QUESTION OF THE WEEK: ARE THERE ANY BANDS WHERE YOU LIKED AN ALTERNATIVE LINEUP BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL?

Yes, the ’84 Whitesnake lineup of David Coverdale, John Sykes, Cozy Powell and Neil Murray was, in my humble opinion, hands down the best lineup, perfection.

Also, while I love High N’ Dry, I think I might be partial to the Steve Clark/Phil Collen lineup of Def Leppard.

If I can think of any other lineup, I will add it here.

27 Responses

  1. Great question! I KNEW that the Sykes lineup of Whitesnake would be your #1, Dana lol, but of course! I had to really think on this. I’m going with Iron Maiden replacing Dennis Stratton with Adrian Smith. I love Dennis’ playing, but love more the styles that seperate and blend with Smith/Murray.

    1. Hi Mr. Rock And Roll,

      Lest you think Sykes is my sole reason behind that choice, Powell is just as important, as he is one, if not my favorite drummer.

      In my humble opinion, they are both huge losses to world of music.

  2. I have to say that I love all eras of Ozzy, but the Zakk era is my favorite. Same with Maiden, but definitely better with Bruce. The current lineup of Black Label Society is my favorite but again love all lineups especially Nick Catanese. Nick was a cool dude. I would email him for tips on playing guitar and he’d always respond. I don’t know the particulars as to why he got in trouble other than it was a girl under age 18. I hope he has been rehabilitated and is doing good.

  3. The 2nd line up of Deep Purple or MK2 as it is referred to is better than MK1 or the original line up. Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord and Paice were the best line up Deep Purple ever had. No disrespect to the Blackmore, Lord, Paice, Simper and Evans original line up.

  4. I’m shocked! Isn’t anyone going to say the Stanley-Simmons-Singer-Thayer lineup of KISS?!?! (laughs!)

    For the record, the original lineup is the best (DUH!), followed by the Revenge-era lineup.

  5. Great question! For me a few: Ronnie James Dio over Ozzy n Black Sabbath; Dio over any other singer in Rainbow; Kevin Cronin over Terry Luttrell in REO; Jimi Jamison over Dave Bickler in Survivor; a controversial one, Robert Mason over Jani Lane in Warrant. I know, I know, no Jani, no Warrant, but for me, Robert is the stronger singer and definitely the more stable front man. On the musicianship side of things, Metallica with Jason Newsted; and Thin Lizzy with Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.

    1. Doug, I 100% agree with you about Ronnie James Dio over any other singer for Rainbow. Dio gave Rainbow that extra boost as a hard rock band, whereas other singers like Graham Bonnet and Joe Lynn Turner helped give Rainbow that commercial sound that Blackmore wanted. Dio’s work with Rainbow is my favorite of all the work Dio did with other artists.

Leave a Reply