The last cinema movie I watched was “The Hobbit” back in December. I decided to give Captain America, and Spiderman a miss because the kids were little pests and I decided that even though I wanted to watch the movies, I wasn’t going to go without my kids.
Anyway, they have been good little boys, so I decided to have a movie weekend with them recently, while my wife stayed home with our two and a half-year old. So over the weekend, I had my son’s birthday party on Friday, had kids football on Saturday morning, watched “X-Men Days Of Future Past” on Saturday night with two of my boys, had more kids football on Sunday morning and then watched “Transformers – Age Of Extinction” on Sunday night with my boys again. Plus I took in the Brazil vs Chile game and the Colombia vs Uruguay game.
As is the norm with any Marvel movie these days, we hang around until the end credits scene appears and once that scene finished, there was a notice that said something like, 15,000 people contributed to the making of the movie. And I thought to myself, this is typical of the Movie Picture Association. Treating the people who legally watch a movie like criminals and hitting them with an anti-piracy statement.
It was like when I purchased a DVD at the start of the piracy epidemic and I was hit with the “You Wouldn’t Steal A Car” advertisement that could not be skipped. Yep, I am sure that the people who pirated the content kept those advertisements in their pirated release of the movie.
Everyone with a decent internet connection has dabbled in getting their music, TV or movie content via peer-to-peer downloading. Even the ones that work for the Copyright Corporations have illegally downloaded.
Because as successful as Spotify is in fighting piracy, or iTunes is at converting digital mp3 pirates into customers, people still get want their mp3’s for free courtesy of a favoured supplier. And it turns out that the pirate versions of the legal commercial offerings far surpass the simplicity and ease of use of what the Entertainment Industries offer up. That is because the pirate versions offer everything, in any format a user prefers and they do not geo block, so there is no way that a person will get the stupid “not available in your country” message.
Basically the amateur sharers of culture and knowledge are miles ahead of the Entertainment industry. The Pirate Bay is over ten years old. Name me one Record Label technological start-up that has reached a decade.
The kids of today just grab stuff from where it’s easiest. That is why YouTube got traction. While the record labels procrastinated about licensing Spotify, YouTube slipped under the radar. The only thing that YouTube is missing is the free mp3 version that fans of music still want.
destroyerofharmony 
“Could you imagine White Lion with Warren DeMartini on guitar or Paul Gilbert? Great players, however as Mike said, they wouldn’t touch Vito. He was better then all of them and the above words from Mike prove that.”
Ok, it’s one thing to like one player over another for personal preferences, but let’s back away from the crack pipe for a second and take a deep breath. For starters, I doubt Paul Gilbert would have a problem playing anything Vito has done in his short career and could probably do it while eating a ham sandwich and playing it behind his back as well. Warren on the other hand was really good but probably not the technical caliber of Vito and in league more with players like Lynch as far as abilities and pure musicianship, so I could see him having a problem with songs like Wait or Fighter. I’m sure the only reason PG wouldn’t play a Vito lick (if that was truly the case) was out of respect and because he didn’t want to waste the 15 minutes or so it would take him to figure it out while generously declining to play in White Lion, because he simply didn’t want to, not because he couldn’t. I mean c’mon, that’s just silly. Oh, and my friend thought I was as good as Malmsteen at a time too so I really don’t think Tramps; opinion holds much weight either. Is this Trunk I’m replying to? I know he has a Long Island love affair with Vito, so that would make sense.
Seriously though, I’m a huge fan of Bratta,,even learned the Wait solo I liked it so much (yup, even I figured it out in a coupe hours so…), and thought his playing was some of the most tasteful and melodic of any I’ve heard from a player of that era and ilk, but there are great players and then there are the masters, and players like Gilbert, Vai and Satriani fall into the latter, while ones like Bratta, Beech, Schon, Gillis and Takasaki pull up the rear in the simply “great” category. That said; Vito was a very niche player in the EVH mold who wasn’t diverse enough to play even a half way decent solo on the Radar Love cover, let alone put together a mind blowing solo instrumental album of the quality and diverse nature that Paul Gilbert has done many times in his career.
In Paul Gilbert; we’re talking about a guy who get’s up early every single morning (weekends too) and practices 8 hours a day like it’s his job (because it is) and has so since he was a teenager. We’re also talking about someone who can play it any way you’d like, no matter what the genre and most times other than not, do it better than those he might be emulating in addition to having a style that is uniquely his to boot. You want Yngwie? He can do that at a drop of a dime. You want Trower, Howe, EVH, or Bach? He can do all that too and then shred your face off with Racer X and his own scary solo stuff. We’re also talking about a player who teaches and has garnered world wide accolades and respect from not only fans but the greatest guitarists out there.
Frankly, I don’t think Mike Tramp’s opinion hold’s much weight up against Gilbert’s amassed portfolio of work. Sounds like a guy bitter that he couldn’t get PG to play in his lame band and instead decided to surround himself with peers of his caliber in Mr. Big and do something Tramp never could, have a No. 1 single. No, I couldn’t imagine Gilbert in White Lion, it would be totally beneath him and he’d have to stop every 10 seconds to tell them they are doing something wrong. Gilbert in White Lion…what’s next, Vai in FireHouse?…and I though Alcatraz was a bad enough hole to fall into. Thank God he woke up quickly from that one.
Usually when I hear comments like the one I’m replying to they are from someone who hasn’t grown enough as a guitarist (if they even play) to really understand what they are speaking of. When is the last time you’ve even listened to Gilbert outside of Racer X or Mr. BIg (two examples alone that would qualify him as top of the heap of all time great players)? Seriously, If Vito was asked to compare himself to Paul Gilbert, I’m sure he would say he’s not qualified to hold his pick, and some of that humility would be out of respect, but most of it would be because it’s true.