MR

For those who have iTunes, Tommy's third solo album Ambition is now available for downloading. Simply make a search for Tommy Shaw and you will get the results of everything that is available including his version of the song Open Arms by Journey.

Open Arms is part of tribute to Journey, a separate abum.

IMO Shaw's best solo cd-ERIC

I want Girls with Guns on Itune. Maybe....

Seven Deadly Zens is hands down Tommy's best album ever in or out of Styx.

Ash wrote:Seven Deadly Zens is hands down Tommy's best album ever in or out of Styx.

Not even close. In your opinion, maybe.

I loved Tommy's Ambition, 7DZ was sweet though. On Ambition, i can't get enough of "No Such Thing" and "Ever since the world began"

"Open Arms"???
Where did that come from. I've got the original Ambition CD and it ain't on there. I suppose you can only download it with the album...?

GrandIllusionist725 wrote:I loved Tommy's Ambition, 7DZ was sweet though. On Ambition, i can't get enough of "No Such Thing" and "Ever since the world began"

Ever Since The World Began was written by the guy from Survivor

Also - listen to Ambition and then listen to Bad Company's "Holy Water" they sound like the same damn record.

Ash wrote:Ever Since The World Began was written by the guy from Survivor

Also - listen to Ambition and then listen to Bad Company's "Holy Water" they sound like the same damn record.

Yes, but the Survivor version sucked.

never heard Holy Water, but if it sounded anything like Ambition, I bet it was great.

brywool wrote:"Open Arms"???
Where did that come from. I've got the original Ambition CD and it ain't on there. I suppose you can only download it with the album...?

It's on a Journey tribute album.

Note: tribute album is code word for "collection of covers"

Ever Since The World Began. Survivor's version Sucked? Are you kidding me? Sorry Shaw was lucky to use it. What can i expect from a board that loved Mr. Roboto. What a friggin classic.

Hmmmmmmm Tommy doing Journey, I'll be looking into this
thank you kindly.

Ash wrote:

GrandIllusionist725 wrote:I loved Tommy's Ambition, 7DZ was sweet though. On Ambition, i can't get enough of "No Such Thing" and "Ever since the world began"

Ever Since The World Began was written by the guy from Survivor

Also - listen to Ambition and then listen to Bad Company's "Holy Water" they sound like the same damn record.

\


I think Terry Thomas, who produced 'Ambition', also produced that Bad Company record.


Sterling

Slander wrote:Ever Since The World Began. Survivor's version Sucked? Are you kidding me? Sorry Shaw was lucky to use it. What can i expect from a board that loved Mr. Roboto. What a friggin classic.

Well, I wouldn't go that far! (Loving Roboto) But I hardly think that particular version of ESTWB is noteworthy. I agree that WE were lucky to hear Tommy cover it because he did a great job on it. The original, however, did nothing for me. It happens.

Yes, but the Survivor version sucked.

never heard Holy Water, but if it sounded anything like Ambition, I bet it was great.

It was produced by the same guy... he stacked the backing vocals the same way - had a co-write on every song, and all of the choruses have the same structure.


Holy Water was recorded after Ambition. You likely heard some of these songs since Bad Company toured with Damn Yankees on their Holy Water tour. Some of the hits were: If You Needed Somebody, Holy Water, and Boys Cry Tough.

It's not good or bad - it's just the same.

I didn't think it was Tommy's best effort. The production was a little too mechanical for Tommy Shaw music and way too overpolished. It made Styx bombastic style sound like early beatles recordings. It would have been better had it been a little rawer IMO. My favorite song on the album is Lay Them Down. I didn't care for Ambition... I mean a song about hookers? No Such Thing was way too "cute".

I really liked this album when I first heard it, but as my tastes grew I just found myself less and less able to listen to parts of it. Somewhere In The Night should have been axed - just awful lyrically and the guitars sound strange. Weight of the World is a good one. Are You Ready For Me is just dumb. (Try a million and one...... stfu tommy). The Outsider is my second favorite. I'd have loved to see this one done by Styx. I think it would have been great. Not the best song from a lyrical standpoint, but it's very catchy and the chorus is great.

It's miles and miles better than What If... and I think the songwriting is better on Girls With Guns, but the production is better on Ambition.

7 Deadly Zens is Tommy at his solo best. That is seriously the best music he ever made outside of Styx. I'll back down and say it's not as good as some of what he did with Styx - but 7dz is a really, really good record. The best Styx solo record to date.

Seven Deadly Zens is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By FAAAARRRRR Tommys best effort!!

Ocean, Stop Knockin, Its All In How You Say It, The Fourth Song, Who I Am, Inspiration, A Place To Call My Own, How Should I Feel..... The entire CD is Brilliant.

It's his best work with or without Styx!

Ash wrote:Holy Water was recorded after Ambition. You likely heard some of these songs since Bad Company toured with Damn Yankees on their Holy Water tour. Some of the hits were: If You Needed Somebody, Holy Water, and Boys Cry Tough.

I never saw them. I left after Damn Yankees finished their sets. Never been a Bad Company fan.

