Your favorites of these Triumph songs

[TAC]

Did you guys ever see the Behind The Music on them?

[King Postwhore]

THANK GOD!

Unless you have child porn on it and they see Wham to cooperate this.

[TAC]

WUT?

[King Postwhore]

You cocked blocked my response to Kev. 

[El Barto]

I can see that.  I saw Emmett by himself in the late 90's and was shocked when he actually played Suitcase Blues.

And he played Ordinary Man, which I still remember because the whole crowd did the echo of the word "answer" near the end of the song.  Emmett had this look of both shock and joy.  I don't think he was expecting that.

I've seen him a few times solo. Also with his cohort Dave Dunlop. Always a great show. The answer thing always happens. If he was surprised it was probably a louder, hardier answer than he was expecting. Always fun when that happens.

I never got to see Triumph. The Allied Forces tour with Foghat was just before I was old enough to see shows, and I have no idea why I missed T7. Must not have known about it.

[King Postwhore]

I have 2 buddies that saw that tour El Barto.  My parents didn't trust 13 year old me.

[TAC]

I saw the T7 tour in Providence. They filmed the Follow Your Heart video after the show.

[King Postwhore]

I remember the original show was postponed because Emmit was sick.

[T-ski]

Somebody's Out There?

[KevShmev]

I can see that.  I saw Emmett by himself in the late 90's and was shocked when he actually played Suitcase Blues.

And he played Ordinary Man, which I still remember because the whole crowd did the echo of the word "answer" near the end of the song.  Emmett had this look of both shock and joy.  I don't think he was expecting that.

I've seen him a few times solo. Also with his cohort Dave Dunlop. Always a great show. The answer thing always happens. If he was surprised it was probably a louder, hardier answer than he was expecting. Always fun when that happens.

Nooooo! It was exclusive to our show.

Somebody's Out There?

Thunder Seven was the cutoff album. 

[King Postwhore]

TSOK was an incredible tour.  My cutoff is the album after.

[jammindude]

Did you guys ever see the Behind The Music on them?

I have no idea who this is.   Someone will have to explain this.

[Stadler]

No, that's Stadler.

Dude I want that shirt.  I would wear that proudly.   To a Deep Purple show. 

[jingle.boy]

Oh, an excuse to post my Rik Emmet pic.

Jesus, was he your prom date or something?

Triumph is a Top 3 song of all time for me.  After that

Fight The good Fight
Time Goes By
Hold On
Ordinary Man
World of Fantasy
Follow Your Heart

The lack of presence of Tears in the Rain and Headed for Nowhere (favorite Triumph riff), and anything from Edge of Excess is 

[Stadler]

I can tell you EXACTLY how many Triumph songs I know:  go on Wikipedia, and under "Discography" see which songs had a video on MTV.   Dudes' are clearly talented - Rik Emmett can sing and I've heard some later stuff on guitar - but they were always overshadowed by other bands I thought were more... I don't know, focused? 

[jingle.boy]

I can tell you EXACTLY how many Triumph songs I know:  go on Wikipedia, and under "Discography" see which songs had a video on MTV.   Dudes' are clearly talented - Rik Emmett can sing and I've heard some later stuff on guitar - but they were always overshadowed by other bands I thought were more... I don't know, focused?

[pg1067]

The "Time Trilogy" from Thunder Seven is probably my favorite Triumph moment of all time.  In fact, I'm going to run off and add that to the "3 song salvo" thread.   

EDIT - except I forgot that Midsummer's Daydream is also in there, so I guess it's not really a 3 song salvo.

I mentioned it on the triple salvo thread, but you have to disregard not only Midsummer's Daydream but also Time Canon.  The "Time Quintet" (whether or not you want to add Little Boy Blues and make it a sextet) is one of the best album sides by anyone ever.

Ordinary Man is one of the greatest songs ever by anyone.

"Hey politician, can't believe a word you say; almighty media, whose truth do you sell today?"  What a great line!

[El Barto]

I can tell you EXACTLY how many Triumph songs I know:  go on Wikipedia, and under "Discography" see which songs had a video on MTV.   Dudes' are clearly talented - Rik Emmett can sing and I've heard some later stuff on guitar - but they were always overshadowed by other bands I thought were more... I don't know, focused?

Yeah, that's pretty weak. 

I don't think Triumph's problem was focus. I think it was talent. Rik Emmett is one of the most talented musicians alive, I can't name anybody that's a better singer and guitarist, but Gil Moore and Mike Levine are average, at best. Back in the day they got just as much airplay as Rush, but they didn't have Rush's musicianship which garnered them greater appreciation.

[pg1067]

I can tell you EXACTLY how many Triumph songs I know:  go on Wikipedia, and under "Discography" see which songs had a video on MTV.   Dudes' are clearly talented - Rik Emmett can sing and I've heard some later stuff on guitar - but they were always overshadowed by other bands I thought were more... I don't know, focused?

Yeah, that's pretty weak. 

I don't think Triumph's problem was focus. I think it was talent. Rik Emmett is one of the most talented musicians alive, I can't name anybody that's a better singer and guitarist, but Gil Moore and Mike Levine are average, at best. Back in the day they got just as much airplay as Rush, but they didn't have Rush's musicianship which garnered them greater appreciation.

I don't think the lack of focus argument is entirely unfair, although maybe "focus" isn't the right word.  Triumph was a bit bipolar, with Gil Moore's party songs and Rik Emmett's more serious, populist, believe in yourself songs (although Rik certainly ventured into the party song realm every now and then -- e.g., Hot Time (in This City Tonight)).  Also, the dual lead singer thing probably didn't help.  I can't think of any bands other than The Beatles and Styx (and subsequently Night Ranger to a much lesser extent) that achieved a significant level of success with multiple lead singers.  I do, however, also agree that Triumph suffered (unfairly) by comparison to Rush.  As I think members of both bands have noted, they didn't have much in common other than being rock trios from Canada, but Triumph did have a bit of a "Rush Light" reputation.

