Post by Henny Macc on May 14, 2020 8:40:40 GMT
John James Sykes (July 29, 1959 - )
Years active: 1979-present
Country of origin: England
Recorded vocal range: F♯2-E5 (G♭2-E5) - 2⅚ octaves
Band history:
- 1979-1982 - Streetfighter (lead guitar)
- 1980-1982 - Tygers of Pan Tang (lead guitar)
- 1982 - John Sloman's Badlands (lead guitar)
- 1982-1984 - Thin Lizzy (lead guitar, backing vocals)
- 1983-1987 - Whitesnake (lead guitar)
- 1988-1994 - Blue Murder (lead vocals, guitar)
- 1994-2009 - Thin Lizzy (lead vocals, lead guitar)
- 1994-present - John Sykes (lead vocals, guitar)
E5: "Black-Hearted Woman", "Dance", "I Need an Angel", "Itchycoo Park", "Jesus & Mary", "Lady Luck" demo, "Love Child", "Ptolemy", "Save My Love", "Soul Stealer", "Sex Child", "Touched By Evil"
D♯5/E♭5: "Don't Say Goodbye", "If You Ever Need Love", "Out of Love", "Save My Love", "Wuthering Heights"
D5: "Arc Angel", "Black-Hearted Woman", "Blue Murder", "Bye Bye", "Cry for Love", "Dance", "Dawning of a Brand New Day", "Do or Die", "Found What I Needed", "I Don't Wanna Live My Life Like You", "I Get Around", "I Need an Angel", "Jelly Roll", "Lady Luck" demo, "Look in His Eyes", "Love Child", "Ptolemy", "Riot", "Runaway", "Save My Love", "Sex Child", "System Ain't Workin'", "Talking 'Bout Love", "The Way You Kiss Me", "2 Counts", "Valley of the Kings"
C♯5/D♭5: "Black-Hearted Woman", "Bye Bye", "Cry for Love", "Found What I Needed", "Itchycoo Park", "I Wish It Would Rain", "Out of Love", "Ptolemy", "Raising the Devil", "Rockin' and Rollin' Our Lives Away", "System Ain't Workin'", "The Way You Kiss Me", "Till the Day I Die", "20th Century Heartache"
C5: "Arc Angel", "Billy", "Black-Hearted Woman", "Blue Murder", "Cautionary Warning", "Dance", "Defcon 1", "Don't Say Goodbye", "Do or Die", "Haunted", "Howlin' n' Moanin'", "If You Ever Need Love", "Lady Luck" demo, "Look in His Eyes", "Love Child", "My Guitar", "One Way System", "Out Alive", "Riot", "Save My Love", "Sex Child", "Sleep On", "Still of the Night" live Japan 2004, "Talking 'Bout Love", "Thank You for the Love", "Till the Day I Die", "Touched By Evil", "2 Counts", "Valley of the Kings", "We All Fall Down", "Wuthering Heights"
B4: "Arc Angel", "Billy", "Black Days", "Black-Hearted Woman", "Blue Murder", "Bye Bye", "Closer" live Tokyo 1989, "Cowboy Song" live Tokyo 1994, "Cry for Love", "Dance", "Defcon 1", "Degraded", "Don't Say Goodbye", "Do or Die", "Everything I Need", "Found What I Needed", "Haunted", "I Don't Wanna Live My Life Like You", "If You Ever Need Love", "I Get Around", "I Need an Angel", "I Wish It Would Rain", "Jammin'", "Jelly Roll", "Jesus & Mary", "Look in His Eyes", "Love Child", "Out Alive", "Out of Love", "Ptolemy", "Rockin' and Rollin' Our Lives Away", "Runaway", "Save My Love", "Sex Child", "Shouldn't Have Let You Go", "Sick", "Soul Stealer", "Standing at the Crossroads", "Still of the Night" live Japan 2004, "System Ain't Workin'", "Talking 'Bout Love", "Thank You for the Love", "The Way You Kiss Me", "20th Century Heartache", "We All Fall Down", "We Will", "Who Are You"
