The Mike Portnoy Appreciation/Discussion Thread (merged)

[TAC]

I couldn't help but wonder where the Boston and Blue Oyster Cult albums were (although I was not surprised since I don't think I've ever heard him mention either band).

Probably didn't bother with getting reissues since he more than likely still has the originals and didn't see the need to get the reissues of them.

Could be.  Is he a fan of either?  Again, I don't think I've ever heard him mention either, although there are so many bands that it's hard to mention them all.   Given his musical preferences, I would be shocked if he didn't like both at least a little bit.

Here is a tweet where he talked about listening to Boston’s debut album a few years ago:

https://twitter.com/mikeportnoy/status/800440970118594560?s=21

Back when MP was in the band and they were doing cover albums, I always voted for Boston's debut. Thought that would work well on a two night stand in Boston.

[KevShmev]

Here is a tweet where he talked about listening to Boston’s debut album a few years ago:

https://twitter.com/mikeportnoy/status/800440970118594560?s=21

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzgIs9pT1A&feature=youtu.be

surprised nobody has commented on this. Mike is getting political. I don't necessarily like the song as Im not a john lennon fan, but I saw in the comments somebody recommended speeding it up to 1.75x speed to make it sound more punk. I tried that and it wasn't good. So I sped it up to 1.25 and I actually kind of dug it.

To be honest, it surprises me that he would do this given that he is in 828 bands and it could fracture relationships within them and/or drive some fans away, and those bands aren't exactly filling up arenas, but I can't blame anyone right now for feeling that way about a certain someone (who shall remain nameless since this isn't P/R).   

[IDontNotDoThings]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzgIs9pT1A&feature=youtu.be

surprised nobody has commented on this. Mike is getting political. I don't necessarily like the song as Im not a john lennon fan, but I saw in the comments somebody recommended speeding it up to 1.75x speed to make it sound more punk. I tried that and it wasn't good. So I sped it up to 1.25 and I actually kind of dug it.

That was... not good.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Here is a tweet where he talked about listening to Boston’s debut album a few years ago:

https://twitter.com/mikeportnoy/status/800440970118594560?s=21

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzgIs9pT1A&feature=youtu.be

surprised nobody has commented on this. Mike is getting political. I don't necessarily like the song as Im not a john lennon fan, but I saw in the comments somebody recommended speeding it up to 1.75x speed to make it sound more punk. I tried that and it wasn't good. So I sped it up to 1.25 and I actually kind of dug it.

To be honest, it surprises me that he would do this given that he is in 828 bands and it could fracture relationships within them and/or drive some fans away, and those bands aren't exactly filling up arenas, but I can't blame anyone right now for feeling that way about a certain someone (who shall remain nameless since this isn't P/R).

I personally respect someone more for taking a stand when they have something to lose. I’m not gonna get into my opinions from the subject since this is P/R (which I refuse to take part in because this website is supposed to be an escape from all of the craziness in this world), but I do commend Portnoy for standing up for what he believes in over these past few weeks even if he pushes some fans away because of it.

[gzarruk]

but I do commend Portnoy for standing up for what he believes in over these past few weeks even if he pushes some fans away because of it.

What pushed me away was his singing on that song

[Moor]

but I do commend Portnoy for standing up for what he believes in over these past few weeks even if he pushes some fans away because of it.

What pushed me away was his singing on that song

 

[DTA]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzgIs9pT1A&feature=youtu.be

surprised nobody has commented on this. Mike is getting political. I don't necessarily like the song as Im not a john lennon fan, but I saw in the comments somebody recommended speeding it up to 1.75x speed to make it sound more punk. I tried that and it wasn't good. So I sped it up to 1.25 and I actually kind of dug it.

That was... not good.

Understatement

[Fritzinger]

I don't care about Mike's political opinion and I always thought it was smart of him to never post anything political. I'm surprised that he decided to now do so.

Apart from that, I don't know what he's trying to do with these covers  I don't see myself (or anyone else) listening to this again in one year.

[Skeever]

My only comment is how funny it is to see so many upset comments on his Facebook regarding that video. Sure a lot of MP's fans are probably a little bit more uh... domesticated... than they probably were in the early 90s... but I would still love to travel back in time to 1992 and tell them that one day they'll stop liking Mike Portnoy because he flipped off a video of... Donald Trump...  .

[Adami]

My only comment is how funny it is to see so many upset comments on his Facebook regarding that video. Sure a lot of MP's fans are probably a little bit more uh... domesticated... than they probably were in the early 90s... but I would still love to travel back in time to 1992 and tell them that one day they'll stop liking Mike Portnoy because he flipped off a video of... Donald Trump...  .

