LENNY RUEL Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Got this note from TSO the other day about getting ready to launch their tour."stay tuned later this month when TSO will be giving away a free MP3 download of a new take on a classic TSO track"Any bets on which one it is gang? Who will be the first to sequence it ?Lenny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sthunder69 Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) is the only catalog item that was not a TSO recording... and originally not a TSO song. It was in fact a single from Savatage's Dead Winter Dead which took off on radio and spurred Atlantic records demands for a Christmas album (which Savatage wasn't trying to do because they only had 1 album left on the contract). The last TSO album contains a couple of other Savatage songs that have been re-recorded as TSO songs, ie. Believe (a Savatage standard) and Mozart and Madness which was briefly extended and otherwise copied (I believe in an attempt on producer Paul O'Neil's part to secure the most possible royalties from the piece should it find radio success). TSO is itself a rebranding of the various members of Savatage with other people added in..So my money is on Christmas Eve... I will frankly be shocked if it isn't. And when it happens I will be pissed.S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sthunder69 Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 BTW, the Hildebrant painting of the white guitar which is TSO's symbol (and used to say Carvin on the headstock) is in fact also art work done for Savatage in remembrance of guitarist Criss Oliva who was killed by a drunk driver. His brother is of course Jon Oliva. Yet the credits for Believe in the new album simply list Oliva. Does not mention that there are to Oliva's in the credit. I also find it distasteful that they remake his music and don't add him to the remembrances in the insert.S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LENNY RUEL Posted November 4, 2010 Author Share Posted November 4, 2010 Stephen:I know about Savatage basically being TSO away from the winter tour. A lot don't realize it though. Sounds like you are a huge fan, kind of dissapointed the tour isn't going through Green Bay this year. In talking to Paul he told me they are as well but the time they are in the area this year the Resch Center was already booked in, and they where hoping it would be back on the schedule for next year. I expect it to be Christmas Eve Sarajevo as well. If I may ask, why would you be upset if it is Christmas Eve that is the one?Lenny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sthunder69 Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sthunder69 Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 I would be upset for a few reasons.- It will not be an improvement of the song (aside from adding strings... the original had only synths).- It will be a further separation from the real roots of the band which Paul wants to hide.- It will allow Paul to claim more of the royalties because... he'll change the name (the Sarajevo doesn't make sense outside the original concept album... which is amazing BTW) and possibly extend the song by some required number of bars then copyright it as an original TSO song... exactly as he did with the rerecorded arrangement of Hall of the Mountain King from Savatage's album of the same name (though not under that name on the original album), and as he did with Mozart and Madness. The guys won't fight him cause he is their meal ticket. Heck he could also claim the original authors (aside from Criss who is deceased) were now under commision. Then he can hold publishing rights, recording rights, and all writing rights (as they were "paid commission"). Not saying its that bad... but it could be.Its not that I don't appreciate Paul O'Neil's talent and position (as Savatage's long-time producer and primary developer of the story lines behind their concept albums). But it gets more underhanded year after year. Originally (from emails from the Savatage members on their old listserv as well as face to face chats after Savatage shows) the story I gave of the formation of TSO was known to fans. Yet from the beginning, all official TSO bios listed the band as a joint creation of Paul and Jon with musical director Robert Kinkel... as an all original project. Nowhere will you ever see mention of the original hit being a Savatage single. And the only mention of Savatage is in members previous experiance. And now the bios say that Paul is basically the single handed genius behind the band and relegate Jon to the equivalent of music-writing hired hand. Jon doesn't even tour with them any more. Bassist Johnny Lee Middleton once joked to me when I asked about TSO, "You mean Totally Sold Out?" This is big money for the guys which allows them to pursue their solo material. Yet they can't even mention their own stuff in anything related to TSO. They can only set their cards in front of them at the autograph table and hope people ask or pick them up. The only time Chris Caffery gets to mention Savatage is when he says "my old band". Yet in private he is still proud to call himself a member. I would respect the whole thing more if Paul would openly embrace the history of the band. There's no reason they can't sell Dead Winter Dead at the shows... or Wake of Magellan, Poets and Madmen, our any of the other TSO style concept albums (or I should say Savatage style concept albums). They're covering Believe in concert, throw Savatage a bone. Savatage would be huge with TSO's more open-minded fans... if they were only pointed in the right direction.I still love TSO. I even had Chris Caffery ask my fiancee/common-law wife to marry me live on stage at a sold out TSO show here in Rochester NY. It just bugs me as a long time fan who knows the truth (and I mention it in my TSO light shows as well).I'll get off my soap box. But if one person reading goes and buys a copy of Dead Winter Dead, it will have been worth it.Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sthunder69 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Turns out its Dream Child from the Christmas Attic.S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LENNY RUEL Posted November 23, 2010 Author Share Posted November 23, 2010 Yep, saw it this AM in my e-mail.Lenny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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