A♯4/B♭4: "Bad Boys" live Japan 2004, "Closer" live Tokyo 1989, "Crying in the Rain" live Japan 2004, "Dawning of a Brand New Day", "Didn't We Say", "Don't Say Goodbye", "Everything I Need", "If You Ever Need Love", "Is This Love?" live Japan 2004, "Jelly Roll", "Massacre" live Helsinki 1999, "Nuclear Cowboy", "Raising the Devil", "Save My Love", "She Knows", "Sick", "Still of the Night" live Japan 2004, "Till the Day I Die", "20th Century Heartache", "Valley of the Kings", "Wuthering Heights"
A4: "Angel of Death" live Japan 1994, "Arc Angel", "Bad Reputation" live Europe 1999, "Billy", "Black Days", "Black-Hearted Woman", "Blue Murder", "Bye Bye", "Cowboy Song" live Germany 1999, "Cry for Love", "Dance", "Defcon 1", "Don't Believe a Word" live Europe 1999, "Don't Say Goodbye", "Do or Die", "Emerald" live Dublin 1996, "Everything I Need", "Found What I Needed", "Gates of Hell", "Haunted", "I Don't Believe in Anything", "I Don't Wanna Live My Life Like You", "If You Ever Need Love", "I Get Around", "I'll Be Waiting", "I Need an Angel", "Itchycoo Park", "I Wish It Would Rain", "Jailbreak" live Europe 1999, "Lady Luck" demo, "Look in His Eyes", "Love Child", "My Guitar", "Nothing Means Nothing", "Ptolemy", "Riot", "Runaway", "Save My Love", "Sex Child", "She's All Action", "Shouldn't Have Let You Go", "Sleep On", "Soul Stealer", "Standing at the Crossroads", "System Ain't Workin'", "Talking 'Bout Love", "Thank You for the Love", "The Boys Are Back in Town" live Europe 1999, "The Way You Kiss Me", "Till the Day I Die", "Touched By Evil", "2 Counts", "Valley of the Kings", "We All Fall Down", "We Will"
G♯4/A♭4: "Black-Hearted Woman", "Bye Bye", "Cold Sweat", "Cowboy Song" live Germany 1999, "Cry for Love", "Crying in the Rain" live Japan 2004, "Degraded", "Didn't We Say", "Don't Hurt Me This Way (Please Don't Leave Me '97)", "Everything I Need", "If You Ever Need Love", "Is This Love?" live Japan 2004, "I Wish It Would Rain", "Jelly Roll", "Jesus & Mary", "Nothing Means Nothing", "Nuclear Cowboy", "Out of Love", "Purple Haze" live Tokyo 1989, "Raising the Devil", "She Knows", "Sick", "Six String Gun", "Slave", "Still of the Night" live Japan 2004, "Thank You for the Love", "Till the Day I Die", "20th Century Heartache", "Waiting for an Alibi" live Europe 1999, "Wuthering Heights"
Recorded low notes:
E3: "All Good People (Interlude)", "Bad Reputation" live Europe 1999, "Billy", "Black Days", "Cry for Love", "Everything I Need", "Got to Give It Up" live Japan 1994, "Haunted", "If You Ever Need Love", "I Get Around", "I Need an Angel", "I Wish It Would Rain", "Jesus & Mary", "Nothing Means Nothing", "One Way System", "Out Alive", "Riot" live Tokyo 1993, "Runaway", "Save My Love", "Sex Child", "Shouldn't Have Let You Go", "Sick", "Standing at the Crossroads", "System Ain't Workin'", "Talking 'Bout Love", "Till the Day I Die", "Touched By Evil", "We All Fall Down", "We Will"
D♯3/E♭3: "Billy" live Tokyo 1993, "Cold Sweat" live Europe 1999, "Cry for Love" live Tokyo 1993, "Crying in the Rain" live Japan 2004, "Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)" live Tokyo 1993, "Is This Love?" live Japan 2004, "Please Don't Leave Me" live Japan 2004, "Raising the Devil", "Runaway", "Sick", "Still of the Night" live Japan 2004, "Thank You for the Love", "20th Century Heartache", "We All Fall Down" live Tokyo 1993
D3: "Blue Murder", "Dawning of a Brand New Day", "Gates of Hell", "I Don't Believe in Anything", "I Get Around", "I'll Be Waiting", "Itchycoo Park", "One Way System", "Please Don't Leave Me" live Japan 2004, "Sex Child", "Still in Love with You" live Europe 1999, "Thank You for the Love", "The Sun Goes Down" live Europe 1999, "Till the Day I Die"
