HOF discussion - Pianists
 

:twisted: Here's your chance to have your say on why you think your favourites should be enducted to our hall of fame, or even why you think other nominees don't make the grade.

As always, please respect the opinions of others, even if you don't agree with them.

Your nominated Pianists are................

Roy Bittan (4)
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jean Michelle Jarre
Stevie Wonder



Numbers in brackets indicate how many members (if more than one) have nominated this Pianist.

Don't want to nit pick but considering Roy Bittan was a pianist on both Bat1 & 2 would that not gain him automatic entry under the NLE formula or does that only apply to touring band members?

My choice would however be Jarre for more reasons than I could list here.

+1, no argument from me

Out of the top 10 single artist largest venue audiences Jarre holds 7 of the spots tying the top spot of 3.5 million with of all people Rod Stewart

I was one of the 2.5 million on the Champs Elysees in 1990

:twisted: I'm a bit on the fence about this myself.

On one hand he's done studio work with Meat, but on the other hand he's done a lot of other work that has nothing to do with Meat (i'm not saying the guys from the NLE haven't BTW :wink: ).
Plus, if we're going to bar everyone has worked in the studio with Meat we'll also have to take out Brian May from the guitarist cagegory and Rob Cavallo from the Producer cat.

I'm happy to go with the majority on this :shrug:

my first thought was who??

so straight to youtube, and oxygene 2 appeared

and im still not gettin it.. so will listen to more tomorrow

Question, though- was the NLE called that at the time Bat 1 was recorded, or have they ever been billed as such on anything other than the live shows?

I compare it to the E Street Band; they are not credited (as in title on the cover) on Springsteen's studio albums, only the live releases. The reason is, as a recording artist, Bruce was signed as a solo artist, and the ESB basically function as session musicians on the records on which they played. Or, like Bobby Keys, for instance- he played sax on many Stones albums and toured with them, but he's not officially a member of the Rolling Stones. IMO, Roy's not a member of the NLE, and thus eligible for induction.

Roy has contributed to the work of many artists, but his "main" job since 1975 has been recording and touring with Bruce Springsteen. He was the only member of the ESB to have a place in the "other" band that Bruce toured with in 1992-93, after he broke up the ESB.

Roy's piano is the backbone of the ESB sound. I love anything he plays, but his truly shining moment in Bruce's live shows is during the coda of "Racing in the Street": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQqQxD021Y
I'm always thrilled to get that song at a concert. :cool:

He is also one of the very few people to share co-writing credit with Bruce on recorded songs. One of them, "Roll of the Dice", I totally love (cheesy foam dice not withstanding :mrgreen:): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ti1hKsRzDA
(I also like the other song, "Real World", but the full band version pales in comparison to Bruce's solo piano version)

Anyway, I absolutely believe the Professor deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame.

:twisted I'm sorry to see this as such a underused category :sad:

There have been many great pianists, and I had a really hard choice to make, but i've nominated Jerry Lee.

Jerry Lee did for piano what guys like Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix did for guitar.
Changed the rules and made something new and hot.
Legend. 8)

Roy Bittan all the way ... but no Jim Steinman ... ?

:twisted: See other thread.

If we were inducting people from the Meat world on every category they would be the only people to get votes.

Meat, Jim, and the NLE all get induction at the top of the completed HOF.

Ok - so Meat and his band are already in - so why are we voting on Roy Bittan ? Surely he's in already as a past member of the band - admittedley only on recordings rather than live - but a major influence on the Meat Loaf story in anycase ?

:twisted: Are you reading the threads? :bleh:
Becase it's been discussed on this one.

Try this one from his Paris La Defense concert where he played to 2.5 million people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNIjDUSIOzY

Or if you want something more poignant how about this one Rendez vous 6, commonly called Ron's piece in tribute to NASA astronaut Ron McNair who was supposed to play the sax on this one during a worlds first live simultaneous broadcast from the ISS while Jarre was at Houston. Ron was on the shuttle Challenger when it exploded during take off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6WKjj4A_vo

thank you wolfy, that 2nd piece i can appreciate alot more, though i can't really say i get it, as i'm more used to straight piano than keyboards and electronic vibes... was he more an electro artist, or did he do plain old piano aswell?

He does everything from classical piano through all forms of keyboards & weirdest of all he is one of the handfull of musicians in the world to be able to play the Theremin & the Laser Harp

When you see one of his live concert pieces bear in mind he not only composes the piece & plays them but he also designs & programs the laser/light shows, designs all the props ( such as the giant skeletons on Calypso the first link ) etc.

There was so much going on in that Calypso video, I didn't know where to look. :shock: lol

The theremin is a cool instrument.