All that being said, as I mentioned previously, virtually every song in this poll is at least WELL above average, and Triumph's run of albums in the late 70s/early 80s compares quite favorably to anything by any other artist at that same time.

[El Barto]

That's a damn good explanation of focus as it applies here. Very true.

Gil singing half the songs never made any sense to me. Neither Blades nor Keagy were great singers. They weren't bad by any means, but there was no harm in trading off. I don't think GM could have been under any illusion that Rik was a great singer and he wasn't. Give him one song per album. Maybe two if they're really good songs. Let the singer sing, though. It's in all of their best interest.

I've been fascinated by this poll and how many votes Gil's songs get. Looks like he's up to 3(). 

[bl5150]

Headed for Nowhere (favorite Triumph riff)

Surveillance     





 

[TAC]

T7 tour in Toronto

https://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=617128

[jingle.boy]

Headed for Nowhere (favorite Triumph riff)

Surveillance     





 

Not sure I"m following?  Do you like Surveillance, or not?

[ytserush]

I can tell you EXACTLY how many Triumph songs I know:  go on Wikipedia, and under "Discography" see which songs had a video on MTV.   Dudes' are clearly talented - Rik Emmett can sing and I've heard some later stuff on guitar - but they were always overshadowed by other bands I thought were more... I don't know, focused?

Yeah, that's pretty weak. 

I don't think Triumph's problem was focus. I think it was talent. Rik Emmett is one of the most talented musicians alive, I can't name anybody that's a better singer and guitarist, but Gil Moore and Mike Levine are average, at best. Back in the day they got just as much airplay as Rush, but they didn't have Rush's musicianship which garnered them greater appreciation.

I don't think the lack of focus argument is entirely unfair, although maybe "focus" isn't the right word.  Triumph was a bit bipolar, with Gil Moore's party songs and Rik Emmett's more serious, populist, believe in yourself songs (although Rik certainly ventured into the party song realm every now and then -- e.g., Hot Time (in This City Tonight)).  Also, the dual lead singer thing probably didn't help.  I can't think of any bands other than The Beatles and Styx (and subsequently Night Ranger to a much lesser extent) that achieved a significant level of success with multiple lead singers.  I do, however, also agree that Triumph suffered (unfairly) by comparison to Rush.  As I think members of both bands have noted, they didn't have much in common other than being rock trios from Canada, but Triumph did have a bit of a "Rush Light" reputation.

All that being said, as I mentioned previously, virtually every song in this poll is at least WELL above average, and Triumph's run of albums in the late 70s/early 80s compares quite favorably to anything by any other artist at that same time.

Definitely more of a fan of the Emmett inspirational songs and those sweet guitar interludes.

[bl5150]

Headed for Nowhere (favorite Triumph riff)

Surveillance     








 

Not sure I"m following?  Do you like Surveillance, or not?

Just being silly.......... just making sure I wasn't the only one getting a dig for loving Surveillance    

"My era" of Triumph is Surveillance and then I worked back and bought/listened to the rest but the songs that I could sing in my head right now are mostly off Surveillance.  Being an 80's child I like the beefier guitars 

What??  That's like saying your era of Def Leppard is Slang.

[jingle.boy]

Ah... I skimmed over that part of the thread.  It was Kev afterall.   

JK Kev, ole buddy ole pal.

[pg1067]

I saw Triumph only once: on the Sport of Kings tour (at the Long Beach Arena, front center floor section, second row on the aisle -- basically right in front of Rik).  I saw Rik solo twice: when he was supporting Absolutely and Ipso Facto.  All great shows.

I haven't listened to TSOK in a LONG time, but I recall it being a very disappointing follow up to T7.  It seemed like a blatant attempt to merge Rik's and Gil's styles, and both suffered for it.  I recall Ply with the Fire as being the strongest song (opening with an arpeggiation of the "Rush F# chord"), although Somebody's Out There is really good also.  Never Say Never and Headed for Nowhere were the best songs on Surveillance, but I don't think any of these songs would have edged out the songs I voted for.

I've never listened to Edge of Excess; Triumph without Rik Emmett never seemed to be worth my time.

[KevShmev]

I always thought Gil Moore was a really good rock drummer.  That said, the songs he sang were rarely my favorites.

Ah... I skimmed over that part of the thread.  It was Kev afterall.   

JK Kev, ole buddy ole pal.

All good, sir. 

Ordinary Man is one of the greatest songs ever by anyone.

"Hey politician, can't believe a word you say; almighty media, whose truth do you sell today?"  What a great line!

For sure. 

[jammindude]

They were almost like 2 different bands, and I always had the sneaking suspicion that Gil couldn’t stand that it was Rik’s songs getting all the attention.   Seems like Gil would have been content to be a ‘bar band’ and Rik wanted to be more progressive. 

Which begs the question...what if you didn’t like progressive rock and suddenly found yourself as the co-founder of a successful progressive rock band?

[TAC]

Oh, an excuse to post my Rik Emmet pic.

Jesus, was he your prom date or something?

No, The Lovely Mrs TAC was my date.



 

[King Postwhore]

Rick walked her down the isle.

[TAC]

Be nice!


It was a lovely ceremony.

[King Postwhore]

Good husband.

[jingle.boy]

Tim, your Photoshop skills are on fleek.

[TAC]

Tim, your Photoshop skills are on fleek.

That's an actual picture!