C♯3/D♭3: "Degraded", "If You Ever Need Love", "Is This Love?" live Japan 2004, "I Wish It Would Rain", "Jesus & Mary", "Raising the Devil", "Save My Love" live Tokyo 1993
C3: "Dawning of a Brand New Day", "Don't Say Goodbye", "Got to Give It Up" live Japan 1994, "I'll Be Waiting", "Please Don't Leave Me" live Japan 2004, "Raising the Devil", "The Sun Goes Down" live Dublin 1996, "Wuthering Heights"
B2: "Billy", "I Get Around", "Out Alive"
A♯2/B♭2: "Billy" live Tokyo 1993, "She's All Action"
A2: "Cowboy Song" live Germany 1999, "I'll Be Waiting", "Look in His Eyes"
G♯2/A♭2: "Cowboy Song" live Tokyo 1994, "Raising the Devil"
G2: "Believe in Yourself", "She's All Action"
F♯2/G♭2: "Cry for Love"
.......................................................
*Italics marks non-melodic notes.
*Underlines mark notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the song mix.
{Detailed bio}
Best known as the guitarist for Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy in the 1980s, John Sykes is famous for shredding many a facemelting guitar solo in his musical career, but he also happens to be an excellent singer - having now sung for Blue Murder, his own solo band, and also Thin Lizzy for several years after Phil Lynott's death. He first began his career in the early 1980s, playing guitar in the bands The Tygers of Pan Tang and John Sloman's Badlands, before being hired to replace Snowy White as second guitarist in Thin Lizzy in 1982. He released the album Thunder and Lightning with them in 1983, which ended up being the band's last album before breaking up. From this, however, Sykes developed a close friendship and admiration of Phil Lynott, which would be reflected in much of his future work.
In 1984, Sykes joined Whitesnake, and played guitar on their 1984 album Slide It In and their 1987 self-titled album - the latter serving as one of his most well-known contributions to the world of music, with songs like "Here I Go Again", "Is This Love?", and "Still of the Night" still receiving regular airplay to this day. However, it wasn't until he formed Blue Murder in 1988 that he began to show off the fact that he had some serious vocal chops in addition to intimidating guitar licks. Apparently when Sykes first started the band, he had hired Ray Gillen to serve as vocalist and recorded demo versions of some songs with him. However, Sykes also recorded another set of demos with himself singing, and upon presenting both demos to a record company executive, he was encouraged to handle vocal duties himself. Thus in this band he ended up taking on the role of both guitarist and vocalist, and went on to demonstrate lots of tasteful rock singing with frequent fourth and lower fifth octave belting on their 1989 self-titled album, sometimes with a level of vocal power and ease that may have even rivaled his own former Whitesnake singer David Coverdale! Though Sykes later admitted that he regretted writing Blue Murder's vocal melodies as high as he did (probably due to difficulties replicating them live in the long term), he certainly delivered quite a few wowing vocal performances on that album and 1993's Nothing But Trouble.
