A couple things:
1. Keep in mind, when MP says those things, they're coming from a guy who's listened to recordings of every single performance. I have also heard a lot of them, and to be honest many bootlegs of DT's performances do not portray James in a very flattering way (and from that era, I would even change many to "most")
2. I've never heard MP say he wanted a new vocalist so DT could be heavier. I always have heard him say that he thought DT would have been better with more of a songwriter type singer, like H. from Marillion. This leads me to believe that maybe MP thought DT could have morphed into something more like Neal Morse or Flying Colors - still prog but with much more potential for "singles".
3. Yes, all that is pretty hypocritical coming from a guy who insisted his label forced him to be more commercial two album before James got his ultimatum.
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1. That's one thing I'm a bit unclear about. When he said that, which era was it? I know James got the ultimatum a short time after the Six Degrees album came out, correct? But MP made that comment about hiring someone else, sometime later, right? ... And Images and words was recorded at Beartracks, right?
Otherwise, yes, I understand that JLB may not have been at his best around that era, but it's still a very obtuse hypothetical comment. I mean, IF they were looking for a new vocalist then, and they wouldn't hire JLB, that's assuming JLB wasn't already in the band, and then we could say, well, who knows how his own career would have evolved. Maybe if JLB had never joined DT, he would've put together his own band, become successful enough to be noticed, and developed into a song writer, and never even gotten food poisoning for that matter. How did something like that even come up, unless it was something that was consistently on MP's mind at the time? And to be dwelling on how they'd hire someone else, and then proceeding to just say it at an interview, seems almost intentionally hurtful and disrespectful.
2. Well, he didn't say so that DT could be heavier, I'm just interpolating from the fact that A. In his more recent times with DT, he seemed to have tried to push the band into a heavier direction. And B. heavier style, and heavier vocals are more popular in the grand scheme of Hard Rock/Metal these days. Aside from the most European of Power Metal bands, I don't hear many who still front a melodic, high register male vocalist.
Also, this may be a little biased, since I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a fan of the vast majority of MP's vocal contributions to DT, so I understand if it seems like I'm unjustly picking on MP, but honestly, I was listening to Score yesterday, and I mean, really listening to it, more analytically than usual, and I just couldn't help but notice all the times MP added his backup vocals where they really weren't needed or were a detriment. Like, there were parts where I think it would've been cool to hear JLB just do his thing, such as the whole "Trapped Inside this Octavarium" part, but MP is there saying it along with JLB in his typical balls and chunk heavy style, (as opposed to whispering the way it was on the album itself) as if he thought JLB wasn't enough to give that part justice.
Also, every time he did harmonies with JLB, where it's a long extended vowel, such as during one part of Raise The Knife, or The Answer Lies Within, I think it was, the "You're gonna shine" section, and this may be unintentional, but every time, MP drags his notes just that little bit longer than JLB, just milking it, as if upstaging JLB in a way, and I really think those little moments did a disservice to the performance. Not significant, mind you, but a disservice non the less. And again, maybe I'm just picking on him and overanalyzing it, but upon a closer analysis, that's honestly my only gripe with how Score sounds. But honestly, I wasn't even overanalyzing MP's parts on purpose, I just wanted to analyze the concert's sound overall. I just noticed MP doing that, it just stood out to me, like boom, there he is, all in your face with his backup vocals. So I started keeping an ear out for it. They might add an extra layer, but that's only good when it doesn't overstay its welcome, and to me, it did.
But anyway, this little rant aside, my point is that, to me, it honestly felt like MP was attempting to "Heavy Up" certain vocal parts with his backups, as if he thought that would make them better, so that was also a part of why I kind of interpolated him saying they'd hire someone else as meaning someone heavier. But yes, I could be wrong.
Either way, the more time passes, the happier I am with the band's current lineup.
And again, I'm not trying to rag on MP, I love MP, and I think overall he's an awesome guy and an awesome drummer, but a drummer is what he should have stayed. And if it seems like I'm picking on him, then it purely comes from me as a singer being devensive over JLB as a vocalist, who I think MP undermined in more ways than one over his latter years with DT.
TGP, MP made an infamous interview back in the day where he said he would rather choose a singer like Mike Patton if he had had the choice at the time of the interview.
Not sure whether you are aware of this.
No, I wasn't aware of that specifically. I'm not really familiar with Faith No More, so can you please elaborate on the point you're trying to make? Like, I don't know what Patton's vocal style is like, and I'm at work right now (yes yes, slacking off), so I can't listen to it, so I'm kind of unsure whether that supports of disproves my theory of it being someone heavier and more fashionable.
Also, can you imagine having two Mikes, both being MP, in the band?