Mr. Big photo

Mr. Big

par · Lecture: 2 minutes

Mr. Big

Mr. Big is an American glam metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1988. The band was originally composed of Eric Martin (lead vocals), Paul Gilbert (guitar, backing vocals), Billy Sheehan (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Pat Torpey (drums, percussion, backing vocals).

Though primarily a metal band, they are most known for scoring softer hits. Their songs are often marked by strong vocals and vocal harmonies.

Their hits include « To Be with You » (a number-one single in 15 countries in 1992) and « Just Take My Heart ». The band takes its name from a song by Free which it covered on the 1993 album Bump Ahead.

Mr. Big remained active and popular for over a decade despite internal conflicts and changing music trends, releasing four studio albums: Mr. Big (1989), Lean into It (1991), Bump Ahead (1993) and Hey Man (1996).

Guitarist Paul Gilbert departed the band in 1999, and Richie Kotzen was brought as a guitarist and vocalist. The band released two more albums with this line-up: Get Over It (1999) and Actual Size (2001). Mr. Big broke up in 2002.

Following requests from fans, Mr. Big reunited with its original line-up in 2009. The band’s first post-reunion tour was in Japan. In 2010, Mr. Big released its first album in 15 years with the same line-up: What If…. During the recording of the follow-up album …The Stories We Could Tell (2014), Pat Torpey was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and participated only marginally as a touring support.

The band’s ninth album, Defying Gravity (2017), was its last record involving Torpey as drum producer; he died the following year. Not wanting to continue without Torpey, the band intended to release a final studio album, conduct a farewell tour and disband. However, since then they have been on hiatus, they still exist as musical entity, but with no concrete plans to continue with a different drummer and haven’t discussed their future, as affirmed by Billy Sheehan.

Mr. Big is frequently cited as an example of the « Big in Japan » phenomenon, where a musical act is disproportionately more popular in Japan compared to similar groups. Some consider Mr. Big as one-hit wonder for « To Be with You », but they maintained consistent popularity in the Japanese market for years.

Mr. Big guitar tabs

Motorhead photo

Motörhead

par · Lecture: 2 minutes

Motörhead

Motörhead (/ˈmoʊtərhɛd/) were a British rock band formed in June 1975 by bassist, singer, songwriter and only constant member Ian « Lemmy » Kilmister, guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox.

The band are often considered a precursor to the new wave of British heavy metal, which re-energised heavy metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Though several guitarists and drummers have played in Motörhead, most of their best-selling albums and singles feature the work of Phil « Philthy Animal » Taylor on drums and « Fast » Eddie Clarke on guitars.

Motörhead released 22 studio albums, 10 live recordings, 12 compilation albums, and five EPs over a career spanning 40 years. Usually a power trio, they had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart.

The albums Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades, and particularly the live album No Sleep ’til Hammersmith cemented Motörhead’s reputation as a top-tier rock band. The band are ranked number 26 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. As of 2016, they have sold more than 15 million albums worldwide.

Most often classified as heavy metal, Motörhead has been credited with being part of and influencing numerous musical scenes, thrash metal and speed metal especially. Lemmy, however, always insisted that they were a rock and roll band. He said that they had more in common with punk bands, but with their own unique sound, Motörhead is embraced in both punk and metal scenes.

Their lyrics typically covered such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, and, most famously, gambling, the latter theme being the focus of their hit song « Ace of Spades ».

Lemmy died on 28 December 2015 from cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The day after his death, drummer Mikkey Dee and guitarist Phil Campbell both confirmed that Motörhead had disbanded. By 2018, all three members of Motörhead’s classic lineup (Lemmy, Taylor and Clarke) had died.

Motörhead guitar tabs

Metallica photo

Metallica

par · Lecture: 3 minutes

Metallica

Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career.

The band’s fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the founding « big four » bands of thrash metal, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Metallica’s current lineup comprises founding members and primary songwriters Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, and bassist Robert Trujillo.

Guitarist Dave Mustaine (who went on to form Megadeth after being fired from the band) and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton (who died in a bus accident in Sweden in 1986) and Jason Newsted are former members of the band.

After two albums on Megaforce Records and signing to major label Elektra in 1984, Metallica first found commercial success with the release of its third album, Master of Puppets (1986), which has been described as one of the heaviest and most influential thrash metal albums.

Their next album, …And Justice for All (1988), was also successful and gave Metallica their first Grammy Award nomination. Its eponymous fifth album, Metallica (1991), the band’s first not to root predominantly in thrash metal, appealed to a more mainstream audience, achieving substantial commercial success and selling over 16 million copies in the United States to date, making it the best-selling album of the SoundScan era.

After experimenting with different genres and directions in subsequent releases, the band returned to its thrash metal roots with the release of its ninth album, Death Magnetic (2008), which drew similar praise to that of the band’s earlier albums. Their most recent album is Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, released in 2016.

In 2000, Metallica led the case against the peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster, in which the band and several other artists filed lawsuits against the service for sharing their copyright-protected material without consent; after reaching a settlement, Napster became a pay-to-use service in 2003. Metallica was the subject of the acclaimed 2004 documentary film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, which documented the troubled production of the band’s eighth album, St.

Anger (2003), and the internal struggles within the band at the time. In 2009, Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band wrote the screenplay for and starred in the 2013 IMAX concert film Metallica: Through the Never, in which the band performed live against a fictional thriller storyline.

Metallica has released ten studio albums, four live albums, a cover album, five extended plays, 37 singles and 39 music videos. The band has won nine Grammy Awards from 23 nominations, and its last six studio albums (beginning with Metallica) have consecutively debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

Metallica ranks as one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold over 125 million albums worldwide as of 2018. Metallica has been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by magazines such as Rolling Stone, which ranked them at no. 61 on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.

As of 2017, Metallica is the third best-selling music artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, selling a total of 58 million albums in the United States.

Metallica guitar tabs

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