Hey, as long as he didn't kneel for our flag!



I thought it was fine. Not my favorite song and I thought his vocals really took down a peg, but he's just having fun. As far as I know he's not releasing this for purchase or making an album for 10 bucks of this stuff. It's just going for free on youtube. Let the man have his fun, I wish I could do that kind of stuff.

[Skeever]

Yeah I'll also add that I think it's more surprising it took MP this long to become a one-man cover band. He's got potential to be a full-time Youtuber.

[Fritzinger]

My only comment is how funny it is to see so many upset comments on his Facebook regarding that video. Sure a lot of MP's fans are probably a little bit more uh... domesticated... than they probably were in the early 90s... but I would still love to travel back in time to 1992 and tell them that one day they'll stop liking Mike Portnoy because he flipped off a video of... Donald Trump...  .

Hey, as long as he didn't kneel for our flag!



I thought it was fine. Not my favorite song and I thought his vocals really took down a peg, but he's just having fun. As far as I know he's not releasing this for purchase or making an album for 10 bucks of this stuff. It's just going for free on youtube. Let the man have his fun, I wish I could do that kind of stuff.

Yes. But he just did release a cover album you can buy for way too much money.

[KevShmev]

Everyone else sees this coming, right?

It's only a matter of time before he does some tour as the frontman with his kid on drums. 

[Adami]

My only comment is how funny it is to see so many upset comments on his Facebook regarding that video. Sure a lot of MP's fans are probably a little bit more uh... domesticated... than they probably were in the early 90s... but I would still love to travel back in time to 1992 and tell them that one day they'll stop liking Mike Portnoy because he flipped off a video of... Donald Trump...  .

Hey, as long as he didn't kneel for our flag!



I thought it was fine. Not my favorite song and I thought his vocals really took down a peg, but he's just having fun. As far as I know he's not releasing this for purchase or making an album for 10 bucks of this stuff. It's just going for free on youtube. Let the man have his fun, I wish I could do that kind of stuff.

Yes. But he just did release a cover album you can buy for way too much money.

Indeed! And I've been critical of that.

But these youtube vids are a different story.

I actually love watching many of these homemade youtube videos that bands/artists have been making during quarantine. I would hate for any artist to be so strictly limited in what they can do. Metallica's new Blackened, or seeing Lords of Lost (who I am not a huge fan of) doing the home videos, or Suicide Silence with Tatiana from Jinjer, or Sheryl Crow doing her weird song videos. Literally all of it is at least interesting, even if I don't end up digging it a ton. I just love to see artists get weird and try new things outside of their extremely controlled comfort zones.

[Stadler]

A little obvious, perhaps.  I'm not the biggest fan of the strident, "revolutionary" Lennon, but that was decent. 

Amazing to me that those are Lennon's original words (at least the ones I checked; I didn't go through it line by line) and they were written in 1971, almost 50 years ago.   

[The Walrus]

I never thought I'd see one of my former favorite drummers of all time dressed like a Vietnam war vet yelling about the President but this is the timeline we're in 

[Adami]

I never thought I'd see one of my former favorite drummers of all time dressed like a Vietnam war vet yelling about the President but this is the timeline we're in 

We're back to the 70's when that was common?

[The Walrus]

I never thought I'd see one of my former favorite drummers of all time dressed like a Vietnam war vet yelling about the President but this is the timeline we're in 

We're back to the 70's when that was common?

I can't wait for that new Zeppelin record!

[Zook]

I wonder if he and Jon Schaffer know each other.

[Architeuthis]

After seeing that video,  Portnoy is going all Roger Waters on us...meets Lennon..

[RodrigoAltaf]

 I love MP, and I'm pretty sure you've seen me defend him against a lot of criticism here, but this video is cringeworthy, both musically and as a political statement.

[Stadler]

I never thought I'd see one of my former favorite drummers of all time dressed like a Vietnam war vet yelling about the President but this is the timeline we're in 

We're back to the 70's when that was common?

I can't wait for that new Zeppelin record!

Why is Ian Anderson yelling at that tall guy?

[Madman Shepherd]

My only comment is how funny it is to see so many upset comments on his Facebook regarding that video. Sure a lot of MP's fans are probably a little bit more uh... domesticated... than they probably were in the early 90s... but I would still love to travel back in time to 1992 and tell them that one day they'll stop liking Mike Portnoy because he flipped off a video of... Donald Trump...  .

Hey, as long as he didn't kneel for our flag!



