Blind Melon is back with a new singer

PissBottleMan

soulsinging wrote:

precisely. no one will replace shannon and i dont think anyone would try. but they waited 10 years and i see nothing wrong or disrespectful about this project. im just happy to hear they're making music again, even if it wont ever be quite the same.

Well...it took 80 responses, but I think we finally came to a common understanding.

PBM

bharQ

PissBottleMan wrote:

Well...it took 80 responses, but I think we finally came to a common understanding.

PBM

Not half as bad as the "Sublime sucks" thread... lol

reggie500

The Unified Theory thing was only 2 of the 4 guys, so it really wasn't ever supposed to be Blind Melon - they didn't play Melon songs. I was lookng at the blind melon message board and saw this letter from one of the band members who was trying to explain their point of view on the band name and it made sense to me:

"This is for mouthfulofsoup:

I appreciate the fact that you have an opinion about this, and I'm not trying to come down on you for it, I just wanna explain our point of view. You obviously are hung up on us using the name and playing some of the old songs, and I just don't get it. I mean, I know the kinds of people that we are, and how much we care about our history with Shannon, so it just doesn't connect with me when you seem to be so angry about our reunion. We were directly affected by his death, and it was a horrible thing to go through for us....some of us dealt with it better than others. As far as I know, you were only indirectly connected to us and to Shannon, so I think we're a bit more qualified in solving this particular moral quandry. I assure you that it will feel just as weird for us in the beginning to go onstage and play the old songs as it will for a lot of the people in the audience to hear them. Sure, I said we'd never go out as Blind Melon again...but I challenge you to go back through your own life and look at the changes you've undergone, and to try and listen to some of the things that came out of your own mouth when you were younger. It's an impossible standard to be held to.....


Look...we're musicians...this is what musicians do. Neither Frank Sinatra nor Elvis wrote their own songs, and both of them went onstage every night and sang classics by long-dead and sacredly-regarded songwriters. You can go to Lincoln Center here in New York and see the great works of Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven performed and it's a religious experience for many. The musicians onstage revere the music and are honoring the composers by playing them. Natalie Cole made a DUETS record singing along with her long dead father, for Christ's sake! In rock-and-roll, you've got AC/DC who continued on to make their best record after Bon Scott died. I admit myself to being pissed about Sammy Hagar joining Van Halen, but that was because he was...well...Sammy Hagar. Pink Floyd continued on after Sid blew a gasket....Shannon used to sing his songs occassionally onstage, and even he would have to hear the occasional comment about how Sid's music was too sacred to touch. The Rolling Stones kept making the greatest rock records EVER after Brian Jones died. I'd love to see someone tell Keith not to keep going. Again, we're musicians, and this is what musicians do...and Travis will now go out and have the honor of singing Shannon's songs because he honors Shannon in the same way that all the aforementioned people honored the writers of their songs. A song is not a person...it is a creation of that person and after it is created it becomes a thing that other people enjoy and sing. Consider Shannon's songs to be a gift, and allow others to sing and enjoy them. He gave those songs away to everybody...not just you.

We don't expect that everybody who liked our old records are going to dig this new thing as well. That's cool...we've all changed as people so I'd imagine the sound is going to be different from the 4 of us, and with the loss of Shannon and the addition of Travis (who's a fucking cool cat, by the way), it's only going to be exponentially even more different. The support we've gotten from most of you here has just been great, though...really makes us feel good about what we are doing.

SO MOS...if you can't read my words and feel that I am sincere, and that we have our heads and hearts in the right place here, then I don't know what to tell you. I'm pretty much done with trying to explain myself and ourselves after doing it for the last week (I suspect I've heard from you before, no? The internet does provide a nice camoflauge, does it not?). If anybody else has a problem with me or my ancient quotes, I'll be on tour in '07 so it shouldn't be too hard to find me. I challenge you to bring it up to me in person.

Rogers"

fpa

Thanks reggie500, I think that should settle a few things around here.
All i have to say on the subject is, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Blind Melon and Shannon Hoon. Blind Melon is my all time favourite band (Pearl Jam is a close close second).
I have no problem with the remaining 4 ORIGINAL, FOUNDING, memembers of Blind Melon moving on after 10 years.
Blind Melon made excellent music. And I will be the first to admit no one could ever replace Shannon's own unique spirit and soul. But like many have stated throughout this thread Shannon was not Blind Melon, he was a memember. He was one memember of a creative team that made Blind Melon.
If Blind Melon hired a singer to go on tour and release CD's with only old Blind Melon songs, fine. THEN you could say that they are being disrespectful.
The way I see it is they have spent the last ten years of their lives trying to recreate the magic they found within themselves that produced great albums Blind Melon, Soup, Nico. They tried different projects and never tried calling themselves Blind Melon to make a buck. I think the other projects never really captured the Blind Melon spirit. So if it took ten years and a guy named Travis to awaken the creative qenuises that gave us such good music, why complain? Like PissBottleMan said before, in the end the music will stand for itself. Maybe Travis is the piece of the puzzle the has been missing that will allow for the next great Melon album. It's not like the guys (or the fans) are gunna forget who Shannon was and what he did for music!

And before I slip back into the shadows of this board, I have one more point to make. In a world with Good Charrelotte and Britney Spears and the rest of that musical garbage (if you can even call is musical) Why must we stand here and pick apart a good band that is trying to produce more good music? Shouldn't this be excellent news that a band with talent is working on an album? Shouldnt this be hope that the youth of today MAY be introduced to the likes of good rock music? If Blind Melon have a hit single/album in the following years, dont you think the 13-17 year olds might try to find out who Blind Melon are? They'll discover what Melon was when they were 3!!

Shannon's legacey will live on and I don't think anything can change what he's done and what he's left for us.

edgarcamp

soulsinging wrote:

do you feel the sam about acdc? they had their biggest and best album after getting a new singer. should it have been issued under a different name that no one would have ever bothered to listen to? none of us would have ever heard 'back in black' or 'you shook me all night long.'

Bon Scott was and always will be the original lead singer for ac/dc. They may have had more commercial success after his death, but in no way can you say the music was better. Except for "For Those About to Rock" nothing they have done can touch the Bon Scott years. Back in Black is not even close. Radio and stripclub overplay does not equal great music.