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Worst Brian cover of a Bon song
For the most part, I think Brian performed some good covers of Bon's songs. However, I watched the Plug Me In Disc 3 "Between The Cracks" and I wished he had never covered Ride On. I love Brian, but that was NOT a good choice to release. IMO. What are your thoughts?
Strongly disagree on Brian's interpretation of Ride On. I thought he performed it perfectly competently and now that it's both Bon and Malcolm (literally and figuratively) gone, I hope they make it a part of their setlists for the Rock or Bust tour.
I think Brian's done a pretty awesome job interpreting Bon's songs. His main problem is remembering the words and nailing the humour and emotion. His is definitely a more accessible, generic take on most of the music than Bon's deeply personal, howl-from-the-heart renderings of his own words.
If there's one thing I'd like to hear from Brian, it's him digging deep into the emotion (especially on the Bon songs where it was about emotion and not just an anthemic singalong), whether it be humour or pathos, and really pull out the deeper meanings of the songs.
I don't like She's Got Balls cover.
Ride on , may i add that it was a great moment in time as i was actually in Stade De France that day and a couldn't believe what i was hearing!
It was something like the upcomming tour, that they will, of course, play many songs that they haven't played before.....Yep the new album(i forget it's name) songs. 2 mediocre albums in a raw songs,half of the usual members left and super expensive tickets. Probably the most indifferent tour ever. At least they didn't grab the DIO drummer and got Slade.
Best Cover was Bon doing Baby please don't got down to new Dalls and see the maverics or something i hate football i like soccer.
I really love the 1986 live versions of She's Got Balls. There's a version from Minneapolis out there which, despite its terrible sound, truly blows the roof off of the house. It's classic AC/DC raunch and Brian's growl really works with the song. They also break down the song and ride it for a little while, inviting the crowd to sing along, which makes it that much better.
That's another song I'd like to see back in the setlists.
Now that they're on their last legs and have a (substitute) rhythm guitarist who can remember all the songs, hopefully they go for broke and play the songs they want to play, Sony be damned.
Also, I think Rock or Bust is damn good. It has a fire to it their last two records didn't have.
yeah i agree, it seems the Ride On cover was good at the time, but watching it later, its really eww. i always thought he sang Get it Hot really crappy
I won't argue with Get it Hot. It didn't do a lot for me, either, but neither did the studio version.
how about that terrible version of live wire from glasgow in 81 or 82, i think brian started with the second verse and forgot and mixed up most of the words. as far as i know they never tried it again after that.
honestly i think had he not screwed that up so bad, he would have sang that track quite well
IMHO I feel 'Ride On' will always be and has been one of those songs only Bon and ONLY Bon could sing, but Brian did his take on it very well unlike some of the other covers previously mentioned which he sometimes has a problem with or screws up with. Being this may be their last tour, I think it would be fitting to include it as an encore in the setlist and in a way a certain ode to Bon, Malcolm, and the band as a whole who have stuck together (mostly that is) through all these years and a song which can give the fans the drive that just because the band is nearing the end, their music lives on and will do so with future generations which is what separates them from most other bands.
I'm with you on that, Shakedown. I really hope they do it this tour as an ode to those in the band no longer with us (literally or figuratively). Brian doesn't sing it like Bon, but he's not Bon and I'm just fine with him singing it like Brian.
As much as I complained about the McSetlist of the last tour, Brian's singing on the BI tour was among the best he ever did. He really started to get at the soul of the songs and I want to see more of that, especially with the Bon songs, because those are the ones with soul.
As for Live Wire, Brian screwed that one up because of a) nervousness and b) he couldn't remember the words (which may be related to the nervousness). Brian's had over 20 years since then to calm the fuck down and find his stage presence and he's done exactly that and now that he's using a teleprompter when necessary (you can see it in the SUL Live video), he won't have a problem remembering the words.
i agree, about if he hadn't screwed up the words, his actual singing wasn't too bad. i made a cd a few years ago of all the rare tracks he's done live wire's on there, so is ride on, singing wise it's alright. i'd have loved to be in the dressing room after that show, i'm sure mal let rip.
I was really disappointed when I heard him sing What's Next to the Moon.
I have no problem with his What's Next to the Moon. Imagine the awesomeness of AC/DC playing a song live that they've never, ever played live before.
It would have been great if that had continued into the BI tour, but now we know why it didn't.
Again, Brian's problem (if any) are centred around memory and emotion. He's got help on the memory end with the teleprompter; now he's just got to make the songs personal with emotion. I think he did pretty well with the comedy of What's Next to the Moon.
As for Mal letting rip, maybe it was Angus and Mal who told Brian to just scream at the top of his lungs from 1980-1984, thereby wrecking his voice and his range, which in turn meant they tried to cover it up with reverb and other studio tricks on Fly on the Wall. Fly on the Wall is (retrospectively) a pretty great 80s Brian album; they return to form as a bar/garage band, and some of the songs are both funny and possibly personal (the dark comedy of Danger, the sex story of Shake Your Foundations) like Bon. All this is to say that while Mal may have been the brains of the group, he wasn't necessarily always right.
Let's see what happens this tour. The rhythm section has to get its act together (the only ones who sounded good at the Grammys during HtH were Brian and Angus), Angus and Stevie have to rehearse until they achieve some sort of communication (has anyone else noticed that the rhythm guitar on RoB mostly mimics Angus rather than backing with some chunky chords and leaving space where necessary as Malcolm used to do?) and now is the time for Brian to really think about the words he is singing and dig deep and nail the emotion, especially on the Bon songs which were about Bon's heartbreak and any comedy he could pull from it.
Maybe Angus' guitar is mimicking Stevie's! :) Stevie does a nice counter-point rhythm in Play Ball, first song we heard from the album. I thought that was great but did notice there wasn't a lot of deviation on the rest of the album. I don't have a problem with it though. It's a great album. I've been a fan since day one and it's so cool to have a new album this far down the track. It rocks and some of the riffs and power chords are fantastic!
I don't strictly have a 'worst' cover of a Bon track but was a little disappointed with Ride On. I love that song and thought he struggled a bit with it. It's played in a totally different key to suit him and it actually takes away from the big open ringing sound of the chords in that song. It was great that they gave it a go though!