Episode 216: Savatage Gutter Ballet year 1989. English Version.
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00:00:18 - This is a podcast of rock song stories
00:00:22 - Welcome to the show today
00:00:24 - I am going to tell you about an American band called savattage their gutter ballet song
00:00:30 - The Presentation, please.
00:00:38 - Finding classic rocks all time, the most incredible stories and anecdotes.
00:00:44 - Musicians, Bruce Dickinson.
00:00:46 - Want to see us.
00:00:48 - What's that?
00:00:48 - And what people want to see us.
00:00:50 - And, you know, I mean, first of all, we love, you know, we love doing it.
00:00:54 - It's really a kind of a privilege to be, you know, 51 years old and being able to go out, just still to have a vo-
00:01:10 - Lemmy.
00:01:11 - Well, it's spelled differently than everything, it's called orgasmatron.
00:01:14 - Rudd Helford.
00:01:16 - I think are useful, just because of the fact that with what I try and do, it's important to try and...
00:01:24 - Eric Clapton and Paul Stanley
00:01:28 - But piano was inconceivable, I mean, you can't, you can't just buy a piano or his guitar is much more accessible
00:01:35 - I think I was very driven period, it was to compensate to make myself feel more worthy
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00:01:54 - Gotter Ballet is the sixth studio album by the American heavy metal dancer Vatage, originally released on vinyl, compact disc and cassette in 1989 by the multinational Atlantic Records.
00:02:30 - I must admit that this album is, not one of my favorites of the band, but this song is surprising.
00:02:37 - The group consisted of Johnnie Leevay on voice and piano, Chris O'Leavey on guitar, Chris
00:02:43 - It's calfery on guitar and keyboards, Johnny Lee Middleton, bass and Steve Wankals on drums.
00:02:49 - Gutter Ballet is a mature album, with a group confident in their own possibilities, which leads Savatage to be one of the best progressive bands in the world, produced and fully co-written by the Oliva Brothers, and the well-known Paul O'Neill.
00:03:07 - This album is a bold step towards a more dynamic and musical sound that uses its weapons in a more balanced way.
00:03:15 - Gutter Ballet is a transitional album from Survathage.
00:03:18 - The old roots of heavy metal, to the new more progressive sound, incorporate in keyboards and pianos in their music.
00:03:26 - The pianos would eventually, become indispensable elements for their composition, and a tradition that foreshadows the direction they would follow in their next releases.
00:03:38 - Even singer John Oliva explains the meaning of this song to us, he declares to the edition of the Dutch magazine Ardskog, Metal Hammer in February 1990, the main song Gutter Bellé is about contemporary reality on the streets of all cities the song is, more or less the opposite of a Rage and Warp, both musically and lyrically.
00:03:59 - The musical aspect seems obvious to me.
00:04:03 - After the brutal power of a Rage and Warp, the quiet introduction to the piano surprises you. And as the problem with the Veragian War is obvious, there is nothing you can do about it. It cannot be touched. The problems in the streets, on the other hand, you see them in front of you every day. Especially how hostile the streets can be, how confusing and violent they can be. But on the other hand, the streets can also be very pretty, welcoming and moving. The text comes from the mind of someone walking through a major city. It doesn't matter if it is New York, Detroit or Chicago. As he wrote the piano introduction, he was thinking of a sunrise over a skyscraper skyline, very peaceful.
00:04:48 - Until the city comes to life, and that's where the rest of the band comes in. By the way, this was done very abruptly.
00:04:59 - The introduction of a piano in a rock song is a success for John Oliva, also his
00:05:04 - His heartbreaking voice makes it transcendent.
00:05:07 - The video of the song, and all the vibe of the track generates that feeling of a dark and tendric play, shows the desolation that a big city, has in a poor neighborhood.It is worth noting, the compositional and harmonic level of the guitarist Chris Oliva, with his typical riffs of the 80s, which later became copied by other guitarists.
00:05:29 - After ballet, it's majesty turned into song.
00:05:33 - The 6 minutes song is one of the most inspired moments the band has ever had.
00:05:38 - Honestly, the song has the potential to be one of the classics in the music, community metal, nobody likes a Vantage has combined the piano with metal so well.