I dig some new-age music; I've always liked Andreas Vollenweider myself.

Many people will only know Jarre for the Oxygene albums & of those many think he also did tubular bells.

My favourites are Magnetic fields, Rendezvous & Chronologie

What all of them ? Have you seen how many there are ? :shock::lol:

:twisted: If you read the thread you asked the question in (which isn't exactly a long thread) you would have got your answer :wink:

To see how this HOF process works, see the main thread.
If you have questions about what is happening in a perticular thread, read it first.
It'll save a lot of time :lol:

I've read this thread and its not clear - you said you'd go with the majority as to whether Roy was inducted automatically or not - so my vote is, given his influence on Meat's work, then he should. Do with that what you will.

:twisted: So far the majority is 2 people against Roy being inducted as an individual to 1 person who's in favour of his induction, with 1 person on the fence.
Debate is open till Monday afternoon so let's see if anyone else has any feelings on this before we decide weather he's eligable or not :wink:

I vote to induct as an individual. Then again I nominated him so I would wouldn't I?

He's recorded with Meat (so has Brian May, Cher, Max Weinberg etc) but he's never played on stage with the NLE, who are Meat's live band. If Roy can't be inducted on his own merit then neither can anyone else who's featured on a recording with Meat.

i must confess, i expected elton and rick wakeman to appear in this one

I expected Elton John too. Of course I should have thought to nominate him myself. it had slipped my mind until after the deadline. I thought for sure that someone would nominate him though. The other name that I thought would be on here too is The Piano Man himself, Billy Joel

I thought about it, but I already nominated Elton in two other categories, and since Roy doesn't really qualify in any other category, I gave him the nomination.

I personally don't see how Roy Bittan qualifies as a member of the NLE at all, outside of the fact he was a session musician at times. So what AndyK said :D

I've always loved Bittan's musicianship, his playing was what inspired me to become a musician in the first place (with the help of Jim's songs [at the time]!). He's an absolutely phenomenal player, to say the least. He has a very grand, powerful style of playing I don't think I've ever heard anyone else capture. Piano thunder. If any of the nominees are to get my vote, it'll be him. Although I might be a little biased, with his influence on me and all that :lol:

Elton John would have been my next choice, for what that's worth. I particularly love his piano on "The One" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYK3jr_TDlQ). Beautiful :-)

I think the deciding factor is whether the NLE name refers only to the touring band or not. If it does, since Roy never toured, he wouldn't qualify. Besides, Roy has done the majority of his musical work outside of the ML world.

That was gorgeous- I love that song! :cool:

If you are going to look at where an artist has done the majority of their work outside the Meat/NLE realm as the deciding factor for eligibility it will get very messy indeed.

For example Dave Luther has by far done the vast majority of his work away from Meat.
John Miceli is another who has a larger volume of studio work with artists other than Meat as well as touring with many bands.

No, that was "besides"; as I said, I think it depends whether the NLE name refers only to the touring band.

great song and performance

thats all ya need, good song, good singer and a piano :)

:twisted: I'm of the point of view that because Roy has worked in the studio twice with Meat he is eligable as Brian May for induction.

It's true that members of the current line up of the NLE have done a lot of non Meat related work, but I believe that their current relationship with Meat would turn virtually every thread of the HOF into a one horse race. Hey, it's a Meat Loaf forum and you've got to expect folks here will like the band.

I'm still in favour of the live NLE (all members past and present) being inducted as a group to keep the other threads more Meat free (variety would be nice as this is the non Meat section of the forum) but perhaps we could consider members of the NLE as individuals if they have not been a part of the NLE (in the live sense) for a set period of time?
Say 15 to 20 years.

Roy's contribution can't be compared to Brian May's as May only played on Bad For Good, while Roy helped define the Meat Loaf sound with his thunder piano !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverland_Express

I'm not one to often rely on Wikipedia, but it seems quite definitive on the subject and I think it's a fair baseline to measure membership of the NLE from.

:twisted: Brian also worked in the studio on Time For Heroes, and for HCTB.

Roy and Brian have both worked in the studio with Meat, and both have brought a distictive sound to Meat's recordings.
I certainly wouldn't bar Brian from induction due to that.

So here's how we'll play this.
Roy is eligable for induction because he's never been a member of the NLE (I think his nomination here is more to do with his work with BS).
If folks think that's it's unfair that he's in the running they won't vote for him and he won't get in.
If folks think it's fair they will vote for him and he'll get in.
Either way the majority will have spoken :shrug:

For next years nominations i'll be looking at making ex members of the NLE eligable for induction based on their other work and a set period of not working with Meat (10 years sounds good to me).

I'm thinking, perhaps, an 8 year and five month period?

:twisted: I'm guessing John Golden?