Neal's got a Grammy nomination!!!

[E-string]

I just found out that Neal Schon's up for a Grammy nomination for his Voice CD, for Best Pop Instrumental Album!!!

... Way to go Neal!!!! :cool:

[Tony_Iommi]

Black Sabbath's also got a Grammy Nomination.. for "The Wizard". (Best Metal song). I wonder why "The Wizard" Didnt get one when it came out 33 YEARS AGO?! ;p

[slaughteredsoul]

yeah why? does it take that long to discover good songs?
E-string...on the risk of sounding like an absolute moron,who the hell is Neal?

[The Fury]

Yeah, ditto. Who's Neal Schon.

[E-string]

Originally posted by slaughteredsoul
...E-string...on the risk of sounding like an absolute moron,who the hell is Neal?

I meant Neal Schon. If you've followed any of my other posts, you'd figure out he's my favorite guitarist and my guitar hero.

But here's something about who he is... He was a child guitar prodigy, joining Santana around 1969-70 at age 15, then founding Journey in 1973 at age 19... He's a superb guitarist, and extremely versatile, but I think being in Journey sort of hurt him, since Journey was so commercial in the early 80's... Neal's very well respected by other guitarists, but not so much by critics or rock fans in general.

I've been a fan of his since 1976, when I was 12. I got to see him (finally!) live in concert in 1998, and it was that show that propelled me to take up electric guitar, something I had wanted to do since my teens... Through a series of odd circumstances, I got involved with the "post-Steve Perry" Journey organization last year (mostly working for their website). Later, Journey's bass player Ross Valory helped me get a chance to meet Neal, so that put Neal on a more human level to me, making him a real flesh-and-blood person instead of a distant "rock star."

Anyway, in addition to Santana and Journey, he's also been in Hardline, Schon & Hammer (with Jan Hammer), Bad English, and Abraxas Pool, and has had several solo albums, mostly in blues, rock and fusion. He's played rock, hard rock, pop, jazz, blues, fusion... hasn't tackled country yet.

The only sad thing is that Voice is a CD of covers, songs other people have done... He's done tons of original stuff and it sort of has gone unnoticed. But since he's been bypassed so often, this Grammy nomination is still pretty cool...

Incidentally, the Grammy's are on Neal's 48th birthday. It would be nice for him to have that Grammy for his birthday, but the nomination is a great thing to have at least.

[slaughteredsoul]

yeah i did realise you were a Neal fan but who Neal was,i had no idea and it's really cool that you got to meet your 'hero' that way!
Neal is actually the first child guitar prodigy that i have ever heard of.

[E-string]

Originally posted by slaughteredsoul
Neal is actually the first child guitar prodigy that i have ever heard of.

Kinda scary, isn't it? He's been a professional musician for over 30 years, and he's not even 50 years old yet, just because he started so dadgum young... :D

From what I have understood, Neal was the only other LEAD guitarist ever to be a regular member of Santana. He was friends with keyboardist/lead singer Gregg Rolie (the guy who had sung lead on earlier songs like "Black Magic Woman"), and it was Gregg that got him into Santana. (Gregg later followed Neal into Journey in 1973 and was that band's first lead singer and keyboardist).

***

Yes, I'm thrilled to have gotten to meet Neal. I had always wanted to meet with him, and that was a VERY exciting night... (I was so stressed out over it, though, that I was sick for about two weeks after :( ) ... I hope to get another chance to talk with him, but I'm not pushing for it.

It was also very nice of Ross Valory to go to so much trouble to arrange it. I kind of felt bad that I was saying Neal was my favorite member of the band, and here's Ross going way beyond the call of duty (without my asking him) to get me to meet Neal. Speaks a lot for the kind of big-hearted guy Ross is, too.

[smfulla]

if you wanna see/hear a guitar child prodigy who's still a child, check out http://www.nicksterling.com

[jaytee]

does anyone remember the little kid who copied stevie ray vaughans style...i think he was like 8 yrs old....was id say maybe 9 years ago?

i cant remember his name...

also a child prodigy (on bass however) is/was stefan lessard. (DMB)

how nice it must be to just be able to pick the dang thing up and play!

--jt

[The Fury]

O.K, on the subject of child stars, does anyone know the name of the kid who appeared on Little and Large (t.v show in the U.K) about 12 years ago.

It's a long shot I know, but he could be famous by now.

[jaytee]

i did a websearch on child prodigies and guitars...i cant believe how many people claim to be child prodigies! makes me feel kinda below average...lol

the kid i was thinking of i saw on tv too...but he was on one of those "news" type shows like 20/20 or something...i forget its been so long...it maybe have been more like 15 years rather than 9 now that i think about it.....

gawd maybe i should go practice...ive got alot of little kids to catch up to! lol

--jt

[E-string]

Originally posted by jaytee

gawd maybe i should go practice...ive got alot of little kids to catch up to! lol

--jt

Considering I didn't take up the guitar until 1998, when I was 34 years old... Oh well, I'm a kid at heart...

