Had an amazing time at the concert!! My wife and I were the ones jumping up and down up front who Dave pointed at and said 'you guys got it' at 3:47 in the video :) First saw you guys in concert back in 1985 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay when I was 11 years old...just turned 40 this year, very happy to see you guys still rocking and sounding great! Still in shock about Jimi, but his voice and our great memories of him will live on!!!
In your opinion... yes, but technically Dave had a superior voice because of his vocal range, better pitch and able to combine RnB and rock vocals. Sang sweet and souful, i mean motown soulful and then sang in heavy distortion in the same song. He had a unique voice and phrasing which us older folks loved. His vocals without music back then showed he had music in his voice due to accuracy of pitch. Bickler drew kids who didn't listen to rock to Survivor because of 'his voice' whom we all thought was a black singer back in 1982 lol. Even Peterik in his book described Bickler vocals as Sam Cooke/Lou Gramm fusion when he heard him sing jingles back in the mid 70s. His voice was the reason we first got into Survivor before we appreciated the rest of the great musicians behind the music. Come the mid 80s saw Survivor go into pop rock Bryan Adam style songs with Jimi who had a straight cut heavy metal stadium rock vocal type. This change of music direction didn't appeal to some early fans but did gain new fans who liked that commercial 80s pop rock. Though these didn't chart well in the UK. Burning Heart was the last song to do well here. Jimi voice was best suited for his Cobra and Target music which is great stuff, but he struggled with songs originally sang by Bickler. If you play an instrument by ear, you would notice these off pitch during higher notes and lack of vocal melismas by Jimi that was in Bickler's original versions. Bickler vocal transition between his chest and mix registers were seamless. This is an objective observation as I am a man and have no biases. Many female fans of any singers tend to be partial because of the singers looks. Neil Diamond fans vehemently claim he is the best singer, better than Steve Perry (lol) In the old days, it was transistor radios or record players so no one had any idea what the artists looked like, simply the great music drew us to the artists. 😊
