Above, Stewart Stevenson, the much-abused Winger fan on “Beavis and Butt-Head”.
There is of course no comparison between Winger and Metallica. However, while few rocked harder than AC/DC, Winger’s “Seventeen” is more layered and syncopated than any of their songs.
First, a little background. I am a drummer who started playing on a full-set when I was six, thanks to my dad buying me a beat-to-shit Ludwig two-tom kit with $150 he didn’t really have.
I took six years of lesson from an old jazz guy. He pounded the fundamentals into my head/hands. I’ve played in four bands, two of them terrible, one decent punk cover band in my early 20s, and a very good Heart cover band in college for a talent show. We played “Barracuda and “Crazy On You”. We kicked ass. We finished 2nd to a fucking juggler.
Currently, I only play desks/tables/counters/my thighs/my chest/etc.
OK: to the song.
Winger (formed in NYC, baby), unfairly, was lumped into the the Hair Metal category—though they did all have beautiful teased and sprayed locks. Particularly “Kip”.
I first heard the song on MTV, of course. Right from the opening licks, I was hooked. Shit, I said to myself, that’s some sweet syncopation!
Unfortunately, you didn’t get to see Kip playing his bass as he was too busy singing and leering at the camera/teenage girls. His bass lines were too hard to fake while fake singing.
During Reb Beach’s solo/bridge that starts at about 2:20 is where the syncopation and off-beat hits are tasty as Fuck.
Their excellent drummer was/is Rod Morgenstein. Before joining Winger he was the drummer for The Dixie Dregs, a fantastic instrumental fusion-rock band (fused with pretty much every category of music).
Winger, of course, became known as a “band for wusses” in the 1990s thanks to Mike Judge and Beavis & Butt-Head. But pro musicians knew better.
"Our band was known to musicians, and a lot of musicians showed up to see me play—watching, trying to figure out how I'm playing. We were like the hair band version of Dream Theater”.
Well, Kip, that may have been a bit of a stretch, but not a big one! He is a classcially-trained bassist/guitarist.
They broke up in 1993 but reunited in 2006. I heard that when they performed Seventeen then, they sometimes changed “Seventeen” to “Thirty-Three” or some such.
That’s funny.
Kip Winger is a decent classical composer now.