But I'm not even an adult prodigy, whatever that is defined to be... :D

I figure I did well to finally admit to myself after 17 years of daydreaming about it, that I really wanted to play the guitar myself anyway... so well or poorly, I am, and I have really grown to love the guitar (especially electric guitar)...

I'm thinking of getting me a bumper sticker that says, "My best buddy is my electric guitar." :D

[Tony_Iommi]

Originally posted by jaytee
i did a websearch on child prodigies and guitars...i cant believe how many people claim to be child prodigies! makes me feel kinda below average...lol


I wonder if they're not like TV Psychics, though (Say they're something they're not).. I mean, on this other guitar forum i used to go to, you'd get people 'Um, yeah. i've been playing for four months. i can play Stairway as good as Jimmy Page does." type thing.

[smfulla]

yeah I know what you mean. On this metallica forum I go to, there have been some people saying 'I've been playing for about 1 month now, and I can already play the seek and destroy solo, the master of puppets solo, and the fight fire with fire solo, but I was wondering.... ' and yeah
I think either they can play them, and have been playing for more like 3 or 4 years, or they just don't want to sound crap
but away from that, this Nick Sterling dude is real. And Neal Schon has to be real coz this dude met him

[E-string]

Originally posted by smfulla
...dude...

Dude? :D :D :D

You do know I'm female right? :D

[slaughteredsoul]

You do know I'm female right?

lol...for some weird reason..i thought you were a "dude" too:D

[E-string]

Originally posted by slaughteredsoul


lol...for some weird reason..i thought you were a "dude" too:D

:D That's okay... it doesn't offend me... I go by "Doni" which can be a unisex name, so it confuses people. Plus I guess a lot of folks don't first think of a girl/woman when they think of someone who plays electric guitar.... sort of a sad stereotype, but it's just the reality of it all...

So I'm not mad or anything... It just sort of was beginning to sound like you thought you were talking to another guy. :) :D

On Journey's forum board, for a long time people kept thinking I was male because I was simply known as "Doni," until I put up a sig that said "The Guitar Lady of 'Schon City'" ... and that pretty much stopped it right there... :D

[slaughteredsoul]

People always confuse me for a guy too..not when they see me though lol..just on message boards and stuff..i dont know if it's got anything to do with stereotyping but for me..u just somehow sounded like a guy..hehe...no offense though!

[smfulla]

hey I'm sorry if I offended you
I didn't mean to. It's a word we use freely between genders at school (after some girls started calling each other dude) but anyway. Sorry, umm but I did use it in the context that you were a guy, I so thought you were, argh. Well I guess its like you said with the stereotype and all. Sorry once again. Geez, maybe having a thread 'Are you male or female?' would be in order so this confusion could be solved hehe.

[jaytee]

its an even thread! 3 guys...3 girls

i know that stereotype....seems its time to break the habit! actually i did it to slaughtered soul too a couple months ago. i guess even us women are guilty sometimes...

--jt

[E-string]

Originally posted by smfulla
hey I'm sorry if I offended you.

You didn't offend me at all... don't worry about it. :)

For me, I think what gets in the way on this forum board more, is my age... Many of the posters here mention younger bands that I don't know, and I'm sure I have favorites that would go over the heads of the younger set here... And what everyone thinks of as "classic rock" was just simply the stuff that was popular when I was a teenager. To me, "classic rock" was, yes, the Beatles, but also people like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly... But I still can't think of bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin as "classic rock" 'cause they were just bands that were around making records. I was big on Journey, of course, and now they're part of that classic rock thing too, even though they are still actively recording and touring... :( Makes me feel SO-O-O old....

LOL ... I'm thinking now, how many topics have we covered in this thread? But this thread has been more fun for me than I've had in a long time... :D

[smfulla]

well I've learnt in my short life span that sometimes a question you shouldn't ask a woman is how old they are... but, how old are you? Of course you don't have to answer, and thats cool, I just thought I'd ask. Btw, I'm 15

[E-string]

Originally posted by smfulla
well I've learnt in my short life span that sometimes a question you shouldn't ask a woman is how old they are... but, how old are you? Of course you don't have to answer, and thats cool, I just thought I'd ask. Btw, I'm 15

No prob... I'm 37 (will be 38 in May). I didn't start playing the guitar, like I said earlier, until I was 34, but I had wanted to since I was a teenager (yeah, mostly 'cause of Neal Schon, too). But I did play keyboards even back then, so I wasn't without doing music one way or another...