00:05:48 - The piano is the guide of the song with the beautiful, but the aggressive voice of
00:05:52 - Jong being another plus of this great song, which by the way contains another impressive solo by Crystal Leiva.
00:06:00 - In conclusion, this song is the perfect definition of Savatage's new operatic sound and the beginning of a new direction that the band would take later.
00:06:10 - John Oliva tells us...
00:06:12 - We had just done Hall of the Mountain game which brought us back and it sold really well, we had the video on MTV, you know we were back and then all of a sudden we went on tour with Ronnie Dio and mega death and we got off of that and it's Paul's like well it's time for you out boy and I'm like well we have we got it you know we got a top mountain kick and he goes to me uh he had a we had a meeting me him and my brother and he goes John Chris listen you guys are way beyond just a hard rock band and he always knew that I was a big fan of the Beatles and of Queen. Those are like my and Black Sabbath. Those are like my three main states. And he goes, what are we, child? Let's experiment. Let's go, you know, off and let's do a little bit more like Queen type of stuff. And we can still do like the Sabbath, these stuff and the, you know, all that. And he pushed us, you know, and the funny thing about gutter ballet that nobody knows about was we started the album and we did a raging war the hounds the unholy she's in love it was all like really heavy stuff and and he's going like well so Paul bought me tickets for Phantom of the Opera okay with Michael Crawford singing because they were were doing overdubs with it. So I went and I watched it. And it was right around the corner from the record plant. So I came back and I walked into, they were in the control. I walked out into the studio where John Lennon's piano was, okay. And I didn't know it was
00:08:03 - John Lennon's piano until one of the technicians lifted up the head at the top of the piano.
00:08:10 - I saw John and Yoko forever scratch in it with a knife. Okay. Well, that freaked the shit out of me. I was like, you know, oh my God, I think. So you know what happened is I sat down and I wrote the music for Gunner Ballet just right off just wrote it. And
00:08:33 - Paul and Chris came running out of the control room and they're going, what the fuck is
00:08:38 - What is that? I don't know. I'm just making it up and I don't know what it was.
00:08:43 - And then we, the three of us sat there and we finished the song right there.
00:08:48 - Boo! Duh! You know, and I was blown away and then Paul said, you have any other piano songs? So I played him Temptation Revelation and Chris was standing there with an acoustic guitar and he just started playing you know rips to that and it was brilliant I was like wow it's great and then Paul goes what else and I started buying crowds but I had no words I just was playing the chorus I was singing like I was singing something about my dog or something right oh my dog he barks all the time
00:09:29 - Fuckin' Paul O'Neill sat there with a notebook and wrote the words for when the crowds are gone in like ten minutes and goes, John, sing these words.
00:09:43 - And I did it, and there it was.
00:09:46 - And that was a big lightning bolt in the brain.
00:09:50 - Wow.
00:09:51 - This is fucking cool, you know.
00:09:55 - And that was the start of it.
00:09:57 - You know, that led to streets, and then led to handful and, uh, dead, dead winning.
00:10:27 - I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't
00:10:57 - I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry
00:11:57 - Green paradise, the sirens screaming in the heat
00:12:04 - Neon cuts the eye, and it just sighs at the well beneath the street
00:12:17 - It's indomitably just a mother's dream
00:12:25 - Still the orchestra plays
00:12:32 - The darkness of the night to a distant fading light
00:12:55 - Balanced on their minds, little quarts of light
00:13:02 - Such a strange reality
00:13:06 - Kill the unicorn, just stay on its horn
00:13:11 - Soon easy, just a fantasy
00:13:16 - It's a cut to my life, just a moment too late
00:13:28 - Still the orchestra plays
00:13:34 - And the dark and lonely night with just a fading light
00:14:11 - I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry
00:14:41 - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
00:14:47 - Just as it takes its box
00:14:50 - Slips into the crowd
00:14:52 - As the actors are speed away
00:14:57 - And not the doctor more
00:14:59 - And now the child is born
00:15:02 - And the chapter in the play
00:15:06 - It's a gun that might lay
00:15:14 - Just a dimmer that you may
00:15:18 - Spill the August to the ladies
00:15:23 - I'm talking on the night
00:15:27 - To a distant fading light
00:15:36 - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
00:16:06 - Thank you very much for watching this video.
00:16:08 - I hope you enjoyed it.
00:16:10 - See you in the next video.