Customer Reviews

Doctor, Doctor: The Kulick Sessions - Guitar Master

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

it is a cd with different singers and musicians. it is very good. if you like classic hard rock you will love this. also has tracks without the singer for a different variation. great cd. doctor doctor is the highlight. war pigs was done very nice in its own way. blood from the sun with leslie west was also very good. sebastian bach track was some cool guitar playing. overall i give it a thumbs up.

In a career that spans nearly forty years, Michael Schenker has been one of the most influential and productive guitarists in heavy rock and metal. An immensely talented musician, through the years Schenker has explored a number of styles from acoustic to electric, playing in bands like Scorpions and UFO, leading his own band MSG, and as a solo artist.

The Kulick Sessions (2008) contains the same material found on the 2005 MSG album Heavy Hitters, but with four additional tracks. The material is primarily cover tunes featuring the versatile guitarist playing some of his favorite songs, with an all star lineup of featured vocalists and musicians. The collection of rock classics is given the full Schenker treatment, as Michael stretches his musical wings, lacing the tunes with his blistering lead work.

Among the new tracks is a faster version more energized version of Save Yourself, with Robin McAuley on vocals, and Schenker providing supercharged leads that are more furious than the 1989 original. Another terrific addition is a cover of Rush's Finding My Way, with Sebastian Bach on vocals. The remaining bonus tracks are the album versions of Doctor Doctor and War Pigs, with the vocal tracks removed.

In general the guitars and vocals dominate in the mix, with the bass way back and hardly audible. Like most collections of cover tunes, there some hits and some misses, when it comes to capturing the spirit of the originals.

Pink Floyd's Money, features Tommy Shaw singing, and Edgar Winter on sax, but doesn't come close to capturing the vibe of the original. Elvis Presley's All Shook Up, is given a totally modern reworking with Joe Lynn Turner singing, but is something of an anomaly here. With so many other versions already recorded, unless vocalist Jeff Scott Soto absolutely insisted, selecting Doctor Doctor over all the other UFO songs available, seems like wasting an opportunity to do something really new.

An driving version of Nazareth's Hair Of The Dog, with aggressive vocals by Paul Di'Anno, reaches out and grabs you by the throat. Mountain's Blood Of The Sun, featuring Leslie West singing, has tons of Schenker's ultra smooth guitarwork. With Gary Barden's vocals, and minus the keyboards of the original, Gary Moore's Out In the Fields sounds stripped down, and quite edgy and energetic. Schenker's style doesn't have much in common with Tony Iommi, but featuring the screeching vocals of Tim "Ripper" Owens, War Pigs is far less dark, but is still a pretty interesting listen. Multi-talented Jeff Pilson is underrated as a singer, but he does a fine impersonation of Jack Bruce's singing style in Cream's Politician. For more of Jeff's singing look for the Lynch/Pilson album, Wicked Underground (2003).

Overall, this is still a solid collection with plenty of incendiary guitar from the mad axeman. Apparently there was an issue with releasing Heavy Hitters as an MSG album, which it clearly was not, hence this subsequent release under Michael Schenker's name. If you already have Heavy Hitters, a rebuy for essentially two songs, probably is not warranted, but for others interested in hearing Schenker doing more cover tunes (similar to the Endless Jam recordings), this might be worth checking out.

This covers album is great and has many different singers. Sebastian Bach, Mark Slaughter, and Robin McAuley to name a few. You can't go wrong with this one.

I will say one thing for this CD, it contains my favorite version of Doctor, Doctor and I've heard just about every version Schenker has done-live and studio.The next best version of this song is on the BBC live recording. The version on this Kulick session remains my all time lay down of this.

Kulick released this as Heavy Hitters in '04, at least according to MS. MS wasn't pleased with it being called an MSG release, but was happy with the sound. On that version, it was one singer through out. The singing wasn't bad, similar to Leslie West. The playing was very good, with some top quality solo's (what else would we expect?).

This re-release is much better with the addition of different vocalists. While the other version sounds like another MSG release of "covers", this version sounds more like a collaboration of covers, and sounds more lively; even though it's the same music recording, just different voice overs. Funny how that works. Any way, this version is good. The sound is very thick and the guitar playing and the singing is great. It is what it is, but it sure sounds good. I like it better than the Patterson Summit releases.

Basically this is the "Heavy Hitters" cover versions album re-hashed with a few harder to find add-ons. Extra bits are the best version of "Save Yourself", the old Rush number "Finding My Way" and some filler instrumental versions at the end.
If you don't have Heavy Hitters then get this for the best ever version of "War Pigs" you'll hear. Blasphemous maybe but the vocal by Mark Ripper Owens and the guitar work by Schenker are both stunning. Other than a tasty heavier version of "Save Yourself", "Politician" and "War Pigs" this is OK but nowhere near as good as the other cover version albums the Schenker Pattison "Endless Jam" and "Endless Jam Continues" which are both sensational.

Michael Schenker is still one of the best guitar players around, even if sometimes his behaviour is strange and he is not so reliable. But when he is at his best any song can be a masterpiece. Not all the singers on these covers are the right one for the songs but the guitar playing is fabulous. War Pigs is excellent like All Shook Up and Blood Of the Sun. A very listenable record.

Don't know why the trend in covers by my guitar-heroes. This was totally lame and uninteresting (the jewel case is nice, though). George Lynch does it better, but that too is getting old. Can't anybody do something original anymore? Doctor, Doctor, please.....give me my money back!! Amazon made me give it one star; didn't want to give it any.