Anyway, that's so cool that you're playing the guitar now at your age. (And BTW, I have heard of Metallica, at least... :D )

[slaughteredsoul]

I thought picking up a guitar at 18 was like missing the train...and Doni,you're 37 and u just picked it up! Wow..you're like my inspiration now lol..i feel great! i guess it's just never too late!

[Pezcore]

hmm whole things gonna end up sending my crazy or paranoid.

probably both

in fact, from now im gonna refer to everyone as 'it' instead of 'he' or 'she' just to avoid confusion haha

sorry im too damn stupid to work it out, but it gave me a headache. who the hells female and who isnt??

[jaytee]

males are:

tony
fury
smfulla and
yourself.

the rest of us are chicks!

correct me if im wrong "guys" lol

--jt

[smfulla]

37?????? thats not that old!
seriously! its not, hehe. My mum, who's 43 I think 44 this yr, has tried picking up the guitar, well just last year. But she didn't follow it through, she just gave it up coz of work and stuff.

And yep, I'm a guy

[E-string]

Originally posted by slaughteredsoul
....Wow..you're like my inspiration now lol..i feel great! i guess it's just never too late!

Well, what a nice thing to say. :) Thanks!

And no, it's never too late to start learning something new... although in my case, I think it's sort of a mid-life crisis.

I had wanted to play when I was a teenager, but my parents wouldn't have gone for the idea, and I don't think I really believed it myself anyway... But many years later, in 1998, there I was at that Journey concert, intensely watching Neal soar through the outro guitar solo of "Who's Crying Now," the same solo that in 1981 had solidified my love of melodic electric guitar, only now I'm hearing it live for the first time, not on a record ... and then I turned to my friend who was with me and said, "I'm gonna get me a guitar and I'm gonna play it!"

Boy, did she think I'd gone berzerk or something! ... LOL (She also never went with me to another show...)

And I didn't care at that moment HOW old I was!!! :D

***

Originally posted by smfulla
....she just gave it up coz of work and stuff.

I know how that is... I don't have a family, but for those who do, that will be a priority that has to be considered... Of course, I do have a job, myself, and still have the other day-to-day things I must do... It's hard sometimes, just to make time. I want to badly enough, but for some people, it is something that sort of has to take backstage at certain times in their lives. Even with me, I don't have the opportunity to practice as much as others do, so I am progressing more slowly than some... but I am progressing.

Oh yeah, thanks smuffa, for saying that 37's not that old. :)

[smfulla]

no probs, coz 37 really isn't that old
btw, the name's smfulla =]]]]
Thats a cool name tho, smuffa =]

[E-string]

Originally posted by smfulla
btw, the name's smfulla =]]]]


Oops... sorry... smfulla... I screwed that one up pretty good. :(

My apologies... :)

[smfulla]

no probs at all

[24_Moons]

I think it's awesome that Neal Schon has been nominated for a Grammy, he really deserves the recognition. I was never a big Journey fan, I thought they suffered from the same problem Asia had, loads of talent but very little chemistry. (Having never seen them live, I realize this may be a misconception.) Still for all that, I believe Neal was the best part of that band. I know what a great feeling it is to see a personal favorite in line for an award, it's like I want to congratulate you.
Oh, by the way, I am a guy and I am 40.

[E-string]

Originally posted by 24_Moons
Still for all that, I believe Neal was the best part of that band.

Hey 24_Moons. Glad to find someone else from my age group here. :)

And yes, Neal was/is the best part of that band. (Okay, the Steve Perry fans will murder me for that one, but it was always Neal that got me into their songs. That's why Perry's departure didn't upset me that much. Had Neal left, I would have left, too.)

I just wish Neal got the same kind of recognition as someone like Eddie Van Halen or something like that... On the other hand, Neal got a wonderful 7-page write-up by Matt Blackett in Guitar Player magazine in the August 2001 issue... Blackett wrote:

"...Schon is an immensely talented guitarist and songwriter who set the standard for melodic lead guitar in the '70s and '80s. In an era when many pop-rock bands dished out forgetable four-bar solos (or no solos at all), Schon would routinely take flight with soaring, fiery lead breaks that were almost songs within songs. And he got as much guitar on Top 40 radio as anyone in the world...."

Sort of sad that the best-selling song by them turned out to be "Open Arms." That's the one song where Neal just about didn't get to play anything, except some fills! (Neal was initially opposed to including that song on the Escape album because it was so removed from their style, and he had no idea what he could do in the song...)

If anyone can get an opportunity to check out "World Gone Wild" from the 2001 Arrival CD, do so. That's going in my book as one of his best "rocking" solos yet! :)