Ballads...Love 'em or Hate 'em?

[Vyn]

Today is only yesterday's tomorrow

[Charger]

I think I mentioned Whitesnake being one of the bands whos ballads I do not like at all! And Here I Go Again (sorry zzzz) is on top of my least favourite ballads of all time!

[Zzzptm]

I think I mentioned Whitesnake being one of the bands whos ballads I do not like at all! And Here I Go Again (sorry zzzz) is on top of my least favourite ballads of all time!

Even that earlier, non-hair metal version? I think it's an honestly good song.

Meanwhile, me and Vyn are singing along to Circle of Hands...

[Charger]

Hmmm...I don't know...didn't know there were two versions...

[Vyn]

Hmmm...I don't know...didn't know there were two versions...

I like the original version much better than their second go-'round. It has an entirely different feel and comes across less like some player just bopping around between every woman he meets and more like a spiritual, soul-searching tune.

[Vyn]

Meanwhile, me and Vyn are singing along to Circle of Hands...

Great selection, and I think you're the first person I've ever heard mention it.

I thought I was the only one hahaha

That entire side of Demons & Wizards is top-notch Heep.

[Zzzptm]

Agreed, Demons & Wizards is magical. I would make 90-minute tapes with an album on each side for playing in my car. I did that because the cassette player was gonna eat the tape one day, so why not just feed it a cheap copy and preserve the original? At any rate, I could trade tapes. I had D&W on one side of a cassette and some other currently-popular album on the other side, can't remember which one, but I lent out that tape to a friend at school because he wanted to hear it. A few weeks later, I asked for it back, and he didn't have it. Why? Well, he loved D&W so much, he was sharing it around with more people and they were turned on to it and THEY were sharing it out and damn we just weren't gonna see that cassette again, were we? But it was such an awesome album, I totally understood.


Anyway, back to ballads...


I was talking about soul earlier, how that church influence really REALLY made their ballads strong. Well, the use of the organ in Circle of Hands, the original Here I Go Again, and Freebird all provide a sort of church-y element, that great big echoing organ, connecting the listener to some higher idea. Those songs' use of the organ brings in chord progressions common to denominations that those musicians were familiar with, just as soul brought in the musical vocabulary of the religious traditions common to those performers.

[Zzzptm]

Here is an interesting combination of the acoustic intro and the church organ feel:

One of my favorites from Stormbringer, great album closer. But adding in the mellotron at the end adds that much more depth to the tune.

Both David Coverdale solo and Blackmore's Night did versions of it, with Coverdale doing his with just an acoustic guitar for a totally stripped-down and raw performance and Blackmore's Night adding in the band to an otherwise acoustic performance right at the end. Both are amazing renditions. But, neither are actual metal ballads, so I'll leave finding them on YouTube as an exercise for the interested.

[Charger]

I actually much prefer the Blackmore's Night version to the orginal of that song. Candice's voice suits that song so damn well! But yeah it might be bit questionable if it's a ballad or not...I think I'd almost say that yes it is.

[Zzzptm]

I actually much prefer the Blackmore's Night version to the orginal of that song. Candice's voice suits that song so damn well! But yeah it might be bit questionable if it's a ballad or not...I think I'd almost say that yes it is.

There definitely lyrics about love lost/won/lost sorts of things, I'd say so, too. It's romantic, and definitely not sappy.