After disbanding Blue Murder in 1994, Sykes went on to pursue a solo career, in which he continued handling all vocals himself in addition to guitars, and released his first solo album, Out of My Tree, in 1995. In 1996, he reformed Thin Lizzy to perform as a tribute act in memory of Phil Lynott, and stepped up to handle vocal duties in that band as well. They released one live album in 2000, entitled One Night Only, which saw Sykes demonstrating his low range a bit more by singing Lynott's vocal parts, especially on songs like "Cowboy Song" and "The Sun Goes Down". Though he continued to tour with Thin Lizzy in a limited capacity for a number of years after this, Sykes mainly went back to focusing on his solo work after a certain point, for which he recorded three more albums - Loveland and 20th Century, both released in 1997, and Nuclear Cowboy, released in 2000. A fifth solo album, revealed to be titled Sy-Ops, has been in the plans for almost a decade now (and apparently has been finished and ready for release since 2015), but has unfortunately been repeatedly delayed due to various complications. There are, however, two songs off of it (entitled "Out Alive" and "Gates of Hell") that have already been uploaded on YouTube, as well as a teaser with short samples from each song. I've gone ahead and added any notes I could from these, but unfortunately there seems to be no telling as to when we'll actually get to hear the rest of that album at this rate.
Overall though, I must say that Sykes has revealed himself to be an impressively tasteful vocalist over the course of his singing career. He's got a very pleasant and expressive tone, remarkably easy and consistent technique, and a very good sense of what his own reasonable limits are - as can be observed by the fact that while he has lots of strong, easy-sounding E5s, he seems to play it safe by never pushing beyond that (though I remember Ray from TRP1 claimed he found a G5 by him at one point...dunno if we'll ever hear that now sadly). He also noticeably stays within certain limits for his low range (which is audibly the weaker end of his range) by rarely going for second octave notes, and often eschewing the bottom notes in live renditions of songs originally sung by Phil Lynott, such as "The Sun Goes Down" and "Please Don't Leave Me". Personally I would say that some of his solo live renditions of certain Whitesnake songs play it a little bit too safe for my taste vocally though, as he completely dodges any notes above B♭4 in his version of "Crying in the Rain" and everything above C5 in "Still of the Night" (both of which originally featured prominent notes up to F♯5/G5 by David Coverdale). Nonetheless, I have nothing but respect for the man's musical abilities on the whole, and would say he definitely deserves more acknowledgment for his vocal abilities.
Best known as the guitarist for Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy in the 1980s, John Sykes is famous for shredding many a facemelting guitar solo in his musical career, but he also happens to be an excellent singer - having now sung for Blue Murder, his own solo band, and also Thin Lizzy for several years after Phil Lynott's death. He first began his career in the early 1980s, playing guitar in the bands The Tygers of Pan Tang and John Sloman's Badlands, before being hired to replace Snowy White as second guitarist in Thin Lizzy in 1982. He released the album Thunder and Lightning with them in 1983, which ended up being the band's last album before breaking up. From this, however, Sykes developed a close friendship and admiration of Phil Lynott, which would be reflected in much of his future work.
In 1984, Sykes joined Whitesnake, and played guitar on their 1984 album Slide It In and their 1987 self-titled album - the latter serving as one of his most well-known contributions to the world of music, with songs like "Here I Go Again", "Is This Love?", and "Still of the Night" still receiving regular airplay to this day. However, it wasn't until he formed Blue Murder in 1988 that he began to show off the fact that he had some serious vocal chops in addition to intimidating guitar licks. Apparently when Sykes first started the band, he had hired Ray Gillen to serve as vocalist and recorded demo versions of some songs with him. However, Sykes also recorded another set of demos with himself singing, and upon presenting both demos to a record company executive, he was encouraged to handle vocal duties himself. Thus in this band he ended up taking on the role of both guitarist and vocalist, and went on to demonstrate lots of tasteful rock singing with frequent fourth and lower fifth octave belting on their 1989 self-titled album, sometimes with a level of vocal power and ease that may have even rivaled his own former Whitesnake singer David Coverdale! Though Sykes later admitted that he regretted writing Blue Murder's vocal melodies as high as he did (probably due to difficulties replicating them live in the long term), he certainly delivered quite a few wowing vocal performances on that album and 1993's Nothing But Trouble.