I thought it was fine. Not my favorite song and I thought his vocals really took down a peg, but he's just having fun. As far as I know he's not releasing this for purchase or making an album for 10 bucks of this stuff. It's just going for free on youtube. Let the man have his fun, I wish I could do that kind of stuff.

I would actually buy it, even though I don't dig a lot of it. I try to be a completist when it comes to my favorite bands. I own all of LaBrie's stuff including Winter Rose, Ayreon, etc. I own all of Myung's stuff. I own all of Charlie's, Kevin's, Derek's, and Petrucci's stuff. Hell, I even own stuff from Chris Cintron, the guy that was almost the frontman of DT before James. With Jordan and Mike, they release way too much, the majority of which I can't get into. I would probably buy a Mike solo album, even if it is just a bunch of covers, mainly for the novelty but hey, maybe he'll do a song I really dig.

[MinistroRaven]

With how prolific MP have been. Imaging you introducing MP to a friend and said friend goes to youtube and the first thing he listen is this song.

 

[gmillerdrake]

but this video is cringeworthy, both musically and as a political statement.

It was rough. I thought it was a joke for the first thirty seconds or so then I realized it wasn't meant to be one......

[bosk1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzgIs9pT1A&feature=youtu.be

surprised nobody has commented on this. Mike is getting political. I don't necessarily like the song as Im not a john lennon fan, but I saw in the comments somebody recommended speeding it up to 1.75x speed to make it sound more punk. I tried that and it wasn't good. So I sped it up to 1.25 and I actually kind of dug it.

Finally just checked it out.  The song was decent.  I didn't care for the video portion.  But regardless of the side being taken, I tend to not care for one-sided political bashing in music.  But if he had made it more bipartisan (or perhaps "a-partisan" would be a more correct term?), and showed the president, and prominent democrats and republican politicians, and thus not taken as hard a side and made it about politicians in general, I would quite liked the message.

That said, I can't/don't begrudge him his stance at all.  I don't at all mind people taking a strong stance on one side of an issue, provided they are willing to discuss it and not dig in with a myopic "if you aren't for us, you are against us" mentality.

[DragonAttack]

Lyrics (other than switching 'tricky dicky' to 'daddy Freddy') were exact.

A shame it wasn't sped up more to match the original, but I liked it.  I mean, he is asking for 'truth' from the biggest 'untruther' that ever lived.

[bosk1]

Didn't even realize it was a cover.

[Architeuthis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzgIs9pT1A&feature=youtu.be

surprised nobody has commented on this. Mike is getting political. I don't necessarily like the song as Im not a john lennon fan, but I saw in the comments somebody recommended speeding it up to 1.75x speed to make it sound more punk. I tried that and it wasn't good. So I sped it up to 1.25 and I actually kind of dug it.

Finally just checked it out.  The song was decent.  I didn't care for the video portion.  But regardless of the side being taken, I tend to not care for one-sided political bashing in music.  But if he had made it more bipartisan (or perhaps "a-partisan" would be a more correct term?), and showed the president, and prominent democrats and republican politicians, and thus not taken as hard a side and made it about politicians in general, I would quite liked the message.

That said, I can't/don't begrudge him his stance at all.  I don't at all mind people taking a strong stance on one side of an issue, provided they are willing to discuss it and not dig in with a myopic "if you aren't for us, you are against us" mentality.

So much this!   

[Mladen]

I actually enjoyed that cover. It was cool how he counterbalanced the grittiness and edginess of the song with snippets from All you need is love and Imagine, it reminds you of how amazing Lennon is. Also, even though I do not consider Mike a great singer, his rough voice actually served the song rather well.

[kaos2900]

Why? Just why?

[bosk1]

I agree.

[ytserush]

Watching now, looks pretty interesting especially since I started collecting vinyl's a few years ago. I wonder if MP has a discogs account.

I'd much rather him talk about his old vinyl, CDs or DVDS.  Not really much of a fan of too much new in the way of vinyl.

That said I saw the first episode and really liked the Beatles section which is kind of an exception to the new vinyl rule.

[ytserush]

Heads up for the LTE collectors, Japan only re-issues of LTE 1&2 in SHM-CD Mini-LP format released May 27 2020.
This format is highly sought after and sells out fast and then goes for ridiculous prices on discogs and ebay.

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/MICP-30121?s_ssid=e47e795eddaeb9a6ce
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/MICP-30122?s_ssid=e47e795eddaeb9a6ce

Still not convinced that these sound that much better than the normal Japanese releases but they seem to have a following.

[Ben_Jamin]

After seeing that video,  Portnoy is going all Roger Waters on us...meets Lennon..

I didn't know he was this big of a Roger Waters fan.