Friday, April 14, 2006

gtr solos on rawk rekkids

i was once fired from a band for "not playing more like the guy from radiohead." snotnoses. while i _intellectually_ get the "f/x as colors in a painter's palette" idea, i went to a different school -- the one that sez "put any collection of wood 'n' wires in my hands and it's gonna sound essentially the same 'cos it's me playing it" (which i learned from listening to players like buddy guy, jeff beck, hubert sumlin, an' like that). it's a generational thang: i grew up digging the kinda vocalic, blues-inflected solo playing (jimi hendrix was the water we were _all_ swimmming in) that was virtually outlawed on rawk rekkids around the time it became not such a good idea commercially-wise to sing real good. early '90s, say -- around the time the first pearl jam alb sounded like a pretty good idea until i realized the only reason i responded so favorably to it was that the cat on gtr (mike mccready?) would take, say, the imprinted-on-my-brain solos from the doors' "five to one," jimi's "hey joe," and alice cooper's "i'm 18" and kloodge them together into one of his own ("alive"). fuuuuuck. nothing new under the sun indeed, and i _hate_ seeing the strings while i'm being manipulated. then the whole 7-string-gtr-tuned-down-to-C-sharp development happened and i kinda lost interest in the whole thang for a coupla yrs. still, there are a small handful o' gtr solos that somehow made it onto '90s rekkids that continue to make me drive faster when i hear them while punching buttons on my car radio. to wit: 1) the one with all the insane stops 'n' starts that richard lloyd (ex-television) played on matthew sweet's "sick of myself" -- you know, the one that sounds like the world is coming off its axis in the same way the best jimmy page solos ("nobody's fault but mine," f'rinstance) did; 2) both of the ones whatever-the-fuck-his-name-was that played in the black crowes (another band that seemed like a good idea at first, in their case until i heard the yayhoos) did on their version of otis' "hard to handle" (at the beginning of the second one, you can almost hear the gtr _grunt_); and 3) the second one dave navarro (the last "new" gtrist i could relate to on any lvl) played on "been caught stealing" by jane's addiction. so there.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Although not on the first Crowes record, but he did later join the support tour for the first record, I think the guitarist you are thinking of is Mark Ford. He's on Southern Musical Harmony Companion, Amorica, and Three Snakes And One Charm. Ford, in my book, is a bad ass. And Amorica belongs in any record collection. Just my $0.02.

And I feel you on the solo issue, at times I feel bluesy bends are taboo in my band. And I feel relegated to color tones and f/x palates.

Speaking of we're playing tonight at Jack's Off the Wall. Two sets. Prob. start around 11pm.

8:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sometimes I sit up late at night thinking to myself about whether the solo was more kick ass for "Alone Again" by Dokken or "In My Dreams", aslo by Dokken. Now "In My Dreams" won solo of the year from Guitar Player magazine when the song came out. But the "Alone Again" solo is right up there with it.

p.s. I agree, Marc Ford is a bad ass. I should burn you the Southern Harmony disc. It is killer. Those guys get some of the best guitar tones i have heard in a long time. I hated the Black Crowes until I realized that the hard to handle song wasnt what they were all about.

2:28 PM  

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