After disbanding Blue Murder in 1994, Sykes went on to pursue a solo career, in which he continued handling all vocals himself in addition to guitars, and released his first solo album, Out of My Tree, in 1995. In 1996, he reformed Thin Lizzy to perform as a tribute act in memory of Phil Lynott, and stepped up to handle vocal duties in that band as well. They released one live album in 2000, entitled One Night Only, which saw Sykes demonstrating his low range a bit more by singing Lynott's vocal parts, especially on songs like "Cowboy Song" and "The Sun Goes Down". Though he continued to tour with Thin Lizzy in a limited capacity for a number of years after this, Sykes mainly went back to focusing on his solo work after a certain point, for which he recorded three more albums - Loveland and 20th Century, both released in 1997, and Nuclear Cowboy, released in 2000. A fifth solo album, revealed to be titled Sy-Ops, has been in the plans for almost a decade now (and apparently has been finished and ready for release since 2015), but has unfortunately been repeatedly delayed due to various complications. There are, however, two songs off of it (entitled "Out Alive" and "Gates of Hell") that have already been uploaded on YouTube, as well as a teaser with short samples from each song. I've gone ahead and added any notes I could from these, but unfortunately there seems to be no telling as to when we'll actually get to hear the rest of that album at this rate.
Overall though, I must say that Sykes has revealed himself to be an impressively tasteful vocalist over the course of his singing career. He's got a very pleasant and expressive tone, remarkably easy and consistent technique, and a very good sense of what his own reasonable limits are - as can be observed by the fact that while he has lots of strong, easy-sounding E5s, he seems to play it safe by never pushing beyond that (though I remember Ray from TRP1 claimed he found a G5 by him at one point...dunno if we'll ever hear that now sadly). He also noticeably stays within certain limits for his low range (which is audibly the weaker end of his range) by rarely going for second octave notes, and often eschewing the bottom notes in live renditions of songs originally sung by Phil Lynott, such as "The Sun Goes Down" and "Please Don't Leave Me". Personally I would say that some of his solo live renditions of certain Whitesnake songs play it a little bit too safe for my taste vocally though, as he completely dodges any notes above B♭4 in his version of "Crying in the Rain" and everything above C5 in "Still of the Night" (both of which originally featured prominent notes up to F♯5/G5 by David Coverdale). Nonetheless, I have nothing but respect for the man's musical abilities on the whole, and would say he definitely deserves more acknowledgment for his vocal abilities.
{Album ranges}
Blue Murder:
Thin Lizzy:
Blue Murder:
- Blue Murder (1989) - B2-E5
- Nothin' But Trouble (1993) - F♯2-D3-E5
- Screaming Blue Murder: Dedicated to Phil Lynott (1994) - B♭2-D♭5
- Out of My Tree (1995) - G2-B♭2-E5
- Loveland (1997) - A2-E♭5
- 20th Century (1997) - A2-E♭3-E5
- Nuclear Cowboy (2000) - G♯2-C3-D5
- Bad Boy Live! (2004) - C3-C♯5
Thin Lizzy:
- One Night Only (2004) - A2-A4
{Best displays of vocal range}
"Cry for Love" (F♯2-D5)
"Raising the Devil" (G♯2-C♯5)
"Look in His Eyes" (A2-D5)
"Out of Love" (B2-E♭5)
"Jesus & Mary" (C♯3-E5)
"Don't Say Goodbye" (C3-E♭5)
"Wuthering Heights" (C3-E♭5)
"I Get Around" (B2-D5)
"Sex Child" (D3-E5)
"Itchycoo Park" (D3-E5)
"Cry for Love" (F♯2-D5)
"Raising the Devil" (G♯2-C♯5)
"Look in His Eyes" (A2-D5)
"Out of Love" (B2-E♭5)
"Jesus & Mary" (C♯3-E5)
"Don't Say Goodbye" (C3-E♭5)
"Wuthering Heights" (C3-E♭5)
"I Get Around" (B2-D5)
"Sex Child" (D3-E5)
"Itchycoo Park" (D3-E5)
