Luca-LJ

I don’t know, personally I preferred "Perspective", made when the illness had already set in (or not? Tell me if I'm wrong) to "Perpetual Burn". "PB" is really boring; back then it wasn’t yet a given, I acknowledge that, but finding a way to appreciate certain things even today is difficult for me. You listen to this stuff on one or two albums and then that’s it: its artistic value runs out quickly. "Perspective" isn’t exactly a stroke of genius either, but at least there we can talk about real compositions, not just GUITAR AND THAT'S IT. I can’t bring myself to say that the illness had at least one positive effect, because it feels disrespectful to Becker and to everyone who suffers from this terrible disease, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But we can say that it forced him to bring out other qualities, which I personally prefer. Mediocre album "PB", the usual baroque flourishes at full speed with ridiculous atmospheric interludes, with note progressions that were old already in the '70s. He and Malmsteen were important as guitarists, but as composers they didn’t produce anything constructive, just circus tricks. This is my humble opinion. As for the technical level, it's certainly very high, but it doesn’t surprise me at all; there are 10,000 guitarists at the same level (not better, because once you reach a certain level, it’s no longer possible to determine who is better; more or less, the skill is the same). I really don’t understand what’s so astonishing in what he does; it’s all about "Cleanliness and speed", and nothing else. Yes, he’s very good, but at this point I prefer Vai and others like him, who at least play around with effects and have a minimum of melodic talent.

Marty Friedman said a big bullshit, with all due respect.

Yes, but not here!

Jim is just like that, take it or leave it!

It was referring to your delay.

Napoletan music doesn’t interest anyone, you say? Here in Italy maybe it’s true, because there’s a fundamental racism that prevents properly appreciating certain musical gems (which are envied abroad!). But where the hell did you read that nobody gives a damn? Just know that the first ones to trash Italy are always the Italians! Abroad, Italian music is ignored by the public, but not by musicians who often plagiarize our songs! And anyway, if there’s one genre of Italian music that has never had problems abroad, it's the classic Neapolitan song. Plus, there are also pathetic characters like D'Alessio who undermine the reputation of Neapolitan music. You don’t know what you’re talking about; that’s the truth. The only thing you said that I can’t argue against is that the pairing of Neapolitan music/reggae is pathetic. I don’t think that way, but in the end, it's just a matter of tastes! However, I like to think that maybe in Mexico, if they hadn’t had much more serious problems to think about, there would have been a bunch of mikornr who would have criticized Santana because Latin-rock is pathetic. One last thing: if you don’t understand the lyrics in Neapolitan, that’s your problem! I understand them perfectly.

mikornr, you’ve said so many silly things that responding to all of them is complicated! First of all, if you call "Neapolitan Music" everything sung in Neapolitan, then you’re talking about an immeasurable number of very different genres, some horrifying and others wonderful: 24 Grana has nothing to do with "'o sole mio", "'o sole mio" has nothing to do with Pino Daniele, Pino Daniele has nothing to do with Gigi D'Alessio, and so on.
You say that Neapolitan music isn’t appreciated because no one understands it. I don't think that's a problem since we consume a lot of garbage in English. You say we shouldn't complain if our music isn't appreciated abroad. Just so you know, classic Neapolitan songs are taught in schools in Japan! And "'o sole mio" is still the most famous Italian song in the world (more famous than our national anthem!). Recently, I've heard that "Yesterday" by The Beatles would be a plagiarism of an old Neapolitan piece; I don't know if that's true, but I know that "It's now or never" by Elvis has a familiar melody...
Finally, you associate Neapolitan music with San Remo because, unfortunately, the event has hosted characters like Nino D'Angelo or Gigi Finizio several times, but I don’t think Enzo Avitabile, James Senese, and many others have ever been seen at San Remo. Does "Non mi date sempre ragione, io lo so che sono un errore, nella vita voglio vivere almeno un giorno da leone, e lo stato questa volta non mi deve condannare, perchè io sono pazzo, io sono pazzo, e oggi voglio parlare" remind you of Rita Pavone?

I’ve seen many of you claim that Pausini is a beautiful woman. I just wanted to say that in my opinion, she must look a bit ugly in person. My theory is based on the fact that on television and album covers she’s nothing special (she’s okay, but not extraordinary, and she always has that "horse face" that makes it hard to appreciate her breasts), so in real life she must be rather unattractive. All the famous women I’ve had the chance to see in person until now were always worse than how they appeared in magazines, TV shows, etc. They may have still been beautiful women, but less so than I thought before. Makeup and filming techniques work wonders; I've seen very overweight girls look like top models, just by studying light and shadow plays carefully. I think I’ve developed a bit of an eye for this, and in my opinion, Pausini doesn’t look good even aesthetically.

Beautiful testimony!

"Kiss invented stage presence." I don’t agree, Alice Cooper was doing the same kind of shows, for example. But maybe I misunderstood what you meant.