openeing act performed great pop songs from other artists - and he is gifted and his taste in other music correlated with mine. One of the really few concerts where the unexpected stuff surpassed the typical highlights by a mile.
>
>>
>>I think SuperTramp was vastly underrated in the U.S. Don't know if you knew this, but the long-time producer for Supertramp helped Rush produce their 1989 album, "Presto"
>
>Did not know. Thx.
>>
>>I like individual Stones songs. And I certainly like some of the early Pink Floyd albums.
>
>Wish you were here probably the album after Tull most listened to with earphones for nuances here in my early years. And Styx is wonderful Autobahn stuff - no earphones and other drivers are allowed to listen in ;-)
>
>Stones live is great if you pay enough to be less than 50m away. Also good motivational stuff when eye of the tiger was decades away.
I was fortunate enough to see Simply Red at their home club in Manchester. Also Lone Justice. The wife of one of my coworkers got tickets for 6 of us. She said most of us don't have time to wait in line for hours; I do. Marie McKee was incredible. Sue's husband Rob, one of my pledge sons, said after the opening number "They aren't saving it for the encore, are they?"
My computer sound is broken but I can still hear them. She was a whirling dervish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6GV774FRO0UPDATE: I also saw the Uurethmics in Manchester. Princess Di was one of the attendees. Annie Lennox had a habit of dropping her pants during performances and was firmly told not do do so. Sadly, she didn't.