I didn't think it was Tommy's best effort. The production was a little too mechanical for Tommy Shaw music and way too overpolished. It made Styx bombastic style sound like early beatles recordings. It would have been better had it been a little rawer IMO. My favorite song on the album is Lay Them Down. I didn't care for Ambition... I mean a song about hookers? No Such Thing was way too "cute".

I really liked this album when I first heard it, but as my tastes grew I just found myself less and less able to listen to parts of it. Somewhere In The Night should have been axed - just awful lyrically and the guitars sound strange. Weight of the World is a good one. Are You Ready For Me is just dumb. (Try a million and one...... stfu tommy). The Outsider is my second favorite. I'd have loved to see this one done by Styx. I think it would have been great. Not the best song from a lyrical standpoint, but it's very catchy and the chorus is great.

I will just say I disagree and leave it at that. Ambition continues to be my favorite Tommy solo album to date, with 7DZ a close second.

Zan wrote:

Ash wrote:Holy Water was recorded after Ambition. You likely heard some of these songs since Bad Company toured with Damn Yankees on their Holy Water tour. Some of the hits were: If You Needed Somebody, Holy Water, and Boys Cry Tough.

I never saw them. I left after Damn Yankees finished their sets. Never been a Bad Company fan.

I didn't think it was Tommy's best effort. The production was a little too mechanical for Tommy Shaw music and way too overpolished. It made Styx bombastic style sound like early beatles recordings. It would have been better had it been a little rawer IMO. My favorite song on the album is Lay Them Down. I didn't care for Ambition... I mean a song about hookers? No Such Thing was way too "cute".

I really liked this album when I first heard it, but as my tastes grew I just found myself less and less able to listen to parts of it. Somewhere In The Night should have been axed - just awful lyrically and the guitars sound strange. Weight of the World is a good one. Are You Ready For Me is just dumb. (Try a million and one...... stfu tommy). The Outsider is my second favorite. I'd have loved to see this one done by Styx. I think it would have been great. Not the best song from a lyrical standpoint, but it's very catchy and the chorus is great.

I will just say I disagree and leave it at that. Ambition continues to be my favorite Tommy solo album to date, with 7DZ a close second.

Amazing how much tastes differ, isn't it? I also think 'Ambition' is Tommy's best solo effort, while on the other end of the spectrum, I don't like 7DZ all that much. Actually, I take that back; the songs I like on it, I like a lot, but there are too many songs on there I just don't care for, along with the electronic loop things that I really, really hate.
With 'Ambition', frankly I thought they screwed up on both singles. The first single was "No Such Thing", which I thought was nowehere near as good as some of the other songs, and the second one was "Ever Since The World Began", which in my view is the second weakest song on the record. I wish they had gone with "Are You Ready For Me" as the first single (thought it had the catchiest, easiest-to-remember chorus hook Tommy had written in forever, plus the vocals are more reminiscent of Styx . . . and what a great song to open a show with!), with "The Outsider" as the second single. Could have been very different, because that album failed badly, and I know both Atlantic and Tommy's manager were expecting a huge hit. They were very excited about 'Ambition' at Atlantic.
A side note about Terry Thomas . . . he had been trying and trying to get something going and failing, and so he had left the music business and taken a job working in a factory. He was just getting ready to go back to England and do that job when Bud Prager called him and offered him the opportunity to produce Tommy's record, and he almost didn't take it. In the end he did it, and because of that his relationship with Bud started, and through that he got the Bad Company records, which were huge, huge successes, and that led to quite a bit of other stuff. Before grunge happened he had a run of about five years of being one of the bigger producers in the game.

Sterling

Ash wrote:My favorite song on the album is Lay Them Down.

Probably mine too. Coincidentally (or maybe not) it's the only song on the album that doesn't have a big ol' fadeout. It feels more "live" than the other tracks do.

Ambition was the first TS solo album that I ever heard and overall I still like it very much. I agree that it's a bit cold and same-y, production-wise, but sometimes I'm in the mood for its particular vibe, so... *shrug*

I think Sterling mentioned in a different thread that this record is the missing link between the TS of Styx and the TS of DY. Definitely true. The change in his vocals is dramatic.

Ash wrote:7 Deadly Zens is Tommy at his solo best. That is seriously the best music he ever made outside of Styx.

Um....Hallucination would like a word with you.

stabbim wrote:Um....Hallucination would like a word with you.

I think "hallucination" has already had many words with him.

Does anyone besides me think there's a bad edit on Every Since the World Began? Listen closely to the end of the chorus when Tommy sings, "and we've been waiting for this moment in time". Between that line and the last line, "Ever since the world began" there is an obvious splice where it feels to me like they cut out too much tape resulting in the transition between the two lines sounding rushed. Bugs me every time I hear it. In fact it would have been a lot better with a dramatic pause between the two lines.

shaka wrote:Does anyone besides me think there's a bad edit on Every Since the World Began? Listen closely to the end of the chorus when Tommy sings, "and we've been waiting for this moment in time". Between that line and the last line, "Ever since the world began" there is an obvious splice where it feels to me like they cut out too much tape resulting in the transition between the two lines sounding rushed. Bugs me every time I hear it. In fact it would have been a lot better with a dramatic pause between the two lines.

No never noticed it before. What i did notice was in SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT there is a part where he sings "sat staring at the phone" the line before that and that line just sounds like it was plucked down and quickly edited it.